Chapter 1397: Plans

With no money on hand, as soon as he entered the room, he felt a bit empty inside.

Playing cards at the Chamber of Commerce in the afternoon, attending meetings, eating, and getting a massage—everyone was chatting and laughing, and he hadn't had time to think about this and that.

Now that he was back home, he couldn't help but want to take out his passbook and take a look.

Ever since he had a large sum of money, his heart had been on edge, always nervous, and he was very vigilant about money coming in and out. Suddenly, the tense string had snapped, but instead, he didn't feel relaxed.

The money was gone, replaced by a passbook, leaving only a string of numbers and several zeros.

"So it's turned into numbers? Sigh..."

"It's okay, I'll have money again tomorrow..."

Thinking of this, he became happy again, pressed the passbook under his pillow, and went out to fetch water for a bath.

"Dong-ge, taking a bath?"

"Why wash? I'm already fragrant, why wash?"

"Hahaha..."

Ye Yaodong gestured with the basin in his hand, pretending to throw it at them.

"Don't guess blindly. A friend just invited me for a massage."

"Understood~"

"They said, if you can't keep your chastity, you have to keep your mouth shut, otherwise you have to help each other out, hahahaha..."

"Hahaha..."

"These words are all set, haha, where did you learn them..."

"Nonsense, that's you guys, don't drag me into it."

Ye Yaodong didn't care about their teasing. He took a simple shower, stomped on his clothes a few times, hung them up, and returned to the room.

Once he lay down, he took out the passbook to look at it again; looking at it a few more times made him feel happy.

When he slept, he also kept the passbook by his pillow.

When he got up the next day, he stuffed the passbook into the mattress and locked the doors and windows when he went out.

The workers were going out to sea to collect goods. Although he didn't plan to go out to sea, he followed them to the pier, watched them sail the collection boat out, and then returned to the construction site to supervise the workers building the houses.

It wasn't until after lunch that he pedaled his bicycle toward the Chamber of Commerce under the scorching sun.

He had his time well-arranged now: supervising the house construction in the morning, spending time at the Chamber of Commerce in the afternoon to kill time, build relationships, and develop business, and then collecting goods at the pier in the evening, delivering goods and collecting payments at night.

Perfect.

However, just as he was playing cards in the afternoon, a soldier suddenly stood at the door and shouted at the people inside, saying he was here to deliver a letter.

Everyone looked up. Ye Yaodong turned his head and saw it was someone in a navy uniform, so he stood up immediately.

"Is it a letter from Lin Guangyuan?"

"Yes, yes, yes. They said to deliver it here to Ye Yaodong."

He hurriedly stepped forward, thanking the soldier repeatedly with a smile, and invited him in.

"Old Zhang, I'll let him come in and sit for a while. It's too hot outside. I'll write a reply. Since I happen to be here, I've caught him just in time."

"That's fine, let him sit and rest for a while."

Ye Yaodong hurriedly went to fetch water for the soldier and handed him an unopened box of cigarettes from his pocket.

Coming here, he had to keep two boxes of good cigarettes in his pocket. He had just opened one today, and there was one unopened one left, which was perfect.

"Sorry to trouble you, Navy Comrade. Wait a moment; I'll write a reply immediately so you can take it back."

"You'll have to be quick. I'm out on business and was asked by Lin Guangyuan to deliver the letter. I didn't expect a kid from Min Province like him to have relatives here?"

"Hehe, I'm his uncle-in-law."

After saying that, Ye Yaodong went to borrow paper and pen, and after reading the letter, he immediately wrote a reply.

There was no envelope, so he used Lin Guangyuan's envelope, took the opportunity to stuff 50 yuan inside, and then used glue to seal it.

Then he politely sent the person away.

He wrote down the address of his house there and told Lin Guangyuan to send the letter there next time. If he had a chance to come out, he could also come find him there.

He also said that he would be there until the end of the year.

