Chapter 8: Gathering Seafood and Digging Sand Clams

Their house wasn’t far from the beach. It only took about ten minutes to walk there. But after reaching the beach, everyone didn’t go straight down onto the sand. Instead, they continued walking along the shore toward the outside of the dock.

There were sand clams under the beach too, but they had to be searched for. Their beach wasn’t small, and sand clams weren’t distributed everywhere. It wasn’t as if one could dig a few random scoops and find them.

Sand clams were a type of clam, also called flower clams, but the villagers were used to calling them sand clams because they were dug out from beneath the sand.

Although they were dug out from under the beach, most of them didn’t contain sand. In the rare cases where some had sand inside, they only needed to be kept overnight before they could be eaten.

Whether used for soup or tossed into noodles while cooking, just adding a few sand clams made the dish indescribably fresh.

In later generations, the clams sold in the market weren’t something their villagers liked to eat anymore. They weren’t as fresh as the ones they dug themselves by the sea, and the texture of the meat wasn’t as springy as their sand clams.

Moreover, the sand clams on their beach were somewhat different from the flower clams sold on the market. Their sizes varied. The small ones were only the size of a fingernail, while the large ones were about the same size as flower clams. But even the small ones were very meaty.

There were two high tides and two low tides every day. During ordinary low tides, children would sometimes go dig them for fun, but when the tide receded greatly on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, more people would come.

The villagers were also used to digging outside the dock, because only on the first and fifteenth days would the tide recede far enough for the sandy beach near the dock to appear. Usually, whether at high tide or low tide, that area was covered with water.

Whenever it was exposed, there would be plenty of sand clams under the beach to dig. The reefs along the shore would also be exposed, and there would be sea melon seeds and oysters to pry off the rocks, as well as spicy snails to pick.

Those who lived by the mountains depended on the mountains; those who lived by the sea depended on the sea.

As long as one was diligent while living by the sea, one wouldn’t starve.

After reaching the dock, they slowly walked down along the steep rocky slope. By now, the tide had already receded, exposing a small stretch of beach. Several women were already squatting there, digging through the sand.

Generally, gathering seafood was something the women and children of the family did. Ever since getting married, Ye Yaodong had not come to the seaside to play. He wasn’t a child anymore, and he had long lost any sense of novelty toward this beach.

But after being reborn, perhaps because of the feeling of returning to another era, his state of mind was different now. This beach felt fresh to him again.

He was the first to wander over and look into the buckets beside the village women.

“Is there anything to dig? Aiya, there really is. How long have you been digging?”

Everyone lowered their heads and kept digging at the sand with spatulas. Not a single person bothered to answer him.

A grown man idling around all day—did he think they were like him? Instead of wasting time chatting, wouldn’t it be better to dig a few more scoops?

No one paid attention to him, but Ye Yaodong wasn’t annoyed. Seeing his son squatting alone on the beach and playing with sand, he walked back to his wife’s side. In just that short while, there were already six or seven sand clams in her basin.

Hearing two crisp clinks, two more appeared.

He squatted down.

“You dig pretty fast.”

A spatula was the most practical tool for digging sand clams. There was no substitute!

Some people didn’t even have wooden handles attached and simply used a spatula blade to scrape at the sand.

Lin Xiuqing was also using a spatula blade. Without raising her head, she said, “Practice makes perfect. Besides, this doesn’t need any special skill. You just scrape the sand.”

Mm. He had done this plenty when he was little too. For children who grew up by the sea, the thing they played with most was sand digging.

Since he had come, he couldn’t just watch. Without a spatula to dig with, he simply used his hands.

There were tiny bubble holes all over the beach. Ye Yaodong casually scooped at one, and out came a sand clam. Every scoop was accurate.

Hearing the continuous clinking sounds in the basin, Lin Xiuqing glanced sideways.

So fast?

Ye Yaodong noticed her gaze and raised his brows at her.

“What? Do you think I’m amazing? Want me to teach you?”

As he spoke, he pressed two fingers into the surface of the sand and hooked them inward.

Another one!

He tossed it into the basin and said, “This thing is easy to dig. I dug plenty when I was little.”

“How do you manage to get one every time?” She really was a little curious.

Although her maiden family lived in the neighboring town, that area wasn’t by the sea. It was near the mountains.

After marrying to the seaside for several years, she had always followed behind her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. She did whatever they did. Every time they came to gather seafood, everyone used spatulas to scrape through small patches of sand bit by bit. No one dug them out like he did.

Ye Yaodong pointed at the tiny holes in the sand.

“See these? Sand clams need to breathe too. They breathe through these little holes. Anywhere with a hole will definitely have one underneath.”

As he spoke, he demonstrated and dug out two more.

When it came to digging holes, he was very skilled.

It was only because it was close to the first day of the month and the tide had just receded from this stretch of beach by the dock that they were so easy to dig out. The middle section of the beach wouldn’t be this easy.

Lin Xiuqing curiously tried digging at one too.

Sure enough!

“Then why use a spatula at all? Just dig them out directly!” Using a spatula required scraping hard, and after a while, one’s hands would become very sore.

“You still need a spatula. Tools are more convenient. I’m only using my hands because I don’t have a spatula. Some clams are closer to the surface and don’t need little holes to breathe. After a while, once the beach has been stepped on, you won’t be able to see the holes anymore. It’s only because the tide just went out that the bubble holes are visible.”

Lin Xiuqing kept looking at him as he spoke.

After so many years, apart from the period right after they first got married, it was rare for them to have a normal conversation. He was always like a dragon whose head could be seen but not its tail, disappearing all day long. Even when he came home, it was usually only for meals and sleep. At most, they would exchange a couple of ordinary questions and answers.

Most of the time, he looked careless and unserious. Now that he was suddenly speaking so earnestly and even teaching her, she really wasn’t used to it.

“What are you looking at? Dig!”

“Oh!”

After only a short while, more people came to dig clams. People in this era were all very hardworking, with Ye Yaodong as the exception.

After squatting and digging for only a while, he already felt his legs going numb. He stood up, twisted his waist and neck, and looked toward the distant sea.

Digging for a while and showing a little effort was enough. He couldn’t appear too hardworking either.

At this time, the tide was still receding. Many small boats were docked near the pier. Because of the tide, many of them had run aground on the sand and could only wait for the next high tide before returning to the sea.

It was now half past nine. Today’s tide should recede fully around half past ten, then begin rising again. It would reach full tide around half past four in the evening, then recede fully again around half past eleven at night, and rise fully again around seven in the morning.

Each day, the tides rose and fell about fifty minutes later than the previous day. Although Ye Yaodong had only been reborn today, with one look at the tide, he could tell what time the tide would rise and fall tomorrow.

No wonder his eldest and second brothers had gone out to check the tide and move the boat. With the first day of the month approaching, the tide would recede even farther at midnight. On the night of the first day, the tide would reach its lowest point at twelve. They would probably need to go out to sea around one or two in the morning, and by then, the tide definitely wouldn’t have risen much.

If the tide wasn’t high enough, the boat couldn’t go out.

[End of Chapter]