Chapter 196 Jinjiang Exclusive
Yunlu Village is actually not far from the seaside. It only takes two hours by floating bus to reach a coast with both sandy beaches and rocky beaches.
Today's weather, well, it has been very good since the beginning of the polar day. Before we even got close to the seaside, the villagers in the car could already see the blue sea in the distance.
"It's the sea!"
"This is the ocean! It's really vast, completely different from rivers!"
The men, women, young and old in the car leaned close to the window and looked at the sea in the distance, their faces full of curiosity and excitement.
However, when they found that Lu Xuan had parked the bus in an open space far away from the sea, everyone couldn't help but show confusion on their faces.
"Why park so far away?" Li Tie asked Lu Xuan.
Lu Xuan got out of the RV and looked at the vast expanse of mudflats in front of him. He said, "It's low tide now. In a few hours, this mudflat will be covered by seawater. If we don't move far away, the bus station will be submerged by seawater."
"Huh? There is such a thing?" The other villagers who had just gotten off the bus were all very surprised, and looked at the sea in the distance with a strange look.
People who grew up inland really find it hard to imagine what it means for the tide to recede for hundreds or even thousands of meters.
Zhang Chengming said, "So if we want to go out to sea, do we have to walk to the beach and then launch the kayak or fishing boat?"
Lu Xuan shook his head. "Don't rush out to sea. We can't waste these rare good days."
Everyone was puzzled.
Lu Qing asked, "What good day?"
Lu Xuan said: "The tide is going out, a good day for fishing."
Coincidentally, today is the first day of the third lunar month, the day of low tide.
Normally, the tide ebbs once in the morning and once in the evening, with an interval of six hours in between. The time suitable for going to the beach is only about one hour.
Low tide is different. On the first and fifteenth day of every month, as well as the three days before and after, the low tide lasts much longer, the sea water recedes farther, and the exposed mudflats suitable for fishing are wider.
The harvest will be richer than during the usual low tide, and the time available for fishing will also be greatly increased.
Lu Xuan pointed to a large stretch of mudflat and told the others: "At first glance, this mudflat seems to be empty, but in fact, hidden in the mud and sand are countless seafood that didn't have time to retreat with the sea. Shellfish, shrimp, crabs, conch, kelp, seaweed, octopus..."
As Lu Xuan described, the villagers' eyes became brighter and brighter, and their excitement was suddenly aroused.
"It sounds interesting!" Chen Rong said, rubbing his hands.
Ji Xiuling beside him also had bright eyes.
Others were also excited and said, "It sounds like this beach is a treasure trove of seafood!"
"The key is that it sounds interesting, finding the hidden seafood bit by bit."
Lu Xuan nodded, "Going to the sea is an activity that can both bring rewards and a good time."
In a sense, it can also be considered a treasure hunt.
The satisfaction you get is completely different from going directly into the sea with a fishing net and catching hundreds or thousands of pounds of fish.
Li Tuo, who had been thinking about the holographic game on the way here, had completely forgotten about it. He said impatiently, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's start picking up seafood!"
Lu Chen, Xiong Dabao and other children were also very interested in this activity, with eager faces, and many children even couldn't help running onto the beach.
Lu Xuan said calmly: "Don't worry, first get the tools for fishing, and then I will teach you some tips on finding seafood."
For those who have never gone to the beach before and have not experienced the many modern videos of beach hunting, if they don’t have urgent special training for their first time, they may not find much even if they just walk around the mudflats.
On the way here, Lu Xuan had already bought a lot of tools in the mall, and now he could just take them out and distribute them to everyone.
Each person has a bucket filled with a small shovel, a rake, a colander, a large tongs, gloves, a scoop net, a bamboo tube with a small hole in it, and other tools.
Lu Xuan took out one of the bamboo tubes and told the villagers who had gathered around him, "Fill it with salt. Later, go to the beach and find the small breathing holes. Use a small shovel to remove the top layer of salt. Sprinkle salt into the holes, and the clams hidden inside will emerge."
"Once you find a clam, you have to pull it out immediately. Otherwise, it will quickly retract and burrow deeper into the sand. If you are quick and dig more mud and sand, you may be able to catch it. But if you are slow, you will not get anything."
Everyone was surprised when they heard this, "This way of catching it sounds interesting." It's just that the salt sprinkled on it is a bit wasteful.
