Chapter 131: Net stolen

It took more than an hour of walking on the main road to reach the parking point in town, and they waited patiently for another hour before there was a bus to their Haiqingsha Town.

After twists and turns on the mountain road, it was already noon when they got off at the village entrance.

The village was filled with cooking smoke. Standing at the village entrance, they could smell the fragrance of food wafting from other people's houses.

Ye Yaodong asked his wife to watch the things by the roadside. He first carried a sack of lighter vegetables and took the two children back first, then would push a cart out to load them later.

The two children skipped and jumped in front, without needing Ye Yaodong to point the way. There wasn't a place in the whole village they hadn't run through. Don't look at them as small; they were probably more familiar with the village than he was now.

"Walk slower!"

Just after saying this, he saw the younger son slip while going downhill. The eldest son rarely lovingly didn't mock him, but pulled him up, and the two continued running hand in hand.

When they arrived home, the whole family was eating. Seeing him return, Ye Mu greeted them.

"Mother, did you cook extra rice? If not, cook some noodles. I'll go out for a moment, there are still things at the village entrance that haven't been brought in."

After saying this, he hurriedly pushed the cart out again.

Ye Mu looked at him going back and forth, the cart full of bags and baskets, and was surprised, "You went back once, did you empty the in-laws' house?"

"My mother-in-law insisted on stuffing them to us, saying that our family's vegetables must have been eaten up during the house building, and it wouldn't be so fast for them to grow. She cut a lot of cauliflower and cabbage, and beans, taro, and so on. She even made me take several large pumpkins. I couldn't refuse even if I wanted to."

"The in-laws are really too polite." Ye Mu smiled and helped move them.

Lin Xiuqing smiled and said: "The family doesn't have other things, just the most vegetables. My father and mother also can't stay idle, planting this and that all day."

"The vegetables at home are indeed eaten up. The in-laws are really thoughtful. Is this bucket rapeseed oil? Wait until you take it to the new house. There are still sour bamboo shoots at home..." Ye Mu didn't keep all the things, letting them take whatever could be taken to the new house.

"There is one more thing to tell you. Because of the typhoon a few days ago, two people in the village were lost, and two were lost in the neighboring village. Some time ago, that Yongshou also fell into the sea and was lost. They were all in the waters here. Too many people were lost all at once, so the village decided to eat vegetarian for a week starting the day after tomorrow to pray for blessings. During this week, our villagers are forbidden to go out to sea to fish, and then we have to invite Mazu out to patrol the sea surface. It just so happens that tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival."

Sure enough, they still had to eat vegetarian and pray for blessings, but the time was shortened by a week compared to the previous life.

The couple nodded, indicating they understood. It just so happened that the vegetables they brought back were all vegetarian.

"The day of your moving house just happened to collide, so it can only be postponed. I went to see the date again, and it was set for the 26th. Aqing, go to the commune to make a phone call to your father and mother later, don't let them run for nothing."

"Good."

Ye Mu looked at Ye Yaodong again, "You go and collect the ground cages you placed in the sea later, collect the cargo, and take advantage of the fact that you can still sell them today. Tomorrow afternoon, the village entrance will be blocked, and seafood will not be allowed to be transported."

"Good, I'll go collect them later."

After eating a bowl of noodles, Ye Yaodong hurriedly walked towards the pier again. After collecting the cargo the day before yesterday, he went to his mother-in-law's house. After a day's interval, he didn't know if the cargo in the cages would be more. He couldn't place them for a week after this.

At noon, there weren't many boats at the pier; they had all gone out to sea. He rowed a small boat to find his ground cage net's float, hoping no one had stolen the cargo inside.

This kind of thing was not uncommon in the village.

Some young people who had nothing to do would drive their family's boat or a friend's boat, sneak out to sea to wander around, and then steal the cargo from other people's ground cage nets or Korean nets.

This kind of thing was common. It was fine if they weren't caught, but if they were caught, they would be scolded to death.

After Ye Yaodong found his float, he pulled a net, "Holy crap, so many prawns!"

He accelerated the speed of collecting the net and poured the whole net of cargo into the bucket. Most of them were prawns, and there were some water valley fish smaller than a palm, small yellow croakers, and a dozen stone crabs. Visually, there should be five or six jin of prawns.

Each one was half the size of his palm without being unfolded. He beamed with joy. It was just one ground cage net, really not bad. It was just right to keep a bowl for tomorrow's Mid-Autumn Festival.

He still had to continue pulling the net, and he didn't have time to sort them.

The second net was also mostly prawns. This was more expensive and larger than sword shrimp.

A row of ten ground cage nets, he pulled the whole row, and they were actually all mostly prawns. Looking at it, there were nearly 20 jin, and other fish cargo. The net exploded!

Sure enough, there was a lot of cargo these days.

After stacking the ground cages neatly, he was full of confidence and rowed the boat to pull the second row, but...

"Grass-stepping-horse, it's really what you fear comes. Dog-day, which bastard stole my net?"

