218. Chapter 218 Xiaoying Knits a Sweater

Chapter 218 Xiaoying knits a sweater

Li Duoyu drove the sampan back to Dandan Island and found that the pier was full of the sound of oyster prying.

The oysters that were originally piled 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 estimated that the second sister-in-law could 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 be all sold out, don't even think about it."

"That should make a lot of money."

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

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

"Brother Guang, since 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 wouldn't have made a fool of himself, but as the king of children in this area, he still had 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 the others 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.

Almost all the 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.

Due to the difference in salinity, oysters will absorb water like crazy, 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 circles, oysters soaked in fresh water are generally called "water 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, an entire 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, and 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 matter. These birds are a bit annoying. If Shuguang lends me his gun, I will definitely kill them all."

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

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 the oysters on this side were almost dried, Li Duoyu turned the oysters.

Dad and Chen Wenchao arranged the newly pried oysters neatly on the dustpan.

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

As an island native, 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 people 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, took 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 and two yuan."

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

"There's no tomorrow. If we want to pry the oysters, it may take a while."

Li Duoyu continued:

"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."

When Li Duoyu was handing out money, the fisherwomen who were weaving nets nearby all showed envious expressions.

Most of them only earned about 70 or 80 cents from mending nets for a whole day, which was not enough to buy even a pound of pork.

Moreover, Li Duoyu was very generous in handing out money and would not deduct money randomly. A woman who was weaving nets could not help but say to the owner of the fishing tackle shop:

"Old Chen, can't you learn from our village director and be more generous?"

Chen Lifa rolled his eyes and snorted: "If that money was easy to make, you would still sit here mending nets. Don't take advantage of it. It's much more tiring to pry oysters than you mending nets."

After Li Duoyu returned home.

A Niang had already cooked dinner.

There were braised pork, pickled vegetable and pork ribs soup, seafood fried noodles, blanched tidal borer, red snails, stir-fried water spinach, a large pot of winter melon and mussel soup, and shelled boiled oysters.

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

"Mom, what festival is today? Why are you cooking so much food?"

"It's not a festival. I just saw that you and Yaoguo are very tired these days, so I cooked more delicious food for you and we will eat together as a family."

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

After hearing this.

Li Haoran, who was buried in his homework, ran out of the house on the spot as if he had heard an amnesty.

"Grandma, I'm here."

After the mother shouted for a while, Zhou Xiaoying in the room did not move. Li Duoyu, who felt a little strange, went back to the bedroom to take a look.

He found that Zhou Xiaoying had fallen asleep sitting against the bed, holding two thin knitting needles in her hands.

Little Tutu was chasing those round balls of wool on the bed, and there was a book "500 Kinds of Shanghai Knitting Patterns" next to her.

Judging from the situation, she must have fallen asleep while knitting. Li Duoyu thought she was knitting a sweater for Tutu, but the sweater was quite big and the style was very new. It was obviously 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, the two of them spent less time together during the day except for some interactions at night.

Zhou Xiaoying, who felt something foreign on her lips, suddenly woke up and instinctively grasped the knitting needles with both hands. When she saw that it was Li Duoyu, she frowned: "What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

Zhou Xiaoying glared and said: "Nothing, where are your hands?"

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

Zhou Xiaoying quickly put the sweater away: "Anyway, it's not for you."

"I saw it all." Li Duoyu flipped through a few pages of the book, pointed to one of them and said: "I think this one is better looking."

Zhou Xiaoying frowned and said: "But I knitted another one. If I want to knit this one, I have to unstitch all the stitches again."

"I like the other one too."