Chapter 794: Earned so much?

"Alright, if you want a soccer ball, I'll buy you one when I go to the city next time. We don't have them for sale around here, and the county town might not have them either, but the city should."

Lin Guangyuan jumped three feet high in excitement. "That's great! The city definitely has them. I'm going to have a soccer ball soon too."

"Not 'soon.' You have to wait until I happen to go to the city; I can only buy it if it's on my way."

"Okay, no rush. Whenever you go, you can buy it then; I can wait. If you don't have enough money, Little Uncle-in-law, you can cover it for me, and I'll come back to pick up squid next year to pay you back!"

Ye Yaodong patted him on the shoulder. "No need. When I buy it, if there's extra money, I'll give it to you; if it's short, I'll cover it. Playing soccer is good; getting more exercise is a good thing."

Never mind what the soccer ball is like, as long as he likes it, it's a good thing he loves playing.

When the time comes, he'll see; if there's a basketball, he'll buy one of those too for the two kids at home to play with.

Playing some basketball might help them grow taller in the future. With no shortage of meat, eggs, and milk these past two years, they should be able to grow taller than in his previous life. By the way, his few nephews can benefit from it too.

"Hey, alright! Hehe, this way I don't have to worry about my mom confiscating the money, and I can have the things I want."

"Mm, go back, take a bath, and eat."

"Okay, I also picked up a fish and two sea snails when the tide went out just now, and I found seven or eight octopuses in the clay pots over there. I wrapped them all in my clothes and pants and tied a knot, otherwise those octopuses are really good at climbing."

Hearing him mention octopuses, Ye Yaodong looked toward the scattered clay pots in the distance.

A while back, the goods in the children's clay pots were often stolen. They would come back from school and find them empty when they went to check. Later, they even had a group fight with other kids, and they all smashed each other's pots.

Now that these scraps are thrown here, who knows who put them there? If they're stolen, let them be stolen.

"Bring them back to add to our lunch."

"Hehe~ There really are a lot in the pots. It's a good thing I saw a bunch of pots piled up there and was curious enough to pick one up and look."

"Did you never think that someone intentionally put them there to trap octopuses?"

"Ah, they were put there on purpose?"

"Anyway, you're going back this afternoon, so there's no need to tell you about these fun things."

"Ah~ Then you might as well not have mentioned it. Can I stay for two more days to play?"

Lin Guangyuan was left feeling restless by what he said. He felt there were too many fun things at the seaside and didn't want to go back at all.

"Don't even think about it. It's time to go back to school. You haven't been for half a month; I reckon no one will even recognize you."

"Sigh~ I hate school!"

Lin Xiuqing prepared an exceptionally sumptuous lunch, filling a large table. Because Ye Yaodong was eating lunch at home today, and also because once this meal was finished, her three older brothers and sisters-in-law, along with Ah Yuan, would be heading back, she had prepared it more lavishly.

As for Lin Xiang Hui, he had gone out to sea in Ye Yaodong's place today and wouldn't be back until evening.

While eating, Lin Xiuqing also settled the wages for her two sisters-in-law. She had already given the wages to the other relatives, leaving only the two of them.

Ye Yaodong also took out two yuan in front of them and gave it to Lin Guangyuan.

"You've worked hard for over half a month. I don't know if your mom will give you wages, but anyway, Little Uncle-in-law here wants to show a little gesture, so here's two yuan of pocket money for you to buy things to eat."

"Ah! That's great! I like you the best, Little Uncle-in-law. I'll come back during summer vacation, and when I do, I'll bring the other younger brothers and sisters to play."

"Ah, don't. My private stash definitely won't be enough for you all to spend." Ye Yaodong feigned exaggeration and widened his eyes.

Lin Xiuqing laughed and patted him. "What are you saying?"

"These two yuan were saved from my own mouth. My cigarette money for over half a month is all right here."

"When the time comes, I'll have my dad dig up a few more bags of sweet potatoes and taro. We'll bring our own rations to eat; we definitely won't eat you into poverty. We're also very easy to raise, and we don't need to eat rice. When we come, we can help with work too."

"Your Little Uncle-in-law is joking, don't take it seriously. Go back and study hard. When vacation comes, if you want to come, just come back to play."

"Alright!" Lin Guangyuan was overjoyed. In a while, he'd have a soccer ball, and now he had pocket money too.

As for the goods he had picked up and sold, Lin Xiuqing secretly settled it with her sister-in-law after her second brother was half-drunk and had been helped back to the old house by his wife to rest.

