Chapter 19 The Barrel Exploded
Chapter 19 The Barrel Exploded
Li Xiaozhou poked the big eel in the bucket with a sand shovel and said, "It can be sold for money again!"
"Brother, come here." Li Xiaohai waved at him, "Look, the claws of this blue crab are as thick as your wrist, and Dad caught it."
Li Xiaozhou jumped up with joy after seeing it, "Wow! There really are giant crabs! Dad is so awesome!"
Li Changle was so happy when she heard this that she rubbed one of them on the head with a grin, "Have you come here and told my mother?"
"Yes!" Li Xiaohai pointed to the big rock over there, "A-niang is here too, digging oysters on the rock with my aunt."
"Then you stay here with little brother and guard the backpack. Dad and Uncle Awei will go to the puddle in front to take a look." Li Changle happily watched his eldest son answering questions. He felt that a son of this age was easier to coax.
It’s not like the later generations, where no matter how hard I try to talk to them, they don’t react and treat me like air. It makes me sad just thinking about it.
"Okay, we'll stay here and not go anywhere." Li Xiaohai narrowed his eyes and smiled. It turned out that what his father said was true. The family was not short of money before, so his father did not come to the sea to make money.
Lao Wai's dad is also here to shop. Let's go see what he found later. It's definitely not as much as my dad found!
Li Changle strode towards the puddle in front. Li Xiaohai and Li Xiaozhou took small rakes and carefully plowed the remaining puddles beside the reef. Suddenly, a "crackling" sound came from the sand, and then a pair of small light blue pincers stood up from the sand.
Li Xiaozhou shouted excitedly: "Brother, we have small blue crabs!" The blue crab farmers at the dock charge five cents each for small blue crabs.
Li Xiaohai used a rake to hold down the blue crab, "You hold down the rake and I'll catch it."
"Oh!" Li Xiaozhou took over and held the bamboo pole, and reminded her considerately, "Be careful, Ah Xiang's nails were blackened by the little green crab's claws!"
"Long-winded!"
Li Xiaohai stepped forward, pressed his thumb on the crab shell, and placed his index and middle fingers on the crab navel. He grabbed the little green crab from the sand with force, "Look, brother, it's not too small. This big one should be able to sell for seven or eight cents."
"Brother is so awesome, he didn't even get pinched!" Li Xiaozhou farted sweetly.
"Grandma taught us to first... Next time you see it, do as grandma said, and you won't be pinched by it." Li Xiaohai practiced like a little adult, then put the blue crabs into the backpack and continued to rake.
Li Xiaozhou watched for a while, stepped into the shallow puddle, bent his body and groped in the water. His fingers touched a hard object, and in the blink of an eye he saw a flower crab raising its claws and quickly retreating.
"Hey! Brother, come quickly, there are flower crabs here!"
"I'm coming!" Li Xiaohai ran over dragging a small rake, "Where is it?"
"There!" Li Xiaozhou pointed at the flower crab with its hind claws exposed under the crevice in front of him.
Li Xiaohai stepped forward, grabbed its claws, and slammed it into the puddle with great force. A big flower crab drew a beautiful arc and fell into the puddle with a "plop", splashing water all over the ground.
Li Xiaozhou tried to press it with a rake, but it was empty. He then stepped on it with his foot. The flower crab shrank into the puddle and raised its beautiful blue claws. He was so scared that he stepped back quickly, "Brother, I can't catch it."
"Here it comes!" Li Xiaohai ran over, grabbed a ball of sand and smashed it on the flower crab. The flower crab swung its two big claws and looked a little dizzy. The little guy immediately stepped forward, pressed its crab shell and picked it up.
"Oh! We caught a big flower crab! Brother is so awesome!" Li Xiaozhou happily hugged him and jumped up.
In the puddle over there, Li Changle picked up a few green shrimps, turned his head and looked in the direction of the two brothers. Seeing that the brothers were still there, he continued to search in the puddle with confidence. He went to shallow puddle after shallow puddle, and a stone nine-gong swam out quickly from the cracks in the rocks. The hard spines on the fins of this fish are poisonous. Li Changle used the handle of the scoop net to drive the fish out, scooped it up and poured it into the bucket.
After walking a few steps, I found another half-disabled blue crab. One of its claws was only as big as an adult's little finger, and the other was bigger than an adult's big toe. Blue crabs with claws of different sizes like this either cut off their own limbs to escape when they couldn't win a fight, or grew new limbs after being captured and escaping.
There were huge puddles of water everywhere he went, and the shallower ones had people in them. He then realized that it was getting dark, and thinking about taking the children to the town to see his grandfather, he turned around and walked back.
Seeing Chen Yongwei squatting under a big rock, digging in the beach with his hands, "Awei, what are you doing there?"
"Dig clams!" Chen Yongwei put the clams he dug into the bucket and waved at him, "Brother, there are so many Buddha's hands in the cracks of this rock."
Li Changle walked over and saw that the beach under the rock had been dug into pits and holes by him, as if it had been gnawed by a dog. In the distance, sand crabs lurking under the beach were foraging for food on the beach like drying millet. At the slightest sign of trouble, they would immediately hide in their holes and not a single one could be seen.
He withdrew his gaze and looked in the direction of the crevice he pointed to, and saw that it was indeed full of Buddha's hands. Some of the largest ones were as big as the big toe of Big Toe. Unfortunately, the crevice was too narrow and people could not squeeze in.
"Oh my god!" Li Changle kicked Chen Yongwei. "You called me over when you're like this? Go in there and get it out for me?"
"Hehe!" Chen Yongwei laughed innocently, "Brother, just tell me whether these Buddha's hands are big or not?"
Li Changle thought of what happened in the cave, "Not bad!"
Chen Yongwei looked at him slyly and whispered, "I know a place where the Buddha's hands on the island are much bigger than this one. Ah Dong said they charge 30 cents per pound!"
"Fuck!" Li Changle's eyes widened as he pointed at the Buddha's hand in the crevice. "The ones bigger than this are only three-cornered?" In later generations, the wholesale price of Buddha's hand snails like this is two or three hundred yuan per pound.
Now... alas!
Why doesn’t the God of Rebirth provide him with a time and space warehouse, so that he can teleport these things there to sell, and he will make a fortune in a few months!
Chen Yongwei glanced at him and said, "How much do you want to sell it for per pound? For something like this, the price is 10 cents per pound. Everyone is rushing to get it. Just think about it, there are only a few of them and it's a pound. How heavy is that!"
"Yeah!" Li Changle nodded lacking interest, then changed his mind and thought, life has to go on. What kind of man would he be if he kept thinking about his future life?
Live by the mountain, live by the sea. As long as you work hard, even if you can't give your parents, wife and children a rich and comfortable life, you won't be like in your previous life...
"Brother, what's wrong with you?"
"Nothing!" Li Changle collected his thoughts and remembered that he would need bait to put down the crab cages at night. The people in the fishing village would prepare some dead fish and shrimps that were beginning to rot. Such bait had a strong fishy smell and was what crabs liked best.
In later generations, there are shops that sell fishing tackle that specialize in selling baits. They are purely meant to cheat those who have never fished at sea and are stupid and have a lot of money!
"Awei, take some snails home, break them up and use them to set traps in Changtangkou this afternoon."
"Don't worry about the bait, just leave it to me." Chen Yongwei pointed at the eels, fish and crabs, clams and octopuses that were thrashing around in the bucket. "The bucket is bursting. Let's go back!"
Friends, the editor said that a round of PK has begun. I would like to ask friends to read and support me! Please!
(End of this chapter)