Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 45

Chapter 45: Dense Clusters on the Reef

Seeing so many shellfish on the reef, everyone became excited again, their previous disappointment instantly vanishing without a trace.

Ye Yaodong was also visibly pleased. The tide had only just started to recede, and when it fully ebbed, even more of the reef’s surface would be exposed.

“Everyone, spread out and get to work.”

After saying this, he didn’t rush to dig, but first searched around the area until he spotted a rock covered with wild small abalones. Only then did he bend down to dig with his screwdriver.

These wild small abalones clinging to the reef were different from those sold in the market, looking completely distinct. They were much smaller, just slightly larger than a one-yuan coin, and oval-shaped with thin shells.

These were his favorite to eat – they could be steamed with scallion oil and golden needles, absolutely delicious.

With just a slight pry of the screwdriver, an entire piece would fall off. He happily caught them in his bucket, prying off the entire patch before continuing his search around the area.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a large cluster of “Buddha’s hands” in the crevices of the nearby reef, densely packed together. These were worth some money too.

“Buddha’s hand,” also called “pen rack,” had the scientific name “turtle foot.” The Song Dynasty’s “Records of Three Mountains” noted, “Named for its shape, with delicious meat in its hollow, the large ones are as big as a palm.”

He first put on gloves to avoid getting cut by the young shells, then reached into the crevice and used the screwdriver to dig them out.

Only after digging out the entire patch of Buddha’s hands did he move on to continue searching, picking up large snails whenever he spotted them.

Among the visible snails on the reef, spicy snails were the most common, along with horseshoe snails, green shrimp snails, sesame snails, and flower snails.

As long as they were big, he took them all.

He focused on digging what could fetch money, prioritizing the valuable ones first, leaving the less valuable sea lettuce, sea cockles, and “cow’s eyes” for later.

He also didn’t pry off the young oysters growing there – he’d deal with those slowly after getting all the valuable ones.

As he searched, he ran into Ah Guang and glanced at his bucket – it had everything, completely indiscriminate, probably digging whatever he saw, with the bucket almost full.

“It’s already full, why not empty it into a bag?”

Ah Guang replied innocently, “I only brought one bucket!”

Ye Yaodong didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “So now that your bucket’s full, you can only sit and watch?”

“I’ll keep collecting for now, but I’m only picking abalones and large snails. I got too excited at first and put everything in the bucket. Now it’s full and I can’t collect more, so I have to be selective.”

Ah Zheng, who was nearby, raised his head and said, “My bucket’s almost full too…”

Fatty, sitting on the reef, sighed, “My bucket’s been full for a while. I’ve been resting for quite some time. Who knew there’d be so much to dig on this lonely island.”

Ye Yaodong was exasperated with them. They had seen him bring gunny sacks yesterday, yet they hadn’t prepared accordingly today.

He secretly felt pleased – fortunately, he had specifically brought two gunny sacks today. Yesterday when coming ashore, he had taken a careful look and seen the dense clusters, figuring there would be plenty of goods, worried one sack wouldn’t be enough.

“I saw you had large bamboo baskets in your bucket this morning, Dong-zi?”

“Yes, and there are two gunny sacks in the bamboo basket. I had my wife prepare them specially today. I told you all yesterday there would definitely be goods on the lonely island, yet you didn’t prepare more. Now look – once your buckets are full, you can just sit and rest on the side. After the tide recedes further, you won’t even need to go beach-combing!”

“How could we have known? Yesterday we just waded through the water to shore without looking carefully, then went back to the boat to get tools.”

Everyone regretted not preparing better. Once their buckets were full, they could only sit on the rocks and watch Ye Yaodong dig.

Ye Yaodong was in high spirits. The reef at the dock hardly had any goods – he had to pick the biggest from among the small ones. But here on the lonely island, everything was densely packed with quality goods, all large in size.

Take the sea lettuce for example – there were two wild varieties, one emerald green and one blackish-purple. The completely black ones in the market were cultivated.

The emerald green ones were each as big as chicken eggs. The blackish-purple sea lettuce had slightly white tops and were a bit smaller, but still quite large.

When his bucket was full, he took it to an empty spot nearby, took out the gunny sack, and filled it with sea lettuce. These things grew in patches and were particularly simple to dig up.

After finishing with the sea lettuce, he dug up “cow’s eyes” nearby, mixing them together – he’d sort them out after getting home.

In their local dialect they called them “cow’s eyes,” though he didn’t know the official name since these couldn’t be cultivated and weren’t seen in the market.

It was also a type of shellfish, like scallops, though the meat wasn’t as large as scallops. The outer shell was round, the color of stone, and made excellent soup when cooked with minced ginger and garlic!

While digging sea lettuce and cow’s eyes, he also dug up sea cockles and collected snails – whatever he saw, he took, putting them in the gunny sack rather than the bucket. Unlike at the start, he didn’t need to be selective anymore.

Only when an entire gunny sack was nearly full did he drag it to the beach, then shook out another sack from the bamboo basket.

“Aren’t you tired, Dong-zi? You really prepared two gunny sacks to fill – why so industrious? Isn’t one sack enough? Want to take a break?” Xiao Xiao lit a cigarette, watching Ye Yaodong busy at work with leisure.

“I have to be industrious – building the house at home needs a lot of money. My eldest and second brothers are out at sea with my father, and all the money they earn goes to building the house. I must also do my part. Getting more seafood to feed the workers can reduce household expenses.”

“Otherwise, I’d have to carry stones and transport sand. If I don’t do anything, my father would break my legs.”

Ah Zheng chuckled: “Heh~ Your father is surely just saying that. How could he not know about your physical limitations? You’ve been beaten plenty growing up, what’s the difference now?”

“That’s not the right way to look at it. My eldest son is already five sui now – as a father, don’t I need to maintain some face? Besides, building a house is a big deal, how could I not care? I definitely need to help out. After the family splits up, I’ll still need to support my own household.”

Xiao Xiao nodded: “That makes sense!”

Ah Zheng eagerly continued: “Since we’re just sitting around anyway, why don’t we come help you tomorrow?”

“In this heat…”

“It’s fine, we’ll just help out a bit.”

Ye Yaodong thought for a moment. “How about I go back and check if they have enough workers? If not, then you can come help.”

“Even if they have enough people, we can still help. We won’t need wages, just meals.”

“Alright then, I’ll definitely provide meals. It’s up to you – come if you’re free, don’t worry if you’re not.”

As they talked, he had already pried off half a sack of young oysters. He didn’t have time to open the oysters now, so he just dug up the entire young oysters and threw them in the gunny sack – the women at home could slowly open them later.

“Could you help me carry that gunny sack onto the boat first?”

“Sure!”

But after carrying the sack onto the boat, they realized they had done something stupid!