Chapter 505

Ye Fu thought about it and felt that what he said made a lot of sense.

"Then we won't stay in this village today? Later, we'll go draw two more buckets of well water to keep on the boat. It feels like this fishing season is coming to an end, so let's make sure nothing goes wrong."

Pei Fu chimed in, "I think that works. It's not like we haven't lived on the boat before; sleeping on the boat is more reassuring."

Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua exchanged a glance. "We have no objections."

"Then we'll just go draw a few more buckets of water later. We don't need to move our things either; we'll just find a deserted island with a small beach nearby and leave them there. If it happens to rain, we'll just go stay at the guesthouse, and we can leave one or two people on the boat to keep watch."

"When the time comes, we'll also bring the goods to the deserted island to process them. Once that's done, we'll pack them into baskets and send them to the town pier, and have the tractor come to the town pier to pick them up. That way, we save the trouble of changing locations every three days, which annoys people and makes it hard for them to find us," Ye Yaodong added.

It was only because he was savvy that he got things done; he'd spent quite a bit on cigarettes during this time, otherwise, who would bother with him?

With him changing locations every few days now—hitting and running—who would be willing to follow behind his backside to collect goods? It was only because he did things so well that, even though people weren't happy, they felt obligated since they'd taken his gifts, and they also thought about how they were outsiders and friends of someone at the factory, so they were more tolerant.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Then let's do that. No need to move to the next village; living on an island is less trouble, no need to keep changing. We'll just find any village to dock at for now and draw a few buckets of water," Ye Fu said, and then began looking around for a place to dock.

For the past month or so, they had been shuttling back and forth in these waters and were already as familiar with them as could be. They were very familiar with the surrounding villages, and they had stayed in villages on both the Zhejiang and Fujian provincial borders.

Ye Yaodong's boat was now considered their lead boat. Ye Fu steered it and just picked a nearby village to dock at. The other boats followed suit, and then several strong laborers took buckets down to draw water.

Ye Ersao had no objections to staying on the deserted island alone. Since they were already here, she would do whatever everyone said; this was also for everyone's safety.

They had moved everything onto the boats at dawn and were heading to the next village while fishing. Since they had decided on the spur of the moment to go to the deserted island, they only needed to go to a nearby village to draw a few buckets of water.

After everyone and everything was placed on the deserted island, Ye Erge also stayed behind temporarily to help organize things, while the other three boats took advantage of the remaining half-day to continue fishing.

It was the same location and the same sea, but thanks to them and the sea turtles, the quantity had decreased drastically compared to before. It was no longer the crowded, bustling scene they had seen at the beginning, and even the jellyfish floating on the surrounding sea surface had decreased significantly.

Everyone understood after seeing this that they wouldn't be able to fish for many more days; it was already September 22nd today.

But as long as there was something to catch, they continued to catch it. Even a mosquito's leg is meat, and they could still earn a little bit more.

However, just as they were about to head back, a boat suddenly entered their field of vision, and it was speeding straight toward them. Immediately after, two more boats behind it also turned in their direction. All three boats were moving quite fast.

Seeing them from afar, they slowed down and the three boats gathered together, fearing some accident.

But to their surprise, after they got closer, they discovered it was actually the boat of old acquaintances.

"Ah? Comrade Ye Yaodong—" Lu Hongwei shouted excitedly after the boat approached. "It's okay, it's okay..."

The Lu family's boat also discovered it was Ye Yaodong's boat and immediately felt relieved. They quickly slowed down, circled around, turned their bow, and sailed parallel to them.

The boats behind saw so many boats here and also slowed down. Seeing them chatting happily from afar, they retreated in the face of difficulties.

"It's a good thing we ran into you again. You really are our noble benefactors."

"We didn't expect you to still be around here. We thought you had gone back to your hometown."

"Was your money stolen? Is that why you didn't leave?"

The Lu family members were excited, each saying a word, and Ye Yaodong couldn't even answer them all.

"Yeah, just as we were leaving, we ran into a thief climbing onto our boat. He stole the money and jumped into the water to run away. It made us work for nothing for ten days, and we had to start all over again."

He lied without batting an eye and added, "Why are you being chased by people again? This time there are two boats chasing you. Is it still people from your neighboring village?"

"Yeah, the fight between the two villages is over, but when we meet at sea, we still get bullied. During this time, all the boats are in the surrounding waters catching jellyfish, and we haven't gone further out. The chance of running into them is too high. Damn it, in a few days we'll run further away..."

Lu Hongwei said angrily and cursed a few more times.

Then the fourth Lu brother added, "The day after you left, it spread all over the village that you had earned too much, made people jealous, and were robbed by thieves, so you ran away overnight. Everyone says it was Lu Jingshan who stole your 2,000-plus yuan. The next day, he was blocked on the side of the road and beaten up so badly that he was only left with one breath when he was sent home. He's still lying in bed and can't get up. Is that true?"

Ye Yaodong didn't know whether to laugh or cry; it turned out there was such an interlude.

