Chapter 545

"Alright, whatever you say. Give me the receipt, I want to go home, eat, and sleep."

Today was truly exhausting, the workload was too high, but the harvest was still quite considerable, much better than daily trawling.

He still had to go to Brother Asheng's house in a moment; tomorrow, they couldn't just work like fools with only two people.

"Come back earlier tomorrow, it's hard for me to arrange the vehicle if it's too late. If they aren't sent away tonight, these fish won't be fresh."

"Isn't it just in time? Sending them away now is just in time for the morning market."

"Isn't it troublesome to arrange it at the last minute?" After Acai wrote the cargo list, he handed it to him, "I was sleeping soundly in the middle of the night when your mother pounded on the door to wake me up; I thought something urgent had happened."

"This is an urgent matter. Don't you have to be proactive about making money? Why sleep? Why sleep long before death, and surely sleep long after death? Have you heard that?"

Ye Yaodong took the receipt and walked out while talking.

Hearing this, Acai's mouth twitched speechlessly, "You know quite a lot, and you talk in sets."

Ye Fu and Ye Mu were waiting on the side and also listened with black lines on their heads.

Ye Mu couldn't help but nag him, "What nonsense..."

"What nonsense, it's the truth, right? I know what I said are all pearls of wisdom, and you guys also think it makes a lot of sense, right? Alright, let's go, go home to eat, I'm starving to death."

"You just talk nonsense as soon as you open your mouth." Ye Mu rolled her eyes at him and was about to push the cart when she was pushed aside by Ye Fu.

"I'll do it."

"If you want to do it, then do it." Ye Mu stood aside, looked at Ye Yaodong, and asked, "How much money did you sell today?"

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"176 yuan and some change, just so-so."

"So much and still just so-so?"

"50 nets, Mother. On average, each net only earned three yuan and sixty cents. Is it because we caught the otters and sold them for 60 yuan more?"

"But you didn't sell these toadfish, right? Wouldn't it be more if you counted them in?"

"They aren't sold, so what's the point of saying anything? This is also good luck, catching three otters. Otherwise, it would only sell for about 150, and each net would still be three yuan. That's only because we put out so many nets; if we put out twenty or thirty, it would have to be cut in half."

"Then it's no good to come back so late every night. It's one thing to be tired yourself, but in the middle of winter, you have to pull people out of their quilts at night."

Ye Fu interjected, "That's why we need to hire someone to help, otherwise, we can't keep up with collecting the fish, it's too slow."

"We need to hire someone?"

"Hmm, I'll go ask Brother Asheng later if he wants to work with me for a few months?"

"It's so late, he's probably already asleep..."

"There's no other way. It's already so late when we get back. It'll be too late to call him tomorrow. Who knows, he might go out to do other work early in the morning. At that time, we'll only be able to call others at the last minute, and that won't be reliable."

Ye Mu frowned, "Then I'll go call him now, you guys go back to eat first."

"That works." It saves him from being even later after he finishes eating.

Ye Mu hurriedly trotted toward the village again.

Ye Yaodong felt that his own mother was his own mother; she was still reliable at critical moments. Being nagged and scolded a few times wouldn't make him lose a piece of flesh.

After Ye Mu left, the father and son continued to walk home, and Ye Fu was still nagging, "I don't know if calling one person to help is enough."

"We'll see tomorrow, if it's not enough, we'll call another one."

"Hmm, I originally wanted to say we put out too many and can't keep up, so we should collect some back and keep them as spares. If any fishing nets are broken and can't be used, we'll put out new ones."

Ye Yaodong had also thought about that, but putting out more means earning more. Let's hire someone first and see. If we can handle it, we'll keep putting them out; if we really can't finish, we'll collect some back and keep them as spares.

"We'll see tomorrow, adjust according to the situation. If there's no cargo from the longline fishing, we'll just collect it back and stop putting it out. Just put out these sticky nets; today's harvest was quite good."

Ye Fu responded, "You decide, you handle it."

Inside the house, the old lady had already reheated the food. Seeing them walk into the courtyard, she brought the food out and put it on the table, telling them to wash their hands and eat.

When they were halfway through their meal, Ye Mu also came back, "I've already agreed with Brother Asheng. He was originally going to work outside the pier tomorrow, but fortunately, I went to tell him tonight, otherwise, he would have had to leave at three or four in the morning before dawn."

After Ye Yaodong stuffed the last bite of food into his mouth, he nodded, "Did you tell him how much the wages are? Is it calculated by the day or by the month?"

"I didn't say that. Anyway, we won't let our own family suffer a loss. You can tell him tomorrow whether it's by the day or by the month. Calculating by the day is probably more cost-effective, who knows how many days a month you can go?"

"Hmm, then we'll talk about it tomorrow."

Ye Fu also said, "Anyway, whatever others pay, we'll pay the same."

Ye Yaodong felt that giving a few more cents didn't matter; it was his own family anyway.

A good night's sleep until dawn.

Early in the morning, Ye Yaosheng was already actively waiting at the door. Ye Yaodong and the others were still eating breakfast and hurriedly invited him in to eat together.

He hurriedly refused.

