Chapter 465: Collecting Ground Cages

Free from debt, the body is light.

Even if it was only owing a few hundred yuan, unless necessary, Ye Yaodong didn't want to owe. Returning it the first time made people feel comfortable, and he could sleep peacefully.

It wasn't until he woke up in the afternoon that he knew his father had already been there. The village was also buzzing with rumors, and everyone knew that their few families had specially pulled the goods to the city to sell for a good price.

In their small village, news traveled fast. Who didn't have a few aunts or uncles?

Not being envied is being mediocre. Anyway, he didn't take it to heart. He worked all day, and he didn't have time to wander around, and he couldn't hear what they were saying, and he wouldn't lose a piece of meat.

Look, just woke up, he stood at the door and looked at the tide, and planned to go to the beach to collect the ground cages. It was already afternoon, and the tide had been full for almost two days, and now it had receded a bit, and the ground cages were exposed, so it was almost time to collect them. He didn't know how many he could collect.

Lin Xiuqing watched him put on rain boots and said, "There is still warm rice in the pot. Why don't you eat something before you go? Just right, I'll go call Dad over, and let him help collect them later."

"No need, I'm not hungry now. I'll eat dinner when I come back after collecting the ground cages, to save three meals from being irregular, and make you busy too."

"Then you ride a bicycle to call Dad to come over and collect them together. Two people are faster, and it's easier to collect, to avoid one person being in a hurry."

"Hmm, I know."

Lin Xiuqing originally wanted to ask him about the shop, and the final payment, but seeing that he seemed a bit anxious, she swallowed it back, planning to ask again at night.

Really, she didn't give her a chance to speak at noon.

She was also worried that being in the room for too long would make people think too much. After all, they had come twice, and after finishing, he rushed out, and the subsequent matters hadn't been asked carefully.

Ye Yaodong rode a bicycle to the old house to call his father. Unexpectedly, the old house was empty, and only in the small room where the old lady used to live at the back door, there was a pig squealing there.

He asked the neighbors on the left and right and found out that his mother had gone to work today, and heard that she was so busy at noon that she didn't have time to come back, and his father was idle and went to the mountain to beat pig grass with his second brother and second sister-in-law.

He had to leave a message with the neighbor, and went back to collect the ground cages first.

There were some people scattered on the beach still picking scallops. The tide had receded a bit, and everyone came to try their luck. Picking a little was a little, and it could sell for some money.

No one dared to have ideas about his ground cages. After all, this was at his door.

Empty shells were scattered everywhere on the shore, as well as the corpses of small fish and shrimp. Even if there was no sun in summer, the temperature wasn't low. They had been stranded for two days, and the surroundings were emitting the unique fishy smell of seafood.

Their family's ducks were leisurely and proudly wandering and pecking for food on the beach. Having food, they didn't quack around. These two days, they had eaten until their bellies were round.

Next year, they could really raise a few more ducks. It was easy, just drive them out to swim and catch food by the beach. Chickens were the same, they could find stranded fish and shrimp themselves, and couldn't eat much grain bran.

When he waded through the water to pull the rope at one end of the ground cage, he didn't expect these few ducks to follow him behind, shaking and swimming into the water.

He smiled and watched the ducks paddling with their webbed feet, lined up in a neat row and quacking, and couldn't help but say, "You guys are still the most comfortable."

"Quack quack~"

"But your carefree days are only for half a year. In a few months, you can be killed."

"Quack quack quack~"

After Ye Yaodong talked to himself for two sentences, he hummed an off-key song in a comfortable mood, pulled the rope of the ground cage to the shore, and collected it standing on the shore, to save getting wet all over.

The heavy weight and the seawater made him feel a bit strenuous, but fortunately, he didn't have to soak in the water. The ground cage was pulled up by him grid by grid.

Some shrimp and crabs could be seen stuck on the grid from time to time, and when he collected them, they fell into the fish collection bag.

"Yo~ there's a one-jin spring fish."

Ye Yaodong was instantly energetic. The fish of seven or eight liang might only be worth five or six jiao, but one jin or more was worth eight or nine jiao. That size was estimated to be able to sell for one yuan.

Originally, fish and shrimp were more popular and expensive than general seafood, and spring fish were much more valuable than sea bass.

He accelerated the speed of collecting the net. The collected grids were scattered on the ground by him at will. At this moment, he didn't have time to organize them. He had to collect the whole ground cage, and it wouldn't be too late to organize after collecting everything.

As the ground cage was collected longer and longer, he also saw quite a few scallops hanging on the ground cage net, and then they all fell into the fish collection bag.

According to the quantity he just saw, these ground cages were not placed in vain.

He finally used his strength with confidence, dragged the fish collection bag up, and saw a pile of white-gray shells at the bottom, mixed with some fish, shrimp, and crabs still jumping.

Although he already roughly knew what was inside during the process of pulling it up, and didn't have the joy of opening a blind box, he was still happy when he saw the goods inside.

There were two blue flower crabs, one red flower crab, a few sword shrimp, a sea oyster snail that wasn't small, and some small lobsters in the sea. The most beautiful was that spring fish, and the heavy scallops at the bottom, seven or eight jin.

