Wei Donglai wasn't prying oysters open at the moment.
He had been thinking about the four ground traps he'd set that morning, and he was carrying a bucket down to the rocks to haul them up and see what was inside.
He had tied plastic bottles to them as markers, so the four traps weren't hard to find.
Wei Donglai went straight into the water and dragged the first trap ashore, pulling it in as he gathered it up.
There was something in it.
Before he'd pulled in the entire trap, Wei Donglai spotted a small octopus clinging to it, along with a swimming crab.
The sight of a catch lifted Wei Donglai's spirits considerably. At least he hadn't come up empty-handed, right?
He gathered the net faster, and when he reached the bottom of the trap, several shapes began thrashing on the surface of the water.
Groupers.
Wei Donglai was pleasantly surprised. He'd thought there were only an octopus and some crabs or the like, but he hadn't expected to find groupers.
He quickly lifted the net, scooped half a bucket of seawater into the bucket beside him, and only then went to the shore and began untying the trap.
There was an octopus weighing about half a jin, three swimming crabs, and two green groupers, one big and one small. The smaller one weighed three jin, and the bigger one was probably four.
There were also a few rabbitfish left.
Wei Donglai's mouth was practically stretching from ear to ear. He hadn't expected such a good haul from this one trap, and now he was even more excited about the next one.
He went back into the sea and hauled up the second trap.
Full of anticipation, he quickly pulled in the net, but when he reached the bottom, there was only a green grouper weighing around four jin and a few crabs.
Ah, not as good as the first trap.
Wei Donglai sighed a little.
But then he thought about it. Was he expecting too much?
This was a grouper, and not a small one, either. Most people would be grinning over a single one, yet he'd caught three in two traps and still wasn't satisfied.
What was I thinking?
Putting the jumble of thoughts out of his mind, he started pulling in the third trap.
Was there not much in this trap either?
He'd pulled in half of it without seeing any sign of an octopus or a crab, and Wei Donglai couldn't help wondering.
But when the trap was almost completely out of the water, he grew excited once more.
He could already see the shapes of fish. Were they groupers?
He quickly pulled the trap clear of the sea. Sure enough, there were groupers again, as well as black sea bream.
Looking at the seven or eight fish of all sizes crowded into the bottom of the net, Wei Donglai felt like he was on a roller coaster, flying from the bottom straight up into the sky.
He quickly ran to shore and untied the trap, spilling the catch across the ground.
Two black sea bream, a five-jin green grouper, and a tiger grouper weighing around four jin.
Heavens, had I stumbled into a grouper nest?
Wei Donglai put the groupers into the bucket one by one. It felt just like packing away money, and he couldn't have been more delighted.
"Third son! Third son!"
Hearing his mother call, Wei Donglai quickly answered, "Mom, I'm over here."
Before long, Li Yue'e appeared on the rocks by the shore.
Seeing him sorting out a trap, Li Yue'e was curious. "When did you set those traps?"
"I came over and set them this morning."
"Did you catch anything?"
"Nothing good, just a few octopuses and crabs."
Hearing how little he'd caught, Li Yue'e immediately lost interest.
"I'm heading back first. Take your time collecting them."
"Mom, could you take my oyster meat back for me?"
"That bucket of oysters of yours weighs a ton. Carry it back yourself. I asked your sister-in-law to keep an eye on it for you, so hurry up and finish."
His bucket was filled to the brim with oyster meat, and Li Yue'e had no desire to wear herself out.
Over the course of the afternoon, the women had each gathered about ten jin, but Wei Donglai had shucked nearly forty jin. It was simply crazy.
"All right, go on ahead. I'll be done soon."
Wei Donglai waved, then continued toward the fourth trap.
Since he was pressed for time, Wei Donglai didn't dawdle over this one, pulling it in with both arms moving swiftly.
The trap soon came out of the water.
When Wei Donglai saw what was at the bottom of the net, his eyes lit up.
Dogfish!
This trap hadn't given him any groupers, but unexpectedly, it held two dogfish. Besides those, there were two octopuses and a few rabbitfish.
When your luck was good, even the heavens would feed you.
One dogfish was big and the other small. The smaller one weighed just over a jin, while the bigger one was probably three and a half.
Dogfish weren't worth all that much yet. Ones this size would probably fetch a yuan per jin, but that was still pretty good.
With such a plentiful haul, Wei Donglai beamed with joy.
The bucket was already packed full, so Wei Donglai couldn't be bothered to untie the fourth trap. He simply picked it up as it was and headed straight for the roadside.
To keep others from seeing and growing envious, he deliberately placed a trap over the bucket.
On the way back, he deliberately chose a route where there was no one around, but someone still spotted the dogfish in his trap.
The trouble was that they were too long to hide in the bucket.
"Hey, A Lai, you caught dogfish in your traps?"
"If it weren't for these two, I'd have almost come up empty-handed today."
"Come on, be happy. Those two dogfish are worth about three or four yuan."
"Wasn't I lucky? The first three traps had hardly anything in them. These two dogfish only came up in the fourth."
"You really know what you're doing!"
Wei Donglai answered as he quickened his pace. If anyone saw the groupers in his bucket, wouldn't they be green with envy?
"Donglai, over here!"
Hearing his sister-in-law Xue Li call, Wei Donglai went over to her.
When Xue Li saw the dogfish in his trap, she was stunned again. "You caught those in your traps?"
"How else?"
Looking smug, Wei Donglai patted the plastic bucket and boasted in a low voice, "These two dogfish are nothing. I've got something even better."
The fish in the bucket seemed to be startled, and there was a sudden splashing as they thrrashed about.
His words immediately piqued Xue Li's curiosity. She walked closer and pushed aside the trap covering the bucket for a look, and her eyes were instantly glued to it.
"Heavens, groupers! So many groupers!"
Wei Donglai felt that his sister-in-law was even more excited than he was.
"Keep your voice down. Don't draw anyone over."
Xue Li hurriedly covered her mouth, but she couldn't hide the astonishment in her wide, innocent eyes.
"Donglai, were all these groupers caught in your traps?"
"Yeah. I don't know if I stumbled into a grouper nest today, but they're all good catches."
"Your luck is just too good."
"It's my newbie halo."
Seeing how serious Wei Donglai looked, Xue Li didn't know what a newbie halo was, but she still nodded foolishly in agreement.
"How many did you catch altogether?"
The beach was full of people heading home, and Wei Donglai didn't want to run into them, so he took the trap off the bucket. "Why don't you count them?"
Xue Li leaned over and actually began counting them carefully, one by one. "One, two, three... heavens, five groupers."
Seeing so many groupers all at once left her at a loss for words. All she could see was money spinning before her eyes.
There were also all those oysters he'd dug up that afternoon, and the dogfish.
So much money, so much money.
She counted on her fingers, and for a moment it felt as though she didn't have enough of them.
Watching his sister-in-law's silly expression, Wei Donglai couldn't help laughing. She and his honest elder brother really did complement each other.