1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 145: Quickly Grab the Next Batch of Treasures

The tide had almost receded, and the two men brought the grouper they had caught onto the boat. Then they took the snakeskin bag and another empty bucket to look for conches and large abalone.

There is no need to look at the places where you have pulled them out before, as the chicken snails will not appear again so quickly.

The two continued walking forward and found a new reef. Where the tide had receded, the strangely shaped shell of the chicken claw snail was faintly visible in the cracks of the rocks.

They each chose a crack in the rock and began to hammer and chisel and hammer into the crack.

Liang Ziqiang put the chisel in, and before he could hit the hammer hard, a bunch of snails fell out.

Not just one, but several snails fell out.

Liang Ziqiang was a little dumbfounded. Are all the snails so cooperative now? They haven't even started using all the tools! If the snails were really that easy to pry open, they wouldn't be called "the delicacy from hell."

He quickly picked up a few fallen snails and took a closer look. His brows knitted even more.

The basic shape of the chicken claw snail is still there, but only the hard shell remains, and the snail meat inside has magically disappeared!
Even if I picked up a few of them, they were all exactly the same.

He quickly looked at the other snails, and it was the same. They fell off as soon as he touched them, and only empty shells were left.

Next to him, Lin Baixian's voice of "Fuck" began to be heard continuously.

"A Qiang, this is really weird. The snails here are all empty shells. How about yours?" Lin Baixian poked his head out and looked towards him.

"I was just about to ask, they're the same, they fall off as soon as you touch them, I haven't found a single one that's alive and with meat!"

Lin Baixian ran over and dug two handfuls of gold from the cracks on his side to take a closer look. After seeing it, he was so angry that he threw the hard shell away:
"Damn it! Could it be that someone followed us, found this place, and got all the snails?!"

Liang Ziqiang wanted to knock open his head to see how his brain circuits worked:

"Every time we come to this island, we turn from the direction of Chengpan Island. We are very careful and pay attention to our surroundings on the way. There are no fishing boats approaching! Besides, who the hell picks the chicken claw snails and doesn't pry them away as a whole, but deliberately leaves the shells behind? If you have the skills to do this, pry it out for me to see?"

Lin Baixian thought about it and found that his idea seemed to be invalid. He was confused and said:

"Then what on earth is going on? You can't just disappear out of thin air!"

"Who knows? If you don't have time to think about it, you might as well move forward and look for another place. If you can find a complete chicken claw snail, pry it out and take it away!"

Although Liang Ziqiang also wanted to figure out what had happened, they were not here to solve the case. In comparison, the most important thing was to pry the nuts off and make money.

Lin Baixian said "oh", carried the bucket and the snakeskin bag, and continued to walk forward with his head down.

We found two more reefs, and the snails on them were still the same, all empty shells.

The further they walked, the more their hearts sank. Maybe the most valuable harvest this time would be the bucket of grouper kept on the boat with seawater.

It was not until we found the fourth reef that we discovered that one part of the snail had become an empty shell, while the other part was still alive, plump and with the snail meat intact.

There is a characteristic that the higher you go on the reef, the more empty shells there are; and the part that has been soaked in water for a long time still has some live snails left.

"It seems that it was not done by something in the water!" Liang Ziqiang said affirmatively.

If it was done by some animal in the water, then the parts immersed in water should have all turned into empty shells. On the contrary, the top part where even the tide cannot reach should have remained intact.

Now the situation is the opposite, which means that the "destroyer" cannot go into the water either, and can only take action when the tide goes out so that all the snails are exposed.

The two men frustratedly pried off a few surviving snails from the lowest part of the reef, and had no choice but to move forward and continue searching.

This time they not only paid attention to the chicken snails, but also stopped to take a look and pry open any other barnacles they found along the way.

They usually don't care about other barnacles, but now that the chicken snails are gone, other barnacles can barely be considered valuable.

