Chapter 267: Cleaning the Tidal Flats, the Clam's Natural Enemy

As for trash, Ye Guowei has picked up nearly all of it; Ye Cheng only occasionally picks up a few trash bags, but there are still plenty of crabs.

From time to time a stone crab would crawl out, which Ye Cheng grabbed firmly and put into the bucket; there were still plenty of them, and in just a short while Ye Cheng had caught four.

Besides stone crabs, I haven't seen any blue crabs or horse crabs.

Aside from crabs, the main thing to clean up this time is snails.

Ye Cheng lowered his head and walked a few steps forward, then saw several scattered rocks on the beach, with a few snails on the rocks and a few clams beside them.

Brothers, you really aren't afraid of death, daring to come this close.

Ye Cheng bent down, picked up the rocks and snails; if the clams crawled near the rocks, they'd be done for—these snails are no pushovers.

They are called tuberculate lychee snails, belonging to the lychee snail family, a large group of medium or small-sized bone snails; their shells are ovate or fusiform, often bearing nodules or tubercles, spiny projections, and the shells are solid.

Of course, they also have two more familiar names: spicy snail and bitter snail; because they taste slightly bitter, their selling price is not high, most are eaten by oneself, and they can also be used medicinally.

Spicy snails bore holes to suck the soft parts of clams, affecting aquaculture yields.

However, spicy snails have a characteristic: they mainly move in rocky areas, as soft sand is unsuitable for them, so they primarily feed on rock surfaces, eating both live and dead prey without being picky.

Those few small clams just now, if they ended up in the rocky area, would surely meet a nasty fate.

The large rocks on this beach have mostly been cleared; Ye Cheng only picked up a few and then saw no more, these being just a bit brought in by the rising tide.

After walking a few more steps, Ye Cheng saw several snail tracks on the sand; he hurried a few steps forward, and a snail ahead was rushing toward his clam baby.

Damn it, still want to eat, huh? Ye Cheng grabbed it and squeezed the snail meat with his hand, instantly expelling a large amount of water.

Compared to the spicy snail's fixed hunting grounds, this snail causes greater harm to aquaculturists; this type is the flat jade snail, namely what we usually call fragrant snail and cat's-eye snail.

Fragrant snails and cat's-eye snails look similar; fragrant snails are relatively pointier, while cat's-eye snails are relatively flatter.

Their snail meat, i. e., the soft part, contains spongy tissue, so it absorbs water and becomes large; they detect metabolites released by clams via chemoreceptors to locate their hiding places, which can also be found in the sand.

Then they slowly approach the clams, enveloping the whole clam in their flesh so it cannot escape.

At this point the clams cannot escape; they use their radula to repeatedly scrape the clam shell, drilling a round small hole, extend their proboscis into the hole, release digestive enzymes to liquefy the clam tissue, then suck up the juices.

The whole process actually feels a bit like the alien bugs in the movie Starship Troopers.

Underfoot was a clam seedling; Ye Cheng carefully picked it up to check its vitality.

But it was already dead, probably having been squeezed open and eaten directly by a flat jade snail.

"Brother, this cat's-eye snail is pretty fierce." Ye Cheng shouted while holding up the clam; this clam seedling had obviously grown a bit, yet it was still eaten, which is a pity.

Ye Guowei shook his head: "There's nothing to be done; they'll definitely show up, we can only get rid of them, hoping they eat a little less."

The three of them spent the afternoon picking along the beach; needless to say, they gathered a heap of cat's-eye snails, and stone crabs and spicy snails were also plentiful.

They were too lazy to sell these things, so they brought them home directly for Jiang Yunxiang to stir-fry.

Usually, picking like Ye Cheng and company do once a month is enough, but since we're still in the seedling stage, Ye Guowei plans to go every three days; otherwise staying idle at home is just idle.

After dinner, just as I returned home, Duan Chunsheng came over, looking excited, as if he'd just finished watching the World Cup.

"Lao Er, why didn't you go today?"

"Uncle, I had something to do today so I didn't go; what happened?" Ye Cheng didn't mention his secret nighttime sea outing.

"You don't know." Duan Chunsheng excitedly pulled Ye Cheng to sit down, saying, "Today that fishing ground is full of boats; the trawl nets can't be pulled open."

"What? So many people? Then how is everyone supposed to fish?"

Trawlers need to tow for nearly an hour, and a long stretch of the route afterward must be avoided, so the spacing between them needs to be opened up.

"That's exactly it; several trawlers have been tied together, almost capsizing the boats. I don't dare go to the central area today, just watching from the far outskirts, otherwise I'd be in danger too." Duan Chunsheng spoke with great enthusiasm; such excitement is rarely seen at sea.

"No, Uncle, why are there suddenly so many boats?" Ye Cheng had a bad premonition.

Seeing Ye Cheng finally ask the right question, Duan Chunsheng lowered his voice and said,

"According to them, just last night someone caught a big yellow fish in that sea area—a wild big yellow fish."

Ye Cheng's heart skipped a beat, damn!

Who leaked the news.

Looking at Duan Chunsheng's gossipy expression, Ye Cheng could only feign ignorance: "Ah? Wild big yellow fish, that's impressive?"

While dealing with Duan Chunsheng, Ye Cheng also recalled which link had gone wrong.

Myself and Xiao Hu knew about it, and when we returned, presumably no one saw us.

Then I told Xiao Hu's mother; maybe it wasn't her who spread it, but it's not impossible.

I had her go find a match for Xiao Hu; maybe Aunt Wang, showing off, would say her child had once caught a big yellow fish and spread it, which is quite possible.

Then there's the older brother and his wife; however, that was only said at noon, and after saying it the older brother went with them to the beach, so even if the sister-in-law wanted to spread it, it probably wouldn't get around that quickly.

Going by this, the problem lies in Xiao Hu's household—either Xiao Hu himself let it out, or his mother did.

Damn it, this makes me wonder how we'll go hauling in the future.

To be safe, Ye Cheng asked again: "Did anyone catch a big yellow fish today?"

"Pfft, big yellow fish my ass—with all those boats, every fish has fled; I didn't catch anything today." Duan Chunsheng snorted, then went on to say,

"They don't think; last night someone just hauled up one big yellow fish, pure luck, yet they expect to catch one every day."

"What? One?" Ye Cheng exclaimed.

"Yeah, just one, over a catty." Seeing Ye Cheng's surprise, Duan Chunsheng also got curious,

"What's wrong, one isn't enough?"

Ye Cheng's mind was a bit blown, wow, just one.

Then it wasn't about me.

After all that fuss, I still thought it was my catching a big yellow fish that had been exposed.

"Was there any mention of who caught it?" Ye Cheng pursued the question.