Chapter 777: The Rice Boat

Having an elder at home is like having a treasure. Recently, Lin Lin Xiuqing has been busy late into the night, so she sleeps in late in the mornings and only gets up when she hears voices near mealtime.

Although the old lady also stayed up late with her, old people sleep little, so she still gets up at first light every day as usual to cook porridge, feed the chickens and ducks, water the vegetable plot—never changing, never missing a single day.

It really did take a lot of burden off Ah Qing, saving her plenty of work.

As soon as they finished eating, each of them grabbed a burlap sack and went to collect the dried cuttlefish and dried bā láng fish, then carried them onto the flatbed cart and hauled them home load by load.

When the sun hung high in the sky and they were weighing goods at the doorway, they saw a few cadres from the village committee walking ahead, with several villagers flanking them on either side, heading toward their house and passing right by their front door.

"Secretary Chen, where are you off to? Leading such a big group for an inspection?"

"No, no. Some villagers want to build houses here too, around this area. They've already picked out the land, so we're bringing people over to measure it."

"Oh."

"Everyone says the feng shui here is good. Every household living here has a trawler, so they want to move over and see if it can change their own feng shui, bring them some luck."

"Well, word sure travels."

Ye's mother called out in her booming voice, "Whose family is moving over here to build? You know what, they're not wrong—this whole stretch really does have good feng shui. When the time comes, get a few more households to move over as neighbors, and it'll be livelier around here."

"It's the folks from Sanpingshan. The mountain isn't as lively as the village, and there's not as much open land, so they're coming down to build two rooms."

"Oh, no wonder they look a bit unfamiliar."

"We'll get to work now…"

"Oh, alright, alright."

Ye's mother watched the visitors walk past their front door, craning her neck to look. The open ground by the sea at their place was quite large, and there was a big stretch of open land further in.

"With a few more households, our stretch will be a bit livelier, won't look so out-of-the-way."

"It's fine, it's still in the village—how could it be out-of-the-way?" Ye Yaodong said. "Stop making a fuss, we're still weighing goods. If you want to watch the fun, go on over and have a look."

"Then I'll go have a look…"

They were plenty busy at hand—nowhere near as free as Ye's mother, so shooing her off worked out perfectly.

The catch of cuttlefish on the second and third days was substantial, more than the first day, and the dried cuttlefish they sun-dried was also more than the first day's. Weighing the two days' goods together came to 1,056 jin.

There was also the bā láng fish—over 500 jin sun-dried. Their bā láng fish was boiled first before being laid out to dry.

Once dried, bā láng fish can be eaten directly, or stir-fried with garlic shoots, used as an ingredient in savory porridge, or cooked in rice noodle soup—good texture, fresh flavor.

Different fish have different flavors once dried and cooked. He went for variety—after all, the catch differs every season, and switching up the ways of eating keeps it from getting boring.

These 500 jin of bā láng fish, he planned to send to the shop in the city to replenish stock. The retail price was higher, and the shop was running low on inventory, so they refused to buy at wholesale.

After delivering the just over 1,000 jin of dried cuttlefish to the warehouse in the city, weighing it and collecting payment, Ye Yaodong headed straight for the shop.

It had been a long time since he last came—over a month—and it was noticeably busier than before.

It was already mid-afternoon, and the market had closed, yet there were still quite a few people around, many lingering at the nearby shops.

Honestly, in just over a month since his last visit, over a dozen new shops had sprung up nearby—selling all sorts of things: breakfast, snacks, noodle shops, even a general store, and two shops like his selling dried goods, and they looked like they were doing well too!

His father-in-law had mentioned it before, but he heard the prices were a bit higher than theirs.

The reasoning was that the market bought from them to resell, and the market price was already higher than what they caught themselves. On top of that, the shops were rented, so they had to sell even more expensive—otherwise, where's the profit?

So he wasn't worried. They had a natural advantage—their catch was their own, and the shop was bought outright. Small profits, quick turnover, more to be made.

After arriving at the shop, Ye Yaodong unloaded the goods and, in no rush to load up, first took a walk around the market. He found five or six shops had opened around the second entrance, and three on either side of the third entrance.

It looked like it wouldn't be long before his eldest brother's and Ye Ye Erge's shops got rented out too. If it weren't for not finding the right person to mind the shop, and the two of them being rather honest, not quick-witted enough, he'd probably be thinking of putting them to use too.

Lin Fu saw him return from his stroll and said, "I don't think it'll be long before your other shop gets rented out too."

"No rush. Let's wait and see."

"Sigh, you guys really came late. By the time you get home it'll be dark. Earlier, around one o'clock, I couldn't wait any longer, so I called back. Ah Qing said you'd only just left. I was worried the fish would go bad sitting in the sun at the door, so I moved them inside the warehouse."

"Mm, we'll load up and leave. It gets dark late these days—it won't get dark until half past six. The county town should be just getting dark."

"Get back early. If anything comes up, I'll call you."

"Mm, in a couple of days when Zhou Shu comes to deliver goods, have him stick up a few more of those red rental notices. The ones we put up before have faded and don't stand out anymore."

"Got it."