He didn't expect that after calling A-Qing last month, he would send a letter immediately this month. It was quite timely.

"Boss Ye, you have a relative in the military here?"

"What rank? Being a soldier is pretty good these days."

"Yeah, the navy has been awesome these past few years. Smugglers..."

Everyone started discussing it, their envy growing as they talked.

Ye Yaodong only said it was his wife's nephew, a new recruit who had just come to serve last year, and he didn't expect him to be assigned here.

Everyone pulled the topic back to the benefits of being a soldier and future prospects.

He thought about the fact that there was a phone here he could use, so he called his father-in-law to ask about the situation in the city and mentioned that Lin Guangyuan had sent a letter.

Lin Fu was very happy. "You've made contact? That's good. This child is away from home, which makes people worry. Since you've made contact, we can rest easy."

"Yeah, I wrote a reply with the address of my house here. In case he has time to come out, he can come find me anytime."

"It's probably difficult. He's a new recruit. Without an emergency, how could he easily ask for leave?"

"We'll see. If he can't come out now, he can in two years. Anyway, the house I'm building there won't disappear. Once he knows the address, he can find his way there later."

"Good, good, good. You, this little uncle-in-law, have helped him a lot and helped our family a lot. Without you, we would still be scratching a living in the fields..."

"Why say that? We're all family. Father, you've also been helping me. Without you, I wouldn't have such a good candidate to help look after the shop. Outsiders aren't as trustworthy as our own people."

"Hehe, rest assured. As long as I can still work, I'll look after this shop for you. I can speak Mandarin to anyone now."

Ye Yaodong also laughed. It was still broken, but he could speak openly without fear of being laughed at.

Seeing that the sun was about to set, he said a few words and hung up.

"Time to eat, brothers."

"The sun hasn't even set yet, eat my ass," Jin Laixi responded.

"Then you eat ass, I'm going home to eat."

"What's the rush? Wait for us to finish playing cards, and let's eat together tonight? Let's go for a massage together later? I was busy collecting goods yesterday, and you guys all went for a massage, and I missed out..."

"Then you guys go for a massage. I'm a bit busy later. I have to go to the pier to collect goods after eating, and then deliver them to you guys. I'll be busy until the middle of the night."

"That's true. Then you go. Our goods can be a bit later; we'll go for a massage first..."

Ye Yaodong agreed.

Hard work leads to wealth; he deserves to get rich!

It's not hard to make money these days; what's hard is whether you can hold onto it after getting rich overnight.

He returned home under the sunset, his face flushed red from the sun, and only then did he start to worry about whether they could return smoothly with the goods.

During the day, there were this and that, so he only thought about it occasionally. Now that he was back and everyone was discussing collecting goods later, he couldn't help but worry.

Before, he had been with them, and nothing had happened, but today they were going out alone.

After dinner, he stood at the pier waiting, watching the fishing boats enter the harbor one by one, but he didn't see his boat, and he couldn't sit still.

The workers had been calm, but seeing him pacing back and forth, anxiously looking into the distance, they couldn't help but feel nervous themselves.

"Dong-ge, nothing will happen, right? The sun just set a while ago, and it's still bright. It's normal that they haven't returned."

Ye Yaodong nodded. "Yeah, weighing the goods is very slow, and we have to wait for the fishing boats to haul in their nets before approaching. With so much cargo, they usually return at dusk. This is still considered early; many times they return after dark."

"Yeah, it's still early. We can go to the fish market nearby to see today's prices."

"I heard that the fish market near the pier is only temporarily fenced off. I heard they are building a huge trading market on the fish market street inside..."

"I heard that too. I heard the port here is also being renovated, specifically for cargo ships to dock and transport seafood..."

The workers listened to the people on the side discussing it and started discussing it too. Ye Yaodong's attention was also diverted.

If that was built, he would have to buy a few shops there next year no matter what.

