There was indeed no one by the beach, at least Li Yifei didn’t see anyone, so he used the thods he learned from the little girl in the past two days to start searching for crabs, shrimps, and various shellfish left behind after the tide receded. The latter provided the most ingredients. Today, his luck was really good. After searching for a while, Li Yifei picked up two big crabs, which were flying crabs and quite large. With such a catch, Li Yifei was naturally happy, humming a song as he walked in the rain, shirtless, with his pants rolled up.
When he reached the previous reef spot, Li Yifei suddenly saw a splash of water rising in a depression of the rocks, the sound of gurgling water reaching his ears. His face lit up, hurriedly setting down his water bucket, and ran over with a few steps. He saw a fish more than a foot long left in the water pit, and it was still alive, seemingly trapped here when the tide receded. This pit often left behind so things, such as crabs, shrimps, and other daily checks for Chen Junxiao. Li Yifei had noted it down, but didn’t expect to find a fish today. Li Yifei lunged forward, grabbed it with both hands, captured it, and found it to be a plump fish, considering it a big fish. He threw it into the small bucket, making him even happier.
Thus, half an hour passed, and Li Yifei had a fruitful harvest. Today, it seed the seafood had all gone silly, leaving everything behind, and Li Yifei’s small bucket was almost filled.
Should he head back like this? Li Yifei frowned, pondering for a while. Since today was his first solo outing, he should... try hard and bring so surprises to the little girl who had been taking care of him for so many days. So, Li Yifei placed the bucket on the sandy shore and directly entered the sea. The underwater reef here posed no threat to Li Yifei. His body had recovered significantly, enough to handle them.
After entering the sea, the seaside seawater was sowhat murky due to the rainy weather, but further out, the seawater beca relatively clearer, especially at depths of tens of ters. This was where the real goodies were.
Of course, by this ti, Li Yifei had already swum out tens of ters, and you could hardly see him from the shore, just his head poking out.
Li Yifei took a deep breath, bravely dove in, propelled a few strokes, and saw a big fish, about half a ter long, so he pursued it. If True Qi was still there, Li Yifei’s swimming speed would have been much faster, but now he could only swim stroke by stroke...
Though he planned to go ho in an hour, Li Yifei took half an hour longer, but his harvest was incredibly abundant. Not only was his small bucket filled, but later, Li Yifei directly discarded the shellfish he had picked up earlier and replaced them with fish, crabs, and even a three-pound lobster he had caught in the deeper waters. Li Yifei snagged quite a few fish, so much that he had to go ashore and break off so branches to string the remaining fish into two bundles. With blood inevitably flowing when stringing them, Li Yifei slowly swam back, mindful of potential sharks in the area. With their keen sense of sll, eting sharks under these physical conditions would be dangerous.
Having caught quite enough, Li Yifei swam back to shore and looked at the harvest in his bucket with pride. Without his cultivation, he was still a survival expert.
"Aw, the common people today, are truly and genuinely happy!" Li Yifei said, carrying his catch in hand and over his shoulder, swaying up the small hill’s path. Then he saw a small figure erge through the rain curtain, holding a piece of plastic overhead, body leaning forward, running swiftly through the rain. Li Yifei stopped and waited for them to approach, then said, "Didn’t I tell you not to co out!"
"Ah?" Chen Junxiao heard the voice, instinctively looked up, and saw Li Yifei carrying his catch, initially stunned. Just as she was about to speak, she was worried that Li Yifei might face danger, as he’d been gone so long. Yet she hadn’t expected to see Li Yifei in such a state.
"This... These..." Chen Junxiao confird she hadn’t mistaken. Li Yifei’s bucket was full, and he had fish as long as half a ter on his shoulder. Did he go foraging on the beach or to a fish pond? Even in a fish pond, the fish wouldn’t be so easy to catch!
"I caught them. Let’s go; let’s head ho!" Li Yifei replied.
"You caught them all?" Chen Junxiao was almost stuttering, and Li Yifei said, "Of course. Let’s go ho first!"
"Oh, okay, okay. Let help carry the bucket!"
"No need, you just walk ahead," Li Yifei said.
Chen Junxiao was fully imrsed in great surprise. She never imagined Li Yifei’s beach foraging would yield so many fish, many of which could sell for a hefty price.
Chen Junxiao probably couldn’t pick out such a big fish in a month, but Li Yifei managed to catch it. Hmm, he did catch it, right? The little girl was both happy and a little anxious, worrying that Li Yifei might have done sothing bad, like snagging fish from a returning fishing boat.
With a slight anxiety, she walked back to the house, stood in the kitchen, and watched Li Yifei toss the fishes one by one onto the ground, soaking wet and looking disheveled yet brimming with a smile, proudly saying, "How about it? Quite a lot, right?"
