I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

Chapter 348: Chapter 327: The Fish Pond in Front of the Shop

He approached the customer and gestured for him to look in the bucket.

The bespectacled customer glanced down, and his eyes instantly widened in astonishment. ”Boss, is this really a mountain crab?” he asked, his voice filled with disbelief. ”It’s huge!”

Li You smiled. ”Of course! All its features match. You’ve never seen one this big before, have you?”

The bespectacled customer shook his head repeatedly. ”No, never. I’ve never seen anything like it. I can’t believe a mountain crab can get this big.”

Seeing the customer’s shocked and incredulous expression, Li You felt pleased and proud. He added, ”That’s why I said I couldn’t bear to eat it. I’m going to raise it instead.”

The bespectacled customer said, ”It would be a real shame to eat a mountain crab this big. You should definitely raise it. To think there are still mountain crabs this huge in the canyon... that’s incredible.”

Li You said, ”It really is incredible. But ones this size must be extremely rare. There can’t be many of them.”

The bespectacled customer nodded. ”Definitely. If there were lots of them this big, that would be insane.”

Just then, a few more customers walked over. Seeing the new pit Li You had dug, one of them asked, ”Boss, are you building another new garden?”

It was the same question the bespectacled customer had asked earlier.

Apparently, because of the vegetable garden, the Hundred Fruit Garden, the wild fruit garden, and the Tea Garden, customers’ first reaction upon seeing Li You breaking ground was always that he was about to build yet another garden.

This time, before Li You could answer, the bespectacled customer answered for him. ”Nope. The boss isn’t building a garden this time. He’s making a fish pond.”

”A fish pond?” The new customers’ eyes all lit up. ”A pond for ornamental fish?”

The bespectacled customer nodded. ”That’s right.”

Then, he pointed at the bucket and said, ”But first, you guys should take a look at this.”

’What’s in the bucket?’

The curious new customers all gathered around to look inside the bucket.

Their eyes widened instantly.

’What a huge crab!’

”What kind of crab is this? How is it so big?”

”It looks like a regular mountain crab! But how is it so big?”

”It can’t be a mountain crab, right? Mountain crabs don’t get this big.”

”...”

The astonished customers broke into a flurry of discussion.

The bespectacled customer chuckled. ”It is a mountain crab. The boss caught it in the canyon.”

’It’s really a mountain crab?’

The customers all looked at Li You.

Li You smiled. ”It’s definitely a mountain crab, no doubt about it. I caught it in the canyon this morning.”

The customers were incredulous.

”To think there’s a mountain crab this big. It’s my first time seeing one.”

”If a mountain crab can grow this big, it must be pretty old. Speaking of which, what’s the lifespan of a mountain crab?”

”I have no idea about that.”

”Boss, do you know?”

Li You said, ”I’m not too clear on that myself. There are too many species of crab, and their lifespans vary greatly. I only know that the Chinese mitten crabs we’re familiar with live for about two years. Mountain crabs should live longer. I estimate they can live for several years.”

’Several years isn’t bad at all.’

”So what’s the longest a crab can live?” another customer asked.

Li You said, ”Decades, even over a hundred years. Some deep-sea crabs have very long lifespans, no shorter than our own.”

The customers were stunned. ’There are crabs that live that long?’

’Incredible!’

The customers were all impressed by the crabs. But then, they started to feel a bit down.

They had just realized that their own lifespan might be shorter than a crab’s.

Li You chuckled. ”That’s perfectly normal. There are quite a few animals that can live longer than us humans. Turtles, bowhead whales, sperm whales, Greenland sharks, elephants, Komodo dragons, and so on. These animals can all potentially live longer than humans. Also, there are carp.”

”Carp?”

The customers were astounded.

They had a general idea that turtles, bowhead whales, Greenland sharks, and elephants lived for a long time.

’But carp? What’s the story there?’

’What kind of carp?’

Li You said, ”Just ordinary carp. They can generally live for decades, with some living over a hundred years. It’s not uncommon for wild carp to live past a century. Meanwhile, it’s incredibly difficult for us humans to live to be 100.”

The customers were all incredulous. They genuinely had no idea that carp lived for so long.

’They had really underestimated carp.’

”What about crucian carp? What’s their lifespan?” another customer asked.

Li You said, ”Crucian carp don’t live as long. At most, they can only live for about 15 years. Among common edible fish, carp have the longest lifespan.”

’Only about 15 years at most?’

’Crucian carp and common carp were so often mentioned in the same breath. Who would have thought the difference in their lifespans was so vast?’

’Carp really are something else.’

’Alright then. Not only might they not outlive a crab, they might not outlive a carp either.’

’Then again, they probably wouldn’t outlive any random tree on the side of the road either.’

’So it’s best not to dwell on these things and just live in the moment.’

”Boss, a mountain crab this big must be incredibly rare. What do you plan to do with it?” a customer asked.

Li You pointed toward the spot for the fish pond. ”Once it’s built, I’ll keep it in there.”

The customers’ eyes lit up. That was a great idea. In the future, whenever they came for a meal, they could go to the pond’s edge and try to spot the big fella. The thought alone was exciting.

”Huh? Holy shit!”

Just then, a customer who had glanced at the ”Today’s Specials” board by the entrance exclaimed in delight, ”Boss, are Steamed Mandarin Fish and Steamed Perch officially on the menu now?”

Hearing this, the original bespectacled customer and the others all quickly turned to look at the ”Today’s Specials” board.