Chapter 449: Locust Pass: Everything's Been Hauled Away (Extra chapter for Alliance Leader whose high-school grades weren't ideal)

The women on the beach, heads lowered as they worked hard scooping shells into their dustpans, chatted excitedly as they worked.

Chatting about how strong the typhoon was last night, how badly their houses leaked, what got damaged by the typhoon, or what got blown away by it, what fish or good things the others had just picked up, and, what struck them as even more peculiar, they actually saw scallops running away.

"I've lived this long and never thought scallops could actually run? We've got to scoop faster, or they'll all run off on us."

"Ain't that the truth? It's my first time seeing scallops run, and they run pretty fast too."

"I thought they didn't move, like sand clams, never expected them to run…"

"Dig fast, or every time the tide surges a bunch of scallops will run back into the sea…"

"Oh oh oh~ they can even turn?" a woman said excitedly, pointing at the scallops in the sea opening and closing as they fled.

This is what they call living long enough to see everything!

Scallops mostly live in the low-tide zone down to shallow seabed of a few hundred meters, the catch is relatively small, and it will be several years before people start farming them one after another.

They're not commonly seen in daily life, and nobody knew scallops could actually run.

Ye Yaodong also saw it—one actually made a 180-degree turn, then opened and closed its way off. He scooped it up with a casual swipe; the scallop lay on top of the sieve and instantly behaved, playing dead and not moving.

The women watched Ye Yaodong standing in the water, scooping only a dozen or so at a time, and immediately grew puzzled.

"Why don't you grab a dustpan or a winnowing basket? How many can that hold?"

He didn't explain much, only saying there were no spare dustpans or winnowing baskets at home.

"Then you could at least grab a washbasin!"

The old man beside them saw it clearly though. "The ones he scoops are all live scallops. The ones we scoop, though there are more in number, have quite a few empty shells inside, plus oysters or sea lettuce, mud clams, cockles—those cheap ones. Hard to say who really gets more."

That woman, watching him scoop, was also tempted. Because scallops were rarely caught, even though they were mostly shells, a big one could still sell for three or four mao a jin, small ones around three mao. Shells have weight—a few big ones already make a jin, and with so many the amount was quite impressive.

Although there were plenty of people on the beach, a family could still easily pick up several hundred jin and sell it for about a hundred yuan—a sizable sum.

The women beside them, tempted, also wanted to go scoop the ones running into the sea. They lifted their dustpans, only to realize theirs didn't leak, so they couldn't scoop.

The young man beside them did grab a winnowing basket and waded in too, but after scooping for a while he found it too tiring—repeatedly bending over and standing up was nowhere near as easy as squatting there the whole time.

Besides, scooping only got him a tiny bit, nothing compared to how much those beside him raked into their arms.

After just a few tries the young man gave up and went back to work on that shell-strewn stretch of coast, feeling that scooping along the shore was faster and yielded more.

He also said as much to the women, and everyone felt he had a point—scooping along the shore let them pick up more other shellfish too.

Ye Yaodong glanced over, unconcerned, and kept on scooping his own.

The tide kept washing in, and the live scallops one after another followed the current back into the sea. The ones piled up beside them were either dead, or had no meat, or were pinned underneath and couldn't move.

His old man, his mother, and his wife were all over there raking shells—no shortage of any kind of shellfish. Better for him to scoop a bit more to sell for money.

Scooping alone was just right; for any that slipped through, they'd see if the ground cages could net a few.

Some people, looking at the ground-cage nets being washed by the waves in the shallows, were also discussing whose those were.

Those who'd come early could still see it was him and his dad who set them; the latecomers could only learn from others.

Happening to see him out in the sea, inching along the coastline as he scooped, someone with nothing better to do called out.

"Yaodong, I heard those ground cages out in the sea are ones you set earlier? What could there be along this coast? The typhoon's already passed."

"Right, how much can ground cages here catch? If you were going to set them, you should've done it yesterday during the typhoon—then you could've gotten more goods…"

Ye Yaodong straightened up, made a fist and pounded his lower back a few times, then looked up at the sky. Earlier the horizon had been glowing red and the sun was already out, but now it had ducked back into the clouds. Today was overcast, the cloud layer unusually thick. Good thing there was no sun—it wouldn't be too hot.

He swung his hips, looked at the older aunties and women, and said, "With typhoon winds and big waves, a couple of swells could sweep them right away—big trees get ripped out by the roots, let alone these ground cages."

He had no idea what the village looked like after the typhoon. He'd opened the door at dawn and headed straight to the beach to work, hadn't even eaten breakfast, hadn't gone into the village, hadn't gone to the old house.

"Should've set them out farther, where the waves are bigger and more goods get washed in…"

Before he could say more, the others jumped in to argue, "Right after a typhoon, who goes out to set nets? The waves out there are way bigger than along the shore. You'd have to wait at least two days."

