Chen Hong's mother said to Chen Hong in an annoyed tone, "You make it sound like someone my age is so playful."

I meant we should gather more seaweed before we leave. Look how well this seaweed is growing!

It's thick, wide, and long; you can't buy such good kelp in Jinan.

If you take this home and dry it, it will keep for a long time!

When you want to eat it, just soak it in water. Whether you stir-fry it, stew it, or make a cold dish, it tastes great.

Didn't you say you were going to make a vegetarian hot pot at home? Our family loves it, and we have a big pot at home. We can simmer a whole pot and share it with our relatives and neighbors. It'll last us for two days!

The three of us couldn't lift it, so we only cut two. You go and cut a whole bunch more.

The boat isn't afraid of being crushed, and going back empty would just be a waste of fuel. Anyway, we have nothing to do at home, so what's the difference between leaving early or late?

"This is all money! You've been living so well these past two years, I've seen you get too cocky, forgetting how hard it was to stretch every penny."

Chen Hong's head was throbbing from her mother's nagging. She silently calculated the time and realized that if she didn't have to stop and look for fishing spots on the way back and sailed quickly, she could get home in three hours at most.

With a sigh, Chen Hong had no choice but to compromise. She took a sickle and went up to the island, where she selected the longest, thickest, and best-quality seaweed to cut.

Kelp belongs to the subarctic algae, is rich in nutrients, is quite effective in preventing cancer, and is also a major source of iodine. It has made outstanding contributions to the prevention of goiter in humans.

Kelp is widely cultivated in the north, but the temperature in the south is higher than in the north, making it unsuitable for kelp growth, thus making it a rare food ingredient.

This thing can grow up to five or six meters long and thirty centimeters wide. A single piece of kelp can weigh four or five kilograms. It's not uncommon in the northern coastal areas; fresh kelp only sells for two cents a kilogram.

Chen Hong bent over, panting as she cut a large bundle, weighed it in her hand (it weighed about a hundred pounds), tied it up, tucked it under her arm, and returned to the boat.

Mom has already gotten Erni up and is holding the child in the cabin, giving her water.

Seeing her eldest daughter bring back such a large bundle of kelp, she smiled and nodded, saying, "This kelp is growing so well, and nobody cares or asks about it. If it were closer to home, I would come and cut it every day."

This stuff grows better than crops, it doesn't get sick or infested with pests, and you don't have to spend a penny on it—it's all free.

Chen Hong threw the seaweed onto the deck and pulled the plank back. She said to her mother, "Only an old lady like you who's never seen the world would care about this stuff."

A pound is only worth 50 cents. Even if you cut this big bundle weighing a hundred pounds, it's not worth as much as a single bass weighing a pound.

Isn't this just asking for trouble? With that kind of energy and time, you could easily catch a fish in the nearshore waters and buy a whole truckload of dried seaweed.

No need to carry it home, no need to find a place to dry it, it saves time and effort, and you don't get covered in dirt!

As Chen Hong steered the boat back, she saw her mother leading the child and forcibly pulling Chen Hong's father onto the deck, pointing to the vast expanses of seaweed surrounding the isolated island.

The brown kelp was wide and long, drifting in the seawater.

He said regretfully, "Old Chen, look at all this seaweed, it's just growing here unchecked, and nobody comes to harvest it."

Xiaohong complained that it wasn't worth much, so I told her to cut more to take home, but she still argued with me.

Five cents a pound isn't a small amount. How much is too much? We plant corn, work hard for half a year, and have to spend money to plow the land, buy fertilizer, and irrigate it.

They worked themselves to the bone, day and night tending to the crops, drying the corn until it was crisp and dry, only to sell it for one yuan and ten cents a pound.

Your daughter has some money now, but she's increasingly unsure how to make ends meet.

Look, if we harvest all this kelp, we could easily make 20,000 to 30,000 catties. Even if we only sold it for 50 cents a catty, we could still earn 10,000 to 20,000 yuan.

This is practically free money! She can't even be interested in so much cash? You tell me, how arrogant has your daughter become?!

Chen Hong's father gazed at the vast expanse of dark brown sea, which swayed freely in the deep blue water, like the bound feet of an old lady from the old society.

Although it wasn't very pretty, it grew vigorously and covered the entire sea area next to the island.

No wonder his wife was reluctant to leave; it was all money! It would break his heart to see her give it all up.

When he led a group of men, young and old, to do renovations, six or seven of them would work for a month, covered in dust, and only then could they earn a little over ten thousand yuan.

You might as well come here to harvest seaweed!

If there were five people, they could collect all this seaweed in a day, which would be enough to earn them a month's salary.

However, he then thought of the big fish his daughter had caught that afternoon. Not to mention the yellow croaker, even the big grouper or the melon seed fish could sell for thousands of yuan.

He roughly calculated that, setting aside the fish he didn't recognize, just the ones he did recognize, if all of them were sold, his daughter could earn at least fifty or sixty thousand yuan.

And those two yellow croakers—my daughter didn't say exactly how much they were worth. Although they can't be sold, they're worth about the price of a house.

A house! Not to mention other cities, even in an ordinary residential area in Jinan, a house is now worth three or four hundred thousand yuan.

Wow, you wouldn't believe it until you calculate it! There's money hidden all over this vast ocean!

No wonder people say the ocean is a treasure trove!

Not to mention the various kinds of fish in the sea, even the seaweed (kelp) that grows in the sea can be sold for money.

"Stop nagging Xiao Hong. If it weren't for this bunch of old and young people getting in the way, Xiao Hong could definitely earn more by fishing than by cutting seaweed!"

She was in such a hurry to get back because she was worried about the danger of us spending the night at sea.

If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense! In the past, when my daughter went out to sea, it would take at least three or four days.

Sometimes they can stay at sea for more than ten days, and they won't go home until they've filled their cabin.

Look, Xiaohong only put out four baskets of longline fishing line today. We went out to sea with the boat, which delayed her fishing. Do you know that?

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!