Chapter 1238: Rushing About

The couple both looked at Ye's father with sympathy; they hadn't expected his mother to truly be sharp-tongued but soft-hearted. She might scold, but when the moment came, she would still pay up.

Ye Yaodong feared she would worry herself sick, and if the truth came out, he'd get another scolding, so he hurriedly said, "It's even better they didn't come to the door; anyway, they've gathered enough."

"The sun rising from the west? I don't know if they're up to no good. Everyone gave a little according to their means. I think I should go to town tomorrow to buy two jin of egg cakes and send them to those two families, just for the two children to eat on the road."

Ye Yaodong: "Oh no, is the truth about to come out?"

The old lady was exceptionally gratified and said with a smile, "It's only right. Since they didn't come to borrow money, there's no need to rush to send money. Buying some food for the two children to take on the road is just a gesture; no one can find fault with that."

Ye's father opened his mouth, wanting to say something, yet not knowing how to put it.

Stopping her wouldn't be appropriate...

He had no reason to stop her.

Now it was a disaster; for the sake of family harmony, he had to give money and still get scolded.

So aggrieved.

He lowered his head and silently shoveled rice, saying nothing, his heart heavy.

Lin Lin Xiuqing felt Ye's father must be suffering terribly. She thought for a moment and said, "I'll go buy them, Mother; you still have work. I'll tell the two sisters-in-law; we'll go buy them together and deliver them. As cousins, it's our duty to make a gesture."

"You are getting older now; in the future, the three brothers should handle social obligations. You don't need to make these gestures; it's up to us to show our respect."

Ye's father quickly agreed, "Yes, the three brothers should be the ones making these gestures; at our age, we shouldn't get involved."

Ye's mother thought it made sense; no matter how others acted, as cousins, they too had to show some sign of respect.

"Alright then, you decide yourselves. Don't buy too much; just spend a few yuan on some cakes and pastries for them to eat on the road. That fulfills our duty of goodwill; nothing else is needed, since they've already gathered enough money."

"Okay."

Ye's father breathed a sigh of relief; at least he wouldn't have the truth exposed and get scolded.

"Come, come, eat; the food is getting cold..."

Ye's father changed the subject to business, telling Ye Yaodong to prepare for a night voyage at sea, which effectively put an end to the matter.

Ye Yaodong had made two calls to Zhou Laoban while idle at home these past two days, but no one answered, and he couldn't find him. After finishing his meal, he ran off to make calls again.

He planned to clarify the price and settle it in advance; by the time he set sail at night, he could inform Ah Qing beforehand and also appease the village cadres.

They were all much more anxious than him, wishing to know immediately how much they could sell for; every time they met, they asked.

He had to tell them to watch the growth and harvest first; harvesting and drying would take several days.

If he couldn't reach anyone, he could still go directly to their door when his boat docked in the city to ask the price and tell them not to worry.

But not worrying was impossible; he himself was anxious too.

Fortunately, he made another call in the afternoon, and this time he found him.

They agreed that in half a month, Zhou Laoban would first send a batch of kelp, requesting five tons to check the quality and condition; if more was needed later, they would contact him again.

Since the harvest came early this year, Ye Yaodong also guaranteed that this year's quality would be better than last year's, so the price could be two fen higher.

Unlike last year, when wild kelp was blown into the sea by typhoons and everyone had to scavenge some, resulting in uneven quality and varying sizes; besides, it was already July. Now, with fresh kelp available before May, a slightly higher price was only natural.

Since Zhou Laoban calculated 1 mao 7 for him, he naturally raised the purchase price for the village side as well, setting it at 7 fen.

The village cadres were overjoyed to hear they could buy it for one fen more than last year.

However, Ye Yaodong also mentioned that it depended on the quality and the harvest time; if the harvest period dragged on too long later, and the quality was poor, the price might be slightly lower.

He gave a warning in advance to prevent them from only accepting price increases and rejecting price cuts.

