Chapter 48

"My eyesight is good. Several of the crabs were covered in mud and hiding in the mudflats; I almost missed them." He admitted that his luck was indeed good, but part of it was his experience.

"I was quite happy when I caught one green crab, but after this comparison, it's been greatly discounted; it's like a dwarf in the presence of a giant," Ah Zheng said, shaking his head in frustration.

"It's fine, the tide hasn't risen yet, let's wander around the surrounding mudflats some more. Eh~ where are Fatty and Ah Guang?"

Little pointed toward the beach by the reef. "Look~ Fatty is taking a nap over there."

Ye Yaodong turned his body and looked in the direction he was pointing. He saw Fatty lying on the beach with his hands behind his head, his hat covering his face.

"Holy crap, he can sleep like this? Is he a pig?"

"Isn't he a pig?"

Speechless!

Under such a bright sun, he could actually use the sky as a quilt and the earth as a bed. He really had to hand it to him!

"Ah Guang went to pick small abalones. He thinks the goods on the reefs are more suitable for him."

"Oh!" He also saw a figure with his butt stuck up on the reef. "Then you guys keep looking. The tide won't rise for a while yet; I'm going to go rest for a bit first."

As he spoke, he walked toward the mud and sand area where he had caught the sea centipedes earlier. There was still half a bucket of sea centipedes he had caught earlier; he would just rest for a bit and then continue catching them.

Don't look at these things as being a bit disgusting; for gourmets, they are also a supreme delicacy.

The beach in their village didn't have these things. Taking advantage of the fact that the tide hadn't risen yet, he could continue digging holes to catch some more. He didn't know if the wharf would buy them.

If they didn't buy them, it didn't matter. As long as they weren't killed, they could be kept for two or three days. His family had many people, so he estimated they wouldn't last three days; at most, they would be finished in two days.

One by one, the sea centipedes, the long ones being 20-30 centimeters and the short ones only a few centimeters, were caught out of the holes by him one after another.

"You're still catching them? Aren't you disgusted?"

Ye Yaodong knew it was Ah Guang just by the sound of his voice. He didn't even look up as he said, "It's fine catching them one by one. Aren't they just centipedes from the sea? It's not like I haven't seen them before."

"Are you going to sell them for money after catching so many? Or eat them yourself?"

"Let's see if Ah Cai buys them. After all, our wharf doesn't have these things. If they don't buy them, I'll just keep them to eat myself."

Ah Guang looked at the bamboo basket beside him. "There are green crabs too, and they're quite big. Not a bad harvest; you've barely managed to earn a day's wages."

"I'll make you die of envy if I tell you. I caught seven, two females and five males, and they're all very meaty." Ye Yaodong was quite proud; he hadn't expected the produce on the isolated island to be so rich.

"What? Seven? What kind of dog-shit luck do you have!"

Ah Guang stared in disbelief, his eyes wide, and shook the bamboo basket. Sure enough, he saw several large claws at the bottom.

"Ah Zheng and Chen Wei each caught one too. Do you want to go wander around some more? The tide hasn't risen yet."

"I'm going, I'm going right now. Tell me, where did you catch them!"

Ye Yaodong pointed in a direction for him. "Over there, but I've basically wandered through that area. You can walk a bit further; I haven't been to that side."

"Got it."

Ah Guang ran excitedly in the direction he pointed. As soon as the tide started to rise, it would rise very quickly, not to mention that it was already past the first of the lunar month, and the water level hadn't receded very low today.

Ye Yaodong hadn't expected that just a suggestion of his would allow Ah Guang to harvest two green crabs, one of which was huge, even a bit bigger than his biggest one.

When he came back, he made the others envious.

Little teased, "Master Dongzi, when are you going to give me some pointers too?"

"Yeah, if I had known, I would've asked you where you caught them earlier. Maybe I could've gotten two too!" Ah Zheng's intestines were green with regret; he had been chatting with Dongzi just a moment ago.

Ah Guang, on the other hand, was a bit addicted to the taste of success and said with a look of regret, "Sigh, I went too late. I only found two before the tide rose. The second one was almost washed into the sea by the tide; fortunately, my hands were fast."

"That's good enough. You have two green crabs all of a sudden; Fatty and Little don't have any. If I had known there were some over there, I would've gone myself," Ye Yaodong said with a smile, then reminded everyone, "The tide is coming up. Let's pack everything up and get on the boat."

"Let's go, let's go, let's go home. I'm starving to death."

"Me too, my stomach is flat from hunger."

"Call that dead Fatty up..."

"Let's just leave him here to be a wild man..."

"Speaking so loudly, do you think I'm deaf and didn't hear you?"

Everyone bantered as they each carried their buckets and tools onto the boat. Then Ah Guang went to untie the rope and used a bamboo pole on the boat to push it away from the shore before starting the engine.

It was already three o'clock. They had been out since early morning, and it had been a whole day. Everyone was exhausted, and as soon as they got on the boat, they slumped over, either sitting or leaning.

"This beachcombing is quite tiring. Fortunately, the harvest was good today, so it wasn't a wasted trip," Chen Wei said, twisting his neck.

His personality wasn't as lively as theirs. Usually, when they were bantering, he didn't say much and only spoke occasionally.

Fatty rolled his eyes. "Why do I feel like you're mocking me!"

"Hahaha, be confident, remove the word 'feel'," Ye Yaodong said with a laugh.

The others couldn't help but be amused.

"Fatty, you would've been better off not coming. Look at your fair, chubby face; it's all tanned."

"What's wrong with a man being a bit tanned? It's just that it really was too hot and sunny. I'm not coming next time."

"You'll still have to be in the sun if you go to help at Dongzi's homestead tomorrow..."

Ye Yaodong quickly spoke up, "Hey, I'm not forcing anyone. On such a hot day, who wants to work under the sun? I'm not forcing you; it's up to you whether you come or not."

Fatty said somewhat embarrassedly, "I'll see how it goes and come help a bit."

"It's fine. Building a house isn't a one- or two-day job. I've already hired workers at home, so you guys can just do whatever."

Everyone nodded; anyway, they would just see how it went and help a bit.

The boat sailed for ten minutes before reaching the wharf. After docking, they all got off the boat one after another, leaving only Ye Yaodong on the boat to watch over it.

They had to go back to get sacks to load the goods. There were several piles of shellfish they had scavenged on the deck, and they also had to push a flatbed cart over; otherwise, it would be too heavy to carry home.

While he was waiting, fishing boats arrived one after another. It was already afternoon, so it was time for the fishing boats to come in.

They were all from the same village, so how could they not know each other? Everyone greeted him one after another. Seeing that his boat was full of shelled shellfish, they all asked a few curious questions, but he brushed them all off.

Seeing that they were all common things found on the reefs, everyone didn't find it strange; they just thought there were too many of them, the whole boat was full. Seeing that Ye Yaodong didn't want to say much, they didn't ask anymore, but they couldn't help but take a few extra looks.

It was just that these things weren't worth much money. There were few families in the village with boats, and most were small wooden boats rowed by hand. Moreover, everyone's boats had to be used for fishing to make money; otherwise, there wouldn't be anything left on the surrounding isolated islands.

He hadn't waited for long when he saw his mother appear on the shore. She must have come to wait for his father.

Ye Mother also saw him, hurriedly called out, and trotted toward him. "Why did you only just get back? You were gone for a whole... why are there so many seashells?"

Before she could finish speaking, her eyes widened in surprise at the shelled items piled all over the boat.