Holding the money, Lin's sister-in-law was so happy her mouth was almost crooked from smiling. She praised Lin Guangyuan repeatedly and, in her happiness, also gave him two yuan, telling him to buy snacks later to share with his cousins.

After everyone had left, Lin Xiuqing wasn't in a rush to clear the table and went into the room with Ye Yaodong to settle the accounts.

Ye Yaodong also took out all the money he had brought back and poured it onto the bed.

"The 1,000 jin taken away today, is the money from that sale included? How much money did we earn this fishing season?"

"These bits and pieces are complicated to calculate. The goods we dried aren't just our own; later, there were large quantities collected from Ah Cai's side. Anyway, I've lumped all the money I sold into one pile."

"After deducting the 2/3 of the fresh goods that should be given to Big Brother and Ye Erge for the two boats, there's 3,260 here. And there's also what Ah Cai helped us collect; at first, we settled with him every day, but later, when the quantity was small, we accumulated it for a few days. The last five or six days added up to just over 10,000 jin, totaling 2,660 that hasn't been settled with him yet."

"We currently have a net profit, and we still have unsold goods on hand, plus what's hanging there drying. There should still be over 3,000 jin, which should be able to sell for another seven or eight thousand."

Ye Yaodong's eyes widened as he listened to her calculations!

"So much!!!"

He had always thought that by keeping their own goods to dry, with two and a half boats, they would earn at most around 10,000. He hadn't expected that when calculated by his wife, it was almost 20,000!

Lin Xiuqing also squinted her eyes in a smile. When she finished calculating in the morning, she had also been shocked. She didn't believe it and calculated it again before she was convinced that their family had actually earned almost 20,000 in this one fishing season.

"Actually, it's even more than that. The money from selling dried fish, I didn't count that in with the squid. The price I just mentioned is solely for the dried squid. It also includes the large quantities we collected from Ah Cai's side later; we collected quite a lot of both dried and wet goods from him."

"Although dried fish hasn't sold as well as squid during this period, there's still several hundred, and what you brought back from the city today, that's also around a thousand, right?"

Ye Yaodong nodded quickly and patted the bed board. "Yes, when I came back, Dad gave me over 1,300."

Lin Xiuqing smiled until the corners of her mouth almost reached her ears. "That's it then. When all the squid in our hands is sold, we'll earn even more."

"Ah, no, there's also the shop in the city. We transported 1,500 jin there before, and it hasn't all been sold yet. There should be another one or two thousand there."

"And there's more, there's also that squid roe. Mom pickled three whole large vats, over a thousand jin. This can also sell for quite a bit of money, and it hasn't been sent to the shop yet."

Ye Yaodong was even more excited. There was still so much that hadn't been converted into cash. If really calculated, it was far more than 20,000.

He slapped his thigh suddenly. "No, we have to let Ah Cai continue collecting squid for me. Even if the mosquito legs are small, they're still meat. Even if it's just one or two thousand jin a day, that's fine; we can still dry two hundred jin. Let's collect while there's still a bit left. Or let him collect elsewhere; even if he helps us scrape together 5,000 jin a day, that's fine."

"This dried stuff stores better than fresh. Now the price of fresh has hit rock bottom; it's overflowing everywhere. Fresh is hard to transport and hard to store."

"After this period passes, we can raise the price of the dried stuff and sell it. After all, although it's overflowing now, in a while, if people want to eat it, there really won't be any."

Lin Xiuqing hesitated for a moment. "Will it be too much? We're wholesaling it for at least two yuan a jin now. 3,000-plus jin in hand is already seven or eight thousand yuan. If we continue drying, we'll have to tie up ten or twenty thousand. All the money we earned is being put into goods..."

Reminded by her, Ye Yaodong felt that it really was the case. All the money earned had turned into goods, and instead, he couldn't see the money...

Although it's stored there and can slowly be converted into cash, he doesn't know how long it will take...

"It really does seem like a lot is tied up. And Boss Zhou hasn't notified us about needing goods these past few days. It's hard to say how much he'll want in a while. After all, this stuff is quite expensive. The inland areas they transport it to probably sell it for even more, and who knows if it's easy to sell?"

It's probably been over half a month, and what was transported away has only just started selling.

"So let's collect a little less. Let's just collect whatever we can at our own wharf on the day; don't go collecting extra elsewhere. If too much is stockpiled there, the money is all tied up in it, and instead, we can't see the money we earned."

"Anyway, we've already earned money, so let's stockpile a little less from now on? This way the risk can also be lower. The cost is too high, and too much money is tied up."

Lin Xiuqing didn't want to take too many risks, and she wasn't that greedy. Being able to earn this much had already exceeded their expectations.

"Makes sense."