high tide
By this time, the sea level had slowly risen, and the people who had been gathering seafood nearby began to head back one after another.
Chen Zhiyao spent a lot of effort moving all of her beachcombing catch from today to a place where the tide wouldn't rise.
She found a lot of large blue crabs and whelks today; if she just put them in a bucket or net, they would be too conspicuous.
Before heading back, she put all the blue crabs, flower crabs, and conches she had found that day into a burlap sack, and then covered it with some mussels as a cover.
The heavy sack of seafood, along with the conger eel and pearl grouper in the bucket, left her quite exhausted.
Chen Zhiyao collapsed onto the beach. She had been working on the beach for several hours and was almost exhausted.
However, today's catch was even greater than yesterday's, and Chen Zhiyao's face was filled with the joy of a bountiful harvest.
Cat's eye snails, blue crabs, pearl groupers, orchid crabs, whelks, conger eels, and conch shells are all valuable and good stuff; you're going to get rich!!
Thinking about the money she was about to receive, Chen Zhiyao's smile widened, revealing two round dimples.
After resting for a while, Grandpa Chen and Chen Weiqiang came toward her carrying buckets and a water pump.
"Grandpa, Dad, how was the harvest today?"
"Not bad." Chen Weiqiang handed over the bucket of water with a smug look on his face.
Inside were two large eels, even bigger than the two I had just caught; each one probably weighed six or seven pounds.
Grandpa Chen's bucket also contained many good things: a 3-pound green wrasse, 4 blue crabs, 2 orchid crabs, and a few small miscellaneous fish.
"A good haul today, the conger eels and wrasses are both quite big."
The blue wrasse is oval in shape, with a bluish-gray back. The female is light yellow, while the male is bluish-green. It can fetch more than fifty yuan at the market.
Blue wrasse
Looking at the good stuff in the bucket, Chen Zhiyao thought to herself that the harvest from the sump was pretty good, and she would try it next time.
Chen Weiqiang was initially quite proud of catching two moray eels and a large blue wrasse, but he immediately fell silent after hearing about his daughter's catch.
Feeling a pang of envy, Chen Weiqiang could only silently console himself that it was a good thing for the student to surpass the teacher.
The three generations of the family returned to where the van was parked. The van was now filled with a bucket full of various shellfish and half a bucket of small fish.
Most of the shells were inexpensive moon clams and clams, with some fairly large cat's eye snails mixed in.
Although the ocean resources are not as abundant as before, there are still quite a few small fish and various kinds of small shells in the sea.
Working as a fisherman in the village, you might not earn a lot of money, but as long as you're diligent, you'll at least not starve.
The three looked out to sea and saw Grandma Chen and Yan Shuting still gathering seafood on the beach.
Chen Zhiyao ran over to call them back, only to find that the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had dug up a lot of razor clams, weighing about seven or eight pounds in total.
The family of five gathered around the bread, looking at the trunk full of various seafood, their faces filled with simple and satisfied smiles.
As Chen Weiqiang drove, he grinned and suggested, "Tangtang has had a good haul from beachcombing these past few days; someone in the village must have seen it."
“If we take these things to the village’s purchasing station today, I’m afraid that when Tangtang goes to the beach, there will be a lot of people following her. I think it’s better to take them to the purchasing station in town to sell.”
Grandma Chen immediately said excitedly, "Yes, yes, we shouldn't flaunt our wealth. Let's go to town to sell our fish; the price is higher there."
Most of the villages in their town are located by the sea. In addition to two large purchasing stations, there are several other small and medium-sized purchasing stations in the town.
The price at the purchasing station in town is generally one or two yuan more than that at the purchasing station in the village.
However, their village is a bit far from the town, about a 30-minute drive by tricycle. People usually only go to town to sell their catch when they have a large fish.
Today, the Chen family had a bumper harvest from the beach, so it's definitely worth a trip to the town's purchasing station.
With five votes in favor, everyone happily decided that Chen Weiqiang would drive Chen Zhiyao to town to sell their catch.
The town has a medium-sized dock where many fishing boats and angling boats dock every day. Most of the town's purchasing stations are located next to the dock.
Before long, the father and daughter arrived at the largest purchasing station in town, Yang's Fish Purchasing Station.
The owner, Yang Guodong, has partnerships with several large seafood restaurants and supermarkets in the county, and also owns a seafood wholesale store in the county.
The Yang family has connections; they buy everything from small fish and shellfish to large deep-sea fish, and they offer higher prices than other purchasing points.
Chen Zhiyao overheard her mother gossiping that the Yang family was the richest family in town.
The fishing boats hadn't returned yet, but it was high tide, so there were many people both in town and on uninhabited islands, making the purchasing station very lively.
The man who greeted the father and daughter was Yang Guodong's eldest son, Yang Jiajun, whom the townspeople called Boss Yang.
