1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 458 Taking my wife out to sea for the first time
Chen Xiangbei said it looked like a chestnut, but in reality it is of course bigger than a chestnut, covered with black thorns, which are also longer than those of a chestnut.

"Second sister-in-law, use this!"

Each of these things looked like steel needles and were so sharp that even Lizhi was a little afraid of them. He quickly took out the curved pliers and handed them to Chen Xiangbei.

But Chen Xiangbei didn't take it. She asked Liang Ziqiang hesitantly, "Can you eat this? It's full of nothing but thorns. Where is the meat?"

"It's because it has good food in its stomach and is afraid of being eaten. Otherwise, why would it have so many thorns?" Liang Ziqiang rubbed his hands and told his wife, "This thing tastes good and is nutritious. It's called sea urchin! You were right when you said it looks like a chestnut. We sometimes call it sea chestnut!"

Sea chestnut, chestnut thorn, thorn pot. Anyway, there are many names.

"Is there really meat?" His wife was skeptical.

"Use scissors to cut open the thorny skin, and inside the shell is sea urchin roe, which is as yellow as orange peel. Sea urchin roe is so delicious when made into soup, but there is another way to cook it. Cut a hole in it, crack an egg inside, and use the sea urchin shell as a bowl to steam the sea urchin egg. It is simple and delicious, and you will want to hold the sea urchin shell and lick it after eating it!" Liang Ziqiang told.

"Exaggerated! I'll lick you all I want, and my tongue will pierce you..." Although Chen Xiangbei thought he was exaggerating a bit, she was still interested.

She took the curved tongs and put the sea urchins one by one into the bucket.

"Watch out, there are jumping fish in the bucket!"

The jumping fish were pricked by the sea urchins thrown in and screamed strangely. The sound was full of accusations, and some of them almost jumped out of the bucket in desperation.

A dozen sea urchins were picked up and put into the bucket, which was more than enough for a meal.

Normally sea urchins do not grow close to the shore. This one was apparently rolled in from the seabed and then hid under the reef until it was discovered during low tide.

After picking up the sea urchins, I walked forward along this string of reefs and was surprised to find that there were also good things on the other side of the reef, mussels.

Unfortunately, there were not many of them. There were only a dozen mussels stuck to the lower part of the stone, and they were not very big.

"I haven't seen mussels for quite a while. The mussels you brought home before were really big, more than twice as big as this one, right? It's a pity that you can't see those when you go fishing..."

Chen Xiangbei was prying the mussels down while chatting with Aqiang.

"Remember the mussel soup? You can't get that kind of mussels on the beach, you have to go to the island. I haven't been to that island for a long time. There are so many mussels on the island, so densely packed that you can't pick them all."

Liang Ziqiang naturally remembered that the few times he brought back large mussels were all from Fox Bay Island.

There are two main things that are particularly abundant on Fox Bay Island: mussels and crabs. Of course, there are also some clams and chicken claw snails.

"So many? It must be very exciting to pick them, right? After hearing what you said, I really want to go there and pick a handful..."

Chen Xiangbei picked up a small and shriveled mussel in her hand, and couldn't help but imagine the island full of mussels, with a look of longing in her eyes.

"Do you really want to pick it? It's not impossible."

Liang Ziqiang thought about it and decided that tomorrow would be a day of rest and recuperation, so it would not be impossible to take her to the island!
"Don't talk about some other day. How about tomorrow? I'll take that wooden boat and take you to the island to pick mussels!" He said as he watched her reaction.

A look of surprise suddenly rose from the corner of her mouth, climbed all the way to her eyes, and flashed in her eyes:
"Are you serious? Are you really taking me out to sea? If you're kidding me, I'll beat you up!"

"Who lied to you? Cheng Cheng plays at home by himself now. My mom just needs to watch him. He won't cry and make a fuss like before when you're out for a day."

The two of them made the deal while prying the mussels together on the beach.

Thinking that there would be many good things to pick on the island tomorrow, Chen Xiangbei looked at the beach again and felt that even if the tide went out on the first day of the new year, it would not be that attractive.

The two walked a short distance and then headed home carrying the bucket.

Why did he feel that her steps became lighter when she walked beside him? It turned out that she liked going to the island to fish in the sea so much.

Now, we no longer have to take the small things we pick up to the purchasing point to sell them for money like before. We can take all the small things we pick up back home and eat them as food. If we pick up a small amount, we can just make a dish, and if we pick up a lot, we can make several more dishes.

It seems that we can add more dishes to our lunch today.

Chen Xiangbei was humming a little tune while cooking. She fried a jumping fish, which was fragrant and crispy. Then she cracked a fresh egg into the sea urchin and steamed some sea urchin egg custard.

