The island's rich bounty

[Liang Yusheng novels

He kept searching the area and spotted another mud crab buried in the mud nearby, with only its two eyes showing.

"Each one's better at hiding than the last!"

Luckily, he had sharp eyes. He picked it up with the tongs and took a look. This one was a little smaller, but it still weighed over a jin. A male, too-not bad!

After putting the mud crab into his bamboo basket, he searched even more carefully, afraid he might miss something hidden under the mud.

Whenever he came across a rock, he made a point of moving it to see whether anything lay underneath.

But this stretch was a mudflat with hardly any water. He turned over several rocks without finding any stranded fish or shrimp. Undiscouraged, he patiently kept looking. The tide had only just gone out, so he had plenty of time.

Only after moving several more rocks did he spot two big mud crabs stacked on top of each other beside a large rock!

"Holy shit, getting it on out in the open? You've got some nerve!"

He picked one up, and the other stayed clamped onto it. A look at their backs confirmed that they really were a male and a female.

Mud crabs everywhere. Ye Yaodong figured it must be because this was an isolated island. With no people around and nothing to threaten them, the mud crabs crawled onto the mudflats after the tide went out to relax in the sun, then returned to the sea with the next high tide.

After excitedly adding both to his haul, he spotted a small, fairly flat patch of mudflat a short distance ahead, its surface dotted with little holes.

He hurried a few steps forward and crouched down. Unlike the little holes on sandy beaches, which had sand clams beneath them, these looked to him like razor clam holes.

Razor clams were invertebrate mollusks commonly found in the sand and mud of the intertidal zone. Their shells were long, narrow, and razor-shaped. They could move rapidly up and down their burrows, retreating deep inside at the first sign of danger.

He muttered, "Too bad I didn't bring any salt. Sprinkle some over these holes and the razor clams would come out on their own. Now I have to dig them out myself. What a pain!"

Setting his fire tongs aside, he dug into the holes one by one with his bare hands. Luckily, the clams hadn't burrowed very deep and were easy enough to get out.

After digging out a few, he noticed a rock beside him and casually moved it, uncovering two mudskippers. He tossed them into his bamboo basket as well.

Even the tiniest morsel counted. At least it was something.

He worked briskly for a dozen minutes or so, clearing out all the holes in that patch. Figuring he had gathered three or four jin, he stood up in satisfaction.

But he had been crouching so long that his neck felt sore, and his dirty hands made massaging it inconvenient. Ye Yaodong could only roll his neck and glance toward the others.

They were all spread out quite far apart. He wondered how much they'd found.

He looked up at the sun, which was still dazzlingly bright. It seemed early yet, and the tide wouldn't come back in so soon. He could only keep searching, picking up a few mudskippers here and there.

He gradually worked his way farther out, leaving the little mudflat and entering an area of sand and mud covered by shallow water.

As soon as he stepped into the seawater, Ye Yaodong sat on a large rock to wash the mud off his legs. The sun had dried it onto his skin, leaving it uncomfortably tight.

Just as he finished washing his feet, he saw a tentacle reach out from beneath a gap in the rocks.

"Walked right into my trap, didn't you? Come on out." He put on his gloves and reached in to grab it. "Oh-a little white octopus!"

After tossing it into his bamboo basket, he reached under the rock again and felt around. "There's more!"

He pulled them out and discovered two more little white octopuses!

People in Fujian had a saying: three little white octopuses were worth a sheep!

Other octopuses were sold by weight, but little white octopuses were sold individually!

"That's a whole sheep in the bag!"

The isolated island really did have far more to offer than the docks. Circling the rock, he spotted several wang snails as well.

There weren't many, only seven or eight. The exposed flesh at the tops of their shells clung directly to the rock. He pried them off one by one and collected them in his hand.

Snails clinging to rocks actually had meat inside. Many of the shells soaking in the seawater housed hermit crabs instead, with no snail meat at all.

Since he had already reached the shallows, he decided to look around.

"Hey, a stonefish..."

Spotting a red shape swimming near a pile of broken rocks, Ye Yaodong hurried over. It was a stonefish.

Stonefish generally lived in crevices or holes among rocks in the sea. They seemed unable to do without rocks. No matter how deep the water was, there had to be rocks on the bottom for stonefish to appear and live there, feeding on the small shrimp below.

He set his bamboo basket and fire tongs aside to free his hands, then cupped both hands around the fish and caught it. The stiff spines on its fins were venomous, so he had to be careful.

The bright red stonefish was rather pleasing to the eye, much prettier than most fish.

Ye Yaodong was in a good mood, too. Whether the catch was valuable or not, finding something always made him happy.

He didn't find much after that. By the time the tide began coming in, he had only caught three stonefish-just enough for a bowlful-along with some mudskippers, rock crabs, a few miscellaneous fish, and three big mud crabs.

Wading through the water, he headed toward the rocks where they had gotten off the boat. The others were still wandering around with their heads down. Ye Yaodong called loudly to them, "The tide's coming in!"

Everyone raised their heads and glanced toward his voice, then went back to searching. The tide had only started coming in; it hadn't reached them yet. The boat was still stranded on the beach, so what was the rush?

Once he got closer, he called out again, "Aren't you guys hungry?"

"Of course we are! I'm starving."

"I've already eaten several shrimp raw."

He hadn't noticed until they mentioned it, but he hadn't caught any shrimp today. "I haven't found any shrimp."

"Then what did you find?"

"Three little white octopuses, three stonefish, a few stone crabs, a handful of assorted snails, three or four jin of razor clams, seven big mud crabs..."

"Holy shit, you fucking found seven big mud crabs? How big?" Xiao Xiao, who was closest to him, stared at him in disbelief.

"All over a jin. The biggest one's probably close to two!"

He had found the biggest one under a rock in the shallows just before heading over. Luckily, he'd spotted it; otherwise, it would have returned to the sea once the tide came in.

A-Zheng cried out in envy, "What kind of luck is that? Three or four jin of razor clams would be one thing, but you even picked up seven big mud crabs? I only found one."

"I found one, too! It's pretty big, probably a jin and three or four liang," Chen Wei said as he walked over.

"There seem to be quite a few mud crabs here. Maybe it's because this is an isolated island and fishing nets can't be set around here. There's plenty to catch."

"That's what I think, too. Probably because nobody's been here before." As Xiao Xiao spoke, he glanced into Ye Yaodong's bamboo basket. "Yours is stuffed full already."

"Dong's luck really has been good these past few days! We search the same places, but he always finds more than we do."

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