“Mom, Yuanshu, come over quickly! There are so many crabs here!”
Qiu Yinong had reached a cluster of reefs. Beneath a large rock, she saw a dense concentration of white dots. When she crouched down to look, she discovered seven or eight crabs underneath. Judging by their appearance, they were probably the mud crabs her sister-in-law had mentioned earlier.
As soon as Mother Cheng and Cheng Yuanshu came closer, she excitedly told them:
“Mom, I think they’re mud crabs!”
“Ah? Mud crabs?”
Mother Cheng immediately ran over and crouched beside her. The moment she saw what was under the rock, she became visibly excited.
“It really is a mud crab nest! They’re all large ones too—at least half a jin each.”
“Hurry and catch them. Mud crabs are selling well lately. Ones this size can fetch sixty to seventy cents a jin, and the bigger they are, the higher the price.”
Cheng Yuanshu was even more excited than Qiu Yinong.
“Third Sister-in-law, your luck is unbelievable! I come out gathering seafood every day, and I haven’t caught mud crabs in ages.”
The mother and daughter worked quickly. With their tongs, they grabbed one crab after another with remarkable accuracy.
Meanwhile, Qiu Yinong used straw cords to tie them up. She was a little clumsy at first, but soon became proficient. One by one, the crabs were secured and placed into the bucket.
“These eight crabs probably weigh around five jin altogether. They should sell for about three yuan.”
Earlier, Mother Cheng had collected more than half a bucket of sea snails and octopus, but all of it combined wasn’t worth as much as the mud crabs her daughter-in-law had found.
Smiling, she praised her:
“Yinong has sharp eyes. She’s a natural when it comes to finding seafood.”
“This is just a blind cat stumbling onto a dead mouse. I happened to get lucky.”
Qiu Yinong was cautious by nature and understood the saying *’possessing a treasure invites trouble.’* There was no way she would reveal the secret behind her special ability.
Everything could be explained as luck.
After packing away the crabs, the three of them searched the surrounding area and found various common sea creatures.
With her mysterious advantage helping her, Qiu Yinong simply followed the white dots. Every time she investigated one, she found something.
Soon she dug a palm-length creature out of the sand—something she had never seen before.
“Mom, Yuanshu, what’s this?”
“My goodness, Third Sister-in-law!”
Cheng Yuanshu immediately sprinted over.
“How is your luck this good? You actually dug up such a beautiful razor clam!”
Qiu Yinong had never noticed anything unusual on the surface. If not for the white dot, she would never have known something was buried there.
“Yuanshu, is it expensive?”
That was the question she cared about most.
“Razor clams aren’t especially expensive—about thirty cents a jin. But this one’s a king razor clam. It’s huge. If you can catch a lot of them, they can sell for more than forty cents a jin.”
While speaking, Cheng Yuanshu examined the nearby area and spotted several small breathing holes in the sand.
“Mom, come quickly! There are lots of razor clam holes here. We can probably dig up another two or three jin.”
Mother Cheng brought over a shovel and began digging directly at the openings.
Every dig produced a clam.
Cheng Yuanshu collected them while explaining the techniques to her sister-in-law.
Qiu Yinong watched for five minutes before leaving the clams to them and continuing her search elsewhere.
Not long afterward, she came running back again.
“Mom, what’s this?”
She hadn’t even brought her bucket this time. Instead, she held a handful of unfamiliar sea creatures in both hands.
Mother Cheng and Cheng Yuanshu looked up.
The moment they saw what she was holding, their pupils contracted.
“Sea cucumbers!”
Judging from their reaction, Qiu Yinong immediately asked the most important question.
“Are they expensive?”
“Third Sister-in-law, have you ever heard the saying: *’On land there’s ginseng; in the sea there’s sea cucumber’*?”
Cheng Yuanshu asked with a grin.
Qiu Yinong shook her head.
She had never heard the phrase before, but she understood exactly what it meant.
*Very expensive.*
No more questions were necessary.
Without wasting another second, she turned and sprinted away.
“There are lots more over there! I’m going to pick them up!”
Watching her slender, beautiful figure disappear into the distance, Cheng Yuanshu sighed.
