Chapter 71 A Gift for You Two
It may be nonsense to say that people who live near the sea have a swimming gene that is unique to them.
But it is undeniable that Liu Zhiyi is indeed much more talented in swimming than cycling. Of course, she cannot be compared with Xu Cailing.
When it comes to swimming, girls naturally have more advantages than boys because they have a higher body fat percentage and are more flexible, which makes it a little easier for them to get started when they first start.
The most crucial factor is psychological factors. A person who is afraid of water and the sea will never learn to swim.
Fang Wei watched them while fishing.
The Pineapple Island heroine was as enthusiastic as ever. Even though she was not a good teacher, she was quite patient and taught Liu Zhiyi all her understanding of swimming.
Liu Zhiyi naturally didn't quite understand, after all, their talents were not on the same level, but she still studied very seriously.
So far, she has been able to barely control her breathing rhythm, and with Cai Ling's help, she can float motionlessly on the sea for a while.
“It really can float!”
"Right, I didn't lie to you, you need to relax. If you get nervous you'll sink... Hey?!"
"Gulu gulu..."
Xu Cailing hurriedly helped Liu Zhiyi who had sunk into the water.
Some water got into her eyes, making them look red. Some water also got into her nose, causing some mucus to drip out. The girl covered her pretty face but smiled, and said a little embarrassedly, "There's water in my ears..."
"It's okay, I'll just jump ashore later."
"Mmm, it's so comfortable to soak in the water..."
Liu Zhiyi was lying on the swimming ring. They were practicing in a shallower area at the moment, and the water was just up to their chest.
But even so, Liu Zhiyi felt very relaxed. Perhaps it was because the closer she was to the sea, the fewer worries she felt behind her. She had never felt so free and at peace.
"Hey, Zhiyi, you will definitely get tanned. When it's night time, your skin will be red and painful!"
"Huh? It doesn't feel that hot."
"Because you were in the sea."
Getting tanned is not a big deal for young girls, or they are not yet at the age where they mind it.
In fact, Liu Zhiyi really wanted to get a tan, preferably the same wheat color as Cailing, so that others would not think she did not look like a local.
There are many troubles during adolescence, and it is difficult to guess what girls are thinking. Many times they don’t even understand themselves.
Not far away, Fang Wei had already put away his fishing rod and shouted to the two people still soaking in the water:
"It's almost time. The tide is going out. Why don't you come up now?"
“Zhiyi, let’s go, we’ll continue practicing another day, go upstairs and change clothes, and go to the sea!”
"Uh-huh!"
Xu Cailing no longer needed to hold her hand. Liu Zhiyi held the swimming ring, and by tossing her hands and legs in the water, she was able to slowly swim to the shore.
Wow...
The two girls stood on the beach together.
The sea water on their bodies was like scattered pearls, dripping from their hair, skin, and the gaps in their swimsuits.
After soaking in the sea for more than an hour and now returning to the shore, Liu Zhiyi’s biggest feeling is that it feels so heavy!
"I suddenly feel so heavy!"
"Do you know why?"
Xu Cailing looked very excited, ready to show off her knowledge.
"why?"
"Because there is buoyancy in the sea, and there is gravity on land, once you leave the water, you will feel very heavy!"
"Is there no gravity in the ocean?"
"Forehead……"
Xu Cailing scratched her head. Fang Wei didn't tell her this! !
So she asked Fang Wei loudly: "Fang Wei, is there gravity in the sea?"
"There must be."
"Then why don't you feel heavy in the ocean?"
"Buoyancy counteracts your gravity, stupid."
"The boat is made of iron, so it must be heavier than a person. Why doesn't the boat sink?"
"The shape of the boat is such that the volume of water it displaces is greater than its own weight, so it won't sink."
"You also know?"
"If you have time, take a look at the textbooks that Sister Caiwei left behind. They are all in the physics book."
"You borrowed them all!"
"You didn't ask me for it, either."
"…goodbye."
