Chapter 225

"Cough cough!" Ye Cheng coughed twice, drawing the two's attention, then he said,

"Wild Big yellow fish can't be caught, but there's a way for you to catch quite a few fish—it's just a bit tiring."

Upon hearing they could catch quite a few fish, Xiao Rou actively ignored the "a bit tiring" part, was the first to raise her hand to go; Cui Shuran was dressed more formally and originally didn't want to join.

But Xiao Rou pulled him aside and persuaded him a few sentences, so he relented.

Xiao Hu looked at Ye Cheng with a curious face, not understanding where Ye Cheng wanted to go; they usually just went wherever, went clamming wherever, and there was no place that could guarantee there would be fish.

Ye Cheng leaned over and whispered a few sentences into Xiao Hu's ear; Xiao Hu's face lit up, and he softly replied with four words,

"Brother, you're really a dog!"

"Get lost!"

The four, led by Ye Cheng, walked toward the beach with more reefs; Xiao Rou followed with uneven steps, her walk was extremely uncomfortable.

"Ye Cheng, are we there yet? We've been walking for over ten minutes."

"We're here, we're here, this is it."

Ye Cheng pointed ahead at a large puddle.

Seeing such a large puddle, Xiao Rou hadn't yet realized what would happen.

Cui Shuran had already figured it out; he gestured with his hand, then turned to look at Ye Cheng, "With a pit this big, can you catch fish without draining the water?"

Seeing Cui Shuran understand, Ye Cheng immediately gave a thumbs-up and praised him, "Still, Young Master Cui is impressive—you spotted the key right away."

"Draining is definitely necessary; just now you said it would be a bit tiring, so the only way is for everyone to drain it together."

Cui Shuran looked resentfully at Ye Cheng, "Everyone draining together—this much, when will we finish? You're just here to make us do hard labor."

Xiao Rou found it fun, without hesitation rolled up her pant legs and went down, starting to bail water out with a bucket.

Since the girl went down, the three men had no choice; they all went down and started working.

Actually Ye Cheng hadn't really tricked them; this puddle is small—if it were a large one, the four of them could work themselves to death and still not drain it.

After just ten minutes of work, Xiao Rou couldn't go on, waving her hands repeatedly,

"You guys keep going—I can't, I need to rest."

Having said that, she clambered up alone, not caring about her image, and sat directly on the reef, panting heavily.

Well, at least we still have Young Master Cui as free labor.

Young Master Cui is still not bad; he probably works out regularly, has good stamina, and after working alongside Ye Cheng and Xiao Hu for an hour, the water was mostly drained.

When the water had receded halfway, Xiao Rou became overexcited, started pointing everywhere and shouting,

"Yo, there's one here, there's one there—hurry up and catch them, Ye Cheng, you hurry up and catch them!"

"Young Master Cui, there's also one behind your butt."

The three men initially listened to her a bit, but later grew lazy and just kept draining before talking.

Soon the water dropped to calf level, exposing stones in places, and several puddles had fish tails swaying.

"All right, miss, you can come down and catch now." Ye Cheng called out to Xiao Rou.

Xiao Rou came down, excited and scared, and reached her hand toward a fish's back.

Just as she touched the fish's body, it flicked its tail, flinging a smear of mud onto Xiao Rou's face.

"Oh, my face, you bad fish."

Xiao Rou's face, which had been fairly clean, was suddenly covered in mud spots that couldn't be wiped off, since her hands were also muddy.

Now it's fine—since she's already dirty, Xiao Rou threw caution to the wind, pressed both hands down regardless of grime, and scooped the fish up.

"Yo, a Blue-clothed Fish—nice." Ye Cheng said.

This is a Blue-clothed Fish over 20 centimeters long, very pretty; of course, no matter how beautiful, its fate is to be eaten.

Ye Cheng had Xiao Hu fetch the Water Tank, and Xiao Rou happily put the Blue-clothed Fish inside.

Over there, Young Master Cui's situation was similar to Xiao Rou's—his clothes were already speckled with mud; although he often fished, he hadn't done much clamming.

Now, the feeling of barefoot stepping in the water to catch fish is simply exhilarating.

He stared at the fish whose heads were poking out of the water, and began grabbing them one by one.

"One red snapper."

"This is a white pomfret."

"And there's a sea snail, not bad."

Ye Cheng and Xiao Hu fully embodied the host spirit—let the guests play first.

The two sat by the puddle's edge, lit up cigarettes, and leisurely watched the other two busy at work.

"Xiao Rou, that puddle—if you feel down there, there might be something under the stones." Ye Cheng pointed to a puddle beneath Xiao Rou's feet and said.

"Feeling down there—won't there be snakes?" Xiao Rou was a bit afraid; she now only dared to catch fish she could see.

"No way—if there were sea snakes they'd have come out already; if you reach down you'll definitely find fish."

Xiao Rou hesitated a moment, then really reached down; after just a tentative feel, her face changed dramatically, she lifted her head to look at Ye Cheng and said uncertainly,

"I feel like I touched a hard shell—could it be a crab?"

Upon hearing it might be a crab, Ye Cheng felt embarrassed to let the lady keep risking it, and gave Xiao Hu a look.

Xiao Hu jumped down, had Xiao Rou pull her hand back, then reached in himself, fumbled a few times, and pulled out a blue swimming crab.

This swimming crab has three parallel purplish-red spots on its back, making it a red-star swimming crab, also called a three-eyed crab.

In terms of taste, it's actually not much different from a regular swimming crab—both are delicious, though personal preference varies.

"It's a red-star swimming crab; I like eating this one—I'll steam it when we get back." Xiao Rou exclaimed, grabbed the Water Tank, and had Xiao Hu toss the crab inside.

The fish visible on the surface had been caught pretty much equally by Young Master Cui and Xiao Rou; as for those that needed to be felt for, Xiao Rou didn't dare, Young Master Cui was a bit better but still nervous.

Only Ye Cheng and Xiao Hu could go down and do it.

Ye Cheng felt along the stone crevice, touched something soft and squishy, and it instantly wrapped around his hand.

This feeling could only be an octopus; Ye Cheng casually grabbed its tentacle and pulled it out, drawing out a fist-sized octopus.

After cleaning up the octopus, Ye Cheng kept feeling below and pulled out several large shrimp, lively and jumping.

On Xiao Hu's side, he also felt up a few red-star swimming crabs.

Cui Shao and Xiao Rou were also picking up shells, and the four of them soon filled the water tank halfway.

Ye Cheng glanced; selling it wouldn't earn much, but taking it home to eat today was still not bad.

He checked the time; it was getting late, so the four grabbed their things and hurried back.

Upon entering the courtyard, Li Lao and Old Zhao saw the four's appearance and were instantly stunned.

Damn, are there four people?

They're four mud monkeys.

"Xiao Rou sis, if your dad sees you like this, he could beat me to death." Zhao Zhiming exclaimed, speechless.