After returning home, Ye Yaodong also told Lin Lin Xiuqing that if he wasn't at home and the village dried a batch of kelp, she should buy it first and then haul it to the city.

If they could dry around 30 tons, even if Zhou Laoban couldn't absorb it that quickly, he had no worries about selling at the wholesale market; there were plenty of small vendors coming and going to stock up, and over the past two years, his shop had developed a steady group of regular buyers.

Moreover, he could take some to the army; the army was huge, and this cheap, long-lasting dried good could also prevent goiter, so the army had no reason to refuse it.

Only after settling the kelp matter could he set sail with peace of mind.

Ye's father watched him bring foreign cigarettes even for the sea voyage; although he had already brought them home, he had specifically taken several more cartons onto the boat, so he couldn't help but pull him aside and ask.

"Why are you bringing these foreign cigarettes? You aren't planning to keep them for yourself to smoke at sea, are you? I know you have some money now and your hands are loose, but it's not necessary to smoke such expensive ones. One puff of yours could feed someone for several days..."

Ye Yaodong held five or six cartons of cigarettes, intending to go up to the bridge while leaving the items below for the crew to organize, but his father stopped him.

"I'm using them for business; how could I bear to smoke them? Isn't there still one carton of Chengfeng left?"

He flipped the cigarettes in his hand, revealing the carton of Chengfeng underneath.

Seeing this, Ye's father finally felt relieved.

"That's good; you gave me a scare."

"What? Am I not worthy of smoking the good stuff? Do I have to give the good stuff to others?"

"You can do whatever you want with yourself, but isn't it a waste to put such good and expensive things into your mouth?"

"Giving them to others, you don't think it's a waste? At least what goes into your mouth is yours."

"Who are you giving them to?"

"You'll know in a couple of days."

"Aren't you ordering packaging bags? You aren't planning to send them to the province for Lao Hai, are you? Is all this necessary?"

"One pack for him is enough. I was thinking that on this trip to the provincial capital, I'll also look for the overseas Chinese from our own clan. Didn't we get a bunch of contact information last year? Mother said the fish sauce we bought in bulk before the New Year should start being filtered out next month; daily production will gradually increase, so I need to find sales channels in advance."

With that, Ye's father had nothing to say.

He calculated that it was already mid-April; by the time he returned from one voyage, it would be late April.

"Oh, as long as you have a plan."

"Of course I have a plan; everything must be arranged in advance. Go burn incense and worship Goddess Mazu; I'll put the cigarettes up first."

"Alright, alright..."

After putting the items away, Ye Yaodong came back to the deck, went through the pre-voyage procedures, and only set sail once everything was confirmed.

In the pitch-black night, the light from the bulb could only illuminate the deck and a bit of the surrounding water; some phototropic small fish kept jumping on the water surface as the fishing boat moved.

Around them were the lights from several other boats; they could see each other, which gave a full sense of security on the sea.

Ye Yaodong stayed at sea for a day and a night, and by early morning the fish hold was about seventy to eighty percent full. He contacted the other boats and planned to do the same as last time — take their catch directly off their hands and bring it all back together to sell for money.

The other boats' hauls were pretty much the same as his, give or take. This trip he hadn't given them advance notice to keep the small fish, so the quantity was a bit less, and there was plenty of room on deck.

Last trip, because the mixed cargo was too much and couldn't fit, and he couldn't dump the goods they'd set aside for him — he'd have to pay them for it — so he could only dump the small fish he'd kept for himself.

If you really want to take in cargo, you still have to rely on the fresh-fish buying boats — plenty of space, and the load-bearing capacity is up to it too.

During his two days at home, he asked Brother Brother Ahai about the progress — it would be about another month or so, around late May or early June, and the goods could be delivered.

When the fishing boat headed toward the provincial capital and docked, it was already afternoon again.

