Chapter 442: As Expected

The fishing boat arrived at Shuangzi Dao.

The wind was a bit strong.

The fishing boat rocked heavily; although the weather was fine, it still had some impact on the work.

Fortunately, the boat had a decent catch, so with its large load it was actually more stable in this weather, just that its speed was slower.

Wu An checked the time; it was almost eight o'clock.

A Qing grabbed the binoculars and shouted that he had found the float.

Lao Fu Tou stopped the boat.

Wu An used a hook to pull the float up, wound the rope onto the winch, and as he pressed the switch, the winch operated, slowly lifting the crab pot.

Wu An watched the winch work, and there was no sign of strain or stalling.

The crab pot was lifted smoothly.

"It's out of the water."

A Qing shouted happily.

He stared at it.

Then his smile stiffened, he scratched his head and said, "Strange, why do I see so many stone crabs in the crab pot?"

"Splash."

He lifted the crab pot, opened it, and dumped all the catch onto the deck; the haul was still considerable, piled into a small mound.

But at a glance, they were all stone crabs.

These are the most common and worthless.

Mei Wu also looked puzzled: "What's going on?"

Lao Fu Tou looked at the two of them with an "I don't understand, I don't accept" expression, and laughed in exasperation: "What's up, what's up?"

"Even so many stone crabs can be sold for money."

"You've had too many good days; you don't know what hard times are like, right?"

He lectured the two kids like that.

Actually, he himself was a bit unaccustomed.

Since he came to work on Wu An's boat, whenever he lowered the crab pot, even the poorest hauls were mostly flower crabs and pipi shrimp.

A crab pot full of stone crabs is indeed rare.

But even so, it's pretty good!

Many fishing boats toss crab pots into the sea, most just hoping for a lucky break; even for those who specialize in setting crab pots, it's common to leave them in the sea for days and pull them up to find nothing.

As long as the pot isn't empty, it's a profit!

As Brother Benshan would say, what more do you need, a bicycle?

Wu An wasn't surprised.

From the moment he noticed the crab pot's luck value depleting slowly, he had already predicted this situation; only low-value catches like stone crabs cause the luck value to drop slowly.

He rummaged a bit and said, "There are also some pipi shrimp; don't just stand there, hurry up and sort them."

The shrimp crabs are actually fine.

They're mainly vigorous, easy to keep alive, needing only simple handling to survive until the boat returns to shore.

Mei Wu crouched down, gloved hand rummaging, saw a large pipi shrimp, picked it up and said, "Huh, this pipi shrimp is kinda pretty."

"This big."

"And quite rare."

A Qing glanced at it, then quickly showed off: "This one, I know, it's called a zebra pipi shrimp."

Lao Fu Tou saw it and jumped: "A Wu, be careful."

"Did you see that big pincer?"

"If a pipi shrimp attacks you, even wearing gloves you could get hurt."

He said while speaking.

He walked over, carefully took the pipi shrimp from Mei Wu's hand, then used tweezers to pull out its pair of scythe-like pincers.

Mei Wu asked, "Is it that formidable?"

Lao Fu Tou nodded and said, "I have a friend who almost lost his finger after being injured by this zebra pipi shrimp."

Wu An glanced at Lao Fu Tou, thinking, You'd better really have such a friend, and seeing Mei Wu still doubtful, he said, "Lao Fu isn't bluffing you."

"These two large scythes are grasping feet; grasping feet can be piercing or crushing types, and this one is piercing—doesn't it look a lot like a mantis, right?"

Mei Wu nodded.

Wu An continued, "Pipi shrimp are aggressive, feeding mainly on various shellfish, crabs, sea urchins, etc.; looking at this stone crab with its shell broken, it's probably the pipi shrimp's prey."

"Pipi shrimp are the top predators in the beach ecosystem, also known as the fearless hunters of the sea; they prey on any creature they encounter, and even when attacked by larger fish, they never flee and fight to the end."

Mei Wu suddenly realized: "This thing is that fierce?"

A Qing shouted, "Brother, you know so much!"

Wu An smiled: "Thanks to Baidu."

In the internet age, you can search anything; he had also looked it up after previously catching many pipi shrimp with A Qing, only then realizing how dangerous pipi shrimp really are.

Back then, neither he nor A Qing got injured, probably thanks to the luck value boosted on their gloves and tools at the time.

Otherwise.

I'm afraid the money earned from selling seafood would all turn into medical fees.

So, those who don't understand the sea or don't know how to forage on the shore must be extra careful by the coast—who knows who's the prey and who's the hunter?

Lao Fu Tou fetched scissors, cut off the zebra pipi shrimp's large scythe, and then placed it into the fish basket.

Soon A Qing again pulled out one and said, 'This mantis shrimp isn't very big, but why is it all yellow?'

After Lao Fu Tou saw it, his face lit up with joy, and he said, 'This zebra mantis shrimp counts as top-grade; look at this…… it's full of roe.'

A Qing asked, 'Is it that expensive?'

Lao Fu Tou said, 'It's quite expensive.'

A Qing immediately became energetic, but after rummaging through the entire catch of the first row of crab pots, he only found two top-grade zebra mantis shrimp.

Originally, mantis shrimp are relatively scarce, and this top-grade kind can be said to be one in ten thousand.

Since most of the catch in the crab pots are stone crabs, there's no need to tie them up; after sorting, they simply throw the stone crabs directly into the fish basket.

This also greatly boosts their work efficiency.

Next.

Wu An is responsible for hauling up the crab pots, Mei Wu and A Qing handle the sorting, while Lao Fu Tou is mobile, besides steering the boat he also helps with sorting.

The haul from the crab pots is still not bad.

Each row of crab pots hauled up yields several dozen catties of stone crabs; as for mantis shrimp, the more abundant catches have over a dozen, while the scarcer ones still have six or seven.

Even if stone crabs aren't valuable, being able to harvest this much still puts smiles on everyone's faces.

When the crab pots were half-full, seeing the catch piled up like a small hill on the deck, Wu An said, 'Fortunately most of it is stone crabs; otherwise just handling the crab pots could have kept us busy all day.'

He stopped the winch and crouched down to sort.

There's still a shortage of manpower.

Now the operational tools on the boat are actually far more than what the few of them can handle.

That's because Wu An's wages are high, which is why everyone works so enthusiastically.

A Qing suddenly shouted, 'Ouch!'

'Sweet Rain Mother, I almost got caught.'

Wu An asked, 'What's wrong?'

A Qing slapped the mantis shrimp and said, 'Good thing I reacted quickly, otherwise I would have been caught by it—its large pincer stabbed into the deck and couldn't be pulled out.'

Mei Wu went over to look, and was also startled.

The pincer had penetrated deep into the deck, and this is treated wood.

If A Qing hadn't dodged in time, his fingers might have been pierced through.

Lao Fu Tou told them to be more careful.

Wu An quietly bestowed a Luck Boost on their gloves to ensure safety as much as possible.

Today's Luck Value is low, only 201 points.

Throwing the crab pots into the sea can easily clear the day's Luck Value.