The whole net was pulled up and there were only a few small fish and an octopus. The first net had so much cargo, and the whole row of nets wasn't bad. Pulling this second row, there were only these three melons and two dates. If he said no one stole it, he wouldn't believe it even if he was beaten to death.

Dog-day xxxx...

He cursed and continued pulling.

He cursed as long as he pulled. After pulling the whole row of nets, there were only three or four jin of small miscellaneous fish. The obvious contrast between the two buckets made him so angry he was about to die.

If this hadn't been stolen, the cargo definitely wouldn't be bad!

But no matter how angry he was, it was useless. It had been stolen, and he hadn't caught anyone. He could only continue to collect the cargo.

When pulling the third row, he was so angry his liver hurt. It was stolen again.

There were four rows of ground cages in total. He pulled three rows, and only the first row pulled nearly 20 jin of prawns. The other two rows had no cargo.

"Don't let me catch you. If I catch you, I'll beat you until your whole family doesn't recognize you."

Not catching anyone, he could only satisfy his mouth. He was really angry to death, and he didn't know if the last row had any cargo.

Cursing, he drove the boat to the position of the fourth row of ground cages and pulled up the float. Regardless of whether there was cargo or not, the cages had to be collected.

To his surprise, the first net pulled up actually had two red-paste crabs!

Red-paste crabs! The red-paste crabs during the Mid-Autumn Festival were the fattest, and the red paste was the fullest.

Fortunately, this net wasn't stolen.

His expression instantly became much better. He was the first to grab the two red-paste crabs and looked at them. Both were over 1.5 jin, which was very good.

Inside, there were also a few swimming crabs, stone crabs, and small yellow croakers.

After pulling this row, he harvested 3 red-paste crabs, 2 green crabs, 6 red octopuses, 4 small white octopuses, three jin of red shrimp, about less than one jin of mantis shrimp, and gathered them with what he had just pulled. There was also more than one jin, and the rest were some small miscellaneous fish and small yellow croakers.

After collecting the nets neatly, he looked at the cargo in the bucket and wanted to curse again. There should have been four rows, but two rows were stolen, losing half!

"Dongzi? Back from your mother-in-law's house?"

"Why is your face so black? Is the harvest not good?"

It was Azheng and Hearing Xiao Xiao rowing the boat over. It was already past three o'clock. After throwing the net for a day, they were all tired to death and planned to finish work early and go back.

"I don't know which bastard stole two rows of my ground cages!"

Azheng stared upon hearing this, "Ah? Grass, which short-lived ghost is so shameless."

"Fortunately, the harvest of the other two rows is okay, not all stolen."

"Any big cargo?"

"Three red-paste crabs, two green crabs, 20 jin of prawns, more than one jin of mantis shrimp, two or three jin of red shrimp, three or four jin of small yellow croakers, and a few red and white octopuses. The harvest is not bad. Two nets collected more than the previous four nets."

Hearing Xiao Xiao rowed the two boats together, then stretched his neck and looked, "Not bad, you come to collect every other day, and it's more than us working from morning to night every day."

Azheng also said: "Shall we also place ground cages? This hand-casting net is thrown from morning to night, even if two people take turns, the hands are sour to death."

"Okay, the harvest should be okay if you place nets during this time, right? Just take the capital out to do it," Ye Yaodong echoed, "How is the harvest today?"

"Not bad, the last few days have been very good. Red-paste crabs were also caught 2 today, and green crabs also 2. Scattered ones can also be worth ten yuan."

"Not bad, let's go, sell the cargo and finish work to go home. We have to start eating vegetarian the day after tomorrow." He said while rowing the boat.

"Is your mother-in-law's house fun? You can stay a few more days, wait until the village finishes eating vegetarian and praying for blessings before coming back."

"Not bad, there are mountains everywhere. I went to pick persimmons once and heard the sounds of wild game all around. It's a pity my father-in-law's house doesn't have a gun, otherwise we could go hunting on the mountain at night."

"Really?" The two's eyes lit up upon hearing this, "Actually, there are wild goods on our mountain too. Aguang lives behind the mountain and can hear the sounds of pheasants every day. It's just that there are no tools, and it's not easy to catch them. If we could get a gun, that would be great."

Ye Yaodong shook his head, "Can't get one, no connections. Better honestly beachcomb. I also caught a Chinese sturgeon in the river at my father-in-law's house."

"What?" Hearing Xiao Xiao stared, "You actually caught a Chinese sturgeon? This thing, heard it's very rare."

Azheng was a bit confused, "What is a Chinese sturgeon? Cargo in the river, what's so strange about it?"

"You don't know this, right? I heard an expert there saying on the radio once that because of the construction of the Gezhou Dam, it couldn't go back to its hometown to spawn. In just two or three years, 97% were gone. In a few more years, it's estimated it will be extinct."

Hearing Xiao Xiao simply popularized the Chinese sturgeon for him, and he didn't know much more.

"Holy crap, Dongzi, you made a fortune again?"

"How can that be? I am a three-good commoner, I released it directly, and then my second brother-in-law notified the Fisheries Bureau, and I helped catch it once. It's estimated it will be sent back to the Yangtze River! At least it wasn't empty-handed. We also caught 80-something military fish and sold them to the Fisheries Bureau, otherwise this freshwater fish is really not easy to sell."

