Li Juan nodded: "Then let's do as A'an says."
"Put the snakeskin bag on the mud horse, and the two of us will push it along."
Pour all the butter crabs from the four buckets into a burlap sack, slightly smaller than the first one.
Mei Yueqin was a little worried: "Won't it get crushed?"
Wu An shook his head.
Actually, he couldn't guarantee it either.
With these limited conditions, and having to avoid people, things are even more difficult.
It's okay if some are damaged.
Then I'll keep it for myself.
There are currently no farmed butter crabs; they all rely on wild mutations, making them extremely rare. He's never eaten one before in his entire life.
I have to try it to see what it tastes like and why it's so popular.
Once I buy the boat, I'll definitely need to prepare plenty of boxes for it.
He made his own plans as he watched Aunt Juan and his sister-in-law walk away.
It was already past six o'clock, and the sky was completely dark; no one would notice them at all.
Wu An and the other two also carried the buckets back. The buckets weren't empty; they contained mantis shrimp, sea snails, and quite a few clams.
After walking uphill for a while, they encountered Ran Fei, a villager who was a street urchin, about the same age as Wu Ping. He was still unmarried and had already been dubbed a "bachelor" in the village. He came over to look at the buckets in the three of them and, seeing that there wasn't much seafood inside, immediately laughed: "Really? Is this all you've got?"
"I caught more seafood by myself than all of you combined."
"Ah An, you're having a bad day."
Wu An casually replied, "Yes."
"I plan to go and pay my respects to Mazu another day."
As he spoke, he continued walking forward.
Wu Ping and A Qing remained silent, afraid that speaking would give them away, and both were desperately suppressing the urge to show off.
"Wait for me, I'm going back too."
The person followed and walked back.
The group chatted casually, mainly Ran Fei talking, bragging about how much seafood he had caught, including two blue crabs.
Wu An offered a couple of envious compliments.
Ran Fei was even happier.
Aqing curled her lip and said, "What's there to brag about with just two blue crabs? They caught hundreds of pounds of them and they didn't brag at all."
"It's normal that you didn't catch them."
"This year, things aren't going so well here on the mudflats. You can usually find mud crabs, but this year I only caught two. Some people are just unlucky, like that guy Lin Hu, who didn't find a single mud crab."
Aqing's expression was strange.
Wu Ping tried his best to suppress the upward curve of his lips.
Why do you think there are so few blue crabs?
"Serves you right for getting rich..." Wu An said dismissively, glancing around for Gu Anran, only to see her surrounded by several people.
But we were too far away to see clearly what was happening.
Holy crap!
He cursed and jumped up, his rain boots falling out of place and remaining in the mud. He didn't care about the boat and ran towards it.
Ran Fei didn't notice: "Jealousy is one thing, but why are you cursing..."
Then I saw Ah Qing rush out as well, and that's when I realized something had happened.
Wu Ping reacted a little slowly, so he asked Ran Fei to watch the bucket for him. He took out a beachcombing tongs and a rake from the bucket and ran over. These tools can be used for beachcombing, but they can also be used as weapons in a fight!
They arrived close.
Wu An saw Gu Anran protecting the water bucket and arguing about something. Among the people surrounding her was Lin Hu, who immediately reached out to pull the water bucket away.
Gu Anran was pressing down on the bucket when Lin Hu suddenly let go. Before Gu Anran could react, she and the bucket landed in the mud.
The bucket also tipped over on the ground, and a large blue crab fell out.
The people surrounding them burst into laughter.
Lin Hu chuckled wickedly, brazenly picked up the large blue crab, put it in his bucket, and urged the others to take one too.
Gu Anran's eyes were filled with tears as she glared at Lin Hu and the others.
"Ganlinmu!" Wu An cursed, using extremely vulgar language, but it wasn't enough to vent his anger. He shouted, "A bunch of men are bullying a little girl!"
Hearing the roar, Lin Hu and the others quickly turned around.
Upon seeing that it was Wu An, everyone else subconsciously took a step back, except for Lin Hu, who remained standing in place, coldly watching Wu An rushing towards him.