But thinking about the delicious seafood that Lu Xuan brought back last time, it was just a little bit of salt. Each household had stockpiled hundreds or even thousands of kilograms of it, so using one or two kilograms for sea fishing didn't seem like a big deal.
Lu Xuan continued, "But the breathing holes found aren't necessarily from razor clams. They could also be from moon clams. The breathing holes in moon clams are smaller, so you can just dig them out with a small shovel."
"There may also be a lot of clams around the beach where you found the moon shells. If you dig around a bit, you might be lucky enough to find a whole bunch of them."
"In some places, there are densely packed with small breathing holes. You can just use a colander to dig out a whole layer of sand, filter out the sand with seawater, and you'll find a lot of clams inside."
"If you find a bump on the beach, it could be a cat's eye snail or a crab lying on the sand. If you find any unnatural bumps on the mudflats, you can take a look. Be careful not to grab them with your bare hands if you are not sure what they are. Always wear gloves."
"Once you're sure it's a crab, you need to use a large claw to catch it. Crab claws are very strong and can easily break your fingers if you're not careful."
The villagers who were listening with great interest froze in their expressions and immediately nodded seriously: "We must be careful!"
It would be so embarrassing if you broke your fingers while catching crabs.
Afterwards, Lu Xuan told everyone some other precautions based on his own experience and the videos of sea-hunting he had seen before.
After the villagers had a preliminary understanding and theoretical knowledge of sea fishing, Lu Xuan said, "Okay, everyone can take their tools and try to find as much seafood as possible."
The villagers immediately cheered and scattered around with tools in their hands, high morale.
More than a hundred people scattered on the vast mudflats were like fish and sea water. It did not seem crowded at all, and there was no need to worry about not having enough harvest to share.
Most people were very interested in the breathing hole mentioned by Lu Xuan, and they all thought it was the easiest to find. They immediately filled bamboo tubes with salt and bent down to search on the mudflats.
Soon, someone exclaimed, "I found the breathing hole!"
Then he enthusiastically used a shovel to dig up a layer and sprinkled salt towards the breathing holes.
People nearby quickly gathered around to watch, and as soon as they got close, they saw a pale yellow clam head popping out of the breathing hole.
The villagers spreading the salt quickly and accurately grabbed the clams and pulled them up, laughing happily: "Hahaha, I caught them! It's really fun!"
When the others saw the example, their eyes lit up even more. They said unconvincedly, "It's just one. Why are you so proud? I'm sure I can find more."
Having said that, they dispersed again and started searching elsewhere with wide eyes.
One after another, people in different places shouted that they had found breathing holes, and then sprinkled salt and caught clams.
If you are quick, you can catch them easily. If you are slow, the clams will run away if you are not careful, and you won’t be able to catch them even if you dig with a shovel.
Once this happens, you will inevitably be laughed at by other villagers.
Some people also found breathing holes, and just like Lu Xuan taught, they didn't find razor clams, but instead dug up moon shells or cockles.
Some people found that the razor clams were not too big and were not satisfying to eat. After playing with them for a while at first, they quickly changed their focus and began looking for clams all over the mudflats. Whenever they found one, they would grab it.
"Hahahaha! What a big conch! Is this the cat-eye snail that Lu Xuan mentioned? The meat is really fat!" Zhang Chengming was holding a big cat-eye snail in his hand with a bright smile.
Ye Ping, who was standing by, quickly handed over the bucket. "Quick, put it in there. Let's look around. There must be more nearby. Find some and cook a plate of it back home. The whole family can enjoy a good meal."
Zhang Chengming nodded immediately, "That's right, keep looking!"
Seven out of ten bumps on the mudflats are cat's-eye snails, and there are quite a lot of them. It didn't take long for Zhang Chengming and his wife's bucket to be filled with a layer of cat's-eye snails.
However, compared with Wuyang, the number is still a little too small.
As a person with enhanced vision, Wu Yang's ability was brought to its limit at this moment.
Although the villagers who lack experience in sea fishing have made some small gains so far, they have actually missed out on even greater gains. They often cannot distinguish between pebbles and clams, and they will ignore crabs buried in the sand that are well hidden.
Wuyang is different.
He can find breathing holes, bulges, or even a tiny crab leg sticking out of the sand without missing a thing, and he can always find it.
In just a quarter of an hour, the bucket was full of cat's eye snails, and the crabs and clams found in the process also filled up half of the bucket.
