1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 115 Selling Various Bream
When they came back from the stream, Liang's mother, Lizhi and the others saw Liang Ziqiang with a gloomy face. They thought that he failed to pick up the snails and returned empty-handed, so they were in low spirits.

But when I looked into the bucket, I found something wrong. The snails could fill a bowl of stir-fried ones!
When I asked him, he didn't say anything. I saw him squatting outside the door, washing his face non-stop...

After washing his face, Liang Ziqiang went to find a kitchen knife. He was not a gentleman if he did not seek revenge. He was definitely going to eat the turtle soup tonight.

As a result, before I could reach the kitchen to get the knife, I looked inside the bucket when I passed by. What the hell? The turtle was gone.

I asked Chen Xiangbei, but she didn't know either.

Liang Ziqiang was full of questions, so he asked Duobao, who was lying on the ground, pointing at the bucket and then using his hands to make a round turtle shape:

"Did you see it? Do you know where it went?"

He was just teasing Duobao and didn't hold out much hope. But after hearing it, Duobao got up from the ground and led him out of the house.

As soon as I walked to the side of the house, the case was solved.

Liang Xiaohai squatted on the ground, in front of him was a sea turtle and a small turtle the size of a palm. The big and the small made it look like a parent-child activity.

When Xiao Hai saw Liang Ziqiang coming, he shouted to him gratefully:
"Second Uncle, you are a good man. You helped Big Turtle find his son!"

...How did this become a family search site?
Liang Ziqiang couldn't explain to him that the two were not the same species, so he said to him:
"The turtle soup is delicious. I'll give you a bowl tonight and you'll see!"

Liang Xiaohai couldn't stand it when he heard it, and quickly protected the turtle: "They are all my friends!"

At this time, Lizhi also came over and immediately shouted to Xiaohai:
"I've eaten soft-shelled turtles before, and they're really delicious! Xiao Hai, why are you so greedy? You want both? If you make Second Brother angry, you'll have to let the big turtle go! You decide quickly, to save the big one or the small one?!"

Liang Ziqiang: “???”

To protect both the big and the small, did you hear this from the village midwife?
Xiao Hai seemed to realize that the moment of an important decision had come. He was silent for a moment, and said resolutely:
"Save the big one! If the big one is still there, it can give birth to a smaller one..."

There was a moment when Liang Ziqiang felt like he was holding a scalpel while cutting open a turtle.

It was still early, and Liang Ziqiang estimated that Zheng Liu should be at the big dock again to receive the goods. After all, those who went to the sea in the afternoon would go to him to sell the goods.

He picked up the bucket and prepared to go to the big dock to see if he could sell the fish he had caught in the white foam belt that morning.

When we got there, the door was open and the kind-hearted man was actually sitting there collecting the goods. People came in twos and threes, mostly carrying clams, snails, and razor clams that they had just picked up.

The villagers were obviously talkative than usual. Those who had sold their clams were in no hurry to leave. All they talked about was the woman who was swept away by the waves in Dayu Village next door.

Zheng Liu saw the fish in Liang Ziqiang's bucket and immediately understood where the fish came from:
"Qiangzi, did you also go embankment fishing in the Baimo belt? There are so many snappers. It seems that the bigger the wind and waves, the more fish there are!"

"It's not easy. The white foam belt is easy to get stuck on the bottom and it is also easy to produce false fish signals. After a long time, even the fishing rod was swept away by the white waves..." At this point, Liang Ziqiang suddenly stopped talking, not wanting to mention the accident behind the fishing rod falling.

"More than twenty in one morning, that's pretty good! Wait, you caught more than just a sea bream, you caught a 'black wife'?" Zheng Liu noticed the ugly fish, "Come here, let me weigh this black wife for you to see how heavy it is!"

Scarcity makes things valuable. Zheng Liu first left the sea breams alone and weighed the black carp.

"One pound and two ounces! The price of this fish is much higher than that of the red snapper. I'll give it to you at the highest price of 1.5 yuan. How about that? In total, this fish is 1.8 yuan!"

The original price of a black wife was about one dollar and four or five cents, and Zheng Liu was willing to give one dollar and fifty cents, so Liang Ziqiang certainly had no objection.

"This big six-line fish isn't cheap either, 80 cents a pound. Let me see, it's just a little short of two pounds, 1.5 yuan."

"There are so many flathead fish, thirteen of them, a total of twelve pounds. This fish is cheaper, the same price as ordinary fish, I'll give you 40 cents, so twelve pounds is 4.80 yuan."

"This sea bass is really big! You know, sea bass usually sell for 40 cents, but yours is big, so I'll charge you 50 cents. I weighed it, 5.4 jin, that's 2.7 yuan!"

