"Holy crap, there are so many whelks!"
Hearing the noise, Fu Liang didn't even have time to put down the octopus he was holding.
The octopus in his hand mercilessly splattered ink all over him.
Fu Ming proudly raised his head, "That's right, look who moved the stone."
"Liangzi, want to help me lift the rocks?"
Hmph, let this guy abandon him and go beachcombing with his wife. Now he didn't find any whelks, huh?
Fu Liang was incredibly envious, but he was also worried about leaving Wang Huiping behind.
Who knows if we'll encounter poison snails again...
Fu Wan noticed his hesitation and pointed to the rocks next to them.
"Brother Liang, snails live in groups. Why don't you and your wife check the rocks over there? You might find a surprise!"
"Ah Wan, you're right!"
Ah Wan is such a good sister, but Ah Ming is probably not a good brother!
Fu Liang led Wang Huiping toward the place Fu Wan pointed out. Jiang Chunlan was still picking snails when she discovered a large patch of yellow snails, which she was reluctant to give up.
Following Fu Wan's instructions, Fu Liang lifted up a small piece of rock.
There were no whelks under the rocks, but there was a red flower crab with two long legs and eight tentacles.
Fu Liang stepped on the crab, and Wang Huiping wasn't idle either; she boldly caught the octopus.
Although we didn't find any whelks, we weren't out of the running either.
Undeterred, the couple continued turning over stones.
After they had turned over five or six rocks, they finally spotted the whelk.
"Awan and Aming, look, we've found some whelks too!"
Fu Liang was as happy as a child, and Wang Huiping, standing beside him, was also beaming with excitement.
Whelks, precious whelks, she's never tasted them before!
"Haha, I knew it!"
"Yes, Awan, you're amazing!"
Wang Huiping was full of admiration. After praising it a couple of times, she hurriedly picked up the snail from the ground.
The seawater was still surging in, and they had to speed up, otherwise the snails would be swept back into the sea by the waves when the tide came in.
Besides the whelks, Fu Wan also found several abalones on two large rocky cliffs.
The abalone wasn't very big, probably around four or five pieces. Fu Wan and Fu Ming pried it off with a stone and threw it into the basin.
Ye Xiaocui was laughing so hard she was almost numb. Before, she felt sorry that Fu Wan had left the snails for her to eat, but now, she only had one thought in her mind.
Eat it! There's so much, we definitely can't finish it all at home!
Fu Ling and Qin Mingzhu were also picking up snails like the adults, but with the chicken heart snails from before, the two little ones were very cautious.
Fu Wan would glance at them every now and then, just in case they fell into the trench.
"Godmother, look, we caught two shrimp!"
Qin Mingzhu's excited voice came from inside. Fu Wan looked up and saw that there was a mantis shrimp in their net.
The student has truly surpassed the teacher!
Before Fu Wan could speak, Ye Xiaocui exclaimed happily.
"Oh my, my dear granddaughter, you're even selling mantis shrimp online?"
Jiang Chunlan was also amazed.
"My goodness, you two are amazing!"
After being praised by the adults, not only the younger Fu Ling, but even the older Qin Mingzhu was so happy that her teeth were practically sticking out.
Ye Xiaocui stepped forward to help the two of them catch the shrimp from the net and put them into the bucket. After Fu Ling and Qin Mingzhu finished their work, they couldn't wait to run towards the trench.
Seeing their happy expressions, Fu Wan was also overjoyed.
After collecting the snails, Fu Wan and the others walked a short distance forward.
Although it was night, the moon in the sky was very bright.
She hadn't walked far when she noticed something unusual about the mud and sand nearby.
The mudflats after the tide recedes will leave all sorts of marks. How to use these marks to find seafood depends on the skill of the beachcombers.
Clearly, Fu Wan is capable.
She rummaged through the tools she had brought and then pulled out a small shovel.
The mud and sand are piled up, so there's definitely something there.
She took a shovel and started digging at the pile of mud and sand, which attracted the attention of Fu Ling and Qin Mingzhu.
"They're out! They're out!"
Wow, it's a giant conch shell!
Fu Wan picked up the conch shell and washed it in the nearby ditch.
"It's a horseshoe snail."
"Horseshoe snail?"
Fu Ling was puzzled and immediately began to recall whether she had such a snail shell in her little treasure chest.
The answer was naturally no; Fu Ling grabbed the conch shell.
"Mom, can we have this?"
She's missing a horseshoe snail specimen in her box!
It was just a seashell, so Fu Wan naturally didn't refuse.
"Okay, one horseshoe snail isn't enough for you two. I'll look for some more, and you can each have one later."
After saying that, she picked up a shovel and began searching for traces of horseshoe snails.
Horseshoe snails are not particularly rare sea snails; on the contrary, they are actually quite common.
The shell of the horseshoe snail is also a standard cone shape. The shell is hard, and the surface is mainly milky white with obvious purple stripes or dark red spots.
Image of horseshoe snail (image removed due to copyright infringement)
Horseshoe snails have distinctly layered shells and generally prefer to live under rocks and mud. These snails feed on seaweed; not only is the snail meat edible, but the shell can also be used in traditional medicine.
In addition, the nacreous layer of the horseshoe snail's shell is very hard and has a beautiful pearly luster.
Therefore, the shells of this type of snail can also be used for carving. In the 1970s and 1980s, many factories collected the shells of horseshoe snails to produce buttons.
Under the expectant gazes of Fu Ling and Qin Mingzhu, Fu Wan found another horseshoe snail in just a few minutes.
These two horseshoe snails are similar in color and size, and judging from the snail meat, they should both be alive.
"Put the conch in water to purge the sand first, and I'll help you get the conch meat out when we get back."
"good!"
Fu Ling and Qin Mingzhu readily agreed, but to get the snail shells, they would have to extract the snail meat from the shells, which was a technical skill they didn't know how to do.
Strangely enough, after Fu Wan circled around for a while, there were still no more horseshoe snails.
However, she did manage to dig out more than a pound of finger-length razor clams.
Although digging for razor clams requires doing it one by one, looking at the huge pile of razor clams in the basin, Fu Wan felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.
This is the joy of beachcombing. After finishing with the razor clams, Fu Wan returned to Ye Xiaocui's side, completely satisfied.
I've completely satisfied my craving for beachcombing today.
Ye Xiaocui, Fu Ming, and the others were still picking up the snails. There were just too many snails on the ground, and they couldn't possibly pick them all.
With nothing else to do, Fu Wan took stock of her harvest. She had a large bucket of whelks, three buckets of spicy whelks, and razor clams, octopus, crabs, and abalone in a basin. Overall, it looked pretty good.
Just then, the voices of Fu Ling and Qin Mingzhu suddenly came from not far away.
"Mom, Uncle, come quick! There's a big fish here!"
Upon hearing the sound, Fu Wan and Fu Ming rushed forward, but after looking around the trench with flashlights, they couldn't even spot a single fish scale.
"Lingling, there's no fish here. You're not just kidding your uncle, are you?"
Fu Ling was so angry she kept grumbling.
"There's a fish! Mingzhu and I both saw it! There's a big fish in here!"
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