Free Web NovelChapter 331: Chapter 259: Counter-Accusation
The two bickered and bantered all the way, arriving at their hotel before they knew it.
Many guests were coming and going at the hotel entrance. Lin Li and Su Yue, who had been teasing each other the whole way, immediately stopped when they saw the crowd.
Then, the two of them hurried into the hotel, got on the elevator, and headed for their floor.
...
In Qiong City, especially in the coastal areas, there are many drivers who operate electric tricycles for a living.
After dropping their swimsuits off in their room, Lin Li and Su Yue left the hotel.
They stood under a large tree by the roadside in front of the hotel and waited for a moment until they saw an empty electric tricycle approaching from a distance.
"Here comes one," Su Yue said to Lin Li, who was playing on his phone next to her. She then raised her hand and waved at the approaching tricycle.
Hearing her, Lin Li put his phone away. A moment later, a driver with graying hair, operating the latest model of electric tricycle, pulled up in front of them.
"Where are you two headed?" The tricycle driver, an elderly man, asked Su Yue with a smile after stopping.
"We want to go to the wharf in that direction. Sir, you should know which one I’m talking about, right?" Su Yue said to the driver, pointing toward the other end of the road.
"Oh, that wharf! I know it. You’re going there to buy seafood from the fishermen returning from sea, aren’t you?" The experienced driver guessed Su Yue’s intentions right away. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
"Yes."
"It’s ten yuan to get there."
The electric tricycles didn’t have meters; the drivers just quoted a price directly.
The destination was about three or four kilometers away. Normally, tricycle drivers would quote tourists a starting price of fifteen yuan, only charging locals ten.
The driver saw that the girl was very beautiful, even prettier than most big-name celebrities, so he gave them a cheaper price.
Su Yue had looked it up online earlier. Tourists had left comments warning that drivers in this area would quote fifteen, twenty, or even twenty-five yuan. They advised being careful not to get ripped off and to haggle if the price didn’t seem right.
But now, this driver was only asking for ten yuan. Su Yue, who had been planning to haggle, was actually a little disappointed. She nodded to show the price was acceptable and then motioned for Lin Li to get on.
"Hang on, I’m starting up," the driver said, then started the tricycle.
"WHIR..."
A faint sound came from the electric tricycle. Compared to a gas-powered vehicle, the noise from an electric one was much quieter.
Electric tricycles carrying passengers were a unique feature of Qiong City. At least, Lin Li had never ridden in one back in Rongcheng, nor had he seen them used as taxis.
Turning his head to look outside, he watched the scenery on both sides of the road rapidly recede. Su Yue, sitting beside him, said with a smile,
"Rongcheng doesn’t have electric tricycles for hire. This must be your first time riding in one, right?"
"Yeah." freewebnσvel.cøm
"How’s it feel?"
"It’s nice. The view is wide open."
Three or four kilometers wasn’t a long distance. Lin Li and Su Yue had only been chatting for a short while before they reached their destination.
...
"We’re here." The driver stopped the tricycle and said to Lin Li and Su Yue.
The two of them got out, and Lin Li paid with his phone. Then, they started walking toward the wharf in the distance.
At the edge of the sea hung a brilliant red sunset, dyeing half the sky crimson.
One after another, fishing boats returned to the wharf from the vast, boundless azure sea. A few seagulls followed in the sky above them.
Fishermen who had already arrived at the wharf had brought their day’s catch ashore and set up small stalls along both sides of the path.
Many people were there to buy seafood. Some were locals, while others were clearly out-of-towners here on vacation.
"Wow, it’s so lively here!" Su Yue exclaimed in surprise, watching the people coming and going, all carrying bags of freshly bought seafood.
Although Su Yue’s family owned their own wharf and a fleet of deep-sea fishing vessels—both far larger in scale than the wharf and boats she was seeing now—her family’s wharf wasn’t open to the public. After the fleet docked, the seafood unloaded from the ships went straight to a factory for processing or was loaded onto refrigerated trucks and shipped away.
Therefore, in terms of liveliness and local color, it couldn’t compare to this small wharf.
Seeing Su Yue happily looking all around, Lin Li asked, a bit puzzled, "When you came to Qiong City with your parents, didn’t you ever come to a wharf like this to buy fresh-off-the-boat seafood?"
The main reason to come to a wharf like this to buy seafood directly was that it was much cheaper to buy from the fishermen who caught it themselves.
When Su Yue traveled to Qiong City with her parents, there was no need to save a little money by going out of their way to buy seafood at a wharf, so naturally, she had never been to a place like this.
"..." Su Yue fell silent for a moment before saying evasively, "Nope! Back then, my parents and I were so busy sightseeing that we never thought of coming to a place like this to buy seafood."
"Oh." Lin Li nodded, not giving it much thought. He changed the subject, pointing to a small seafood stall in the distance and said,
"Let’s go check that one out. The stall was just set up, so there aren’t many customers yet. Most of the seafood hasn’t been bought."
"Okay!"
The two of them then walked toward a seafood stall that had been set up just a short while ago by a fisherman who had recently come ashore.
"Hey, handsome! Hey, beautiful! This is all fresh-caught from today. Take some home, cook it up simply, and it’ll be delicious." The fisherwoman in the straw hat enthusiastically greeted the two customers who had arrived at her stall.
Having run her stall here for many years, the fisherwoman in the straw hat could tell at a glance that these two young people were out-of-town tourists who had come to the wharf to buy some cheap, fresh seafood.
"Lin Li, let’s get a little of everything!" Su Yue said, her eyes dazzling at the vast array of seafood before her. Some of the fish looked so strange that she had never seen anything like them in the markets of Rongcheng.
"Sure!" Lin Li nodded. He then pointed at an incredibly ugly fish in front of Su Yue, whose name he didn’t know, and asked the fisherwoman, "Ma’am, is this fish edible?"
"It is! We call it a stonefish locally. Don’t be fooled by its ugly appearance. Once it’s cleaned and steamed, the meat is incredibly tender and delicious..." the fisherwoman in the straw hat explained with a smile.
"Okay, please bag one of those stonefish for me. And then I’ll take some crabs, large shrimp, squid..." Lin Li looked over the seafood on the stall. With each type he named, the fisherwoman in the straw hat would put some into a bag for him.
"Ma’am, do you have any mantis shrimp?" Su Yue, who had been searching the stall, asked when she couldn’t find the mantis shrimp she wanted.
"We do have mantis shrimp. Just a moment, miss, I’ll go get them..." the fisherwoman said to Su Yue.
Then she turned around and shouted to her husband, who was still on a nearby boat sorting seafood and hadn’t come ashore yet.
"Honey, a customer wants mantis shrimp! Bring some over, quick!"
"Hold on, coming right up!"
The fisherman in the straw hat called back, then looked for a small basket on the boat.
A moment later, he appeared at the front of the stall holding a small basket of mantis shrimp. He poured the plump shrimp from the basket into a plastic bucket.
...