“Mom, Third Sister-in-law’s luck is unbelievable. I’m actually jealous.”
“Jealous of what? Hurry up and work.”
“We’ve both been doing this for years, and together we still can’t compete with one complete beginner. If the others find out, they’ll laugh us to death.”
Though Mother Cheng said that, she was secretly delighted.
A lucky daughter-in-law could only be a blessing to her son. The young couple’s life would surely become better and better.
By the time they caught up with Qiu Yinong, she had already collected all the sea cucumbers in the area.
She was even holding two large octopuses in her hands, her enthusiasm soaring.
“Mom, Yuanshu, I’ve searched this whole section. Let’s hurry to the front. We’ll fill all the buckets and baskets before heading back.”
As the tide began rising again, the army of seafood gatherers started retreating toward the village, each carrying their own harvest.
Along the way, people compared their catches with one another.
“Yuanche’s wife, you just got married and you’re already out gathering seafood with your mother-in-law? What did you find?”
A neighbor noticed her bucket was filled to the brim and immediately came over to take a look.
Following Mother Cheng’s instructions, Qiu Yinong had hidden the valuable items at the bottom of the bucket. The expensive crabs were buried underneath ordinary sea snails, while the sea cucumbers had been packed separately into a cloth bag inside a net sack.
This was done deliberately so nobody would know the true extent of their haul.
Remembering her mother-in-law’s advice, she answered generously:
“Aunt Six, it’s my first time gathering seafood. I don’t even know the names of most of these things. I mostly picked up snails.”
Seeing that it was only snails, the woman wasn’t jealous.
“You collected quite a lot. Taking those to the dock could still earn you one or two yuan.”
“Since we have guests at home today, we won’t sell them. We’ll cook them tonight, and any leftovers can be given to our guests to take home.”
Mother Cheng answered for her.
Aunt Six was on good terms with Mother Cheng and nodded.
“That makes sense. Yuanche’s leaders came all this way. We don’t really have anything fancy to offer around here, but at least we can make sure they eat plenty of fresh seafood before they leave.”
When the group reached a crossroads near the village, the Cheng family’s eldest grandson, six-year-old Cheng Dongxu, was squatting beneath a tree sucking on a lollipop.
The moment he saw them, he shouted:
“Grandma, you’re finally back! Third Uncle has asked about you eight hundred times already. If I hadn’t found you soon, Third Uncle would’ve started hitting me!”
“Little Xuzi, your Third Uncle isn’t waiting for your grandma.”
Aunt Six laughed teasingly.
“He’s waiting for your Third Aunt. He’s afraid the fairy-like new wife he just married will run away.”
Dongxu was only six and only half understood.
“Third Aunt, hurry home. Third Uncle and the army uncles are drinking tea.”
“Okay, we’re going back now.”
Earlier, Qiu Yinong had already met the Cheng family’s third generation.
Both of Cheng Yuanfeng and Cheng Yuanchi had two children each—a son and a daughter.
Cheng Yuanfeng’s eldest son, Dongxu, was six years old, while his daughter Xiaobei was three.
Cheng Yuanchi’s eldest daughter, Xiaojuan, was four, and his son Dongpeng had not yet reached his first birthday.
Both brothers had married women from neighboring villages.
The eldest sister-in-law, Li Shuangmei, had a fiery personality but was reasonable and fair. She handled everything briskly and efficiently, both inside and outside the home. Most of the wedding banquet arrangements today had been organized and coordinated by her.
The second sister-in-law, Liang Miao, was completely different.
Gentle, soft-spoken, simple-minded, and quiet, she came from the neighboring village. Her family operated a tofu workshop with fairly good business. Every morning she returned to her parents’ home to help sell tofu, giving her a stable source of income.
As for Cheng Yuanyuan, she had been married for three years.
She and her husband had one son who had just turned two. Her in-laws had brought him to today’s wedding banquet. The boy was sturdy and energetic, looking very much like his father, Wang Jianzhong.
Family-planning policies had already begun, and the couple had no intention of having a second child.
Nowadays, their son was cared for by his grandmother while the two of them focused on earning money.