Chapter 47

He continued wandering around the area and found another green crab buried in the mud not far away, with only its two eyes exposed.

"They're getting better at hiding one after another!"

Fortunately, his eyesight was good and he was sharp-eyed. He clamped it up and took a look; this one was a bit smaller, but it was still over a jin. It was a male, which wasn't bad either!

After putting this green crab into his bamboo basket, he searched even more carefully, afraid that he might miss something covered by the mud.

Whenever there were rocks around, he would specifically move them to see if there were any goods underneath.

However, the area he was searching was a mudflat with very little water. He pried up several rocks but didn't see any small fish or shrimp stranded. He didn't get discouraged and continued searching patiently; anyway, the tide had just receded, so there was plenty of time.

After moving several rocks in a row, he finally saw two large green crabs stacked on top of each other next to a big rock!

"Holy crap, having a field tryst, you guys are really something!"

He clamped one, and as it turned out, the other was stuck to it too. He took a look at their backs, and it really was a male and a female.

They were both green crabs. Ye Yaodong guessed in his heart that it must be because it was an isolated island with no people around and no threats, so after the tide receded, the green crabs all crawled onto the mudflats to relax and sun themselves, waiting to return to the sea when the tide rose again.

He excitedly claimed both of them and then saw a small patch of mudflat not far ahead that was relatively flat and had many small holes on the surface.

He walked a few quick steps forward and then squatted down. Unlike the small holes on the surface of the beach which contained sand clams, based on his experience, these holes should contain razor clams.

Razor clams are a type of invertebrate mollusk commonly found in the sand and mud of the intertidal zone. They have narrow, long, razor-shaped shells and can move up and down rapidly within their burrows, quickly retracting when startled.

He muttered a couple of things: "Too bad I didn't bring any salt; otherwise, if I sprinkled it into these holes, these razor clams would crawl out on their own. Now I have to dig them out myself, what a hassle!"

He set the fire tongs in his hand aside and dug into the holes one by one with his bare hands. Fortunately, they hadn't burrowed very deep, so they were quite easy to dig out.

After digging out a few, he saw a rock nearby and moved it aside, discovering two mudskippers, which he tossed into his bamboo basket.

Even a mosquito's leg is meat; at least it counted as a harvest.

After digging nimbly for ten minutes and finishing all the small holes in this area, he estimated he had harvested about three or four jin, and he stood up with satisfaction.

It was just that he had been squatting for too long, and his neck felt a bit sore. His hands were dirty, so it wasn't convenient to press on it. Ye Yaodong had no choice but to twist his neck and look toward the others.

Everyone was quite spread out, and he wondered how their harvest was going.

He looked up at the sun again; the sunlight was still intensely blinding. Seeing that it was still early and the tide wouldn't rise that quickly, he could only continue searching, occasionally picking up a few mudskippers.

People were walking further and further out, eventually walking right out of this small mudflat area and into the shallow water and sand region.

Just as he stepped into the seawater, Ye Yaodong sat on a large rock, intending to wash the mud off his legs first. The mud was stuck to his legs, and once the sun hit it, it would dry out completely, tightening his skin, which wasn't very comfortable.

Just as he finished washing his feet, he saw an antenna stretching out from under a crack in the rock.

"Walking right into the trap, huh! Come on out." He put on his gloves, reached out, and grabbed it. "Oh~ it's a small white octopus!"

After tossing it into the bamboo basket, he continued to reach under the rock and try to dig. "There's more!"

He grabbed it and took a look; it turned out there were two more small white octopuses!

There is a saying among Fujianese: three small white octopuses are worth one sheep!

Other octopuses are sold by the jin, but small white octopuses are sold by the piece!

"One sheep in the bag!"

The produce on the isolated island was indeed much richer than at the wharf. After circling this rock, he saw a few more turban snails.

Not many, just seven or eight. The snail meat on top was clinging directly to the rock, so he pried them off one by one and tossed them into his hand.

Only snails that cling to rocks have meat inside; many of those soaking in the seawater are just hermit crabs with no meat.

Since he had already reached the shallow water area, he planned to wander around the surroundings first.

"Hey, a rockfish..."

Seeing a red figure swimming near the pile of rubble over there, Ye Yaodong walked over quickly. It was a rockfish.

Rockfish generally live in the cracks or holes of rocks in the sea. They seem unable to leave rocks; no matter how deep the water is, there must be rocks at the bottom for rockfish to appear and live there, using the small shrimp at the bottom as their food source.

He put his bamboo basket and fire tongs aside, freed his hands, and surrounded it with both hands to catch it. Its fins had poisonous spines, so he needed to be careful.

The bright red rockfish was quite pleasing to the eye, much prettier than ordinary fish.

Ye Yaodong was in a very good mood. Regardless of whether the goods were valuable or not, having a harvest always made people happy.

After that, the harvest wasn't much. By the time the tide began to rise, he had only caught three rockfish, just enough for a bowl, along with some mudskippers, rock crabs, a few miscellaneous fish, and three large green crabs.

Wading through the water, he walked toward the reef where he had just gotten off the boat. The others were still walking around with their heads down. Ye Yaodong shouted loudly toward them, "The tide is rising!"

Everyone looked up in the direction of the sound, then continued to look down. It was starting to rise, but it hadn't risen yet, and the boat was still stranded on the beach, so what was the rush?

After walking closer, he shouted again, "Aren't you guys hungry?"

"How could we not be hungry? We're starving."

"I've already eaten a few shrimp raw."

He hadn't noticed until he said that, but he hadn't found any shrimp in his harvest today. "I haven't found any shrimp."

"Then what did you find?"

"Three small white octopuses, three rockfish, a few rock crabs, some miscellaneous snails, three or four jin of razor clams, seven large green crabs..."

"Holy crap, you motherfucker found seven large green crabs? How big are they?" Little, who was closest to him, looked at him in disbelief.

"They're all over a jin, the biggest one is probably close to two jin!"

He had found the biggest one under a rock in the shallow water area while preparing to walk over. Fortunately, he had discovered it; otherwise, it would have returned to the sea once the tide rose.

Ah Zheng shouted with envy and jealousy: "What kind of luck do you have? Three or four jin of razor clams is one thing, but you actually picked up seven large green crabs? I only picked up one."

"I picked up one too! It's also quite big, probably a jin and three or four taels," Chen Wei also walked over and said.

"It feels like there are quite a lot of green crabs here. I don't know if it's because it's an isolated island and the reason fishing nets can't be placed here, but it's quite full of goods."

"I think so too. I guess it's because no one has visited," Little said while looking at Ye Yaodong's bamboo cage. "Yours is already full to the brim."

"Dongzi's luck has really been good these past few days! In the same place, his harvest is just more than ours."