"Quite a lot!" Chen Junxiao nodded, and Li Yifei said, "Let’s keep a few fish for our dinner and lunch tomorrow. Once the rain lessens, I’ll help you carry the rest to sell!"
"Sell fish?" Chen Junxiao felt her small head couldn’t quite process it, and Li Yifei patted her little head, saying, "Of course, we need to sell them; we can’t eat them all ourselves!"
"Oh, oh, sell them, sell them, otherwise it would be a pity if they went bad!" Chen Junxiao nodded quickly and said. The temperature here is high, making sea fish more prone to spoilage, especially if the innards are not removed, they will rot quickly.
"Uh-huh, do you have big bags at ho? Let’s pack things up, it’s too conspicuous to carry them like this," Li Yifei said.
"Yes... Let look for it, I rember we have a big bag," Chen Junxiao said hurriedly, running into the house and quickly finding a large bag, which was used to hold pig feed. It was big enough and quite sturdy. Li Yifei put the fish into it, glanced at the bucket, and saw that the bucket contained what they were conserving for als. After thinking for a mont, Li Yifei picked out a few bigger crabs, left a lively lobster in the bucket, and then poured the other seafood into a basin, putting the lobster and crabs back into the bucket.
Chen Junxiao almost drooled looking at those big crabs, and when he saw the lobster, his eyes widened a bit and he finally couldn’t help but ask, "Uncle, can you tell where on earth you went? How is it possible to have lobsters!"
"I didn’t think you would actually have lobsters here, I thought those were only found in deep sea areas," Li Yifei replied.
"No, no, I an where on earth did you get these seafood!" Chen Junxiao frowned and continued, "We can’t do bad things, if we took soone else’s, we should return them now."
"What do you an by taking soone else’s, don’t talk nonsense. Do I seem like that kind of person to you? These are what I caught by diving into the sea myself. Didn’t I tell you before that I am an expert, just that I was injured? But now I’m a bit better, catching so fish and the like is quite easy," Li Yifei said.
Chen Junxiao seed to understand but not quite, though still finding it hard to believe, and asked again, "Uncle, are you serious?"
"Why would I lie to you, go bring that big piece of plastic, and drape it over yourself. Take to that granny’s house from the other day, didn’t you sell her the seafood you picked up before?"
"Yes, but there are too many fish this ti, I’m afraid granny’s house can’t take them all," Chen Junxiao said.
"Then where to? The town?" Li Yifei asked, "Is it far from here?"
"Not too far, but I haven’t been there much!"
Li Yifei slung the bag over his back and said, "Cover it up, let’s go down and ask first. If we can sell them, we’ll sell at a lower price. Anyway, we can have more tomorrow. If not, then we’ll go to town, and I’ll borrow a car to sell them then."
"Okay!" Chen Junxiao nodded, following behind Li Yifei. Seven or eight minutes later, the two arrived at the village. It was a relatively small fishing village, seemingly with only thirty or forty households. The village didn’t look very prosperous. Under the guidance of Chen Junxiao, Li Yifei arrived at a house at the edge of the village, which was the ho of that elderly woman. Chen Junxiao ran inside ahead of ti, calling for the old lady, while Li Yifei walked in shirtless, carrying the bag.
The old lady ca out and, seeing the state of the two, asked in confusion, "What... happened?"
"Granny, we’re here to sell fish!" Chen Junxiao lifted the plastic sheet while standing under the eave and said.
The old lady was taken aback, it was also her first ti seeing Li Yifei. Just by looking at his features, he indeed looked decent, tall, with a strong build, certainly capable and ready to work. Just that... he’s a bit old, if he were in his twenties, wait for a few years for Chen Junxiao, and they could even get married.
The old lady was clearly thinking in a different direction, but quickly said, "Where are the fish? How much did you catch today?"
"Granny, today’s haul... is quite a lot. Uncle, put the bag down, let granny have a look!"
The old lady looked at the bag, feeling a bit skeptical, but when the bag was opened, she was stunned again. This... this is way too much.
In the past, when Chen Junxiao brought over seafood picked up from beachcombing, at most it was one or two jins, and even three or four jins were rare, so she would give a few bucks, they would eat it if they could, or give it away if they couldn’t. Essentially, it was to help the little girl, she would give just over a hundred yuan a month, and the old lady thought of it as doing a good deed. But today clearly didn’t seem right, how could beachcombing yield so much? Even if they sailed out to fish, a small fishing boat near the coast might not harvest this much, especially now with pollution, noise, ships, etc., so fish species are no longer there.
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