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Jiangnan, Qingyang City.
Qingyang City is still the same Qingyang City. Even after so much time has passed, nothing has changed.
Gusu Wharf in Qingyang City.
"Fish for sale! Fish for sale! Specially shipped from the East China Sea, the fish are tender and delicious, absolutely the best ingredient for soup. Thirty cents a piece, first come, first served!"
On the banks of the Gusu River, fishing boats were docked on the shore, and many fishermen in mandarin jackets and linen shorts came down from the boats carrying bamboo baskets full of fish.
Immediately, many women and old men gathered around, vying to look at the quality of these sea fish.
Jiangnan dishes are mostly made with river fish, but some rich people who are used to eating river fish naturally disdain to associate with ordinary people and only want to eat the fresher sea fish.
So much so that in the Jiangnan area, sea fish shipped from the East China Sea are sold at extremely high prices.
Some less common sea fish can even be sold for more than ten taels each, which is extremely luxurious.
The bamboo baskets brought down by these fishermen contained a dazzling array of sea fish of all sizes and species. Some fish had colorful scales, some had extremely long whiskers, some had sharp teeth in their mouths, and had a lantern-like organ on their foreheads.
There are so many varieties, so interesting.
"They are all fresh, without any delay on the road. They are shipped directly from the East China Sea via the canal. The villagers can choose freely. I am fair in the price and no bargaining is accepted." A man who looked like a fisherman said with a fist salute.
The women who come to the pier to buy sea fish are either from restaurants in Qingyang City or the grocery shopping ladies from prominent families. Price is naturally not an issue for them, but they must buy fish that taste particularly good when cooked.
For a moment, many women gathered around the fish basket and began to feel around carefully.
At this moment, a large green-shelled crab was turned over and exposed to everyone's eyes.
This crab looked extremely strange. Not only were its two claws as big as bowls, but there was something even more bizarre on its shell, a ghost face pattern that was incredibly weird.
This crab had black eyes, white legs, a green shell, and two small fish clamped in its claws. Everyone was stunned when they saw it.
I have lived for so long, but I have never seen a crab that looks like this.
Not to mention the people who came to buy vegetables, even the fishermen and their leaders were stunned.
This crab was clearly no ordinary crab; it was a rare commodity rarely seen in a century. If it were given to some wealthy individual, who knows, their collecting instincts might kick in and they'd generously shell out a few hundred taels to buy it. This would be a great deal with no loss.
Without waiting for others to react, the leader of the fishermen reached out and grabbed the crab by its shell and took it out of the bamboo basket.
"I won't buy it, and I won't sell it. You can look at other things." The fishermen's leader said bluntly.
This thing is strange, so naturally other people have no intention of buying it. What if it is something unclean, it will be troublesome if they bring it back home.
For a moment, everyone withdrew their gaze and began to choose other sea fish.
I have to say that these baskets of fish today are really strange. As everyone turned them over with their hands, more and more strange-looking seafood appeared.
There were turtles with colorful stones on their shells, mantis shrimps as glittering as crystal, and fish scales on their bodies that were sharper than knives and even cut a woman's palm in half.
These are things I have never seen before. I didn’t expect that there would be so many top-quality products in one basket at once today.
"What's going on?"
As time went by, everyone was stunned. They had never seen such a situation before.
The leader of the fishermen scratched his head in confusion: "This is strange! I checked before bringing it here, and I didn't see so many strange fish."
"If something strange happens, there must be something wrong. The sea is like this, hiding a lot of dirty things. It seems that these boxes of fish are not right. I won't buy them. It would be bad if I offend the Dragon King of the Sea." A woman hurriedly poured all the fish she had already picked back into the bamboo basket.
"Yes, yes, yes, I won't buy it either. It's too weird." Another old man immediately said the same thing.
If there is one, there will naturally be two. Under someone's lead, many buyers gave up and turned around to leave this place without any hesitation.
This really scared the fishermen's leader. The reason they transported sea fish to the south of the Yangtze River by canal transportation was to make money. If anyone wanted to buy them, these boxes of fish would be cheaper than stones. Not to mention making a profit, it would be difficult for them to even earn enough money to eat.
"Hey, don't go! This isn't weird, it's just a coincidence."
However, no one believed his words, and after a while, many buyers left.
Seeing this, the other fishermen immediately gathered around and asked in a panic, "Boss, what should we do now? No one is buying."
The fisherman's leader frowned as he looked at the strange crab in his hand. He then said harshly, "If we can't make money with small ones, then let's go and make a big one. Let's take these baskets to the wealthy people in Qingyang City. Maybe once they see this rare thing, they will buy them all at a high price."
The others looked at each other and said, "That's all we have to do."
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