While Bai's father and the others were dragging the fishing nets back, Bai Yu and his two companions were still busy.
They had long heard that croakers always appeared in large groups, and now Bai Yu and his companions witnessed firsthand what it meant to be in large groups. Even now, right on the shore, these croakers were still swimming in large groups.
An hour has passed since Bai Yu and the others arrived here, and during this time the tide has receded several meters into the deeper waters.
Even at this point, the number of croakers here hasn't decreased much, which forced Bai Yu to make a bold judgment.
That's because the tide receded too quickly, and these croakers are now stranded. It's not that they don't want to leave, but that they can't leave even if they wanted to!
With this guess in mind, Bai Yu and his companions were no longer in a hurry. Looking at the whitebait in this area, Bai Yu couldn't help but want to shout a classic line: "My goodness, my goodness, it's all my goodness!!!"
Now, Bai Yu and his family only need to worry about one thing: whether bringing so many croakers back to the village will attract attention.
This might lead to some busybodies joining the three of them, coming here to steal their catch!
Such things are still possible, but they are something that cannot be prevented, since it is other people's freedom to go wherever they want.
Sure enough, an hour later, when Bai's father and his two companions returned with the fishing net, several villagers followed them.
Faced with this situation, Bai's father shrugged and said there was nothing he could do.
"Wow, I knew it! Old Bai and the others must have run into a school of fish. Otherwise, how could they have caught so many croakers at once!"
"That's right, Lao Bai has such a good thing and he doesn't share it. It's not a good habit to keep things to yourself."
Just then, several villagers following behind Bai's father came out and started discussing the situation behind Bai Yu.
It turned out that in the past hour or so, Bai Yu and his two companions had worked hard to create a pond using the surrounding stones, and they had put a large number of croakers in the pond.
They caught most of the croakers around and put them all here, waiting for Bai's father and the others to come back.
Seeing that the villagers were about to come over to catch fish, Bai Yu stepped forward and blocked their way.
"Uncles and elders, the fish in this pond behind us were all caught by us. If you want to catch some, please do it yourselves. There are still quite a few croakers scattered around here."
The villagers didn't care about what Bai Yu said. Just as they were about to walk around Bai Yu and continue on their way, Wang Hai and Bai Yue came over and blocked their path.
While it's true that no one cares about personal gain, there is a difference in strength among those involved.
There weren't many villagers who came with Bai's father and the others, only four people in total, but there were five people on Bai's father's side (excluding little girl Bai Yue).
Being in a weaker position, after assessing the situation, they abandoned their idea of competing with Bai Yu and the others for fish, and instead went their separate ways to catch fish.
"Hey, big brother, our little Yu has grown up. She's even learned to talk to others. That's great."
"That's right. Don't you know whose son Xiaoyu is? Did your brother ever back down when he was a kid? That's impossible."
"Alright, Dad and Uncle, stop flattering each other and get to work. Once you've filled all these croakers, we'll be almost done. We can leave the rest of the croakers for someone else."
Dad, what did you do with all those croakers? Did you save any to dry their maw? I heard croaker maw is really nutritious!
While catching fish, Bai Yu asked her father about his plans for the previous batch of croakers.
When talking about croaker maw, Bai Yu remembered that there were still a few pieces of maw at home. Bai's father bought croakers, killed them, extracted the maw, and dried it.
The oldest piece of fish maw is seven years old. It was made from fish maw taken from a golden croaker and dried.
As for the benefits of croaker maw, the simplest ones are beauty enhancement, collagen replenishment, and also nourishing blood and replenishing essence.
The person who eats the most fish maw in their family is Bai's mother, followed by Bai's father, and then Bai Yue and Bai Yu.
"Don't worry, kid. I kept the biggest one, and about twenty others. I took the rest to your third uncle to sell."
The only downside was that there weren't any golden croakers among them; they were all common red and white croakers.
The "red croaker" that Baiba mentioned refers to croakers with red fins. These are relatively common croakers, meaning they are not valuable.
The most expensive type of croaker is the golden croaker. Not only is it beautiful, but it is also expensive, and its maw is even more valuable.
Unfortunately, none of the croakers Bai Yu and his companions encountered this time were golden croakers.
