Chapter 19: A Swarm of Sea Urchins Arrives

While there were no fishing bans at the moment, the production team rarely went out to sea in the summer. Without refrigeration or efficient transport, any catch would quickly go bad. The most crucial reason was that, just like tending to crops on land, harvesting from the sea had its seasons. Summer was for growth; catching things too early was a waste. Autumn was the best time to cast nets and bring in a haul.

But there were always exceptions. In the Yellow Sea, summer was when clams were at their plumpest, and sea urchins and abalone were not far behind.

Zeng Yan’s luck was in. Last night’s high tide had washed a whole lot of sea urchins ashore, wedging them in the cracks between the rocks. From a distance, the dark, spiky mass looked like a huddle of hedgehogs. The wisdom of the working class was endless, and “sea hedgehog” was indeed a common nickname for sea urchins.

“I’m rich, I’m rich!” Zeng Yan cheered excitedly, immediately pulling out her phone to record a genuine, unedited foraging video.

Picking up the largest one, Zeng Yan pulled a small knife from her personal space and eagerly cracked it open. It was the peak of the breeding season, and inside, five golden-yellow roe sacs were plump and inviting.

Eating sea urchin raw was the ultimate culinary experience. She grabbed a small, delicate spoon from her space, and without adding a thing, she scooped a spoonful straight to her mouth. The texture was smooth and creamy, and a wave of sweet, fresh flavor filled her mouth. It was truly “the butter of the ocean”—absolutely marvelous!

So, what was she waiting for? Time to get to work!

There were still people working up on the hillside, and disappearing for too long wasn’t a good idea. Zeng Yan worked quickly, only picking up the large ones and tossing the smaller ones back into the sea, where they’d cling to the shady side of a rock and continue to grow, feasting on seaweed.

Wild sea urchins were becoming increasingly rare in modern times. Zeng Yan had only ever watched them being harvested a few times abroad, and she had never experienced anything like this, crouching by the shore, nonchalantly picking up sea urchins as she pleased.

She couldn’t stop. In less than half an hour, she had gathered over a hundred, all stored in her special preservation space, which made keeping them fresh incredibly easy. Still wanting more, she decided to stop for now. Once she moved here in a couple of days, she could forage to her heart’s content.

Back at the stone house, Zeng Yan pulled out some sea urchins for Uncle Wang and the others who were working. She couldn’t provide a meal, but she could at least offer a gesture. “I just picked these up at the beach. They’re super fresh. You can take them home to add to your lunch,” she said.

But they weren’t impressed, and their expressions were tinged with pity.

“Oh dear, did that kid get hit on the head and lose her senses?”

“The idiot” Zeng Yan: “…”

The carpenter, Wang Youli, was sympathetic. “I got hit by a log once and had a hard time remembering things for a while. That’s probably what happened to Yan,” he said, his tone gentle and coaxing. “Kid, don’t worry. Just think about it for a bit. What do we usually do with these horse-dung eggs?”

The tall guy who called Yan’s name and Uncle Zhang couldn’t wait and blurted out the answer. “Right now, the horse-dung eggs might be fat, but there’s not much meat in them. No one eats them. We use them to feed the ducks!”

“Less-than-a-duck” Zeng Yan: “…” Someone please wake me up from this nightmare.

A long-buried memory surfaced. The name “horse-dung egg” said it all—people simply didn’t like them. While private fishing wasn’t allowed, locals always found a way to get their hands on all sorts of seafood. When they had their fill of big fish, who would care about a measly sea urchin that didn’t even fill a tooth?

You’ll be crying about this later, Zeng Yan thought to herself.

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Thinking about it, it made sense. The people of the 1960s didn’t lack seafood; they lacked carbs and fatty meat. There were no overweight people in the Xiangyang Production Brigade. The yellowed, tattered sleeveless undershirts of the three middle-aged men in front of Zeng Yan couldn’t hide their protruding ribs.

With all their strenuous physical labor, their energy consumption was high, and nothing was more filling than a good staple food. The brigade’s farmland was all mountainous and not very fertile. The seeds weren’t modern, high-yield, or drought-resistant hybrids, so the harvest was predictably small. Without supplementing their diet by fishing and trading for grain, most people would be starving.

Living next to an ocean full of treasures, they often dreamt of eating steamed buns until they were full. This was the reality of life in a fishing village in the late ’60s.

How times have changed. Modern people suffer from obesity and happily cut carbs from their diets. They seek out high-quality, wild-caught seafood at high prices. It had only been sixty years.

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Zeng Yan returned to the brigade headquarters at noon and gave the morning’s cut grass to Old Zhao, who took care of the livestock. The brigade didn’t have many cows—only the three she had saved. The hilly terrain was better suited for small, agile animals like donkeys. The brigade had fifteen donkeys and five horses.

These twenty-plus herbivores consumed a massive amount of food every day. Fortunately, Zeng Yan wasn’t the only one cutting grass. Old Zhao told her that they needed five large baskets of grass daily. It was a decent amount of work, taking half a day, but it left her with time for her own things.

Zeng Yan also saw the dozens of pigs in their pens. The policies were strict at this time, so the pigs were raised collectively. After the sea urchin incident, she was smart enough not to ask Old Zhao why the pigs weren’t eating grass. The pigs in the Xiangyang Brigade didn’t eat grass and certainly not grain. They lived by the mountains and the sea, so they ate small fish and shrimp.

Damn, their standard of living is definitely better than ninety percent of the country.

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Summer was too hot, so everyone took a midday nap after lunch. Zeng Yan used this time to clear out the largest area in her storage space, which was designated for her live streams. She moved the table and lumber into a reception area, leaving enough room for the grass.

It would be foolish not to use her personal space. Cutting grass in the afternoon was much easier. She’d bundle it up and put it directly into her space, taking it out only when she was close to her destination. A basket of grass wasn’t light, and she didn’t want to carry it for long; she still needed to grow! Most people were working in the fields on the mountain, so as long as she was a little careful, the chance of her being caught cheating with her space was low.

Old Zhao had no children, and he saw Yan as a child who hadn’t grown up yet. Feeling sorry for her situation, he answered her every question and granted every request.

Zeng Yan didn’t want to take advantage of the old man. She just asked him where she could get some chive roots and vegetable seeds. She had finished clearing the ground around her new home and wanted to plant some green onions, ginger, garlic, cabbage, and radishes. On the surface, she was penniless, and she couldn’t just eat nothing but meat.

“Don’t bother asking anyone else. I have all of that. Wait here, I’ll find them for you,” the old man said enthusiastically. He not only found her many kinds of seeds but also gave her a kind reminder. “Even though the brigade leader looks the other way, each person is only allowed a maximum of one fen of private land. Remember, people from above often come down for inspections. If you plant too much, they will pull it all up.”

They even controlled farming! No wonder everyone around her was malnourished. The only thing they had plenty of was seafood.

Zeng Yan wasn’t brave enough to go against the policies. One fen of land was about 60 square meters. With good planning, it would be enough for her, and besides, she could always buy things online. Now that she had sea urchins, it was time to open a shop and start making money.