1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 209: Treasures Were Really Found Inside

Liang Ziqiang was about to take the goodies in the bucket and bamboo basket home, but Deng Zhaocai took his basket and placed it in front of him:

"I came out today to help you prepare the food. You can take this basket back with you. It will feed 20 or 30 mouths for two more days!"

Liang Ziqiang thought about it and realized that Deng Zhaocai and his mother would definitely not be able to eat a whole basket of clams. The clams would not sell for much money if they were sold to Zheng Liu, but he really needed them. He roughly estimated the price and said:

"Take it back to my house, I'll go in and get the money for you right away!"

Deng Zhaocai said angrily, "Fuck, you are teaching me how to push the fishing net. It's hard to explain if you want to calculate the money. I didn't pay you for becoming my apprentice, did I?"

"You've been working for me every other day, and you haven't asked for your wages yet. I don't want the money, take it home and eat it yourself!"

Under Liang Ziqiang's insistence, Deng Zhaocai had to agree to sell it to him at the normal price.

But Liang Ziqiang didn't want Deng Zhaocai's papaya snail: "Take this good thing home and peel it slowly. Don't let me get a huge bargain if you find some valuable treasure inside!"

Deng Zhaocai was not hypocritical. He thought for a moment and took the papaya snail. “You want this but I won’t give it to you. Maybe there is a chance to make a fortune inside!”

Deng Zhaocai really took the papaya snail to his home, planning to keep it in water and open it tomorrow.

Liang Ziqiang simply couldn't bring back so much trade and seafood in one trip, especially with the large amounts of sea lettuce and camel hair on the beach.

He asked Duobao to stay here to look after the seaweed while he took three papaya snails, a bucket of clams and spring shrimps back home.

When I got home, the twenty or thirty helpers were no longer there. They had all gone back to Juzipo to continue working on building the house.

Chen Xiangbei and her mother-in-law Li Jinju looked over. Li Jinju asked in surprise, "You really got so much seafood in one lunch?"

Liang Ziqiang boasted unabashedly: "I came home to get the baskets. There are two baskets on the beach, and there are also a lot of seaweeds. I have to pick them up!"

Chen Xiangbei noticed three large, brightly colored conches and came over to ask him, "What kind of conches are these? Are they delicious when they are this big?"

"Papaya snails have lots of meat and are a bit hard. They taste good when sliced ​​thinly and fried! By the way, the meat of this snail is hard to get out. I'll go to the beach first and tell you more when I come back!"

After saying a few words quickly, he picked up the basket and the shoulder pole, put them on his shoulders, and went to the beach again.

This time when he came to the beach, he first picked up the sea lettuce and camel hair. Because they were placed on the sand and were covered with sand, he deliberately swung them in the sea water to wash off the sand, and then put them in the basket to form the bottom.

Then, he put two baskets of clams, clams and spring shrimps into the basket. Deng Zhaocai happened to come back from home, so he took the stilts and triangular fishing nets for him and went to his house together. Duobao also seemed very satisfied and followed happily behind.

When I returned home again, I asked Chen Xiangbei to keep all the clams, oysters, conches and spring shrimps in water. Every time before making lunch, I just need to take out a part of them to cook, so that I can eat them alive for several days in a row.

As for camel hair sea lettuce, it can only be eaten fresh for two days. The excess part cannot be stored for a long time and can only be dried into dried seaweed and eaten slowly.

Deng Zhaocai took off Liang Zifeng's rain boots and changed back into his own shoes. Just as he changed, Liang Ziqiang went into the inner room and took out the money and gave it to Deng Zhaocai.

It was roughly the normal price of the basket of clams and spring shrimps, maybe a little more. After all, Deng Zhaocai came to help every now and then and refused to take a penny from him.

Deng Zhaocai didn't refuse and took the money.

Liang Ziqiang had to return to the Juzipo homestead immediately to work on building the wall. Before leaving, he quickly told Chen Xiangbei how to prepare papaya snails.

The large snail meat of this kind of snail is wrapped deep inside the shell, and it is really difficult to get it out by ordinary methods. There are usually three ways to get the papaya snail meat. Either boil the papaya snail to death with boiling water, and then it will be easy to get it out. But the disadvantage of doing so is also obvious, the deliciousness of the snail meat will be greatly reduced;
The second method is the simplest and most brutal. Some people would choose to smash the shell with a brick. The shell of the papaya snail is very hard and can only be broken with a brick, hammer or other hard objects. This method preserves the freshness of the snail meat, but countless fragments will be embedded in the meat, which is also quite troublesome.

The third method is more clever. Place the pointed end of the papaya snail on a coal briquette and heat it. It will be unable to bear the heat and will actively crawl towards the opening, so it can be easily pulled out.

What Liang Ziqiang told Chen Xiangbei was the third method.

"By the way, pay attention when peeling the snail meat. If there are any orange-red hard objects inside the meat, they are very valuable. Don't throw them away!" He added deliberately at the end.

"Huh? Are there pearls inside snails?" Chen Xiangbei became more interested.

"Ordinary snails don't have pearls, but papaya snails may have them. The possibility is not that high, so just keep an eye out!"

"Then I'll peel them myself, and look carefully at each one!" Chen Xiangbei decided to do it herself, fearing that others would be careless and miss something good.

Liang Ziqiang also changed his rain boots, put on his usual shoes, and returned to Juzipo to work.

The next day came in a blink of an eye. As usual, when it was almost lunchtime, Liang Ziqiang called the villagers to his home.

Today's meals have been greatly improved. Every table has blanched fresh spring shrimps, steamed oysters with vermicelli and garlic sauce, clam soup, sea lettuce, and stir-fried papaya and snail slices.

One obvious change is that there seems to be not enough rice today...

Although the villagers usually have a big appetite, their appetite seems to be better today.

After dinner, Deng Zhaocai came over and smacked his lips and said, "Your snail slices are much more delicious than mine. By the way, I spent a long time searching for snails last night, but there was nothing inside. How about your snails? Is there anything inside?"

Speaking of this, Liang Ziqiang still didn't know. Chen Xiangbei just peeled and fried the three snails in the morning when she was cooking, and he hadn't asked yet. But the probability is estimated to be small, papaya snails are specialized in producing snail pearls, but not every papaya snail produces them. It's a one in a thousand chance, and it's all luck.

"Let me ask."

He went to the kitchen alone and asked his wife who was busy working, "Have you carefully examined the snails?"

"Oh, that's what you're talking about!" Chen Xiangbei washed her hands. "There's no such thing as the orange-red thing you're talking about!"

really……

Liang Ziqiang thought that this kind of thing is really something you can only encounter by chance.

But the next second, I heard my wife say:
"Inside the largest papaya snail, I found a white bead. It has nothing to do with the color you described, and it's not as beautiful as a pearl!"

Seeing that his wife didn't take it seriously, as if she was talking about ordinary stones, Liang Ziqiang lost his composure.

Although the appearance of white beads in papaya snails is a bit unexpected, how can they be something from the papaya snail meat!
No matter how beautiful it is, it can't be an ordinary thing!

"where?"

"I washed it and threw it in my pocket!" Chen Xiangbei said lightly, but the smile on the corner of her mouth revealed the joy in her heart.

She reached into her pocket, took out a white bead and put it into Liang Ziqiang's hand.

Two chapters have been published in the early morning. Happy reading!
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(End of this chapter)