Chapter 5

On their island, they couldn’t grow rice or wheat. Aside from fishing, they could only cultivate a few sweet potatoes and vegetables for food.

Because of this, everyone usually made time for the bi-monthly tide-harvesting trips.

—-

By 8 AM, the tide had already receded halfway from the beach.

Men, women, young, and old, all laughing and chatting, rushed towards the shore with buckets, small bamboo baskets, and tools like hoes, shovels, and tongs.

Lan Xiruo and Sun Yuqing had gone back to the fishing boat early with Uncle Jiang He to sort through the seafood caught in the fishing nets from the previous day.

—-

Yesterday, everyone had been too focused on the strong winds and waves to check the nets. But now, as they sorted through them, they were surprised to find all kinds of fish hanging from the nets.

Seeing this, the group—who had been sulking all morning—finally showed some smiles.

“This is a good sign! Don’t be discouraged. It’s just 200 yuan; we’ll definitely earn it back.”

Even if they couldn’t make money from fishing, she would find another way for them to earn it.

Encouraged by Lan Xiruo’s words, everyone perked up. After handing over the seafood to the team leader, they grabbed their tools and headed to the beach for tide-harvesting.

Lan Xiruo and Sun Yuqing walked together. Like the others, they wore rain boots, each carrying a small bamboo basket at their waists and a bucket in their hands, with small shovels and bamboo tongs inside.

Choosing a less crowded spot, they looked at the scattered treasures on the sand, exchanged smiles, and immediately bent down to start collecting.

After the high tide, many fish, shrimp, crabs, and shellfish were left stranded on the beach, unable to retreat with the waves.

Lan Xiruo picked up a three-pound flounder flipping on its belly and tossed it into the bucket. This fish had a lot of meat and few bones—perfect for a delicious braised dish.

Noticing a few bamboo clams nearby, she picked those up too. They made an excellent soup when cooked with chicken—though unfortunately, they couldn’t afford chicken right now (﹏).

The storm must have been strong enough to stun these sea creatures. Every couple of steps, Lan Xiruo could pick something up—bamboo clams, white moon shells, blood cockles, swimming crabs, eels, and green crabs…

Glancing at her bucket, she realized it was already half full after just ten minutes.

Looking around and seeing no one watching, she secretly slipped a few of her favorite green crabs and swimming crabs into her bracelet’s storage space.

As time passed, the tide receded further, and more people crowded onto the beach.

Lan Xiruo scanned the area and saw Sun Yuqing not far away. She walked over and whispered,

“Let’s move closer to the water. There are fewer people there now, so we can find more. Most of the good stuff here has already been picked up.”

Hearing this, Sun Yuqing immediately grabbed Lan Xiruo’s hand and ran toward the water’s edge.

Just as they reached the shallower part of the beach, Lan Xiruo suddenly felt something strange under her foot. Looking down—oh wow—she had stepped on a large octopus!

She quickly bent down, grabbed it, and tossed it into her bamboo basket, securing the opening.

Octopuses were boneless and could squeeze through tiny gaps. If she didn’t block the basket properly, who knew when it would escape?

Stir-fried octopus, braised octopus, boiled octopus…

Lan Xiruo swallowed at the thought of all the delicious ways to cook it, her eyes scanning the beach rapidly.

Suddenly, she spotted something big in a small puddle just two steps away. She lunged forward and pressed it down—it was a five-pound sea bass stranded in the water pit!

Glancing at her bucket, she realized it was already full.

Just as she was worrying about wasting time going back to the educated youth point to get another container, she noticed a rope stuck in the crevice of a nearby rock.

Her eyes lit up. She hurried over, pulled out the long rope with some fishing net still attached, and guessed that it must have broken off from someone’s net and drifted ashore.

She threaded the rope through the sea bass’s gills and tied it to her waist.

Before leaving, she took another look into the water pit and smiled—there were two large sea cucumbers inside!

She reached in, grabbed them, and secretly stored them in her bracelet space.

Pretending to keep searching, she felt around the water pit and unexpectedly found a pair of cat’s eye snails stuck together, almost as big as her fist.

She pried them apart, squeezed out the water to make them smaller, tossed them into her bucket, and continued searching.

Tiger prawns, red shrimp, white shrimp, and prawns…

For a while, all she found were different kinds of shrimp, which made her a little frustrated.

Looking around, she saw that everyone else was in the same situation, which made her feel better.

She waded a little further into the shallow seawater and spotted some treasures clinging to the reef.

Excited, she squatted down and pried the abalone off the rocks one by one.

Good thing she had eaten breakfast; otherwise, she wouldn’t have had the strength to pull them off.

After storing the abalone in her bracelet space, she circled the reef and found a few sea snails and two more octopuses tightly clinging to the other side.

Without hesitation, she grabbed the sea snails and tossed them into her bucket before peeling the octopuses off the rock and stuffing them into her bamboo basket.

“You’re coming with me! If you wander into my territory, you’re going into my stomach!”

As she left the reef area, she accidentally kicked a raised pile of sand. Squatting down, she used her small shovel to dig—

The next second—

“Pfft—ugh!”

People nearby turned to look and burst out laughing when they saw Lan Xiruo’s face covered in octopus ink.

“Hahahaha…”

Lan Xiruo spat out the ink that had gotten into her mouth, wiped her face angrily, and shoved the culprit into her bamboo basket.

From then on, whenever she saw a raised sand pile, she didn’t dare put her face too close.

Ironically, she never found another octopus in the sand—only more cat’s eye snails.

This beach had an abundance of cat’s eye snails and bamboo clams, if nothing else.

Sun Yuqing wasn’t as lucky as Lan Xiruo in finding big fish, but she managed to fill an entire bucket with bamboo clams and snails.

Lan Xiruo thought she would take the bucket back, but instead, Sun Yuqing pulled a nylon bag out of her pocket and poured all the contents into it.

Lan Xiruo: “……”

Why didn’t she think of that?

Seeing her dumbfounded expression, Sun Yuqing laughed and said, “I didn’t remind you to bring a bag because we’re not keeping today’s haul for ourselves. We can store everything together.”

Lan Xiruo nodded but looked at the sea bass tied to her waist and the octopus in her basket with slight regret.

She hadn’t eaten such fresh fish in so long—what a pity!

—-

After emptying her bucket into Sun Yuqing’s bag, Lan Xiruo continued picking up bamboo clams and snails.

Among them were mud snails, a staple side dish when pickled, found on almost every household’s dining table.

But since their shells were too fragile, most people avoided collecting them without proper containers, fearing they would get crushed under heavier seafood.

Lan Xiruo loved them, so she quietly swept a handful into her bracelet space.

And “swept” was the right word—one part of the beach was so densely covered with them that every step crushed their shells beneath her feet.

As she walked, she reached a reed field.

A gust of wind blew through, parting the reeds—and a dark shadow flashed before her eyes.