Things like buoyancy and gravity are all textbook knowledge in the physics book. The two girls have just entered the first grade of junior high school, so naturally they have never learned them. Liu Zhiyi usually reads a lot of extracurricular books, but they are only literary books.
After hearing Fang Wei's explanation, Xu Cailing seemed to understand, but Liu Zhiyi was even more shocked - he had underestimated him! He had actually learned the knowledge of the second grade of junior high school!
Well, practice is always much more impressive than textbook learning, and now she understands this knowledge.
Now that they were back at the shore, they were still a little shy wearing a swimsuit, so Liu Zhiyi quickly pulled Xu Cailing to change clothes.
……
"Fang Wei understands so much..." Liu Zhiyi sighed.
"He's a very cocky guy, but he does know a lot about all sorts of things."
Xu Cailing recalled that when she was younger, she liked to stick to Fang Wei every day and ask all kinds of strange questions.
Such messy questions as why airplanes don't fall and why fireflies glow.
When she went to ask her father, he either couldn't answer or was too busy with work to pay attention to her. Only Fang Wei didn't find her annoying and answered her whatever she asked.
Although the girl was reluctant to admit it, she still had great admiration and respect for her childhood sweetheart. Compared with other boys of the same age, Fang Wei was really far inferior.
……
By the time the two girls changed their clothes and came out of the bushes, Fang Wei was already carrying a bucket and picking things on the beach.
The so-called sea hunting is to collect various marine creatures that do not have time to return to the sea when the tide recedes.
Since they are living creatures, they will not sit on the beach stupidly and wait for people to pick them up. In fact, even for slow-moving shellfish, finding and catching them requires certain skills.
Fang Wei is already a veteran among them. Although Cai Ling also grew up by the sea, she is just a little girl after all. It is unrealistic to expect the two of them to find too much to eat. The key still depends on him.
Fang Wei had already memorized the terrain, landforms, and water currents of Xiaobaisha. Marine creatures like to hide in sheltered places, such as in the sand, cracks in rocks, and caves.
In addition to these, marine life also leaves various traces, such as crawling traces, turned over sand, bubbles in the water, or some squeaking, clicking, and rattling sounds, etc.
Based on these characteristics and habits, it is easy to find them.
“You’ve already picked up so much!!”
The two girls came over to Fang Wei and saw that in just a short while, he had already caught a lot of seafood in his bucket.
"What do you mean by picking up? This is called technique."
Fang Wei looked at the two of them and asked, "Do you plan to learn some skills with me, or do you plan to do it on your own?"
"We definitely caught more than you. Come on, Zhiyi, let's go over there and catch seafood. I'll teach you."
"it is good."
"Remember to wear a straw hat, gloves, and rubber shoes. Don't go barefoot. Be careful of getting scratched by shells."
"Know it!"
After leaving Fang Wei, Xu Cailing and Liu Zhiyi ran back to get tools.
Both of them wore big straw hats, casting a shadow on their pretty faces, and each of them held tools for catching seafood, looking young and cute.
"Zhiyi, I'll take the basket and give you the shovel. And the crab clamp..."
"What can I eat?"
"Except for sand, stones, wood, and garbage, basically anything that can swim or crawl can be eaten!"
"it is good."
"Let's go!" It was low tide and the sea water had receded a long way, revealing a wetland that was a different color from the beach.
In addition to the three people, there is also a large group of seabirds here. They were originally flying in the sky, but now they have landed on this wetland and are enjoying the rich gift from nature.
Seeing the two girls coming over here, the seabirds flapped their wings and flew up, circling in the sky above their heads.
Since we are going to the sea to catch fish, we naturally cannot crowd together. We should act separately so that we can find more things.
However, Liu Zhiyi still didn't quite understand, so Xu Cailing stayed by her side to teach her.
"Cai Ling, there is a big crab over there!" Liu Zhiyi exclaimed.
"It's a blue crab! Go catch it quickly, don't let it hide in the cracks of the rocks!" Xu Cailing recognized it at the first sight.
