Transported Into The Book, She Thrives In The 80s Chapter 196: Beach Seining - Novel Cool

Chapter 196: Beach Seining

Chapter 196: Beach Seining

Zhou Chenglei replied, "You'll see in a bit."

Beach seining typically involved dozens of people working together, and it was a common activity in the village. It still happened occasionally, but less frequently, as the catch from beach seining wasn't as valuable as the fish caught by offshore trawling.

Zhou Chenglei returned to the boat, handed down several water buckets, heavy-duty bags, and some shovels—tools for gathering seafood—and then threw down two bundles of fishing nets, each threaded through with wooden poles the size of bamboo. Each person would hold a pole, spreading the net into the sea and then hauling it in.

After passing down all the equipment, Zhou Chenglei jumped off the boat and pointed to the snail holes on the beach, instructing Jiang Xia, "This stretch of beach has a lot of mud whelks and blood clams. You and Comrade Zhang, go ahead and pick some to take back. I'll go with Jiang Dong to set the net, and we'll call you to help haul it in later."

"Okay!" Jiang Xia responded and proceeded to gather mud whelks with Zhang Fuyan.

Zhou Chenglei pointed to one of the bundles of fishing nets threaded onto wooden poles and said to Jiang Dong, "Take this net and follow me to set it in the sea."

Jiang Dong, excited, asked, "How do we do it?"

Zhou Chenglei demonstrated to Jiang Dong how it was done and then said, "Let's walk a bit deeper, and when I signal you, start spreading the net."

So, Jiang Xia and Zhang Fuyan watched as Zhou Chenglei and Jiang Dong walked into the sea to set the net.

They observed for a while and then stopped watching.

The tide was indeed ebbing, and numerous mud whelks and blood clams lay exposed in the shallow water, visible without the need for digging.

Not only were there mud whelks, but occasionally, one could also spot flower crabs, blue crabs, and octopuses.

Perhaps because the tide had just receded, and no one had come to collect them yet, there was an abundance of seafood. Jiang Xia and Zhang Fuyan, wading in the water, were thrilled as they gathered their catch.

In less than two hours, they had filled an entire bucket.

Zhang Fuyan expressed her envy, "Living by the sea means you don't need to buy meat and vegetables. You can just come out and gather some seafood every day, and you'll have meat to eat, plus a variety of choices."

Jiang Xia laughed, "People in the village rarely eat meat. It's seafood almost every meal."

Zhang Fuyan couldn't help but feel a million times envious!

She loved fish and seafood the most!

At that moment, Zhou Chenglei called out to Jiang Xia, "Jiang Xia, you can come and help haul in the net now!"

Jiang Dong excitedly shouted, "Sister! Sister Fuyan, come and pull! This net is full of fish!"

The two of them hurried over.

Zhou Chenglei and Jiang Dong pulled the net closer, then handed it over to Jiang Xia and Zhang Fuyan to haul it onto the beach.

Zhou Chenglei instructed them, "Just like we're doing, drag the net onto the beach, to a spot without water. If you get tired or feel it's too heavy, don't force it. We'll come and help in a bit."

Jiang Xia nodded, "Got it. We'll give it a try."

Zhou Chenglei let them try, and then the two men went back to retrieve the other net.

They had set two nets in total.

Jiang Xia and Zhang Fuyan, each at one end, exerted themselves to pull the large net ashore.

Zhang Fuyan saw numerous white fish trapped in the net, flopping around in the water, and exclaimed excitedly, "So many fish! Xia Xia, so many fish!"

Jiang Xia laughed, "Yes, so many! I didn't expect this many!"

As she watched the fish wriggle free from the net and escape through the mesh, Jiang Xia urged, "Hurry and pull, or the fish will get away!"

Zhang Fuyan also saw this and pulled with all her might, as if she were a baby suckling! But after pulling for a few meters, both of them felt the net becoming harder to haul!

It was too heavy!

It was a real struggle, but fortunately, Jiang Xia had some experience. They were both wearing gloves; otherwise, their hands might have been torn.

Jiang Xia's strength had been increasing, but hauling over a hundred pounds of fish was still challenging.

However, as they watched more and more fish escape, they dared not stop. They pulled with all their might.

In the end, Jiang Xia was truly exhausted and decided to sit down on the ground! Zhang Fuyan followed suit, and the two of them, drenched in sweat, managed to pull the entire net of fish onto the beach.

Zhang Fuyan's face showed regret, "So many got away."

Jiang Xia smiled, "It's okay. Those were small fish, and if they hadn't escaped, we might not have been able to haul the net in anyway."

"Let's hurry up and pick up the fish."