He hadn't been to the provincial capital in a good half year, and it looked even more bustling. It was only three or four in the afternoon, yet the docks over at the deep-water port were already crowded with people coming and going — heads bobbing everywhere, amid all kinds of noise.

Passing a cargo dock up ahead, he saw loads of big freighters, and a whole crowd of bare-chested men shuttling back and forth between the shore and the ships hauling goods. The roaring of trucks and tractors — even from far out at sea, he could hear it.

Old Hai was surprised when he saw him, and even more shocked when he saw that his entire boat was packed full of cargo.

"Did you switch to running a fresh-fish buying boat?"

"Nope. The village just got two more big boats, and everyone went out fishing together. I had business at the dock, so I figured I'd bring their catch back for them along the way. Think you can handle it?"

"Sure can," Old Hai said happily. "I need your cargo right now. You know how it is — last year a lot of our clansmen overseas Chinese came back to invest and set up factories, and this year more and more overseas Chinese have been trickling back to invest around the provincial capital. There are several new fish-canning factories, plus restaurants and related industries."

"Good. I was worried you couldn't take this much cargo."

"Even if I couldn't take it all, I could get other fishmongers to take some together. Lucky you docked early — today I'll just take your cargo, no need to take anyone else's."

Ye Yaodong asked curiously, "You've really opened things up these past few months?"

"Not exactly. It's just that I got to know more fresh-food processing factories. So I started asking the stalls next door to sell to me. Either way, I can't get that much myself, so buying from them works just the same — and they're happy to take it easy and just flip it to me."

"So you're holding down several jobs now?"

"Gotta make a living and feed the people under me, right? Plus I've got a wide network — of course clansmen go to clansmen, it's more convenient. Luckily I've got plenty of brothers who can work, and I've been bringing more people out one after another. Now there's no shortage of workers."

"Impressive." Ye Yaodong gave him a thumbs-up in genuine admiration.

"It's just that everyone trusts me — they know they'll have food to eat following me."

"That's how it goes. Well, let's get to it — help unload first. With this much cargo, it'll take a few hours even if we get moving. It'll be dark by the time we're done. We can chat more after everything's weighed."

"Alright."

Old Hai called over a big group of people to haul cargo off the boat, and politely greeted Ye's father while he was at it.

Hauling and weighing an entire boat's worth of cargo takes manpower, but luckily they were all well-staffed — with twenty-odd people working, it went fast.

He also specifically had them stack the baskets separately according to the markings, so weighing would be easier — batch by batch.

They'd already been stacked separately on the boat, with a clear system. He also had Old Hai get a cargo manifest to record the weights for him.

Of course he wasn't going to stand there recording it himself — he tossed it straight to Chen Shi, telling him to stand by the scale and listen and record, while his father stood nearby watching the weights.

After about half an hour, someone drove a truck over to wait.

The moment a basket was weighed, the cargo was dumped into their baskets, hoisted onto the truck, and as soon as one truck was full it was hauled off immediately.

Meanwhile, he stood in a corner with Old Hai smoking and chatting, gave him two packs of Marlboros, and took the chance to ask what kinds of factories those overseas Chinese had set up, and who among the people in his phone book was in the city.

Luckily, small things like fish sauce weren't worth their time — too much effort for too little money, and the turnover was slow. Fish cans, on the other hand, circulate and turn into money fast, and there's demand both at home and abroad.

So he explained his purpose to Old Hai, and Old Hai told him to make his own calls first to get in touch, and once things were arranged, he'd find time to accompany him to visit the overseas Chinese who were in the provincial capital.

Going alone wasn't impossible, but it would always feel a bit abrupt — after all, he wasn't from the same village as them. Having an old acquaintance like Ye Yaohai along made all the difference.

"Thanks a lot, brother. Every time I come to the city, I end up troubling you."

"Don't mention it — we're all family. That's how our clan is, so tight-knit. We help each other out, you come, I go, and doesn't everyone end up doing well? I make money off your cargo too — what the canning factories don't want, I can haul to the restaurants, or sell to other fishmongers. We help each other out, right?"

