Chapter 83: Seafood from Hell

The four of them happily got back on the small boat, full of energy. Sure enough, having money coming in was the best way to motivate.

"Dongzi, let me see the receipt," Ah Guang said, rubbing his hands with a smile. "How much money can we each split from 478 yuan?"

"I don't know. There must be over 100. Let my wife calculate it when we get back."

Xiao Xiao said laughingly, "Those who didn't come will probably slap their thighs in regret again."

"It's good they didn't come. Why have so many people? We'll just split it ourselves. Fewer people means more to split."

"Exactly."

Ye Yaodong said while rowing, "When you get back, you can just use this money to team up and get a boat."

Ah Guang smiled and folded the receipt back into Ye Yaodong's pocket. "Sure, seeing you make a fortune on your first trip out with a small boat makes me envious. Anyway, I have nothing to do lying at home all day. The three of us will team up and get a boat to try."

Ah Zheng nodded happily, as if he had already seen his mother praising him for being promising.

Xiao Xiao had no objections either. It was good to have something to do.

The small boat slowly headed toward the isolated island again. After working for so long, it was only noon.

As soon as they got off the boat, they weren't in a hurry to forage. Instead, they found a pile of dry branches, planning to roast a few sea turtle eggs to eat and pad their stomachs.

Ye Yaodong went to dig up a pile of mud, planning to wrap the sea turtle eggs in mud and throw them into the fire to roast.

This could also be considered a memory of their childhood. When they were young, they often stole eggs from home and roasted them outside to eat. It was incredibly fragrant.

"Wrap as many as you want to eat!"

"Sigh, it's been a few years since I've eaten like this."

"It's just right to let you recall it today!"

"I wonder if roasted turtle eggs taste better than chicken eggs?"

"They're sea turtle eggs, okay? Wrap them in mud first, and you'll know after roasting."

After each of them wrapped four or five sea turtle eggs and threw them into the fire, they used branches to stir the fire and turn the eggs. Fortunately, they all smoked and carried matchboxes with them.

Sitting on the beach, blowing the salty sea breeze, it would be even better if the sun wasn't so strong!

The four of them sat on the beach, chatting and waiting for the sea turtle eggs to roast, looking quite comfortable.

The fire in the pile burned more and more vigorously. After waiting for about 15 minutes, the mud was completely dry, and the sea turtle eggs were almost cooked.

They stirred the sea turtle eggs out and went to the beach to get a bucket of seawater to extinguish the fire.

"It smells quite fragrant. I haven't eaten sea turtle eggs before."

"It strengthens the yang and nourishes the kidneys, eat more!"

Xiao Xiao rolled his eyes. "You're about to be a groom, you should eat more. I'm not weak!"

Listening to them bickering, Ye Yaodong pried off the mud on the outside of the turtle eggs. Because he was afraid of being burned, he weighed them in his hands before peeling off a little bit of the eggshell and sucking directly.

He hadn't eaten roasted eggs like this for many, many years.

"Hmm... why won't it solidify? It's not cooked?" Xiao Xiao looked at the milky egg white in surprise and quickly took a suck, not wanting to waste it.

"No way, it's been roasted for so long, the mud is dry, and it's not cooked?"

Ah Zheng didn't believe it and hurriedly peeled the eggshell in his hand. As a result, the liquid flowed everywhere. He hurriedly leaned over to suck it. He didn't expect it really wouldn't solidify.

Ah Guang looked at the sea turtle egg in his hand and then at the soaked fire pile on the ground. "We just extinguished the fire, and it would be too troublesome to start it again. Just drink it. It can be eaten half-cooked."

Ye Yaodong had just sucked a big mouthful of egg white and looked at the three bumpkins with contempt. "Sea turtle eggs don't solidify in the first place. Even after being boiled, they will be in a liquid state. Only the egg yolk inside will solidify. Let me show you."

He handed the sea turtle egg he had sucked a big mouthful of egg white from to them to look at, and they finally believed it.

"Damn, it really is the egg yolk that solidifies, and the egg white doesn't. We thought it wasn't cooked."

"Knowledge increased!"

"How did you know, Dongzi?"

"Isn't it because I'm more knowledgeable than you guys!"

"Cut it out~" After everyone booed with disdain, they ate big mouthfuls. It was noon, and they were all hungry.

While eating, Ye Yaodong said, "I heard that turtle eggs belong to one of the eight treasures among mountain and sea delicacies."

"No way? Just this?"

"Then aren't our sea turtle eggs rarer than turtle eggs?"

"They're the same category, right?"

"Can things from the sea and things from the ground be the same category?"

A debate unfolded again...

