Beachcombing: The beach is full of amazing seafood, but my wife won't let me get out of bed!

"Don't touch it!"

Wu Gang's shout startled Wu Sui back to her senses and also gave Chen Yang a jolt.

He rushed to the edge of the pit, slipped, and nearly fell in.

Wu Sui snapped out of her daze, hurriedly climbed down into the pit, and slapped Chen Yang on the back of the head.

"Brother-in-law, what are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" Wu Sui asked breathlessly, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, pointing to the strange fish covered in bumps in the mud.

"If you touch it, we can forget about working tonight; we'll send you straight to the hospital for emergency treatment."

Chen Yang was stunned for a moment, clearly unaware of the danger.

"What is this thing? Is it poisonous?"

He knew that some fish in the sea were poisonous, but he had never seen them.

Wu Gang then descended to the bottom of the pit, calmed his breathing, and began to explain.

"This is called a stonefish. It has more than a dozen poisonous spines on its back. One prick can make you writhe on the ground in pain, and in severe cases, it can be fatal."

He turned his head and shone his flashlight on the several colorful fish in the shallow puddle on the other side.

"Don't touch that either, that's a lionfish, scientifically known as Sebastes scad."

"It looks pretty, but its dorsal fin is full of deadly poison. If you get pricked, your hand will swell up like a pig's trotter."

Upon hearing this, Chen Yang gasped, a chill running down his spine.

"Why are there so many poisonous fish in this ditch? We've stirred up a poisonous nest, this is so unlucky, brother-in-law, let's go."

Wu Sui stepped forward with the fire tongs and gently poked the stonefish with them.

Startled, the stonefish immediately spread its venomous spines, poised to attack at any moment.

"Where are you going?" Wu Sui laughed. "This is all money."

Chen Yang was stunned. He looked at the ugly monster on the ground, and then at Wu Sui.

"This thing that looks like a toad, nobody would want it even if it were given away for free, right?"

"What do you know?" Wu Gang interjected from the side. "Your brother-in-law is right. Although this thing is poisonous, its meat is one of the best in the sea."

Wu Sui used fire tongs to grip the stonefish's body and lifted it up steadily.

"This stuff is rarely seen on the market. In high-end restaurants, it's used specifically to make soup, which is called 'fake mating' and is very nourishing."

"A pound can easily sell for several hundred yuan."

"Several hundred yuan? Per kilogram?" Chen Yang's eyes widened.

This stonefish weighs at least a pound, doesn't that mean he was just complaining about a few hundred yuan?

Chen Yang's worldview almost collapsed. Who would have thought that a fish that is so poisonous and ugly could be so valuable?

Wu Sui put the stonefish into the thick plastic bucket he had brought.

Turning my head, I looked at the group of spotted little fish splashing around in the mud.

"These are mudskippers, wild mudskippers. They've grown this big, and they can sell for over a hundred yuan a pound."

"And those lionfish over there, their flesh is as springy as garlic cloves, and incredibly sweet. They're also high-priced and hard-to-find gems."

Chen Yang was completely dumbfounded.

The piece of junk that he had just been scorning had suddenly become a gold nugget worth hundreds of dollars a kilogram.

He swallowed hard, his eyes lighting up with an alarming intensity as he looked at the fish thrashing about in the pond.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's arrest them!"

Chen Yang hurriedly went to get the net.

"Slow down." Wu Sui reached out to stop him. "No matter how easy it is to make money, you have to be alive to spend it. This stuff is highly poisonous, so you must not be careless."

Wu Gang took the fire tongs from Wu Sui and then picked up a net.

"Xiao Yang, watch how I catch it. Hold the net in one hand to catch the bottom, and use the tongs in the other hand to hold the fish's body. Be careful not to touch the spines on its back."

Wu Gang personally demonstrated, walking up to a stonefish, gently placing the net in front of the fish's head, and quickly clamping the fish's belly with the fire tongs in his hand.

