Chapter 60 : It was Song Shiwei who harmed our little Douzi!

Many of these families came from inland areas and had never been to the sea, nor had they ever thought about going there, because when they first arrived, their husbands had warned them:  

“Don’t eat things blindly. You don’t know which seafood is poisonous. If you accidentally eat the wrong one, you could get poisoned!”  

But at this moment, seeing the two full buckets of seafood that Song Shiwei and the others had collected, Zhou Xiaoyan couldn’t help but feel envious.  

If Song Shiwei could eat it, why couldn’t they?  

If there was really no other way, she could go to the sea to catch fish too. At worst, she could just follow what the locals were catching, right?  

So, the next day, when Song Shiwei went to the beach, she saw Zhou Xiaoyan and her son, Douzi, there as well.  

Seeing them, Zhou Xiaoyan even had a smug look on her face.  

Song Shiwei sneered slightly, not understanding what she was so proud of.  

Anyone was free to go fishing at the beach, so she didn’t care.  

She simply led Zhou Cheng, Zhou Lin, and Xiao Cui to start gathering seafood as quickly as possible.  

Although they hadn’t finished the two large buckets of seafood from the day before, Song Shiwei had kept them in seawater to keep them fresh, so they could still last a few days.  

That morning, she had asked Zhou Tingyue to find some mud and bricks to build a small oven at the entrance of her house.  

Now she could have a barbecue!  

Zhou Tingyue was quite skilled with his hands. Following Song Shiwei’s instructions, he used thin, clean wires to make a grill, brushed it thoroughly, and placed it on top.  

With that, a simple oven was completed.  

With this, they could not only grill seafood and fish but also various meats and vegetables.  

After hearing about this from Song Shiwei, Zhou Tingyue and the children immediately started drooling.  

This was also why she came to the beach again today there was still seafood left from yesterday, but the two children were too excited and wanted to catch more.  

After the tide receded today, there were plenty of clams left! Zhou Cheng, Zhou Lin, and Xiao Cui had a great time collecting them.  

Meanwhile, Song Shiwei also found several large octopuses hiding in the rock crevices.  

Octopuses were difficult to catch because their suction cups clung tightly to the rocks.  

Sometimes, when she couldn’t pry them off with tongs, she would just grab them with her hands!  

But she had to be careful, corals often grew in the cracks between rocks. Corals could be toxic, especially around their tentacle-like mouthparts. Accidentally touching them could result in a painful sting!  

So, before catching an octopus, Song Shiwei always wore two layers of thick wire gloves.  

In fact, Zhou Xiaoyan had been secretly watching her. Whenever she saw what Song Shiwei was trying to catch, she would rush to grab the same thing.  

When she spotted an octopus under a nearby rock, her face lit up with excitement, and she immediately reached out to grab it.  

But in the next second—  

“Ahhh!!!”  

She let out a scream, wincing in pain.  

She had been stung by the coral!  

It hurt so much that she almost burst into tears.  

Nearby people turned to look at her.  

Song Shiwei wasn’t far away. Seeing that Zhou Xiaoyan had been stung, she instinctively wanted to remind her to be careful.  

But before she could say anything, Zhou Xiaoyan shot her a glare, her eyes filled with resentment, as if blaming her for what had happened almost as if she thought Song Shiwei had set her up.  

Song Shiwei: “……”  

Unbelievable. What was wrong with this woman?  

Fine, she wouldn’t say anything.  

If she tried to explain, Zhou Xiaoyan might even think she was just making excuses to keep her from catching seafood. It wasn’t worth the trouble.  

Besides octopuses, there were also crabs swimming crabs, blue crabs, and even some king crabs hiding in the rocky crevices.  

They weren’t at their fattiest just yet, but they were getting there.  

Didn’t ancient scholars love to eat crabs while drinking rice wine, writing poetry, and enjoying the blooming chrysanthemums?  

When the yellow chrysanthemums were in full bloom, it was Mid-Autumn Festival.  

Checking the date, today was August 27th on the Gregorian calendar. There was still one month left until Mid-Autumn Festival.  

