Chapter 47: The Isolated Island Was Rich in Resources

He continued wandering around the area and soon discovered another mud crab buried in the mud not far away, with only its two eyes exposed.

“Each one hides better than the last!”

Luckily, his eyesight was sharp. He spotted it quickly and picked it up with the tongs. This one was a little smaller, but still weighed over a jin. It was male, but still pretty good.

After placing the mud crab into the bamboo basket, he searched even more carefully, afraid he might miss one hidden under the mud.

Whenever he saw rocks nearby, he deliberately flipped them over to check whether there was anything underneath.

But this section was mostly mudflat with little water. After turning over several rocks, he still hadn’t seen any stranded fish or shrimp. He didn’t get discouraged and continued searching patiently. After all, the tide had only just gone out, so he had plenty of time.

Only after moving several more rocks did he spot two large mud crabs stacked on top of each other beside a big rock.

“Holy crap, having a wild rendezvous, huh? You guys really know how to live!”

He picked one up with the tongs, only for the other to remain attached on top. Looking at their shells, one really was male and the other female.

Since they were both mud crabs, Ye Yaodong guessed it was because this was an isolated island. Nobody came here, and there were no threats. So after low tide, the mud crabs crawled onto the mudflats to bask leisurely in the sun before returning to the sea once the tide came back in.

Excitedly claiming both of them for himself, he then noticed a small patch of mudflat not far ahead. It was relatively flat, and the surface was covered in many tiny holes.

He quickly walked over and crouched down. Unlike the little holes on sandy beaches that usually contained clams, these holes, based on his experience, likely contained razor clams.

Razor clams were invertebrate mollusks commonly found in the muddy sand of tidal zones. Their shells were long and narrow, shaped like straight razors, and they could move rapidly up and down inside their burrows. Once startled, they quickly retreated deeper into the holes.

He muttered to himself,

“What a pity I didn’t bring salt. If I sprinkled some on these holes, the razor clams would crawl out by themselves. Now I have to dig them out one by one. What a hassle.”

Setting the fire tongs aside, he began digging through the holes with his bare hands. Luckily, the clams weren’t buried too deep, making them fairly easy to retrieve.

After digging up several, he noticed a rock nearby. He casually moved it aside and found two mudskippers underneath, which he immediately tossed into the bamboo basket.

No matter how small the gain, it was still something.

Working quickly and efficiently for more than ten minutes, he finished digging through all the holes in the area and estimated he’d harvested three or four jin worth. Satisfied, he stood up.

But crouching for so long had made his neck ache. His hands were dirty, making it inconvenient to massage it, so Ye Yaodong simply twisted his neck a few times and glanced toward the others.

Everyone had spread out quite far from one another. He wondered how their harvests were going.

Looking up at the blazing sun, he saw it was still high and harsh. Since the tide wouldn’t come back in so quickly, he decided to continue searching while occasionally picking up mudskippers along the way.

As he walked farther and farther outward, he eventually left the small mudflat and entered an area of shallow water mixed with sand and mud.

The moment he stepped into the seawater, Ye Yaodong sat down on a large rock and decided to wash the mud off his legs first. Once dried under the sun, the mud tightened against his skin uncomfortably.

Just after washing his feet, he noticed a tentacle sticking out from beneath a crack in the rocks.

“Caught yourself red-handed! Come out!”

Wearing gloves, he reached in and grabbed it.

“Oh—it’s a little white octopus!”

After tossing it into the bamboo basket, he reached beneath the rock again to feel around.

“There’s more!”

When he pulled his hand back out, there were two more little white octopuses.

People from Fujian had a saying:

“Three little white octopuses are worth one sheep.”

Other octopus species were sold by weight, but little white octopuses were sold individually!

“One sheep in the bag!”

The isolated island truly had far richer resources than the docks.

Circling around that rock, he also found several whelks.

Not many—just seven or eight. The snail flesh at the top was tightly attached to the rocks, so he simply pried them off one by one and held them in his hand.

Only snails attached to rocks contained edible flesh. Many of the ones soaking in seawater were actually occupied by hermit crabs instead.

Since he had already reached the shallow water area, he decided to wander around nearby first.

“Hey, stonefish…”

Seeing a reddish figure swimming near a pile of rocks, Ye Yaodong quickly walked over. It was indeed a stonefish.

Stonefish generally lived among cracks or holes in underwater rocks. They seemed unable to leave rocky areas. No matter how deep the water was, as long as there were rocks at the bottom, stonefish would appear there and live off the small shrimp nearby.

He placed the bamboo basket and fire tongs aside and freed both hands, surrounding the fish carefully before grabbing it. The hard spines on its fins were venomous, so he needed to be cautious.

The bright red stonefish looked rather pleasing to the eye, far prettier than ordinary fish.

Ye Yaodong’s mood was excellent. Regardless of whether the catch was valuable or not, simply finding things made him happy.

After that, his harvests became fewer. By the time the tide began rising again, he had only caught three stonefish—just enough for one dish—along with some mudskippers, stone crabs, several miscellaneous fish, and four large mud crabs.

Wading through the water, he headed back toward the reef where they had first landed. The others were still wandering around with their heads lowered, searching carefully.

Ye Yaodong shouted loudly at them,

“The tide’s coming in!”

Everyone looked up toward the sound, then lowered their heads again and continued searching. The tide had only just begun rising. It hadn’t reached the boat yet, which was still stranded on the sand, so what was the rush?

After getting closer, he shouted again,

“Aren’t you guys hungry?”

“How could we not be? We’re starving.”

“I’ve already eaten several shrimp raw.”

Only after hearing that did Ye Yaodong realize he hadn’t found any shrimp today.

“I haven’t found any shrimp at all.”

“Then what did you find?”

“Three little white octopuses, three stonefish, several stone crabs, some miscellaneous snails, three or four jin of razor clams, and seven large mud crabs…”

“Holy crap, you found seven large mud crabs?”

Xiaoxiao, who was closest to him, stared at him in disbelief.

“How big are they?”

“They’re all over one jin. The biggest is probably close to two jin!”

The biggest one had been found beneath a rock in the shallow water while he was walking back. Luckily he spotted it, otherwise once the tide rose again, it would’ve returned to the sea.

A’Zheng shouted with envy and resentment,

“What kind of luck do you have? Fine, the three or four jin of razor clams is one thing, but you also found seven large mud crabs? I only found one.”

“I found one too! Pretty big as well, probably around one point three or one point four jin.”

Chen Wei also walked over while speaking.

“Feels like there are actually quite a lot of mud crabs here. Maybe it’s because this is an isolated island and fishing nets can’t really reach this area. There’s still a lot of stock.”

“I think so too. Probably because nobody’s ever harvested here before.”

As Xiaoxiao spoke, he glanced at Ye Yaodong’s bamboo basket.

“Your basket’s packed full already.”

“Dongzi’s luck really has been good these past few days. Same place, yet he always gets more than the rest of us.”

(End of Chapter)