"Whoosh~~ bang... bang..."
The night sky was illuminated by colorful and dazzling fireworks, resembling a vibrant hundred-flower garden.
Everyone was immersed in this brief yet eternal beauty, lingering long after.
"It's so beautiful. It would be great to build a house here, waking up every day to face the sea, with flowers blooming in the warm spring! Just thinking about it feels wonderful," Liu Zijun's timely sigh resonated with everyone.
"It's quite late, let's get some rest. There's even more fun tomorrow."
"Yes, before we know it, it's already twelve o'clock. Happy times always fly by so quickly. We're heading back."
Ruan Shanshan linked arms with Zhang Qianqian and walked towards their tents, while Chen He and Liu Dehui sprinted into the bathroom to shower. Fortunately, Li Haochen had brought a desalination device; otherwise, covered in grime, they would have had no choice but to endure the discomfort.
After a quick shower, the two bolted towards their tents like sprinters.
Looking at the two nearly empty large plastic barrels, Li Haochen could only offer a wry smile. It was too late to convert saltwater into freshwater now, so he had to use two barrels of Nongfu Spring water for a pricey bath.
"That was quite an expensive bath you took, hehe," Murong Yanran said, wiping Li Haochen's hair with a towel and chuckling.
"Indeed, forty silver dollars for a bath is quite luxurious. It felt like I had a cloth on my head after washing."
"Why don't you come into the tent and squeeze in? How can you sleep in that cave?"
"The tent is fine with three people, and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to come in. It's alright, I brought an inflatable mattress. It's late, you should rest early."
After Murong Yanran entered the tent, Li Haochen set up a few simple alarm devices around it. He checked and tested them, and seeing that they were fine, he shouldered a bundle of firewood and headed towards the cave.
Although it was his second time here, Li Haochen still took out his flashlight and shone it inside before daring to walk in.
Lighting a bonfire at the cave entrance instantly turned the darkness into daylight. Li Haochen picked up a knife, chopped down a few coconut leaves for bedding, inflated the mattress, set up the warning devices, and then lay down on the bed, sleeping soundly.
The next morning, as the sky began to show the first hint of pale light, Li Haochen put on his water shoes and headed towards the southern reef area with a net bag and a plastic bucket.
At this time, the tide was slowly receding, revealing various strangely shaped reefs in myriad forms.
Li Haochen's target was the fish, shrimp, and crabs trapped in the reef crevices or tide pools after the water receded. Fortunately, it was a deserted island, not a densely populated area. To have a successful foraging trip, one had to set out in the middle of the night.
Those who truly went foraging were often driven by necessity. Who would voluntarily venture to the seaside in the dead of night to turn over stones and poke into crevices? Not only was it dangerous, but the harvest was also low, often yielding only thirty to fifty yuan for the entire night, or even nothing at all. Frankly speaking, it was all for the sake of money.
You should just watch those foraging videos online and don't take them too seriously. If foraging yielded such rewards, who would bother going out to sea to fish?
Take Li Haochen for example. After wandering around the deserted island for a while, he only managed to catch a palm-sized yellowfin seabream and two finger-sized rockfish. For such a meager catch, his hands were even cut by the oyster shells on the reef.
"It's not worth it!"
Although the fish catch was poor, Li Haochen did not leave, as the snail harvest was quite good. However, most of them were common species like whelks, periwinkles, and chiton snails, which were not very valuable, selling for less than twenty yuan a jin.
Li Haochen continued to gather snails. Suddenly, his eyes locked onto a dark crevice, unable to move away. He immediately became excited.
"Goose barnacles, and long-necked goose barnacles at that."
Goose barnacles are also known as Sacculina, with the scientific name Pollicipes polymerus. Although they have "barnacle" in their name, they are not mollusks, but rather belong to the same phylum as crabs and shrimp.
Goose barnacles are divided into long-necked and short-necked varieties. Not all goose barnacles are Sacculina. Most goose barnacles along the coast of China are short-necked goose barnacles, also called "turtle feet," which are not expensive, selling for around 80 to 120 yuan. However, the long-necked variety is four times the price of the short-necked one, or even higher.
These creatures have very high water quality requirements and mostly grow in the crevices of coastal rocks where the waves crash strongly. They are very difficult to obtain and cannot be farmed for the time being, which is also an important factor contributing to their high price.
Fortunately, Li Haochen had encountered the expensive long-necked goose barnacles.
Seeing a considerable number of goose barnacles growing in the crevice, Li Haochen couldn't stop laughing. He took out a crowbar and carefully began to dig from the very bottom, prying them out little by little.
After prying out all the goose barnacles, he weighed them. They were about four to five pounds, which was quite a substantial amount. Li Haochen looked around the vicinity and then quickly entered his space. He found a crevice in a reef and placed all the goose barnacles there to grow and reproduce.
Goose barnacles reproduce quite astonishingly, but their growth period is long, taking four to five years to harvest. However, with the space, it would only take about two years.
Emerging from the space, he continued to search for more goose barnacles, but unfortunately, after wandering around for a long time, he did not find any more.
Seeing no more goose barnacles, Li Haochen shifted his focus to other sea snails. There were still quite a few of these, and he certainly wouldn't pass them up. Even small gains, when accumulated, could weigh more than an elephant.
After half an hour, the tide had receded even further. Seeing that the bucket of sea snails was almost full, Li Haochen stopped gathering and walked into the muddy and rocky mixed area to search on his way back.
However, he didn't catch much fish even after walking out of this reef area. Looking at the few siganus and rockfish in his net bag, Li Haochen shook his head, "Foraging for seafood is just like buying a lottery ticket."
Finding a well-hidden spot, he put some of the sea snails into the ocean within his space and then returned to the camp. He saw Murong Yanran and the other two women already awake and washing up, but Chen He and the others were nowhere to be seen, likely still out for their morning exercise.
"You went to the beach so early?"
"Yes, I know about this. It's called foraging for seafood, right? Are there any large groupers or lobsters?" Liu Zijun curiously peeked into the plastic bucket. "Uh... why are there only a few small fish?"
"What else were you expecting, large abalones and lobsters?"
"Aren't there? The foraging videos always show that."
"Come on, that's staged. Honestly, your chest... Ow! Honey, what are you doing?"
"Hurry up and wash your hands and feet, you're all dirty!" Murong Yanran pinched Li Haochen's ear, glared at him with mock ferocity, and then pulled Liu Zijun along to play in the sand.
Li Haochen went down to the sea to wash his hands and feet clean. He then brought up two buckets of seawater to continue converting into freshwater. He walked to the stove to help out. "Mom, you don't need to cook so much; it'll be a waste if we can't finish it."
"It's been so long since I've been this happy. Your dad, these days, it's all files and meetings. He has even less time to see us. I really want to take him out for a relaxing trip."
Li Haochen gently stroked Xie Baolian's temples, which had a few streaks of silver. "Mom, Dad is working for the well-being of the people. He has to be concerned. When you two retire, I'll buy a cruise ship and take you around the world!"
"Never mind traveling the world for now. First, give me a couple of grandchildren to play with, hehe!"
"Uh..."