Around the time of Grain in Ear (芒种) every year, Uncle Zhao and Aunt Zhao would take their tools to the beach to catch shrimp. Actually, it was Aunt Zhao who started it. Aunt Zhao came from the north, but she was a girl from the coast. She had been going to the beach to catch shrimp with her father since she was a child.

Later, she followed the merchants to do business, and gradually got to know Uncle Zhao. They fell in love and married in Qimin. She followed the days when she went to sea with her father back home, and around the time of Grain in Ear, she would go to the beach in Qimin to catch shrimp. Gradually, this became a habit.

As Yunling ate her steamed bun, she listened to Aunt Zhao's detailed explanation, which helped to alleviate her drowsiness.

The donkey cart turned a corner, and the boundless sea came into view, but it had no color; it was just a hazy gray expanse.

Yunling stood on the board and looked into the distance. She saw a rosy glow appear on the horizon, and gradually, the clouds in the sky and the surrounding mountains were also tinged with its enchanting color.

"Look, the sun is rising."

Uncle Zhao's voice made Yunling and Yun Ruochun focus their attention even more. They even held their breath and dared not blink, for fear of missing this scene.

After a while, a "salted egg yolk" broke through the clouds and gradually climbed up from the horizon. The waves on the sea gradually became clearer, rolling and rolling. Just as it was rolling, Yunling's heart was also rolling. Before she came here, she had never thought that she would encounter such a beautiful and breathtaking view. She thought she would remember it for a lifetime.

"Uncle Zhao, what color is the sea?"

"The sea is blue, of course. What other color could it be?"

Uncle Zhao replied with a smile. He didn't quite understand why Yunling would ask such a question. What color could the sea be if it wasn't blue?

But then he thought about it again. He had grown up by the sea since childhood, but Yunling and the others had not. So he smiled awkwardly and added, "Once the sun rises, you will be able to see what the sea looks like."

Uncle Zhao was right. By the time they had finished loading the fishing nets, the sun had risen high in the sky, and the whole world was bright. The original color of the sea came into Yunling's eyes.

The vast, blue sea, the surging waves, the seabirds flying in the sky, and Yunling chasing them on the ground—she absolutely loved this feeling of freedom.

"Auntie, come quick, this seawater is so refreshing."

"Ling-jie, be careful."

As Yun Ruochun ran and called out to Yun Ling, she enjoyed the crashing waves. She had never experienced this feeling before, and she loved it so much.

Amidst the shocked expressions of Yunling and Yunruochun, Uncle Zhao shouldered his bamboo basket, dragged his bamboo tools and stilts, and headed towards the waves, which crashed against him one after another.

Uncle Zhao immediately strapped stilts to his feet, instantly making him two meters tall. He fought against the waves, step by step moving forward, but the waves grew fiercer. A high wave crashed over him, and just when he thought it was going to engulf him...

Uncle Zhao added another section to the original stilts, making it two sections in total to withstand the waves and stand firmly.

He found a good spot on the sea, set up his fishing net, submerged it on the seabed, and dragged a bamboo pole along. In the unknown sea, he could only use his feet to sense the presence of shrimp. After about fifteen minutes, he lifted the net, used a small strainer to scoop up the contents, and put them into a bamboo basket.

This process was repeated, and a day's hard work could only fill one bamboo basket, but Uncle Zhao was already satisfied.

In the afternoon,

After everyone packed up their things, Yunling and Yunruochun put the seashells they had collected into their pockets and went home. As they walked to the alley entrance, they smelled the aroma of food.

Grandma Yun didn't go out with them today. She thought that since they were taking advantage of living in someone else's house, they should at least do some chores to avoid being disliked or gossiped about. That's why she didn't go to see the sea with them today, but instead helped Grandma Zhao pound fish and pork.

For lunch, they had fish ball soup. Yunling scooped up a fish ball, blew on it to dissipate the steam, and took a bite. However, the hot soup inside burned her mouth. She didn't know whether to spit it out or not, so she could only pout and exhale. This little action amused everyone.

Uncle Zhao was also happy, so he poured all the shrimp from the bamboo basket into the pot, added water and salt to keep them fresh. According to them, this boiled and dried shrimp is shrimp skin.

These dried shrimp are a rare find. Four catties of fresh shrimp can only yield about one catty of dried shrimp. Sometimes, when it's foggy at sea and the weather is bad, you can't even catch four catties. So, the price can be as high as two hundred coins per tael.

Yunling smiled and popped another large fish ball into her mouth, thinking that if her aunt Yun Ruoxia found out, she would definitely try to get her hands on these dried shrimp, probably thinking of buying some here to make a profit.

Yun Ruoxia, who was being nagged, sneezed loudly. She quickly covered her nose, afraid of scaring the termite nest below. She quickly pried up the termite mushrooms, carried one basket on her back, one on each shoulder, and put the rest in her pocket. She took them all down the mountain to Zhang's place to have them pressed for oil.

The next morning, she took the chicken mushroom oil, black-skinned chicken mushroom, shiitake mushroom, and black small mushroom with Yun Shenghua to the county town.

Uncle Cao accepted the termite mushroom oil, and seeing that Yun Ruoxia still hadn't brought royal jelly, he couldn't help but ask, "Second Aunt, is this royal jelly...? Have the bees been less active lately?"

Yun Ruoxia was eager to collect royal jelly, but Yun Ling was not around. During that time, she was busy learning how to scrape honey, so she didn't learn how to attract bees to produce royal jelly.

"Last year, a lot of our bee colonies were taken by the eldest son's family, so..."

"Oh, right, we didn't provide royal jelly last year, but this spring is the crucial time for bee colony reproduction. There are many bees, but we still don't have royal jelly?"

Uncle Cao was also very eager. Ever since the first batch of royal jelly appeared in the capital, all kinds of powerful and wealthy people had been vying for it. Especially after hearing that the ancestor of the Vice Minister of State Affairs could help him sleep after taking it, the demand for royal jelly was pushed to a high level.

When supply falls short of demand, prices naturally rise, which is exactly what Uncle Cao wanted to do. Just as he was about to make good use of public opinion to promote the product, royal jelly suddenly became unavailable, which made him very anxious.

"To be honest, Uncle Cao, three people from my family have gone to Fujian. We are too busy with the work at home to take care of everything."

Lu Yinghuai, who had just returned from outside, overheard these words. He paused, his heart skipped a beat, and he felt extremely uneasy.

There must be that little girl among those three. Just how brave did she have to go to that unfamiliar place? It's nothing like the county town.

Does she know the people there? Does she know their customs and traditions? Does she know the local conditions? Is she adapted to the climate? Can she travel by boat? Can she swim?

Does she know how worried he is about her?