Chapter 384: People from the County Have Arrived

Strange news always spreads especially fast. By the time Ye Yaodong returned in the evening, he had already heard that the surrounding villages were all abuzz with the story that someone from their Bai Sha Village had hauled a great cauldron out of the sea and offered it to Goddess Mazu.

The curious folks from the village even went to the Goddess Mazu temple to take a look at what the cauldron looked like, all praising Ye Yaodong for his awareness, saying he wasn't greedy for money, that it was good to offer it, and that donating it to the Goddess Mazu temple would put it to good use, and so on.

"He used to seem pretty unreliable. No family in the village dared marry their daughter off to him. Who would've thought that in just a year or two he'd be on the rise."

"Right, he used to be unreliable. Now even though he still looks pretty carefree and a bit roguish, he's actually become quite dependable."

"Dependable? He's making money!"

"Isn't that right? It's only been so long—small boat swapped for a big one, hauling in big catches every now and then. You can see their family's life getting better and better…"

"That's right, and they had a daughter too, adding another mouth to the family…"

"Bringing in wealth and treasure, adding to the family—he's got it all…"

"Wonder what dogshit luck he walked into…"

"Back then his mother was still running around trying to find him a wife, worried he couldn't get one. If I'd known, I would've married my daughter off to him. Now I could be enjoying the good life and helping out the family too…"

"Dream on, will you? Your daughter's face is full of pockmarks, and she's short. Adong may be unreliable, but at least his looks are good…"

"So what if her face is full of pockmarks? They're not on your face, are they? Marrying a man is about clothing and meals. A pretty pillow that can't earn money—what good is a good-looking one?"

"Hmph~ useless? Then why are you standing here regretting it?"

A group of women chatting in the temple ended up arguing, and it took the women beside them playing peacemaker before things quieted down.

Ye Yaodong only knew the talk was spreading fast, not the little episode. He went out to sea to fish as usual every day. He had no idea when officials might show up, and he couldn't just stop going out to sea, sit at home and wait. Why should he? It wasn't like he was the one eagerly offering it up.

He didn't even know if anyone would come. What if the news never reached the county, or the local county people didn't take it seriously?

It just so happened that after all that rain, these past two days had been clear—of course he had to go out to sea.

The matter caused a stir of novelty in the village for a day or two, then it faded a bit. Once other fresh family gossip came up, it got completely buried, though people still brought it up occasionally for a few words.

Four or five days passed, and the village remained calm. Ye Yaodong thought that was that for the cauldron.

But just when he'd tossed it to the back of his mind, that day people from the county cultural center and the county government suddenly showed up, with the village committee accompanying them to his door.

When Ye Yaodong returned from the sea, the moment his boat docked at the pier, nosy villagers excitedly shouted at him to hurry home, saying bigwigs from the county had come looking for him, and a whole bunch of people were sitting at his doorstep waiting for him to come back.

"Huh? All sitting at my doorstep? Who? What for? How many people?"

He thought they wouldn't come, but they actually did.

"Six, seven, eight, or nine, I guess. You'll know when you go back and see for yourself. That whole bunch wearing Zhongshan suits—we don't recognize them either."

Six, seven, eight, or nine? That's quite a range.

Ye Yaodong unhurriedly went to push the cart, planning to push it to the shore to unload the catch later. As he walked, he said, "When did they arrive? What for? Nobody gave me a heads-up. The sun's already going down."

A middle-aged woman nearby chimed in, "They came in the morning. Seems it's about that cauldron you hauled up a few days ago. They went to the Goddess Mazu temple in the morning too, stayed inside for quite a while, talking about cultural relics, antiques, how rare it was, that it belongs to the country. They told the village committee a whole bunch of stuff none of us could understand."

"Right, the way they talked about how rare that cauldron is, it feels like they came with bad intentions. Seems like they want to take away the cauldron you donated to the Goddess Mazu temple."

"Right, from what we heard, they want to take the cauldron away. We can't just let them take it. It's our temple's property now—it's already been donated to Goddess Mazu, so it's Goddess Mazu's. How can we let them take it?"

"Exactly, you need to go back and tell them to go find another one somewhere else."

"Right, tell them to go find another one somewhere else."

A bunch of women and villagers who hadn't gone out to sea were all chattering away.

Ye Yaodong listened, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Are they still there? The sun's already set."

"Seems they haven't left, still here. Knowing you went out to sea, the village committee took them around for a tour today. By the afternoon they were sitting at your doorstep again waiting for you."

"I'm getting such a grand reception? A bunch of bigwigs sitting at my house waiting for me?"

Thinking about it, he felt a bit pleased with himself. He hadn't expected such treatment—something ordinary people wouldn't get to enjoy.

"Isn't that right? So many bigwigs waiting at your doorstep—has anyone else ever had that? Heard them calling each other things like director, secretary—looked pretty important."

"Right, right, right, they looked very impressive. Hurry back, don't dawdle here."