"Wu An, watch your mouth. Who bullied the little girl?" Lin Hu said fearlessly, pointing at Gu Anran defiantly, "I'm defending our village's property."
"Ah An, is this your girlfriend?"
"You should have said so earlier. It was all a misunderstanding."
"Your girlfriend is really beautiful."
Wu An ignored these people, quickly walked over and helped Gu Anran up from the ground, asking, "Are you alright?"
Gu Anran shook her head.
"Damn it, who bullied my sister-in-law?" Aqing, holding a sand shovel, rushed up to Lin Hu and, without thinking twice, slapped Lin Hu on the head.
Lin Hu was startled and quickly stepped back, watching as the sand shovel slapped down on his nose.
Ah Qing has something to do, and she's really going to the front lines.
Wu Ping also came over and handed the clamp to Wu An. When closed, the clamp was almost like an iron rod. He held the clamp in one hand and the rake in the other, coldly looking at Lin Hu and the others.
Lin Hu was filled with lingering fear and extreme anger, and shouted, "Wu An, control your little brother!"
"Just now, if I had killed him, it would have been considered self-defense."
"So what if she's your girlfriend? This is our village's mudflats. She's from another village and has no right to come here to collect seafood."
He looked at the others.
Other villagers echoed in hushed tones, "It is a bit inappropriate."
"She caught so many blue crabs all by herself, while we didn't catch a single one."
"It should have been ours."
“We didn’t try to snatch it, we were just looking, but she was so stingy that she wouldn’t even let us look.”
"Lin Hu was so angry that he pulled her, but she accidentally fell down."
"Alright, alright, it's nothing serious, it's all a misunderstanding, let's all go, let's all go."
Some people try to mediate and always try to smooth things over.
The matter wasn't a big deal, but it wasn't insignificant either. It was quite simple: Lin Hu and his gang hadn't caught any blue crabs, and they were envious of Gu Anran's large catch. Plus, Gu Anran was from another village, so they wanted to take advantage of her.
They might also be looking at Gu Anran because she's pretty, and have the intention of taking advantage of her.
After confirming that Gu Anran was indeed unharmed, Wu An turned to look at Lin Hu and the others.
Needless to say, Lin Hu was a scoundrel just like he used to be, but he was a little better than Lin Hu. He was addicted to fishing and would occasionally bring fish home with him.
But the good things are limited. This time, he had a conflict with Lin Bin and beat Lin Bin so badly that Lin Bin is still in the hospital. He's definitely a ruthless person.
The people around him were all similar to him, his cronies, indulging in all sorts of vices, including eating, drinking, gambling, and whoring.
Don't let his bad reputation fool you; he's not one of these guys.
Everyone's rottenness is different.
Wu An took a step forward, but his hand suddenly tightened. He turned around and saw that it was Gu Anran who had grabbed him.
Someone shoved Lin Hu.
Lin Hu then took advantage of the situation, turning around and walking away while cursing, "I'll let it go this time."
"If you try to brandish knives and sticks at me again, don't blame me for being impolite."
"Keep an eye on your own woman."
Wu An shouted, "Stop!"
"Hand over the blue crab you just took."
Lin Hu's expression changed, and he shouted, "Wu An, you're really going to take this lying down, aren't you?"
"The blue crabs in my bucket are mine."
"Otherwise, let your girl call out and see if Blue Crab will respond."
Everyone chuckled.
Wu An, holding the sand shovel upside down, said, "Let's see if these people will help you if we fight, with the three of us against you."
"You're a gangster too, so let everyone know that you, Lin Hu, are the kind of guy who bullies young girls."
Lin Hu's expression changed again.
The others dared not laugh anymore and quickly stood up to say nice things. Some even advised Lin Hu to let it go, since it was not a good thing to snatch a young girl.
"Damn it!" Lin Hu cursed, took the crab out of the bucket, threw it on the ground, and said fiercely, "Don't think I'm afraid of you."
We'll see.
"This is not over."
Wu An looked at the others.
These people quickly said that we didn't rob them, and then hurriedly followed Lin Hu away.
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