Chapter 152: Foraging by the Sea

"They are in the sand. Come here, hold this for me, and I'll show you how to dig!" Hong Tao led Dajiang to a reef, found a spot that had both sand and mud, and began searching the ground by the moonlight.

Sand worms, also known as lugworms, look somewhat like a cross between an earthworm and a centipede, except they grow quite large—usually over twenty centimeters long, and it was said the largest could reach over a meter. During the day, they inhabit the coastal mud and sand, leaving only a tiny opening. Once the tide recedes, a small bubble appears over the opening, indicating that a living sand worm is inside.

Normally, digging for sand worms requires an iron hook because live sand worms bite. Although the bite doesn't hurt and isn't venomous, having something slimy wriggling in your hand is quite unsettling. Hong Tao wasn't afraid of these creatures; in his past life, he had dealt with them countless times. By the twenty-first century, due to overdevelopment in Beidaihe, the nearshore waters were completely depleted, and even sand worms became extremely rare. In the summer, at peak prices, they could sell for eight yuan per tael.

However, in the early 1980s, this place was still an undisturbed, pristine beach. While not exceedingly bountiful, it was certainly rich in natural produce. After spotting a sand worm's burrow, Hong Tao immediately started digging. Clearing away a few dozen centimeters of sand, a thick, greenish-blue worm appeared underneath, continually burrowing into the sand in an attempt to escape.

"Ah... that's so gross! Does it bite? You're much braver than me!" Even Dajiang, a kid who dared to stomp on three hanged ghosts in a single night, felt goosebumps all over his body at the sight of this forearm-length creature covered in short bristles, especially when Hong Tao nonchalantly placed it right on his arm. Dajiang's admiration for Hong Tao welled up like the surging ocean waves...

"It bites, but it doesn't hurt. Hold this for me. I'm going to dig another one!" Hong Tao handed the first sand worm to Dajiang.

"Hey... it kind of tickles... hehe..." Dajiang tentatively extended his arm, grabbed the sand worm in his hand, and chuckled as he watched it wriggle back and forth across his wrist.

"Dajiang, get away from me! ... Not backward, move to the side, a bit further. Alright, don't move!" Hong Tao dug another sand worm, then pulled a folding fruit knife from his pocket. Viciously chopping it into eight pieces, he threaded a small segment onto a fishhook, stuck the kite reel into the sand, and began swinging the hook and lead sinker in a diagonal circle, making the circle larger and larger until it couldn't possibly get any bigger. Only then did he aim and suddenly let go... The lead sinker, carrying the hook and fishing line, flew out into the sea under the force of centrifugal action.

"Sigh... my arms are still a bit too short..." Hong Tao couldn't see where the sinker landed in the water, but judging by the rotation of the kite reel, the distance was a bit close. There was nothing he could do about it, though; he was short with short arms, unable to swing a wider circle, so the centrifugal force was somewhat lacking.

"Don't pack sand into the bucket! We'll need it to hold fish later!" In the short time it took to cast the line, Dajiang had already started playing with the sand on the beach. He filled the bucket, packed it tight, flipped it over to create a bucket-shaped sand castle, and then used his finger to carve imaginative architectural details into it.

"Hey! You run, run! I'll squash you!" Hong Tao squatted on the beach, watching the girls not far away picking up washed-up seashells by the moonlight, and was just about to work up a bit of a literary mood when Dajiang suddenly jumped up and started wildly stomping on something on the sand!

"Stop stomping! That's a crab! Bring it here and let me see." Hong Tao genuinely felt sorry for that little crab; it just came out for a stroll after dinner and met such a catastrophic end.

"Is this a crab? Can you eat it?" Dajiang used two fingers to pick up the utterly dead crab and brought it over to Hong Tao.

"You can't eat this kind, it's too small. Tomorrow morning bright and early, I'll take you to catch big ones—about this big!" Hong Tao looked at the tiny crab, which was slightly larger than a five-fen coin, and gestured to a size roughly matching the lid of a cooking pot.

"Alright then, I'll look for more. There might be others. I'll put them in the bucket and see who's tougher, the crabs or the fish!" Dajiang grew interested in these small crabs and intended to make them fight whatever fish Hong Tao might possibly catch, much like how Hong Tao pitted crickets against each other.

"Got a bite! Hahahahaha, come quick and look, I caught a fish!" Hong Tao didn't disappoint Dajiang. A few minutes later, the small wooden stick he had stuck in the sand was pulled down by the fishing line. He grabbed the kite wheel and reeled it in for dear life at the top of his lungs, shouting for the girls to come over and witness his prowess.

"It's up! It's up... It's so small..." Not only the girls came running, but people playing nearby on the beach also rushed over to see. As it turned out, what Hong Tao pulled up was a small fish with black stripes on its body, about the size of a palm.

