Amid everyone's joking and banter, the boat slowly made its way toward the little island.
There were plenty of uninhabited islands of all sizes around them. Perhaps because of their locations, the tide on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month would recede below the reefs around some of them, while around others, the water level would only drop a little, still leaving no beach exposed.
Ye Yaodong circled the surrounding shoreline and deliberately chose an island with higher ground to land on. The tide had only just begun to recede, yet a large stretch of beach was already exposed. Perhaps even at high tide, the water did not cover all the sand. On an island like this, there was a good chance of finding things on the beach as well as on the reefs.
After securing the boat, he picked up his tools and got off. "The tide's going out, and we've got plenty of time today. Let's each do our own thing."
"This island looks smaller than the last one."
"Who cares how big it is? What matters is whether there's anything to catch."
"It's fine. If we don't find much, we can have Dongzi take us to another island."
"Oh, what's this?"
Ye Yaodong had only taken a few steps when he spotted a grayish-white egg buried in the sand, with just a tiny bit of shell showing!
He crouched down and scraped away some sand, revealing the whole egg.
The others hurried over to look.
"Is that a sea turtle egg?"
"Keep digging, Dongzi. If it's a sea turtle egg, there'll be a whole clutch. Dig around and see if there are more underneath."
He knew to keep digging without being told.
The sand was loose. He casually scraped at it, and after digging