Catching Shrimp and Crabs

The atmosphere in the Fire Tribe had been noticeably different these past few days.

Before, everyone's faces had always carried a hint of numbness and exhaustion, and they had seemed to have no strength even to walk. Now, although they were still thin, there was light in their eyes, and they walked with their backs a little straighter. The children in particular were much louder as they chased one another around and played.

All of this was because they now had a steady supply of meat.

Wang Yan and his little team brought back dozens or even over a hundred jin of frog meat every day. Although each person's share did not amount to much, they got to eat meat almost every day. For a tribe that had long lived in a state of half-starvation, this was a change that overturned heaven and earth. Even the hunting team felt much more secure when they went out-if their luck was bad that day, at least there was Hopping Beast meat at home to fall back on. No one would starve to death.

Wang Yan woke before dawn the next day, thinking about the shrimp traps he had sunk into the water yesterday. He called over Shibang, Gubang, Daya, and Shouchai, who were just as eager as he was. The five-man team strode through the dew and hurried to the bend in the stream.

"Hurry, pull it up and let's see!" Gubang was the most impatient and reached out to tug at the rope tied to a tree root.

Wang Yan was a little nervous too. This was his first attempt, after all. Together with Gubang, he slowly hauled the heavy vine trap out of the water.

With a splash, the trap broke the surface.

"Wow!"

The children all cried out in astonishment!

The crooked shrimp trap was no longer empty! It was packed with large blue-gray shrimp waving their long, translucent pincers, along with several "eight-legged monsters" (crabs) with blue-black shells, brandishing their claws. The frog innards at the bottom of the trap had been almost entirely eaten.

"It worked! It really worked!" Daya shouted excitedly.

Wang Yan hefted it. The catch from this trap alone probably weighed three or four jin! Wouldn't all three traps together amount to nearly ten jin?

His heart pounded. His thinking had been right! Using the fishy-smelling innards of aquatic creatures as bait to attract these scavengers in the water was entirely feasible!

He looked up at the stream before him. It flowed down from the mountains, and the stretch near the tribe was still fairly narrow, only two or three meters wide. But toward the valley's exit, the water clearly broadened, looking to be over twenty meters across, and the current became much gentler. It practically became a small river.

"Look over there." Wang Yan pointed at the broad stretch of water downstream, where huge splashes occasionally erupted. "There are big fish jumping there."

Shibang looked in the direction he pointed and swallowed. "My father and the others speared some before. It's really hard. Fish are slippery and move fast. The meat... I heard it tastes really good. One fish is enough to fill several people's bellies."

Big fish! Wang Yan's heart burned with excitement. If they could catch those big fish steadily, the tribe really would no longer have to worry about a source of protein! Shrimp and crabs were small, after all, and gathering them took effort. But a big fish weighing dozens of jin-that was a substantial amount of meat.

"Maybe we'll be able to catch those big fish someday too," Wang Yan said softly.

With their plentiful catch, the five returned to the tribe in high spirits. Sure enough, when Wang Yan emptied the hide bag full of wriggling shrimp and crabs, another crowd gathered around.

"Are... are these things really edible?" A burly hunter frowned and nudged a crab trying to escape with his foot. "They look frightening. Their shells are so hard. How do you eat them?"

"That's right, Yan. These things look so much like scorpions. Aren't they poisonous?" Granny Cao came over leaning on her walking stick, looking deeply worried.

Even Shibang, Gubang, and the others lost half their earlier excitement at the sight of those claw-waving crabs, shrinking back a little in hesitation. They could understand eating Hopping Beasts, since those at least looked like little animals, but these hard-shelled bugs... they really did look rather creepy.

Wang Yan knew words alone were useless. He had to let the facts speak. He needed to cook them for everyone to see and eat them himself first.

He found his mother, Qingye, hoping to borrow the tribe's most precious possession, its large clay pot. It was part of the dowry Qingye had brought from the Fish Tribe and the only true piece of pottery in the entire Fire Tribe. It was normally used to cook important communal meals or for sacrifices, and everyone treasured it.

"Mother, I want to use the big clay pot to cook these and show everyone they're edible..."

Qingye looked at the "strange-looking" things on the ground and hesitated, but ultimately shook her head. "Yan, it's not that I don't believe you. This pot belongs to the whole tribe. What if... what if there really is something bad about these things, and they contaminate the pot? Everyone would feel uneasy about cooking anything else in it afterward."

Wang Yan understood his mother's concerns. Both the symbolic significance and practical value of this pot were far too great for the tribe. He did not insist. "Then I'll use our family's little stone pot."

He brought over his family's heavy stone pot, set it over the fire, and added water. Then, in front of everyone, he deftly began preparing the shrimp and crabs. He told them to remove the sharp spike at the front of a shrimp's head and the black vein along its back. For the crabs, they needed to lift off the back shell and remove the gills on both sides and the stomach in the middle.

"These things are cooling in nature. Once you boil them thoroughly over a fire or roast them until they're cooked, the coldness is driven out, and they're safe to eat," he explained as he worked.

The water soon boiled. The shrimp and crabs went into the pot, and before long, they turned an enticing red. A distinctive, savory aroma, different from either animal meat or frog meat, spread through the air.

Using chopsticks made from twigs, Wang Yan picked out a large red shrimp and let it cool a little. Then he deftly peeled off its shell, revealing the tender, white, curled flesh inside, dipped it in a little coarse salt crushed in the stone mortar beside him, and popped it into his mouth.

"Mmm!" He narrowed his eyes in satisfaction, chewing the sweet, succulent flesh. "Delicious! It's even more tender and sweeter than frog meat!"

Watching him eat with such relish, the onlookers could not help swallowing, but still no one dared step forward.

Shibang, Gubang, and their friends looked at Wang Yan, then at the bright red shrimp and crabs in the pot, struggling fiercely inside. They trusted Yan, but the way these things looked...

Seeing how they wanted some yet were afraid, Wang Yan smiled and resorted to goading them. "What's wrong? Yesterday you said you trusted me, but today you don't even dare try a bite? Shibang, weren't you just saying yesterday that you wanted to join the hunting team soon? You don't even have this much courage?"

Provoked by his words, Shibang flushed and stiffened his neck. "Who says I don't dare!" He stepped forward and, copying Wang Yan, clumsily peeled a shrimp, closed his eyes, and stuffed it into his mouth.

After chewing twice, his eyes flew open, an incredulous expression appearing on his face. "Huh? It really is good!" With that, he eagerly reached for a second one.

When Gubang saw that Shibang was fine after eating it and even said it tasted good, he could no longer hold back. He rushed forward too and grabbed a crab. "Delicious! So delicious!" he shouted indistinctly.

Seeing this, Daya and Shouchai completely set aside their misgivings and joined the scramble for food.

At first, the four children were still cautious, but soon they were jostling to get ahead of one another, eating until their hands and mouths were covered. There had not been many shrimp and crabs to begin with, and the five of them soon polished everything off.

"All gone?" Still craving more, Gubang stared at the empty stone pot and licked his fingers.

"Yan, tomorrow! Tomorrow let's weave more traps and bring back more!" Shibang waved his fist excitedly, his earlier fear long since flung beyond the ninth heaven.

"Right! Let's get more! These taste even better than Hopping Beasts!" Daya chimed in.

"Looks like... these things really are edible."

"They do smell pretty good..."