The original body’s birthday was on July 18th of the lunar calendar, which was the day after tomorrow.  

There would be a big market here tomorrow, so she thought about catching more seafood and bringing it to the market to see if she could exchange it for something useful.  

She had heard from Sun Meimei and the others that at the market, people could barter items or simply pay with money.  

There wasn’t much meat in the crabs, and the locals didn’t particularly like them, so she could keep them for herself. But if she could catch some fish, she might be able to exchange them for money, food, or other necessities.  

Song Shiwei tossed the crab into the bucket and continued searching carefully among the rocks.  

Suddenly, she noticed a black object.  

Using her tongs, she picked it up and discovered that it was actually a fat, plump sea cucumber!  

This was a valuable find if she sold it, it would be worth a lot!  

It seemed like whatever she thought about ended up coming true!  

This trip was proving to be quite fruitful!  

She continued searching and managed to pick up seven or eight sea cucumbers, all of a similar large size.  

Song Shiwei was overjoyed, it seemed like she had found something good to bring to the market tomorrow.  

Just then, she heard Zhou Cheng calling out to her

“Mom, look at this!”  

Song Shiwei hurried over with her bucket and took a look. Inside a newly opened reef, there was a cluster of abalones, each as big as the palm of a hand at least twenty or thirty of them!  

She was thrilled.  

“This is the wrinkled abalone! Also known as the four-hole abalone, it’s one of the best species in the abalone family and is considered a top-tier seafood delicacy! This is a great find! It has extremely high nutritional value! The meat is a famous delicacy, and the shell, known as stone cassia, is used in traditional Chinese medicine to clear heat and improve eyesight!”  

She had prepared all kinds of abalone dishes before, and just thinking about them made her mouth water.  

Zhou Lin excitedly added, “I know that abalone and sea cucumber are things only rich people can afford!”  

That said, it was obvious how precious these were.  

Song Shiwei quickly used a shovel to pry the abalones off one by one, carefully placing them into the bucket.  

In total, she collected twenty-six abalones!  

Meanwhile, Zhou Xiaoyan had been circling around her, watching to see what she was catching.  

She had caught a lot of crabs at least half a bucket’s worth. But when she saw Song Shiwei using a shovel to collect those ugly-looking shells, she curled her lips in disgust.  

“Aren’t those things too ugly? The soft, wriggling meat inside looks so gross!”  

Just looking at them made her skin crawl!  

She couldn’t believe someone could actually eat such disgusting food!  

At least she was satisfied with her own bucket of crabs after steaming them, they could be eaten as-is, without any seasoning!  

When the tide started to rise, Song Shiwei helped Xiao Cui review the characters she had learned yesterday and taught her a few new ones. Afterward, she led Zhou Cheng and the others back home.  

For dinner, she made a pot of cornmeal porridge, stir-fried spicy octopus, steamed a few crabs, and prepared two bowls of steamed egg with clams for Zhou Wei and Xinxin.  

Since they had caught a lot of mantis shrimp yesterday, she also made stir-fried mantis shrimp with scallions.  

The children and Zhou Tingyue thoroughly enjoyed the meal.  

After dinner, she had to keep her promise to Xinxin and make canned fruit.  

She had been so busy making the oven the previous night that she had forgotten about it.  

Canning fruit was simple.  

First, she had to sterilize the glass jars by boiling them in water.  

This would ensure the fruit could be stored for a long time without spoiling.  

Then, she washed the peaches, peeled and pitted them, cut them into small pieces, and simmered them with rock sugar for about twenty minutes. After that, she poured the mixture into the sterilized jars and let them cool.  

Even though Zhou Wei and Xinxin were already full, they still stood nearby, watching with eager eyes.  

Afraid that they might burn themselves, Song Shiwei warned them, “Wait a little while it’ll be ready to eat once it cools down!”  

Just as she was speaking, she suddenly heard a loud commotion outside the door.  

“Song Shiwei is harming people!!! It was Song Shiwei who harmed my little Douzi!! My poor son!!”  

“Song Shiwei, come out! If anything happens to my son, I’ll fight you to the death!”