Chapter 15: Who Goes Gathering at Sea Carrying a Snake Skin Bag?

Wu An's face lit up.

Yesterday at 10:00, the daily luck value already made over two thousand dollars; so today at 18:00, shouldn't we make three or four thousand?

He was actually quite sleepy.

His head felt groggy, but after checking the system, he became fully alert.

Forget about sleeping.

Making money is the most important.

It just so happened that he made money by gathering at sea tonight; tomorrow he'll go to town to buy things, add furniture, buy a door lock, and get some gear for gathering and fishing.

Moreover, he gave away a fish yesterday, but there are three people at home—Father, older brother, and sister-in-law—so it's definitely not enough to eat.

He gathered seafood tonight, and tomorrow he'll send some over.

He dare not say anything else.

From now on, he'll take charge of all the seafood the family eats.

He went back to bed; this old-style bed had a bedside table. He opened it, looked around, and took out a plastic kettle, 5 liters, enough for him and A Qing to replenish water.

A Qing urged: 'Brother, are you done?'

"No rush—sharpening the knife doesn't delay the woodcutter." Wu An then put on his clothes properly; though there's no sun at night, there are mosquitoes and bugs, and if he doesn't wrap up well, he'll surely be covered in bites tomorrow.

He grabbed the bucket and went out.

After just two steps, he went back to get a snake skin bag and stuffed it into the bucket. A Qing saw this and laughed, saying, 'Brother, you're being over the top.'

"We're going to gather at sea, not to go into the sea to stock up."

"Who gathers at sea carrying a snake skin bag?"

Wu An didn't explain either; better safe than sorry.

Each of them had a headlamp, and they swayed slowly toward the beach.

Old Five wasn't far from the sea; they soon reached the sandy beach—a stretch of Yellow Sand Beach with hardly any rocks, quite suitable for gathering.

As soon as they arrived, they saw a few headlamps lit up.

Someone saw the two of them and called out, 'Who?'

Immediately, the light shone toward them.

Wu An cursed: 'Damn, don't shine it in our eyes, or we'll go blind.'

The person holding the light was startled: 'Wu Erzi!'

"Is it you?"

"How did you come here?"

"Hey hey hey, everyone be careful, Wu Erzi is here."

The last sentence was shouted at the others.

Instantly.

The villagers who had been leisurely gathering at sea instantly grew tense; they all turned on their headlamps and shone them over, and a timid one even grabbed his bucket and ran far away.

Wu An: '…'

A person's name, a tree's shadow.

He's pretty impressive too.

At this point, saying anything is useless; they'll just think he's lying.

A Qing scratched his head: 'Brother, what should we do?'

Wu An shrugged: 'Forget it.'

"Let's go to a less crowded place."

Everyone treats him like a thief, so when he and A Qing go gathering later, no one will come near—actually a good thing, letting them make money quietly.

He walked west along the shore.

A Qing was still unhappy; he explained to the crowd that he and his brother had turned over a new leaf, would no longer steal chickens or dogs, and asked everyone to believe him.

As expected, no one believed him; some muttered, 'Whoever believes that is an idiot,' and even though the little voice could have been ignored, they kept shouting loudly so everyone heard, drawing laughter.

A Qing got into a shouting match with someone.

Wu An didn't stop him; anyway, it just costs a bit of saliva, no big deal—he should crown A Qing as the ultimate mouthpiece.

Past Yellow Sand Beach lay Rocky Beach.

During the day, this is where they fish; now the tide has gone out, the submerged rocks are exposed, and if it were daytime, villagers would come here to gather.

There are spicy snails, sea snails, and similar seafood clinging to the rocks—you can grab big handfuls; although they're not worth much, if you're willing to put in the effort, gathering a lot can still make money.

Now it's definitely not possible.

In the middle of the night, if he loses his footing and falls, it'll be much like what happened when he stole fish during the day.

A Qing shouted: 'Brother, someone's fishing!'

Wu An had naturally seen him already; as they passed, the light swept over and he was somewhat surprised: 'Lin Hu, you're really dedicated—coming out to night fish!'

Lin Hu recognized his voice and shouted: 'Even a good-for-nothing like you can crawl out at dawn to gather at sea, so why can't I come night fishing?'

"I've only been here an hour and already caught two yellow-foot croakers."

"Hey, another bite."

"If you agree to fish with me today, I'll lend you my gear—maybe we can even do a linked rod like at noon."

Wu An raised a middle finger, too lazy to bother.

Would Lin Hu really be that kind?

Lending him a fishing rod? He probably just wants a share of the catch.

What Lin Hu said is partly right—if he comes to fish, he can definitely do a linked rod.

But he does not regret his refusal at all.

Different paths, no joint plans.

After passing Rocky Beach, continue forward.

Li Juan said that gathering at sea at night is dangerous, but she wasn't actually referring to Rocky Beach.

But rather the tidal flats.

This is also Wu An's destination for this trip.

Why is it dangerous? Because here the tidal flats are submerged at high tide, and when the tide recedes they leave pools of various sizes that are not fixed and change as the flats wash away sand and mud.

Unfamiliar with the terrain, and it's night; with the rising tide, if not noticed in time, by the time one reacts it may be too late to escape.

Here the tidal flats are all mud, which greatly hinders progress and may even cause one to sink deep and be unable to walk.

Basically, every year there are incidents of people getting stuck in the tidal flats, but thanks to timely rescue, compared to before, fatal incidents have become rare.

Wu An can't worry about all that.

If you're afraid of this and that, you might as well lie at home; even if heaven sent you a lump of gold, you might not be able to catch it and could get smashed in bed.

Seek wealth in danger.

Nowadays, to make some money, what isn't dangerous? Not to mention anything else, in his previous life he delivered takeout, braving wind and rain, riding his bike and running red lights all the time—was that not dangerous?

A Qing held a bucket, looking at a stretch of tidal flats, feeling a bit at a loss.

In his eyes, there was nothing but mud and water—where's any seafood?

He asked: 'Brother, can we get seafood here?'

Wu An walked on; the mud sucked at his feet, the deeper he went the more it sucked, each step sinking a bit, and the next step required considerable effort.

No wonder no villagers come here at night to gather seafood.

It's likely to be hard work with little reward.

He said: 'Let's first have a look.'

Deep blue.

Add point.

Luck Value: 33 (13).

Target: Gathering clamps (+5).

Description: This is a clamp used for gathering seafood; after being imbued with luck, each pinch catches something, and seafood under two catties cannot escape.

Yo, not bad.

It requires more luck value than Lin Hu's fishing rod, indicating this clamp can definitely catch more valuable seafood.

Give it a try.

The headlamp shone down, revealing a small hole; after a slight scrape with the hand, the mouth opened wide, sensing movement inside, he immediately dropped the clamp.

With a 'click', something was caught.

He gave a hard pull.

The seafood in the hole was pulled out; looking under the light, it was a mantis shrimp, not small, about the length of a palm—this is a highly prized seafood.

A mantis shrimp this size should fetch a good price.

Most importantly, mantis shrimp are not solitary; they usually appear in groups.

Wu An was very pleased.

A Qing saw Wu An casually clamp and catch a mantis shrimp, was extremely envious, also tried clamping, but ended up catching nothing.

Wu An said: 'First find the holes.'

'Watch me.'

'Find the hole opening, give it a slight scrape, then drop the clamp.'

After saying that, the clamp closed, a mantis shrimp was pulled out, weakly struggling on the clamp, and he casually tossed it into the bucket.

Wu An: 'You try.'

Speaking, he casually imparted luck value to A Qing's clamp.