Lin Xiuqing was using an aluminum lunch box to pack the food they would eat on the boat today. Seeing him, she also hurriedly asked, "Did you bring a lunch box?"

"Lunch box? No."

"Then go home and get one, I don't have any more lunch boxes here."

"Oh."

Because they were busy collecting nets all day yesterday, they didn't have time to cook anything to eat. From morning to night, they only took time to cook noodles once in the middle, and by the evening, they were already starving. After Lin Xiuqing found out last night, she didn't cook porridge early this morning, but cooked dry rice, so the porridge wouldn't disappear after a few pees.

Dry rice is more filling, and she could cook a bit more, pack it into the lunch box, and let them take it to the boat to eat.

If they were hungry while collecting nets, they just needed to put it on the stove and heat it up, which saved them from having to go to the trouble of cooking noodles, and it also saved some time.

She also happened to cook a large pot of radish and bone soup. Early in the morning, she went to the village and happened to see someone pushing a small cart selling pork. The pig head bones were cheap, only 5 cents a jin, so she bought half of one.

Eat radish in winter and ginger in summer. She cooked a large pot and put it in a small water bucket for them to take to the boat. When they wanted to eat, they just needed to heat it up with the rice. They didn't need any other dishes, just dried fish, and the lunch box space could be freed up to pack more rice.

When Ye Yaosheng came back with the lunch box and saw it, he also smiled and said, "Your food is good, there's fish, meat, and vegetables."

Lin Xiuqing also smiled and said, "I was just afraid you wouldn't have time to cook on the boat, so I prepared it in advance. When the time comes, heat the soup in the pot, and stack the rice on top to heat together. This way, you can eat a hot meal in the middle of winter, and it saves you from having to cook a pot of noodle soup that isn't enough to eat."

"You're very thoughtful, it's good to have a wife at home."

"If you earn more money, you can also remarry. You're only in your 30s, it's not too late to marry a wife."

Ye Yaodong glanced at his father. Yesterday on the boat, he was still saying that 30-year-olds who weren't married had problems, that people in their 30s could be grandfathers, and if they weren't married, they would be criticized to death, and so on. Now he was saying it wasn't too late.

Ye Yaosheng just chuckled and didn't say anything.

After the rice and soup were packed and everything was put on the cart, Ye Yaosheng scrambled to push the cart.

The longline fishing had been at sea for a day without being collected. As soon as they went to sea, Ye Yaodong drove the boat directly to the location where the longline fishing was placed, preparing to collect the 1,000 hooks first before going to collect the sticky nets.

In case they couldn't keep up again and dragged it for another day, the fish on the hooks wouldn't be fresh.

After Ye Yaosheng found out, he couldn't help but say, "You've really laid out a huge spread. It would have been enough to just do 50 sticky nets, but you also did 1,000 longline hooks. It's a wonder you and your father can handle it."

"Wasn't it just to try it out since we hadn't put out that many before? I spent a lot of money on that rolling wheel, so I have to put out more nets to earn back the cost, right? It was 700 yuan."

"Hehe, that's true, the cost was too high."

"Hmm, take advantage of the weather and put out a bit more." Ye Yaodong also took the opportunity to talk to him about the wages.

As a worker, whether it's calculated by the month or by the day depends on how the employer calculates it, and it's not his place to decide.

However, although Ye Yaodong calculated by the day, the wages he offered weren't low—it was calculated at three yuan a day, the same wages as going to catch jellyfish. In this way, he had even less objection; other people only earned a little over two yuan a day working at sea.

"You're letting me take advantage again."

"What's this about taking advantage or not among family? Who am I hiring if not you? It's just that the first time is strange and the second time is familiar, I'm more at ease hiring you."

"Good."

Today at sea was quite smooth, they didn't encounter any accidents or people. After collecting the longline fishing, they immediately followed up by collecting the sticky nets.

Maybe because they had been out for two days, the harvest from the longline fishing was very good, and the fish were still very fresh.

And they also collected a dozen-jin-sized permit fish, about 50 centimeters long, which made them very happy. Besides this one large permit fish, they also collected over a hundred smaller ones, weighing one or two jin each.

Ye Yaodong felt that a school of permit fish must have just passed by, which is why they were caught by the longline fishing.

The permit fish is a fish that often feeds in coastal near-shore waters and likes to live in groups.

Besides this, there were all kinds of other fish left, all common daily ones.

This made him a bit reluctant to give it up. Originally, he wanted to see if the harvest today was large? If not, he would give up the longline fishing to avoid being unable to keep up.

Ye Fu also knew his original plan and was a bit reluctant, "The harvest looks quite good."

"It's okay, but it's a bit too much to handle, and this is also troublesome. After collecting it, you have to hire people to organize it. After organizing it, when you put it down the next day, you have to hang bait one by one. It's too troublesome and delays things. Let's forget it for now."

"Sigh, I thought so too, it's just a pity to give it up when the harvest today is quite good."

"Can't handle it. There are 50 sticky nets, and today we spent two hours collecting the longline fishing. I guess we'll have to work until dark again."

"Hmm, speed up the net collection, we'll collect the fish faster behind."