Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 54

Chapter 54: Collecting Seafood on a Typhoon Day

“We need to bring sacks?”

“Is there that much to collect?”

Lin Xiuqing followed Ye Yaodong to the seaside with some skepticism. The tide had just receded a little, and watching the waves rolling in layer by layer from afar was quite a spectacular sight.

In her five years since marriage, she had never come to the shore during a typhoon – she was either pregnant or busy taking care of children.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? Our beach here is quite pretty.”

Though it was a typhoon day, the seawater was just a bit yellower than usual.

“Weren’t we supposed to check if there’s anything to collect? Let’s hurry down, we should head back early. Who knows when it might start pouring?” she said as she walked down towards the beach.

Ye Yaodong shook his head watching her back – no sense of romance!

“Ah, there really is something to collect!” Lin Xiuqing had just stepped onto the beach when she spotted a huge clam by her feet, pleasantly surprised.

He quickened his pace to catch up, “See? I wasn’t lying! There really are things to collect!”

Lin Xiuqing gave him a side-eye, “It’s not worth much money though, coming out specially during a typhoon to collect these. If only there were valuable things for me to collect.”

“Let’s see if we can find anything better later. With waves this big, there’s bound to be some seafood washed ashore.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Walking a few steps forward, she found another large clam. Lin Xiuqing’s face lit up with joy – this was different from crouching down and laboriously digging for small clams. These required no digging, and they were five or six times larger than regular clams. The feeling of just walking around and finding things to collect was wonderful.

Ye Yaodong also bent down to pick one up, “Look, I found one too, though it’s not as big as your two.”

“Are clams the only thing we can collect?”

“Let’s walk around and see.”

From his experience, during typhoons when the waves were high, seafood would likely be washed up and stranded on the beach. That’s why he didn’t mind the typhoon weather and brought her out right after the tide receded.

“F-fish… fish… fish…” Lin Xiuqing excitedly tugged at his sleeve, pointing toward the waves ahead, “Over there…”

Ye Yaodong looked where she was pointing and saw a stupid mullet being tossed out of the water by the waves. After the wave retreated, the mullet was left stranded on the beach, still flopping around.

Lin Xiuqing quickly stuffed the clams into his arms and ran forward to try to catch the fish, but it was too slippery – even when she managed to grab it, it kept slipping away.

Just then, another wave was about to crash in. Ye Yaodong stuffed the clams into his pocket, quickly kicked the fish further up the beach, and wrapped his wife in his arms, using his back to shield her from the wave.

A large wave crashed against his back, soaking him to the bone. Seawater dripped from his forehead, while Lin Xiuqing, protected in his embrace, stayed mostly dry except for the drops of seawater that fell from his head onto her face.

Lin Xiuqing blinked her eyes, looking at him with concern, “Are you okay? Why did you… why did you shield me from the wave? You’re soaked through, let’s go back and change your clothes…”

He wiped the seawater from his face and said carelessly, “It’s fine, I’ll just take it off. Did you get that mullet? Looks about five or six jin (2.5-3kg). Let’s take it back – we can salt half and make fish soup with the other half for lunch.”

“Oh, okay okay.”

Actually, this fish’s scientific name was herring, but locals called it the “stupid fish” or “idiot fish.” It was very cheap – in later years, villagers would buy it at the dock for 5 yuan per jin, outsiders for 8 yuan per jin, but now it probably cost only 4-5 fen.

As for why it was called the stupid fish – it was simply because it was stupid!

There was no fish stupider than this one.

When fishing boats were sailing on the sea, these fish would often deliver themselves, jumping onto the deck, providing an extra meal for the fishermen.

This happened so frequently that local fishermen just called them stupid fish.

Lin Xiuqing tried to grab it several times but failed, each time getting slapped by its tail as it fell back onto the beach.

“You’re so clumsy!”

Ye Yaodong took out the sack from his pocket, shook it open towards the fish, then kicked it once and it went straight into the sack. He also tossed in the few clams.

“If I’d known earlier, we should have brought a bucket. Won’t it die in the sack?”

“We’ll kill it as soon as we get back anyway, so it doesn’t matter. Unless you want to carry a bucket of water? Wouldn’t that be heavy? It’s not worth much anyway, let’s go.”

“Alright.”

They hadn’t walked two steps when Ye Yaodong’s sharp eyes caught sight of a golden tail peeking out from beside a rock. He pulled his wife’s attention, “Look here…”

Lin Xiuqing immediately spotted it too, “Ah, it’s a pomfret! Such a big one!”

“Yeah, a golden pomfret! Quite sizeable, over a jin (500g). Too bad it’s not a white pomfret – those taste better!” As he spoke, he bent down to check its gills – they were bright red, indicating it was still fresh, just recently dead. Worth taking.

Golden pomfrets looked better than white pomfrets, but they were all show and no substance.

White pomfrets had more delicate and tender meat, while golden pomfrets were relatively coarser and thicker. However, white pomfrets were usually smaller, normally under one jin, while golden pomfrets were usually over one jin or even larger.

When white pomfrets exceeded 0.6 jin, their price would double, reaching over 120 yuan during the fishing moratorium period.

Lin Xiuqing was happy with any catch, not picky about whether it was golden or white pomfret. After all, they had just received a large sum of money, so any seafood they collected that could be sold was good, and even the less valuable ones could be kept for themselves – they wouldn’t lose either way.

“Coming out during a typhoon really does yield something. If I’d known earlier, we could have called First Sister-in-law and Second Sister-in-law to come too.”

Ye Yaodong pursed his lips – what would be the point of calling them?

To be third wheels?

It was rare for them as a couple to have a leisurely outing like this. Since his reincarnation, they hadn’t had such a relaxed time alone together. He hadn’t planned to invite anyone else from the start.

“Let’s go down further, the tide has receded a bit more.”

Just as he was about to follow the tide down, he noticed ripples in a small pool under the rock where they found the white pomfret. “Wait… let me move this rock and check.”

“Is there something?”

“Possibly. Right after the tide goes out, these low-lying areas with rocks are more likely to have stranded seafood.”

Lin Xiuqing also crouched down curiously to watch him move the rock.

“Ah, it’s a small blue crab.”

Ye Yaodong saw it too – it really was small, probably not even half a jin, but at least it was a blue crab, better than a rock crab.

“Dare to catch it?”

“No, I’m afraid of its big claws.”

“Just grab it by the back, it can’t bite you there.”

He suddenly thrust it towards her face, startling her so much that she fell back onto the sand. “What are you doing!”

“Just teasing you.”

Lin Xiuqing glared at him, patted the sand off her bottom, and walked ahead without acknowledging him.

Ye Yaodong quickly tossed the crab into the sack and caught up with her.

“Hehe, are you angry?”

“No, let’s hurry and look around. The sky’s getting darker again, it might rain any minute.”

The couple followed the tide, frequently bending down on the beach – there were clams everywhere, each bigger than the last. The collecting was incredibly satisfying.

Often, they would barely finish picking up one clam and throwing it in the sack when another wave would wash up, bringing more clams that tumbled on the beach. If they were too slow, the clams might roll back into the sea with the retreating water.