"That's why I say our clan has so many overseas Chinese — every one of them looks like they're doing really well."

"It's tradition. Once the first few set the example, the prevailing atmosphere that follows is good. When everyone's out there, you help me, I help you, and when you come back you pull the collective along and build the hometown — that's how it all takes off."

Ye Yaodong couldn't help sighing — no wonder in his past life he always heard about how some regions' clans were especially tight-knit, and about famous groups like the Fuqing Gang and the Changle Gang.

"My Ye Ye Erbo contacted you before, right? He wants to send two kids abroad. Have they arrived in the city? I saw them worshipping Goddess Mazu before I went out to sea."

"They're already here. Arrived this afternoon too — just half an hour before you. I told them to find a guesthouse first, and to gather at the dock the evening after tomorrow."

"Which country are they going to?"

"Little Japan."

"Huh?"

"Don't look at it like those bastards have a grudge against us — it's still a developed country. A lot of our people are over there, so I suggested your cousins send the kids there. It's just working a job either way, and over there industry is super developed, and that island nation has a small population. Going there to work is a pretty good option."

Ye Yaodong opened his mouth, then tentatively asked, "Fuqing Gang?"

"What? There are a lot of Fuqing people, sure — how'd you know? The locals there all bring one another along, whole big groups. There've been more in recent years too, all around the provincial capital area."

"Heh… heard about it…"

Looks like the Fuqing Gang is still early days…

"Yeah, life at home isn't easy, jobs are hard to find, so anyone with relatives or friends abroad will think about going to them, however they can make money. If you can't get a visa, all you can do is pray to Goddess Mazu."

"Hahaha…"

Ye Yaodong hadn't expected him to come out with that line.

Ye Yaohai laughed along too, took the cigarettes Ye Yaodong had given him, tore one pack open right there, pulled one out and handed it to him, and lit it for him while he was at it.

"You're really generous — just tore it open and started smoking. I'm so stingy I can't even bear to take a single puff. I have to mooch off you."

"What's there to be stingy about? It's just Marlboros."

"So they're called Marlboros."

"You gave them to me as a gift and you don't even know what they're called? They really are pretty expensive. Forget it, one puff is enough — I'll save the rest, use it sparingly."

"Lucky find — pulled them out of the sea. I don't have any foreign-exchange coupons, where would I even buy them?" Ye Yaodong pulled out another box of Chengfeng and handed it to him. "Smoke this one instead — no heartache."

Ye Yaohai didn't stand on ceremony with him. "Fair enough. Your luck's not bad then."

"What garbage, good or bad, you can fish anything out of the sea."

"That's how it is. Yesterday I heard someone along the coast fished up two embroidered shoes in a row — and they even made a pair. Scared out of their wits, went straight home to worship the Bodhisattva and hired someone to do a ritual."

Ye Yaodong shuddered just hearing it. "Really scary, that luck is something else, a bit tragic. I wouldn't dare go out to sea for half a year."

"I heard they sold the boat, but no one wanted it. The night they got home, they got a fever and started talking nonsense."

"After running into something this eerie, who'd dare take that boat? Hauling up one is fine, normal, but hauling up a pair is just uncanny."

"Yeah, so we originally planned to send the person off tomorrow night, but thinking about it, we pushed it back a day. We need to pay our respects to Goddess Mazu more often too."

"Then I'd trouble you to have people look after those two kids a bit more."

"Will do, they're not outsiders. Once out there, everyone will stick together."

"That's good then."

"Oh right, I saw the newspaper before the new year, saw your village's name and your name in it. Was it you guys? Let me go find it, I actually saved that newspaper on purpose…"

Old Hai got up and went to rummage through the drawer for the newspaper, and Ye Yaodong followed behind him.

"It was me. We hauled up a foreign unmanned submersible and handed it over right away, then got high attention from above, and they even held a commendation ceremony to praise us."