Li Yue, who was following beside them, was smiling widely, her eyes full of the joy of a good harvest, which made the other women nearby who didn't have as good a harvest as them very envious.
In contrast, Xiong Mao, who was a negative example, had a strong physique but it was of no use to him in sea fishing.
Like a half-blind man, he couldn't find anything except the breathing hole. After struggling for a long time, the seafood he found was not as much as Su Ying's. She was so angry that she couldn't help but hit him hard and even hit her hand red. But Xiong Mao was fine.
Xiong Mao flatteringly took his wife's hand and blew on it twice, saying, "Don't be angry, wife. I'll look for it again. It's still early."
Su Ying said angrily, "What's the point of searching so long? How can you find as much as someone can in half an hour?" This is such a disgrace to her! Go home and sleep on the sofa tonight!
Xiong Dabao originally followed them, but halfway through he found that his father had not gained much, so he took the tools and went to play with other friends.
Lu Xuan also has a good eye, and nothing he sees can escape his eyes wherever he goes.
Razor clams, cat's eye snails, crabs, moon clams, hairy clams, flower cockles, mantis shrimps, octopuses, all caught in one net.
Cat's eye snail, burst barrel;
Hairy clams, burst barrels;
Starfish, burst barrel;
Clams, burst barrel;
Razor clams, burst barrel;
Swimming crabs, flower crabs, big red crabs, flower crabs, all kinds of crabs, burst buckets.
In short, it’s just barrels bursting, barrels bursting, and barrels bursting again.
Live broadcast room audience:!!!
[This is so cool, host! ]
【Lots of seafood!!!】
[I see others have only found one or two buckets at most, but you've already filled so many buckets, five, six, seven, or eight!]
[Seeing this makes me want to find an ocean planet to go fishing. ]
The host's eyes are really sharp. I didn't see anything, but he quickly found a bunch of seafood.
[Going to the beach sounds simple, but without a keen eye, you might not be able to catch much.]
【Xiong Mao: What about me? 】
[Hahahaha, I'm almost furious when I see Su Ying.]
[Look how happy Brother Lu Chen is smiling.]
Lu Chen followed Lu Xuan all the way and was responsible for holding the bucket. He would put it away once it was full. He was responsible for all of Lu Xuan's harvest.
After walking only a few meters, the bucket was full. The rich harvest made Lu Chen smile so much that his mouth was about to split. He was so tired that he was out of breath, but he was unwilling to ask his sister and brother-in-law for help.
Seeing that he was enjoying himself, Lu Qing and Lei Yan stopped paying attention to him and went to look for their own gains.
Lu Qing was concentrating on catching razor clams, while Lei Yan was very interested in the clams that could be sifted out in a pile with just one sieve. The bucket beside him was already half full.
While Lu Chen was helping Lu Xuan collect the buckets, he did not do nothing. He looked around and took a closer look. He soon found a beautiful pink and white empty conch shell.
Lu Xuan, who had just caught a big red-armored red, turned his head and saw it. He casually said, "Put the conch mouth against your ear, there will be a surprise."
Lu Chen did as he was told with a hint of curiosity. When he put his ear to the conch mouth and heard the sound coming from inside, his eyes widened instantly and he said excitedly, "There are sounds of waves inside! How magical!"
He couldn't wait to run to Lu Qing and Lei Yan and put the conch to their ears.
Lu Qing was surprised and said, "There really is the sound of waves. What's going on? There's no sea water inside."
Lu Xuan said, "It's the sound from outside that penetrates into the conch shell. Because of the special structure inside, it creates a resonance phenomenon. It's not real waves. But when I get back to the village, I can listen to it when I have nothing to do. It's also quite entertaining."
Lu Qing nodded in agreement.
Thinking that she would be able to hear the sound of the waves at any time after she returned, she looked at the conch in Lu Chen's hand with a look of love and yearning.
Seeing that she liked it, Lei Yan also prepared to find a beautiful conch shell for her.
Lu Chen held his pink and white conch and listened back and forth for a long time, then seemed to remember something and sent a message to his friends who had run away to who knows where.
Soon, Zhang Dafu, Xiaofu, Xiong Dabao, Mei Chengmeixue, Li Kangbao and other children all ran over, surrounded Lu Chen and his conch shell, and exclaimed in admiration.
A group of children lost interest in looking for seafood at the beach and instead started looking for beautiful conch shells.
