CHAPTER 442: 442 SEASIDE

"How about it? Are you happy?"

"Mom, it was really fun. We dug up a lot of clams."

"Great, you can bring them back to eat."

"Have you two washed up yet? You haven’t eaten, right? I brought back some meat buns. Hurry, let’s go back inside and eat."

"Okay."

The two little kids were already hungry, but they were too shy to say so.

Shang Zhenkun borrowed a wooden basin and soaked the clams in clean water. Then he also went to wash his face. It was really quite uncomfortable being under the sun at the beach all morning.

The village chief arranged for them to stay in a new house built by his eldest son, which no one had lived in before.

The four of them sat on the heated bed, and since there was no table, Jiang Xinyu had to spread a cloth over it. She got out some beef and scallion buns, and milk.

The two kids were gobbling down the food, "Slow down, next time don’t do this. Come back when you’re hungry. Don’t you know how to weigh your options? Your faces are all sunburned, I’m worried you’ll get sunburned. You’re not allowed to go out this afternoon."

The two kids nodded; they had just lost track of time because they had never seen this before.

The more Jiang Xinyu looked at them, the more her heart ached. She definitely couldn’t leave the kids for too long in the future; this just wouldn’t do.

After lunch, the two kids moved around inside the room, they were too full to lie down.

Shang Zhenkun made them stand against the wall directly, saying it would be fine after ten minutes.

Jiang Xinyu watched the two kids sleep soundly and lay down next to them, but it was quite uncomfortable.

After resting for an hour, she got up and washed the kids’ clothes. In this weather, clothes dry in just an hour or two.

At three thirty, she woke them up. "How is it? Does your face hurt?"

"Mom, it doesn’t hurt."

"Mine doesn’t hurt either. Mom, I wore a straw hat."

Jiang Xinyu looked at her daughter’s face and felt relieved.

"We’ll have dinner at a local’s house tonight. You can taste their seafood cooking."

"Great, Mom, can we take a boat out to sea?"

"No, it’s not safe. When you grow up, learn to swim and have self-protection skills, then you can.

But we can still go to the seaside and wait for the fishing boats to come back."

Hearing their mom’s firm refusal, the two kids didn’t insist anymore.

The door was knocked on, and Shang Zhenkun went to open it. It turned out someone had come to deliver dried goods.

Jiang Xinyu wanted as much of these as she could get; she also planned to give some to friends when she returned. She needed the most shrimp skins; she didn’t want to take advantage of the collective, so she wanted to get two bags for the cafeteria to improve everyone’s meals.

A few kids came over later to play with Shi Jing and Feifei, and Jiang Xinyu, of course, wouldn’t refuse them. She also gave the kids some candy.

Watching the kids chattering together was quite amusing.

"Xiao Jiang, I’m taking the grains to the village chief’s house."

"Sure, Master Shang, the grains are in the cloth bags on the heated bed."

By the time it was almost dark, they had collected a lot, especially dried shellfish, and the kids all loved catching from the sea bed. They also secretly put some away in their space.

Shi Jing and Feifei ran in. "Mom, Qiangzi is here to invite us for dinner. He says there’s lots of delicious food."

"Okay, let’s go. Pack a few candies for Qiangzi."

Shi Jing nodded with a smile and ran into the house.

The village chief’s house really had some great food today, all fresh and pure-tasting. The crabs were quite meaty, and the two kids had a feast.

"Thank you so much, it’s really such a feast."

"It’s nothing. I’m glad you like it."

"Village chief, do the fishing boats usually come in the morning? We’d like to stay another day but also want to bring back something fresh."

"I’ll have Da Minzi and the others go out in the morning and come back in the evening, but we’re not sure what they’ll catch."

"Chief uncle, I’ll take all the sea shrimp tomorrow. If I can’t, I’ll peel them to make shrimp meat."

"You can’t manage that. You pay three dollars and find three people to peel them for you. That way, you won’t have to tire yourself, as it’s not an easy job."

"Okay, that sounds good. Can I also find someone to shell the clams and stuff?"

"Of course. We’re used to it here. One person can do in a day what you would in three."

"That’s great. I’ll take all the shellfish and shrimp tomorrow morning. We need to divide them when we get back."

As Jiang Xinyu spoke, she helped Feifei pick out the fish bones since the little girl loved eating fish.

After dinner, the four of them went to the beach with children from the village, where they could collect good stuff during low tide.

Listening to the cheerful laughter of the two kids, Jiang Xinyu felt everything was worth it.

The four of them gathered quite a bit." Mom, what about these small crabs?"

"Keep them all. I’ll make spicy crabs for you at home."

Jiang Xinyu spread out the blanket they brought, and Niang San lay together.

At three o’clock the next day, Jiang Xinyu woke the two kids, and the four of them carried baskets to the seaside.

Because everyone who went out to sea at night knew that all the shrimp and shellfish were taken, they focused on these two things today, and surprisingly, two nets were filled with shrimp skins.

As soon as the boat landed, the four of them hurriedly gathered around. Seeing the two big baskets of shrimp skins, Jiang Xinyu thought of finding two more people to peel the shrimp skins too.

"Xiao Jiang, I’ll go back with you. You take care of the kids."

"Alright, Master Shang, have them find two more people to peel the shrimp skins quickly. I’ll take a trip back."

Jiang Xinyu accompanied the two kids, stepping on the sand by the sea, waiting for the sunrise.

"Mom, this place is really amazing," Feifei said, holding her mom’s hand with a smile.

"I don’t like it here too much. It’s fine for playing for a couple of days, but I can’t handle it for longer."

"Mom, the fish and shrimp here are so delicious," Shi Jing chimed in.

"They really are, but if you have them for a long time, you’ll get tired of it. If we have time next week, we’ll drive to the riverside to play. Shi Jing wants to eat fish; Mom will make boiled fish and pickled fish for you. They’re really delicious."

"Great, can we play by the river?"

"Of course you can, but you both must promise me not to get too close to the riverbank. The seawater has a high salinity, which gives it buoyancy, but river water is different and very dangerous.

Let me tell you, a lot of people drown every year, and most of them are children or people who can’t swim."

"Mom, is it really that scary?"

"Of course it is. You can ask Master Shang; he surely knows, and when we go to play, I must first find an elder to talk to you about it."

"Mom, I can promise you," Feifei immediately pledged.

"Mom, why are most drowning victims people who can swim?" Shi Jing asked.

"Because they think they can swim, they become reckless. No one knows how deep the river water can get, so they end up in trouble."