Chapter 1458: Knocking

"What else do you have to do? What's more urgent than going to the bank?"

"There are plenty of things more urgent than the bank—the bank won't run away or disappear; you can go anytime."

That entire shipment is still sitting there, untreated—that's what needs careful handling.

After eating, he had to go find the layperson first—he didn't know if he was home or if he'd arranged someone to receive the goods.

"Should I come with you?"

Chen Baoxing also said: "Uncle Dong, should I come with you too?"

Ye Yaodong swallowed his breakfast in one gulp, "Of course you come—bike me there; if anything needs running, I can call you. Dad, you stay home—or go wherever you want."

"What are you doing?"

He explained he'd brought up thirty tons of kelp for the layperson and needed to coordinate the handover.

"Then I really don't need to come."

"Baoxing can come with me," Ye Yaodong set down his bowl and chopsticks, waved at Chen Baoxing, "Let's go."

"Coming." Chen Baoxing grabbed his notebook and pen, one hand secretly rubbing his thigh.

Ye's father had nothing to do, so he went to find a newspaper—he couldn't read it, but Old You could read it for him.

Dongzi said he'd be in the paper again; though not in the local paper, he just wanted to flip through the paper, find something to do, and cheer himself up.

He could also use the newspaper as an excuse to mention it again—Dongzi wouldn't be long before appearing in the paper once more.

"Hey… Old You, how about you teach me to read?"

"Huh? Read?" Old You stared at him, puzzled. "You never wanted to learn before, and now you suddenly say you want to learn? Haven't your grandson been helping you keep track?"

"Still, I should show some ambition. My wife keeps saying I hold the family back. I figure, while I've got free time, learning a few characters won't hurt."

His son's going into the paper again, and here he is, his own father, unable to read a single word—can't even see what's written. Isn't that a shame?

Sure, someone can read it to him, but it's not the same as reading it himself—it's not as real, not as joyful.

Last time he was in a deep funk.

Dongzi caught an incredible torpedo, and the whole crew got city-wide recognition and cash rewards—but at the time, he was on his eldest and second son's boat, helping them out.

Just one month of helping—and he missed it entirely. He slapped his own thigh till it felt broken.

Frustrated, he was too busy sulking alone to even think about learning to read newspapers—he wished he could turn back time and be on that boat himself.

This time, he only regretted not being there to watch the interview footage himself.

Last time, he truly had the chance to be honored, get rewards, appear in the paper—and he missed it outright.

Now, learning a few more characters might come in handy someday.

Dongzi's already been in the paper twice—could there be a third? Maybe he'll get another chance someday.

His wife already knows hundreds of common characters, and he's the one everyone laughs at—that's just unacceptable.

Besides, Dongzi's business is huge now—he needs help, and not knowing a single character is a real problem.

Lately, Chen Baoxing's been recording the goods and quantities; sure, nothing's gone wrong, but wouldn't it be better if he could read it himself? He could understand it directly.

That way, he wouldn't be so dependent on others, and less likely to be fooled or manipulated later.

Besides, his wife, old as she is, started learning to read—why can't he?

Old You saw he was serious and had no objection.

"Fine then. Since you've got nothing else to do, I'll teach you a few characters a day—it won't take much effort."

"Good. Let's start with the newspaper—simple characters first, then harder ones."

"Alright."

Ye's father, rarely so eager to learn, imagined how shocked his wife would be when he returned home, reading the newspaper aloud.

Just thinking of that scene filled him with energy—his enthusiasm for learning characters reached its peak.

When Ye Yaodong returned from his errands and saw his father holding a newspaper, pencil in hand, he was surprised.

He got off his bike and leaned over curiously—the newspaper had several circles drawn, many identical characters circled repeatedly.

"What are you doing, Dad?"

Ye's father was lost in the ocean of knowledge when a sudden voice startled him.

"Why do you walk so quietly? You come back and don't say a word—just stand behind me like that and scare me half to death."