Just as he was pondering this, suddenly, he saw a group of people in navy blue uniforms jogging over, and he immediately perked up.

In the letter Lin Guangyuan sent in the afternoon, he mentioned that the port was being built at the pier, and they were also pulled out for training every few days and brought over to help.

"The soldiers are here..."

The crowd took the initiative to move to the side, letting the group of soldiers pass.

Ye Yaodong also squeezed to the side of the road to look, but he saw that every black, crew-cut head was uniformly black, and they all looked like the same face...

However, others saw him differently; he stood out among a group of fishermen, looking exceptionally conspicuous.

It wasn't until Lin Guangyuan squeezed out from their scattered crowd to the side and greeted him that he saw him.

"Holy crap, there you are. Why are you so black? Everyone is so black, I couldn't find you."

"Little uncle-in-law, you finally came again! Did you receive the letter I asked someone to send this afternoon? I asked a comrade-in-arms to send it to that Chamber of Commerce..."

"I received it. I even wrote you a reply, left a new address, and stuffed 50 yuan into the letter."

"Haha, that's awesome, I have money again. Where is your new address? I've been out all afternoon and haven't gone back yet, so I haven't seen the letter."

Ye Yaodong had already touched his pocket, preparing to give him the money in his pocket, but as soon as he touched his palm, he put it back.

He had only put a few dozen yuan in his pocket when he came out, and he would need money for the ride later anyway. It was fine since he had stuffed money into the envelope in the afternoon.

"The new address is written in the letter. Remember to check the money inside; don't lose it."

"It won't be lost. I got the money you stuffed in the envelope last year, and I even treated the comrade who delivered the letter to instant noodles."

"Treated him to instant noodles..."

"I won't talk anymore. I have to hurry back to the team, or I'll be discovered. We're going back to the base. It's good that you received the letter."

Lin Guangyuan said as he retreated, looking toward the team walking slowly ahead.

"Hey, I haven't even asked if you're tired..."

He answered while jogging, "Not tired..."

Ye Yaodong watched him go. They had only spoken two sentences in a hurry, wasting two minutes.

"Dong-ge, is that your nephew in the military?"

"Yeah."

"He has a bright future..."

"Whether he has a future or not is hard to say, but it's quite glorious."

"That's true. Whoever has a soldier in their family can hold their head high when they talk about it."

"The boat is back..."

Ye Yaodong hurriedly looked at the sea. Among the fishing boats entering the harbor, there really was his collection boat.

His boat looked different from others; it had "Dongsheng Collection Boat" written in huge letters on it. Not only was it written on the hull, but there were also the two big characters "Dongsheng" on the second-floor cabin.

From a distance, it looked a bit blurry, but the outline of the font could be seen.

"It's good that it's back. It's docking soon. Let's go to the docking point."

"Okay."

Everyone followed him, moving to their docking point.

A boat full of goods had been transported back, and the deck was piled full. Ye Yaodong looked at it and was extremely satisfied.

"Thanks for your hard work. I was worried for a long time that you hadn't docked."

"Haha, the sun hasn't even set yet. Isn't this the usual time? Sometimes it's even later," the cousin said with a smile beside him.

Other workers were moving the goods out of the fish hold.

"This is the first time I haven't followed, so I was a bit worried. It's good that nothing happened. Later, I'll think about giving you a raise."

"That would be great. This is the cargo list for several boats; they're all listed properly."

Ye Yaodong flipped through it. Each list was filled with the weight of the goods, only the unit price was left blank, waiting for him to fill in.

After reading the total of each list, he had a rough idea in his mind and clipped the list into his account book.

"Weigh out the goods I need one by one first. I'm going to rent a vehicle."

"Okay."

He asked his cousin to weigh the goods according to the variety and quantity needed by each person on the list, while he went to arrange the vehicle.

It wasn't the first day; everyone was used to it.

After successfully delivering today's goods and putting the payment into his pocket, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Work finished perfectly; he wouldn't have to worry anymore.

