After Reincarnating as the Dragon King, I Made a Fortune with Seafood – CH15

Chapter 15: An Accident

In the past, whenever Lin Gongshang dug for mud crabs, he would end up covered in mud and sweat, and after two or three hours, he would only dig up two or three.

Today, he had gotten lucky. In just over two hours, he had dug up five, and three of them were big ones weighing more than one jin each. Based on the current purchase price of sixty yuan per jin for large wild male mud crabs and eighty yuan per jin for large wild female mud crabs, he could sell today’s morning haul for more than five hundred yuan. Even after tax, he would still have over three hundred.

This income was truly considerable, so much so that Lin Gongshang could hardly hide the smugness in his heart.

Seeing that Lu Ao did not answer from across the river, he simply put his straw hat on his head, carried his bucket, and happily waded across the water, wanting to see Lu Ao’s harvest.

When he reached Lu Ao, he craned his neck to look into Lu Ao’s bucket, comforting him as he spoke. “It’s your first time digging. It’s normal if you didn’t get much. Don’t be discouraged.”

Lu Ao had just dug up a mud crab and was tying it with rope. Hearing this, he glanced at him.

Lu Ao originally had not wanted to discourage him, but he really could not stand that smug attitude. He simply reached out, lifted the lid of the bucket, and placed the mud crab in his hand inside.

Lin Gongshang saw a bucket full of grass, with the crab that had just been put in sitting at the very top. Half of its shell was even sticking out above the rim of the bucket.

He froze. “Holy shit, why is there so much grass in your bucket? Did you come here to catch mud crabs or pull weeds? Wait, no, there seem to be mud crabs underneath. Are your bucket all mud crabs?!”

Lu Ao said, “Won’t you know if you pour them out and take a look?”

From his words, Lin Gongshang already sensed that something was not quite right. He felt that he should not want to look.

However, people always had curiosity. He could not suppress that little bit of curiosity in his mind. After two seconds of silence, he said, “I’ll pour them out and look.”

Lu Ao stood beside him with the iron tongs and nodded, indicating that he could pour them out.

Lin Gongshang wiped his hands on his mud-covered clothes, silently walked forward, and poured out Lu Ao’s bucket of mud crabs.

“One, two, three, four… nine?” Lin Gongshang turned to look at Lu Ao, his brows raised high, the tail of his voice trembling slightly. “You dug up nine mud crabs in one morning?”

Lu Ao did not answer such an obvious question.

Lin Gongshang cried out weakly, “Ah—fuck! Why are you so lucky no matter what you do? Even digging mud crabs, you can dig up twice as many as others.”

Lu Ao glanced at him. “I’m strong, so I dig fast.”

Lin Gongshang: “…”

His heart was so tired. He did not want to compare himself with this freak at all.

While the two were talking, Lin Qiyan heard the noise and came hurrying over with his bucket, wiping sweat with the shirt on his body, which was already filthy beyond recognition. He also had an equipment bag on his back.

As soon as Lin Gongshang saw it was him, he decided to find some balance for himself and asked, “Lin Qiyan, how many mud crabs did you catch?”

Lin Qiyan looked a little gloomy. “Only one. Bad luck. Several holes I dug were empty. I spent a huge amount of effort before finally digging out this one.”

Lin Gongshang grinned. “I dug up five. All big ones. Three of them were over one jin.”

“That’s really good.” Lin Qiyan was envious. “The one I dug up is small. At most, it’s four liang. Rounding it up, that basically means I caught nothing all morning.”

Lin Qiyan then naturally looked toward Lu Ao, who was putting the mud crabs back into his bucket, and asked curiously, “What about Lu Ao? How many did he catch?”

“Nine.”

“Ah, nine?” Lin Qiyan found it unbelievable and quickly walked up to Lu Ao, crouching down to look. “You dug up nine in such a short time?!”

Lu Ao nodded.

