Chapter 569

"That's exactly how it's calculated! Eating someone else's doesn't cost money, but eating your own does. Of course, you eat someone else's—this is what Dongzi calls 'eating the rich'!"

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes, "You're the real 'fat cat.' You've got two boats at home and brought in nearly 2,000 jin of cargo today—half dragon-head fish, half toadfish. That's double what anyone else has, plus those two big swallow pomfrets weighing over 3 jin each. You're going to make a killing, and you didn't even have to do the work yourself."

"Huh? Big swallow pomfrets over 3 jin? That impressive? Your luck is exploding today."

"Yeah, everyone else's harvest looks pretty good today too. Let's move the cargo off the boat first. Ah Cai ran home to eat, but he should be back soon."

As for the incident with the rat, his father would naturally tell him once he got home, so he wouldn't say anything more.

Right now, he needed to hurry and move the boatload of cargo off. After nightfall, the sea breeze blowing over felt even colder. He had come out early in the afternoon without a scarf, and the cold wind kept blowing into his neck, making him feel chilly.

They had plenty of people who could work right now, so they carried the baskets of fish off the boat in pairs.

There were only three baskets that were going straight to be sold. After dumping them out, sorting them by type, and weighing them, Ye Yaodong borrowed the scale to weigh all the fish they intended to keep for home.

The more Ah Cai watched, the more frustrated he felt, "With you pulling this stunt, our intake volume has shrunk across the board. We used to be able to fill two or three trucks a day, but now we can only manage one."

"The cargo from those small boats using nets can't compare to your kind of boat at all. Besides, it's cold, and the seafood has moved out to the open sea; the small boats can't catch much in the surrounding areas anymore."

"Hey, don't be so stingy. These fish aren't worth much anyway. If they dry them and I buy them, they can earn a little extra money. This is good for everyone; you need to have a higher level of consciousness."

"Higher consciousness my foot! Now even the money for the lake mouth is gone. Can consciousness be eaten as a meal?"

"I've heard your complaints and your excuses. Hurry up and help me use the abacus. How many jin in total? The weights are recorded here. Hurry, we're in a rush to get home for dinner."

Ye Yaodong pushed the list of weights he had just recorded for each basket toward him and urged him without ceremony.

"You cut me off, and now you're bossing me around?"

"Hurry up, stop nagging. Adding them up one by one is too slow. If I knew how to use an abacus, I wouldn't be asking you."

After muttering something, Ah Cai picked up the abacus, shook it twice to reset all the beads, and then began clattering away with the list.

Everyone else stretched their necks to watch.

Watching Ah Cai's fluid movements, Ye Fu couldn't help but speak up, "Dongzi, you were so bored last year that you went to literacy classes. Why didn't you learn to use an abacus?"

"When did you ever see me bored? I was busy as a spinning top. Last year I was just stealing some spare time to go; where would I have had the time to learn the abacus?"

"Learning the abacus is actually quite useful."

"We'll talk about it when I have time. It's already weighed. You take those goods and move them onto the flatbed cart for a trip back first; you won't be able to pull it all in one go."

What's the use of learning that? In a few years, calculators will come out. You just press "beep-beep," how fast is that? Why go through all this trouble?

After finishing the calculation, Ah Cai stopped and said, "If you want to learn the abacus, pay me some tuition. I'll teach you. I guarantee you'll learn it—I could even teach a wooden donkey."

"You're the wooden donkey. You can fool me with people, but you can't fool me with money. How many jin in total?"

"Why would I fool you with people? Even if you were sold to dig coal, nobody would want you. It's 1,111 jin in total."

"It's all 1s."

Ye Mu said with satisfaction, "Having a little over 1,000 jin is fine."

Ye Yaodong was also calculating in his mind. He was delivering the goods in five days. If it was sunny, the goods everyone kept today would be dried by then, and the quantity should be enough, with some to spare.

What they collected in the next few days could be put toward the next delivery.

As long as it didn't rain and stayed sunny for a few days, he would definitely be able to earn those one or two thousand yuan. If it rained, it would be hard to say.

It wasn't just him hoping for a few more sunny days; the few households he had agreed with were also looking forward to the weather being cooperative so everyone could earn a bit more money.

Although his move to collect dried fish was only on a small scale, by the very next day, it had spread throughout the entire village.

There are no secrets in the countryside; everyone is very idle and loves to listen to gossip.

What's more, several households had their entire doorways hung full of fish they had slaughtered overnight, and many were even asking people everywhere to help them slaughter more. By mid-morning, the whole village knew.

It was just that Ye Yaodong had gone out to sea to collect nets early in the morning and wasn't home, so he didn't know his wife was having a terrible headache at home.

She had been dealing with villagers coming to the door to ask all morning. Everyone wanted to sell their dried fish to them, and even people from the neighboring village wanted to dry fish to sell to them...

The nearby villages were all close to each other, intermarrying and interacting, all related by blood or marriage, so news traveled especially fast.

She hadn't had a moment of leisure all morning, and her mouth was dry from talking. Just after she sent this wave of people away, she hurriedly bolted the door, not daring to keep the courtyard gate wide open, and hid inside the house.

"The tea I just poured is still a bit hot. Wait a while before drinking it; hold it first to warm your hands. You've been standing outside the whole time, it's freezing." The old lady had poured her a cup of tea in advance and left it there to cool.

