Chapter 298: Crab Mountain on the Seabed

At first Ye Cheng used one hand, then he simply used both hands, grabbing with both hands together. Really, although efficiency didn't double, the pleasure doubled.

Soon the net bag felt heavy; Ye Cheng kicked off with his feet, stirring up a large swath of silt from the seabed, instantly covering the trash pile.

With a splash, Ye Cheng burst out of the water and shouted loudly, "Xiao Hu, give me a new net bag; I'll keep going down."

Xiao Hu had already prepared, tossing Ye Cheng an empty net bag, then in one motion took his filled net bag from his hand.

As soon as he took it, Xiao Hu exclaimed, "Damn, bro, how many crabs did you catch?"

"This is nothing; there's a whole mountain of crabs down below—hurry up."

"A mountain? Can crabs even pile up into a mountain?"

"Well, there's a trash heap down there; I guess it's easier to find food there, so anyway, I'll go down first—you need to go back and fetch a few big water tanks, or we won't be able to hold them all."

"Okay, bro, I'll go get it." Xiao Hu stowed the crabs in this net bag, then hurried back to fetch the supplies, while Ye Cheng dove straight into the water.

Going down, the crab mountain was still bustling; those swimming crabs would climb up and down intermittently. Having just caught a net bag, Ye Cheng had become quite skilled, and soon he managed to scoop up a bagful of swimming crabs.

He pulled the net up; Xiao Hu had already returned, bringing not only the water tanks but also two diving masks.

"Bro, here's your diving mask."

Having diving masks was nice; the water below was a bit murky, making Ye Cheng's eyes sting a little.

Ye Cheng hadn't put his on yet, but Xiao Hu had already put his on himself.

"Why are you wearing it?" Ye Cheng asked.

"Bro, I can dive for two minutes; I'll go down too—let's be quick."

"What good is a two-minute quick-draw?"

Ye Cheng took the chance to crack a joke, but Xiao Hu didn't get it.

"Bro, it's not that deep; two minutes is enough to grab a few."

"Alright, you take the shallow side, I'll take the deep side—the water below is fairly murky, so get used to it first."

Ye Cheng had Xiao Hu stay near the shore while he swam to the other side; the crabs there were clearly untouched, piled up in layers, and Ye Cheng could simply grab them at will.

Having just caught two, Ye Cheng saw a large black object descend two meters away, then kick its legs up, stirring up a large swath of seabed silt.

Damn, Xiao Hu's action—two minutes isn't enough for the silt to settle.

Sure enough, Xiao Hu waited a moment in the water; when the silt had mostly settled, he casually snatched two crabs, didn't even bother putting them in the bag, just grabbed the crabs and swam up—what is he treating them as, flippers?

But after that experience, Xiao Hu's movements grew tinier each dive, and he could snag three crabs before heading back up.

Ye Cheng dove down nearly ten times in a row before he'd managed to catch most of the swimming crabs crawling on the surface of the trash pile.

Just as he surfaced, Ye Cheng saw Ye Guowei looking at their catch.

"Bro, how is it? A lot, right?"

Ye Guowei opened his mouth wide and nodded, "A lot—actually there's this many? You guys are too fast; in just two hours you've caught this much—it's practically just picking them up."

Ye Cheng swam back to shore with the net bag; after two hours he was also tired and wanted to come up and rest a bit.

"Yeah, bro, there's a huge trash heap down below, piled up like a mountain; the crabs just crawl on top, and I'm basically picking them up one by one with each hand—it's hardly different from just scooping them up."

"And Xiao Hu is also helping down there; together we're fast, don't you think?"

Ye Guowei listened, expressing amazement over and over.

"I never expected this; you'd better come up and rest a while—diving too long isn't good."

Ye Cheng indeed planned to come up and rest; when Xiao Hu broke the surface, Ye Cheng shouted to call him up as well.

The three of them looked at their haul—two full large water tanks of crabs, estimated at two or three hundred crabs.

Ye Guowei checked the time—it was already 11 o'clock—and said, "A Cheng, go home and have lunch first, then come back after eating."

"Sure, bro—Xiao Hu, help me carry the crabs back."

To avoid drawing attention, Ye Cheng deliberately put the lids on the water tanks; after all, they've contracted the tidal flats, and occasionally picking up crabs to bring back is normal, so the villagers seeing it wouldn't suspect anything.

Jiang Yunxiang was cooking at home when she saw the three of them carrying those two huge boxes inside.

"Yikes, what did you get? It feels so heavy."

Ye Cheng opened the water tank and pulled out several large swimming crabs, saying, "Sister-in-law, we've got two tanks of swimming crabs; let's fry a few for lunch now, and we'll go out again this afternoon."

Jiang Yunxiang looked and said, "So many—where did you get them?"

Ye Guowei put the tools away, then said,

"Didn't we discover the net was torn today? It was the crabs that did it, so A Cheng and Xiao Hu went down to feel around."

"Who would've thought you could grab that many crabs by feel." Jiang Yunxiang shook her head in astonishment, took the swimming crabs, and went inside.

Stir-fried swimming crabs cook quickly; in ten minutes Jiang Yunxiang had the dish on the table. Ye Cheng doesn't usually drink alcohol at lunch, and besides he needs to go out to sea this afternoon, so he just ate two bowls of rice, filled his stomach, and left it at that.

In the afternoon Ye Guowei didn't go to the tidal flats; the morning work was mostly done, so he stayed home helping Jiang Yunxiang with some farm chores and tidying his small vegetable plot.

Ye Cheng and Xiao Hu carried two empty water tanks toward the tidal flats; far off, the previously overcast sky suddenly opened a gap, a golden shaft of sunlight pierced the clouds and streamed down, gradually scattering the dark clouds as myriad golden rays poured down.

"Bro, the sun's out—we can go to sea tomorrow." Xiao Hu pointed at the sunlight and said; seeing the sunshine always inexplicably lifts people's moods.

"Yeah, tomorrow we'll go out to sea—I wonder how Da Huang is doing." Ye Cheng glanced at Da Huang's den; this guy has been away from home for a long time, and I don't know how he's faring.

And there's the white dolphin Yang Liu wanted to find; after the last gratitude mission, I don't know if we'll ever see it again.

Never mind; he told Yang Liu the approximate location—maybe Yang Liu's team has better equipment and might have already found it, who knows.

The sun came out, the sky grew brighter, and Ye Cheng and Xiao Hu dove down according to this morning's spot; this time Ye Cheng brought pliers down, since the crabs on the trash pile have mostly been picked up, this afternoon we need to get the crabs buried in the silt.

Going underwater, although the sky had brightened considerably, the seabed water was still very murky, though some sunlight filtered down, making it a bit brighter.

On the trash pile there were now a few more crabs; presumably they thought Ye Cheng and company had left, so they crawled back up.

Ye Cheng naturally liked this; he stowed the pliers, began harvesting with his hands, feeling like he was picking up money.