Lin Qiyan lowered his head to check. “Let me see. One, two, three… wait! Lu Ao, this mud crab isn’t right.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Lin Gongshang leaned closer again. “I glanced over them just now. They looked fine. They’re all fresh, lively big mud crabs.”

Lin Qiyan lightly touched the back shell of the mud crab in front of him with the iron tongs and hesitated. “This one… isn’t this a butter crab?”

Lin Gongshang crouched down, picked up the mud crab that was still covered in mud, and examined it carefully. “Fuck! It really is!”

Butter crabs were transformed from female mud crabs. When mature female mud crabs laid eggs, they were stimulated by strong sunlight, causing the crab roe inside their bodies to turn into golden-yellow oil, which seeped into every part of the body. The crab’s body turned yellow, and this was called a butter crab.

The price of butter crabs was more than ten times higher than ordinary mud crabs.

Lu Ao had never seen one before, so he had not recognized it for a moment.

With the two of them shouting like this, Lu Ao took the crab from Lin Qiyan’s hand.

The crab was quite large and felt heavy in his hand. No matter how he estimated it, it weighed about one point two or one point three jin.

Lu Ao took it to the riverside and washed it clean. Very soon, he discovered something unusual.

This mud crab was clearly different from the others. Its back had a faint orange-yellow tint. When he turned it over, its abdomen and crab claws were all a very full yellow, round and plump, making people hungry just looking at it.

Lin Gongshang was eager to try. “Come, let’s check the quality of this butter crab.”

“How do you check?”

“I’ll do it!”

Lin Gongshang took the butter crab back and lightly pressed its abdominal flap. It felt soft under his hand. The crab roe had all turned into oil.

Looking at the crab legs again, every single leg was full and yellow, dazzling to the eyes.

He lifted the crab and held its back toward the sunlight. Covering the crab’s back slightly with his hand, he could clearly see that both sides of the butter crab’s shell were semi-transparent. This showed that the crab roe inside the butter crab had basically melted completely, and the inside was full of golden butter.

Lin Gongshang sighed. “Top grade. The crab oil has already seeped into the joints, and the back is full too. You really are lucky.”

Lin Qiyan also could not help showing an envious gaze from the side.

Butter crabs were divided into several grades. Top-grade butter crabs were also called “first-hand.” A first-hand butter crab of this size had a wholesale price of 1,800 yuan per jin in their area.

And that was last year’s price.

Now it was close to the Dragon Boat Festival, and this was the first batch of butter crabs, so the price would definitely be even higher.

Lin Gongshang looked at the butter crab in his hand, then at the few large mud crabs in his own bucket. Instantly, he found them dull and tasteless.

He gently placed the butter crab back into Lu Ao’s bucket and reminded him, “Be careful with this butter crab. Don’t break its legs. Otherwise, the butter will leak out, and this crab won’t be worth much.”

Lin Qiyan hurriedly brought his own bucket over. “Lu Ao, why don’t you put the butter crab alone in my bucket? I can just carry this small mud crab of mine.”

Lu Ao did not stand on ceremony with him. “Thanks.”

As he spoke, he divided the mud crabs properly and was about to carry them back.

Lin Gongshang rubbed his hands together. “Wait. Let’s wash the other mud crabs clean too. Maybe there are other butter crabs among them?”

Lin Qiyan could not help saying, “Butter crabs are so rare. What are the chances of finding a second or third one?”

Lin Gongshang refused to give up. “Who knows? Let’s wash them first. It’s not like it’s troublesome.”

Since Lin Gongshang insisted, Lu Ao and Lin Qiyan could only follow him under the blazing sun to wash the crabs.

The mud crabs they caught had all already been tied up, so it was basically impossible for them to escape.

The three worked together and took all the mud crabs they had caught to the riverside to wash them once.

Things were just as Lin Qiyan had said. Catching one butter crab was already lucky. They did not find a second one.

Lin Gongshang carried his bucket somewhat dejectedly and followed them toward Linwu Village, listless the whole way.

