Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Sea Centipedes

Xiao Xiao slapped his forehead, “Damn… aren’t we stupid? We could have just emptied the buckets directly onto the boat! Then we could have kept collecting!”

Ah Zheng also had a sudden realization, “That’s right! Empty them onto the boat, everyone can put their stuff in different corners, and we can put them in gunny sacks when we get back.”

“Damn, pig brains… we all just sat there watching Dong-zi dig by himself for so long.”

“Let’s go, let’s go collect more. The boat fee and fuel costs are so expensive, we can’t waste this trip!”

When they went back to tell Fatty and Chen Wei about it, both of them finally realized too, and quickly went to empty their buckets onto the boat so they could continue collecting.

Ye Yaodong looked at them helplessly. As long as he filled his two gunny sacks, it would be fine. If not washed, these shellfish should last two or three days in a cool place.

If it weren’t for having to feed the workers, he wouldn’t have collected so much. After all, without a refrigerator, collecting too much would just lead to spoilage. What he had collected was enough for now.

After filling a gunny sack with young oysters, it was his turn to sit and rest while watching them work.

Because no one had ever come to the lonely island, the shellfish attached to the reefs were still abundant. He couldn’t possibly pry everything off by himself, and they still found plenty to collect when they went back.

After sunbathing for a while and eating two corn cobs he’d brought along, seeing that the tide had receded exposing most of the surrounding reefs, he picked up his large bamboo basket and fire tongs and called out to everyone bent over the reefs: “Comrades, the tide has gone down, I’m going treasure hunting. You all continue digging!”

“Damn, we can barely keep up with the digging!”

“I’ll dig a bit more. If you find anything good, give us a shout and I’ll come down.”

“Alright, I’ll tell you after I’ve collected all the big stuff.” Ye Yaodong chuckled and rolled up his pants to start searching in the shallow water.

“Damn, I’m done digging, I’m going down to look around too.” Ah Zheng grabbed his half-full bucket and jumped right down, not even bothering to empty it on the boat, afraid of falling behind. The shellfish on the reef weren’t going anywhere anyway.

Just as he jumped down, he heard Ye Yaodong’s excited voice.

“Damn~ Sea centipedes!”

“What, where? Where are the sea centipedes?”

“There are sea centipedes?”

Everyone ran surprisingly to Ye Yaodong’s side, where they saw the exposed mudflat crawling with dense clusters of sea centipedes.

Sea centipedes, scientifically known as sand worms, are annelids that live in the shallow coastal mudflats of the Southeast. The most terrifying thing about them is that they look like centipedes, but they’re non-poisonous and non-aggressive, with very short legs. They mainly feed on seaweed and sea grass, supplemented by small shrimp and fish.

“Damn, this is too disgusting! So many of them!”

“I’m getting goosebumps!”

A large patch of sea centipedes writhing – anyone with trypophobia would be scared to death!

Fortunately, Ye Yaodong wasn’t afraid of these things. “These are good stuff. Everyone join in, but move quietly when you catch them, don’t let them all burrow into the mudflat.”

“Ah no no no, too disgusting, such a big patch, makes my scalp tingle. I don’t want to.”

“Me neither, I didn’t bring gloves.”

“My eyes are about to go blind, I’ll go look somewhere else, need to wash my eyes.”

“It really is disgusting, since you found them, you go catch them yourself!”

One by one, they all shook their heads and quickly walked away.

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes, “All of you… you want to eat them, but when it comes to catching them, not one of you is willing to reach out.”

“That’s not fair to say, the cooked ones look completely different from these live ones! There are so many, I’m about to throw up looking at them. Anyway, you found them, they’re yours, hurry up and get them!” After speaking, Ah Guang quickly grabbed his bucket and ran off.

Fine, he’d catch them himself. Having them all to himself was even better, though the bamboo basket in his hand wasn’t suitable for holding sea centipedes. He quickly ran back to the boat.

He needed to empty the seafood from his bucket onto the deck to make room for the centipedes. As he walked, he muttered: “How are there so many sea centipedes out? Shouldn’t they be in burrows under the mudflat?”

“Who knows, maybe they’re coming out to mate during these first days of the lunar month.”

Anyway, it was good to have something to catch.

After emptying the bucket and giving it a quick rinse with seawater, he eagerly rushed back to the group of sea centipedes.

Though disgusting, he could handle it. He was wearing gloves anyway, no direct contact.

He grabbed a handful, watching them struggle and writhe, feeling utterly disgusted, and quickly dropped them in the bucket. The surrounding sea centipedes seemed startled and started burrowing into the mud.

Ah, how could he let them escape?

Ye Yaodong sped up to catch all the sea centipedes still on the surface that hadn’t reacted yet. The ones he didn’t catch all burrowed into the mudflat.

Looking at all the small holes on the mudflat surface, he tried probing one. When he felt something, he pulled gently – this required patience and care.

He had to pause after pulling each section, letting the sea centipede’s body contract, before pulling up again. Moving too fast would break them.

After probing just a few holes, he grew impatient to continue. It was too time-consuming, and the bucket was already nearly half full, probably about four or five jin.

He decided to go beach-combing first to see if there were any other good finds, and come back later to slowly catch more if he had time. After all, these things weren’t going anywhere.

After placing the bucket in a shady spot, he took his bamboo basket and fire tongs and ran to Ah Guang, who was closest.

“Found anything good?”

“What do you think? If I’d found anything good, I would have shouted about it already.”

“True enough, looks like nobody’s found any big catches!”

He glanced at Ah Guang’s bucket – a few rock crabs, some small miscellaneous fish. “Maybe you should go dig for shellfish up on the reef, might get more there.”

Ah Guang nodded seriously, “I was thinking the same thing.”

Ye Yaodong gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder, checked where everyone else was, and decided to walk a bit further along the lonely island’s reef edge.

In just the time he’d spent catching sea centipedes, the tide had receded a bit more.

Since he’d had such good luck on the mudflat today, he specifically headed toward areas with mudflats.

After the tide went out, some exposed areas of this lonely island were small sandy beaches, others were mudflats. They didn’t look very clean – each step would sink in, and after just a few steps, he had mud splattered all over his legs.

As he wandered with his fire tongs, he spotted a large blue crab covered in mud, motionless on the mudflat surface, sunbathing?

It was well-camouflaged, its shell covered in mud – he almost missed it without looking carefully. Ye Yaodong pinched it with the fire tongs, and its large claws immediately started waving threateningly.

“Nice, it’s even a female, quite heavy, should have roe. Probably about one and a half jin. Not bad, not bad, almost missed it.”

His luck really was good. He felt there should be more treasures on the mudflat, and just walking around casually he’d already found something.