"I just knew it had to be you guys. The village and the names matched, there's no second Ye Yaodong and Ye Jianzhang. You did us proud."

The boatman beside them said: "More than that, our boss is now President Ye in the city, vice president of the Fisheries Association. He's become an official, very impressive."

Ye Yaodong was a bit embarrassed…

Ye Ye Yaohua looked at him in surprise. "Impressive! Look at you, going from a little fishing village to the city, and even becoming President Ye?"

"Just lucky…"

Ye Yaodong, feeling a bit embarrassed, quickly changed the subject and told him about the law enforcement vessel seizing the smuggling boat a few days earlier.

"I heard it's because of foreign spy equipment. Over the past half year, the national defense department has strengthened maritime patrols and is paying more attention to maritime security. You guys be careful."

"No wonder. I was just saying, how come things have been so tight these past six months? Turns out it's really because of this. Normally something like this wouldn't make the People's Daily, and it was even on the front page. We've all been guessing about it."

"So, be careful."

"Mm, I'll roll up the newspaper nicely and bring it tomorrow, to show the overseas Chinese our clan's capable man."

Ye Yaodong opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Well, it's better for others to show him off than for him to show himself off.

After an entire boat's worth of cargo was weighed and the payment settled, the sky had gone completely dark.

Luckily there were some small private restaurants nearby. He had gone ahead to order food in advance, and they hadn't closed. Once the work was done, with a grand wave of his hand, he directly treated everyone to two tables.

After a happy meal with plenty of food and drink, under the urging of the restaurant owner, everyone dispersed—some heading home, some heading back to their boats.

Ye Yaodong still had to take turns calling those overseas Chinese the next day to set up times, and also needed Old Hai to accompany him, afraid of delaying the sea fishing.

In the early hours, when his father woke up, he had his father drive the boat back out to sea first, while he prepared to stay in the provincial capital for a few more days.

When it was time to return, he had his father pull ashore again for a trip.

With one less hand on the boat, they could only have everyone rotate shifts tightly for now.

Ye's father knew he was going to do proper business, so he only told him to be careful and didn't say much else.

For the next few days, Ye Yaodong was so busy his feet barely touched the ground, running around from morning to night like a spinning top.

His originally fair skin hadn't gotten tanned at sea, but after running around the city for a few days, and then the provincial capital for a few days, he had darkened several shades, almost reaching a wheat color.

But the results were also gratifying. Not to mention the newly designed packaging bags, several overseas Chinese had also placed additional orders. Once they tried it for a period and it proved stable, there'd be no worry about future shipments.

Actually, there was no need to worry to begin with, he just wanted to do a bit of overseas market and earn some foreign exchange.

A wholesale market in the city—don't be fooled by the small shop, but in these times goods are in short supply. Bagged fish sauce is convenient to carry and transport, and sales will only get wider and bigger.

His father-in-law even told him that over the past two or three months, sales had multiplied two or three times each month compared to the previous one, and other dried goods were selling better as well.

He was thinking of waiting until the kelp harvest, stocking up a batch in the shop to sell slowly, earning a bit more and having more variety.

After finishing all the business, taking advantage of the extra time, he also wandered around.

He found that in the past half year since he hadn't been to the provincial capital, it had become even more prosperous, with many more tall buildings, and private shops popping up like bamboo shoots after rain.

Moreover, he saw his family's bagged fish sauce in some of the general stores, not knowing where it had been distributed to the city from. It seemed the sales channels had opened up too.

Just goes to show, in these times of material scarcity, as long as you have goods, you don't have to worry about sales, about not being able to sell.

There's only ever not enough goods, never a case of not being able to digest them.

On Ye Ye Yaohua's side, he only had him accompany him for two trips, after that he didn't have the nerve to keep asking him to come along. The man was busy too, being able to spare half a day to go with him twice was already decent.

