Chapter 166: Want to try my cooking?

Wu An just wanted to dig casually, but he still ended up finding something good.

He held it in his hand and took a look.

He felt somewhat surprised.

He actually dug up a sandworm.

"Wow, a sandworm." Gu Anran looked surprised: "Can you still dig these up nowadays?"

Wu An casually poked the sand shovel down, then lifted, then scraped, and another sandworm was in his hand, still slightly wriggling.

It was a bit longer than his middle finger, about eight or nine centimeters, not very yellow nor very black, the color rather pale.

At first glance, it still looked a bit unsightly.

This thing is tasty; coated in flour and fried, even the kids next door would drool.

Besides frying, it can also be boiled into soup; any way you prepare it, it's delicious.

Of course, the premise is that one can eat it; the locals here naturally can, but if an out-of-town friend came, even knowing it's tasty and nutritious, seeing its appearance might still make them unable to stomach it.

This thing is just like a big earthworm.

It's also called a "sea earthworm."

Gu Anran quickly had him toss it into the bucket, glanced left and right, saw no one paying attention, then breathed a sigh of relief: "Don't be so conspicuous."

Wu An nodded.

Just now, he and Gu Anran exchanged a few loving glances for no reason, scattering dog food indiscriminately, which ended up creating a sort of "vacuum zone," which wasn't actually a bad thing.

He asked: "What price can this fetch now?"

Gu Anran thought for a moment and said: "Probably around one or two hundred per catty."

"I'm not exactly sure either; it's been a long time since we last dug any up."

"These days they're becoming increasingly rare."

Wu An nodded.

Sandworms are highly sensitive to the environment; if things are even slightly off, they'll flee, and in polluted sea areas you simply cannot see sandworms.

The fact that they can still dig sandworms here shows the environment is still decent.

Gu Anran also dug a couple of shovelfuls around, found sandworms, held them up for Wu An to see; the ones she dug out were quite long, about fifteen or sixteen centimeters.

Gu Anran was delighted: "So long, truly rare."

Wu An nodded, holding back the words "still not as long as mine" that almost slipped out; they rose to his throat, but he forced them back down.

One really shouldn't say that.

Although he and Gu Anran already had some tacit understanding, they hadn't yet completely pierced the window paper; it wasn't the time for "you know my length, I know your depth," and saying such things would do more harm than good.

Men, huh.

This damned competitive spirit.

What are you competing with a sandworm for?

Wu An harshly criticized himself in his heart, then waved at the retreating A Qing.

A Qing saw it, waved back, then lowered his head and resumed digging.

You think I'm playing with you?

Wu An was speechless.

After a while, A Qing looked up again, saw Wu An waving, realized something was up, grabbed his bucket and hurried over; seeing the sandworm in Wu An's hand, his mouth fell open wide enough to fit an egg.

Wu An was quick-eyed and quick-handed.

He knew all too well what A Qing was about to do.

He quickly reached out and covered A Qing's mouth, stifling his exclamation in his throat.

A Qing choked for a moment, pried Wu An's hand away, squatted down and went "ahh ahh" retching; Wu An saw A Qing's strong reaction, also sniffed, and the hand that had grabbed the sandworm smelled a bit strong.

"No more nonsense, hurry up and dig; who knows when someone might come by, and then we three won't be able to outcompete others." Wu An said quietly.

A Qing nodded repeatedly, saying: "We need to hurry; the tide will be coming in soon."

The mud and sand aren't that easy to dig.

Moreover, there are occasionally small reefs around here.

But no matter how tough the digging, they can't resist the lure of sandworms.

Sandworms at one or two hundred per catty—if they dug a bucketful, it would earn more than going out to sea by boat.

They dug away with a clatter.

Sweating profusely from exhaustion, after digging for over half an hour, Wu An noticed the luck value on his sand shovel had hit bottom.

There's nothing to be done.

Sandworms are high-value, so they consume more luck value.

It's estimated that once the luck value drops, sandworms won't be as easy to find; even with luck value bonuses, you'd need several shovel strikes before discovering one.

At that moment.

Aunt Gu came over, saw them digging sandworms, was startled, then quietly came over to dig as well, and she and Wu An exchanged a smile—everything was understood without words.

Aunt Gu dug while asking: "How much have we dug?"

Wu An casually replied: "Not much, about half a bucket."

A Qing also chimed in: "Yeah, it's hard to dig; I estimate at most I could dig twenty or thirty catties."

"Brother, you probably dug more than me, right?"

Wu An casually said: "Not much more than you."

Aunt Gu widened her eyes, thinking these youngsters have big attitudes—disdaining twenty or thirty catties, yet even selling to a stall vendor would surely net four or five thousand.

This is no comparison to screwing bolts in a factory—makes no sense.

Gu Damu just complained in her heart, and already she was holding a sand shovel and started digging.

Gu Anran said, "Stop chatting, hurry up and dig—don't you see people already coming? In a moment there will definitely be more."

Gu Damu felt a bit uneasy in her heart.

Then should I go?

As the saying goes, a married daughter is like spilled water—she has no daughter, the two families are close, and on top of that Gu Anran's parents died early; she also likes this well‑behaved, sensible girl, so she treats Gu Anran as her own child. The result is that Gu Anran is now obviously siding with outsiders.

A grown daughter shouldn't be kept at home!

Gu Damu walked over, and within a few minutes someone else came over, saw them digging sandworms, immediately called friends, and a crowd rushed over.

At that moment.

Wu An was also drenched in sweat from digging; as for his Luck Value, it had long been exhausted—just digging now, his efficiency at finding sandworms had clearly dropped.

"Not digging anymore."

"There are too many people; let's stop."

A Qing also stopped here, complaining, "These old women are too quick—there's no way we can beat them."

Gu Anran gently wiped the sweat from her face with a towel, took out the large water cup placed to the side, which was full of water, took a big gulp herself without touching the rim, finished drinking, then handed it to Wu An: "You didn't bring a water cup."

Wu An gave a hehe laugh: "Definitely next time."

Gu Anran gave her a roll of the eyes.

The two grew ever closer, and Gu Anran's every frown and smile became more frequent.

After Wu An drank the water, he passed it to A Qing; A Qing did the same, but not very skillfully, soaking a large part of her clothes.

The three rested a moment, then picked up their buckets and walked toward the main road.

At that moment the sun was slanting westward.

Evening had arrived.

A Qing rubbed her growling stomach and said, "Brother, I'm hungry—let's get something tasty to eat tonight."

Home‑cooked meals are tasty, but eating them every day naturally gets boring.

Wu An thought it had been days since they'd had late‑night barbecue and drinks, nodded, and said, "Sure, let me think what to get for tonight."

"In a bit, go first to Lao Jiang's place and get a case of chilled beer."

Gu Anran interjected, "Want to try my cooking?"

Wu An's eyes lit up: "Can you come out tonight?"

Gu Anran hesitated a moment, then said, "I can, but not too late."