Chapter 199: Feeling Great

Lin Lin Xiuqing squatted on the ground wringing out the towel, glanced up from below, and at that vigorous, spirited sight, her ears turned red.

Although they had been married for several years, the village had no electricity in the early years, so they did everything in the dark, not even lighting a candle—how could they have seen each other so clearly and brightly?

"Come on, don't dawdle, the water's going to get cold soon, I'll catch a cold…"

"Don't be shy, we're an old married couple…"

"Don't just wash the back, the front needs scrubbing too…"

"Don't half-ass it, be more thorough…"

"The creases need wiping too…"

"And the two underneath…"

"Yes… just like that…"

Ye Yaodong's grin stretched almost to the back of his head—today's treatment wasn't bad, his arm could stand another ten days or half a month of pain!

"Wife, how about one more favor?"

"Don't push your luck!"

"It's just killing two birds with one stone, isn't it?"

Lin Lin Xiuqing paid him no attention; after finishing the most troublesome part to wash, she told him to put his feet in the basin, but…

"Can you close your legs?"

"That won't do. Have you ever seen a man sit with his legs together? I'm not a woman—sitting with legs apart is a man's way of sitting."

"But you're washing your feet!"

"Well, my feet are in the basin! Nothing wrong with that~ You wash yours, just don't sneak peeks at me."

"You think I want to look?"

"You can't be sure about that."

Lin Lin Xiuqing was speechless with anger—such a shameless man.

He turned straight to the cabinet, took out his shorts, and made to put them on him.

"What's the rush, my feet are still wet, you haven't even finished washing."

Lin Lin Xiuqing smacked his calf a few times hard, this shameless dog of a man, "Put them on, hurry up and put them on."

Ye Yaodong, looking thoroughly reluctant and unsatisfied, lifted his feet and slipped them in.

Only then did Lin Lin Xiuqing contentedly wash and dry his feet and help him dress, but at dinner she got a headache again.

She actually had to feed him like a child!

Ye Yaodong finally got to enjoy what it meant to have clothes brought to him and rice brought to his mouth, feeling utterly pleased with himself~

"Mama, why does Papa still need someone to feed him?"

"Shame on you~"

"Your papa's hand is hurt, he can't eat by himself."

"Ah, poor Papa~ Where is Papa hurt, let me see…"

The two children, hearing he was hurt, ran to his side at once to roll up his sleeves, and Ye Ye Chengyang even pursed his little mouth to blow on it?

Then in a milky voice he said, "Blow blow, no pain~"

Ye Yaodong's face immediately filled with emotion—his son was quite filial…

"Alright, go play by yourselves, your papa's fine, let him finish his meal first."

"Okay."

The two children couldn't bear to leave either, obediently standing to one side and watching.

Ye Yaodong was immensely gratified—all the affection he'd given them lately had not been in vain.

After Lin Lin Xiuqing fed him full she also breathed a sigh of relief, told him to go to the room and watch the two children, she'd help him apply the camellia oil before bed, right now she still had to go kill the fish.

Ye Mu and Ye Ye Huimei had already arrived early, killing fish at the door, and had called Ye Ye Dasao and Ye Ye Ersao out to help too—she had to hurry over as well.

Otherwise it wouldn't look right—letting others do all her own work while she herself wasn't doing any.

Ye Yaodong, having been served so comfortably, contentedly took the two children back to the room, willingly watched over them, and only came out after coaxing them to sleep.

"Big Brother, Ye Erge, take me with you when you go out to sea at night. Father and I overdid it during the day—the longline we threw into the sea we couldn't retrieve, so tonight we'll have to trouble you to help us pull it back. And we didn't have time to collect the catch from the crab traps today either."

Ye Fu, standing aside, also spoke up for Ye Yaodong: "The sardine storm just passed, that stretch of sea should have plenty of catch. Let Ye Lao San take you to drag the net in that area during the day—it's bound to be better than anywhere else. You can pull his hooks back for him while you're at it."

"Alright, fine."

Helping each other out among brothers was only right; even without Ye Fu's words, they would have gone to help retrieve the catch.

Lin Lin Xiuqing glanced at Ye Yaodong and said nothing—after they got back they could rest for a few days.

Ye Ye Dasao and Ye Ye Ersao only learned after they returned that the third branch had struck it rich again, and sourness began to well up in their hearts.

Ever since he turned over a new leaf, earning money had become far easier for him than for anyone else—in just a few short months, their household had grown richer than any of theirs. Truly, one should look at a man with new eyes after three days apart.

Words of envy slipped out as they worked and chatted…

Lin Lin Xiuqing listened to their sour talk, only smiling on the surface without responding, or brushing past it lightly.

Ye Mu also pretended not to hear—anyway, the family had already split, and she didn't need to play peacemaker. Each household lived its own life. Besides, they had even contributed their boat to the eldest and second branches; if their luck at making money wasn't as good as the third branch's, there was nothing to be done about it.

Three hundred jin of sardines, with five people helping, were processed quickly—killing and drying side by side, everything was done in two hours. Neat rows of long bamboo flats stood along the side of the wall by the door, and everyone packed up and went home to sleep.

Only after returning to the room did Lin Lin Xiuqing take the camellia oil, help him take off his clothes, and apply it for him. Afraid the lamp was too bright and would wake the children, the two of them stayed in the main hall.

"Hiss~ Easy~ Ooh~"

"Can you stop moaning, don't wake the children."

