Chapter 883: The Three Brothers Discuss

The moment Ye Yaodong got home, he slumped into a chair, arms and legs dangling loosely.

The old lady poured him a bowl of mung bean soup and carried it over to him. "Completely worn out, aren't you? Walking so far under that blazing sun is pure torture. Drink a bowl of mung bean soup quick to cool off. Earlier I deliberately set aside a bowl in the basket and let it float in the water tank—it'll be a bit cooler than one left outside."

"Good, I'm starving. This'll tide me over for now."

He took the bowl of mung bean soup, didn't bother with a spoon, and just gulped it down in big mouthfuls, only switching to the spoon for the little bit left at the bottom.

"Should I boil some noodles for you first…"

"No need, we'll be eating soon anyway. A bowl of mung bean soup is enough to tide me over."

After downing that bowl of mung bean soup, he finally felt alive again.

Still uneasy, the old lady reached out and felt his forehead, and only relaxed once she sensed nothing off. "Good thing it's not heatstroke. They said a typhoon was coming, but aside from the bigger waves outside, I can't feel a thing."

"Mm."

"Why didn't your father come over with you?"

"He said he wanted to go back and take a bath first."

"Oh, I'll go get your bath water ready…"

"No need, I don't want to move right now. I'll wash later. You go watch your TV, don't fuss over me."

Only then did the old lady sit down beside him. She picked up the round bamboo tray, rested it on her knees, and went back to picking out shrimp meat, smiling as she said, "I'm not busy. I sit around watching TV all day—what would I be busy with? Just this little thing in my hands."

He kept on slouching there.

Lin Lin Xiuqing was stir-frying when she turned and saw him still in that same pose, limbs dangling loose. She wanted to tell him to go lie down in the room for a bit, but he said he hadn't bathed yet and was dirty.

The children's noise outside had never really stopped. Because the waves were big and the tide was high, they couldn't go to the beach to kick a ball, so they could only play right at the doorstep.

Every now and then, he even caught Ye Ye Chenghai's shouts.

"Brother Brother Ahai is playing outside?"

"Sounds like it—I heard his voice." Lin Lin Xiuqing answered him in passing.

"Can you believe it? Just now he was half-dead, wailing the whole way back, almost crawling home, and now he's bouncing and jumping around again."

The old lady chuckled. "Isn't that just how kids are? As long as there's something to play with, they never feel tired."

Ye Yaodong rested for quite a while before getting up to draw water for a bath, then ate.

While Ye's father was eating, he asked him, "Did your eldest brother come talk to you?"

"No."

"Then forget it."

Ye's mother frowned at Ye's father. "You're not going to go over and check on him after you finish eating?"

"I still have to finish eating first."

"You had free time earlier and you didn't go."

"I need to rest a bit. I'm not a production team's donkey."

Ye's mother shot him a look and said nothing more.

But before Ye's father could finish his meal and head over, Ye Ye Yaopeng came by first.

"Eating this early?"

"We didn't eat lunch, so we're eating dinner a bit earlier. Haven't you eaten yet?" Ye Yaodong said.

"I had two ears of corn. I'll eat properly in a bit."

After saying that, Ye Ye Yaopeng paused, then added, "Just now the two Lan brothers next door called me over."

"They want to buy a boat too? I thought it would be the Zhou brothers who came to you."

"The Zhou brothers are four people, so each of them probably only needs to put in a little to cover the capital, right? The Lan brothers are just two."

"They want to buy a boat too?"

"Yeah, they're pretty tempted too, but the capital is too big, so they want to find a few familiar people from the group that went today to go in together. They didn't just come to me—they also brought in a friend."

Ye's father set down his bowl and chopsticks and looked at him seriously. "So what's on your mind? A boat with the setup like the one Dongzi has now has already gone up to 15,000—that's 1,500 per share, 3,000 for two shares, 4,500 for three shares."

Ye Ye Yaopeng organized his thoughts and said, "I was thinking, if I go in with them and hold a small share, I won't really have a say in anything—I'll just have to listen to whatever they say. If I take a bigger share, I can't come up with that much money, and they definitely wouldn't be happy letting me hold more than them."

"That's the logic of it. When you get down to it, they're insiders, and you're the outsider."

"Exactly."

"So you're not buying?" Ye's mother cut in. "Should I go ask some of your cousins for you later?"

Ye Ye Yaopeng glanced at Ye Yaodong. "I want to ask Dongzi first—if the three of us brothers go in together, what do you think?"

Ye Yaodong set down the chopsticks he'd been chewing on.

But before he could speak, his mother jumped in: "Where would Dongzi get that kind of money? At year's end he still has to come up with 8,000 when his boat is delivered, and another boat would cost him several thousand more on top of that."

"I just meant that with our own brothers I feel more at ease. I wanted to ask him first and see—if he's interested, we won't need to find anyone else and it'll save trouble."

Ye Yaodong thought for a moment and said, "This is only a deposit for now, so it's manageable. How about calling Ye Ye Erge over too and seeing what he says? If we want the three brothers to go in together, then let's get all three brothers together and talk it through."

Ye Ye Yaopeng felt things were looking up and said with a smile, "Then I'll go call your second brother. Earlier he was still eating, so he should be done by now."