After Bai Yu and the others had caught all the nearly one hundred croakers in the fishpond and put them into the fishing net, with the help of Bai Yu and Wang Hai, the five men dragged the fishing net toward the dock.
Bai Yue had the easiest job; all she had to do was help carry Bai Yu and Wang Hai's beachcombing tools.
This time, there were more fish in the net, so the speed of returning to the dock was naturally slower. With the efforts of the five of them, it took them nearly an hour to haul all the fish to the dock.
It was already past five in the afternoon, and the sun was about to set.
This timing provided some convenience for Bai Yu and his group, as it was dinnertime and there weren't many people on the dock, which meant that the number of people watching Bai Yu and his group was not large.
Not many doesn't mean none; among them is Uncle Wang Hai's family...
Wang Hai and Uncle Wang acted as if they hadn't seen each other, and dragged their fishing nets toward the purchasing station.
It's believed that before long, the news of Bai Yu's family finding two nets of croaker while beachcombing will spread throughout the entire small mountain village.
Most of the croakers from this batch were sold, while the rest were kept by Bai's father. He planned to gut the croakers to extract the fish maw, which would then be dried and divided among the families.
As darkness fell, Bai Yu and the others went home to prepare dinner.
This time, the three families are getting together for a meal. The main dish is croaker, which they caught today—a whole croaker feast! Tonight's chef is Bai Yu, and the three children, Bai Yue and Wang Hai, are also in charge...
Bai's father and his family are really daring, actually letting Bai Yu cook a whole fish feast.
There was no other way; Bai Yu had to do it. They caught too many croakers today, and Bai's father and the others were busy gutting them to extract the roe, so they really didn't have time to cook.
Therefore, this task could only fall to Bai Yu and the others.
The moment Bai Yu got home, he asked Bai Yue to bring out the barbecue grill, and then Wang Hai lit the charcoal. Today he wanted to grill some croaker.
Also, order pan-fried croaker fillets, braised croaker, steamed croaker, and croaker fish ball soup.
Regardless of whether Bai Yu knows how or not, he can just learn from his father while he does it.
However, when Bai's father was extracting fish maw from the largest croaker, Bai Yu specially set up a video camera to film the entire process.
Bai Yu plans to post this process, as well as the subsequent process of making fish maw, online as an educational video, which he believes will bring him a lot of fans.
To capture the process perfectly, Bai Yu specially set up lighting in his yard to brighten the video.
When Bai Yu finished preparing dinner and came to the yard, there were already rows of fresh fish maw laid out in their yard.
After being cleaned and having the internal organs and impurities removed, these fish maws are milky white in color and look very oily and thick.
After being thoroughly dried, the fish maw will turn into a transparent, milky white color. At that point, its value will increase exponentially.
The largest croaker, for example, had about a pound but less than two pounds of fish maw extracted from its belly.
However, this is the weight of fresh fish maw. After drying, if the fish maw still weighs seven or eight ounces, that would be considered very good. Half a pound is considered normal.
"Dad, have you finished processing all these croakers? What are you going to do with the remaining fish meat? There must be several hundred pounds of fish meat."
Looking at the fish maw drying all around and the croaker on the ground, Bai Yu asked her father about the next steps.
"Make some into fish balls, some into meat floss, and sell the rest to your third uncle. However, there is a big price difference between croaker with and without fish maw. You should know this in advance."
"I understand, I know all of that. The most valuable part of the croaker is its maw."
"Okay, as long as you understand these things, that's fine. Let's eat first, and then we can do other things after we finish eating. I'll transfer the money from selling the fish to you later, and the three of you can split it."
"Okay, thank you for your hard work, Dad."
Amidst a scene of fatherly love and filial piety, Bai Yu and his son made final arrangements for the croaker meat.
Then they had dinner. To be honest, Bai Yu's cooking skills were not quite up to par with his father's, but it was still edible.
The best dish was grilled croaker. As a type of sea fish, croaker has very few bones. In addition, the barbecue seasoning sprinkled on it is quite generous with chili powder, making it incredibly delicious.
The three croakers, each weighing seven or eight pounds, were completely devoured by the three families, who even seemed to want more.
...............
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