The Siheyuan of the Young Educated Youth

Chapter 453: Clam Digging

The injury on Huo Sheng's finger did not reduce their enthusiasm for going to the beach. They cleaned Huo Sheng's finger, bandaged it, and went out again.

Huo Sheng's right finger was injured, so he used his left hand. It was not difficult to pick up the kelp. He ran fast and picked it up quickly with one hand. Doubao also ran fast and stretched his neck to grab it from Qi Feifei.

Qi Feifei was looking at the two of them busying themselves and she also felt itchy. She thought about taking out a shovel so that she could dig out the clams in the sand or dig into the small puddles to see if there were any small fish, shrimps, crabs, etc.

She had no experience in fishing, so she just dug blindly. It took her more than ten shovels to finally find a clam. It wasn't very big, but she was very happy nonetheless.

"Huo Sheng, Huo Sheng, I dug up a clam." She held it in her hand and shook it vigorously to show Huo Sheng. In fact, it was still dark and far away, so she couldn't see the shape of the clam in her hand clearly.

Huo Sheng, "Great, let's go back and make some soup. We have seafood soup today."

Qi Feifei continued to dig happily, but unfortunately she didn't know the habits of clams at all. She dug one shovel after another like she did at home. It took her a long time to dig one. When would she be able to eat it? She felt a little disappointed.

I looked up and saw a puddle in front of me. I wondered if there might be crabs, shrimps, fish or something, so I walked over.

The puddle was not very big, and Qi Feifei could not see anything from above. She used a shovel to dig out the water. As she was digging, something in the puddle hit her shovel.

"Hey, Huo Sheng, come quickly, there's something here. Come and see what it is?" He couldn't bend down to grab it, it was really frustrating.

Huo Sheng dragged over a long bunch of kelp and handed it to Qi Feifei. Qi Feifei put the kelp into the courtyard and handed him the shovel in his hand.

"Don't grab it with your hands." I don't know what it is, but I hope you don't get hurt again.

Huo Sheng bent down to look at the water surface, and there was no movement again.

I used the shovel to dig hard, and soon half of the water was dug out. I saw a line swimming in it, which looked like a fish.

Qi Feifei, "I saw it, I saw it, it's over there, hurry up and get it."

Huo Sheng swung his arms and paddled hard. After a while, the water decreased a lot and he could clearly see the fish. It was not very big, only about one or two taels, and much flatter than a river fish. Huo Sheng stretched out his hands and slowly approached, then suddenly closed them.

"what!"

Huo Sheng pulled his hand back abruptly, the veins on his forehead throbbing with pain. He held one hand with the other, his brows tightly furrowed.

Qi Feifei saw at a glance that he was injured.

"Pricked by a fish fin?"

Huo Sheng pursed his lips and nodded. It hurts so much! His eyes were red, and he was afraid that he would cry if he couldn't bear it.

Qi Feifei immediately took Huo Sheng back. Why is sea fishing so dangerous?

Wash and soak in water.

"Feeling better?"

Huo Sheng, "Much better, still a little numb."

Qi Feifei, "It seems that this fish is poisonous. Forget it, we won't eat it."

In addition to kelp, I picked up a crab and a few clams. I washed the kelp and hung it up to dry, and boiled the crab and clams in water.

The two of us had no experience, the clam meat was hard and hard to bite, and there was a lot of sand in it which hurt our teeth. The crab was okay, the meat was still very fresh, but there was a little less meat, but it was still very delicious.

Qi Feifei leaned back on the recliner, thinking, how can I live by the sea every day without knowing how to cook seafood? For people living by the sea, this should be like picking mushrooms in the mountains. She decided to find a small village to stay and learn.

That night, she began to search along the beach. After walking for more than ten miles, she saw some houses not far away.

She didn't go over, but entered the courtyard near a beach.

In the following days, she stayed in the courtyard, observing the situation outside, when the tide would rise, when the wind would blow, when it would rain, when the villagers would come out to catch fish…

She couldn't understand a word the villagers said and could only observe their movements.

Among these villagers, there was an old lady who came to the sea to catch seafood almost every day, sometimes early, sometimes late. She always carried a bamboo basket and a small rake with a bottle of water and some grass in the basket.

That morning, the old lady came again. She lowered her head and searched. After a while, she scratched the ground with a small rake, picked up something and threw it into the bamboo basket. She bent over, took two steps, scratched again, and picked up another one.

When she walked near Qi Feifei, Qi Feifei clearly saw that what the old lady picked up were the clams that he had dug that day. It turned out that this thing was under the sand. There was no need to dig it out with a shovel. It came out with a dig.

Thinking about how I was turning the soil that day, I couldn't help but smile.

She stared carefully at the sand in front of the old lady to see if there was anything different. The old lady did not scratch it all the time, but scratched it every once in a while, and each time she hit the spot, which meant that she could tell there was something there by looking at the sand.

Before Qi Feifei could understand what was going on, the old lady walked over, which made Qi Feifei very anxious.

After the old lady went back from the sea, Qi Feifei took Huo Sheng out. This time she also took a rake, but it was a very big one, which was used for threshing and raking grass in the Northeast.

The rake handle was long enough for her to stand and scratch the sand. She couldn't see any difference in the sand, but she could always find a few by scratching a large area. When she found them, Huo Sheng would put them in a small basket.

Gradually, Qi Feifei discovered the trick. Where there were clams, the sand would be wetter than in other places, so she didn't have to scratch it foolishly anymore.

She has good eyesight, so she has no problem seeing while standing.

The two of them walked a long way and were busy until noon. They were both tanned and exhausted. They didn't pick up as much as the old lady, but they were very happy just the same.

We have harvested the crops, but we don’t know how to cook them. Last time we cooked them, they were hard and had sand in them. Others know how to cook them, but they definitely won’t cook them like this.

Qi Feifei really wanted to visit the old lady, but unfortunately, she couldn’t do that now because of her current status and she couldn’t speak the language.

Qi Feifei and Huo Sheng returned to the courtyard and began to look through cooking books one by one. After searching for a long time, they still couldn't find any Cantonese recipes.

In the middle of the night, Qi Feifei brought Doubao into the village, and Doubao helped her find the old lady's house.

The old woman's window was open, and one could see at a glance that there was a bamboo bed, a bamboo table, and a bamboo chair in the room. On the bamboo table stood a thermos with peeling paint and an enamel pot. There was also a rope in the room, on which hung the patched clothes she wore to the beach in the morning.

Qi Feifei was concerned about her kitchen. The door was not locked, so Qi Feifei tiptoed into the house. There was a stove in the kitchen and a bamboo rack next to it with several bowls, plates and chopsticks on it, and several small jars underneath.

Qi Feifei sighed, the old lady’s family is so poor!