"Alright, let me push the cart over first. If you folks are free, help my dad out for a bit. Otherwise once I leave, he won't have anyone to help, and the catch better not get stolen."

"No problem, there are so many people here. We'll all keep an eye on it for you. Hurry up and go."

Ye Yaodong handed the catch over to his dad to sell, asked the villagers for help, and hurried back. He'd gotten back fairly early today—the sun had only just set not long after docking, and it was still bright. Summer days get dark late.

He jogged along with his hat in his hand, followed by a few nosy villagers who planned to tag along to watch the fun.

As he neared his front door, he saw from afar a group of people stand up. He couldn't tell what they were saying—they muttered a few words, then walked back inside while talking. A Qing stood beside them with a smile on her face.

"Ah! Adong's back!"

"Back?"

"Finally back?"

"Coming back so late, we were about to leave."

Chen Shuji said with an apologetic smile, "Getting back at this hour today is actually pretty early. The past few days our village fishermen only docked after dark—working under the stars isn't easy. I mentioned it to the leaders earlier, and they all said they'd wait."

He kept putting in good words for Ye Yaodong. "Adong didn't know guests would come today, and nobody gave him a heads-up to ask him to stay home and wait. Otherwise he wouldn't have kept the leaders waiting so long…"

An old man with hair nearly white and gray said with a chuckle, "Hehehe~ Good that you're back. At least we didn't come for nothing. Come, come, come… now that the man's back, let's go inside and sit for a while…"

"Waited the whole day just to catch him. Can't just leave like this. Let's go in and sit for a while, say what needs to be said, tell him not to go out to sea tonight, and we'll come back tomorrow to discuss in detail."

"Then let's go in, let's go in. Can't have come for nothing—the man's back…"

"Right, it's not like we can't spare a little more time."

"Let's go in and talk… go in and talk… it won't get dark that fast…"

The leaders in Zhongshan suits, seeing Ye Yaodong, exchanged a few words and then walked back inside, not giving him a chance to speak or ask questions. It was Chen Shuji who waved him over and told him to hurry and follow.

Truth be told, none of them really took a fisherman like him seriously. Good thing he hadn't eagerly gone and offered himself up.

The nosy villagers and neighbors followed along, and some well-informed folks, hearing the news that Ye Yaodong was back, also ran over.

In no time, a crowd was packed shoulder to shoulder at their doorstep, everyone craning their necks to look inside the house.

Ye Yaodong looked at the so-called bigwigs the villagers had been talking about. Sure enough, two of them actually looked familiar—they'd shown up when evaluating the ten-thousand-yuan households.

Youth is a wonderful thing—so is the memory.

After entering the room, he stood beside Chen Shuji without speaking, intending to wait for these people to speak first.

The white-haired old man looked at him and smiled. "I'm Li Deyao, the county cultural center director. You're Comrade Ye Yaodong, yes?"

"I am."

"Here's the thing. A couple of days ago we heard that you hauled up a large bronze cauldron, and your village head confirmed it when he went to the county for a meeting, so today we came together to take a look."

"It's not just a couple of days ago, it's already been five or six days."

A few days earlier he had still heard that people had gone into the water at the spot where he hauled up the bronze cauldron, intending to see if there were any more underneath, and if so, to pick up a few and sell them to junk dealers for some money—but one after another they all returned empty-handed. A pressure increase every ten meters is no joke.

An ordinary person, without any tools, can generally dive to less than 10 meters; someone with a slightly weaker physique might only manage around 5 meters; a professional can dive to about 30 meters; and of course there are even more capable ones.

"Yes, we know it was five or six days ago. It's just that we only heard and confirmed it a couple of days ago, so here we are, at your door today. It's just unfortunate we didn't give you a heads-up in advance—you waited around the whole day for nothing, we almost returned empty-handed, but luckily you came back in time."

The old man spoke quite politely, with a smiling face to match. Ye Yaodong found it pleasant to listen to, and a smile came to his own face as well. "Yes, I didn't know in advance. If I had, I would have waited at home, and saved the leaders a whole day of waiting around."

"No matter, it was us who came on short notice. It's also a bit late today, so let me just get straight to the point. When you hauled it up, was there only that one large cauldron, or were there other things dragged up along with it?"

The Cultural Relics Protection Law had been implemented in 1982. With the large bronze cauldron already out there, he figured that even if he held back the wine cup, it would be a hot potato—he wouldn't dare put it on the market. And the longer it sat around, the more valuable it got, and the more criminal the charge. Better to hand it over directly and earn some goodwill.

Regardless of whether they could get the villagers' consent to take the large cauldron away from the Goddess Mazu Temple, he had at least contributed the wine cup, so he ought to receive some commendation and honor.

Having just built up a wave of goodwill with the villagers, he couldn't let the honors fall behind either.

Ye Yaodong nodded and admitted, "Yes. Along with the large cauldron, there was also a bronze wine cup dragged up. Wait a moment, I'll go inside and get it for you."