"Okay!" Zhang Fuyan instantly regained her energy and quickly stood up to collect the fish.

Most of the fish they pulled up were flathead mullets, also known as blackhead fish, which grew rapidly but didn't reach a large size.

"Xia Xia, there's a huge fish here!"

Jiang Xia looked over and smiled, "Lucky! It's a perch, and it's over two pounds!"

Zhang Fuyan happily tossed the fish into the bucket.

"Xia Xia, there's a fish here spraying ink! The water is all black!"

"Xia Xia, there's a big crab here, how do I catch it? I'm afraid of its claws."

"Xia Xia, there's another big crab here, so huge! It has barnacles on its shell!"

At this moment, Zhou Chenglei and Jiang Dong also pulled up another net of fish.

Their net had even more fish, and Jiang Xia estimated there were over 150 pounds.

Hearing Zhang Fuyan's excited shouts, Jiang Dong quickly ran over to help her catch the crab.

He didn't understand how a crab could have barnacles; weren't they covered in shell?

He took a look at the crab Zhang Fuyan was talking about and exclaimed, "Sister, those are barnacles! Not sores!"

Zhou Chenglei also took a look and said, "They're barnacles. These large blue crabs are only found in the deep sea, and they're very nutritious."

Zhang Fuyan was delighted, "So we're making a big profit?"

Then she spotted another large blue crab, "Jiang Dong, there's another one here! It's trying to escape! Catch it quickly!"

"Where is it going!" Jiang Dong shouted and hurried over to grab it.

"Jiang Dong, look, there's a fish spraying ink over there!"

"I saw it already!"

"Jiang Dong, look, there's a big shrimp here! It's a prawn!"

"That's a prawn!"

Jiang Xia didn't pay attention to them and picked up a prawn, smiling as she spoke to Zhou Chenglei, "So many prawns, and they're all full of roe. Their bellies are red. We've probably collected two to three pounds!"

Zhou Chenglei said, "These are delicious. Later, let's go to the restaurant and have them cook it for us."

Amidst the excited voices of Zhang Fuyan and Jiang Dong, the four of them spent half an hour collecting all the fish.

In total, they had around 200 pounds of fish.

Zhou Chenglei finished packing up the fishing net; it was already past eleven o'clock.

Zhou Chenglei then took the boat to send them back to the city pier, keeping some of the fish, shrimp, and crabs for themselves and selling the rest.

Since there were mostly flathead mullets, and the valuable and delicious ones were kept for their own consumption, they didn't make much money from the sale, only earning a dozen or so yuan.

A dozen yuan wasn't even enough to cover the large ship's fuel costs, but the joy of the day was worth double, and it couldn't be measured in money.

The four of them had a meal at the Prosperity Pavilion. Zhou Chenglei asked the restaurant manager, Xu Wenan, to cook some of the seafood. They enjoyed an incredibly fresh seafood feast.

The meal included roe-filled prawns, steamed perch, braised small octopuses, stir-fried squid with chili, steamed lobster crabs, stir-fried mud whelks with chili, a dish of pan-fried flathead mullets, and a plate of green vegetables.

Zhang Fuyan ate until she was stuffed, "I never knew fish we caught ourselves could taste so good!"

Jiang Dong said, "Of course, I personally went into the sea to net them!"

Jiang Xia smiled, "It's because they're fresh!"

After the meal, Jiang Dong rode his bicycle to send Zhang Fuyan home. He had two buckets hanging on the bicycle, one filled with fish, shrimp, and crabs for Zhang Fuyan to take home, and the other for Jiang Fu and Jiang Mu. The basket at the front of the bicycle also held two bags of mud whelks and blood clams, one for each of them.

Meanwhile, Jiang Xia and Zhou Chenglei went to the photo studio to pick up the photos they had developed previously, and then they headed back to the village by boat.

Upon returning to the village and docking the boat, Jiang Xia, before going home, pulled Zhou Chenglei towards the production team.

The two of them arrived beside the telephone, and Zhou Li smiled, "Alei, you're back from the distant sea? Did you make a lot of money?"

Zhou Chenglei merely lifted the corners of his mouth but said nothing.

Jiang Xia smiled at Zhou Li, "Second Aunt, I'd like to borrow the production team's telephone to make a call."

Zhou Li smiled, "Go ahead! Are you calling home?"

"No," Jiang Xia replied, and then bowed her head to dial the number.

Zhou Li pretended to tidy up the desk, but her eyes were on Jiang Xia as she dialed, memorizing the number in her mind. Afterward, she smiled and chatted with Zhou Chenglei, trying to get closer to him.

(End of Chapter)

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