"Huh? This road—bikes don't make noise? You're just lost in it. What are you doing? Circling one here, another there?"

Old You smiled, "Your dad's learning to read—he circles the characters he learns today, then finds all the same ones in the paper."

Ye Yaodong raised both eyebrows, eyes wide, "You're learning to read? Did you hit your head? Your wife scolded you for years and you never budged."

"Well, I've got nothing else to do. Besides, you've got to look forward—your mother knows tons of characters. Why can't I? Am I worse than her?"

He gave his father a thumbs-up, "Of course you can. Live and learn—knowledge doesn't care about age or status. This ambition's great. Learn a few more characters, and when you go home in a few months, you'll shock your wife."

Ye's father imagined the scene and couldn't help grinning.

Let her look down on him now, let her keep muttering he holds the family back.

Ye Yaodong asked, "How many characters did you learn today? Should I buy you a few copybooks to practice writing?"

Ye's father shook his head like a bobblehead, "No way—I'm an old man, why write characters? I just need to recognize them."

"Oh."

"How'd your errand go? Was he home?"

"He wasn't home, but he told his wife and brother—when my goods arrive, his brother will drive to the dock to pick them up. I already arranged it—we'll load them after lunch at one."

"So you still have to wait for Ah Shang to come back?"

"Right. We scheduled it after lunch specifically because we need him back to unload the ship. Otherwise, we could've just gone straight there."

"What if he doesn't come back for lunch?"

"Then there's nothing we can do—we'll send the workers to look for him."

Most of the workers knew Lin Ji, after all they were from the same village; even if they weren't familiar with him, they had probably seen him that morning.

His camp now had twenty people as well, workers assigned to the two fresh-catch boats, plus those on rotating shifts.

After all, people eat grain and are bound to fall ill; if someone were feeling unwell, there had to be someone to take over the shift, and besides, the family needed someone to hold down the fort.

Everyone's work schedule now was to go out to sea every other day to collect a haul, then carry and lift, load and unload, deliver goods, busy from morning until the middle of the night.

It was basically one day on, one day off; although the work wasn't easy, it was still pretty pleasant.

It was only 10 o'clock now, still a few hours away; if he sent everyone out to look, they should be able to find him, since the place wasn't that big.

He had also come back to get people to go out searching; otherwise he definitely wouldn't have come back this early — it wasn't even mealtime yet.

Ye Yaodong had just finished saying this and was about to call Chen Baoxing to get people, but Chen Baoxing had already started shouting for people from both buildings without being told.

"This one has eyes; he knows what to do without being told."

Ye Fu agreed wholeheartedly, "Right, this kid is sharp. You're the smart one, knowing to hire an assistant; having someone help really saves trouble."

"Of course, I have so many things to deal with all day long, naturally I need someone to run errands and lend a hand with whatever needs doing."

"That Boss Zhang isn't home; if you just ship his goods off, when will he settle the bill with you?"

"No rush, it's only ten thousand yuan worth of goods; whenever he comes back, we'll settle then. I reckon it shouldn't take more than ten days to half a month for him to return."

Ye Fu had originally wanted to say that ten thousand was still ten thousand, and tell him not to talk so big, but on second thought, he really had made a lot of money, so he changed the subject.

"Tomorrow we're going out to sea to collect goods. Later this afternoon I need to go to those bosses and note down how much they need. Some have already set fixed delivery amounts for several days out — Baoxing has it recorded over there."

"It's already developed into fixed-time deliveries? Dad, you're something!"

"Hehe…"

"When I'm not around, you haven't been sneaking off for massages, have you?"

Old You looked at Ye Fu in surprise; he hadn't expected a man his age to be such a player.

Ye Fu wiped the smile off his face and put on a stern look. "Where'd you get that idea? It's just that sometimes after winning at cards, I'd treat them to a round or two. I can't be taking their goods money and their card money both."

"Besides, when I win big, treating them to relax a bit — isn't that your usual practice too?"