Yang Jiajun enjoys sea fishing and often buys fishing gear from Chen Weiqiang's fishing tackle shop; the two have a good relationship.
Upon seeing the catch brought by the father and daughter, Mr. Yang's eyes lit up. He stared intently at the several large blue crabs weighing over a pound each.
"Uncle Chen, the seafood prices are good today. Blue crabs weighing between half a pound and a pound are 42 yuan per pound, and those weighing more than a pound are 58 yuan per pound."
"Blue crabs weighing between half a pound and one pound are priced at 52 yuan per pound. Crabs weighing over one pound are priced at 70 yuan per pound."
"Conger eel is 56 yuan per jin, pearl grouper is 36 yuan per jin, wrasse is 60 yuan per jin, cat's eye snail is 30 yuan per jin, small octopus is 30 yuan per jin, whelk is 38 yuan per jin, conch is 120 yuan per jin, razor clam is 30 yuan per jin, and other small shellfish are all 6 yuan per jin."
The price offered by Yang Jiajun was significantly higher than that offered by the village's purchasing station.
Chen Zhiyao was extremely annoyed. If only she hadn't been lazy, she could have made much more money selling her catch in town.
Even close brothers should keep clear accounts. The family's catch from beachcombing has always been split among themselves, so the fish catch should be settled separately.
The first to have their catch settled were Grandma Chen and Yan Shuting's:
Six cat-eye snails, 30 yuan per cat-eye snail, totaling 180 yuan.
Seven catties of razor clams, 30 yuan per catty, totaling 210 yuan.
The total weight of the moon clams, flower clams, and mussels is 18 jin (9 kg), at 6 yuan per jin, for a total of 108 yuan.
In total, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law's catch amounted to 498 yuan, but they settled for 500 yuan.
It doesn't look like much, but the beach was so crowded that the two of them were already doing quite well with this catch.
Next up are Grandpa Chen and Chen Weiqiang's catch:
The bluefin tuna weighed 3.5 jin (1.25 kg) in total, at 60 yuan per jin, for a total of 210 yuan.
Two eels weighed a total of 13 jin (6.5 kg), at 56 yuan per jin, for a total of 728 yuan.
The four blue crabs each weighed between half a pound and a pound, totaling 3.2 pounds. They cost 52 yuan per pound, for a total of 166.4 yuan.
Two orchid crabs weigh about one jin (500 grams), two of them weigh 2.1 jin (1.85 grams) in total, at 58 yuan per jin, for a total of 121.8 yuan.
The total is 1226.2 yuan, but it will be settled at 1230 yuan.
Her father and grandfather didn't have any special talents, but they could earn more than a thousand yuan just by pumping water from the puddles. Chen Zhiyao felt more and more that staying at home to go beachcombing was a good idea.
Finally, there's Chen Zhiyao, who reaped a great harvest.
The cat's eye snails weighed 4 jin (2 kg) in total, at 30 yuan per jin, for a total of 120 yuan.
Two of the mud crabs weighed less than a pound each, totaling 1.6 pounds. They cost 52 yuan per pound, for a total of 83.2 yuan.
There are 6 large blue crabs weighing over one jin (500 grams), totaling 7.2 jin (3.6 kg). They cost 70 yuan per jin, for a total of 504 yuan.
Pearl grouper weighs 4.6 jin (approximately 2.8 kg), priced at 36 yuan per jin, totaling 165.6 yuan.
The two blue crabs weren't very big, weighing a total of 1.3 jin (approximately 0.65 kg), at 42 yuan per jin, for a total of 54.6 yuan.
3.6 jin of whelks, 38 yuan per jin, totaling 136.8 yuan.
7.5 jin of conger eel, 56 yuan per jin, totaling 420 yuan.
The conch weighed exactly one jin (500g), and cost 120 yuan.
Mr. Yang took the calculator and pressed the keys for a while before calculating the total to 1604.2 yuan, but settled it at 1610 yuan.
Today's beachcombing harvest has reached a new high. Chen Zhiyao smiled foolishly, her two rows of white teeth standing out conspicuously.
She doesn't have the glamorous urban woman she used to have in Guangzhou at all; she looks silly and goofy now.
Boss Yang was also very satisfied with the large blue crabs Chen Zhiyao had and the two eels Chen Weiqiang had. He picked up his phone and looked at the father and daughter:
"Uncle Chen, should this money be transferred to WeChat or deposited into my bank account?"
Just as Chen Zhiyao was about to ask him to transfer the money via WeChat, Chen Weiqiang, who was standing next to her, spoke up:
"Please transfer it to your bank card. There are fees for withdrawing money via WeChat."
Although Chen Weiqiang is a small business owner, he is still very shrewd and calculating.
"Okay, I'll transfer it to you now."
(I'd appreciate any feedback. The settlement process is quite detailed; is it too long and verbose?)
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