Ye Yaodong ate five sea turtle eggs in a row, then patted his butt and stood up to pick up the bucket to work, not caring about these three idiots!

"Ah, Dongzi, so fast?"

"Fast your sister!"

Seeing him finish so quickly, everyone wolfed them down, stuffed them in one mouthful, and followed with buckets and tools.

"Don't follow me, spread out, find your own."

"Following you means there's stuff to pick up."

"Follow me to eat farts? If there is, it's mine. What are you picking up?"

"That's true too. Then give us a hint!"

"Get lost~"

Sigh~ Dongzi wouldn't cooperate, so they could only spread out and find their own.

Without the tag-alongs, Ye Yaodong felt comfortable. He specifically looked in the shallow water area. Before long, half the bucket was full. They weren't valuable goods, but he was content. He had just gotten big cargo, so these would be considered light porridge and side dishes.

After wandering around, just as he was planning to change places, he saw many bubble holes on the beach under his feet. He tried to dig with his hand but didn't dig out any sand clams. He pondered that it was probably razor clams again. Fortunately, he was well-prepared this time.

The bucket was also half full, just in time to go back and change to an empty bucket, and by the way, get some salt.

After returning here again, he scraped off a layer of sand from the surface of the beach, and the exposed bubble holes were even more obvious. He opened the small jar of salt, sprinkled a little in each hole, and sprinkled it over.

Before long, the razor clams in the bubble holes emerged one after another, standing straight.

Ye Yaodong happily pulled them out one by one, clutching a full handful. "This method is still the most efficient!"

Such a large area had the same bubble holes. He operated with the same method and pulled out all the razor clams in this small area. It was simply too effortless and satisfying. It didn't take ten minutes to pull out five or six jin.

He shook the water bucket, planning to change places to see if there were any valuable goods.

But he didn't expect that just as he walked to the edge of the large reef, he saw a snake wriggling in the water!

His pupils shrank, he couldn't help but swallow, hurriedly retreated a few steps, and shouted in a pinched voice, "Ah Guang, Ah Guang, hurry up!"

"What's the matter? Did you find something good again?"

As soon as Ah Guang heard his call, he ran over excitedly. The others also ran over curiously, but when they saw it, "So it's a sea snake! You coward, you don't even dare to catch this?"

"You come, you come. I can't do this thing. You're the expert at catching snakes."

"Watch me, everyone will have an extra meal tonight!"

"This one is over a meter long!"

"Be careful, this sea snake is very poisonous."

"It's fine, what are fire tongs for? I don't need to use my hands directly."

Just as his voice fell, the fire tongs in his hand directly clamped the head of the sea snake, and its body twisted and struggled randomly.

"Take a sack to load it."

"It looks really creepy. Just smash the snake's head and kill it. Everyone didn't bring many extra sacks, no need to waste them for this snake."

"That works too, anyway, we'll stew it when we take it back."

After killing the sea snake, Ah Guang simply processed it, then put it on the small boat and went to the small island to pick a banana leaf to cover it.

"There are many banana trees growing on this small island."

"Are there bananas?" Ye Yaodong looked up and peered, but he didn't walk up and couldn't see.

"Yes, quite a lot, but they are too high, hard to pick, and not ripe enough, forget it."

"Come again next month."

Ah Guang said indifferently, "Just bananas, there are plenty on the back mountain. Next month we'll go to the mountain and pick them at will."

Next month he could pick them. Picking some back to ripen would be just right. There were many children at home, how could they not be greedy? His wife quite liked eating bananas.

Ye Yaodong still had lingering fears about that sea snake, so he simply changed his position. He didn't expect that under a reef, in a place with a little accumulated water, a super large mud crab was actually hiding!

"Holy crap, this is at least three jin!"

He was pleasantly surprised. This could be considered a mud crab king, right? Such a large wild mud crab, only this era had it, right?

"What three jin? What big cargo did you find again?"

Ye Yaodong held its back shell with both hands and held it high for everyone to see. "Mud crab, big mud crab, I've never seen such a big mud crab. Its shell is bigger than my face. This is definitely a mud crab king."

"Holy crap..."

Suddenly, the three of them cursed like this. They had never seen such a big mud crab either!

Ye Yaodong happily put the big mud crab back into the water bucket, but didn't expect its big pincers to directly clamp the edge of the water bucket, and it couldn't be put in no matter what.

Afraid of breaking its big pincers, he had to carefully remove it and put it into the bucket, but felt the bucket was a bit small. The mud crab could only be tilted and stand in the bucket, its legs moving constantly, wanting to crawl out.