"Don't talk nonsense, there are still others listening. My reputation's going to get ruined by you."

Ye Fu really wanted to say: Why are you spilling the beans? There are outsiders here, didn't we agree?

I won't tell, and you won't tell?

"Oh~" — that single syllable from Ye Yaodong twisted through several notes.

"Fine, old habit then. Anyway, just lead them over and pay up, and we'll head back."

"Right, exactly."

"This afternoon's task is still yours. After lunch, I still need to go to the dock to arrange unloading."

"I'm still the one going to take notes? Then Baoxing has to come with me — I can't read, he has to write it down for me."

"Fine, Old You can just come with me. The goods still need to be weighed again after being unloaded from the boat."

Twenty-odd people scattered around looking for Lin Ji wasn't a hard task; in less than an hour someone came back saying he'd been found, and instructed them to just say he'd return after lunch.

Ye Yaodong felt relieved hearing that.

After lunch, watching his father once again brandish the newspaper and show off the characters he'd just learned, a light bulb went off in his head. "Dad, if you're free, how about I send you to a sailor training school to study?"

Ye Fu was stunned. "Study what? I already know how to drive a boat, what else do I need to learn?"

"Learn some navigation and engine maintenance, plus some precautions for ocean voyages and basic training."

"What's the point of learning that? If the boat has a problem, just send it to the shop, or hire a master to come aboard and fix it, right? We have so many boats together; if one or two break down it's no big deal. Besides, we can call for help — there's a rescue team."

"But it's more important to know it yourself than to rely on others. Besides, anything can happen at sea; knowing a bit yourself doesn't give you one more life-saving skill?"

"Doesn't that still cost money to learn?"

"The tuition isn't much. There happen to be a few people at home on rotating shifts anyway — I'll send you all to study together. Out by day, back by evening, won't hold things up."

The more Ye Yaodong thought about it, the better the idea seemed. Originally, since last year, he had been thinking of sending a few crew members in turns to study systematically, so they wouldn't all be the ragtag bunch his father had trained up.

They only knew how to drive the boat and cast the nets; they didn't understand maintenance or machinery.

For now in the nearshore waters it was still fine, but in a few years when fishery resources dried up, they'd definitely have to go farther out.

These past few years, the number of boats at the fishing grounds had grown year by year, and the catches were terrifyingly huge, siphoning in fishing boats from all along the southeast coast.

He figured in a few years, his big boats would struggle to survive in coastal waters — hadn't he heard Old You say diesel prices had gone up?

Boats that big, just going out and moving around costs several hundred to a thousand yuan in fuel, let alone fishing for long stretches.

When the time comes, resources dwindling, fuel prices rising, labor costs rising — without going to deep-sea or ocean-going waters, there'd be no way to survive.

Small boats were still fine, but the key was that all the boats he was going to order next were big ones. His small boats combined with the Dongsheng were already plenty; he had to look further ahead.

Once the big boats arrived one by one each year, they'd all need to be ready for long voyages, so he had to start training his people now.

He slapped the table. "It's settled then, Dad. I looked into it last year too — there are short-term training schools here. Later I'll pick a few people to go with you."

"Ah, just like that it's decided? We haven't even asked how the classes work, and I can't read…"

"Aren't you learning to read right now? What's the problem? You don't need to write. They're teaching you boat stuff, not schooling. Not being able to read doesn't matter, right? As long as you can understand Mandarin, that's fine. The old masters at the shipyard can't read either, and they can still repair ships."

"Then… then I guess that works." Ye Fu reluctantly agreed for now.

Anyway, he wasn't going alone; when the time came, he could ask others if he couldn't read.

Thinking of this, he looked at the newspaper beside him and felt an urgent desire to learn more characters — being illiterate really made everything difficult.

Learning this kind of ship stuff had dedicated universities, and they had delivered plenty of talent to promote marine development and pushed fishery development forward.