After returning home, he called his cousin into the room to talk. The raise he had mentioned earlier had to be fulfilled.

"If I'm not on the collection boat, you're the one in charge. It's not appropriate to keep the previous salary. This boat still needs your effort."

"Hehe... we're family..."

"That's why I trust you, but I can't let you suffer a loss. The workers' salary is 135 now; I'll give you 300 a month."

This was just taking the collection boat out to collect goods, and the docking was all with their own fishing boats. They returned the same day, so it wasn't strenuous at all.

It couldn't be compared to the boat captain, who was long-term at sea controlling the fishing boat operations, and every time they went out, it was at least a week or more.

Not to mention the Ocean-going No. 1. When his father went out, unless there were special circumstances, it was basically 20 days or more.

Therefore, the risk was small, and the pay was naturally relatively less.

But it was already more than double that of the workers.

"300! That much!"

"It's deserved. Work hard, and I definitely won't let you suffer a loss. It will increase later. I'll buy you insurance and a pension. After working for 20 years and retiring, you'll still have a large salary to collect every month."

His cousin's mouth was wide open, a bit incredulous. "Really!?"

"Of course, I keep my word. But this salary must be kept secret; you can't tell anyone. Although it's pay for performance, different positions should have different salaries, but if the workers think you get that much, they'll have emotions."

"It's better not to say it. It's best not to say it, otherwise, I'm afraid of spending too much money and not being able to explain it when I go home."

"Hahaha, just worried that your wife will calculate your accounts."

His cousin rubbed his hands and giggled. "Women are narrow-minded, calculating every little bit of money. What's wrong with spending a little money when you're away from home?"

"Well, anyway, keep the salary secret. When you go home, tell your wife whatever amount you want; I won't say anything on my end."

"Got it. Then I... how much a year? 3000... 3600?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Oh my god, that much! Then if I work for three years, won't I become a ten-thousand-yuan household?"

His cousin was pleasantly surprised.

"Yes."

"Damn... more than 3000 a year, that's equivalent to 10 years of my previous work."

"Hehe, there will be more later. Go rest; you've worked hard for a day."

"Okay."

His cousin's mouth was crooked with laughter, his walking was floating, and he opened the door several times before succeeding.

Ye Yaodong also laughed; they were all easy to satisfy.

Fortunately, his mother had many siblings, and each of them had many children, so naturally, he had many cousins.

His own brothers had boats and could only look after their own, so they couldn't be of use.

His nephews had work, and their families were reluctant to let them go to sea, and his own son was still young.

Fortunately, there were still a bunch of cousins, and the cousins had a bunch of sons, all of whom could be of use.

If he really had to count, he didn't even know how many cousins he had; he would have to ask his mother to count.

They weren't familiar in his previous life, but in this life, they were brought together, and even if they weren't familiar, they became familiar.

Regardless of whether they were familiar or united at home, anyway, away from home, their hearts were definitely more united than others. Their villagers' hearts were also more united than others; their nests were all next to each other.

After Ye Yaodong closed the door, he poured out all the money from selling goods at night, tidied it up, and counted it once.

He finally had money again!

It had just hit zero yesterday, and he had money at night. Comfortable. Now he had a sense of security again, and a sense of crisis.

Since last month, the goods had been gradually increasing. This month, the quantity of hairtail was even greater. Their fishing boats had started focusing on hairtail this month.

Today's boatload of goods had all been sold. Usually, it would take the Ocean-going No. 1 to sell that much.

Ye Yaodong felt beautiful after counting the money. Tomorrow, when he collected the goods from his Ocean-going No. 1, he should be able to account for another 20,000 yuan.

Suddenly, he had another 30,000-plus. If he distributed a portion, he would have nearly 30,000 himself.

After accumulating for a few days, he would see if he should go to the fish market street to buy an old house!

They had already started building the aquatic product trading center, which meant it wasn't far from prosperity.

