Chapter 78: Going to the Sea (Page 1/2)
In the evening, Huo Qingci came back with food. The three of them sat at the table and finished their meal. Lin Man suddenly said, "Qingci, should we get some firewood and coal briquettes tomorrow? It's not convenient for you to bring food back every day."
"I'll ask someone to bring it over!"
"Okay, let's buy some pots and pans tomorrow."
In the past two days, they have been running out again and again, buying either this or that. When they arrive in a strange place, they have to start everything from scratch and buy everything again.
Although some of the things were already in Lin Man's space, they had just arrived. In order to prevent others from noticing anything unusual, they naturally had to buy some outside first, and then find a way to take them out of the space and mix them with the things they bought.
Huo Qinghuan said, "Sister-in-law, you promised me to go fishing tomorrow afternoon. I haven't really seen the ocean yet. The ocean I saw on the boat that night was pitch black."
"After lunch, your brother will take some time to buy kitchen supplies. We will go fishing at 1:30 pm. However, we need to prepare the fishing tools in advance."
"Sister-in-law, what tools do you need to go fishing? Isn't it just a bucket and picking it up with your hands?"
"Who said that? Some small seafood hides in the sand and needs to be scooped out with a rake. We need to prepare tongs, a small rake, a small shovel, a small net bag, gloves, a salt shaker, a small bucket...
"Ah? Do we really need to prepare so many tools for fishing?"
"We don't know what's on the mudflats right now, so let's prepare as much as possible."
"Where are the tools for catching seafood? Sister-in-law, let's go buy some first!"
"Don't worry about that. We'll prepare the tools for you and buy you a big straw hat."
At night, after Huo Qinghuan fell asleep, Lin Man took out a bunch of sea-hunting tools from her space, even the folding bucket for storing seafood. Later, she thought that the folding bucket was not suitable, so she put it back into the space.
"Manman, Qinghuan can't swim very well yet. When we go to the beach tomorrow, you must keep an eye on him, lest he gets overconfident and sneaks into the sea to drink the water."
"Well, I'll always follow him and warn him not to go in the water."
Although she can swim and dive, the sea is not a swimming pool, because you never know when danger will come. If you really encounter danger at the beach, let alone saving others, sometimes you may lose your own life instead of saving others.
Huo Qingci suddenly said, "Manman, thank you for your hard work. The commander heard that you went to college and said he would wait until the end of the year to see if he could arrange a job for you."
"Is that so? Who will take care of Qinghuan when I go to work?"
"Well, that's why I refused. I don't want you to work so hard. I'll be the only one making money at home, and Manman can do what she likes."
Lin Man smiled and said, "I don't object to working, but your brother has no one to look after him. There's the sea three kilometers away, and I'm afraid that if we're not here, your brother will go to the beach alone."
"Well, I hope school resumes soon. We can't let him continue playing like this."
Lin Man knew that schools would gradually resume classes in two years, but she would not be able to take the college entrance examination or go to university.
They couldn’t go to a normal university, but there was a kind of university for children of workers, peasants and soldiers that they could attend.
Lin Man didn’t know whether she was lucky or unlucky. She was forced to graduate from college after only two years, and she didn’t know whether the country would recognize her college diploma in the future.
After Huo Qinghuan is sent back to Beijing to go to school, she will find a job. For the next two years, she will just grow vegetables and catch seafood.
The high tide is at 6am and 6pm, and it should be low tide at 12pm, so it's just right to go to the beach at 1:30pm.
In fact, you may get more crabs at night than during the day because the crabs will crawl out at night.
(This chapter is not yet finished, please click on the next page to continue reading) Chapter 78 Going to the Sea (Page 2/2)
At around one o'clock in the afternoon, Lin Man and Huo Qinghuan rushed to the nearest mudflat and found that many people had already arrived early. It turned out that they were all villagers from nearby.
Huo Qinghuan was a little confused, "Sister-in-law, this is just a beach, there's nothing here!"
"There are small seafood under the sand. Look at those little holes under your feet. There must be some in there."
Lin Man put down the bucket, took out a small shovel from it, squatted down and shoveled off the top layer of sand. When the hole became bigger, she used a salt spreader to sprinkle salt into the hole.
A small clam, the length of a middle finger, emerged from the sand. Huo Qinghuan was startled. "Sister-in-law, what kind of monster is this? It can even stick out its tongue. How come it came out when I sprinkled salt on it?"
"This is called a razor clam. We sprinkled salt into its hole, and it thought it was high tide."
"So are there razor clams in those holes?"
"Go and try it yourself!"
Huo Qinghuan followed Lin Man's method and started looking for clam holes. When he shoveled away the sand on top of a hole, he found more than a dozen small holes underneath.
Lin Man quickly sprinkled some salt on each hole, and the bamboo clams seemed to come out of the holes one after another.
Huo Qinghuan quickly pulled out one after another. If he was too slow, they would burrow back into the mud and sand.
No matter whether this thing tastes good or not, Huo Qinghuan enjoyed it very much. Huo Qinghuan was picking bamboo clams when Lin Man saw another lump nearby. She squatted down and used a small shovel to shovel the lump, and ended up digging up the first cat's eye snail.
"Sister-in-law, what are you digging?"
"Cat's eye snail, Qinghuan, look at those little bumps, there are definitely snails underneath."
Huo Qinghuan threw all the dozen or so bamboo clams into the bucket, and went to look for clams nearby. He actually found a few. He dug up two cat's eye snails and three large clams.
"Sister-in-law, you can eat all of this!"
"Yes, these clams are big and they make delicious soup."
A big one and a small one were squatting on the beach, either looking for holes or bulges, unlike other people who went to the beach to pick up things where the sea had receded.
The two of them dug higher and higher like country bumpkins. Suddenly, Huo Qinghuan dug up a spider snail and screamed excitedly, "Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, look, I dug up a beautiful conch."
Lin Man walked over to take a look and said, "You dug up a spider snail. That's great! Keep it up."
"Sister-in-law, how do you eat these snails?"
"They can be blanched or baked with salt. Clams and razor clams can be stir-fried with black bean sauce."
"It's a pity for Mom, Dad, and Grandpa. They can't eat such fresh seafood in Jing City anymore."
"If we can't finish eating all the small seafood we dug, we can blanch the meat, dry it, and send it back to them."
"Really? That's great! I'll come back and dig more next time."
"Well, dig quickly."
Lin Man knew that these small seafoods were very cheap now, some of them were only one cent per pound and no one might buy them. The villagers liked to pick up these snails and clams and take them home to feed their ducks.
In Beijing, hairtail costs 46 cents per pound, and yellow croaker costs 52 cents, but the supply and marketing cooperatives here only sell it for 30 cents per pound, and the purchasing stations only buy it for 10 or 20 cents per pound at most.
Of course, some fish are more expensive. Mackerel is now more expensive than lobster and grouper.
It is definitely impossible to catch big fish by fishing on the mudflats, so Lin Man decided to first find out which sea area can be fished, and then secretly drive the fishing boat in the space to go fishing in the deep sea one night.
One catch of fish could probably feed her for several years. I wonder if Huo Qingci would stop her if he knew about this idea.
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