“Its pincers are so huge!”
"Ah! Don't use your hands. It hurts when a blue crab pinches you. Even with gloves it hurts. Use the claws to pinch it!"
Under Xu Cailing's command, Liu Zhiyi aimed at the right angle and clamped the crab with his claws. He managed to clamp it, but he didn't expect it to break free...
It is called a crab claw, but it is actually just a pair of fire tongs.
"I didn't catch it..." Liu Zhiyi was a little frustrated. Wild crabs are much more agile than he imagined.
"The angle is wrong, you're..."
Under Cai Ling's guidance, Liu Zhiyi tried twice and finally caught the big blue crab... To be precise, the big blue crab caught the fire tongs in her hand and then she lifted it up.
The process is not important, what is important is to catch it!
Xu Cailing quickly handed over the bucket. The big blue crab fell into the bucket and couldn't get out. Its claws scratched the wall of the bucket, making a squeaking sound.
"It's so fierce."
Liu Zhiyi was filled with excitement. He bent down to look at the big blue crabs in the bucket. They were much bigger than his palm!
"I'm going to roast you and eat you later!" Xu Cailing warned the blue crabs in the bucket.
“Can crabs be grilled, too?”
"Of course you can, you can grill anything, go ahead!"
With the arrival of this big blue crab, Liu Zhiyi's enthusiasm for fishing was completely ignited. The two girls caught gobies and jumping fish in the small puddle together; they bent down together to dig clams and oysters under the sand; they dug apart seaweed together to catch small octopuses; and they also found a sea clam like the one Cai Ling had mentioned before.
Following what Xu Cailing taught her, Liu Zhiyi reached her arm into the sand along the bubble hole. She dug so deep, all the way to her elbow, that she finally touched something hard.
The soft tentacles of the big creature touched her skin, and she was so scared that she screamed and pulled her hand out along with the clam inside.
The clam shell opens and closes, and if you squeeze it with your hands, it will indeed release water...
Before coming here, Liu Zhiyi was worried whether he could get enough food for dinner by going to the beach like this. Now it seems that there is not only enough to eat, but there is also a lot left over to take home!
From a distance, they saw a long thing crawling in the shallow pit and cracks in the rocks. Liu Zhiyi pointed with the fire tongs and said, "Cai Ling, what is that? Can it be eaten?"
"...Sea snake! Run!"
"what?!"
The two of them laughed and ran away quickly.
On the other side, Fang Wei, who was fishing in the sea, called out to them:
"Cai Ling! Did you bring salt? Come here! This is a huge piece of clams!"
"What is that?" Liu Zhiyi asked curiously.
"Razor clams! They're delicious! And very expensive! Come on..."
"Ah? Just sprinkle salt on it and eat it?"
"No, come over and you'll know!"
Xu Cailing took the salt that she had prepared long ago, carried the bucket, and ran to Fang Wei with Liu Zhiyi.
The two girls were playing while fishing, and their total catch had only been half a bucket, while Fang Wei, without saying a word, had filled a bucket with all kinds of seafood.
Fang Wei had swept the nearby area and was about to move to another place when he saw a lot of air bubble holes on the beach under his feet. He dug it shallowly but did not find any clams. Based on his experience, he estimated that they were probably razor clams.
Unlike clams, razor clams are buried deeper in the sand, so you can dig them out with your hands, but it takes a lot of effort.
The simplest way is to use salt. Xu Cailing had prepared for it. Her family dries salted fish, so there is naturally plenty of salt. In addition, the miscellaneous salt used for fishing is not valuable.
"Such a big area! If all of it is dug out, it would weigh at least five or six kilograms, right?!" Seeing these dense bubble holes, Xu Cailing was also excited.
"Come on, I'll scrape this piece of sand away, and you can spread the salt."
The two of them cooperated well. As Fang Wei scraped off a layer of the sand surface with a shovel, the air bubble holes revealed became more obvious, like the holes made by mole crickets in the fields. To catch mole crickets, you need to flood them with water, and to catch these clams, you need to use salt.
