Three oxygen tanks were lowered, and Li Haochen's haul was quite good: 8 oysters, thirty clams, and three conches the size of infant fists.
Conches were also present in the spatial sea, but in very small quantities. Fifty to sixty yuan per jin, and mature ones weighed over a jin. However, their growth period was quite long. If there were many, it would be no different from picking up stones to sell; they were incredibly heavy, even more expensive than raw jade.
A large net bag was heavy. If he couldn't fly directly into his space, carrying these tens of catties of items onto the boat would have been difficult.
In fact, he could have pried off quite a few more clams if he had searched carefully. But the oxygen bottles were all used up, and he wasn't aiming for large-scale farming, so what he had was enough.
Li Haochen picked out the oysters, packed them in another net bag, and then placed them in the water to keep them fresh for the time being.
He emerged from the cabin, and in the distance, a wooden fishing boat was laboring. A middle-aged couple was on board, one steering the boat and the other casting nets. Working with the sunrise and resting with the sunset—what more beautiful love could there be?
Honestly, Li Haochen envied them. Simple, devoted to each other, living a plain and ordinary life.
Although their life was monotonous and arduous, and their income was not high, they were content and happy.
Poor in wealth, but rich in spirit!
After a simple tidy-up, Li Haochen left the area. In just over an hour, he arrived at the place that evoked so many emotions in him—the starting point of his rebirth.
After preparing the mussel bait and dropping all the fishing traps into the sea, the three oxygen bottles were refilled.
He sent two oxygen bottles into his space and then began preparing lunch, a simple meal of white rice and a small dish of steamed shrimp paste.
Looking at this familiar meal of rice and paste, Li Haochen couldn't help but reminisce about his middle and high school days.
His family was very poor back then. Although his family fished, they rarely ate seafood; it was all traded for money. Only when fish was past its prime but not yet spoiled would they bring it back to be pickled and eaten.
He only returned home once every two weeks, and when he left, he would always bring two bottles of stir-fried shrimp paste.
He would buy fifty cents' worth of white rice from the canteen and eat it with a spoonful of shrimp paste. Sometimes, he would share some with classmates. For the following days, he could only scrape out tiny bits from the shrimp paste bottle to eat with his rice.
Those bottles of stir-fried shrimp paste had accompanied him for a full six years. Six years…
As he thought of this, Li Haochen's eyes misted over, and a few tears fell onto the rice.
After a long while, he wiped his eyes, picked up a pinch of shrimp paste, mixed it with the white rice, and shoveled it into his mouth. "It's so delicious, the taste of a lifetime!"
After eating, he brewed a pot of tea and sat quietly, allowing his turbulent emotions to calm down a little.
About half an hour later, after doing some warm-up exercises, Li Haochen put on his diving gear. This time, he didn't bring a fishing spear. He was very familiar with this sea area and knew there were no dangers like sharks.
"Plop~"
With a low splash, Li Haochen flipped his legs, and his body slipped into the sea like a fish.
His arrival startled most of the creatures. The once bustling world immediately became deserted; even some of the sea anemones below retracted into themselves.
But they only had a three-second memory. Soon, the creatures that had hidden themselves began to cautiously emerge from various caves and crevices.
Coral formations rose from the seabed, interspersed with peculiar rocks, and various seaweeds swayed with the currents. A few small pieces of kelp caught Li Haochen's eye. His space didn't have it yet, and this plant could be sold for money, so he couldn't pass it up.
These few strands of kelp were just seedlings, not very large, only fifty to sixty centimeters long, like sticky rice dumpling leaves. At the bottom, only a few root-like structures were attached to the reef.
It was said to be roots, but its roots were not truly roots.
Although it might seem confusing, it wasn't difficult to understand. Plants absorb water and nutrients from their roots, but kelp's roots were entirely different. Its roots were actually holdfasts used for anchoring itself. Kelp used its roots to attach to rocks on the seabed, preventing itself from being swept away by wind and waves.
Kelp was once classified under the plant kingdom. However, with further research, its classification has been changed. It is now placed within the kingdom Protista (Chromista), also translated as "Algae Kingdom" or "Algist Kingdom," a branch of the domain Eukaryota.
Unlike terrestrial plants, kelp does not flower or bear fruit; it has a unique reproductive method—spore reproduction.
Initially, as kelp leaves grew, they would develop many pocket-like sporangia, which contained numerous spores. Upon maturation, the sporangia would rupture, and the spores would swim out. These spores would drift in the water, and when they reached a seabed rock, they would stabilize and grow into new kelp plants.
However, it is quite picky about its growing environment. Firstly, it requires good sunlight, secondly, good water quality, and thirdly, suitable water flow. Otherwise, it would have already dominated the oceans.
After its edible value was discovered by humans, coupled with environmental damage, its population drastically declined. It's still alright in foreign countries, but wild kelp is very rare in China. Most of what we consume today is farmed.
This thing reproduces and grows very quickly. These few strands, over three to five years, could multiply into a vast forest. Although the price is a bit low, only around five to six yuan, its rapid growth rate compensates for it.
In a suitable environment, its growth rate is about 50 centimeters per day. Note that it's per day, terrifying, isn't it?
Of course, it doesn't grow that fast every day. Once it reaches a certain size, its growth slows down or even pauses. Generally, it can grow to forty to fifty meters, and some can even reach seventy to eighty meters.
After digging up the kelp and sending it into his space, he continued to dive towards that reef crevice.
Apart from the growth of many seaweeds, the terrain around it had not changed much, so the crevice was easy to find.
Upon arrival, the mussels within the crevice had grown plentifully again. Li Haochen simply touched these mussels but had no intention of digging them up.
He turned on his headlamp and shone it into the crevice, reaching in to touch the mystical place that had changed his destiny.
He felt a sense of familiarity, hard to describe. Perhaps the round bead had stayed here for a very, very long time, absorbing its essence.
After taking another look at the crevice, Li Haochen swam upwards.
Back on the boat, he began to retrieve the fishing traps.
They were all set near the boat, so pulling them up was not difficult. The first one came up empty, which did not surprise Li Haochen.
Half an hour later, looking at the harvest from over twenty fishing traps—four sea bass about three fingers wide, two black bream the size of a palm, and two small blue crabs—Li Haochen shook his head with a wry smile, lamenting, "As barren as ever."
Honestly, this meager catch was only worth about a hundred yuan or so. With twenty-plus fishing traps and the divine bait from his space, this was almost nothing.
After cleaning the fishing traps and the deck, he raised the anchor and started the engine, sounding the horn. "Let's go, back to find some conches."