Anyone who found one would scream with excitement.
Zhang Dafu and Zhang Xiaofu are good brothers who love their sister. Although they like her themselves, they also remember to find a beautiful conch for Zhang Xiuxiu first.
Wei Yunyun and Mei Xue, who is a little older and usually behaves maturely, have no resistance to the beautiful conches and look for them much more seriously than when they were digging for clams and razor clams.
Just as everyone was busy looking for collectibles, Xiong Dabao suddenly burst into tears, "Wow—there's a ghost!"
The children suddenly realized what was happening. The older ones subconsciously protected the younger ones behind them and said alertly, "There's a ghost somewhere."
"How can there be ghosts in broad daylight?"
Lu Chen ran up to Xiong Dabao, frowned, and asked, "Where is the ghost?"
Xiong Dabao pointed at the sand and said, "The ground has eyes!"
"What!?" Lu Chen was so frightened that he looked over quickly. He was also startled when he saw a pair of eyes at first, but he soon discovered that these 'eyes' were growing on a crab.
"This... looks like a crab, not a ghost."
"This is a tiger crab." Lu Xuan, who heard the sound and came over to check the situation, picked up a large tiger crab with tongs.
The other children came closer carefully and found that the crab really had eyes on its back. They exclaimed, "It really has eyes! It looks a bit scary."
Lu Xuan said, "The tiger crab looks a little scary, but it's delicious." He looked at Xiong Dabao and said, "It scared you. You can eat it later to vent your anger."
"Huh?" Xiong Dabao, who was still sniffing, widened his eyes. Is this possible?
Lu Xuan raised his eyebrows. Why not?
Xiong Dabao looked a little hesitant.
Lu Xuan: "Don't want to eat?"
Lu Chen immediately said: "If you don't dare, I will eat it for you."
If my brother says it’s delicious, then it must be delicious. Lu Chen couldn’t help but slurp as he looked at the tiger crab.
Xiong Dabao immediately became alert when he heard the slurping sound and shouted, "I'll eat it! I found it, so it's mine! You are not allowed to steal it from me! Brother Lu Xuan, quickly put the crabs in my bucket."
Seeing him guarding the food, Lu Chen curled his lips, thinking that his brother had found several buckets of crabs, and there might be tiger crabs among them.
He raised his head and looked at Lu Xuan expectantly. The latter understood his look and nodded.
Yes, there are some, and quite a few, at least seven or eight.
Lu Chen's eyes lit up and he smiled with satisfaction.
…
As the villagers found more and more seafood, Lu Xuan also reminded them to put the conch shells they brought back into containers filled with sea water in time to let them spit out the sand.
The group wandered around the mudflats for almost an hour, and before they knew it, it was noon.
The first batch of seafood soaked in sea water has almost spit out all the sand and is ready to be eaten.
The villagers set up a small pot to boil water directly on the mudflats, add appropriate ingredients to make a delicious and fragrant soup, and then prepare a dipping sauce with vinegar. They simply process the seafood that has spit out the sand and throw it in. After blanching it for twenty or thirty seconds, they can take it out and dip it in the dipping sauce.
The seafood that was still alive and kicking not long ago now tastes fresh and sweet, especially the octopus. It is put into the pot when it is just bubbling before the water boils, and then taken out and rinsed with cold water after being slightly blanched. It tastes crispy and chewy, and you can't stop eating it.
Lu Chen, Mei Cheng and other little ones stomped their feet while eating, "It's so delicious!"
"It's even better than the seafood my brother brought back before!"
The audience in the live broadcast room also ate voraciously.
【It smells so good! 】
【The octopus is delicious, one bite at a time is too fragrant! 】
[There are also mantis shrimps, the meat inside is so fat, slurp slurp! ]
The villagers were eating so fast that they had no time to talk.
If you only eat seafood and are afraid that you won’t be full, you can add some noodles to the pot.
The soup that has been blanched with various seafood is full of seafood aroma. Add some cleaned kelp into it and eat it. It is so delicious that you want to swallow your tongue.
The seafood pot mainly contains clams, octopus, crabs and mantis shrimp.
A small amount of clams, razor clams, and cat's eye snails are boiled in a seafood pot, while the big ones are put in another pot, added with minced garlic and chili, and stir-fried.
They just used a one-meter-wide iron pot used for big pot rice, fried it, and the whole village ate together. The food was delicious, the atmosphere was warm, and the mudflats were filled with laughter.