Before leaving, Ye Yaodong wandered around the nearby shops a bit more, discussing with Yang Yang Dajiu and figuring that opening an eatery around here wouldn't be bad.

From morning till night there are people around, and food and drink come first. With people coming and going, there's always demand.

Still, their family had no energy to spare for this—everyone had their job, each with their own duties, no idle hands.

The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart. Yang Yang Dajiu really did take a careful second look.

The bustle of the city had already opened this country bumpkin's eyes; he wouldn't dare dream of anything. But seeing that the food shops around here were all doing well, and hearing Ye Yaodong say so, he suddenly took an interest.

Ah Dong was so good at making money, and he'd even opened a shop in the city—whatever he said couldn't be wrong.

But they were about to set off. On the way, sitting in the rumbling tractor as it bumped along, he could only hold his thoughts in check—later, he'd think it over.

Ye Yaodong had no idea that his casual words had gotten Yang Yang Dajiu's brain ticking. He pressed his handkerchief over his nose and mouth against the tractor's noise, his mind drifting out to sea, wondering if today's catch had gone smoothly.

These past few days, one boat could pull in six or seven hundred jin, so today should be no different—might even catch more.

Drying five hundred jin a day could sell for 1,200 yuan, netting 900. Three boats in one Fishing season could earn enough to make a ten-thousand-yuan household!

Drying really was worth it—good money!

Ye Yaodong thought and thought, the corners of his mouth turning up, his heart blooming with satisfaction.

But once he got home, what awaited him was a major hemorrhage.

The trip back was uneventful, following a big cargo truck the whole way. He had just jumped off the tractor to announce his safe arrival and was about to unload when he heard Ah Qing's nagging voice.

"There's nowhere left to pile things. You'll have to drive the tractor over to the small workshop to unload. We should've set off for the city earlier. By the time we got home it was already dark, and there's already a huge pile of cuttlefish at the door waiting to be cleaned. Add this cartload on top, and we won't finish cleaning them before dawn."

"Then haul this cart over to the workshop to unload, and get four or five people to come over with their own knives to help clean. Call the other aunties, aunts-in-law, sisters-in-law over. We need to clean them while they're fresh— they've been piled up all day already, and in this heat, sitting too long won't stay fresh."

"Mm, Mother went to help fetch water. I'll go call people. You unload first—there's something I need to tell you later."

Ye Yaodong was puzzled. "What is it? Didn't the trawling go well today?"

"No, it's not about the sea. Look how much cuttlefish we've netted and hauled back—what could be wrong at sea? It's about A-Guang. He came by just now, but you weren't here, so he stayed a while and went back, saying he'd come again later."

He grew even more puzzled.

"What could Ah Guang possibly want?"

"No rush, you can tell me whenever. Go unload the goods first. I'll hurry and get someone over to clean the fish, and I'll come inside and tell you in a bit."

"Oh, alright then."

If he wasn't in a hurry to talk about it, then it wasn't anything urgent, so he wouldn't be anxious either.

Anyway, he'd been off the cart for a while now and hadn't heard the few women currently cleaning cuttlefish gossiping about anything related, so it probably wasn't important, wasn't anything major.

After Ye Yaodong unloaded the goods, he told his brother-in-law to go sleep first. There was no need to keep watch tonight either—once all this was done it would probably already be dawn, and there were people everywhere around them, so there was no need to stand guard.

Later he'd still have to carry the big pot over here; the horse mackerel needed to be boiled and dried. If he'd known, he would've told his father-in-law to buy other fish today, to save trouble—once cleaned, salted for half an hour, washed, and they could be dried.

He didn't know if it was because there'd been a lot of horse mackerel these past few days that his father-in-law specifically bought this kind.

He grumbled to himself, settled the fare with Zhou Shu, thanked him profusely, then packed a basket of fresh horse mackerel for him to take home—a small gift carrying deep sentiment.

"Dongzi!"

"Huh? Oh, you're here. When I got back earlier, Ah Qing even told me you'd come looking for me."

Ah Guang got off his bicycle and said, "Just got back? Brought back so much fish again? And so many cuttlefish too—you'd never finish even working till dawn."

"Ah Qing went to get people. Anyway, they're stacked separately, so we can handle both sides at the same time."

"Your little workshop is getting more and more booming—more and more people being called in."

"Hahaha, not at all, not at all. It's just that I got back late today and couldn't handle it alone, everything piled up together, so I called a few extra people. What's up with you? I just got back and Ah Qing already told me—you were looking for me."

"Let's go, we'll talk at your place."

"Alright then, let's talk at home."

Ah Guang pushed his bicycle as he walked and said, "A few days ago, in a village on the town, four people—a father and son, and uncle and nephew—died at sea. You've heard, right?"

Ye Yaodong was stunned for a moment. "Ah, I heard. What about it? Did they find out who did it? That can't be, right?"

"No, it's not that. Uncle Zheng, the one who sold you the dried fish from the 30,000 jin of Bombay duck earlier—do you still remember him?"

"Yeah, I remember. What about it?"

"He said before that his friend had ordered a 26-meter boat at the shipyard…"