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After lunch, Lin Qingmei took a machete and a basket and headed up the mountain.
The mountain in Linjiawan wasn’t very tall. Once she reached the top, she could see the ocean not far away. The tide hadn’t gone out yet, and the beach was completely deserted.
The sea hadn’t been polluted yet. From a distance, it looked like a giant sapphire. Seabirds skimmed across the surface, startling the fish that were surfacing for air.
There wasn’t enough time today, so she’d have to wait until tomorrow’s low tide to explore the beach. The original host had long grown sick of eating seafood, but Lin Qingmei barely had any in her past life! Before the apocalypse, she lived in an inland city where seafood was absurdly expensive. With her measly monthly salary of a few thousand, how could she afford it?
After the apocalypse, all marine life had mutated—even tiny shrimp and crabs turned into man-eating beasts. She wasn’t suicidal—there was no way she’d venture to the sea for food back then.
Originally, Lin Qingmei planned to chop firewood, but once she got to the top, she realized there was no dry wood left. The mountain wasn’t that large, and any usable firewood had already been taken by others.
The South was different from the North. Here, people didn’t need to heat their beds in winter, so the lack of dry firewood wasn’t a big deal. She could just collect some branches and weeds to burn.
Granny Lin had been bedridden for the past few months, and the original host didn’t know how to do chores. The woodshed at home was completely empty now.
So, she gathered some branches and tied them with a straw rope, picked a basketful of pine needles, and headed home. That would do for today—this amount should last her two days.
The next morning, Lin Qingmei got up early. The tide was going to recede at 6 a.m., and she needed to be at the beach before then.
There were two ways for Linjiawan villagers to earn work points: one was farming in the fields, and the other was tidal harvesting or fishing at sea.
By the time Lin Qingmei arrived at the beach with her tools, a large crowd had already gathered.
“Qingmei, over here!” someone called.
“Auntie, you came early today. There are so many people here! I don’t remember there being this many when I used to come tide-harvesting.”
“It’s a spring tide today. People from neighboring villages have all come to this beach, of course it’s crowded. Plus, now that the weather’s cooled and there’s not much farm work, everyone’s come out to gather seafood. Stick with me later—I know a spot with tons of razor clams.”
The village chief’s wife glanced at the tools in Lin Qingmei’s bucket and nodded with satisfaction. This girl came prepared—clearly serious about earning work points.
“Oh, alright. I’ll follow you. I used to come tide-harvesting alone and didn’t dare go too far.”
“You were always too timid. You never liked playing with the other kids in the village. I really don’t know what your grandmother was thinking—locking you up at home to read all day. Wasn’t she afraid you’d go stir-crazy?”
Granny Lin had been skilled in everything—zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, weaving, and embroidery. Her double-sided embroidery was incredibly lifelike.
The original host hadn’t played with village children not because she was aloof, but because she didn’t have time. Between school, painting, calligraphy, and needlework, she was always busy. But now, in the peak of the Red Movement, all her skills were “bourgeois”. She had to be cautious or she’d risk being publicly denounced by the Red Guards.
At six o’clock, the sea receded by over two miles. Everyone who had been chatting grabbed their buckets and headed to familiar spots to start gathering.
Lin Qingmei followed the village chief’s wife away from the crowd. After about ten minutes, they arrived at a beach near some reefs.
“See all those tiny holes? They’re full of razor clams. Razor clams move fast—we need to dig quickly.” The chief’s wife began digging with a small shovel. She was clearly an expert—one scoop and she’d already caught a few.
“Can’t we just use salt to lure them out? Why go through all this effort?” Lin Qingmei pulled out a jar of salt from her bucket. She remembered seeing sea-foraging influencers use salt to catch clams in her past life—she couldn’t be wrong!
The chief’s wife: “…”
“Salt’s not cheap, you know! Only someone like you would waste salt just to lure out a few clams. We’ve got strength—we might as well dig.”
The chief’s wife now saw Lin Qingmei in a new light. This girl really didn’t understand the value of daily essentials. A jin of salt cost two yuan—that was worth four work points!
But I’m not short on salt, Lin Qingmei muttered internally. She didn’t dare say it aloud, though, afraid the chief’s wife would think she was crazy.
To avoid being called a fool, she quietly put the salt jar back in the bucket. Next time, she’d go tide-harvesting alone—much more freedom that way.
After a few digs without spotting any clams, Lin Qingmei stopped. The reef wasn’t far—she decided to check the tidal pools for fish instead.
“Auntie, I’m going over there to take a look.”
The recently receded beach still had plenty of marine life. Lin Qingmei didn’t know much about seafood, so she just picked up whatever looked edible.
Crabs +2, Shells +5, Abalone +6
Hmm? What’s this ugly fish? No idea if it’s tasty—but might as well pick it up just in case.
Wow, baby lobsters! As soon as she looked into a tide pool, she spotted tiny whiskers poking out from between the rocks. Using her tongs, she reached in and snapped up a baby lobster.
Baby Lobster +1, Baby Lobster +3, Baby Lobster +1
Just from one tide pool, she found five baby lobsters.
After that, it was like she’d been blessed by the Koi of Luck—all the good stuff started swimming right toward her.
Green Crab +2
Large Yellow Croaker +1
Baby Lobster +3
Ribbonfish +1
Mackerel +2
Clams +3
Red Flower Crab +6
…
The more she picked, the more excited she got. Unknowingly, she drifted far from the crowd. Looking at the tide pools in front of her, she suddenly had an idea: she could drain the pools into her dimensional water tower first. Once she’d collected the fish, she could pour the water back. That would make it much easier to clean out an entire pool.
The reefs here were steep, so few people came this way—perfect for quietly draining water.
These pools were deep. There must be plenty of good stuff inside.
No sooner thought than done. She reached into the tide pool, and in no time, the water had been transferred into her space’s water towers. After filling about ten towers, the pool was finally dry.
In her past life, she’d stuffed everything into her space because it was so big. These water towers? She had “0-yuan purchased” them from a hardware market. Over a hundred of them had sat unused for years—until she gratefully took them all.
With the pool drained, the fish and shrimp had nowhere to hide. The bucket she brought was too small, so she stored everything directly into her space.
Spotted Coral Grouper +1
Threadfin Bream +1
Green Crab +4
Baby Lobster +1
Triggerfish +1
Tigerfish +2
…
As expected, if you want a big harvest, drain the tide pools. In under ten minutes, she’d gathered over half a bucket of seafood again.