After working for more than an hour, Fu Wan's hands were a little sore. She raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead with her clothes and realized that the snakeskin bag she had brought was already more than half full.
"Father, elder brother, is that enough?"
Boss Fu looked around and said, "Hmm, that's about it. We'll save the rest for next year before the Lunar New Year."
Boss Fu understands the importance of a steady, long-term approach.
Of course, he didn't forget to remind Fu Ming, "Ah Ming, you have to remember, only the four of us know about this place. When we get back, you can't tell anyone!"
Fu Ming nodded in agreement, "Don't worry, Dad, I understand."
He's not stupid. If people find out there are bird's nests here, they'll probably pick up every last bird's nest, let alone the bird's nests.
Even if you collect bird's nests, you can't lose your conscience. If greedy people find out, all the swiftlets' nests will be harvested, and within six months, the swiftlets here will move away.
In that case, it will be difficult for them to obtain bird's nest in the future.
The three people's bird's nests were packed into three snakeskin bags, each half-filled with bird's nests, and together they probably weighed several dozen kilograms.
Fu Wan picked up her bag of bird's nest and took the lead.
"Let's go, hurry up and get out of here, we still need to collect the traps!"
"Oh dear, I was so busy I almost forgot about the fish traps in the sea!"
Fu Ming let out a low exclamation, then followed Fu Wan with a big smile on his face, carrying the bird's nests he had harvested.
"Ah Wan, everyone says that bird's nest is good for women, is that true?"
"I don't know, but it should have some effect."
To be honest, Fu Wan doesn't really like eating this stuff. She kept a few bowls of bird's nest at home from the last time, but when she thought about how bird's nest is made up of swallows' saliva, she couldn't bring herself to eat it.
Upon hearing this, Fu Ming knew it was working. His heart immediately warmed; his wife had a new assignment and was busy in the lab every day. He needed to save some of the bird's nest to stew for her later to nourish her body!
The way out was always easier than the way in. Fu Wan and the other two carefully walked out of the cave with flashlights in hand. When they came out, their feet were heavy.
Seeing the bird droppings stuck to the other people's feet, Fu Wan and the other two couldn't help but laugh at each other.
"Oh dear, hurry up and wash in the water, or you'll get the boat all dirty!"
Fu Ming was the first to run to the ditch to wash the dirt off his feet. Once his feet felt better, he carried the bird's nest to the boat.
Bird's nests dissolve in water, so they had to put the bird's nests into the cabin first before dealing with collecting the cages and bamboo tubes.
Otherwise, if the bird's nest comes into contact with seawater, all their hard work will be wasted.
After placing the bird's nest, the three of them divided the work of collecting the cages that had been put down earlier.
Fu Wan was the first to hook a fish trap. She had put some dead fish and shrimp in the trap beforehand, hoping to lure fish that liked the taste into it.
The answer is definitely yes, especially since crabs love this kind of food. Fu Wan finally managed to scoop the trap onto the deck, but before she could even untie the rope, she saw the red-armored crab holding up its pincers below.
She untied the rope and poured her catch into the fish basket. With a splash, the basket was filled with crabs.
Besides the crabs, there were also several half-meter-long conger eels.
Unfortunately, one of the eels was pinched to death by a crab and was starting to smell bad.
Fu Wan roughly sorted through them. The crabs the size of eggs were too small to keep, and the dead ones couldn't be eaten either. She kept quite a few, about twenty or thirty crabs.
It mainly consisted of stone crabs and red-shelled crabs, along with two medium-sized orchid crabs.
After Fu Wan finished choosing, Fu Ming and Boss Fu brought up two more fish traps.
"Hey, there are sea urchins in here too!"
Fu Ming emptied the catch from the fish trap. He had a lot of crabs, but surprisingly, there were also a few sea urchins. Fu Wan put them in another fish basket and went back to check how plump they were.
Of the first three fish traps the three of them pulled up, Boss Fu had the best catch; he not only had crabs, but even a grouper.
Judging from its lively appearance, it probably hasn't been in the cage for long.
However, this grouper was quite different from the groupers I had seen before. Not only were the spots on its body larger, but the colors were also different.
Boss Fu was very knowledgeable and immediately recognized the species of the grouper.
"This is a Western Starfish, a relative of the Eastern Starfish!"
"What?! There really is a Western Star Spot!"
Fu Ming was somewhat incredulous, but seeing that Boss Fu didn't seem to be joking, he couldn't help but go over to take a closer look.
"My goodness, there really is a grouper? Hey, is this fish valuable?"
"It's valuable. The taste of this fish is only slightly worse than that of the grouper, so the price must be quite high."
Fu Wan picked up the conversation, she hadn't expected to find a Western Star Grouper in the fish trap.
I thought today was going to be a crab feast!
The Western Star Grouper, scientifically known as the Blue-spotted Gill-toothed Perch, is called the Western Star Grouper because this fish is abundant in the Xisha Islands.
The most distinctive feature of this fish is that it has white spots all over its body, and some of its tails also have white edges.
At the same time, the tail of this fish also has a distinct layered shape with a clear edge band, most of which is a beautiful blue.
Image of West Star Spot (removed if infringing copyright).
Western grouper is best steamed, and you generally need to use a fishing rod or extended fishing line to have a chance of catching it.
I don't know what happened today, but I was able to catch grouper with fish traps.
Fu Laoda was overjoyed and hurriedly took back the remaining earth cages.
He didn't plan to sell this fish; it was only about a pound. He would take it home to steam it that evening when his granddaughter came back.
When Fu Wan saw that there were fish in the fish trap, she became even more interested.
Before long, all ten fish traps and crab traps were retrieved. In addition to the grouper, they also caught a half-dead sea bass and a one-meter-long conger eel.
As for the crabs, there were plenty, filling five large baskets. Not only that, there were also dozens of sea cucumbers in the traps, some as thick as a finger, which delighted Boss Fu.
After collecting the earthen traps, there were still bamboo tube traps. At this point, there weren't many octopuses. After collecting two hundred bamboo tubes, we only harvested about half a bucket of octopuses.
Fu Wan estimated that the weight would not exceed ten pounds.
But something is better than nothing; besides what we eat ourselves, we can sell some of it.
After all, octopus is more expensive at this time, costing around 1.3 yuan per pound.
After finishing all that, Boss Fu steered the boat to the dock. It was already past eleven o'clock, and by the time they arrived at the dock, it should be lunchtime.
Because it was at this time, there were practically no people on the dock.
Fu Laoda had left the cart with Lao Li Tou early in the morning, and now he was putting the crabs and octopuses on it. With so many bamboo tubes and fish traps to cover it up, no one noticed what was in the snakeskin bag next to him.
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