Chapter 46: Sea Centipedes

Xiaoxiao slapped his own forehead.

“Damn it… are we stupid? We could just dump the stuff from our buckets onto the boat, couldn’t we? Then we can free the buckets up and keep filling them!”

A’Zheng also suddenly understood.

“Right! We can pour everything onto the boat and each keep our own pile in a corner. Once we get back, we can put it into sacks.”

“Damn, pig brains… we sat there for so long doing nothing, just watching Dongzi dig by himself.”

“Go, go, go. Let’s pick more. The boat rental and fuel are so expensive. We can’t come here for nothing!”

When they went back and told Fatty and Chen Wei, the two of them also finally reacted and hurriedly dumped the contents of their buckets onto the boat, freeing them up to continue gathering.

Ye Yaodong looked at them speechlessly.

In any case, he only needed to fill his two sacks. As long as they weren’t washed and were kept in the shade, these shellfish should last two or three days.

If not for needing to feed the workers, he wouldn’t have collected this much. After all, there was no refrigerator. If they collected too much and couldn’t finish eating it, it would stink. What he had gathered so far was already enough.

After filling an entire sack of juvenile oyster clusters, it was finally his turn to sit and rest while watching them work.

Since no one had come to this isolated island, the shellfish attached to the reefs were very plentiful. It was impossible for him alone to pry everything off. When the others returned to work, there was still plenty for them to collect.

After sunbathing for a while and eating the two corn cobs he had brought, he saw that most of the surrounding reefs had already been exposed by the tide. He picked up the large bamboo basket and fire tongs, then shouted toward the group bent over the rocks,

“Comrades, the tide has gone out. I’m going treasure hunting. You guys keep digging!”

“Damn it, we can’t even finish digging what’s here!”

“I’ll dig a little longer. If you find anything good, shout loudly and I’ll come down.”

“Sure. I’ll call you after I’ve already gathered all the good stuff.”

Ye Yaodong grinned, rolled up his trouser legs, and started searching the shallow waters.

“Damn, not digging anymore. I’m going down to look around too.”

A’Zheng jumped straight down with his half-full bucket, not even bothering to empty it onto the boat first, afraid that he’d fall behind again. In any case, the shellfish on the reefs couldn’t run away.

The moment he jumped down, he heard Ye Yaodong’s delighted voice.

“Damn—sea centipedes!”

“What? Where? Where are the sea centipedes?”

“There are sea centipedes?”

Everyone ran over to Ye Yaodong in surprise and saw that the exposed tidal flat was crawling with dense clusters of sea centipedes.

Sea centipedes, scientifically known as sandworms, were worm-like creatures that lived in the shallow tidal flats along the southeastern coast. Their most frightening trait was that they looked like centipedes, but they were neither poisonous nor aggressive, and their legs were very short. Their main food was seaweed and seagrass, supplemented with small shrimp and fish.

“Holy crap, this is too disgusting. There are so many.”

“I’m getting goosebumps!”

A whole patch of sea centipedes was wriggling. Anyone with trypophobia would probably be scared to death.

Fortunately, Ye Yaodong wasn’t afraid of this stuff.

“These are good things. Everyone get in there. Be gentle when you catch them. Don’t scare them all back into the mud.”

“Ah, no, no, no. Too disgusting. There’s such a huge patch of them. My scalp’s going numb. I don’t want them.”

“I don’t want them either. I didn’t bring gloves.”

“My eyes are going blind looking at them. I’m going somewhere else to wash my eyes.”

“They really are a little disgusting. Since you found them, catch them yourself!”

One by one, they shook their heads and quickly moved aside.

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes.

“All of you want to eat them, but when it’s time to catch them, not one person is willing to reach out.”

“You can’t put it that way. Cooked ones look totally different from live ones, alright? They’re so densely packed I’m about to throw up. Anyway, you found them, so they’re yours. Hurry down and catch them!”

After saying that, A’Guang also quickly grabbed his bucket and fled.

Fine, he’d catch them himself. Better to keep them all for himself anyway.

The only problem was that the bamboo basket in his hand wasn’t suitable for holding sea centipedes. He quickly ran back toward the boat.

He needed to dump the seafood from his bucket onto the deck and free the bucket to hold them. As he walked, he muttered,

“Why are there so many sea centipedes crawling out here? Shouldn’t they be in their holes under the tidal flat?”

“Who knows? Maybe they come out to mate around the first of the lunar month.”

In any case, having something to catch was good enough.

After emptying the bucket, he gave it a quick rinse in the seawater and excitedly ran toward the group of sea centipedes.

They were disgusting, yes, but not unbearable. Besides, he was wearing gloves and didn’t have to touch them directly.

He grabbed a handful. Watching them struggle and wriggle made his heart feel unbearably gross, so he quickly dropped them into the bucket.

The nearby sea centipedes seemed to be startled and began burrowing into the mud one after another.

Ah, how could he let them escape?

Ye Yaodong sped up and grabbed all the ones still lingering on the surface before they could react. The ones he didn’t catch had all burrowed into the tidal flat.

Looking at the tiny holes dotting the mud, he tried digging into one. After feeling one inside, he gently tugged at it. This required patience and care.

After pulling out a section, you had to pause and let the sea centipede’s body contract before pulling upward again. If you moved too fast, it would easily snap.

After feeling through only a few holes, he lost patience. It wasted too much time. There was already almost half a bucket inside, roughly four or five jin.

He decided to go tidal gathering first and see if there were other good things. If he had time later, he could come back and slowly catch more. In any case, these things were right here.

After placing the bucket in the shade, he picked up the bamboo basket and fire tongs and ran toward A’Guang, who was closest.

“Any catches?”

“What do you think? If I found anything good, I would’ve shouted already.”

“That’s true. Looks like nobody has found any big catch!”

He glanced into A’Guang’s bucket while he was at it: a few stone crabs and a few small mixed fish.

“You might as well go back up to the reef and dig shellfish. You’ll probably get more.”

A’Guang nodded as if this made perfect sense.

“I think so too.”

Ye Yaodong patted his shoulder comfortingly, checked where everyone else was, then planned to walk farther along the edge of the island’s reef.

While he had been catching sea centipedes, the tide had receded a little more.

Since today had started well on the tidal flat, he deliberately headed toward places with mudflats.

The exposed parts of this isolated island after low tide included small patches of sandy beach as well as muddy flats. The mudflats looked rather dirty. With every step, his foot sank in, and after only a few steps, his legs were splattered with mud.

He wandered around with the fire tongs in hand, then suddenly saw a large mud crab covered in mud lying motionlessly on the surface of the tidal flat, as if sunbathing.

Its camouflage was quite good. Its shell was smeared with mud, and if he hadn’t looked carefully, he almost would’ve missed it.

Ye Yaodong pinched it with the fire tongs, and its big pincers immediately started waving aggressively.

“Yo, it’s a female too. Pretty heavy. It should have roe. Looks around one and a half jin. Not bad, not bad. I almost missed it.”

His luck really was good.

He’d felt there should be something on the tidal flat, and after casually walking around, there really was.

(End of Chapter)