Doomsday Traveler

Chapter 262 The Tortoise's Gratitude Continued

"what is this?"

Yao Wei also noticed the commotion and came over to ask, "What's that sea turtle doing back here again?"

"It's probably out of gratitude."

Lu Xi'an replied.

But he didn't completely trust the sea turtle. Before picking up the handbag from the ground, he said to Gouzi, "Gouzi, look at this thing on the ground, is there anything wrong with it?"

The dog's eyes blinked twice, indicating that everything was fine.

Lu Xi'an then picked up the handbag.

The handbag wasn't waterproof. When it was thrown on the ground, it was still bulging inside. When I picked it up, water gushed out from the corners, indicating that quite a bit of water had accumulated inside.

The original leather bag had become soft and limp from being soaked for so long that Lu Xi'an always felt it might break at any moment when she carried it.

The handbag was zipped up, but after being soaked in water for years, the zipper was broken and couldn't be opened easily. The leather of the bag, on the other hand, could be torn open with a gentle tug.

The contents inside, once exposed to the light of day, turned out to be many commemorative medals, some in whole and some in small pieces. The scattered ones were probably, as Hu Xiaodong had said, small coins made by cutting up large coins.

Lu Xi'an carefully counted the commemorative medals. Two were complete, one was in the Fish Mouth area, and one was in the Rainbow area. There were also two in half, one in the Fish Mouth area, one in the Sky City area, and one in the Wangdao area. In addition, there were the so-called small coins, whose original appearance was no longer visible. There were a total of twenty-three of them.

In that case, all the commemorative medals together would amount to three and a half large coins and twenty-three small coins.

This is a huge fortune for the people of East Island.

These things have been cut open, as if they had flowed through the East Island long ago, and then, for some unknown reason, sank to the bottom of the sea and were discovered by sea turtles.

If these things were taken to Dongdao Island, they could probably make every family prosperous in no time.

The problem is, these things are useless to me.

Lu Xi'an sighed and put it away for the time being.

Keep it if you can't use it as money, but at least it can be used as a concealed weapon.

After putting away all the commemorative medals, Lu Xi'an turned his head and glanced at Yao Wei, who was carrying a dog in one hand and a bucket in the other, which was already filled with quite a few things.

"There are already so many."

Lu Xi'an was slightly surprised and said.

"Ah."

Yao Wei nodded, "I've been picking them up the whole time."

Lu Xi'an took the bucket, scooped some seawater into it, and soaked everything Yao Wei had collected while beachcombing.

As he did these things, he said, "Sorry, I was just lost in thought and left you to do all the work."

Yao Wei shook her head and said, "This matter is quite interesting, it's not just busywork."

Picking things up little by little and putting them into the bucket, reaping the rewards bit by bit, is indeed a very interesting thing.

This is especially true for Yao Wei.

Hearing Yao Wei say that, Lu Xi'an smiled and said, "Okay, let's continue."

"Ah."

Yao Wei nodded.

The two of them continued, as if competing with seabirds for food.

Wherever they went, the seabirds dared not fight them, quickly flying away and landing to the side, watching the two of them.

The bird's head and eyes revealed no emotion, but being stared at by the seabirds, Lu Xi'an felt as if they were looking at an enemy or a plague god.

After scrambling with the seabirds for a while, they actually reaped quite a harvest, even finding an octopus under the rocks on the beach.

Of course, even with the harvest, it would only be enough for half a bucket. After all, while there's a lot of stuff here, it's only compared to other places. In this day and age, even the ocean has become much less abundant.

To fill this bucket, you'd either have to take out all the turtle eggs, or wait for the turtles to hatch and then carry them all up.

Even so, after collecting so many things, Yao Wei couldn't help but exclaim, "People living by the sea have it so easy."

If we disregard the dangers of the ocean rising and falling, people living by the sea do indeed have an easier time than those inland.

"It's a pity we don't have fishing rods, otherwise we could try fishing."

After picking for a while longer and confirming that there was nothing more to be found, Lu Xi'an said something.

He could certainly make a simple fishing rod, but the problem was that in a place like the seaside, a simple fishing rod would be useless.

He had had his fill of DIY sail making and no longer intended to waste time making fishing rods. He said to Yao Wei, "How about I go out to sea and see if I can catch some fish?"

Yao Wei quickly stopped him, saying, "No need, this is enough. It's dangerous to go into the sea."

Her concern was evident in her words, and Lu Xi'an felt a warm glow in his heart. To avoid worrying Yao Wei, he said, "Okay, I'll listen to you."

So he and Yao Wei ended their beachcombing trip together. When they got to the car, they washed the seafood they had collected with clean water, removing the innards of the seafood and scaling the scales of the seafood.

Finally, the fish, shellfish, and octopus were boiled in water, while the crabs were steamed over a fire.

The dog once again took on the role of inspector, placed aside by Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei to check whether the seafood was cooked or not.

"Let me preface this by saying that I've never cooked seafood before. I've just heard that seafood can be prepared in a simple way, and the important thing is the sauce."

"However, all we have for the dipping sauce is oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, so I can only make it based on what I see."

