Chapter 9 - A Rewarding Trip (1/2)

Yu Xiaocao rubbed her nose, embarrassed by her ignorance. She was a girl who lived in the inner regions of the mainland, so she didn’t understand the dangers of the sea. It just looked like a milky-white and crystal-like ‘mushroom’, but it actually had the potential to be deadly. She really learned something new today!

‘Slosh!’

The siblings heard the sound of slashing nearby and turned their heads towards the direction of the sound. They looked over and saw Yu Hai coming out of the water. He wasn’t wearing an upper garment, exposing his lean and sturdy chest.

“Cao’er, look at what I found!” Yu Hai exclaimed with a grin and revealed a mouth full of white teeth, which made his complexion appear even darker. However, his tan skin made him look even more masculine!

Little Shitou immediately rushed over and shouted, “Abalone! It’s an abalone! Father, you found abalones!”

Xiaocao was curious and hastily went over. She saw several dark greenish-brown colored shellfish within Yu Hai’s big hands. Each one was around ten centimeters in length and looked rather unassuming. Was this the highly popular abalone?

“Such a large abalone would cost at least a few hundred copper coins [1] if we sell it in town. Father got nine of them. If we sell them to a big restaurant, we should be able to get two or three taels!” Yu Xiaolian also came over and exclaimed in surprise.

Two or three taels? Based on Xiaocao’s understanding of the current economy, two or three taels can buy three to four hundred catties [2] of first-class white rice, one hundred catties of first-class pork, around seventy or eighty chubby live chickens… Two to three taels were enough to buy one year’s worth of food for her entire family, which consisted of over ten people.

However, Yu Xiaocao knew an abalone’s nutritional value. Her original plan of using the abalones to nourish her family’s health was disrupted by the value of abalones.

Xiaocao had a basic grasp of her new grandmother’s personality. With her grandmother’s temperament, she would tear down whoever dared to suggest that they eat the abalones! If they take them home, then it would just be like throwing a meat bun at a dog——it will never return!

Yu Xiaocao’s eyes darted about, then she acted like a spoiled child and asked, “Father, are these all for me?”

After hesitating for a moment, Yu Hai nodded and said, “I already mentioned it earlier, if we find abalones, we’ll use it to cook nutritious foods for you and your mother. We were quite lucky today. If we can’t finish them, then we can slowly eat them after they’re dried.”

Yu Hang and Yu Xiaolian casted a skeptical gaze at their father. They knew exactly what kind of person their father was. He was someone who would work wholeheartedly without any complaint. Even if Madam Zhang made unreasonable demands, he would never refute her.

Even Shitou, who was five years old, knew that if they brought the abalones back, then they wouldn’t even be able to touch them, let alone slowly eat them!

Yu Hai felt uncomfortable by the way his children were staring at him. He pretended to cough and bent down to carefully put the abalones into the bucket.

Yu Xiaocao’s eyes darted around and said, “Father! Let me handle the abalones.”

Yu Hai stuffed the abalones, which were worth around three taels, into his daughter’s hands without hesitation. He stood up, looked at the sky, and said, “It’s getting late. We collected a lot of seafood today, so let’s go back now!”

Yu Xiaocao poured all the seafood within her basket into her father’s large barrel, and then carefully placed the abalones into inside her basket. She looked around and ran towards the cliff. She picked up some kelp and sea lettuce, and then used them to securely cover the abalones.

They really collected a lot of seafood today! The barrel that Yu Hai was carrying was as tall as Shitou and filled with their harvest. Yu Hang and Xiaolian were also holding small buckets that were full to the brim. Even Little Shitou’s small basket was packed with seafood.

On the way back, villagers, who they were acquainted with, greeted them with admiration, “Dahai is seriously still the most skilled among us. He arrived later than us, but he also obtained so much more than all of us!”