After dinner at Xie Xiaoling's house, Liu Yumei urged Xie Wan and several other young people to go to the beach with her.
“Cousin, today is the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. The tide started to ebb at around 10 a.m. and will not rise until around 4 p.m.
If we go now, we can only shop for three or four hours.”
Liu Yumei brought a wooden barrel and several bags of urea to share with everyone, saying, "If we don't have enough sacks at home, these bags can also hold the urea."
Xie Xiaoling brought out a pair of black rubber rain boots for Xie Wan: "Xiao Wan, put these on. Today is not like summer, the sea water is still cold."
Xie Wan was the only one who had shoes to change, and she felt a little embarrassed.
She pointed at Lu Lan and said, "Lan Lan is weaker than me, let her wear it!"
Lu Lan hadn't said a word to Xie Wan today, so she pulled herself together and said, "Xiao Wan, you should wear it. I'll just stand here and watch you guys play from a distance."
Xie Wan actually didn't want to wear someone else's shoes, so he politely declined.
She brought a pair of replacement shoes in her space, so she wasn't afraid if they got wet.
Changqiao Village is close to the sea, and fishing nets are drying in the yards of many families. At this time, there are still many women sitting in front of their homes, chatting in groups of three or five while weaving nets.
"Yumei, are you taking your relatives to go fishing?"
Many villagers saw them carrying buckets and asked them in a friendly manner.
Xie Xiaoling's home was not far from the beach, and it only took ten minutes to walk there. However, after arriving at the beach, Liu Yumei did not stop, but led them to continue walking forward.
"Cousin, let's go to the beach at the mouth of the bay. There are lots of clams there."
Liu Yumei was very shy yesterday, but now at the beach, she feels like a fish in water, like a lark returning to her own world, and her whole being becomes full of life.
Xie Wan had been to Sanya in his previous life and had seen the sea, but he had never gone fishing.
It was Xie Xing's first time to see the sea, and he was very excited. He was the youngest here, and he picked up beautiful shells and stones along the way. He couldn't carry them all by himself, so he asked his cousins to help him.
Lu Feng laughed at him: "What kind of junk is this? Throw it away. I'll find you a beautiful conch shell later."
Finally we arrived at the beach that Liu Yumei mentioned.
Seeing a pore on the beach, Liu Yumei bent down, pinched out a sand clam with two fingers.
When Xie Wan saw how easy it was, he became interested and followed Liu Yumei's example, bending down to look for the air hole. However, he found that it was really difficult to find.
Liu Yumei explained: "Sister Xiaowan, the tide has been low for two hours now. Except for the places with accumulated water, there are no pores in other places where sand clams hide.
You have to dig with a shovel like this..."
Liu Yumei gave Xie Wan a spatula with a broken handle and taught her how to scrape sand.
Soon, Xie Wan dug out a sand clam.
This sand clam actually looks similar to the flower clams that Xie Wan had seen in the vegetable market in later life, but when Xie Wan ate it at noon, he found that the meat was much chewier than the flower clams he had eaten in later life.
This stuff is not valuable here. I heard from Liu Yumei that even if it is purchased at the dock, it is only two cents per pound.
After Xie Wan dug up a few, he lost interest.
Seeing Xie Yuanchao taking Xie Xing off their shoes and walking into the sea, she also took off her shoes and followed them barefoot.
Although Lu Feng grew up in a town, he still often went to his fourth aunt's house to play during the holidays every year.
He has more experience than the three Xie Wan siblings.
Lu Feng rolled up his trouser legs to his thighs and said, "I'll take you to those reefs, where you can dig up clams and oysters."
The place he was taking me to was not far away, just a few steps away.
The stone wall was indeed densely covered with clams and oysters, but unfortunately they were all very small and the big ones had already been dug out.
These oysters were Xie Wan’s favorite in her previous life. When she saw them, she was reminded of the grilled oysters with garlic on the street, and her mouth was watering.
At noon, Xie Xiaoling made them oyster omelette, which was also delicious, but Xie Wan still wanted to eat grilled oysters with garlic.
She finally dug one out, and Lu Feng helped her open it, revealing a milky white soup.
Lu Feng threw it to her and said, "It's too small and hasn't grown yet.
Everything here has been dug up. How about we ask our eldest cousin to take us out by boat?
There is an isolated island ahead, and there must be a lot of oysters on it."
They are all young people, and they mean what they say.
Xie Wan was also excited, as she had never been out to sea on a small fishing boat.
Several people ran back to ask Liu Yumei for her opinion, and Liu Yumei looked a little embarrassed.
Lu Lan had been standing there and not participating in their activities, but now she spoke:
"Xiao Wan, the rules here do not allow women to board fishing boats."
Xie Wan knew that this was feudal superstition, but she couldn't say anything.
Seeing that she looked disappointed, Liu Yumei bravely said, "How about asking Brother Yuanchao to talk to my brother?"
Xie Yuanchao is basically a sister-doting maniac now. His sister wants to take a boat ride, but how can he not let her?
He agreed immediately.
Lu Feng and Xie Yuanchao trotted back to Xie Xiaoling's house and found Liu Jiang to talk.
Liu Jiang is the oldest, he is already married and has two children, but they are still young.
He grew up by the sea, so he was actually averse to it, but it was hard for him to refuse.
His wife was unhappy and advised, "Why not? It's almost noon now and you can only drive for two or three hours."
It’s not safe if the tide comes in.”
In fact, she felt that letting Xie get on the boat at night had ruined the luck of the boat, and that her family would be the one to suffer in the future, so she was unhappy.
Xie Xiaoling was talking to Xie Xiaoyan in the room when she heard the noise outside and came out to ask what was going on.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!
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