"Don't blame me if it doesn't taste good. Blame Gouzi for not watching the heat properly," Lu Xi'an said to Yao Wei as he put everything in the pot.

Yao Wei nodded and said, "Yes, as long as we can eat our fill, it's fine. I don't blame you or Gouzi."

Lu Xian: "..."

The dog sat quietly watching the fire. Lu Xi'an wasn't sure if the dog would complain if it were combined with the RV, so he added, "I was just kidding, I didn't really want you to resent the dog."

Yao Wei: "Yeah, I was just kidding too."

Lu Xian: "..."

This woman has gone astray too!
He turned to look at Yao Wei. The woman looked calm and composed; she didn't seem to be joking at all.
Lu Xi'an used what was available to make some sauce, and then waited for the seafood to cook before dipping it in the sauce with Yao Wei and they ate it together.

The seafood was fresh, but he couldn't really taste how delicious it was. The kind of flavor he couldn't appreciate was freshness.

Yao Wei, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy it very much and ate with relish.

Lu Xi'an asked her, "Is it good?" She nodded repeatedly, not even bothering to say anything.

So Lu Xi'an only had a small taste, and gave most of the catch from the beachcombing trip to Yao Wei.

"Don't you want to eat?"

Yao Wei noticed that Lu Xi'an hadn't eaten much, so she asked him.

Lu Xi'an said, "I don't really like eating these."

In today's world, that sounds rather pretentious. These days, as long as there's food to eat, who cares whether it tastes good or not?

It's only because he's been doing well lately that he's become so picky. If it were before, let's see if he would have dared to be so nitpicky.

However, Yao Wei didn't think there was anything wrong with what Lu Xi'an said. Thinking of something, she actually left directly for the beach.

She returned quickly, and before Lu Xi'an could even see what she had been doing, he saw that she had three seabirds in her hand.

"Then you eat this."

As Yao Wei spoke, she asked the dog, "Dog, can you eat this?"

After the dog's eyes lit up, indicating that it was ready to eat, she quickly plucked the feathers and cleaned the dirt off one of the birds, then put it on the fire to roast.

She was about to grill the other two, but Lu Xi'an stopped her, saying they could do it another time. So instead of grilling them as usual, she tied them up and put them in the car.

The bird had its food stolen earlier, but little did it know that this was not the end result; in the end, it too became food.

Lu Xi'an smiled and said, "Thank you."

"Don't say thank you."

As Yao Wei spoke, she said with a hint of frustration, "I wanted to catch more, but all these birds have scattered and flown away, making them difficult to catch."

"Next time, don't use your hands to catch them, use short needles to hit them, then they won't be able to escape."

Lu Xi'an laughed and said, "It's alright, this is enough to eat. After we finish eating, we'll check if there's any more on the other side of the shore, and we'll catch more."

"Ah."

Yao Wei nodded and then continued eating her seafood.

After finishing their meal, the two glanced at the seaside again, but seeing that even the birds had disappeared, they didn't linger and drove back to the mountaintop.

They planned to wait another day. If they didn't see the father and son surnamed Hu return after two more days, they would stop waiting, drive the car halfway up the mountain, wait for the tide to recede, and leave.

However, to their surprise, by noon the next day, they saw Hu Xiaodong and his son coming in that small boat, swaying and rocking.

The sails, masts, and crossbars of the small boat were still there, but the canvas had been replaced. It wasn't animal fur; it was a piece of cloth that looked quite sturdy, but I didn't know what it was made of.

It seems that the tiger skin was indeed not very effective. Even though Lu Xi'an had specially treated it and made it waterproof, it still couldn't help the two people complete the round trip.

This canvas now looks much better than the tiger skin. It billows in the wind, stretching out its elasticity, allowing the small boat to zigzag against the wind, and it seems to be going much faster than when it was drifting with the wind.

The two men stood there and could see four large barrels on their boat, all full: two barrels contained potatoes, one contained sweet potatoes, and the other contained wheat grains.

"Is that what they meant by food?"

Yao Wei asked.

Their eyesight was excellent; they could see the things on the ship from the top of the mountain.

Lu Xi'an picked up the sniper rifle, glanced at it through the scope, and confirmed, "Yes."

New food has arrived! That's great!

He put down his gun and said to Yao Wei, "They're here, let's go down."

"Ah."

Yao Wei nodded.

So the two of them got back into the car and drove down the mountain.

When they reached the eastern bank and were a little further away, the two got out of the car, lifted it, turned it around, and parked it. Then they walked to the bank.

As if they had timed it perfectly, they reached the shore just as the small boat was about to land.

As soon as Hu Xiaodong saw them, he exclaimed, "Thank goodness, I'm so glad to see you two again! You two have no idea, we encountered a man-eating old turtle at sea, it was terrifying!"
"That old tortoise used to eat people on our island. Every time we came here, we had to avoid it. Later, its body was covered in barnacles, and it couldn't swim anymore, so it couldn't come ashore."

"But now, for some reason, all the barnacles on that thing have disappeared! It scared us to death! We almost couldn't deliver what we prepared to you two!"

(End of this chapter)