But for people like them, just being able to study systematically was enough; no need for such high-end stuff, a low-to-mid version would do. After all, they were all getting on in years, and he just wanted a quick result.

"Then let me finish up what I'm doing first, then I'll go ask about it."

"You arrange it however you like, I don't understand any of it. Do your thing. Sigh, at my age still making me learn this and that…"

Never thought of letting him rest.

How long must he keep working?

"Alright, then make good use of your time to learn more characters — there's no harm in it."

Ye Fu's brows knit tight, his face full of gloom. "Never thought about studying when I was young, never imagined I'd still have to work hard at my old age."

Old You agreed. "Right, if you'd learned when you were young, you wouldn't be illiterate now. If you'd learned to read thirty-some years earlier, you might've been a cultured man too, with a skill to make a living, doing decent work."

"How am I not decent now? I raised a fine son — I'm the boss's old man. If it weren't for working on his behalf, I'd already be lying around enjoying life. Who could say I'm not decent? Everyone's dying of envy."

Ye Fu was feeling proud now. So what if he couldn't read? Being illiterate didn't stop him from being better than anyone else.

"Dongzi couldn't read either before. He went to a literacy class too, and look — he can still do big things."

Old You glanced at Ye Yaodong in surprise. Graduated from a literacy class?

Ye Yaodong wasn't embarrassed either. "Exactly, so what if I can't read? Being illiterate doesn't stop you from doing big things — you're right, Dad. But you still need to learn to read. Otherwise when people hand me a list, I can't understand a thing — wouldn't that mean someone could fool me?"

"Aren't I already working on it? At my age I still have to learn to recognize characters — really, the older I get, the more I go backwards."

"Then take your time learning your characters. Later, remember to note down everyone's order quantities. I'm heading to the dock first. I don't know if Lin Ji will come back here first or go straight to the dock — if you see him come back, send him to the dock."

"Got it."

Ye Yaodong called Old You over, rounded up the workers hauling cargo, and drove the tractor toward the dock.

If he could avoid walking, of course he'd rather not walk — perfect, one vehicle to load everyone up and head to the dock.

When he arrived at the dock, Lin Ji and the fellow's brothers hadn't shown up yet, so he could only wait.

But some people spotted the parked tractor and ran over to ask the price — not just one or two. In just five minutes, over a dozen groups came to inquire.

"Boss, if you buy a tractor, I bet you won't have to worry about not making money."

Ye Yaodong nodded. "Definitely. So many fishing boats out there, so much cargo that needs transporting."

Otherwise, would Lin Ji have come running over like that?

"Uncle Ye's been pretty free lately, going out to drive the tractor and earning quite a bit." Someone nearby chimed in with amusement.

"My dad goes out to drive the tractor?"

"Yeah, in his spare time — whenever he's got nothing to do, he drives the tractor out to pick up jobs."

"Well, well — he's making pretty good money."

No wonder he was so proud just now, saying he was better than others even without being able to read.

Turns out he's been squeezing in every chance to earn extra cash.

No wonder when he went back for those twenty-odd days, his dad only called twice — once to ask if he'd arrived, and once to ask when he was coming back up.

Every call cut off at 58, 59 seconds, afraid one extra word would run over the time.

Turns out he was busy making extra money.

Just now when they said to send him to study, he was still reluctant.

"Uncle's really hardworking — leaving money on the table would be a fool's move, haha…"

"Mm, true enough."

With so many boats keeping him busy now, otherwise he'd have to buy a few more vehicles and run a dedicated delivery service.

Here, you could earn money with your eyes closed.

Ye Yaodong waited with his group for over half an hour before he finally saw Lin Ji arrive. The moment the man showed up, he told him to open the warehouse right away.

While the buyers hadn't arrived yet, they moved the cargo out of the hold first, so weighing and hauling would go smoother later.

"You're pretty punctual?"

"Mm, ate and hurried right over."

"Later, settle the shipping fee directly with the fellow's wife. Figure out how much to charge."

