1983 Small Island, Starting From a Large Farmer

Chapter 218 Xiaoying knits a sweater

Li Duoyu drove the sampan back to Dandan Island and found that the dock was filled with the sound of oyster prying.

The oysters that were originally piled high on the dock were almost pried out by them in less than seven hours.

The person who pried the most was still the second sister-in-law Zhu Xiuhua. The mountain of oysters piled in front of her was the tallest and largest.

Li Duoyu estimates that the second sister-in-law can earn ten yuan during the two days of prying oysters.

As soon as Li Qingguang returned to the dock, a group of children who were following him surrounded him.

 “Brother Guang.”

 “How are the grilled oysters selling today?”

Qingguang hummed: "They must have been sold out, don't even think about it."

 “That should make a lot of money.”

 Li Qingguang glanced at his cousin not far away and said proudly: "It's necessary. Brother Duoyu is gone today. How can I not make money?"

 These children were very excited when they heard that they had made a lot of money.

“Brother Guang, if you make so much money, can you treat us to some crystal candies and some melon seeds?”

Li Qingguang's mouth twitched. If he had known better, he would not have made a fool of himself, but as the king of children in this area, he still needs to be dignified.

“No problem, I’ll buy some sugar and melon seeds later. Let’s go to the old place and cook seafood for dinner.”

 “Thank you, Brother Guang.”

"Then Junhao and I will go to ask for Xiaohai first."

 “I’ll bring some sweet potatoes home.”

 “My hen just laid a few eggs.”

After Li Duoyu parked the sampan, he found that in a corner of the pier, his father was prying out the oysters, putting them in a fine net, and then soaking them in a large bucket filled with sea water, cleaning them up and down.

 This step of washing oysters is actually very critical.

Nearly all oysters harvested on site are alive. If washed with fresh water, the oysters will absorb the fresh water and expand.

  In previous lives, in order to increase the weight and size of oysters, many merchants would take advantage of this characteristic of oysters to catch the less fat oysters and put them in the estuary for soaking.

Oysters will absorb water like crazy due to the difference in salinity, making the oysters look big and fat. Such oysters that have been soaked in fresh water will die easily and will shrink severely after being cooked or grilled.

In oyster rings, oysters soaked in fresh water are generally called "oysters".

If you encounter raw oysters, they will shrink very seriously when boiled. There is no doubt that they will shrink 100% if you encounter oysters soaked in fresh water.

 For those who dry oysters, soaking washed oysters in fresh water is not only not conducive to drying, but also deteriorates faster.

In bad weather, if there is no oyster baking equipment, a whole batch of oysters may be spoiled.

 Next, Li Duoyu and Lao Li cleaned the oysters and took them to the Moso Bamboo Factory to dry them together.

When Li Duoyu got there, he was also shocked by the sight in front of him. At a glance, the ground was full of dustpans with oyster meat, because Lao Li originally had oysters for health.

There are always a lot of dustpans at home, but there are at least hundreds of dustpans in front of me. It feels like half the village's dustpans are here.

Many seabirds gathered on the moso bamboo factory. Chen Wenchao held a long bamboo pole and kept driving away the seabirds who wanted to eat at the buffet.

 After seeing Li Duoyu coming, he said with a smile on his face: "Brother Yu, you are back."

Li Duoyu nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work these past two days."

“It’s a small thing, these birds are a bit annoying. If Shuguang could lend me his gun, I would definitely kill them all.”

Li Duoyu checked the oyster meat on the dustpan. These were pried yesterday. After a day of drying, the skin has become hard and yellow.

Hand-drying oysters is actually not easy either.

Especially in the early stage, you have to turn it over every two hours to prevent the oyster meat from sticking to the dustpan and breaking the skin.

 A few dozen kilograms is okay, but once the quantity becomes large, turning the oysters once is a big job. After seeing that this side of the oysters was almost dry, Li Duoyu turned over the oysters.

On the other hand, Dad and Chen Wenchao neatly arranged the batch of freshly pried oysters on the dustpan.

 In the past, people rarely used this traditional method of air-drying oysters, but instead used oven drying.

As an islander, Li Duoyu certainly feels that traditional air-dried oysters are more delicious, but as an oyster farmer, he naturally prefers oven drying.

Li Duoyu took a look at the moso bamboo factory and felt that he could build a simple oven with a fire.