"I'm not sure if he was the one who stole it. Who knows how many waves of thieves there were? Anyway, my money was gone. We weren't on the boat at the time, but we found him there when we were moving things onto the boat, and he jumped into the water with his accomplices to run away."

"Damn! It must have been him. He deserved that beating. It's a good thing you left quickly. There was more and more gossip in the village those few days."

"They all said the jellyfish at sea were all caught by you outsiders, which is why everyone else's catch was so small. They said what you caught should have belonged to everyone, and they shouldn't let you stay any longer. Some people even said they should make you hand over the money to the village and then drive you out..."

"The way they looked with jealousy was terrifying. It's a good thing you ran fast. If you had stayed for two more days, you might not have been able to leave. Even if we wanted to speak up for you, we couldn't stand against the whole village."

Ye Yaodong and his group heard this and couldn't help but feel lucky that they had run fast and that they had changed locations frequently afterward.

"We just thought it would make people jealous, so we decided to leave on the spur of the moment. We just didn't expect to really run into a wave of thieves before leaving. Anyway, we lost money to avoid disaster! There was another group chasing us at the time, but luckily we got on the boat a step ahead of them."

"Sigh, it's not easy being out here. It's just like being at sea; nowhere is peaceful. I don't know when things will be peaceful again."

Ye Yaodong also sighed, "Fishermen have it hard. It's not easy at all. We're all risking our lives at sea to earn hard-earned money..."

"Who's to say otherwise? Those who live on the mountains eat from the mountains, and those who live by the sea eat from the sea. At least we can fill our stomachs now."

"We're heading back now. Are you going back? Want us to give you a lift?"

"Where are you staying now?"

"Wandering around. Staying here for two days, there for two days. We learned our lesson and don't dare stay in one place for too long. We plan to go home in a few days."

The Lu father on the side spoke up at this time, muttering a bunch of things.

Lu Hongwei helped translate from the side, "My dad says just give us a lift for a short distance, and he wants you not to get close to the village. At this hour, fishing boats are docking one after another, so you don't get surrounded."

"He also says that based on his experience, the fishing season will end within 10 days. It has already decreased a lot now. He suggests that if you can go back early, you should go back early. It's not safe to be away from home."

"Many thanks. We'll be going back soon."

There are still good people out there!

Among the two groups, only Ye Yaodong and Lu Hongwei could communicate a few sentences in Mandarin; the others didn't speak the same language.

After saying a few words, they started the boats, sent them to safer waters, and then turned around and left.

Ye Yaodong walked toward Ye Fu, who was steering the boat. "Dad, let's work for a few more days and then go back. We've earned enough this past month or so. Now the jellyfish are getting fewer by the day. Today's two trips, excluding the jellyfish blood, will probably only sell for a little over 100. It's shrunk by more than half, and it'll probably be even less in two days."

"Hmm, okay, let's call it quits when it's about time. It's almost coming to an end. We can go back and do some trawling then. Although it doesn't earn as much as this, at least it's safer around our own waters."

"Then let's go back two or three days before the Mid-Autumn Festival? Let's work for another three days, rest for one day, and then head back."

"Good."

After getting off the boat, Ye Yaodong mentioned it to the others, saying they would go back about two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Everyone was so happy they almost cheered.

Pei Fu also breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I was just about to suggest to you that we go back before the Mid-Autumn Festival. It's just right to go back for the holiday."

"That's what I was thinking too. We have to go back for the holiday anyway. Since the quantity is decreasing, we've been out for quite a long time."

Ye Ersao also said happily, "Finally we can go back. A golden nest or a silver nest is not as good as one's own grass nest. It's almost Mid-Autumn Festival, we have to go back for the holiday no matter what."

"Let's rest for a day before going back. Everyone can go to town to stroll around and buy some local specialties to take home."

"Good, good, good..."

Everyone, who had been a bit exhausted, instantly became energetic again. With only three or four days left until they could go home, they were all as excited as if they had been injected with chicken blood. Their movements in dragging the jellyfish became nimble, and their bodies were full of drive again.

Ye Yaodong smiled and pressed on, "When we're done with work, we'll go to a restaurant and treat everyone to a good meal. During this time, everyone hasn't been eating or sleeping well. Thank you for your hard work."

Everyone's faces blossomed with smiles.

"It's only right. Who doesn't work hard to earn money?"

"As long as there's money to be made, a little hard work is nothing. I'd only be afraid of working hard and not earning money. This is very good."

Pei Fu also laughed, "When the time comes, we'll also bring some seafood to the restaurant. How can people by the sea have a meal without seafood? We'll make it a bit more sumptuous and reward everyone well, just as if we're celebrating the holiday early together."

Ye Ersao also said, "I'll dig up some oysters and get two bowls of snails and other shellfish to bring..."

"We can also take advantage of our free time to dig up a bit more to bring home. Anyway, there are plenty on the rocks nearby..."

"What's the point of bringing those home? There are plenty of those things on the reefs in our waters too..."

Once the time to go back was confirmed, everyone was very happy, talking happily, one sentence after another...