He touched the sack in his pocket. Better to load it into the sack first. If it wasn't enough to load later, he would just empty the sack.

So he hadn't found any good cargo before because it was waiting for him here.

Following this big mud crab, Ye Yaodong found three more flower crabs in succession, each over half a jin. He was happy in his heart. This was much better than stone crabs.

The shallow water area on the reef side had the most various crabs and stone rockfish. After getting cargo one after another, he simply carried two buckets in his hands, one bucket for stone rockfish and miscellaneous goods, and one bucket for various crabs!

He kept his head down, and his neck was sore. Occasionally he needed to lift his head and twist it. As a result, as soon as he lifted his head, he saw clusters of goose barnacles in the crevices of the steep slope above.

Huh? There are goose barnacles here too?

He was surprised, so he hurriedly put down the bucket in his hand, not planning to waste time on the beach anymore. He took out the sack, planning to put this piece of goose barnacles into his pocket first.

The scientific name of goose barnacles is gooseneck barnacles, but they have the reputation of "seafood from hell." In later generations, they were popular in European countries, and many places had them, but they hadn't seen them on the reefs near their pier.

They grow on the reefs in the high-tide zone of the intertidal zone that are beaten by waves all year round. Under such a living environment, they also make them taste sweet and have high trace elements.

In their sea area, they had only seen Buddha's hands/pen holders. The two look very similar, but they are not the same thing. It is indeed easy to confuse them the first time you see them, but if you observe carefully, you will find that gooseneck barnacles have a slender stem, like a swan's neck, so they are called gooseneck barnacles.

Buddha's hands/pen holders have stems, but they are very short, and the color is green. Therefore, if you observe carefully, Buddha's hand snails and gooseneck barnacles are still very easy to distinguish.

It's rare to see them here, so he definitely couldn't let them go.

Growing in the crevices of the reef is not easy to pick, but no matter how difficult, he had to pick them down.

After picking this small piece, Ye Yaodong was not in a hurry to dig others, but first looked for this goose barnacle. This is worth 200 euros a jin, which is about 1500 yuan in RMB.

Higher quality goose barnacles can even sell for 4000-5000.

Now... hehe...

Find it first and see. If it's not valuable in this era, then it's not a loss to keep it for yourself to eat. Let him taste what is called seafood from hell?

Seeing clusters of Buddha's hands on the rocks, he also distinguished them. Laymen think they are the same.

In order not to confuse them, he planned to pack them separately later, otherwise, just picking them would take half a day.

If the number of goose barnacles is small, it can be poured into the bucket with sea turtle eggs and packed together.

But after searching on the surrounding reefs for a long time, he only picked about five or six jin. Others were curious about what he was looking for and looked at his sack.

Ah Guang asked, "Are you looking for Buddha's hands? Isn't this whole piece Buddha's hands?"

"Who told you this is Buddha's hands? Go, go, go, you dig yours."

"Isn't what's in your sack Buddha's hands?"

"Goose barnacles, have you heard of them?"

"What kind of mess is that?"

"I told you, you don't understand."

"Cut it out~ I've dug almost a sack!" Ah Guang shook his sack, a little proud. It was rare that his harvest was more than Dongzi's today.

"Work hard, I have 5 sacks. When you fill yours, help me fill mine!"

Ah Guang widened his eyes. "Holy crap, I have to help you dig too."

"Not just you, when you three fill your own sacks, you all have to help me dig! You still have to count on me to row the boat back!"

Xiao Xiao and Ah Zheng also twisted their bodies and glared at Ye Yaodong. So that was the idea!

No wonder he wasn't in a hurry and had been wandering there!

"You're going too far. We only brought 2 sacks each, and you, you brought 5 and were still wandering around aimlessly. You aimed to catch us as strong laborers!"

Infuriating!

Ye Yaodong laughed meanly. "What's wrong? I just want you to be strong laborers. Tell me if you're doing it or not!"

"Do it! I'll do you to death!"

He slowly took out the receipt of the goods sold earlier from his pocket and blew on it. "Over 400, yo~"

Xiao Xiao immediately filled his face with smiles. "Oh, it's just 5 sacks. There are four of us. Let's all lend a hand, and it will be full in no time. What's difficult about this?"

Ah Zheng also patted his chest to guarantee, "It's just 5 sacks, it will definitely be full before the tide rises."

Ah Guang looked at the receipt in his hand with resentment. "Sigh~ Under the eaves, one has to bow one's head~"

"Haha, just know it. You forced me to bring out the trump card!"

Ye Yaodong triumphantly put away the receipt and also seized the time to dig. If he delayed any longer, it wouldn't be full when the tide rose. ===== CHAPTER 84 =====