1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 228: Bird's Nest Income Higher Than Last Time
"You should pick the white swallows carefully! Don't pick the hairy swallows!" Liang Ziqiang reminded Deng Zhaocai again.

"I know. White swallows and feathery swallows are easy to distinguish. I don't want to come here next year and not be able to collect any!" Deng Zhaocai responded.

Soon, the entire cave was searched thoroughly, even to the most remote corners, and all the white bird's nests were picked. Liang Ziqiang dared to guarantee that no more than two or three fish would slip through the net.

After all, there are only about a hundred pairs of swifts in the entire cave, and only about a hundred bird's nests.

Liang Ziqiang felt that he gained a little more this time than last time.

Before coming down from the cliff, Liang Ziqiang did not forget to take out the wooden stick that he had left in the crevice of the rock last time.

Deng Zhaocai also untied the rope around his waist and returned the iron claw to him.

They will definitely come back to this cave, but that will be around this time next year. Collecting bird's nests is an annual activity.

It can be said that this will be another stable cash cow, the Longju Island branch of the "Ziqiang Bank" series. Come and withdraw money on time in early March every year.

After walking out of the cave with the snakeskin bag in hand, Liang Ziqiang returned to the boat but did not leave immediately. He decided to sail the boat to the small island on the right side of the strait.

There is a bird's nest cave on the left island, and it is not ruled out that there is also one on the small island on the right.

The two finally found a beach entrance to land on the right island. They then went through a lot of difficulties and went deeper into the island, looking for places where bird's nests might be found.

Unfortunately, after searching a whole circle, I found many small hills on the island, but there was no cave anywhere.

Golden swifts only prefer cliffs with caves. Without caves, there would naturally be no bird's nests on this island.

It seems that in the entire Longjuling area, the only place with a bird's nest cave is the small island on the left.

After confirmation, the two boarded the boat and began their return journey.

“Did you collect as much this time as last time? How many bird’s nests are there in that place?” When he got home, his wife opened the snakeskin bag and was surprised again.

"No more. This time I took away all the nests. If you want to collect bird's nests again, you'll have to wait until next year..." Liang Ziqiang told his wife while taking off his coat.

Chen Xiangbei was a little disappointed at first, but then she thought that the things in the bag alone could be sold for a lot of money, so she was still quite content.

Seeing her husband going into the foot room to take a bath, she was worried whether he could wash off the stinky smell, and still wanted to go in and do it herself like last time.

But the difference is that this time, the mother-in-law also moved in, and she really didn’t have the courage...

As a result, she followed hesitantly, but when she reached the door, Liang Ziqiang pulled her in.

"Don't do that. What if mom comes over?"

"Just close the door. Everyone knows this is the bathroom. How could she possibly come here?"

Chen Xiangbei thought about it and agreed.

"Then hurry up and don't dilly-dally this time!"

Hurry up, Liang Ziqiang quickly took off his inner clothes.

"Don't just wash the top of my head, my hair isn't that long. Wash the lower part too!"

"Got it, if you keep quiet, I'll do the same as last time!"

"That's right. Turn it over, wash it more thoroughly..."

Chen Xiangbei felt that her eyes were hurt, but since she had to wash them, she had to open her eyes and stare. Her breathing became uneven...

At this moment, the door of the hut suddenly slammed twice, and the two people inside froze.

"Who?" Liang Ziqiang asked angrily and timidly.

"Brother, have you seen my sister-in-law? I want to play with her!"

"I don't know!" Liang Ziqiang got even more angry when he heard it was lychees. Chen Xiangbei didn't dare to breathe.

"But I saw her follow you in!"

"!!!" Could you please stop speaking in half sentences!
"She came in and then left. Go find her yourself!" Liang Lizhi believed it and ran away.

Halfway through the bath, Chen Xiangbei refused to help him continue.

"The rest is for you to wash yourself well. Scrub your whole body carefully and you won't stink!"

She threw the towel away, leaving Liang Ziqiang covered in soap foam, and ran away...

Taking advantage of the fact that her mother-in-law and Lizhi were not around the house for the time being, she quietly slipped back into her own room, picked up the sweater and knitted a few times guiltily.

The next day, Liang Ziqiang and Deng Zhaocai went to Yuehai Restaurant to find Du Ziteng again.

This time the harvest was indeed a little more than last time.

The last time Liang Ziqiang sold bird's nests, he earned 512 yuan. This time he earned 537 yuan, which is more than 20 yuan more than last time.

Deng Zhaocai wasted a lot of time throwing the iron claw every time, and his body was rather bulky and not very suitable for climbing the cave wall, so his income was much less than his original amount, which was only 198 yuan.

It’s almost two hundred, but it’s still an improvement compared to the last time when it was over a hundred.

The same bird's nest, one is more than 500, the other is less than 200, the difference even makes Du Ziteng curious...

He returned home with the money. Adding the five hundred yuan at the bottom of the box, he finally had over a thousand yuan in his pocket.

The first thing to do is to hire someone to start renovating the pond.

While there are no fish to catch in the sea, most of the villagers are still idle at home, just like the last time they built houses, it is still relatively easy to hire workers at this time of year.

My father and eldest brother contracted small ponds, each of which was only two acres in size and could only be considered a small pool.

Liang Ziqiang contracted two other ponds, one about four acres and the other about three acres.

There are culverts at the bottom of the pond embankment. Liang Ziqiang first opened the culvert and drained all the water from the pond.

During the drainage process, a fishing net was placed at the entrance of the culvert, and some wild fish were harvested.

However, the number of wild fish and miscellaneous fish is not large. Since the responsibility system was assigned to each household in Changwang Village, the villagers have been more inclined to go out to sea to catch seafood. In addition, these ponds are located in the east of the village, a little far from the village center, so the villagers have not been very interested in contracting them.

After draining the water, they started to hire helpers to dig out the old pond mud and at the same time thicken and widen the pond bank.

Preparations have begun to be made to install a simple gate at the entrance of the culvert to facilitate water changes, with a portion of the water being replaced every week.

After the pond mud was cleared, a layer of quicklime was evenly sprinkled on the bottom of the pond. Then, the buffalo from Jinsheng's family was borrowed and the pond bottom was plowed together with the lime.

After plowing, let it continue to be exposed to the sun.

A walkable underwater embankment was specially built from the shore to the center of the pond, which will be used to feed bait every day.

This time, we hired enough help as usual. With more than 20 people working at the same time, we completed the simple renovation of the pond in just a few days.

While waiting for the pond to be exposed to the sun, Liang Ziqiang ran to the city and bought a single-cylinder diesel engine connected to a water pump and water pipe, as well as plastic film for building a shrimp pond shed.

The labor fees for the helpers for several days, plus the cost of various equipment, cost more than 500 yuan in just a few days.

The one thousand dollars was only kept at the bottom of the box for a short time, and now there are only a little over four hundred left.

Fortunately, the biggest initial investment in his shrimp farming was mainly the above.

In theory, the purchase of shrimp fry would be a huge investment, but for Liang Ziqiang, this investment does not exist.

After a while, the spring flood season will really begin, and the prawns will migrate back to the shallow sea. This is the time when the broodstock begin to lay eggs in large numbers.

At that time, you just need to drive a boat to the sea and catch the brooding shrimps ready to give birth, and you will have natural shrimp fry.

Not only is it free, but as long as he uses the right method and the sea environment where the broodstock are located is good enough, this natural shrimp fry will be of very high quality.

Two chapters have been posted in the early morning. Happy reading, fellow readers!
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(End of this chapter)