"I was just saying it off the top of my head…"

"When are you going to pull in these ground cages? You might still net a few scallops."

"Definitely will net some. Yaodong, your brain really works fast, huh? The rest of us were just grabbing our winnowing baskets and dustpans to head out, and you'd already set all your ground cages."

"He lives close by, his new house is right on the beach… who knows how much he picked up at the crack of dawn… oh? Right, how much fish did you all pick up this morning?"

That question hit right on the mark.

Ye Yaodong smiled, flashing his white teeth. "We didn't pick up much this morning. What others got, I wouldn't know."

The stuff at his house had all been picked up last night.

Better get to work—later he'd still have to haul the fish from home down to the dock to sell. No ice, so he couldn't let them sit too long and go bad.

He walked along the coastline scooping as he went, greeting the familiar faces he passed with a few words. He happened to walk up to Fatty and his wife—Fatty was still getting scolded.

Fatty, seeing him, looked as if he'd found a savior. "Dongzi, these ground cages—are they yours? When are you pulling them in?"

"Let's see, the day after tomorrow, I guess. Just set them this morning, so probably the day after tomorrow the tide will recede and they won't be so full."

Those two fishing nets, though, could be pulled in for a first haul a bit earlier.

"You're gonna make a decent bit off this too, huh?"

"Aren't you all the same? You're raking way faster than I'm scooping."

Precisely because of that, nobody else copied him—running back to grab ground cages and set them out to sea.

How fast is raking like this? Running back to get the cages, then putting them in the sea—how much time does that waste?

Right now there are this many people around; by the time you finish setting your cages, this shell-strewn stretch of coast will already be half cleared out by the villagers. With that time, wouldn't it be faster to just squat on the shore and rake?

Fatty nodded in agreement. "Fair point. It's just that there seem to be more empty shells and other shells mixed in—there's gonna be a lot of sorting to do back home. My wife's gonna have her hands full."

Ye Yaodong laughed heartily. "Now you know how to talk sweet?"

Fatty's wife shot Fatty a fierce glare. "You can carry a whole sack over to some other woman and let her do the hard work."

"Uh…" Fatty, guilty, didn't dare make a peep, and hurriedly changed the subject. "How was your place last night? Did it leak badly?"

"The house didn't leak last night. How the old house is, I don't know. I wasn't at ease yesterday, so I brought my old man and my mother over."

Fatty said enviously, "New houses are the best. We didn't sleep all night, and this morning when the rain wasn't so heavy, I dozed off for a bit before being called out here…"

Fatty was afraid his wife would latch onto him and not let go, so he simply rambled on, pulling topics out of thin air to chat with Ye Yaodong.

Ye Yaodong played along.

Many hands make light work!

The villagers swept through like a plague of locusts. None of them had slept all night, yet they were still full of spirit, each one looking as if they'd been injected with chicken blood. That long stretch of coastline had nearly vanished in less than half a morning, packed into the burlap sacks and bamboo baskets behind them.

Ye Yaodong straightened his aching back and glanced at his watch — it was only around nine o'clock. Damn, these people really could pull an all-nighter!

Bright smiles on every face hid the dark circles under their eyes as they asked one another how many sacks they'd raked in, how many baskets they'd scooped up.

Some were still reluctant to stand up, still picking at what was left along the shore. Their bottoms were soaked by the seawater, yet they squatted there stubbornly, looking utterly ridiculous — when they finally stood, only the patch where their bottoms had been squatting was wet; from the waist up and above the bottom was dry.

Father Ye, Mother Ye, Lin Lin Xiuqing, and everyone else were all the same.

By the time they pushed their carts homeward, a pile of children had already gathered at the door. The old matriarch stood there with a switch in hand, and when she saw them come back with wet bottoms, she burst out laughing at them.

"Daddy and Mommy peed their pants~"

"Daddy and Mommy are so shameless, peeing their pants~"

"Grandpa and Grandma peed their pants too~"

"Hahahaha~"

"Go on, get lost, you little pests!"

"Daddy, how come you didn't pee your pants? Everyone else did!"

"Yeah, Third Uncle, how come you didn't pee your pants?"

"Hahaha, Daddy must not have needed to pee…"

Ye Yaodong glared at them. "If you help with the sorting later, I'll be magnanimous and spare you a beating."

"Bleh bleh bleh~"

A gaggle of children tittered and circled around the adults, debating whose pants were wetter, who had peed the most — it was utterly exasperating.

Once the adults had carried the gathered shells down together, the children shrieked again, "So many~"

"So many shells~"

"We're rich~"

"Ahhh, can we go to the shore and pick some too? Are there any left?"

"Looks like there aren't any left — no more white line, everyone carried it all away…"