Following Yaya as she carried a bucket through the houses of the fishermen, Xiao Yu noticed that each household had fish and some sea snail and shellfish meat hung out to dry. There was plenty of kelp as well, but strangely, she didn’t see any seaweed. "Shouldn’t there be seaweed in this season? Why can’t I see any?"
Seaweed typically grows on the rocks of the shallow intertidal zone, a place that one could only reach by boat.
Of course, these local coastal reefs had some too, but mostly they were harvested before you could get to them, picked clean by others.
"Yaya, shouldn’t we be setting some fish cages?" Xiao Yu asked.
Yaya’s face turned red as she replied, "Sister, our fish cages are so broken they can’t be used anymore."
That explained it. It made sense why others were heading toward the perilous rocks with their fish cages while they had to carry buckets toward the sandy beach.
When fishermen weren’t out at sea, they would use fish cages to catch fresh ingredients to cook at home.
Seeing Yaya head towards the beach, Xiao Yu glanced at the reef clusters around them, which were deserted, and then suggested, "How about you go to the beach, and I’ll check these rocks to see if there’s anything good."
Yaya hesitated for a moment and glanced at the seawater that hadn’t completely receded before saying, "I’ll come with you. We’ll go to the beach later."
By the time the sisters laboriously climbed up, Xiao Yu specifically searched between the crevices of the rocks and, sure enough, found what she was looking for: sea snails and Mao Bei.
"So, Sister was looking for these! These are quite common here, and there are even more on the rocks in the middle of the sea. The ones here are not big because they’re difficult to pry off, and since they have little meat, not many people eat them," Yaya explained.
Yaya had brought a small rake with her but not a screwdriver, making those sea snails hard to pry off. Xiao Yu took the opportunity to get a screwdriver from her space and energetically gathered them while Yaya went back home to fetch something.
By the time Yaya returned, Xiao Yu had already put the screwdriver away, and instead, Yaya handed her an iron shovel. Although it wasn’t as handy as a screwdriver, it would do.
The sisters squatted on the rock face, picking sea snails. The waves were particularly large, dousing Xiao Yu with water as they crashed over her.
Having crouched for so long, her head spun when she stood up, causing her to lose her balance and nearly fall backward, if not for Yaya catching her at the last moment.
"Sister, you scared me to death! Be careful, it’s slippery here, and the ground below is all rocks. A fall wouldn’t be good," Yaya warned.
While agreeing with her, Xiao Yu looked down and saw something resembling kelp growing along the bottom edge of the reef wall. Her eyes lit up with excitement, and she began to clamber down the rock face.
Yaya jumped in fright at her actions, "Sister, what are you doing? It’s dangerous there, come back up!"
Xiao Yu flashed her a reassuring smile, "It’s okay, be good. I just want to see what this is by pulling it up."
Xiao Yu was strong. She firmly grasped the rock face and reached down to grab a handful of a brownish-green membrane-like material. The feel of it in her hand immediately confirmed to her that it was seaweed.
From her lowered position, she could see lots of seaweed attached layer upon layer to the rock face, appearing quite thick.
Her heart raced with excitement, "I’ve struck it rich!" ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ⓝovelFire.net
However, when she brought the stuff up, Yaya’s expression was peculiar.
Preoccupied with sorting the seaweed, Xiao Yu suddenly looked up to find Yaya hesitating to speak and asked her in confusion, "What’s going on?"
"Sister, why are you pulling up these sea plants?" Yaya asked.
Xiao Yu looked at the seaweed in her hand and then back at Yaya, "What did you say this is? Sea plants?"