At first he was unfamiliar, having never done this kind of thing. After two trips, once he got the hang of it, he handled it with ease and didn't need anyone to accompany him.

After his father docked the boat, finished clearing the cargo, he gratefully treated Ye Ye Yaohua and the others to another meal before returning.

When they docked at the provincial capital again, it was still only their one boat. The other three boats had docked directly at the city, not coming to the provincial capital.

In the first two days after docking, they slowly trolled their way back toward the provincial capital while heading home. After all, by distance, docking at the provincial capital was farther, the city was closer, and they didn't necessarily have to dock at the provincial capital.

So by the time he got home, the other three boats had already returned to the village, and the workshop was already bustling with activity.

The old lady saw he had darkened a whole shade, didn't know the reason, and just assumed he'd suffered again. Feeling sorry for him, she was going to slaughter a chicken again that night.

Ye's father said grumpily: "What's a grown man need to be so pale for? Doesn't look dependable. Isn't this much better now? Looking like a ghost at sea is one thing, but walking down the street and still looking like a ghost?"

Lin Lin Xiuqing understood how he'd gotten so tanned.

"Did you go to the provincial capital to get tanned? How come you got this dark on this trip?"

"I've been running around the provincial capital these past few days, so I got dark. It's fine, I'll be fair again in a while, still that pretty-boy look. You watch things here, I'm going to check the fish sauce stock these past few days. Once we can do large-scale filtering in a while, we'll have to run bottling shifts day and night."

"Orders all set?"

"Yeah, otherwise how would I have gotten this dark, just running back and forth."

The old lady said: "I just knew it must have been hard work, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten this dark."

Ye's father said: "I'm even darker, does that mean I worked even harder?"

"Haven't you always been like this? What's there to be hard or not hard about."

"Sigh…"

Ye's father was left speechless and could only go move the cargo.

The old lady leaned on her cane as she walked home, "Perfect, the sun's setting—time to feed the chickens, round them up into the coop just in time. Only two roosters left; after they're eaten, it'll be the ducks… luckily, next month we'll hatch another batch…"

With Dongqing overseeing the weighing, Lin Lin Xiuqing followed Ye Yaodong and asked him about his days in the provincial capital.

"Have the two kids, A Xing and A Song, been sent off yet?"

"Sent off already—on the twelfth day of Guyu. They stayed in the provincial capital for a few days; no news of any mishaps. Wait it out; ships don't move fast. If they arrive safely, word should come back."

"Yeah, these past few days, both families have been especially loud about sending their kids overseas; the villagers are envious, and some seem to be considering it too."

"If it succeeds, some might really sell their pots and pans just to send their children abroad."

These days, everyone thinks everything overseas is better—going abroad equals rising in the world.

It's only natural to harbor such thoughts.

Ye Yaodong said offhandedly, "Let them do as they please—it's none of our business. I won't let my own children suffer overseas. Our country will only grow stronger."

Lin Lin Xiuqing smiled and said, "Of course. When life at home is good, why risk sending them out? What if something happens on the way?"

"True, if they really want to go abroad, they should wait until they're grown, get proper visas—and they'll still have to come back."

"It's still far off; we'll talk about it later. I just wanted to mention that villagers are starting to get restless about smuggling themselves overseas."

"Have you harvested the kelp from the village? When I came back earlier, I took a detour past the offshore experimental plot and saw half of it was already gone."

"Harvested—it's been going on for the past three or four days. The villagers are ecstatic; they're calling it a bumper crop and have all decided to follow suit next half-year."

"Where are you drying it?"

"At the old village primary school, but it's full now, so we stopped collecting in the afternoon. Instead, we've been clearing a patch of wasteland near our house—we'll tidy it up and dry the kelp there tomorrow. We might even get a batch dried tomorrow, which we'll haul over directly."

"Then harvest it. Only when people see real gold and silver in hand will they truly rejoice and be certain that kelp farming brings profit."

Lin Lin Xiuqing nodded with a smile, "Mm."