Lin Xiuqing sat on the reclining chair, rubbed her cheeks, and then held the bowl containing the tea.

"I didn't have my mouth twisted from smiling while earning and counting money, but my face is about to go stiff from smiling at these people. This morning, everyone was like a cat that smelled fish—people I know and people I don't all ran to the door to ask if we still wanted dried fish. They really treat Adong like a boss; one after another, they spout sweet words that don't cost a cent."

"You're a young wife with thin skin. If it were your mother, she would just say she didn't want any, that it was enough, and close the door."

"They're all smiling and saying nice things to my face, so I'm too embarrassed to chase them away."

The old lady smiled, "It's fine. You'll be better after you've experienced it more. In the future, if you want to hear nice things, chat with them for a while; if you don't want to hear them, just say you're busy."

Lin Xiuqing laughed, "Better after experiencing it more? Do you really think people will come to our door to curry favor with us every day? Adong hasn't become that successful yet."

"That's not necessarily true. I see that Dongzi is becoming more and more successful."

"You thought so before, too."

"That just shows my judgment was accurate before. Dongzi is the most successful of the three brothers."

Lin Xiuqing was delighted to hear this. She sipped the tea in small mouthfuls, and as the hot tea went down into her stomach, she instantly felt her whole body warm up.

Ye Yaodong, however, didn't even have time to drink a mouthful of hot tea.

Going out to sea on a cold day is no fun; the cold wind kept blowing right into his face, whistling loudly.

Ye Yaodong had wrapped himself up so that only his eyes were exposed, and the knitted cap on his head was pulled down to his ears to make it more bearable.

His father and Brother Brother Brother Asheng weren't as well-protected. The wind had chapped both their faces, and their lips were frozen purple. His father was a bit better off, as he was wearing a knitted cap that Ah Qing had crocheted.

Brother Brother Brother Asheng's ears were frozen bright red, and it felt like he was about to get frostbite. His hair was blown upright by the wind, tangled into a mess—he didn't know how long it had been since he last got a haircut.

The cotton-padded jacket he was wearing looked very thin, and there was even a hole under the armpit where the cold wind kept pouring in. He hadn't heard him sneeze, so he could count himself lucky for having a strong constitution.

It really is hard when there's no woman at home to take care of things.

He turned his head and shouted to Ye Yaosheng, "I'll ask Ah Qing to crochet you a hat tomorrow; wearing it will be a bit warmer."

Then he said to his father, "Didn't I give you a mask before? Why aren't you wearing it? Your nose tip is frozen red."

"Wearing that thing makes breathing difficult; it could suffocate me. Why wear it? What does it matter for a grown man to blow in a little wind? I'm not wearing it."

Forget it if you're not wearing it!

Ye Yaosheng said with a smile, "It's okay, I'm not cold. I'm used to the wind, so it's fine. The wind direction looks pretty favorable today; we should be able to go back early. The sun is out now, and it feels like it's starting to warm up."

"There was a thin layer of frost on the roof when we got up this morning. I don't know how many more days we can go out to sea. It's a good thing it hasn't rained, and it's rare that there's still sun."

Ye Fu said while collecting fish from the fishing net, "The frost might get heavier in the days to come. If we could dry 10,000 jin and have it sitting there in the next few days, we wouldn't have to go out to sea anymore."

"We'll calculate today's harvest when we go back later. I stood outside the pier waiting yesterday, so I have an idea of how many jin each family kept. If things go smoothly, we should be able to dry 10,000 jin in the next few days. We won't need to dry any more after that; we'll just deliver the goods on time."

It's getting colder and colder. The wind was actually a bit strong today, and the boat was rocking quite violently, but it was still barely bearable. They were also risking it because they wanted to earn this money.

If they could dry enough in a few days, they might not necessarily come out in this kind of weather later on.

The wind and waves were big and freezing; going out to sea was too much suffering.

As Ye Yaodong was talking and collecting the fishing net, he happened to see a large, red-and-purple fish being turned up on the roller. It looked particularly delightful.

"Oh my, oh my—there's a red snapper. This fish is good; it's bright red and purple."

The scientific name for this fish is the crimson snapper. It also often moves in nearshore waters, but red snappers in deep water are redder and more vibrant than those in shallow water. Red snappers caught in nearshore shallow areas usually have a duller, grayish color and aren't as beautiful as those in deep water.

Generally, fish with vibrant colors are found more in the deep sea, such as rockfish, tilefish, bo-li fish, and red sea bream. These fish all have relatively vibrant colors and are red; only the rockfish is an exception.

After seeing it, Ye Yaodong didn't stop and continued to collect the fishing net. Ye Fu, who was behind him, was also constantly receiving the fishing net. Seeing this red snapper, he was also very happy.

"It's a pity it's not big—only two or three jin. This fish can grow to several dozen jin."

"I heard it can grow to 50 jin, but when I was working on boats before, the biggest one I ever saw was about 15 jin. I haven't seen any bigger than that," Ye Yaosheng said.

"15 jin is already very big. This one is probably only about three jin, but it can still sell for two or three yuan. That's not bad. It's quite... hiss..."

When the fishing net Ye Fu was receiving reached him, he reached out to grab the red snapper first. As it turned out, the fish was still alive, and it bit his thumb viciously. Fresh blood immediately flowed all over his thumb.

He felt a sharp pain and hurriedly put his thumb into his mouth to suck on it.