Chapter 807: Even a Dog Can Forage the Sea

Ye Yaodong held the fish by its head with one hand and pressed its tail with the other, watching its mouth open and close as he cheerfully held it up in front of Ye Ye Xiaoxi.

"Fish~ fish~"

Ye Ye Xiaoxi excitedly widened her eyes and kept calling out, stretching out her index finger as she called, curiously trying to poke it into the fish's mouth.

Ye Yaodong quickly moved the fish away, a black line of exasperation crossing his forehead as he looked at her. "You can't do that, your hand will get bitten."

She let out a giggling laugh, then eagerly hurried off to grab the bucket beside her.

That little look of hers—where was the pitiful, aggrieved expression from just now?

After tossing the fish into the bucket, he patted her head again. "Good luck. Tonight I'll have your mom steam it for you. Eating sea fish makes you smart. Your big brother and Ye Ye Erge are hopeless—our whole family is counting on you to become a college student and bring honor to our ancestors."

Ye Ye Xiaoxi ignored his talking and instead ran to the side to pick up the spatula, continuing to squat on the ground digging sand, even scooping the sand into the bucket.

Ye Yaodong didn't react in time. Looking at the sand in the bucket, he was utterly helpless—she was too young, she couldn't really help at all, a pig teammate who only made things worse.

"Fine, you stay here and dig sand by yourself. I'll look around in the rock pile over here and try to scrape together another bowl's worth. Otherwise tonight we'll only have dried goods, no fresh ones."

Ye Ye Xiaoxi paid him no mind. It was rare to get to run around on the beach, and she only wanted to dig sand properly.

The tide was quite far from where they were, so Ye Yaodong wasn't worried about her running forward. There was a large stretch of open sandy beach right in front, more than enough for her to play on. He carried the bucket and searched along the side, only occasionally looking up to check on her.

Watching her inch forward as she played, he moved forward along with her.

As the tide gradually receded, more children appeared on the beach to play. Seeing other kids around, Ye Ye Xiaoxi squeezed over and joined them in playing.

Seeing she had companions, and noticing a pack of dogs from the house had suddenly run out too, Ye Yaodong stopped watching her so closely.

When he first came out, the whole pack of dogs had wanted to follow, but he kicked a couple of them back and told them to guard the house, so as to prevent any random relatives who'd heard they bought a TV from showing up to gawk.

Now he had no idea why they were disobeying again, and a few had even snuck out. Well, never mind then—having dogs around was a bit safer.

After telling the kids to just play in the sand where they were and not go any further toward the water, he seriously wandered around on his own, only occasionally glancing up to check if Ye Ye Xiaoxi was playing normally.

The distribution of seafood on the beach actually followed a pattern. Dig near the shore and you'd find a few clams—these things live in colonies, so if you dig up one, there are usually more nearby.

And during the spring tides on the first and fifteenth of the lunar month, the area outside the pier had the most. Probably because it's usually covered by seawater, never exposed, and free of human danger—go dig during a big ebb tide and you'd find loads.

And in the sandy parts of the beach there might be sandworms; depending on the season, the muddy tidal flats would have lots of razor clams—once the season came, you could just look for the air holes.

Sea centipedes also grew in the tidal flats, but their beach didn't have any sea centipedes.

Ye Yaodong walked along scanning the beach. When he spotted a familiar hole, he'd dig around a bit—sometimes prying out a clam, sometimes a cat's eye snail, sometimes nothing at all, though digging deeper might yield something.

And in the lower intertidal zone, if you dug deeper, you might pry out a sea mussel.

He'd tried before—you had to dig down past your elbow, and if you weren't careful your hand could easily get scraped by the shell, or you might crush the shell, so what you pulled up wouldn't be intact.

Walking through the intertidal zone now, he also saw lots of air holes all over the surrounding beach—sea mussels should be underneath—but prying them out was hard work, and it might take ages to get just one up. He couldn't be bothered.

He'd only brought the kids out for a stroll anyway, not specifically to forage the sea. Just a casual look around to see if there was anything to pick up—if it was too much trouble, he wouldn't bother.

After one round he'd only pried out twenty or thirty cat's eye snails, picked up a few large clams, two stranded croaker fish, some mudskippers, a few starfish, and some sea urchins.

He thought about relocating to check the reef rocks over there—pick up or dig out whatever was there, and if there was nothing, he'd head home. Ye Ye Xiaoxi had played about enough; if she played too long she'd get filthy all over and get scolded again when they got back.

Just as he reached this patch of reef rocks, he saw two stone crabs right in front of him, waving their big claws and stacked on top of each other—he couldn't tell if they were fighting or mating.

When he came out he'd only thought about entertaining the kid, so he'd brought the spatula but no fire tongs—he could only catch them barehanded now.

The two crabs were stuck together there, inseparable. He grabbed the one on top, and the one below was hooked up by the crab's legs and lifted into the air too. He quickly caught them with the bucket, but one dropped right back down in an instant.

"Its leg got snipped clean off—fierce, huh."

He muttered to himself, then tossed the crab in his hand into the bucket too.