With a quick grab and a release, the stonefish thrashed twice before landing in the net.

Wu Gang poured the fish into a thick plastic bucket and turned to look at Chen Yang.

"Got it? Just do it this way."

Chen Yang nodded repeatedly and quickly went to get a set of tools.

The three divided the tasks and conducted a thorough search at the bottom of the pit.

What they normally avoid like the plague, they now see as nothing but bright red banknotes.

The fear had long been washed away by the excitement of making money.

The mud and sand at the bottom of the pit were very slippery, and the three of them walked with extreme caution, their steps uneven.

"Brother-in-law, there's a big one over here."

Chen Yang lowered his voice and pointed the fire tongs at a stone fish hiding in a crevice in the rocks.

Wu Sui walked over and used his flashlight to help illuminate the way.

"Hurry up, don't let it get away."

Chen Yang held his breath, reached out with the tongs, and clamped the fish's body.

"Gotcha!"

He excitedly picked up the fish and put it into the bucket.

"This one probably weighs about two pounds, and I'll get it for a few hundred yuan!"

Wu Gang wasn't idle on the other side either; he swung his net repeatedly, catching all the mudskippers in the shallow puddle.

Although mudskippers are not as deadly as stonefish, they do have a mild venom on their dorsal fins, and being stung by one will cause a piercing pain.

Wu Gangqian was very skilled at this job, and he could catch more than a dozen fish in one net.

"Second brother, there's a lot of mud in this pit, probably over a hundred pounds."

Wu Gang poured a full net of mud into the bucket, panting heavily, but a smile remained on his face.

Wu Sui specializes in dealing with lionfish that swim fast.

When a lionfish is startled, it will spread out all its fins, making it appear to double in size.

Wu Sui seized the opportunity, slammed the net down, and scooped it up, mud and water all at once.

The fish-catching process was thrilling.

Every time the tongs catch prey, it's a gain in money.

Three hours passed.

The three of them were exhausted, covered in sweat and mud, even their faces were covered.

Chen Yang plopped down on the rocks, panting heavily.

"I can't take it anymore, I'm exhausted, my back is about to break."

Wu Sui put the last stonefish into the bucket, straightened up, and patted it.

"Let's take stock of the spoils."

The first bucket was full of stonefish covered in bumps, all crammed together.

Wu Gang roughly counted them.

"Good heavens, more than twenty of them, and they're all quite big, weighing at least thirty or forty pounds each."

The second bucket contains lionfish.

It's worth noting that there's a reason why lionfish have become popular as ornamental fish in later generations.

With its vibrant patterns and outstretched fins, it is truly beautiful.

There are at least a dozen in this bucket.

Wu Sui still felt a little regretful. If a big house were built, it would be beautiful to have a fish tank.

The third bucket was the largest, and it was filled with mudskippers.

A huge bucket, packed tightly together, was still thrashing about.

"This mudfish definitely weighs over a hundred pounds," Wu Gang estimated.

After listening, Chen Yang started counting on his fingers.

"Stonefish are priced at 300 per catty, so 40 catties would be 12,000."

"The lionfish is worth two thousand, and the mudskipper is worth one hundred and one jin, which is ten thousand."

Upon realizing this, Chen Yang suddenly raised his head, his voice trembling.

"Brother-in-law, big brother, we made over 20,000 yuan from this drilling?"

Wu Sui smiled.

"These are all top-quality wild goods, and Brother Tao won't offer a low price."

Chen Yang grinned from ear to ear: "I'm rich! I'm rich! Pumping water pits are so profitable, even more lucrative than longline fishing!"

Wu Gang poured cold water on him from the side.

"You wish! You think you can have that kind of luck every day?"

"Normally, we'd be lucky to pull out a few small fry."

Chen Yang chuckled, completely unconcerned.

"That's worth it! Everything I did tonight was worth it!"