The boat had not sailed far when the sudden ringing of a mobile phone startled Li Haochen, who was concentrating on piloting it.
He picked it up to see an unfamiliar number, not marked as advertising or delivery. After a slight hesitation, he answered.
"Hello, may I ask..."
"Hee hee hee!"
Before he could finish, a familiar sweet voice came from the other end. It was Zhang Zilin.
"Uh, why did you change your number?"
"Ah, a married woman has to be careful. If people find out, there'll be gossip, hehe!" .org
"How can you even think of that? Can't a married person have a friend? Tell me, what's up?"
"You're actually asking me what's up?"
A shrill cry in a higher octave erupted from the receiver. The hand holding the phone felt the vibration of the sound waves. Fortunately, the phone was of good quality and suffered no internal damage.
Li Haochen rubbed his sore ear and said apologetically, "Sorry, I'm getting old and my memory isn't good, hehe!"
"Alright, respecting the old and loving the young is a traditional virtue. I forgive you. Um… I had someone look at the photos of your Yuan Datou coins. One of them is quite valuable, worth over a hundred thousand. The others are only a few thousand yuan. But this is just a preliminary assessment. I need to see the actual items."
"That valuable? Do you want these Yuan Datou coins?"
"Yes, of course. Even a mosquito's leg is still meat."
Upon hearing this, Li Haochen asked seriously, "Is it convenient for you to talk on the phone there?"
Zhang Zilin was taken aback but quickly understood Li Haochen's implication. She walked back into her office, locked the door, and drew the blinds. "It's fine now."
"Can the person who appraised your Yuan Datou coins be trusted?"
Zhang Zilin frowned and recalled Li Haochen's expensive watch and branded clothing. She said with some concern, "Haochen, tell me, were these just unearthed? This is a serious offense, you..."
"What are you thinking? Do you really think I'm a tomb raider? Here's the thing..."
Li Haochen explained the origin of these Yuan Datou coins, omitting a small detail.
Zhang Zilin was not foolish and did not fully believe Li Haochen's story. However, she ultimately chose to trust him. "You can rest assured about the appraiser. I'll send you an address. Wait for me there tomorrow morning. Pack the items securely."
"Okay, I understand."
They chatted for a few more minutes before hanging up. Li Haochen then added the number to his contacts.
Not long after, the Starship returned to the outskirts of Moon Bay. It was low tide, and some red basins were floating on the water. Many figures were seen bending over, searching for something in the mud.
Li Haochen checked the water depth and backed the Starship up a distance. He took two net bags and a scoop net and rowed the dinghy forward.
He chose a spot further away from others to search for snails, and the water was also deeper.
As soon as he jumped into the water, his feet sank immediately, the sea mud reaching past his knees. Fortunately, Li Haochen was tall, and the seawater reached just below his chin.
Li Haochen was quite satisfied with this outcome. If there were many snails, he could slip into the water and store them in his spatial dimension.
However, Li Haochen tied himself and the dinghy together with a rope. Since the dinghy floated, it wasn't much effort.
Walking on such muddy ground was very difficult. Otherwise, if he walked too far and wanted to return, it would be a big problem.
Li Haochen held the scoop net, inserted it into the mud, and scraped forward for several tens of centimeters. The net was quite heavy, not because there was much inside, but because of the mud scraped into it.
He held the short handle of the scoop net and shook it a few times in the water. Most of the mud would be washed away, with only a small amount clinging to the edges of the mesh.
Li Haochen lifted the net bag and saw three or four hairy snails at the bottom of the scoop net. They were small, only the size of a one-yuan coin.
This method was more efficient than fumbling with his hands, but it was more strenuous.
He reached down with his hand, picked up the hairy snails, and put them into the net bag around his waist before continuing to scrape the mud.
After more than ten minutes, Li Haochen decisively abandoned this method and returned to the original hand-searching method. Although the harvest was quite good, it was too tiring.
The hand-searching method was much more comfortable. He just had to feel around and shake his hands a bit. It was convenient and fast, but the harvest was greatly reduced. Half an hour of this method yielded less than what he got in the previous ten minutes.
These soft mudflats were not just home to hairy snails.
As Li Haochen stepped forward, he immediately felt something moving under his feet.
Li Haochen bent down, reached his hand down along his leg, and soon felt a soft, thin object. He firmly grasped it and pulled it out.
When his foot was still on it, he didn't feel much, but once it was removed from his foot, it kept flailing. If he hadn't held it tightly, it might have escaped.
Li Haochen had already guessed what it was. When he brought it out of the water, his guess was correct; it was a sole fish.
It had a pig-liver colored back and was thin and long, like a pig's tongue. As for why it was called a sole fish, he didn't know.
This fish was very delicious and sold at a good price, ranging from 30 to 50 yuan per catty in the market, with larger ones being more expensive.
However, this one was too small, with no meat on it, so he threw it back into the spatial dimension's sea.
Unknowingly, the sun was nearing setting, and the tide was beginning to rise. The harvest of over two hours was quite good.
Besides dozens of catties of hairy snails, he even found a few catties of wavies.
Wavies were actually in the same family as hairy snails, but their shells were bare. They were also not cheap, selling for fifteen to sixteen yuan per catty, and their taste was indeed superior to hairy snails.
Li Haochen put a few catties of hairy snails into another net bag to make it look like he had more, and sent the rest into the spatial dimension's sea.
He felt good about coming out. Dozens of catties of hairy snails plus a few catties of wavies. With just these, in a couple of years, his snail restaurant could offer one or two more varieties.
The rising tide was very strong. What was only at his chest moments ago was now at his neck. Li Haochen quickly threw all his belongings into the dinghy and climbed in with some effort.
He was on board, but he had gotten covered in mud, staining the entire dinghy.
When he returned to the Starship, Li Haochen dared not board directly, as cleaning would drive anyone mad.
Li Haochen secured the dinghy to the railing at the stern, stripped down to his underwear, and jumped into the sea with a splash to wash himself. Although it wasn't completely clean, it at least washed off the mud.
A few minutes later, Li Haochen climbed up the boarding ladder, stood on it to drip off the water, and then walked into the cabin.
In just this short while, the tide was rushing towards the shore. It didn't seem like much from a distance, but it was very clear from the boat. The anchored Starship was being pushed forward. If he wasn't in a hurry, he could have returned to shore without the engine, it would just have taken longer.