"Freshwater fish all have a muddy taste, not delicious at all, and no one buys them. Catching so many is useless."

Ye Yaodong popularized the military fish for them again. They coastal people are just more familiar with sea fish, and freshwater fish can only simply recognize crucian carp, grass carp, and loach.

After listening, Azheng said enviously: "You are not empty-handed wherever you go? Why don't I have this wealth?"

After listening, A Zheng said with envy, "You really don't come back empty-handed wherever you go, do you? Why don't I have that kind of financial luck?"

"Pray for blessings first, then we can keep safe. There will be a long time to come, wait until next month," Ye Yaodong said indifferently.

Thinking of his mother saying to delay moving, he said again: "Oh right, my mother said the date of moving was postponed, delayed to the 26th of the lunar calendar."

"That's just two days before Azheng's wedding. We can eat banquets for several consecutive days, housewarming wine, matchmaker wine, wedding wine, there is also long-table wine at night, and return-home wine, can, can~"

"Eh~ indeed can eat for several consecutive days, this date was changed well."

The two boats rowed side by side and landed together.

Ye Yaodong put the ground cage net on the boat, first carried the cargo to Acai's place, and by the way asked, "Have anyone who didn't place nets at home come to sell cargo these two days?"

Acai said confusedly: "No! I have fixed fishing boats to collect cargo here these days, no idlers came to sell cargo, what's wrong?"

"My ground cages placed in the sea were stolen for two rows, infuriating me. I don't know which bastard turtle grandson did this kind of wicked thing."

"Oh, normal, whose ground cages, Korean nets haven't been stolen? Those who don't place nets at home, how dare they take them out to sell? Must have taken them back to eat."

"Forget it, take a basket out, I'll pick these cargo, weigh them."

He had already been angry and cursed just now. This was just asking casually. There was no way without catching them in the act.

Acai looked at the two buckets of cargo he poured out and said in surprise: "You have quite a lot of cargo, there are three red-paste crabs, two green crabs, more than those who placed seven or eight rows of ground cages. Prawns are especially many recently."

"If those two rows hadn't been stolen, maybe they could have doubled."

Hearing Azheng say this, Ye Yaodong felt pain again, "Don't say it, I'm about to die of heartache."

Hearing Xiao Xiao comforted: "Already very good, at least more than we catch working all day. We can't catch as much as you in two days."

This really comforted him. At least it was better than the top, and better than the bottom.

Acai weighed all the sorted cargo and opened the list, "Your cargo today is 25 yuan and 6 mao. Others sell at most ten yuan. You only have two rows, and there is so much cargo, amazing. The big head is in that basket of prawns and green crabs and red-paste crabs."

The price instantly cured his depression. He beamed with joy, folded the list, and put it away. He also kept about one jin of prawns. Tomorrow is Mid-Autumn Festival, and he can also supplement his wife's body.

Regardless of whether she gives birth or not, the body's nutrition must keep up.

Hearing Xiao Xiao and Azheng looked at him enviously.

"It's our turn to weigh."

Ye Yaodong was also waiting on the side. Later, he could ask them to help carry the ground cages on the way. His own cart wasn't pushed out, and borrowing other people's every three days was not very good.

Acai listed the cargo they sold and handed it to them, "Yours is 9 yuan and 8 mao."

"Gap! Can you round it up for us? We are so familiar, just round it up."

"That won't work, you have to transfer two mao to me. You have sold a lot already. Speaking of which, you guys have really changed your nature these days, so diligent?"

"Making a living, can we always be idle? Even Dongzi has changed his nature, we can't have too big a gap."

"Work hard, young man."

Without comparison, there is no gap. Ye Yaodong was satisfied now.

"Finished? If finished, help me move the ground cages, they are still on the boat."

"So you were waiting here, wanting us to be coolies."

Hearing Xiao Xiao rolled his eyes, put his arm around Azheng's shoulder and said to him: "You just know? Seeing so many ground cages, I knew we would definitely have to help move them."

"One of you help me move, one of you help me borrow a cart."

Hearing Xiao Xiao raised an eyebrow, "Want to help move, want to borrow, why don't you borrow it yourself? Your own ground cages!"

"Isn't it because I borrowed it too many times, I'm embarrassed! At least change people! You guys go one."

Azheng also said: "Knowing you were going to collect ground cages, why didn't you push a cart out? Anyway, everyone's cart has a mark, no one can steal it."

"Came out too hurriedly, didn't think about it. Hurry up and help me borrow one."

Azheng looked at Hearing Xiao Xiao, "Rock-paper-scissors, loser goes to borrow?"

Hearing Xiao Xiao squinted at him, "Childish!"

Then turned and went to borrow a cart from a nearby household.

Azheng stared at his back with contempt, "Cheh~ Rock-paper-scissors in the morning, who threw the first net, now pretending what?"

"Hurry up and help move, don't nag." ===== CHAPTER 132 =====

"Come and help move things quickly, don't be long-winded."