"Tch, Dajiang, put it in the bucket. Watch me catch a big one for you in a minute! Step back! Don't let the fishhook hurt you!!!" Hong Tao had nothing to say to these amateurs. While re-baiting a small piece of sand worm, he began swinging the fishing hook around again.

"Hey, don't walk into the water, just play near the edge! Where are Han Xue and Jin Yue?" Hong Tao was very busy; while fishing, he had to swat away mosquitoes and keep his eyes on the group near the water. They were all landlubbers, and once knocked over by a wave, they might not be able to get back up.

"She went with that teacher over that way!" Han Xue was engrossed in collecting seashells on the beach and pointed ahead without raising her head.

The group played by the water's edge until nine o'clock, when Teacher Liu finally walked back from the beach with Jin Yue. His fishing spear was impaled with two pathetic little fish, the largest only the length of a palm. It was a miracle, really; in such pitch darkness, he had somehow managed to skewer two fish.

"Oh... there are starfish too! What is this?" When Teacher Liu saw the dozen or so fish and three or four starfish in Hong Tao's bucket, his jaw dropped again. He pointed at a dark, spiky object and asked Hong Tao.

"Sea urchin. It can be eaten raw; want to taste it?" This sea urchin had accidentally been snagged by Hong Tao's fishhook, though the starfish had indeed been caught.

"Unbelievable. Let's head back; we have to get up early tomorrow to watch the sunrise. Oh... girls... time to go back!!!" Teacher Liu was filled with frustration. He looked at his badass fishing spear, then at the fish in the bucket, and instantly lost all desire to continue playing, rounding everyone up to go to sleep.

Around 3:00 AM, Hong Tao was woken up by Teacher Liu. After a quick wash-up, they set off for Pigeon Nest Park to watch the sunrise. Although many people had shouted about going the night before, not even a carload of people could actually wake up at 3:00 AM. If Hong Tao hadn't dragged Dajiang out of bed by brute force, he surely would have been one of those who stayed behind.

Truth be told, Hong Tao didn't want to watch the sunrise; he had seen it countless times in his past life, viewing the sun striking various poses right as it woke up. But he couldn't just look out for his own enjoyment. Since they had gone to all the trouble of bringing everyone out for a trip, the others needed to see it so they'd have something to brag about when they got back.

Pigeon Nest is actually the name of a stretch of beach located at the easternmost tip of a protruding small peninsula. With no obstructions in front and a cliff tens of meters high, it was an ideal spot for viewing the sunrise.

It happened to be a spring tide day. When Hong Tao and his group arrived, it was still pitch dark, and the seawater had surged right up to the edge of the dirt road, forcing everyone to wait on the path. Hong Tao, however, wasn't one to stay put. He, Dajiang, and Jin Yue had already waded into the water, stepping through the ankle-deep shallows and slowly following the retreating tide toward the sea.

"Hong Tao, be careful! Don't go out too far!" Teacher Liu, worried, was forced into the water as well, and following his lead, Han Xue and the others waded in too, chasing the waves together.

"Don't worry, this whole area is a sandy beach. Even if I run all the way to the cliff, the water would only reach my chest..." Hong Tao still had memories of this region, having visited more than once in the past. That was why he was in such a hurry to push forward—there were good things ahead!

Just as the sun peeked its golden hair over the horizon, Hong Tao led the group along with the receding tide to the spot in his memory. To be fair, he had Teacher Liu to thank for this location. In his past life, it was Teacher Liu who had carried him on his shoulders, half-asleep, to watch the sunrise here, only for him to fall asleep while everyone else was busy taking pictures.

Ultimately, it was Teacher Liu who woke him up by carrying him around with a fishing spear to chase fish. The two of them had waded into the shallow water spearing fish, tracking their quarry until they reached a patch of chaotic reefs several hundred meters away, where they stumbled upon an unexpected windfall.

"Watch out! Don't let the crabs pinch you. There's another one over there, charge!" In this reef area, numerous marine organisms that had ridden the tide in search of food had been mercilessly abandoned by the receding waters: swimming crabs as large as cooking pots, sea cucumbers crawling all over the ground and reefs, along with sea urchins, starfish, octopuses, and various small fish... You name it, any tidal pool on the reefs was bound to contain heavy treasures!

"Dajiang, the bucket!" Hong Tao deliberately sought out the more dangerous creatures to catch, leaving the starfish, sea cucumbers, and small fish for the girls to enjoy. Before long, three large crabs, a dozen sea urchins, and an octopus had been tossed into the small bucket. Teacher Liu abandoned spear-fishing altogether, his spear now fully hung with trophies.

"Watch your step, everyone, don't get pricked by the reefs! These things are sharp... Jin Yue, don't go over there, come back!" Hong Tao had to act as both a hunter of seafood and a sentinel and supervisor, constantly keeping an eye on the girls' movements. The reefs here were covered in oyster shells as sharp as little knives; once a leg slipped into a stone crevice, pulling it out would cost a layer of skin. (To be continued...)