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“Where did you go today? Why are you back so late? If you didn’t return soon, I was about to go out looking for you!”
Lin Qinglan finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that her sister wasn’t hurt.
Though Lin Qingmei was strong, it wasn’t brute force that was dangerous—it was those who played dirty in the dark.
“I went to the commune for a meeting with the team leader. Look, I even brought back some white-cut chicken for you.”
Lin Qingmei proudly showed off the lunchbox in her hand.
“What kind of meeting is so important that even an accountant like you had to attend?”
“It was about seafood farming. Linjiawan is planning to set up a seafood aquaculture farm. That’s good news for you too. You should prepare in advance—I’ll try to get you a job there.”
It wasn’t that Lin Qingmei didn’t want to provide for Lin Qinglan and Lin Zheng.
Now that both of their household registrations had been moved back to Linjiawan, if Lin Qinglan didn’t have a job by next spring, she would have to go work in the fields.
“Qingmei, you’re so good to me! Love you! You’ve worked hard today—go get some rest. I’ll heat up the chicken so we can eat. Lin Zheng, come help me with the fire!”
After dinner, Lin Qingmei took Lin Qinglan and Lin Zheng to the beach.
“Big Sis, why are we going to the beach so late at night?”
Lin Zheng carefully followed behind his sister, looking around nervously.
It was so dark—what if there were snakes?
“You coward. What are you scared of when your big sisters are with you? It’s just a snake—it should be more afraid of me!”
Both Lin Qingmei and Lin Qinglan had supernatural abilities, and even at night, they could see clearly.
Even though they didn’t have mental-type powers, their spiritual perception still worked.
Especially Lin Qingmei—she was a triple-powered ability user: wood, space, and strength.
Her spiritual sense could detect anything within a kilometer radius.
“Sis, have you ever caught a snake before?”
Now that they were talking about snakes, Lin Zheng perked up.
Back in the northeast, Hammer had once caught a flower-patterned snake.
He had heard that snake soup was delicious, but his mom didn’t let him eat at Hammer’s house, so he missed the chance. A pity!
“Of course I’ve caught one. It was huge! Your big sister and I ate it for half a month.”
The snake she caught was indeed huge—a mutated snake from the apocalypse.
When coiled, it looked like a small mountain. It almost swallowed her whole.
“That big? You’re totally lying, Sis.”
A snake the size of a mountain? Bigger than a python? No way would such a thing exist in Linjiawan!
“Qingmei, tone it down. Don’t scare the kid.”
Lin Qinglan kicked Lin Qingmei hard.
Was she talking about this life or her past life? That snake was a post-apocalyptic mutant—was she trying to expose the fact that she was a transmigrator?
“Ow! Lanzi, take it easy. Fine, I won’t say anything else.”
Lin Qingmei only talked this much in front of Lin Qinglan.
In front of others, she was tight-lipped.
The nighttime beach was quiet, with only the sound of waves crashing on the shore.
With their spiritual perception acting like a cheat, the three of them soon found a beach crawling with crabs.
“Whoa! Sis, there are so many crabs!”
Lin Zheng shouted in excitement. The beach was swarming with crabs—dense and kind of creepy.
“Shh! Keep it down! Don’t scare my crabs away.”
Rock Crabs +4
Swimming Crabs +5
Flower Crabs +4
…
Lin Qingmei didn’t need tongs—she caught the crabs barehanded.
She tied them up as she caught them and occasionally slipped a few swimming crabs into her space.
There were so many crabs tonight that she only picked the big ones—each weighing over two jin (about 1kg).
The smaller ones, she let go.
“Qingmei, there’s a king crab by your foot!”
A king crab, larger than a dinner plate, slowly crawled toward her feet.
“Sis, there’s another one to your right!”
Lin Qinglan and Lin Zheng stood nearby, watching the action.
They didn’t dare catch crabs with their bare hands, and their tong skills were no good either, so all they could do was watch.
“You two are such wimps. What’s so scary about crabs? Lanzi, keep an eye on Lin Zheng—there’s a sea snake not far behind you. Sea snakes are poisonous. Hurry up and use your spiritual power to drive it away.”
Lin Qingmei couldn’t do everything by herself anymore.
She had to rely on Lin Qinglan to take care of herself and her brother.
Tying up the crabs made the work a bit tedious. After nearly two hours, Lin Qingmei finally filled two buckets.
“Let’s go home!”
“Wait, not yet. Let’s head over there—I just spotted some baby green lobsters.”
Using her spiritual perception earlier, Lin Qinglan had discovered a group of baby green lobsters being washed ashore by the waves.
“There’s other good stuff too. You two wait here—I’ll go by myself.”
Lin Qingmei could sense things even farther away than Lin Qinglan.
Following the direction Lin Qinglan pointed, she spotted a school of large yellow croakers just over a hundred meters from the lobsters.
The golden croakers shimmered like moving piles of gold in the water.
To catch them all at once, Lin Qingmei pulled a fishing net out of her space.
Then, using her spiritual power, she herded both the croakers and the lobsters into the net and stored the whole thing in her space.
Lin Qinglan had seen the whole thing and nearly screamed in excitement.
Those were large yellow croakers!
Before the apocalypse, they had been almost fished to extinction. The news even reported that no fishermen had seen one in decades.
Now they’d caught dozens.
Who knew if yellow croakers were valuable in this era?
If not, she’d just let Lin Qingmei keep them all for eating.
When Lin Qingmei returned, she was holding seven or eight baby green lobsters and a massive yellow croaker weighing at least ten jin (~5kg).
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to take more—but yellow croakers would die quickly once out of the sea.
Without ice at home, she had to store the rest in her space for preservation.
Back home, Lin Qingmei immediately butchered the yellow croaker for a late-night snack.
She’d heard it was tender and tasty—but the only cooking method she knew was steaming.
While steaming the fish, she also steamed a few swimming crabs.
They had caught two full buckets of crabs tonight—plenty to eat for a long time.
Tonight’s late-night feast was a bit extravagant—but so worth it.
The steamed yellow croaker was incredibly fresh, and the swimming crabs were packed with roe.
By the time they finished eating, it was already past midnight.
The three siblings quickly washed up and went to bed.
Before dawn, the village’s roosters had already started crowing.
Lin Qingmei glanced at her watch—it was already 5 AM—so she didn’t bother going back to sleep.