Chapter 370: Picking Scallops at the Sea Bottom

However, the more Ye Cheng shouted, the faster that guy ran, and Xiao Hu just laughed.

"You still have the nerve to laugh; if Da Huang doesn't come back later, I'll stew you when we get back." Ye Cheng said displeasedly.

"Brother, my mom says I smell bad, so even if you stew me I wouldn't taste good." Xiao Hu said with a shameless expression.

"Enough nonsense; later I'll go into the sea to look for scallops, you stroll on the beach, see what you can pick up, and don't just stand around doing nothing."

"Alright, I got it, brother, you're getting more and more like my mom, so naggy."

Ye Cheng couldn't be bothered to say more, grabbed a big net bag and went into the sea; he roughly remembered where the scallops were, just not sure if they were still there.

Actually, there aren't many scallop varieties domestically; mainly there are three kinds.

One is the Comb-hole Scallop, one is the Bay Scallop, and another is the Ezo Scallop.

Among them, the Ezo Scallop comes from overseas island countries; there are none native domestically, they are all farmed.

So domestically, scallops are mainly the other two kinds.

The difference between the Comb-hole Scallop and the Bay Scallop is still quite big: the Comb-hole Scallop's surface is relatively rough, while the Bay Scallop's surface is somewhat smoother.

However, the Bay Scallop has relatively little meat, just a tiny bit of the adductor muscle.

Conversely, the Comb-hole Scallop has relatively more meat, and it also has yellow (roe).

The Comb-hole Scallop is further divided into two types: one is the Comb-hole Scallop, and another is the Noble Comb-hole Scallop.

The Noble Comb-hole Scallop's shell surface shows purplish-red/orange, with broader and smoother ribs, about 10-20; the Comb-hole Scallop is grayish-brown, with fine dense ribs bearing scales, about 20-30.

In terms of size, the Noble Comb-hole Scallop is somewhat larger, usually 8-12 centimeters; the Comb-hole Scallop is a bit smaller, 6-8 centimeters.

In terms of price, because the Noble Comb-hole Scallop is prettier and larger, it is also somewhat more expensive.

Ye Cheng dove into the sea bottom; the seawater was clear, sunlight shone straight down, illuminating the sea bottom clearly.

Here the sea bottom is relatively quiet, not many fish; Ye Cheng at a glance saw many scallops distributed on the mud and sand, it seems these scallops haven't moved house, so that's a bit awkward.

Ye Cheng's feet landed, kicking up a sheet of sand.

Suddenly, those extremely quiet scallops suddenly started moving.

Scallops, this kind of thing, look like a very quiet shell on the surface, but their locomotive ability is not bad.

As soon as Ye Cheng arrived, a few scallops' two shells snapped shut abruptly, shooting a jet of water from their rear.

The recoil propelled the scallops to flip in the water, and several kept opening and closing continuously, making their whole bodies seem to float in the water; if you didn't understand, you might think scallops could swim.

However, this escape method of scallops is hard to control, so Ye Cheng watched helplessly as several scallops shot into the water, then made a turn and came back again.

Perhaps these few scallops emitted some signal, and the other scallops followed suit, becoming jet-propelled warriors.

For a moment, Ye Cheng's vision was filled with scallops floating in mid-air—damn, like heavenly maidens scattering flowers.

Since they were all jumping up, Ye Cheng wasn't polite either; he reached out and scooped them up without even bending over.

He casually picked up a few, Ye Cheng held them up to look; these scallops were red, a bit bigger than his palm, about ten centimeters long, probably Noble Comb-hole Scallops.

After putting those in the net bag, Ye Cheng casually grabbed a few more, all of that size, color either red or orange; it looks like this batch of scallops are Noble Comb-hole Scallops.

After the scallops were tossed about, they seemed tired and fell back to the sea bottom, where Ye Cheng still picked them up.

Besides scallops, the sea bottom also had some scattered sea stars.

Sea stars eat scallops; Ye Cheng flipped over a large sea star, underneath was an unlucky scallop.

During the earlier rushing about, it had landed near a sea star, which then pressed its whole body onto it, and now no matter how it jets, it can't get away.

By the time Ye Cheng opened the sea star, the poor little scallop had already been almost eaten.

Sigh, forget it; either way it's either eaten by humans or by sea stars, kid, you could consider yourself liberated early.

Ye Cheng could only stay underwater for 40 minutes; after half an hour, he swam upward, the net bag was already full, and he could barely move.

When Ye Cheng surfaced, Xiao Hu's figure was no longer visible on the beach, and he didn't know where that guy had gone.

Xiao Hu wasn't there, so Ye Cheng had to do it himself; he dragged the net bag ashore, then found a water tank and dumped the scallops inside, filling about half a tank.

The underwater work was still tiring; Ye Cheng finished a cigarette and then went back down to the sea bottom.

When Ye Cheng came up the second time, although he didn't see Xiao Hu's figure, he unexpectedly discovered that another water tank was also filled about half full with scallops.

Ye Cheng stared for a moment, "Damn!"

Xiao Hu actually managed to gather that many scallops, and they were the same kind as mine.

That's unreasonable.

"Xiao Hu! Xiao Hu!" Ye Cheng shouted several times.

"Brother, what's up?"

From far on the beach came Xiao Hu's voice, and shortly after Xiao Hu walked out from a corner.

Ye Cheng waved his hand, signaling Xiao Hu to come back.

Xiao Hu came back carrying a bucket, leisurely.

"Brother, what's up?" As he approached, Xiao Hu asked doubtfully, "I was still busy over there."

Ye Cheng looked into Xiao Hu's bucket; it was already half full of scallops.

"No, these scallops of yours?" Ye Cheng asked.

Xiao Hu looked, wore an expression of "as a matter of course," and pointed to the beach behind,

"Ah, just picked these up on this beach; there are still plenty left."

Ye Cheng rolled his eyes speechlessly,

"Holy crap! You could pick scallops up there and didn't call me, leaving me to soak in the seabed."

Xiao Hu looked innocent,

"Brother, it's not that I didn't call you; the problem is you're underwater, how could I call? If I didn't work, you'd complain about me later."

"Alright, alright, my bad; come on, let me show you how much can be picked."

Ye Cheng had Xiao Hu empty the scallops from his bucket, then each of them took a bucket and walked toward the distant beach.

This is more comfortable on land than at the Sea Bottom, walking is also free, and there is no such water pressure.

After walking a distance forward, Ye Cheng discovered that the Beach ahead was scattered with many scallops, in clusters, and there was no need to search hard.

Really now.

So I was an idiot for spending over an hour at the Sea Bottom just now.

"Brother, there's a lot here, right?" Xiao Hu said proudly, "These are what I found."

"Alright, you're awesome, hurry up and pick them up, there's enough to pick for a while."

Looking around here, there's a huge expanse of scallops; the two of them don't need to do anything, with so little water the scallops can't fly up, so they just pick them up purely, and after picking for a while Ye Cheng felt a bit bored.

By noon, when they had picked, Ye Cheng looked and saw that the Beach had been mostly picked clean.