"One pound and five ounces of yellow-footed lily costs one dollar and fifty cents."

"Three black sea breams, 3 cents a pound, a total of..."

"Wait!" Liang Ziqiang stopped Zheng Liu for a moment, "Uncle Zheng, you did this on purpose, didn't you? There are clearly two black sea breams, and the other one is a cow dung sea bream. You're an old hand, I don't believe you can confuse them?!"

I don’t know whether Zheng Liu really didn’t see it clearly or was pretending. He let out a cry and looked twice more:
"Really? They look so similar that I didn't really look closely. Is it worth it for Uncle Zheng to play any tricks on you for a bull dung snapper?"

So they weighed it again, and the two black sea breams together weighed three pounds, 0.60 cents per pound, so 1.8 yuan; the cow dung sea bream weighed one pound and five ounces, so 1.2 yuan per pound, so also 1.8 yuan, which means that one fish was worth the two.

The total cost of various types of sea bream, perch, carp and bluefin bream is fifteen dollars and ninety cents.

Zheng Liu once again showed his generosity and gave him sixteen yuan.

Just after taking the money, Li Liang and Deng Zhaocai came over with buckets, apparently also here to sell the sea bream they caught in the morning.

"Brother Qiang, the wind has stopped and it should be sunny tomorrow. I've been so idle these days that hair is growing on my body. Do you want to go out to sea together tomorrow?" Deng Zhaocai asked when he saw Liang Ziqiang.

"Of course we're going out to sea! By the way, it seems tomorrow is the 27th day of the lunar calendar? Then we have to get up very early tomorrow and go out to sea before dawn at 4 or 5 o'clock, otherwise we have to wait until 11 o'clock in the morning!"

The time to go out to sea is not always early in the morning, but also depends on the law of high tide. When the sea is full, the fish are relatively active. When the sea recedes completely, the fish are also quiet, and the number of fish that can be caught is relatively small.

"Who would wait until noon to go out to sea? Then let's meet at the beach before daybreak, go out to sea together to cast nets, and throw in a few sea slugs! By the way, have you got your sea slugs ready?" Li Liang asked.

"I made a few and will take them to try when we go out to sea tomorrow!" Liang Ziqiang replied.

After making an appointment with them, Liang Ziqiang went back first.

When I got home, I saw Chen Xiangbei holding a pair of pliers and catching the snails that had been soaked in water for several hours, and catching them one by one.

She moved very skillfully. She aimed at the tail of the snail and clamped it down, and the snail's butt fell off.

The cleaned snails were added to water and boiled over firewood for a long time. This kind of thing may contain parasites, so it must be cooked thoroughly. Chen Xiangbei was obviously aware of this.

People in this area don't like spicy food, and they prefer light food. Chen Xiangbei only added some ginger, green onion leaves, and a little rice wine. The rice wine was brought from her mother's family when she gave a Mid-Autumn Festival gift last time.

Even so, the smell of snails wafting through the air is still very tempting.

When it was time for dinner, Litchi and Xiaohai were all attracted by the smell of snails and came over with bowls in their hands.

The two of them didn't hesitate to pick up the snails and started sucking them. In fact, Liang Ziqiang had already filled a small bowl and brought it to them, but she still wanted to run to her second sister-in-law's side.

Chen Xiangbei is a number one foodie, and her speed in chewing snails is far beyond the reach of Liang Ziqiang.

Lizhi is not stupid in this regard. He is even quite dexterous when it comes to chewing snails. His speed is second only to Chen Xiangbei, but he is more agile than Liang Ziqiang anyway.

The most miserable one was Xiao Hai, who couldn't suck out a piece of snail meat for a long time, and was so anxious that he was sweating profusely...

To comfort him, Liang Ziqiang served him a bowl of turtle soup: "I'm getting anxious just looking at you, you should drink this!"

Liang Xiaohai picked up a piece of turtle meat and stuffed it into his mouth, screaming with delight.

Liang Ziqiang saw that he was enjoying his meal and asked him:
"Do you still say that Wangba is your friend?"

Liang Xiaohai wiped his mouth:

"Mmm, friends are delicious..."

It sounds creepy.

After dinner, Liang Ziqiang went to bed early because he had to go out to sea before dawn.

Early the next morning, Chen Xiangbei got up even earlier than him and steamed some shrimp buns for him to take on the boat to eat.

After being forced to "rest" at home for four whole days, Liang Ziqiang actually felt like he was being released back into the sea.

He hoped that the weather would be calm today so that he could go a little further and cast more nets.

At the same time, he also hoped that the long-lost "undersea diving" could bring him a new source of income...

(End of this chapter)