Stone crabs don't grow big—at most fist-sized—but the meat is still delicious, somewhat similar to mud crabs, though they can't compare; mud crabs can grow really, really big—one can weigh two or three catties.

After collecting the two, he wandered around the area again and casually confiscated a few larger whelk snails.

Just as he bent down and caught another small mud crab, he felt an itch on his leg—something was rubbing against it.

He straightened up and looked. A spotted dog had appeared by his feet at some point, its head nuzzling his leg, and in its mouth it was holding a fist-sized conch—picked up goodness knows where.

Ye Yaodong let out a surprised, light laugh. "Oh? You can forage the sea too?"

The dog's head kept tilted up. Seeing him look over, it stood up on its hind legs and hugged his foot.

He quickly took the conch from the dog's mouth and checked—the meat inside was real, not a hermit crab. He praised it with a pat on its head. "Nice work!"

"Wang Wang~"

"You're actually useful. Go look around other places for me, bring back more stuff, and I'll give you extra food tonight."

Judging by how scattered and few the goods on the beach looked today, picking up a grouper was already lucky. The rest of the stuff was so-so, barely enough to scrape together one bowl. Letting this dog have a look might help gather a bit more—after all, there are many mouths to feed at home.

Xiaohua got her mission, barked twice, then immediately turned and took off running.

Ye Yaodong thought, if only he'd known, he would've brought a few of the dogs from home. Then he could just sit there while the dogs foraged and brought him the haul—wouldn't that be great?

He had no idea how the kids back home had trained these dogs behind his back—even foraging the sea…

Watching the spotted dog run off into the distance, he went back to searching nearby. But before he could find anything, there was that fuzzy sensation by his leg again. This time the dog had a flat sole fish in its mouth—a fairly big one, seven or eight liang.

"Goodness, you really can forage the sea?"

He took the fish from the dog's mouth as he spoke and tossed it into the bucket. Seeing it still standing there, he laughed and patted its head. "Impressive. Keep going, bring back more goods."

"Wang~"

After getting its orders, it changed direction and took off running again…

But it wasn't long before it came back. This time there was nothing in its mouth—instead it opened its jaws and bit his trouser leg, tugging at it nonstop. He was puzzled for a moment.

"What's up? Can't catch it, so you're taking me there?"

The dog immediately let go, barked twice, and took the lead, backing up and turning its head.

After walking a couple of steps it looked back at him. Seeing he hadn't moved, it barked twice more.

Now Ye Yaodong understood—it wanted to take him there.

He let out a light laugh. "Damn, that smart? It even knows to lead the way?"

Seeing him dawdling, the spotted dog barked a few more times. Ye Yaodong knew it was urging him on, so he quickly stepped forward to follow. Seeing it start running fast again, he ran along too.

It was running toward the intertidal zone, in the direction of the tide. After running about ten meters, the dog stopped, and he stopped with it.

"What's here?"

The spotted dog walked a couple of steps toward the bay beside them, then turned its head and barked at him twice. He followed along to take a look.

"Holy crap, a whole pile of mud snails. Not bad, you're pretty capable — you can even find them in the bay."

"Woof woof~"

"No wonder you had to bring me over. You can't scoop them up yourself. But how am I supposed to pick these? How long would that take? I'll have to go home and get a slotted spoon. Otherwise, if I scrape this whole patch into the bucket, it'll all just be sand."

"I'll have to scoop them up with the slotted spoon, rinse them in seawater to wash the sand off, then fill a bucket of seawater and let them sit and purge the sand. Otherwise there's no way to eat them, pup."

"Woof woof~"

Little Flower couldn't understand what he was saying, but she knew he was calling the dog. A qualified loyal dog has to know how to respond.

Ye Yaodong casually picked up two of them, and the soft flesh on top immediately shrank back a little. He walked over to a small puddle of standing water nearby and rinsed them briefly, looking at how there wasn't much sand inside the transparent shells.

"Letting them purge for about one night should clean them out. Tomorrow we can add to the meal again. But I'll have to go home and get the slotted spoon — that's a bit of a hassle."

If he scraped them all back with the sand and rinsed them with fresh water, they'd be done for. He thought it over — he'd still have to make the trip back himself. But it really was a long stretch. With the tide having gone out now, it was a hundred or two hundred meters from home.

"I'll just leave them here for now. When I've wandered around enough later, I'll go back and get it. You hurry up and go find me some more — see what else there is to pick up. Whatever you've got, bring it. The more the merrier."

The dog stared at him with a blank look — probably because he'd talked too long and it hadn't understood. Ye Yaodong could only repeat himself as best he could, asking it to go look again. Only then did it eagerly turn its head.

Ye Yaodong stood in place and rubbed his chin. "Or I could go back now and get the slotted spoon, and bring a couple more of the dogs from home while I'm at it? This one can go tide-pooling — there's no reason the others can't?"

After thinking it over, he simply lifted his leg and headed toward the shore. Many dogs mean great strength — why should he bother wandering around looking for things himself? Having dogs is enough.

The mountains have hunting dogs, the police station has wolfhounds, and he has country dogs at the seaside that can go tide-pooling!