Chapter 94: Delicious Geoduck

Suddenly, a black spherical object on the beach caught Ye Cheng's attention; he rolled up his pant legs a bit more, stepped into the water, and walked forward two steps.

Now he finally saw clearly what the black spherical object was—a sea urchin.

Nature's creativity is miraculous; the sea urchin is such a miraculous thing.

A spiky blackish thing, its flesh is incredibly fresh—delicious eaten raw or steamed with an egg.

Ye Cheng picked up this sea urchin; it was fairly large, much bigger than the kind he had eaten at buffets before.

"Xiao Hu!" Ye Cheng shouted loudly.

"Brother, what's up? Got any?"

"Bring the snakeskin bag over; there are lots of sea urchins here."

This thing won't fit many in a bucket—it's too big and spiky—but a snakeskin bag is perfect for it.

In front of Ye Cheng, this area had dozens of sea urchins at a glance—he estimated two snakeskin bags wouldn't be enough to hold them.

"Whoa, that's a lot of sea urchins." Xiao Hu excitedly opened the snakeskin bag and, using a net, placed them one by one inside.

This area seemed to be a sea urchin habitat; the two of them gathered over forty, filling both snakeskin bags, and that was that.

Ye Cheng straightened up, pounding his sore lower back,

"Damn, a few more and my waist will give out."

"Brother, you rest first; I'll look over there—maybe there are more." Xiao Hu pointed to another side; this guy had gotten a bit addicted to picking sea urchins.

Ye Cheng couldn't be bothered with him, casually found a stone above the waterline to sit on, stretched his legs forward, and was about to relax.

Suddenly, a white, elongated object struck Ye Cheng's shin; its slippery appearance scared him into shouting "Snake!" and he jumped straight up from the stone.

Over there, Xiao Hu heard the sound, turned back, and immediately pointed at the water, laughing, "Brother, what snake? It's a hairtail—a big hairtail."

Ye Cheng took a closer look—damn, it really was—a large silver-white hairtail darting about in the not-so-deep water.

This guy, if you don't look closely, looks almost like a snake.

Seeing it was a hairtail, Ye Cheng had nothing to fear; he slipped a net over its head and scooped it up.

Once in the net it calmed down; Ye Cheng grabbed it by the neck and lifted it up—this hairtail was over a meter long, its body seven or eight centimeters wide, definitely a big catch, so the earlier scare wasn't for nothing.

Seeing Ye Cheng had caught the hairtail, Xiao Hu went on ahead by himself.

Ye Cheng tidied up the hairtail, didn't want to rest anymore—his waist and legs no longer ached—and casually flipped over the blue stone he had intended to sit on.

Nice, another catch—a blue crab.

This blue crab might be tired, utterly unwilling to run, just lying in a stone crevice, and Ye Cheng snatched it up with one hand.

Its yellowish body, yellowish shell and joints—another butter crab—made Ye Cheng happy, and he casually flipped over the nearby stones as well.

But this time luck wasn't on his side—aside from a few unidentified small fish, there was nothing else.

Xiao Hu went to the left front, while Ye Cheng headed to the right front.

Along the way they picked up several more cat's-eye snails, plus one cat's-eye snail hidden underwater that Ye Cheng also pried loose.

He was about to collect it when, suddenly, a bubble rose from the sand a little ahead.

Hehe, brother, you've given yourself away.

Ye Cheng put the cat's-eye snail in the bucket, then took out a small shovel and gently probed around the bubbling spot.

The water was clear; a slight stir cleared the surface silt, revealing a cute little mouth.

Ye Cheng froze for a moment—sure enough, it was a round little mouth.

Damn, what the heck is this?

It looks similar to the extendable siphon of a king razor clam, but considerably larger.

Although I don't know what it is, I'm basically sure it's a shell or some other mollusk—at least it won't suddenly shoot out pincers to grab me.

Ye Cheng picked up the shovel, cleared away the nearby rubble, and directly exposed the creature's true form.

Damn, so it's you.

Ye Cheng picked it up—a milky-white shell, from which protruded a long piece of shell flesh, like an elephant's trunk; hence its name: geoduck.

This is a fine delicacy, often featured at business banquets.

Prepared as geoduck sashimi, it's incredibly crisp and tender; Ye Cheng used to love it, and unlike salmon sashimi it doesn't feel greasy.

After a dozen or so slices of salmon you'd definitely feel a bit oily, but Ye Cheng could eat an entire geoduck.

Moreover, besides the prime part used for sashimi, the rest can be boiled into porridge—absolutely fresh enough to make your eyebrows fall off.

This is also top‑tier goods on par with butter crab, worthy of the C‑spot in a water bucket.

According to Ye Cheng's experience, if one shows up here, there's bound to be a second.

He crouched down and carefully searched this stretch of water.

Sure enough, in the sand he found several more bubble‑blowing critters; digging them up revealed they were all fragrant snails.

Damn it, you fragrant snail, what are you doing crashing the party?

After searching seven or eight spots, Ye Cheng finally found a second geoduck; this one was bigger, its shell alone nearly the size of his palm.

Its exposed flesh was plentiful and satisfying, and Ye Cheng happily stowed it away.

Going further ahead was open sea; the two walked together to the shore and stopped, the water clear and blue, the calm sea truly beautiful.

The two lit a cigarette and rested a bit,

"Brother, we're about done, I'd say—it's not early anymore."

"Yeah, we'll head back after the cigarette."

Ye Cheng considered today's haul satisfactory; he should be able to make some money from it.

The two had just finished their cigarette, were about to leave, when suddenly a thin white line appeared on the sea surface.

At first the line was thin, then gradually thickened; by the time Ye Cheng and company saw it clearly, it had gathered into a tide.

"Damn, the tide's coming—fall back!"

I don't know where this tide came from; Xiao Hu got scared and immediately took off running backwards.

The tide looks calm, but nobody knows what's behind it.

Sometimes it's just a single current; sometimes the front and back overlap, then a backflow, and a person is gone.

Xiao Hu had only taken two steps when he realized Ye Cheng hadn't followed.

He hurriedly stopped, turned back, and saw Ye Cheng still standing where he was, having tossed away his cigarette and picked up a net, truly staring intently at the tide's head.

"Brother, hurry up and leave, what are you waiting for, it's dangerous!"

Xiao Hu fears danger, but Ye Cheng is not afraid, because the system gave no warning, which means this tide is not dangerous.