Without hesitation, Chen Hong picked up the dagger and forcefully cut along the opening towards the connected adductor muscle. With a strong pry, the seashell was completely opened.
With both hands forcefully spreading apart to the extreme, Chen Hong saw the entire clam meat. She first used a silver needle to probe for the foreign object, and only after finding it did she reach out and pry it open. Sure enough, it was a milky white pearl.
This bead is perfectly round, milky white, and emits a soft luster; it's about the size of a glass marble we played with as children.
Chen Hong thought to herself, "It should be worth at least two or three thousand yuan!" She washed the beads in the basin of water, dried them, and put them in a small basin next to her.
I touched it again and found nothing missing, then scooped out the clam meat and put it in the basket.
Chen Hong examined over a hundred seashells in one night and only found five beads of varying sizes, with the first one being the largest. Among them was a smaller, golden bead that was brighter and rounder.
The other three were of average size and not very round, but their color was quite bright. There were still more than two hundred seashells to explore. Today, Chen Hong was highly focused, and she had also gotten angry on the phone, so she felt very tired.
After tidying up my things, I left the room and went to bed early.
Upon waking up in the morning, Chen Hong erased everything from her mind from yesterday. She felt her mind was now filled with images of ocean clams, abalone, lobsters, and sea cucumbers before finally getting out of bed to wash up.
Clean the five clams I took out last night, slice them thinly, and add one to rice porridge to make seafood porridge. Stir-fry the other four with minced garlic, shredded ginger, and chili peppers. Set aside one portion for plate, and store the rest in a small porcelain bowl in my space as reserve food.
I boiled a pot of eggs, kept two, and put the rest away. I also made a plate of cucumber and pickled vegetables, and breakfast was ready.
After waking her son up and having him eat, Chen Hong packed all her gear and took him to the old house. Then, full of energy, she went out to sea again to earn money.
Avoiding the large fleet of fishing boats from nearby villages, Chen Hong steered further and further out of the way. Finally, he found a good spot where shrimp and crabs roamed, and Chen Hong started the crane to lower six crab traps.
We sailed around the area again and spotted a school of fish. Although they were all common mackerel, they were numerous and large.
Chen Hong moved the net to the stern, steered the boat around the school of fish for half a circle, and figured out the right angle to steer. She took out a ten-kilogram hexagonal dumbbell from her storage space, secured it with a rope to the adjusted steering wheel, and kept the boat at a fixed angle as it swung in large circles.
Chen Hong quickly ran to the stern and rapidly cast the net along the boat's path. At first, it was a bit chaotic, and she couldn't keep up with the boat's speed, resulting in some tangles and knots in the net. However, by the time she cast the second net, her hand speed and the boat's speed were well coordinated.
The net Chen Hong used was 80 meters long, 5 meters wide, and 2 meters high. It was a special net with a single layer of thickened wire and larger mesh size, custom-made for online fishing. She considered that casting, pulling, and untangling the net would be difficult for one person.
This net was specially designed and customized. When used in the sea, it only catches large fish. After pulling in the net, the single-layer design makes it easy to unravel the fish. Cleaning is simple and convenient.
After circling the school of fish, Chen Hong cast a total of six nets, which, viewed from the air, resembled the Bagua formation set up by Zhuge Liang. Once the nets were in place, Chen Hong steered the boat around them again, both to drive the fish into the nets and to spot any large fish that might break free.
An hour later, Chen Hong used a hook to catch the float on the fishing net, went around to the crane, and began to haul in the net. A large water tank was placed beside her, and fish were being pulled onto the fishing boat, one by one, wrapped in the net. Chen Hong deftly threw the fish into the tank.
The smallest fish pulled up by the large-mesh fishing net weighed about one pound, which was basically not much smaller than the fish Chen Hong caught. Fish smaller than one pound basically escaped through the mesh of the net.
Although the first net was a bit shaky, it still caught over 50 jin (25 kg) of fish. After neatly arranging the net to the side of the boat, Chen Hong pulled in the second net. This one was much better than the first, catching over 120 jin (60 kg) of fish.
There were six nets in total, each net catching more fish than the last, and all of them were large fish weighing over a pound. Besides mackerel, there were also grouper, yellowfin tuna, golden croaker, sea bass, black croaker, and barracuda.
This time, the net yielded a catch of over 800 jin (400 kg) of fish, which is faster than fishing.
Having learned from her first experience, Chen Hong gained confidence in casting her net from a boat by herself. Half an hour later, she found another school of fish and, using the same method, skillfully cast her net.
This time, she changed her method. Instead of using the boat to chase the fish, which was too wasteful of fuel, she mixed a large bucket of bait and sprinkled it spoonful by spoonful into the center of the fishing net.
After waiting for more than ten minutes, they saw large fish within a 200-meter radius rushing to take the bait, heading towards the fishing net array set up by Chen Hong one after another like warriors, risking their lives.
Seeing the big fish struggling and the fishing net swaying in the sea, Chen Hong, fearing it would damage the net, quickly began to haul it in. This haul was even more impressive; six nets brought in a catch of 1,000 jin (500 kg) of fish.
Chen Hong was so busy that she couldn't distinguish between live and dead fish. She took them off and put them into the large water tank next to her. Only after all six nets were retrieved did Chen Hong have time to sort the catch.
Dead fish were first thrown into the small live fish hold, and then carefully sorted later when things calmed down. Chen Hong put the large and good live fish into the space breeding tank, while about 200 catties of ordinary commercial fish were kept in the large live fish hold. The rest were sorted and put into their respective breeding tanks in the space.
This time, we also received more than a dozen mantis shrimps and prawns online, as well as a few blue crabs and swimming crabs with broken legs.
After a morning of fishing, Chen Hong caught nearly 2,000 jin (1,000 catties) of fish, which should be a decent income. Taking advantage of the hot midday sun, Chen Hong ate lunch, then set sail and anchored in a deserted, shallow bay.
After making and drinking a cup of tea, Chen Hong put on her diving gear and went underwater. The seabed had few rocks and a clean beach; Chen Hong only found some seashells and various conches.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com