Chapter 16 Cordyceps in the Sea
Chapter 16 Cordyceps in the Sea
After catching two large blue crabs in a row, he thought this puddle was pretty good. He rolled up his trouser legs high and prepared to go deeper.
"Brother Ale, are you here to fish in the sea too?" A silly voice sounded behind him.
Li Changle turned around and saw a tall, strong, and somewhat honest young man standing behind him. He looked like he wanted to get closer but didn't dare to. He shouted happily, "Awei, you're here too?"
Chen Yongwei's father fell into the sea and died when he was five years old. His mother remarried the next year and moved to another town. He lived with his grandmother and two aunts. The two aunts lived in a row apart from each other. They played together since childhood. Whenever others bullied him, Li Changle would often help him.
When he grew up, he disliked Awei for being silly and felt that he was always in a bad mood when playing cards with him. But in the end, the only one who extended a helping hand to him was this childhood friend.
Seeing him smile, Chen Yongwei also grinned happily, "I heard that you caught big rice fish and big flower dragon." He came to find him because he heard from A Kuan that Brother A Le had become different and was willing to go fishing to make money.
"Hmm!" Li Changle looked at the bucket he was carrying, "What good stuff did you find?
Chen Yongwei put down the bucket and said, "I dug up some really big sand scallions and wanted you to cook them for Uncle Tang."
"Fool!" Li Changle looked at the bowl-sized sand trout in the bucket and laughed, "He's old and injured. If I cook this thing for him to eat, it would be strange if he can recover from his injuries in peace."
"My grandma said that sha dan is very nutritious and asked me to eat more to replenish my body..."
"Fuck!" Li Changle looked at him with great laughter, "You are a young man, and you don't have a wife, so why do you eat so much? Tell me the truth, did Miss Five Fingers use too much?"
"Hehe!" Chen Yongwei scratched his head embarrassedly, smiled foolishly and said nothing.
Li Changle kicked him, "You filthy fellow!"
He remembered that in his previous life, Awei liked Amei from Lai Laoer's family. Every time he saw that girl, his face turned red, he kept rubbing his hands, and he couldn't even utter a word. He never confessed his love to the girl until she got married, and she never even looked at him straight in the eye.
Awei was in his thirties when he married a widow with two children. Fortunately, the widow and the children were kind-hearted and had always been nice to him.
"Brother, I heard from A Kuan on the beach that you asked Wang Mazi to borrow money to pay for the hospitalization. I have saved more than 80 yuan. I will give it to you when I get back."
"Thank you, Awei!" Li Changle put his hand on his shoulder gratefully. "To be honest with you, the money from selling fish this morning has not been used up yet, so I deliberately asked Wang Mazi to borrow money."
"Why?" Chen Yongwei looked at him puzzledly. "My grandma said that his family is all Pixiu, and they only take in and never spend. Why would you go to him to borrow money?"
"..." Li Changle repeated what he had said to Mrs. Li in the morning, "I, your brother, have decided to turn over a new leaf from today on. I will honestly go fishing and make money. I want to make a lot of money."
Chen Yongwei smiled and shook his head after hearing this. "Brother, fishing can only make a living. To make big money, you have to buy a big motorboat to go fishing in the fishing grounds, and you also need good luck to make money. Originally, I planned to help the people on the south bank to fish and earn money to buy a big motorboat, but unfortunately my grandma was worried that I would be like my dad, so she didn't allow me to go."
Listen! Who said Awei is not smart? In fact, he knows everything, but he lost his father when he was young, his mother remarried, and his family was poor. He was bullied by the villagers but did not dare to say anything, so he was called a fool and stupid.
"Your grandma still won't allow you to help on the boat?" "She never agreed. She said I'm the only one left in our house. If anything happens to me, she won't be able to survive."
"I'm planning to earn some money to buy a small motor sail first!"
"That's a good thing! If you don't have enough money, come to me and I'll lend it to you."
"Okay!" Li Changle patted his shoulder, "Have you been digging sand on the beach all this time?"
Chen Yongwei nodded, "The price of sand shoals these days is pretty good. The big ones can be sold for 40 or 50 cents a pound, and the small ones can be sold for 20 cents. The tidal flat I just dug has a lot of them. Why don't we go dig sand shoals?"
"Anan and I brought Xiaohai and Xiaozhou with us. Their legs are short and the sand and mud doesn't reach their knees when they step in."
Summer and autumn are the seasons for digging sand dunes. When he came, he saw groups of beachgoers digging for sand dunes under the mud on the tidal flats.
In some places, sand garlic is also called "sand garlic". It is a kind of coelenterate. Its scientific name is sea anemone, and it is said to have thousands of species.
The one that people here often eat is called spherical sandfish, a kind of mollusk on the beach. When the tide goes out, its heads spread out like flowers and lie limply on the mudflats.
Once you catch it, it will immediately become puffy and hard; if it senses any movement, it will drill into the hole under its body, making it difficult to catch it by an inexperienced person.
It is also divided into male and female, the male is long and the female is round. Compared with other colorful, gorgeous and beautiful family members, this guy looks a little anxious, with a greenish-yellow color, a brush-headed head, and a rustic appearance of garlic. It is a real bumpkin.
In addition to the spherical sand slug, there is also a kind called the chicken intestine sand slug. As the name suggests, this guy is shaped like a long chicken intestine. He likes to dig deep pits and hide more than one meter deep on the mudflats. It is not easy to dig it out with bare hands and requires a shovel.
People here think that sand cucumber is very nutritious. It is said to have the effect of nourishing yin and strengthening yang. It is also known as the Cordyceps sinensis of the sea. Some people call it "sea eggs" in a vulgar way - saying it is the penis of the sea. As for why, it is probably because of its appearance?
In fact, people here like satay mainly because it tastes really delicious. It is a rare delicacy whether it is used to stew meat or make soup.
Li Changle’s favorite is the bean flour stewed with sand noodles made by her grandmother. Bean flour is what the locals call it, and it is actually vermicelli made from sweet potato flour.
The method of stewing shadan with vermicelli is very simple. After cleaning the shadan, simmer it over low heat to bring out the rich paste in its belly, then stew it with vermicelli. Evenly coat the vermicelli with the shadan paste, which will make people salivate when they smell it from afar.
He remembered the first time he ate this thing, after chewing it for a few times, he felt that there was no other taste in his mouth except the word "fresh". It seemed that he didn't even have time to chew it a few more times before swallowing it. When he savored it, his mouth was left with only the freshness and fragrance.
In those days, sand croaker was not a rare commodity and was a common dish on the tables of fishermen. A sand croaker as big as a bowl was only 40 or 50 cents per pound, just like yellow croaker was only a little over one yuan per pound at that time. In another ten years or so, even a slightly larger one would cost dozens of yuan per pound, and the larger ones would have to be bought at an even higher price.
As they were talking, the sea water had receded further, revealing more of the rocky beach below. Without the barrier, the entire beach outside the puddle was also exposed.
(End of this chapter)