They found two places with barnacles, the same kind that covered the turtle's back shell last time. They moved closer to take a closer look, but there were no barnacles at all. Instead, there were rows of empty holes, like empty eye sockets without eyeballs, or an empty beehive.

The holes were of different sizes, with uneven edges, showing obvious signs of being damaged by force. "The other barnacles were also destroyed!"

Further ahead was a huge reef. Before the two of them got too close, they heard a humming sound like chanting!

Both of them felt a chill on their backs and looked at each other.

Slowing down their pace and walking to the back of the huge reef, the two men breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time there was a bit of surprise on their faces.

I saw a protrusion on the back of the stone, like a terrace extending out in mid-air.

On the gray "terrace" stood two large black and white birds.

To be precise, the upper part of the body is black, the lower part has white feathers, and the bird's legs are a striking red.

But the most striking thing about this bird is not these, but its beak. The beak is a brighter red, and very long, probably about eight or nine centimeters long, like a pair of chopsticks sticking out of the bird's head.

The reason why the two looked surprised was not because of the shape of the bird not far away. This bird was called oystercatcher, and they must have seen it when they went out to sea to fish.

But this was the first time they had encountered an oystercatcher behaving in such a coquettish manner.

I saw a pair of birds, stomping their feet and flapping their wings facing each other, as if they were treating the reef "terrace" as a disco and dancing passionately.

While dancing, I hummed a strange song. No DJ, right? No drummer or bassist, right? It doesn't matter, I dance and play the DJ myself!
However, Liang Ziqiang and Lin Baixian did not really appreciate this piece of music. To them, it sounded like chanting a sutra...

When it gets excited, the one that looks like a male bird performs some stunts, flies low, and spins like a butterfly, performing a "butterfly dance".

The two humans standing in the distance and watching were simply looked down upon by them.

"Damn, these bastards have such a long and hard mouth, they must have opened up those snails!" Lin Baixian cursed as he watched.

As he was speaking, the oystercatcher standing on the reef "terrace" bent its neck, used its hard and sharp beak to crack open an oyster on the stone next to it, took out the oyster meat from the hard shell, swallowed it, and continued to sing...

The movements are quite leisurely, as if one is enjoying a performance while cracking melon seeds.

By the way, it is also a positive response to Lin Baixian’s speculation.

The two men pulled out the hand net from the bucket and were about to scare the bird away, but out of the corner of their eyes they saw two more oystercatchers lying on the edge of a crack in the rock, pecking attentively.

With one bite, the hard shell of a chicken claw snail collapsed, and after one or two bites, the snail meat went into the bird's beak...

I don't know how long these two oystercatchers have been on this island, but judging by their actions of opening oysters and snails, they are definitely repeat offenders. It's probably been at least ten days, and the snails have been in great trouble during the days when Liang Ziqiang and his partner were not around!

The two men had no time to pay attention to the dancing and flirting couple, and rushed straight to the crevice and beat up the couple who were committing the crime.

The bird reacted very quickly. Before they could smoke, it picked up a piece of the chicken claw snail meat that they had not yet finished eating and flew away...

The two of them immediately lay down in the crevice and took a look. This crevice was larger than usual, and the snails inside were not only plump, but also more numerous than in other places.

Most importantly, the oystercatchers had just begun their crime, and the snails here were basically still alive and intact.

The two were delighted, having finally rescued a batch of valuable treasures from the bird's mouth. Their hands did not stop and they kept prying up the chicken snails.

There are so many goods here that if you collect them all you can fill up one-third of a snakeskin bag.

After they finished pulling out the berries, the two of them fell into deep thought.

These two pairs of oystercatchers probably built a nest on the island. They will stay on the island and eat all the snails on the island as winter is coming and there is nothing else to eat!

In order to protect their own treasury, they must think of a way to prevent these two pairs of oystercatchers from staying on this island!

Burst

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(End of this chapter)