Last year, he was worried that he wasn't here, and he was worried he couldn't keep it if he bought it. This year was different.

Their Chamber of Commerce had already been cleared by the government, and now they had accumulated a wave of merchants from various industries, and he could be considered to have accumulated a small wave of connections.

Although it didn't seem very useful, it could only expand connections, collect more of his goods, and earn some money, but at least there was an organization.

And he had a large crowd; now he had three or four hundred workers by his side, and he was quite familiar with the place. Could he be afraid of his land being occupied if he bought it?

When he went back for the New Year, another batch would definitely come up after the New Year. He might have to stay here to collect goods in turns with his father.

Only a bastard wouldn't earn money when it's there.

Being here naturally made a difference; he could supervise and regulate at any time.

Times had changed.

He was also different from last year, and the money on hand had to be invested separately.

Now there were still five ships hanging in the shipyard that hadn't been delivered. He didn't plan to order more now; it would be in time to order after delivery.

Then the money on hand was naturally for buying houses and land. The shops inside would have to wait until next year. He estimated that there would definitely be a scramble then.

Thinking about this, he felt that depositing the 200,000 in the bank was also quite good. Balancing risks, no matter how you invest, you can't not save.

Depositing a sum of money there, after the loan matured, who knows, he might be able to borrow more.

The 90s were the period of high-speed development.

Thinking about this, a wave of ambition surged in his heart!

The salted fish had turned over!

Fortunately, he had handed over the collection of goods to the workers. Staying on shore himself also gave him plenty of time. When he was free during the day, he would just take a few friends out to look around.

By the way, he would also encourage them to buy houses and land. Everyone would do it together to share the risks, and it would also make them remember a favor, and they would thank him with tears later.

Who knows, it might be a lifelong favor.

Encouraging them to buy houses and land was better than letting them spend it on their lovers, with no money left to benefit their wives and children at home.

After Ye Yaodong finished pondering, he organized the money on hand, hid it in the mattress first, and then filled in the prices on the collection list to calculate the prices for everyone.

At this time, it was late at night. Everyone went to sleep early after washing up, intending to continue going out to sea to collect goods early tomorrow morning.

Only his room was still lit, and he was still pressing the calculator, calculating accounts.

By the end, he was annoyed by the calculations himself, occasionally making mistakes, his patience exhausted.

"Damn it, I should hire a girl to calculate accounts for me. My head is getting big from calculating every day, and I'm worried about calculating wrong."

"Your sister..."

He pressed the calculator wildly a few times, scratched his hair, and after being irritable, he could only continue calculating honestly.

If I don't finish calculating today, I have to calculate tomorrow. Damn it.

I wasn't even this serious in my first-grade math exam!

And staying up late.

If I had this drive when I was studying, would I be an illiterate? Would I be a fisherman?

Sure enough, money can make the devil push the mill.

Ye Yaodong looked at the time after finishing the calculation; it was already one o'clock. He cursed and hurriedly lay down to sleep, leaving the list to be sorted out tomorrow.

But early in the morning, before he was even awake, he heard a chattering sound outside, all saying that they had given birth.

"Given birth to what? Giving birth to a child?"

He cursed and opened the door to go out, wanting to tell them to be quieter, but he heard them say they had given birth to more than a dozen.

"Two dogs gave birth?"

"They gave birth last night, 13 of them, all kinds of colors."

"I heard you guys saying they gave birth early in the morning, I thought someone's lover had given birth."

"It was the dog that gave birth."

Ye Yaodong repeated it playfully, "The dog gave birth."

"Why does that sound like scolding someone, haha..."

"I'll take a nap for a while, keep it down. You guys should go out to sea and collect goods."

"Okay, we'll go after breakfast."

Ye Yaodong lay back down. Having another litter of dogs was also good; by next spring, they would be a group of good watchdogs. ===== CHAPTER 1398 =====