The quantity of oysters and mussels was too small, so we put them together and made a mussel soup, which was even more delicious.

The taste of sea urchin custard is very special, very refreshing, fresh and fragrant, not greasy at all.

In bed at night, my wife was still talking about going to the island tomorrow, as if she was afraid that he would change his mind.

The next morning, while Liang Jingcheng was still sleeping soundly, Liang Ziqiang went to the beach with his wife after talking to his mother.

The Lotus Pattern boat was specially filled with oil. When he was carefully checking the boat, a head emerged from the water nearby. The gourd, which had not appeared much recently, came again. When it saw him, it automatically flipped over to the boat. It flipped into the boat and bounced back and forth with its front fins, which was its unique way of greeting.

Hulu had actually only seen Chen Xiangbei many times, but when he saw Chen Xiangbei on the boat, he seemed to understand that he needed to pay his respects to the dock. He ran over, shook his head, flapped his fins on the deck, shook his beard, squinted his eyes, and actually acted cute towards Chen Xiangbei.

Chen Xiangbei knew about the gourd, and seeing its appearance, she asked Ah Qiang in surprise:
"Is it laughing? Really, gourds can actually laugh?!"

As he spoke, the gourd smiled more and more flatteringly, as if to prove that it could indeed laugh.

The wooden boat sailed towards the sea. As it went farther and farther, the coastline gradually disappeared, and there was only blue water all around, filling the entire view.

Chen Xiangbei, who had a smile on her face earlier, gradually her smile froze and she didn't say much.

"What's wrong? Weren't you very happy just now?" Liang Ziqiang looked over here and asked.

"A Qiang, I feel... a little dizzy!" Chen Xiangbei said a little embarrassedly.

"No way, are you seasick?"

"It doesn't feel like seasickness, right? I didn't feel this way when I went to the county town with you before. I just couldn't see the shore, and there was water everywhere... I felt nervous." She pursed her lips and said.

Liang Ziqiang knew what was going on: "In the past, we drove along the shore when we went to the county town. This is different. This is your first time back to the sea. You see water everywhere, so you may feel a little panicked. This is normal. It should be fine after a while!"

He came over and hugged her in his arms, smiling and saying:

"Besides, you're a mountain girl, so it's easier for you to have this reaction when you're out on the sea!"

"Who is the mountain girl? There is also a river in my hometown!" Chen Xiangbei was still unconvinced and retorted.

"This place is quite far from the shore. How about I stop and try fishing for a while?"

Liang Ziqiang thought that if he stopped to fish, his wife's attention would be distracted and she would probably be less nervous.

"Will it be too late when we get to the island you mentioned?" It was obvious that she was still thinking about the mussels on Fox Bay Island.

"Fox Bay Island is not in the deep sea, so it won't take that long to drive there."

As he spoke, Liang Ziqiang took out his fishing rod. He had originally considered the possibility of fishing at sea, so he also brought some small fish and shrimp as bait.

After dropping anchor and stabilizing the boat, I put on the bait, threw the fishing line under the sea surface beside the boat, and began to wait.

Unexpectedly, after seeing him stop the boat, Hulu staggered over, looked up at him and called out twice as a greeting, then flipped under the boat, crossed the side of the boat and went into the sea.

"It's such a deep sea, will there be any big fish in it?" Chen Xiangbei's eyebrows twitched as she looked at it.

"No matter how deep it is, it is still in the shallow sea. There are no sharks and no whales. Gourds are basically safe in the shallow sea!" Liang Ziqiang said.

The couple was talking, and after a while, the fishing rod moved.

"Stop talking, just pull it and see what you've caught." His wife was more anxious than him and pulled him.

Liang Ziqiang was not in a hurry. The fishing rod did not move too violently, so it should be a small fish.

When I pulled it up, I saw that it was indeed a fish weighing only a few taels.

"I've seen this fish before. It seems to be... a goby?" Chen Xiangbei had cooked goby fish several times, so she suddenly remembered it.

"You know quite a few fish now!" Liang Ziqiang smiled at her, took the fish off and threw it into the bucket.

"Would you like to cook for lunch on the boat? How about I cook this goby for you? I have cooked this fish several times, and I guarantee you will be satisfied!" Chen Xiangbei asked him with a smile.

Once she caught the fish, she was indeed much more relaxed.

"Let's try fishing again. Maybe we can find fish that taste better than goby shrimps."

As a result, the second hook was a particularly long and narrow fish with a silvery white body, which looked like a long but not big knife.

"What kind of fish is this?" Chen Xiangbei really didn't recognize this one.

"Knifefish?" Liang Ziqiang recognized it immediately.

(End of this chapter)