·
In the afternoon, the sea hunting continued.
In order to ensure a good harvest, the villagers changed the search area.
In addition to the types of seafood found in the morning, new harvests were made one after another.
Like jellyfish, sea cucumbers, and some people even caught eels and pufferfish.
The pufferfish, which swells up into a ball when angry, is both cute and interesting, and has attracted the attention of many villagers.
In addition to being fun, puffer fish meat is also a famous delicacy throughout the ages.
Lu Xuan doesn't know how to deal with them, but Lu Miaomiao does. He would just pinch and play with the small ones and throw them away, and save the big ones for Lu Miaomiao to deal with in the evening.
In addition, Lu Qing also discovered a lot of pearl shells.
After hearing Lu Xuan say that pearls can be found in this kind of shell, Lu Qing became very interested. She asked Lei Yan to help pry open the shell and feel inside the shell meat. She actually felt a few pearls.
These pearls are big and small, white, pink, and lavender in color, and have different shapes. There are very few perfectly round ones, but in Lu Qing's eyes, each pearl has a unique beauty.
Lu Qing held up a purple pearl towards the sunlight, her eyes filled with amazement: "It's so beautiful!"
The women in the village were soon attracted over, and each of them wanted to stare at the pearls in Lu Qing's hand until a hole popped out of them.
Wu Yinyin was surprised and said, "I thought shells were only edible, but I didn't expect they could produce pearls."
Ye Ping, Zhu Qiaoer and others agreed with this.
In their impression, pearl jewelry was something only high-ranking officials and noble ladies could afford, and they never imagined that it could be so easy to open it from a shell.
Su Ying snorted softly, "Pearls originally grow in shells. It's not surprising to see something so rare."
Although she had only overheard the wife of a boiler shop owner mentioning it when she went to town one time, it did not prevent her from pretending to be worldly-wise in front of others.
However, Su Ying's gaze was still uncontrollably attracted to the pink and purple pearls in Lu Qing's palm, with envy and affection flashing in her eyes.
She was not the type to endure, so she immediately urged Xiong Mao to find some pearl shells for her.
She wants pearls too!
With Su Ying taking the lead, other equally tempted women could no longer hold back and urged their men to help find the right man.
Zhang Chengming, Li Jing and others did not dare to disobey, so they had to temporarily give up looking for seafood and instead search for pearl shells on the ground.
Among them, Wu Yang and Chen Rong were both newlyweds, and they took the initiative to please their wives without being urged.
Wu Yang had seen Li Yue wearing pearl earrings when she returned to her parents' home after she got married to Zhou Chenghai. The pearls were not big, but Li Yue showed her great love for them.
Chen Rong also noticed a hint of nostalgia in Ji Xiuling's eyes when she saw the pearls, and guessed that she might have owned pearl jewelry before she got married.
As for why she didn't guess that it was given by her previous husband after she got married, that man was a sickly person. He must have tried his best to live a few more days. How could he have thought of buying pearl jewelry for his wife?
Ji Xiuling is his woman now, so he naturally can't let her live a worse life than before!
First, find her some pearl jewelry to wear. When the disaster is over, buy her any gold and silver jewelry she likes!
…
In the evening, the tide began to rise and soon flooded the large mudflats where they had been fishing during the day.
The villagers were ready to stay at the beach for a few more days and set up their tents in the afternoon.
Watching the sea water continuously flooding the mudflats, he couldn't help but secretly feel fortunate that they were far enough away from the coastline, otherwise they would have been completely submerged by now.
In the afternoon, many people were focused on finding pearl oysters, so the harvest was not as much as in the morning.
Fortunately, the variety is quite rich. In addition to various shells, clams and crabs, dinner also includes grilled eel, braised puffer fish, and kelp clam soup.
Everyone ate while opening pearl oysters. Whoever opened a beautiful pearl would immediately attract the envious eyes of those around him.
As time approached midnight, the villagers, who had been busy all day, yawned and crawled into their tents made of blackout curtains.
It was still bright outside, but as long as the zipper was closed in the tent, it would be pitch black, which did not affect my sleep at all.
Falling asleep listening to the sound of the waves, the villagers, who had eaten and drunk their fill, soon fell into a deep sleep. Many of them dreamed of opening countless large pearls, or discovering huge crabs while fishing, and their lips curled up unconsciously with joy.
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