Liu Zhiyi dug with his hands with great interest, but no matter how hard he dug, it seemed that the hole could not reach the bottom.
"It's very difficult to dig. Razor clams dig holes very quickly. While you are digging, they are also drilling downwards. Sprinkling salt is the fastest way."
"Look at me!"
Xu Cailing was seen holding the salt shaker in her hand and pouring some salt into each hole one by one.
After a while, Liu Zhiyi was surprised to see that the clams in the pores rose up like an elevator, standing upright one by one, like bamboo shoots breaking through the ground!
"Zhiyi, pick it up quickly!"
"Ooh!"
Liu Zhiyi bent down excitedly, picked up all the clams that popped out and put them into the basket. She felt like Fang Wei and Cai Ling were fighting monsters in front and she was picking up gold coins behind.
By the time all the clams in this area were caught, the basket became heavy.
"You've underestimated the weight. It might be around 7 or 8 kilograms!" Fang Wei said with a smile.
"I'm so lucky today! I guess not many people come here to catch clams these days, but there are still such a large number of clams!" Xu Cailing was also very excited.
"How do you eat this?" Liu Zhiyi would ask this question almost every time he found some seafood.
In fact, she was not greedy, but she really wanted to taste the ingredients that the three of them had found today.
“Let’s grill it tonight!”
Fang Wei wiped the sweat from his forehead, took out the watch from his pocket and checked the time.
"It's past five o'clock now. Let's just pick up this much for now. Together with the fish I caught, it's enough for you to eat until you're full. Hurry up and clean up. There's a stream behind us. You two can take buckets to get some water and salt so that the clams, oysters, mussels, and razor clams can spit out the sand. Then go to the woods and find some dry branches or something."
"You treat us as maids?"
"Go quickly, Master, I have to kill some fish so I can make you something delicious tonight."
"Okay, sir."
After hearing what he said, Xu Cailing became excited.
Although she didn't want to admit it, Fang Wei's cooking and grilling skills were far superior to hers. Sometimes, she even felt that her mother's cooking was not as delicious as Fang Wei's...
"By the way, I just found two conches. You two can share one."
Fang Wei took out two conches from the basket.
The conch shell that he picked up specially was naturally quite beautiful.
The shell is in a perfect spiral shape, as if it was a fine work of art created by nature following the golden ratio. The base color of the shell is a warm beige, dotted with staggered lavender stripes, like clouds in the sunset, gentle and dreamy. Under the refraction of light, these stripes sparkle with a subtle luster, like the dazzling Milky Way galaxy in the night sky.
When Fang Wei first picked up the first one, he was planning to keep it as a treasure for himself, but as luck would have it, he picked up two, so he just gave them to them.
As for Ah Sheng…what does a boy want with a conch?!
Although it is not some expensive jewelry, it is obvious that the two girls couldn't take their eyes off it when they saw such a beautiful conch.
"so beautiful!!"
Even Xu Cailing, who grew up by the sea, had never seen such a beautiful conch.
"How do you eat this?" Liu Zhiyi asked excitedly.
“…There are only shells left, I can’t eat them!”
Fang Wei held his forehead with his hand and gave them two beautiful conch shells respectively.
The conch feels slightly heavy in the hand, its texture is both hard and delicate, and the surface is covered with a thin layer of pearl luster.
Everyone would like such a beautiful conch. Originally, Liu Zhiyi was a little embarrassed to accept it, but when she saw Xu Cailing accept it, she felt relieved to accept it.
"Thank you, class monitor--" Xu Cailing stretched out her tone.
"Thank you, class monitor." Liu Zhiyi followed suit.
"Go to work."
"Guaranteed to complete the mission!!"
As expected, you still have to give sweet dates. After the two maids got the conch, they quickly picked up the bucket and went to work without Master Fang telling them...
(End of this chapter)