 At that time, not only can it be used to bake oysters, but it may also be used to bake fishing rods and kelp. After all, not every time when drying oysters, the weather will be so good, so you will be prepared.

 After doing this for nearly three hours. As the egg yolks fell below the sea level, the three of them collected the oysters into the Moso Bamboo Factory. Chen Wenchao did not go home, but was responsible for taking care of the oysters.

Birds will eat during the day, and mice will also come to eat at night.

 Before dark.

Li Duoyu returned to the dock, holding a small calculator, and directly calculated the wages for the two days of oyster prying.

 “Zhu Xiuhua.”

“1,300 kilograms on the first day and 1,250 kilograms on the second day, totaling ten yuan and two.”

The second sister-in-law who got the money was very pleased with herself and said with a smile on her face: "There are many fish, will there be any oysters tomorrow?"

“There’s no tomorrow. If we want to pry the oysters, it may take some time.”

Li Duoyu then read:

 “Liu Xiaolan.”

“700 kilograms on the first day and 850 kilograms on the second day, a total of six yuan and two.”

 “Thank you Brother Yu.”

 “Zhang Yanhua…five yuan and five.”

When Li Duoyu handed out money, the fisherwomen weaving nets on the side all showed envious expressions.

Most of them earn about 70 or 80 cents from mending nets for a whole day, and they cannot even afford a pound of pork.

Moreover, Li Duoyu is generous in giving out money and will not make any deductions. A woman who was weaving a net couldn't help but said to the owner of the fishing gear shop:

“Old Chen, can’t you learn from our village director and be more generous?”

 Chen Lifa rolled his eyes and snorted: "If the money was easy to make, you would still be sitting here mending the nets. Don't be so good at taking advantage of it. Prying oysters is much more tiring than mending nets like you."

 After Li Duoyu returned home.

 Aniang has already cooked dinner.

There are braised pork, pickled vegetables and pork ribs soup, fried seafood noodles, as well as boiled Wangchao, red snails, fried water spinach, a large bowl of winter melon and mussel soup and shelled boiled oysters.

Seeing that the dishes tonight were so rich, especially after seeing the pickled vegetables and pork ribs soup, Li Duoyu swallowed his saliva and asked his mother who was still cooking in the kitchen.

“Mom, what festival are you celebrating today? Why do you cook so much food?”

“It’s not the festival, but you and Yaoguo are very tired these days, so I’ll cook you more delicious food and let’s eat it together as a family.”

After Chen Huiying finished speaking, she shouted loudly: "It's time to eat, everyone has come out to eat."

 After hearing this sentence.

Li Haoran, who was immersed in his homework, ran out of the house on the spot as if he had heard the pardon order.

 “Grandma, I’m here.”

After Aniang shouted for a while, Zhou Xiaoying made no movement in the room. Li Duoyu, who felt a little strange, went back to the bedroom and took a look.

I found that Zhou Xiaoying had fallen asleep sitting up against the bed board, holding two slender needles in her hand.

 Little Tutu is chasing those round **** of wool on the bed, and next to her is a copy of "500 Knitting Patterns of Shanghai Knitting Stitches".

Depending on the situation, he should knit the sweater until he fell asleep. Li Duoyu thought it was knitted for Xiao Tutu to wear, but he didn't expect that the sweater was quite big and the style was very new. At first glance, it was for him.

Li Duoyu felt a warm current in his heart and couldn't help but kiss her.

Li Duoyu found that since Zhou Xiaoying started taking classes, apart from some interactions at night, the two spent less time together during the day.

Zhou Xiaoying suddenly woke up when she noticed a foreign body sensation on her lips. She instinctively held the stick and needle with both hands. When she saw it was Li Duoyu, she frowned: "What are you doing?"

 “Nothing to do.”

 Zhou Xiaoying glared and said, "You didn't do anything. Where did you put your hands?"

Li Duoyu was a little embarrassed: "I'm sorry, I just want to check for you to see if it's blocked again. Who are you knitting a sweater for?"

 Zhou Xiaoying quickly put the sweater away: "It's not knitted for you anyway."

“I’ve seen them all.” Li Duoyu flipped through a few pages of the book, pointed at one of them and said, “I think this one looks better.”

Zhou Xiaoying frowned and said: "But I am knitting another one. If I want to knit this one, I have to take out all the stitches again."

 “Another one, I like it too.”

 (End of this chapter)