Fu Wan quickly carried the bucket over, and upon closer inspection, she saw a red fish covered in spots.
It's a giant starfish!
Fu Wan hasn't eaten grouper for many years.
The East Star Grouper, which looks a bit like a sea bass, is more slender than a regular grouper. It has a smaller head and dark blue eyes. Because its body is covered with fine spots that resemble stars in the sky, it is called the Star Grouper.
The red grouper is extremely nutritious and has delicious meat. Of course, it's not cheap. In modern times, the red grouper that Fu Wan could eat was all farmed, because the red grouper was later listed as a protected fish and catching it was prohibited.
However, that's a matter for the future. In the 1980s, when resources were scarce, fishermen could naturally take home anything from the sea that wasn't explicitly prohibited now.
Fu Wan didn't quite remember how much a pound of grouper cost in the 1980s, but she wasn't in the mood to think about that right now. After all, the fish was still in the ditch; getting it into the bucket was the priority.
Fu Wan put down the bucket and fire tongs in her hands, tiptoed closer, and slowly reached out her hand towards the red fish. Then, taking it by surprise, she grabbed the fish by the gills, restrained its body, and picked it up.
Wow, got it!
Fu Wan's mood immediately improved. After she put the fish into the bucket, she caught a glimpse of a large pair of pincers raised from a crevice in the rocks beside the ditch.
It's a crab!
Dealing with crabs wasn't so difficult. She picked up the fire tongs next to her, grabbed the crab, pulled it out, and lo and behold, there were two blue crabs, one big and one small!
Presumably, the two young people were on a date when Fu Wan caught them in the act.
Looking at the half-full bucket of harvest, Fu Wan felt that was enough and headed home.
The mud crab is different from the hairy crab that is popular nowadays. Fu Wan grew up by the sea and ate seafood, so she is not very enthusiastic about hairy crabs.
She prefers crabs from the sea.
Although mud crabs don't have as much roe as hairy crabs, they are rich in cream, have tender meat, a delicious flavor, and are very nutritious.
Whether steamed or braised, the taste alone makes Fu Wan, who is rushing home, feel her mouth water.
It was already dark by then, and there were hardly any people on the road. Even if there were people, they could only see the seawater that Fu Wan had deliberately muddied, and they couldn't see the two- or three-pound grouper in it at all.
When she got home, Ye Xiaocui had already cooked rice and was preparing to stir-fry vegetables. These past few days, she had been making herself some seaweed salad to eat, but she was steaming eggs for Fu Ming. However, Fu Ming was depressed and didn't eat much.
Fish, crabs, and shellfish are plentiful on the beach, but eggs are still a precious resource.
Now that her daughter and granddaughter have come back, she's wondering what dishes to cook.
"Mother, I'm back!"
Fu Wan carried the bucket into the kitchen, casually tossed the fire tongs in her hand next to the firewood, then carefully poured out the seawater from the bucket and put the harvest into another clean basin.
"There's not much to do on the beach right now, how about we make some egg pancakes tonight..."
Ye Xiaocui, who thought she hadn't gained anything, saw Fu Wan first take out two blue crabs. The larger one probably weighed two pounds, and the smaller one was about one pound.
She stopped mid-sentence. Blue crabs are hard to catch, and there are many villagers nearby. Usually, they would take the blue crabs to Fu San, the fish collector in the village, to sell, but they rarely managed to get one this big.
Any one of these, with a few potatoes, could make a pot enough for the whole family to eat tonight.
Before Ye Xiaocui could recover from the sight of the large blue crab, she watched in disbelief as her daughter pulled out a two- or three-pound red grouper from the bucket.
Startled, she darted away from the stove and peered over to make sure it was indeed a grouper. Ye Xiaocui quickly closed the kitchen door and lowered her voice several decibels.
"Wan'er, where did you catch this grouper?!"
Grouper, isn't it the red grouper?
However, the East Star Grouper is also a type of grouper, and Fu Wan was too lazy to dwell on the name issue. She lowered her voice and said, "It probably ran into the ditch when the tide came in. I caught the crab after seeing this fish."
"Mom, let's steam this fish tonight and give my brother a good nourishing meal."
After hearing her daughter say this, Ye Xiaocui slapped her on the shoulder and said, "What are you eating for? Your brother's leg is in dire need of money. I'll take it to Fu San's house tonight and have him sell it tomorrow. He can get a few dozen yuan!"
Well, after thinking about it, Fu Wan realized that her family was indeed short of money, so she didn't argue with her mother about it. After all, she was living by the sea now, and she could go to sea to find more money later. Sooner or later, she would be able to eat her fill, and even eat until she was sick of it!
Ye Xiaocui carefully kept the spotted grouper in a separate bucket, and the bitter look on her face faded a bit as the joy in her eyes dissipated.
You have to understand that these days, you might not even catch any grouper when you go out to sea. Besides the cost of fuel, you also have to pay taxes on the catch, and after deducting other miscellaneous expenses, fishermen don't actually earn much money.
That's why Fu Wan's father would stay at sea for several days at a time, hoping to earn more money to pay off his debts as soon as possible so he could get his son a wife.
But I never expected... Sigh, sometimes that's just how it is, maybe it's just a person's fate!
Fu Wan noticed the changes in Ye Xiaocui's emotions.
She patted her mother's shoulder and stroked her gray hair. "Mom, with me here, I'll make sure my brother gets better. If the town can't cure him, we'll go to the county. If the county can't cure him, we'll go to the city. If all else fails, we'll go to the capital. I refuse to believe that no one can cure this leg!"
At this point, Ye Xiaocui perked up and whispered to Fu Wan, "Today I went to the village chief's house, and he helped me call the town hospital. He said there happens to be a doctor in town who studies fish bone poisoning. That doctor will come to our village tomorrow to take a look at your brother. I don't know if there's any hope."
A doctor who specializes in studying fish bone venom might actually be able to cure it.
Fu Wan immediately saw hope, and then heard Ye Xiaocui sigh and say, "But the specialist's consultation fee is not low, it's a full fifty yuan, and with the cost of medicine and other things, I estimate it will be around a hundred yuan. Consider this a loan from your brother, and he can pay you back when he gets better."
Fu Wan didn't care about the money. If it could help Fu Ming get back on his feet, she would find a way to earn even thousands of yuan, let alone a few hundred.
The mother and daughter chatted away as they cooked the crabs. They cooked the biggest one directly, but considering that Fu Ming was still recovering, they didn't dare to give him too many crabs. They only stir-fried some vegetables and made an egg drop soup for him, and also gave him a crab claw to taste.
Shen Lingling had a big meal tonight. Crabs are meat, and for Shen Lingling, who hadn't eaten meat in a long time, staying at her grandmother's house was like heaven.
No one was taking her things, and her uncle played with her. After eating and drinking her fill, Chen Lingling fell into a deep sleep.
At this moment, Fu Wan went to her mother's room and told her about a decision.
"Mother, I'm going to go to sea tomorrow."
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