Once the man went out, Ye's father hurriedly asked Ye Yaodong, "You're planning to go in on another boat with your eldest and second brother? Isn't that too many? Can you handle it all?"

"I'm not the one sailing it. Since eldest brother wants to call us brothers to go in together, he must be planning to skipper it himself…"

"Where does he have the ability to skipper one himself…"

It wasn't that Ye's father looked down on his son—it was that the risks at sea were too great. A big boat wasn't like the trawler they had at home. Once it went farther out, who knew if he could still tell which direction was which.

"So in the end, eldest brother will definitely ask Dad to skipper it."

"Then… then what about your big boat? You'll need someone to skipper it too, and with so many boats at home, what are we going to do…"

"I was originally thinking Dad would run boats with me for a couple of years, and once I got the hang of it, you'd come back and take it easy—just go to the dock every day to meet the boat and collect the catch. But now if the three of us brothers go in on another boat, Dad will have to help us out for a few more years."

"A few more years is fine, it's just that you have too many boats. No one at home to keep an eye on things won't do—people's hearts are hidden behind their bellies."

"You don't need to worry too much about that. Don't I know a few young fellows? When the time comes, I'll leave one of them assigned to the task and have him go to the dock specifically to meet the boat and collect the catch."

"Th-this will work?"

"Why wouldn't it? I'll pay him a wage, and picking up the goods is also working for me. Either way, he's using my delivery slips, and the payments all have to be settled by me using the delivery slips. The money never passes through their hands, so there's nothing to worry about. Actually, going to pick up the goods is just to keep an eye on things, to stop people from openly holding things back."

Ye Father listened and figured he had a point. "Then let's talk about it later. It's too early to discuss this now. Let's settle the matter at hand first."

"Mm."

Father and son had both eaten a little when they came back. With things to discuss now, they didn't feel like continuing to eat, but the old lady kept staring at the rice in their bowls, muttering under her breath.

"You have to finish your rice. Leaving even a little bit is such a waste. You have to eat it all clean. It's not easy to grow grain. A few years ago we couldn't even get rice to eat, we could only eat sweet potatoes. If you leave rice in your bowl, the heavens won't stand for it…"

The moment the old lady opened her mouth to speak, Ye Father quickly shoved the rice in his bowl into his mouth—otherwise she could really go on and on.

Ye Yaodong also quickly ate his.

Only then was the old lady satisfied. "You can't leave any rice in the bowl, and you can't drop any either."

Father and son cleared away the bowls and chopsticks. One sat in the armchair, the other sat in front of the stove opening, waiting for the two brothers to come over.

The two of them took the opportunity to discuss the matter of the three brothers going into partnership.

Ye Yaodong figured that with his second brother now following his lead so closely, if he agreed, his second brother probably wouldn't have any objections either.

Going into partnership with his two older brothers, he was quite at ease. If someone else had asked him to partner up, he would definitely have refused. The question was how to divide the shares—that needed to be discussed.

He figured that having so much money sitting in hand was just letting it sit idle. Investing it in buying a boat, you could at least see it there. After all, fishing boats really were quite cheap to build right now, and they were durable too—patching them up, they'd last decades without issue.

Ten years from now, if you wanted to buy a boat that big for ten or twenty thousand, you'd have to be dreaming.

Buy now and it appreciates in value, use it to make money—much more sensible than buying a house. The bosses of those property-flipping crews are still out there going door to door with their carrying poles.

"You really want to go in with your two brothers on another boat? Isn't the capital investment too big? Haven't too many fishing boats been bought this year?"

Ye Yaodong lit a cigarette and nodded. "I've still got some money on hand. Putting down a deposit first is no problem. Dad, you went to the shipyard today, you should have clearly felt how fast prices are rising, right?"

"Not even a year—no, less than a year—and the boat I bought has already gone up by two thousand yuan. What about next year? Won't it keep going up?"

"Money sitting in my hand is just sitting there. How much I put aside, next year it's still that same amount. So wouldn't buying this boat earn me money a bit faster?"

"Once the money's spent, the boat is right there, it won't disappear. Even if we're really that unlucky, and some natural or man-made disaster hits, we can only accept it. People who make a living this way are taking risks to begin with."

After all this time, Ye Father had also come to see it clearly. Under Ye Lao San's careless, devil-may-care nature, he actually had a good head on his shoulders. Having a quick mind had its perks.

"Then you decide for yourself. Being able to bring along your older brother is good too. They're all your own brothers…"

Ye Father saw Ye Ye Yaopeng and Ye Ye Yaohua come into the yard together, and immediately stopped talking. He said no more, and first took a few puffs of his water pipe.

Otherwise, once the three brothers got to talking, he didn't know how long it would go on. He was afraid he wouldn't have time to smoke later.

A smoke after a meal, happy as an immortal.

That's how the old pipe-smokers are.

Ye Ye Yaopeng had probably told Ye Ye Yaohua about it on the way over.

The moment they stepped through the door, Ye Ye Yaohua couldn't wait to ask: "Dongzi, older brother said the three of us are going in on another boat together. What do you say?"

"What does Ye Ye Erge think?"

"Huh? I'm asking you!"

The corner of Ye Yaodong's mouth twitched. "I'm asking you—what are you thinking?"

"Heh heh, I'm looking at you… what do you say?"