Chapter 924: Won't Take a Single Loss

Ye Yaodong was in the water, instructing several boatmen on how to place it.

Two hours passed in this busy work.

The net bag was not placed around the beach, but on the left side of the beach where they stayed; after it was set, he called everyone to swim ashore and wait until they woke up tomorrow to see the results.

He didn't expect a large patch of jellyfish floating like this morning; if a few scattered ones slipped in, that would show it was feasible.

"You've all worked hard; hurry up and take a shower, get on the boat and sleep. You've worked hard all day today."

Everyone politely said on their lips that it was nothing.

Ye Yaodong, bare-chested and wearing shorts, stood on the beach with hands on hips, panting, his eyes also gazing at the sea surface.

The boatmen went ashore and began drawing water to bathe; fortunately, in the height of summer, there was no need to heat water. Each had half a basin of cold water to solve bathing and hair-washing, and they also rubbed their clothes in the bathwater a few times before hanging them on the boat to dry.

When traveling, one isn't that particular, and the clothes weren't that dirty; they were basically just sweat.

Ye Yaodong was the same.

While he was bathing, Ah Guang came over and repeated to him what he had just said to Ye's father, and had already calculated the money.

"Are you sure you want to return it to me without counting my agency fee?"

"Of course I must. I don't earn just any money, nor do I stop moving when I see cash, but I'll quietly return it to you; on the surface, I'll still collect it. Brother Ye Erge and I won't let them know."

"This is a big sum for me too; over a month, it's definitely several hundred..."

"I'm not someone who sees money and opens my eyes wide, nor am I drilled into a money hole. Without you, I wouldn't have thought of doing this agency work; I might still be sitting on the pier enjoying the cool breeze, idly cracking melon seeds."

"Besides, my father brought two large boats over. I don't plan to split the agency fees for those two boats; the big sum is there. Yours can only count as the small sum."

Ye Yaodong nodded. "That's true. The three boats coming tomorrow are all yours; don't split them. Since what I have is a mere trifle, I'll happily accept it."

"But there's no need to rush to give it to me. It's troublesome to pass it back and forth like this today. Keep it with you for now; since there are receipts, we'll settle everything in one go when we return."

"That works too."

"Let's go, brothers in harmony, sleep together."

Ye Yaodong hooked his arm around his shoulder and they walked toward the boat together.

"There's something else I need to tell you. To facilitate collecting the catch, I've discussed with Chen Jianian that from now on, we'll collect goods at three times daily. This avoids the factory being unable to arrange a vehicle at the last minute, forcing us to wait, which would waste everyone's time."

"That's good too. It saves some greedy people from being unwilling to return because the quantity is small. Some come early, some late; one boat at a time won't fill a truck. The vehicles can't just wait there forever."

Ye Yaodong thought scheduling a fixed docking time was also good. Everyone would go ashore to sell together, then board the boat together after selling, providing mutual support and preventing anyone from being singled out and targeted.

"Exactly, that's what I thought. We each fish separately; there are many scattered fishing boats, and docking times aren't unified. We can't call a vehicle every time a single boat returns."

"With over a dozen boats there, the vehicles can't just focus on collecting goods from our few boats; they also need to collect goods from other villages."

"A unified time point is best. If a boat hasn't docked by the time, they'll have to find a way to pickle it and wait for the next vehicle."

He had no objection; it wouldn't affect him. As long as it was said in advance, they would control their time and deliver it when the time came.

"Understood. Have you notified the others?"

"Yes. We discussed it this afternoon and told everyone when selling goods at dusk. Because this problem arose during the afternoon sales; returns weren't unified, so vehicles couldn't be called on demand or forced to wait there indefinitely."

"Which three times?"

"Morning 8:30 to 9:00, afternoon 2:00 to 2:30, and evening 6:00 to 6:30. Tractors and trucks will arrive at roughly the same time, though there may be slight variations. At that time, it's up to the villagers themselves; whichever vehicle they catch is theirs. If multiple are available, they can choose."

Ye Yaodong patted his shoulder. "Looks like you communicated well with Chen Jianian this afternoon?"

"Yang Yang Dajiu's factory is effectively a joint venture between the two of us; he hasn't lost out either. A single tractor can't handle the load anyway. A little discussion helps him understand the situation; this way, it's good for you, good for me, and good for everyone."

"Otherwise, if I acted without honor and didn't share the money with him, he'd be helpless. At worst, my reputation would suffer a bit, but the villagers still recognize me. Without a reputation, I could make more money."

"If they dare to sabotage us behind our backs, we have fifteen boats, and there are guns on your boat. Where would we fear them? So mutual cooperation is best for everyone."

Ah Guang was smug. He wasn't pushover either. His tongue wasn't as slick as Dongzi's, but his brain wasn't dull; he was a resourceful person, skilled in speech and action.

"Good, good. You know how to be both soft and hard. Just don't let my father know; he's an old stick-in-the-mud."

"Hmm. Anyway, it's just for this year. As long as things go smoothly on the surface, that's enough. Next year, we'll each do our own thing. He knows the score. He hasn't lost out this year either; with so many boats you brought out, he's benefited greatly."

"Alright then. Tomorrow, I'll dock in advance according to the vehicle arrival time you agreed on."

On the boat, some boatmen were already snoring, while others chatted quietly.

When the two lay down in their spots, the conversation was still lively, so Ah Zheng lowered his voice and muttered.

"Will this net bag you've set up actually work?"

"It should work, I suppose? I'm not sure. We'll know tomorrow morning anyway."

He only knew that aquaculture was done this way; catching shouldn't be much different, right?

Anyway, there was no way it could result in a loss. Only by trying could he know if it was reliable. If not, it would just cost a bit more effort, and the fishing nets could be reused.

"You stayed at the pier all day today. Was it okay? Did any hooligans show up?"

"Don't mention it, there really were. Near the pier, there are a few small houses acting as collection points. A group of hooligans came to collect protection fees, and the stall owners obediently paid."

"I even asked why the Gongan Bureau was right nearby, yet they were so arrogant. Someone said they had intervened before, but within a few hours, they'd reappear. If no one was beaten or anything serious happened, they'd just be scolded and driven away."

"Even if trouble really broke out, they couldn't necessarily catch anyone. They were all young men in their teens or twenties, very quick on their feet. Even if caught, they'd only be detained for a few days before release. It was common practice, so those people weren't afraid."

"So as long as there were no major problems or incidents, they basically didn't bother. The Gongan Bureau couldn't guard them day and night. Everyone had gotten used to it; they said they'd only come once or twice a month, taking a few yuan from each household before leaving."

"Alright then. You be smart. If there's nothing to do during idle times, just sit at the Gongan Bureau entrance and stand guard for them."

Ah Guang smiled and said, "That's exactly what I thought. You need thick skin to get by. First time is strange, second time is familiar. Being a present doorman, I can at least make myself familiar."

"You handle it yourself. Sleep. I guess we'll be up at 4 again tomorrow."

The others had already fallen asleep during their quiet chatter, their snoring echoing through the sky.

Ye Yaodong was also exhausted. From 4 in the morning until past 9 at night, he hadn't rested like this. