Although they were not piled into little mountains, the stretch of sand was sizable, and the quantity lining the shore was still impressive. No wonder his mother had been so excited that she had come straight over and dragged them all out of bed.
In those days, scallop catches were relatively small. Only later would people gradually start farming them and production increase.
They rarely saw scallops along their shore on an ordinary day, let alone washed into a line along the coast like this. It was quite a sight.
They could gather a whole pile without even trying.
Whether they fetched a good price was another matter; enough of anything was worth money. Starfish, for example, were dirt cheap, but there were so many that picking up several yuan's worth in a day was quite a haul, better than a day's wages. Making money was not easy in those days.
Besides, these scallops were worth something.
No wonder there had been no good catches left outside their door. Being swept back to sea because no one had picked them up in time was one thing, but perhaps these shells had also formed a little seawall. Together with the ground rising toward the shore, they had blocked a fair amount of the waves' wash, reducing the fish catch washed ashore.
Years of washing by seawater had left plenty of sand, silt, and all kinds of stones along the shore. These deposits built up into a slope, rising farther inland.
Once his surprise had passed, Ye Yaodong looked for his parents. He spotted them diagonally across from him, bent over with their bottoms sticking out, scooping shells from the shore into the bamboo trays in front of them with both hands. Before long, his mother's tray was full, and she immediately