After Li Guowang finished eating, he wasted no time. He picked up the tools and called the three of them to set off.
Besides the gear for catching mud eels, Li Guowang also brought along some old, discarded gill nets.
Li Changfeng asked an extra question.
Li Guowang said they were for catching crabs.
The tide was due at around 10:40 that morning, so they had a little over three hours.
Once they reached the tidal flats, they understood the benefit of bringing the mud sleds. Walking in rain boots, they sank with every step. Without the sleds, getting around would probably have taken up more than half their time.
"A Liang, A Lai, want to race?"
Li Changfeng, who was wriggling along with one foot, suddenly felt playful and shouted to the other two.
He Dongliang immediately grew interested. "Sure."
He pointed to a small tidal channel more than two hundred meters ahead. "How about we see who gets there first?"
Li Changfeng chimed in, "All right, two packs of cigarettes on the race. What do you say, A Lai? Are you in?"
Wei Donglai hadn't really wanted to bother with the two childish fools, but seeing him wriggling along, he couldn't help thinking of the unpowered car races he'd seen on his phone in a later life. Suddenly, he was interested too.
"Sure, two packs it is. Don't go crying when you lose."
Li Changfeng objected. "A Lai, don't talk so big. I can't beat you at drinking, but I refuse to believe I can't beat you at this too."
Wei Donglai gave him a confident smile, identical to the one he'd worn before their last drinking contest. It immediately made Li Changfeng feel a little less sure of himself.
Damn it, am I really going to lose to A Lai?
"A Liang, you count. We'll start on three."
"Okay, let's line up first."
The three got into position, and He Dongliang began to count. "One, two-fuck, A Feng, you're cheating!"
"I call it getting a head start."
Wei Donglai was speechless as he watched the other two slide away before the count was even finished.
They put all their cunning into this.
By the time Wei Donglai started, Li Changfeng was already about three meters ahead of him.
He Dongliang was chasing two meters behind Li Changfeng.
Perhaps because he'd benefited from the early start, Li Changfeng pushed forward with all his might, wriggling along with one leg so hard that he nearly flung his entire upper body off the sled.
He Dongliang chased after him with all his strength, but the gap between them kept widening.
Wei Donglai, on the other hand, followed the two at an unhurried pace, saving his strength.
How did that saying go? Let the bullets fly for a while.
At around the hundred-meter mark, Li Changfeng was already a good seven or eight meters ahead of the other two.
Convinced he had victory in the bag, Li Changfeng turned and shouted smugly at them, "Be good and buy the cigarettes already. Stop struggling."
"Don't celebrate too soon. I'm about to put some muscle into it."
After saying that, He Dongliang pushed hard with one leg, and his speed really did increase by quite a bit. The guy had been saving his strength all along, waiting for this moment to catch up.
As He Dongliang gradually picked up speed, the distance between him and Li Changfeng slowly shrank.
Seven meters, six meters...
Li Changfeng grew anxious, but he had already spent most of his strength over the first hundred meters. Now he could only watch as the gap between him and He Dongliang kept closing.
"Well, well, A Liang, so that's the trick you're playing."
"That's called strategy. You understand?"
"You're shameless."
"Not as shameless as you sneaking a head start."
As the two argued, the gap between them closed, and with just thirty meters left to the finish, He Dongliang overtook Li Changfeng.
Li Changfeng wanted to catch up, but though his heart was willing, his strength failed him. He could only watch helplessly as He Dongliang pulled farther and farther ahead.
"A Feng, I told you not to celebrate too soon. Know what it means to laugh last?"
While the two were battling it out, neither noticed that Wei Donglai was picking up speed behind them, going faster and faster.
With fifteen meters left to the finish, a figure shot past the two of them with a whoosh.
At that speed, it was no exaggeration to call him an arrow loosed from the bow.
He had gone another three or four meters before the two reacted.
"Damn, how can A Lai be so fast?"
"Quick, catch him!"
"Put your backs into it!"
"My leg's a little weak. I can't put any strength into it anymore."
"Me neither."
"Are we still chasing him, then?"
"Chase my ass. He's almost at the finish."
The two had been vying for first place, and neither had expected a Cheng Yaojin to come charging out halfway through.
Judging by Wei Donglai's speed, he hadn't even been trying before.
And there they'd been, competing so fiercely, only for all their efforts to come to nothing.
Seeing Wei Donglai already waiting for them at the finish, both of them felt a deep sense of helplessness.
"Damn you, A Lai. If you could go that fast, why didn't you put your strength into it from the start?"
"Wasn't I letting you lose a little more gracefully?"
"I find I feel even worse now."
He Dongliang knew exactly how Li Changfeng felt. He'd thought victory was in sight, only for a dark horse to come charging out of nowhere. It was an awful feeling.
"Didn't I tell you from the start not to cry when you lost? You were the ones who wanted to struggle."
"A Lai, don't get too smug."
"I'm not that smug. I'm just reminding you not to forget the two packs of cigarettes."
"Fuck!"
The two of them answered by raising their middle fingers at him.
"All right, you three, stop playing around and come over here. I'll teach you how to recognize a mud eel burrow."
Hearing it was time for serious business, the three quickly put aside their playfulness and gathered around Li Guowang.
Li Guowang pointed to a hole at his feet and began instructing them. "Mud eel burrows are generally found in little tidal channels like this one, or in the intertidal zone of mangrove forests, near tree roots or stumps. The openings are usually round, with slime inside. You can feel for yourselves."
Wei Donglai immediately reached over and, sure enough, felt some slime around the hole.
"Also, if you see an earthen slope with whitish mud, there's a good chance there'll be a mud eel burrow nearby. You'll have to look for those yourselves."
As he spoke, Li Guowang took out a small bottle and pulled a little clump of shredded tobacco mixed with chili from it. He rubbed it between his fingers, then stuffed it into the mud eel burrow.
He then scraped up a piece of mud and covered the opening.
"Second Uncle, is that all it takes?"
"Mm. The mud seals the opening. Once the mud eel can't stand the smell of the tobacco, it'll burrow out."
Wei Donglai went on to ask, "Uncle Guowang, about how long will that take?"
"Fifteen to twenty minutes or so. Go look for mud eel burrows nearby first. Come back in a bit, and I'll teach you how to catch them."
The group then split up and began searching for mud eel burrows in different directions.
Li Guowang ducked into the mangroves nearby, looking for mud eels while wrapping the discarded gill nets around tree roots to set traps.
Wei Donglai knew this method could be used to catch mud crabs.
Bait was placed inside the gill net, and when a mud crab ate it, there was a good chance it would get tangled in the net.