"But it hurts…"

"Is it really that exaggerated?"

"It really hurts! You have no idea—from before dawn until dark, Father and I worked the nets, how much stamina we burned, how much strength we lost, how much our waist power was overdrawn. We couldn't even lift our arms before we headed back, otherwise we wouldn't have dragged on until dark—it was all because we wanted to cast a few more nets and earn a bit more money…"

She had originally thought he was exaggerating on purpose to tease her, but hearing this now, she felt sorry for him too, and her hands grew much gentler.

"You need to rub the back and shoulders too, and the waist—my waist is so sore too. I really exerted myself today. Tomorrow morning, remember to go buy a pig kidney and bring it back to nourish me."

Lin Lin Xiuqing shot a look at his back—he'd had so many frisky ideas in the shower just now despite his sore waist.

"Got it."

"From now on, buy one every day."

"Mm."

Ye Yaodong was extremely satisfied—sure enough, he needed to play the pitiful card once in a while.

"Those two geese in the pond—watch over them tomorrow and stew one. Pack more over to the old house. Each one weighs over 20 jin, more than enough for our two families. The other one, take it to Ye Ye Dasao and Ye Ye Ersao tomorrow and let them split it themselves. I forgot to mention it before."

"Alright, no difference. Taking it to them to split tomorrow works just the same."

The couple chatted about household matters for a while before going back to the room to sleep.

Ye Yaodong deliberately slept on the small bed that night, afraid the two little rascals slept too wildly and would roll over and press on him.

He didn't know if it was because he had overworked during the day, but the moment he lay down, he fell into a deep sleep. He didn't even wake up in the night—it was Lin Lin Xiuqing, after finishing the cooking and seeing the time was about right, who woke him up.

Even after waking, he still felt so exhausted he couldn't open his eyes, and his arms hurt even more. He figured the muscles must be strained. Once all the hooks were hauled back, he'd really need to rest up properly for a while.

"If you're too tired, how about we don't go? I'll call your friends tomorrow during the day to go with you to haul them in?"

"No need, it's fine, I'll get up now. They have their own work to do too. I only called Big Brother and Ye Erge because it was convenient. I can rest on the boat anyway."

He took a moment to steady himself before getting up, and sneezed twice.

After Lin Lin Xiuqing helped him put on his clothes and pants, she also brought him an old padded jacket. Although it was only October, the sea temperature was low, the wind was strong, and the difference between day and night was big.

"Wear something thicker so you don't catch a cold. You were wearing wet clothes stuck to your body for so long yesterday."

Ye Yaodong rubbed his slightly itchy nose. "Mm…"

After eating, he had his big brother and second brother help push the handcart with the bamboo baskets, and the three brothers headed for the dock.

This time was also the first time the three of them went out to sea together.

Ye Ye Yaopeng said so with a smile too.

"Yeah, rare indeed, hehe." Ye Ye Yaohua pushed the handcart in agreement.

"It is rare. Going out to sea today, we'll have to watch you make a fortune."

"Hehe, whether we make a fortune or not is hard to say. Yesterday was such a pity. We don't know what we'll drag up today either—hope you can leave us a little."

"Probably will, right? Too bad we don't know where the sardines swam off to after half a day, otherwise we might be able to chase them down."

Ye Yaodong also didn't know where the sardines had gone after half the night. This kind of luck didn't come every day.

After the three got on the boat, he stood to the side watching the compass, directing the sailing direction.

After sailing for over an hour, he felt they were about there, so he told his big brother to slow down and carefully shine the flashlight over the sea surface to search.

Only after wandering around the nearby sea for half an hour did he find the buoy. Good thing it was still there, and good thing there were no big waves at night either—otherwise he'd have had nowhere to look.

Ye Ye Yaopeng also saw his buoy in the distance, adjusted the fishing boat's direction, and steered toward that spot.

"This is it, right?"

"Yeah, this is it. Sorry to trouble Big Brother and Ye Erge."

"No trouble. We're also curious what your longline fishing will pull up today. I heard longline fishing only catches big fish, not small ones. Let's see how efficient your method is. Dad told us yesterday that longline fishing works well and told us we could give it a try."

"Longline fishing is pretty good, it's just that our village mainly uses trawl nets. My fish hooks aren't big, and the fishing boat isn't great either—we can probably only catch fish of a few jin in weight. Anything bigger is just luck. Some longline fishing can specifically catch tuna in the deep sea—that's impressive, but unfortunately our boat can't go there."

That required medium or large fishing boats, speeding across the vast ocean to track tuna schools. The equipment on board had to be in place too—it wasn't something their crude iron-hulled boat could handle.

Moreover, the main longline rope had very strict requirements.

Generally, multi-strand nylon rope was used, with a diameter of 4-5 millimeters and a tensile strength maintained at 100-150 kilograms.

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The hook branch lines had a diameter of 3-4 millimeters, a tensile strength maintained at 60-80 kilograms, and each branch line was 50 meters long.

The fishing hook was 2.5cm x 2.5cm x 3.5, with a ring loop on the upper end of the shank, made of high-quality steel as a marine fishing barbed hook, its tensile strength no less than that of the branch line, with one hook tied to each branch line.

Many auxiliary tools were also needed, such as large buoys, radio beacons, direction finders, longline winches, capstans, cranes, gaffs, lanyards, and so on.

He didn't have that capability right now—he could only try his luck in the nearshore waters.