Chapter 15: Benbolba, Babolben

The group strode along the foot of the mountain to the rocky beach at the east end. At this time, the tide had receded, revealing a sandy beach. Some women were looking for fish, shrimps and crabs in the shallow water.

Some turned over the gravel beside the puddles to catch small crabs, shrimps and shellfish, while others used chisels to chisel oysters and conches attached to the rocks.

It seems that the news that he found the big flower dragon and the big rice fish here in the morning has spread throughout the entire Shatou Village, and everyone wants to come here to try their luck.

Otherwise, in such a hot sun, you would be weaving webs at home!

The old lady who lived behind the Li family saw Li Changle coming and stopped him and asked, "We searched all the puddles in this area, but we didn't find a single big fish. Ah Le, you're not lying to us, are you?"

"Why would I lie to you?" Li Changle pointed casually, "Look! I found it in that puddle."

A buck-toothed woman said, "I just looked there and didn't see even a single shrimp. You must not be telling the truth!"

"Whether you find it or not is none of my business!" Li Changle glanced at her, "Who are you to me? Should I tell you the truth?"

The black and red face of the man with the big buck teeth turned even redder. He turned around, picked up the chisel, and started to chisel hard, cursing under his breath: "Second rate bastard..."

Judging from her expression, she probably mistook the Buddha's hand snail on the rock for Li Changle.

Li Changle put down the backpack and saw that the eldest brother had already started digging in the sand with his younger brother. He quickly took out the sand shovel and gave it to them, "Follow mom carefully, dad will go over there to take a look."

Li Xiaozhou looked up and said, "Dad, are you going to catch big fish there?"

"Yes! Dad is going to catch big fish." Li Changle took a scoop net and pliers and walked towards the puddle that Big Bucktooth had found.

He walked along the boundary between the water and the beach, his eyes constantly searching the tiny holes on the beach.

From time to time, the waves surged up, washed over his instep and then retreated.

It is three o'clock now. The tide started to ebb at 15.15:5 today. As the saying goes, the tide rises in five hours and falls in six hours. The tide will be low at around 6 o'clock in the evening, and then start to rise again.

Every day the tide rises and falls more than 40 minutes later than the previous day. The tide will start to recede around 3 to 4 o'clock tomorrow morning, so it will be just right to sleep until 4 o'clock to go to the cave.

When Li Changle saw the raised sand in front of him, he poked it with his pliers. Seeing a pair of giant claws thicker than chicken legs sticking out of the sand, he laughed triumphantly, "Hehe, no wonder they say opportunities come to those who are prepared."

He took out a thin hemp rope that he had prepared, held one end in one hand, and wrapped it around the two big claws. The big blue crab then attacked by waving its claws with bared fangs.

It would be terrible to be clamped by it. It will definitely hurt so much that you can't even scream. If it hits a big one like this, your fingers will be broken off.

Li Changle separated the hemp rope and fed it into its big claws, then exerted force to lift it out of the mud and sand.

"Wow! It's at least two kilograms. The resources are still good now!"

Li Changle excitedly muttered to himself, neatly tied up the big blue crab with a hemp rope, turned it over and looked at the plastron on its belly, "It's a female crab, and it only has roe. It should be able to sell for a few dollars!"

Blue crabs, also known as crabs, are a traditional Chinese medicine that has the effects of promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis, digesting food, and promoting lactation. They are often used to treat blood stasis, amenorrhea, abdominal pain caused by postpartum stasis, indigestion, food accumulation, and insufficient milk. The gender of a blue crab can be determined by the shape of its plastron. The plastron of a male blue crab is wide and triangular, while the plastron of a female blue crab is wide and round. In addition, the navel of a female blue crab is round, while the navel of a male blue crab is pointed.

Around the Mid-Autumn Festival every year is the best time to eat blue crabs. At that time, the blue crabs are full of yellow, thick meat, fresh, sweet and firm. Warming up a pot of rice wine, taking a sip of wine and a bite of crab meat is simply a heavenly day.

After walking a few steps forward, he saw another hole. He put his hands into the sand and dug it out. A clam appeared in front of Li Changle. He picked it up and put it in his net bag. "Give me some more. I'll go back and fry a plate."

He continued walking forward, muttering to himself, and after digging up a dozen more clams, he arrived at the puddle.

I first looked around the surrounding rocks, which were densely covered with scallops and quite a few Buddha's hand snails.

Its scientific name is gooseneck barnacle, and in some places it is also called dog claw snail because its appearance is very similar to a dog's paw.

They are crowded in the cracks of rocks, usually growing in clusters. Winter is when they are most plump.

These shellfish are easy to collect. The big ones have long been dug out, leaving only some small ones, and those that grow on rocks and are difficult to pry out are still growing.

He caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, turned his head and stared at a hole at the edge of the puddle and shouted, "Fuck~ Why are you here?"

At the entrance of the cave, I saw a pair of murderous blue-green eyes, an absurdly large mouth, and an ugly monster with two rows of jagged white teeth.

When he saw this fish for the first time, the two little monsters in Journey to the West, Benboerba and Babolben, flashed through his mind. He felt that their prototypes were most likely based on this fish.

Li Changle picked up the pliers and slowly approached the cave entrance. Just as he reached its big mouth, Benboerba suddenly dived into the water and disappeared.

The posterior jawfish often burrows in the sand or mud on the seabed and feeds on small fish, shrimps and mantis shrimps.

After driving away Benboerba, he stood beside a rock, lowered his head and searched in the puddle. He saw the long tentacles attached to the rock, bent down, turned over the small rock, and grabbed a "Wangchao."

Wangchao is a kind of octopus, usually living in burrows on mudflats. Some are also called small octopuses. Unlike blue crabs, which prefer bigger, smaller ones are better. Whenever the tide is approaching, they crawl to the entrance of the cave and wave their tentacles, hence the name "Wangchao".

The smaller the size of the wangchao, the firmer the meat, and therefore the more expensive it is. July, August, and September are the best times to eat wangchao. The wangchao in these months are of moderate size, with fat and fresh meat, and are chewy.

Li Changle put the Wangchao in the backpack and went into the water. He felt around in the turbid sea water and his fingers touched a hard object, which turned out to be a crab shell. The crab quickly retreated and Li Changle quickly retracted his hand. He inserted the scoop net diagonally into the water at the previous position, pushed the scoop net forward, and scooped it up quickly.

As the scoop net left the water, I saw a fat white crab lying at the bottom of the net, unable to move.

The scientific name of the white crab is swimming crab. The cephalothorax is light gray-green, with a round white spot in the front gill area. Most of the chelicerae are purple-red with white spots, and part or the entire ventral surface is white. Its body color will vary with the surrounding environment. The swimming crabs living among seaweed have a darker body color.

Li Changle pressed his thumb on the crab shell, and placed his index and middle fingers on both ends of the crab's navel. He picked it up from the net bag, weighed it, and estimated that it was more than one kilogram. He happily took out the hemp rope to tie it up and put it in the backpack.

Looking at the hemp rope tied on the crab, he felt that people nowadays are still simple and honest. In the past, the rope used to tie up crabs of this weight would weigh at least half a pound.

　Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, friends! It gets dark early at home, and I go to bed early. The cat updates regularly, so I can only post pictures tomorrow!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)

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