"It's on the way anyway — what's there to talk about, shipping fees? When he's back, introduce us and let us get to know each other."

Ye Yaodong gave him a thumbs-up. Same as his own thinking — the shipping fee for this boatload was just a stepping stone. Making a friend was more worth it; you have to give to get.

"If you don't charge shipping, when he's back he'll definitely treat you to a meal."

"Mm, I'm not leaving that fast either. I'll rent an office somewhere nearby first."

"Buying would be best."

"Who doesn't know buying is best? The thing is, no one's selling. Housing is in short supply — anyone with a house here will hold onto it to rent out."

"That's true, but if you offer more money — one or two times the price — they might sell. For locals, at worst they just build somewhere else."

Lin Ji nodded and said nothing.

Ye Yaodong had to direct the workers unloading too, so he had no time to chat.

The fellow's older brother and his wife arrived in a big truck only after another half hour or so. Everyone inspected the goods and weighed them on the boat, loading them onto the truck as soon as they were weighed.

When his wife heard the shipping fee wasn't being counted, and that it was just to make friends, she was pleasantly surprised. She said she'd let the fellow know when he got back.

One boatload of cargo was moved from the afternoon all the way until dusk — mainly because weighing took time. Otherwise, with so many workers, hauling was still fast.

After loading was done, Ye Yaodong used the tractor again to haul a truckload of people, following them back to help unload.

He made several round trips — otherwise, with so much cargo, relying on themselves to unload wouldn't have been that fast, or that easy.

Since the man wasn't home, he saw it through to the end.

Anyway, his manpower was already on hand. Keeping so many people fed, when the time came they had to do him some favors too.

The fellow's wife, seeing how thorough he was, was moved to tears of gratitude. She thanked him again and again, saying sorry for the trouble, and said when the fellow got back, she would definitely make him treat Ye Yaodong to a meal.

She also immediately went and got 10,000 yuan for him, paying on the spot.

Ye Yaodong had thought he'd have to wait until the fellow got back to receive payment for the goods.

"Settling it already? Not waiting for the fellow to come back before settling?"

"No difference — goods in one hand, money in the other, as it should be. Whether he's here or not makes no difference. Besides, he told me to settle the payment with you as soon as I got the goods."

"I see, then I won't stand on ceremony — thanks."

"I should be the one saying thanks. Without you bringing so many people over to help unload, finding people to unload at night wouldn't have been that easy."

"It's no trouble, I'm already feeding them anyway, having them lend a hand with some work is nothing."

"I didn't prepare dinner at home ahead of time, the stove's cold, otherwise I should have kept you for a meal…"

"No need for all that trouble, my camp has a canteen, we can eat something hot as soon as we get back, much more convenient. You've been busy all afternoon too, so get some rest first. We'll be heading off now."

"Oh alright, Rensu will be home in about a week, I'll have him treat you to a meal then. Really, thank you so much…"

"Don't mention it, we'll be off now, goodbye."

Ye Yaodong waved his hand and called everyone to get on the truck, then went to start the tractor himself.

After being busy for most of the day, it was almost 8 o'clock by now, and he had long been starving, his belly practically glued to his back, eager to get home for dinner.

When he got home and smelled the fragrance on his father's body, he immediately got annoyed again — he had been busy as a dog, while his father had a fine time of it.

"You've gotten so slick, you old fox."

Ye Fu was still a bit confused. "Huh?"

"Side income earned, body enjoyed too."

Ye Fu's old face reddened. "Where'd you get that idea? They insisted on dragging me along."

"You're a regular now, don't end up like Old Pei and give me a little brother or sister."

"Nonsense! What kind of talk is that? Am I that kind of shameless old man? Laozi didn't do a damn thing!" Ye Fu was so angry he slapped the table.

Fortunately they were in the room, so no one overheard.

"That's good, you never know who's a decent person out there."

He just wanted to give his father a little warning, so he wouldn't get carried away with himself from all the flattery.

(End of chapter)