When the three arrived at Lin Manzhang’s house, he was drinking tea with Lin Guixiao and Tan Junhao.

Ye Zhiying was cooking. From the kitchen window, she saw Lu Ao and the other two enter through the doorway and quickly walked to the window to greet them. “You’re back?”

“Mm. Sister-in-law, where’s Brother Zhang?”

“They’re all inside drinking tea. Go find him. Have some tea first. Lunch will be ready soon.”

Lu Ao said, “Thank you, Sister-in-law. I’ll go back and eat. You don’t need to cook for me.”

“What do you mean, no need? I already made it.” Ye Zhiying was enthusiastic. “My younger brother brought me some big oysters. I steamed two big pots of garlic oysters for lunch today, and they’re already done. Eat before going back.”

Lin Manzhang heard their voices and came out to look. Seeing that it really was them, he hurriedly said, “Go back for what? Come in and have some tea and watermelon to cool down. Go back in the afternoon!”

As he spoke, he stepped forward and, without allowing refusal, took one of the buckets from Lu Ao’s hand. The moment he lifted it, his face filled with surprise. “This bucket is really heavy. How many mud crabs did you catch?”

Lin Gongshang said listlessly, “Lin Qiyan caught one. I caught five. Lu Ao caught nine. One of them is even a big butter crab.”

Lin Manzhang subconsciously looked into the bucket. “Really? We haven’t seen a butter crab here in five or six years.”

“Would I lie about that?”

Lin Manzhang quickly saw the butter crab in Lu Ao’s other bucket.

He lifted the butter crab and looked. The crab’s legs and claws were round, full, and golden. “Ho, it really is! Pretty good luck!”

Lin Guixiao and Tan Junhao also came out to look and praised it for quite a while.

The group returned to the living room, drinking tea while the fan blew.

The mud crabs were properly placed in a relatively cool corner of the living room.

Lin Manzhang suggested, “Altogether, we have more than forty mud crabs. How about we go to Longxiang Pier later and sell them together? The price there is higher.”

Lin Gongshang wiped his sweat. “Let’s go after three. It’s too hot right now.”

“That works too. We’ll drive there. We won’t take the small tricycle.”

In a few sentences, the group settled the matter.

On Ye Zhiying’s side, lunch was ready. Everyone stood up. Some carried dishes, some carried rice, preparing to eat.

Everyone had a good meal and then each went home to rest.

Lu Ao was the last to leave. Before leaving, he asked, “Brother Zhang, do you know where they sell giant grouper fry, black sea bream fry, and other fish fry?”

“There’s a fry farm near Longxiang Pier. Why are you asking? Thinking of raising fish?”

“I’ve caught too many fish these days. I want to buy some and release them into the sea.”

Lin Manzhang did not understand. “Release them into the sea where? Has your fishing qualification certificate come down yet? If you want to open a fish raft and raise fish, you still need to file a separate report.”

“Not raising them. Just releasing them into the sea.” Lu Ao said, “It’s not easy for fish to grow up. I’ll replenish the species I’ve caught.”

Lin Manzhang’s expression became a little blank. After quite a while, he finally said, “You mean you want to buy some fish fry and release them, right?”

“Mm. That’s what I mean.”

Ye Zhiying was listening at the side and could not help saying, “How many fish can you possibly catch? Why would you specially buy fry to release? That’s too much of a waste of money.”

“It’s not that little either. Since I’ve earned money, I should give back a little.”

Lin Manzhang’s family had been fishermen for three generations. This was the first time he had heard such an idea, and for a moment, he could not quite react.

Did fishermen not rely on heaven for their living? Why would one have to prepare fish fry oneself?

After a while, Lin Manzhang said, “Giant grouper fry aren’t cheap. At least seven or eight yuan each.”

Lu Ao said, “It’s fine. I’ll just buy one or two thousand yuan’s worth. I won’t buy too many.”