Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 56

Chapter 56: The Giant Coconut Snail

Lin Xiuqing quickly ran back, panting as she handed the bucket to Ye Yaodong.

Ye Yaodong took the bucket and filled it with seawater, asking curiously, “Why didn’t mother and the others come with you?”

She blinked and said, “I didn’t tell them.”

Ye Yaodong chuckled softly – she wasn’t stupid after all.

“Didn’t they ask what you needed the bucket for?”

“I rushed in, grabbed the bucket and ran out. They asked from behind, but I didn’t have time to answer.”

“Oh!”

After watching the sea bass being put into the bucket, Lin Xiuqing opened the burlap sack again to check their harvest. It didn’t seem like they had caught much more?

“Didn’t you look around the area? Did you find anything after I left?”

“The big catch is here. Why would I bother going elsewhere? The tide is still going out anyway, no rush. Just leave the bucket here, no need to carry it back and forth. Nobody’s coming out in this typhoon weather anyway.”

She was about to pick up the bucket but hearing this, put it back down. Half a bucket of water was indeed quite heavy to carry.

Ye Yaodong had only walked a few steps when he bent down to grab a rock crab, muttering, “If only I’d asked you to bring the fire tongs earlier, it would’ve been easier to catch crabs.”

Lin Xiuqing said irritably, “You didn’t say so earlier.”

“I forgot about it. Only thought of it when I saw the blue crab with a broken leg.” Now they didn’t even have phones to call with.

The couple continued searching around the reef area, lifting any movable rocks they saw. The harvest was quite good – they caught five or six nine-spot crabs and over a dozen rock crabs, plus several red-clawed crabs. Ye Yaodong had been bending down so frequently that his back was getting sore.

He straightened up and twisted his waist, “I’m only 25, why does my back feel so weak already?”

Lin Xiuqing’s face turned slightly red as she gave him a look, “You have the nerve to say that.”

“There’s nobody around, what’s there to be embarrassed about?”

Things had indeed been quite frequent these past few days, feeling like his body was being drained. They really needed to rest tonight.

“Oh! There’s a red-clawed crab. Why do we keep finding just one of everything? How are we supposed to cook these when we get back? It’s not even enough for one bowl.”

“Having anything is good enough. We can just boil everything together in one pot. Makes it simple.”

“Ah! Here’s another one. Now we can stir-fry a bowl with green peppers.”

The couple walked and chatted. Lin Xiuqing’s initial excitement at finding items had now settled into calm glances.

“A sea snail came up with the waves. Why is it so huge? Is it just an empty shell?” Lin Xiuqing watched as a wave pushed up a sea snail almost as big as her head, unsure if it had meat inside.

Out of curiosity, she kicked it lightly, and the snail flipped over, its head meat contracting slightly.

It had meat!

She happily crouched down to pick it up. It was almost bigger than her head – this snail must be worth something!

“Dong, what kind of snail is this? It’s so big!”

Ye Yaodong looked up indifferently, but then his eyes widened, “A coconut snail?! This big?”

“Coconut snail?” She couldn’t be blamed for not recognizing it as a mountain villager. Even people in their village rarely saw snails this big.

He didn’t even care about the burlap sack in his hand anymore, tossing it aside and rushing over to take it, “Holy shit, such a huge coconut snail, it must be three or four jin!”

“Is it worth a lot?” Lin Xiuqing’s eyes were shining.

“Whether it’s worth money depends on if it has treasure inside. Without treasure, it’ll only sell for a bit. But if it has treasure inside, we could make a fortune!”

She listened with a confused expression, not understanding, “What do you mean? What could be in its belly?”

“Good thing I’m here. If you’d found this alone, you would’ve just sold it straight away!”

“What else would I do?” She was getting more confused. Why all the mystery? “What treasure could be in its belly?”

“Not sure, we’ll have to dig out the meat to know.”

“Huh? If we dig out the meat, how can we sell the snail?”

“How else would you know if there’s treasure inside? A snail this big, even the shell has collection value and can be made into crafts.”

But compared to the treasure, what was the snail worth?

The coastal fishermen generally knew that whenever they caught shellfish and such things, they needed to perform “abdominal surgery” to check if there were any rare treasures inside, especially on the big ones.

Lin Xiuqing was dying of anticipation, as he wouldn’t tell her what treasure might be inside. “What’s actually in there? Pearls?”

Ye Yaodong said with a smile, “Who knows if there’s anything until we open it? I’ll tell you when we do, so you don’t get excited for nothing!”

She could only glare in frustration!

“Then hurry and open it!”

Ye Yaodong spread his hands, “No tools. Give me a scale hook and I can open it. Otherwise we’ll have to take it home, boil it, and pick out the meat.”

“Then let’s wait till we get home to open it.”

He thought for a moment, “Or should we go borrow a scale hook from the small shop?”

If they found treasure at home, they couldn’t guarantee others wouldn’t be tempted. Plus, he was itching to see what was inside right now.

“Okay! I’ll go right now!”

“I’ll go instead. You’ve already run back and forth once.”

“It’s fine!” She ran off before finishing her words, also eager to know what was inside.

Ye Yaodong could only wait and study it on the spot. He couldn’t tell from the outside if there was anything inside. The snail meat contracted each time he touched it – it was quite fresh.

If he wasn’t worried about shell fragments sticking to the meat making it hard to pick out, he would’ve just smashed it open to save time.

While waiting, he wandered around with the coconut snail in hand, catching two more nine-spot crabs and three rock crabs, throwing them all in the burlap sack. He kept holding the coconut snail though – he didn’t dare throw this one in the sack.

Lin Xiuqing was so anxious that she fell while running back, scraping her knee. She limped back, and Ye Yaodong saw it from afar and hurried to meet her.

“What happened? Did you fall?”

“Yeah, I tripped on a rock while running earlier.”

Her pants were torn at the knee, still wet with mud. He frowned and crouched down to roll up her pant leg for a look, but she dodged away.

“It’s fine, I’ll just patch up the pants when we get back.”

“Who cares about the pants? Let me roll up your pant leg and take a look.”

“No need, I’m fine. Hurry and take the scale hook to open this snail and see what’s inside.”

“Let me look at your knee first, we can open the snail anytime…”

“Stop being annoying, hurry up…” Lin Xiuqing shoved the scale hook into his arms, urging him.

Ye Yaodong had no choice but to open the coconut snail for her first.

For this type of coconut snail, the local method of extracting the meat was to hook its foot with a scale hook and hang it up for a while.

Because the spiral part of the coconut snail was short and small, the internal organs didn’t have a strong grip and not much strength. After being hung upside down for a long time, the snail’s tail couldn’t bear the weight of the shell and would naturally let go, leaving only the intact meat hanging on the hook.