Ye Yaodong threw the fish collection bag onto the beach after a glance, and went to the flatbed cart to take down the basket to load it. Just when he came out, he pushed the flatbed cart and the basket out together, so it was convenient to load the goods.

The clattering sound of shells only rang for a few seconds, and then they all fell into the basket together with the fish, shrimp, and crabs.

Ye Yaodong took out the spring fish alone first and threw it into the water bucket on the flatbed cart, arranging a luxury VIP cabin for it.

At this time, Lin Xiuqing also finished the housework, handed the child to the old lady to watch, and ran out to help.

She supported the basket with both hands and looked inside. "How many nets are in here?"

"How many nets can there be? One!"

Ye Yaodong bundled up the empty fish collection bag, threw it on the ground, and planned to collect the next net along the rope.

"Just one has so much? There are seven or eight jin here, right? You placed 4 rows of ground cages?" She was surprised, and lifted the basket, shaking it twice. "Looks like there are no shells, only a few clams."

"Hmm, the ones caught should all be alive. If there are no accidents, 4 rows of ground cages and 41 nets, catching 200 jin is no problem. You pick out those few fish, shrimp, and crabs and put them separately, to save me from collecting a few more nets and pouring them down later, crushing them all."

"Hmm, good. Why didn't Dad come?"

"He went to the mountain to beat pig grass with the second brother and them, and hasn't come back yet. I'll collect them first." Ye Yaodong said while pulling the net with his hands.

Lin Xiuqing first grabbed the few blue flower crabs, and also pressed their backs with her thumb. "These few crabs don't look very fat."

Ye Yaodong turned his head and smiled lightly. "How many years have you been married? Now you know if the crabs are fat just by touching them?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Will it be hard? Can I not know?"

"Oh~ then is it hard or not?"

"Barely... right..." Lin Xiuqing looked at his cheeky smile, and always felt that he seemed to be pointing at something.

"Only barely!"

She said angrily, "Otherwise, at this season, the crabs are not very fat originally. Wait another month, and the paste will be very full."

"Right, very full!"

Lin Xiuqing frowned and didn't want to talk to him.

"Be careful, don't let its big feet pinch your hand."

"Hmm." This sounded like human words.

Men and women work together, work is not tiring. The couple collected the nets, picked the goods, and chatted, not feeling bored at all, much better than him working alone just now.

Ye Yaodong poured the goods of another net into another basket, because he saw that the seafood of the previous net she picked hadn't been fully picked out, and saw her still picking small lobsters there.

However, she actually threw the small lobsters she had just picked with a full palm back into the sea at will.

"Ouch, why did you throw these small sugar shrimp?"

There are freshwater lobsters in the river, and there are also lobsters in the sea. The two look quite similar, except that the lobsters in the sea are particularly small, about the same size as white shrimp.

The lobsters in the sea are called small sugar shrimp locally, and are actually a type of crayfish.

Although they are small, the meat quality is not bad at all. Cooked with potatoes and cucumbers in a spicy way, they are very delicious.

It's just that no one eats them now. Everyone dislikes the small size, and either throws them back into the sea or takes them to feed chickens and ducks.

Lin Xiuqing did the same. Anyway, their family's chickens and ducks were free-range by the sea. Recently, many fish and shrimp were stranded by the beach, so she wasn't afraid they wouldn't have anything to eat. She was afraid she wouldn't be able to finish eating if she picked them back, and they would stink if left there, so she didn't keep them and threw them all back into the sea.

Hearing his question at this moment, she was also puzzled and said innocently, "These are so small, why keep them if you don't throw them away? There are so many small fish and shrimp stranded by the beach, and the chickens and ducks aren't afraid of having nothing to eat."

"Waste of things, pick them back and we'll eat them ourselves."

"Nervous, so small, what's good to eat? Peeling is troublesome, and no one in the village eats them. Why did you suddenly think of keeping them to eat?"

"That's because you don't know how to cook. Every day it's either steamed or blanched..."

Lin Xiuqing rolled her eyes. "Isn't seafood all steamed or blanched?"

"This is delicious when stir-fried spicy."

"Think of one thing and another, I don't know how."

"If you don't know, learn. If you don't know, you still say it so righteously. Didn't you learn enough at noon?"

Lin Xiuqing was ashamed and angry, and wanted to hammer him with her fist, but he dodged it. "Don't sneak attack! Work properly, I'll show you a hand tonight."

"Bah... shameless, full of filth, not serious even when working..."

Ye Yaodong was stunned for a moment, then reacted. "Damn, where did you think? I said show you a hand, I meant I'll cook you a spicy lobster tonight. Where did you think? Damn! The thief calls to catch the thief, it turns out you are the dirtiest..."

Lin Xiuqing discovered she had misunderstood, her face instantly turned red, and she angrily threw a few small sugar shrimp at him.

"Shut up~"

"Good, good, good~ won't say, won't say~"

"Don't laugh~"

"Good, good, good~ won't laugh, won't laugh~" ===== CHAPTER 466 =====