Chapter 1030: A Rare Find

Having many sons is also something to be proud of.

Favoring sons over daughters is not just talk—although there's no throne to inherit, the idea of raising sons to guard against old age is deeply rooted in the minds of the older generation.

In those days, sons were labor; without a son, you'd be looked down on. If you really went out to sea and had an accident, all your family property would go cheap to someone else—someone would eat your household out of house and home—so people were that obsessed with having sons.

After the two old men bragged back and forth at each other for a while, A-Cai came back.

He said he had to take him to the boat to check how much ice there was; what they used up certainly wasn't as fast as what the fishing boats used, and the goods they collected each day were also limited.

"Not that much either. We originally only added about two days' worth of ice, thinking the weather ahead probably wouldn't be great, so we didn't dare add more. Who knew we'd only be out for a day before having to come back. There's a little over half the ice left, and the hold space was limited to begin with."

"Not that much, then that's fine."

"Let my dad take you aboard two boats to have a look? Then you just estimate and give a fair price."

A-Cai nodded.

Only then did Ye Yaodong turn to his father and say, "I still have to go back and kill that pufferfish, tinker with the fish maw. You take him to the boat to have a look, alright?"

Father Pei took the opportunity to hand the key to Ye Fu. "You help me open the hold too. I haven't closed my eyes for a whole day and night. I'm getting on in years; my body can't take it. I have to head back first."

"Alright then, I'll take him aboard to have a look." Ye Fu took the key and agreed.

Even a mosquito's leg is still meat—a few pieces are still a few pieces; wasting is shameful.

After handing the task to his old man, Ye Yaodong also walked slowly home with Father Pei.

The sundries on the open ground had just been hauled away in two tractor trips. These goods were arranged by Lin Lin Xiuqing; later, when his mother got off work, his mother would also see to it—no need for him to worry.

As for the baskets emptied out from unloading the goods, they were all pulled to the workshop, along with Father Pei's empty baskets. The two of them walked slowly to the workshop first.

Ye Yaodong also took the chance to give his younger brother instructions, telling him to deliver the baskets marked with the Pei character to Father Pei later as well.

"This saves me quite a bit of trouble—no need to borrow a cart to wheel them back."

"I hired you people to work; just delivering a basket isn't any trouble."

"This place of yours looks better and better the more I look at it. It's just that the space looks a bit small—the goods can't all be laid out to dry, so they can only be spread on the open ground at the side. At night, I'm afraid it won't be safe."

"Nothing to be done about it. Land is scarce by the sea to begin with. Being able to set aside such a large open plot is already not easy, and that's only because it's too close to the sea for anyone to want it. These past two years, more and more people have been coming here to build houses. Look over there by our house—there used to be a pretty big stretch of open ground, and now it's all built up with houses."

"The feng shui is good—everyone says the feng shui here is good. If my house at home were big enough to live in, and I didn't even need to add on, I'd still want to come here and build a new house."

"Feng shui being good—that's all just nonsense people spread. As long as you make money, then it's good feng shui…"

"Then I'll have to trouble you to have the two young fellows here make a trip to deliver these baskets. I'll head back first."

"Alright, alright."

Only after seeing the person off did Ye Yaodong turn and ask them, "Where's that fish I had you carry back just now?"

"At home, on the stove. The old lady is figuring out how to cook it tonight. She said she's old, and such a big fish she might not be able to kill—she was waving the knife around, sizing it up."

Hearing this, Ye Yaodong's eyes went wide. He didn't even bother to stop and talk to Lin Lin Xiuqing, who was walking over, and hurried home.

Wang Wang Guangliang watched him dash off like a streak of smoke, completely baffled—why was he running so fast?

Lin Lin Xiuqing saw him take off running and was also puzzled about what was going on. She ran after him too.

"What's Ah-Dong running for?"

"No idea."

"Then you guys go sort through the goods that were just delivered…"

"Brother Dong told us to deliver the baskets to Uncle Pei first."

"Oh, then you guys deliver them first. Leave one person here to keep watch—I'll go back and see what he's in such a rush about."

Wasn't he in a rush? That was a pufferfish—if the old lady brought the knife down and killed it, how would he take his photos?

Still, his worry was unnecessary. The old lady had held the knife and puzzled over it for a long time, felt the fish was too big and hard to kill, and then suddenly remembered that Dongzi had specifically kept such a big fish back instead of selling it. Not knowing what it was for, she gave up and decided to wait for him to come back and ask.

Ye Yaodong ran back gasping for breath, and seeing the fish still intact, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"You scared me to death—I thought you'd already killed it."

"What's the rush? Aren't you tired? Catch your breath first, and don't sit down—it's not good to sit down before you've caught your breath evenly." The old lady said this while patting his chest, still treating him like a child.

"I didn't kill the fish. Looking at how big it was, I felt I couldn't handle it. And you hadn't come back yet—I didn't know if you were bringing such a big fish back for something or to give away—so I put the knife down again."

"I'm going to kill it to take out the fish maw and dry it."

"Oh, fish maw. Such a big fish—the fish maw must be huge. Ten jin of fish gives you one liang of maw; with a fish this big it might shrink a bit, but this one should still dry out to about a jin. This fish maw is worth a lot of money—it's a good thing."

"Good that you know. I was worried you'd killed the fish and gutted it and thrown the belly away."

The old lady said with a smile, "How could I? Such a big fish—every bit of it is edible. How could I gut it and throw the belly away? Not just the fish maw—the fish liver is also a good thing and can be kept to stir-fry."

Good that it wasn't killed—then he could still take it for photos!

"What kind of fish is this? Half black, half white—my old eyes are so blurry I can't tell what fish it is for the moment."

"It's a pufferfish."

He told her again the story of how the fish had been struck by lightning.

"Oh my, struck by lightning? Then this fish must have grown too well—Old Man Heaven couldn't stand it, so he wouldn't let it grow any more, and sent down a bolt of lightning to strike it. Goodness, eating this fish will definitely build up the body—it's nourishing!"

Ye Yaodong couldn't help laughing—the old folks' way of thinking was very straightforward.

"What fish builds up the body, is nourishing?" Lin Lin Xiuqing quickened her pace from behind and came in just in time to hear this.

The old lady repeated what Ye Yaodong had just said to her, and Lin Lin Xiuqing's eyes went wide too, gazing at the fish in wonder.

A fish that gets struck by lightning—she'd never seen one in her whole life, never even heard of such a thing.

"I was just saying, why did you all come back early? The weather out on the open sea was so strange—good thing you came back. Being so close, how dangerous. Such a big fish should sell for quite a bit, right? Still, a fish struck by lightning is rare too—keeping it back to eat for the novelty is fine. We're not short of those few dozen yuan now."

Ye Yaodong grinned but didn't tell her how much the fish could sell for—otherwise she'd have throttled him. He'd wait until after he killed the fish to bring it up.