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

Actually, beachcombing is quite boring.

For example, when you pry open an abalone, you're just repeating the same action over and over again.

Wu Sui and Wu Gang followed the flood control dike eastward.

The shovel and sand shovel in his hands kept hitting the rocks without stopping.

There are so many good things in the water.

Wu Gang pried off a nine-eyed abalone weighing about three ounces, casually tossed it into the bucket of water at his feet, straightened up, and gasped for breath.

"Ah Sui, this must weigh over a hundred pounds, right?" Wu Gang wiped the salt water off his face, his face flushed, and his voice trembled with excitement.

"Take them to Hongyunlou tomorrow. Manager Liu will be ecstatic to see so many abalone!"

Wu Sui used a sand shovel to brace himself against the rocks and shook his aching arm.

"Brother, Hongyunlou can't handle this batch of goods."

Wu Gang was stunned, his hands stopped moving, and he stared blankly at Wu Sui.

Wu Sui leaned closer and lowered his voice: "This is pure wild nine-eyed abalone; the price level in town reflects that."

"Hongyunlou can only sell a dozen or so a day at most."

"If you throw several hundred pounds at him, how is he supposed to accept it?"

"These things can't be kept alive; if the water temperature changes, they'll die and the whole thing will stink."

Wu Gang was getting anxious. He saw that he had a lot of money, but he couldn't sell it. He was so anxious that he kept stamping his feet.

"What should we do then?"

Wu Sui wiped the water droplets from her face.

"Let's go to town tomorrow and see if the purchasing station wants it."

"If that doesn't work, hire a small truck and take it directly to the seafood wholesale market in the city."

"That place has a lot of big bosses, so the prices can be raised a bit."

Upon hearing that he could sell it for a higher price, Wu Gang immediately perked up and bent down to continue digging.

As they were talking, the radar interface in Wu Sui's mind suddenly flickered.

A dazzling green light, three or four times larger than the surrounding light spots, appeared at the bottom of a boulder to his left.

Wu Sui's heart pounded wildly.

Without saying a word, he took a deep breath and plunged his entire head into waist-deep seawater.

It was pitch black underwater. Following the beam of his headlamp, Wu Sui found the crevice in the reef.

As soon as my hand touched it, I felt an oval-shaped hard shell with seaweed growing on its edges.

This size is simply outrageous!

Wu Sui dared not be careless.

This thing has extremely strong adhesion. If you can't pry it off the first time, you'll have to smash the stone along with it to get it off.

He carefully inserted the tip of the sand shovel into the gap between the abalone and the rock wall, gripped the handle with both hands, and pressed down hard on the seabed pebbles with both feet.

A muffled "crack" sounded.

Wu Sui emerged from the water, panting heavily, clutching something in his hand.

Hearing the noise, Wu Gang came over, his headlamp shining on Wu Sui's hand.

"Good heavens..." Wu Gang gasped, stammering, "This...this is abalone? It looks like a turtle."

Lying in Wu Sui's palm was a huge nine-eyed abalone.

Its outer shell is incredibly thick and covered with dense seaweed.

The abalone meat at the bottom was so thick it was almost overflowing from the shell, and under the flashlight, it shone with an enticing yellowish-brown color, still wriggling and contracting.

Wu Sui weighed it up and down.

"Half a catty, no less." Wu Sui grinned. "Brother, have you ever heard the saying? A double-headed abalone is worth a thousand pieces of gold."

"What do you mean?" Wu Gang scratched his head.

"Abalone that comes in pairs, weighing about one pound, is called a double-headed abalone. In the city, a single one of these would cost at least several hundred yuan!"

Wu Sui put the behemoth into a net bag and tied it up.

Wu Gang's legs went weak, and he almost sat down in the water.

This one abalone is worth more than the heavy bags he carried at the dock for months?!

"Mother Selin, if I don't empty this flood control dike tonight, I, Wu Gang, am not Wu!"

He went completely mad, wielding a broken shovel and unleashing a berserk attack on the stone wall.

The two continued to work diligently, turning the rocks at the bottom of the flood control dike upside down.

They worked until after 4 a.m.

The sea breeze is getting cooler, and the tide is starting to rise.

Wu Sui pried open several gaps in a row, and his back ached so much he felt like it was about to break.

They basically wiped out all the abalone in this area of ​​the flood control dike; what's left are all abalone seedlings the size of a fingernail.

"Big brother, that's enough. We've picked all the big ones out of this area. The rest are too small, we'll leave them to grow bigger later."

Wu Sui threw the sand shovel onto the rocks and swung his numb arm.

Looking back, Wu Gang ignored him and was bent over, frantically digging at something on the shady side of a large reef.

"Hey bro, what are you doing? Let's go!"

Without even raising his head, Wu Gang used both hands to throw things into the snakeskin bag next to him, making a clattering sound.

Wu Sui walked over and shone his headlamp on the ground.

The snails were densely packed together, clinging to the crevices of the rocks.

Each one is about the size of a thumb, and its shell is covered with sharp little bumps.

This thing is scientifically called the warty lychee snail. The meat in its tail has a slightly bitter taste, but it gets more fragrant the more you chew it.

Villagers often find them while beachcombing, take them home, stir-fry them with chili peppers, and they're a perfect accompaniment to drinks.

But this thing isn't worth much.

"Brother, why are you picking up this junk?" Wu Sui asked with a look of disgust. "The recycling station only pays a little over a dollar a pound for this stuff, why bother?"

Wu Gang's hands moved faster and faster, as if afraid of running away.

"A little over a dollar isn't much money, is it? Look at these rocks, they're all worth that."

"If we collect them all, they'll weigh at least a hundred pounds, which is over a hundred yuan!"

As Wu Gang picked up the rice, he did the math: "How many kilograms of rice can a little over a hundred yuan buy?"

Wu Sui was speechless.

This guy caught nearly 300 pounds of wild abalone in one night, making at least tens of thousands of yuan, but he still cares about a hundred-odd yuan worth of bitter snails.

But seeing Wu Gang's desperate posture, Wu Sui understood.

People who are terrified of poverty will inevitably pick up any coins they see on the ground.

Wu Sui sighed, squatted down, and picked them up as well.

"Okay, okay, let's do it together, but we need to hurry, it's almost dawn, and those old ladies in the village will be out gathering seafood soon."

The two of them began to struggle with the bitter snail amidst the pile of rocks.

Sure enough, the snails here are unusually large; you can grab a handful at a time.

The sky was beginning to lighten with the first light of dawn.

The faint crowing of roosters could be heard coming from the distant village.

The bitter snails filled two large fertilizer bags.

"Big brother, we can't delay any longer." Wu Sui lowered his voice and looked around.

"Hurry up and take the shortcut home, and bring our cart over. We can't possibly carry these 300-plus pounds of abalone back with just the two of us."

Wu Gang wiped his sweat and glanced at the several snakeskin bags that were filled to the brim.

"Then you stay here and keep watch, I'll be right back."

Wu Gang climbed up the flood control embankment using both his hands and feet, and disappeared into the morning mist at a jog.

Wu Sui didn't dare to be idle and continued to dig for bitter snails on the rocks.

He had to make an appearance, in case someone passed by and saw him there, he could say he was there to pick up bitter snails, since they were cheap and no one would be envious.