Damn it, they were just a few scallops. Was he supposed to be afraid he couldn't handle them?
Ye Yaodong pulled out the net tucked behind his waist, reached forward, and scooped up every last fleeing scallop.
There weren't many, just five, but something was better than nothing. At least he wouldn't be going back empty-handed.
Once caught in the net, they clamped their shells shut instead of charging around in a desperate struggle. They were fairly big, too. He could steam them with some glass noodles when he got home that evening.
Ye Yaodong took them all out and put them in the small mesh bag tied to his waist. He now had a more complete set of tools hanging from his waist than an electrician.
With something to show for his efforts, he began roaming around again, and the odds and ends in the mesh bag at his waist gradually piled up.
Along the way, he also caught two sea cucumbers in the seaweed and picked up two sea snails of different sizes.
As he wandered, he unexpectedly found himself back beside the rocks. He pried another abalone off the edge, and a large sea snail was clinging inside a crevice to his left.
But when he reached out to pry it off, he happened to discover a small patch of pale bigfin reef squid hiding inside the crevice.
His eyes instantly lit up. He'd searched high and low without success, only to find them without any effort at all!
A few days ago, he hadn't been able to find them underwater no matter how hard he looked. This time, he hadn't even been looking for them. He'd only thought he would use the time he had left to pick up a few odds and ends, so long