Chapter 9: An Unexpected Harvest

Ye Yaodong shifted his gaze away from the boats and looked at the rocks around him. They were covered with dense clusters of tiny mussels, little sea melon seeds, and oyster shells that had already been pried open and emptied of their meat.

The rocks here were visited too often on ordinary days. The slightly larger mussels and sea melon seeds had long been dug clean. Only the extremely tiny ones, about the size of a pinky fingernail, still grew on the rocks.

At that size, they were all shell. The meat inside was probably not even as big as a booger, so they couldn’t be eaten. But every time the tide receded, there would inevitably be some that had grown bigger.

At this moment, there were people searching along the rock wall with tools, and his mother was one of them.

He went forward and took a look. His mother held a water ladle in one hand, and a small basket hung from her wrist.

There were already a few small opened oysters in the ladle, and the small basket also contained some slightly larger sea melon seeds and little spicy snails.

“Mom, this whole dense patch could blind your eyes from staring at it. Why don’t you go dig sand clams instead?”

Mother Ye used a screwdriver to pry at the oyster shells on the rocks as she said, “There are enough people in the family digging those. I’ll dig some oysters so we can make oyster omelets tonight. The children at home haven’t eaten them in a while.”

“These are barely anything. Didn’t our family’s boat get repaired? Just have Dad take you all to an isolated island to dig them there. For now, you should dig sand clams instead. In another two hours, the tide will cover this beach again.”

“You make it sound easy. The rocks on those isolated islands are slippery and hard to stand on. If a wave hits and I’m not careful, I’ll get swept back into the sea to meet Mazu.”

“Ah, it’s not that serious. Just pick a calm day when the tide has gone out.”

Mother Ye lifted her eyelids and glanced sideways at him.

“Then calculate for me which month and day the sea will be calm, the tide will just happen to recede far enough, and your father and brothers will just happen to be free!”

“Ah! How would I know how to calculate that?”

How could an ordinary mortal like him calculate the wind and waves at sea?

Besides, how would he know when his father and brothers would be free?

Mother Ye rolled her eyes at him.

“If you don’t know, then shut your mouth. Go wherever it’s cool and stay there. Don’t delay my work!”

Ye Yaodong rubbed his nose. Was he really that annoying?

“How about I help you dig? You go dig sand clams?”

Squatting for too long made his legs sore, so digging oysters from the rock wall was fine. In any case, he didn’t have trypophobia.

“You?”

“Yeah, I’ll do it. Opening oysters and digging sea melon seeds, that’s all. I’m good at it.”

He might not be good at other things, but when he was young, he had played around with these plenty. Skills he had learned wouldn’t be forgotten just because time had passed.

Mother Ye looked him up and down. Thinking of how he had confidently said in the house earlier that after the family split up, he would learn from his eldest and second brothers and become diligent and hardworking…

Could he have meant it?

Had he changed?

“Then you do it. If you don’t dig me a full bowl before we go back, I’ll beat you to death!”

“Aiya, I can only dig as much as I can. It depends on luck too. How could I guarantee I’ll dig a whole bowl before we go back? These oysters are tiny…”

Without giving him any room to argue, Mother Ye hung the basket on his wrist and stuffed the water ladle and screwdriver into his hands.

“Look carefully. Pry me a bowl of oysters, dig me a bowl of sea melon seeds, and get me a bowl of snails too!”

Ye Yaodong widened his eyes.

Did she think he could transform things out of thin air or something? She wanted him to get three bowls?

“Dongzi, you didn’t go out to play today? Why did you come to the beach?” His eldest aunt was also holding a water ladle and searching along the rock wall. Seeing him, she asked curiously.

“Mm. It’s too hot, so I didn’t feel like going out!”

“Huh? Is it not hot coming to the beach? The sun is so strong!”

His excuse hadn’t been chosen well, and Ye Yaodong felt a little awkward.

“Ah, yeah. I just came out to take a look.”

He’d better hurry up and search. No more chatting. He could dig for a while, and when the tide rose, he could go home for lunch.

Oysters were also called sea oysters, and they grew on rock walls. They were actually a type of planktonic organism.

During the breeding season, oviparous oysters released mature sperm and eggs into the sea. The sperm and eggs were fertilized in seawater, and after drifting for a period of time, they attached to other objects. Once they solidified, they became young shellfish, then slowly grew larger. Pry open the shells, and what was inside was oyster meat.

When boats stayed in the sea for a long time, young shellfish would also grow on the bottom of the hull. Usually, people would prop up the boat, pry all the young shellfish off the bottom to lighten the hull, and then carry the shellfish back in baskets to open for oyster meat.

The young shellfish on this rock wall were far too small. The oyster meat opened from them was only a tiny bit, yellowish green and like snot. Only the bigger ones showed the white part on their bellies.

“Open my ass. They’re this tiny. When will I ever fill a bowl?” Ye Yaodong couldn’t help muttering after opening one.

“If we want to eat, there’s no choice. There are so many mouths at home. Digging even a little counts. These aren’t sand clams, and we don’t get to come dig them every day.”

His eldest aunt replied, then spoke earnestly, “Dongzi, you’re already the father of two children. You can’t keep idling around all day anymore. It’s time for you to find proper work. Your wife and children need you to support them. Your parents can’t support you until old age.”

“Aunt, aren’t I working right now?”

“Working is right, but you need to earn money. And you can’t just work for one day. Supporting a family is something you do year after year, month after month. You’re a man. You have to have responsibility. You have to shoulder your duties…”

Her lecture poured out endlessly, blah blah blah.

Ye Yaodong regretted speaking up. If he had kept quiet, his aunt probably wouldn’t have had any desire to talk to him.

He couldn’t talk back either. After all, she was an elder. What she said was right, and it was for his own good. But hearing her go on and on still made his head swell. He might as well go dig sand clams. How had he never known his eldest aunt could nag this much?

“Aunt, you take your time digging here. I’ll walk farther out and take a look.”

The tide had receded a little more, so he simply started searching from the farthest rocks.

But his luck seemed pretty good!

As soon as he reached the rocks closest to the tide, he saw two small mud crabs in a pile of stones in the shallow water ahead. His eyes lit up at once. These were good things!

He quickly set the ladle and basket aside, then strode toward the pile of broken rocks. The two mud crabs had no idea danger was approaching and were still fighting each other with their big pincers.

Ye Yaodong grabbed one in each hand by the shells on their backs and carefully separated them so their legs wouldn’t hook together and break.

A mud crab with broken legs would lose a lot of value. Of course, if they were eating it themselves, that wouldn’t matter.

After being separated, the two mud crabs still waved their big pincers around wildly. If those pincers caught someone, it would be terrible. They could snap a fingernail right off.

(End of Chapter)