Chapter 4: Harvesting Two Buckets of Flower Clam Kings

Actually, gathering seafood is both difficult and easy; luck is most important, followed by finding traces of seafood.

The holes on the beach, a line of footprints left after crawling over—these are all traces left by marine creatures.

Ye Cheng found a hole, squatted, took out the system-given shovel, and shaved evenly along the hole's mouth.

A layer of surface soil was scraped off, revealing fine sand below; the originally small hole widened a bit, and a bubble rose from it, popping with a puff.

This meant there was something underneath; Ye Cheng instantly perked up.

He continued scraping two layers of sand with the shovel; before he could even dig, he felt the shovel hit a hard object.

He reached in, dug out a shell from the sand—yellowish brown, with irregular stripe-like patterns; it was an oil clam, somewhat like the flower clams he ate in his past life, but three times bigger, about the size of half his palm.

Flower clams could be considered among the cheapest seafood on the market; Ye Cheng remembered that back then, a plate of stir-fried flower clams at a night market stall cost only a dozen or so dollars, and there were streets full of foil-wrapped sand clams.

They taste good, are cheap, and sell well.

However, flower clams come in several types; sand clams are the cheapest, a few dollars per jin, and are generally used at night snack stalls.

Then come flower clams, which can sell for twenty to thirty dollars per jin.

The most valuable are oil clams, aka Flower Clam Kings; even small ones cost forty, and the larger they are, the more expensive, exceeding a hundred.

The one in his hand now is surely a Flower Clam King, and its price is not trivial.

The Flower Clam King, held by Ye Cheng, spurted a jet of water in fright, clamped its two shells shut, and hid inside, not daring to emerge.

Ye Cheng casually tossed it into the bucket; this thing won't run away.

Indeed, with the system's boost, it's different—his first shovel strike already yielded a Flower Clam King.

At that moment, the system points also changed, jumping by 10 points to 12.

It seems the system also knows the Flower Clam King is a big catch.

After tasting success, Ye Cheng casually looked around and found another small hole; he again scraped then dug, and a shovel strike indeed produced movement.

Lin Feng happily reached in and scooped out another Flower Clam King, this one slightly larger than the previous, absolutely a big catch.

Around the spot where Ye Cheng squatted there were about seven or eight holes; he extracted five large flower clams from them, the rest being empty.

Xiao Hu walked over, glanced at Ye Cheng's bucket, and exclaimed in surprise, "Brother, so many Flower Clam Kings!"

"Nonsense, when I step out, how could I be lacking?"

"Brother, I'm coming too."

Seeing there was something, Xiao Hu got motivated, dug a few holes with vigorous shoveling, but they were empty except for a tiny flower clam.

"Damn, why is it that I have no Flower Clam King?" Xiao Hu looked at the tiny flower clam in his hand and instantly lost his drive.

"Keep going, don't give up, you can do it." Ye Cheng encouraged Xiao Hu, then switched to another spot and began digging.

Basically, out of about ten holes he could get five or six Flower Clam Kings; in just half an hour he dug up about half a bucket of them.

Over there, Xiao Hu finally had a harvest, digging up his first oil clam, though it was still considerably smaller than Ye Cheng's.

This being his first time gathering seafood, squatting and working like this left Ye Cheng a bit overwhelmed; he stopped, tossed his shovel to Xiao Hu, saying, "Come, you take this to dig; mine has been blessed."

Xiao Hu believed it, snatched it up happily, and said, "Brother, I've long noticed your shovel is different; turns out it's been blessed—no wonder you can dig up so many."

After saying that, the kid eagerly rushed onto the beach and began plowing, yes, this beast has great strength, just plowing; whenever he sees a hole, he goes on a frantic dig, turning a stretch of beach into a mess.

Ye Cheng looked at him speechlessly, "Why don't you just reincarnate as an ox?"

According to the system's explanation, if tools exchanged from the system can enjoy a luck bonus, then Xiao Hu should also be able to.

However, the result was contrary to expectations; Xiao Hu turned over nearly the whole beach before finding only a few worthless sand clams.

"Brother, you're lying, what's the use of being blessed?" Xiao Hu plopped down beside Ye Cheng, panting heavily.

Ye Cheng resignedly took back the shovel, sighed, and thought the system is harsh enough—it insists he do it himself, so he will.

"Rest a while, I'll go get some more."

"Brother, don't bother, I've dug over this whole patch and found nothing." Xiao Hu said while gulping water.

"Digging like that, what could you find? Be more careful."

Though he said that, Ye Cheng still moved to another patch, walked farther away; now he too was accustomed to the work, scraping the small shovel across the sand and digging down.

Before Xiao Hu could even light a cigarette, he saw Ye Cheng again pick up several Flower Clam Kings.

"Brother, you couldn't be cheating, could you?" Xiao Hu gaped, face full of disbelief.

"Cheating my ass, this is skill—do you understand skill?"

Enjoying the system's boost, Ye Cheng couldn't help feeling proud.

He now understands why anglers never fear harsh conditions; they seek the thrill of the haul, that instant when a fish is pulled from the water.

Now he is the same; watching the bucket fill with more and more Flower Clam Kings, setting aside money, that joy of abundance is irreplaceable.

The two dug on this beach for over three hours, until Ye Cheng's hands were about to go numb, truly unbearable.

Especially his legs, which he had never trained; bending over to work for three hours was truly unbearable, definitely better than gym results.

And the sun overhead had replenished all his calcium.

Ye Cheng stopped to look; his bucket was already full, Xiao Hu's bucket was more than half full—harvest abundant.

Moreover, Ye Cheng noticed a problem: in the three hours, most of the yield came from the first two hours; in the last hour, no matter how he dug, there was basically no yield.

He checked his system; luck value 60?

Is this luck value also related to the harvest?

Does it stop giving after a certain amount is dug?

"Boss, if that's the case, it's not luck value—it should be called traffic."

This can only be studied in detail later when he returns.

Not bad; the points also rose to 20, he glanced at the system—still locked, just have to wait.

"Xiao Hu, about time, let's head back." Ye Cheng looked at the distant sky; the sun had already slanted west, and the warm sea breeze carried a hint of chill.

Although Xiao Hu's face showed a bit of fatigue, his energy remained strong; "Brother, why not get some more? My bucket isn't full yet."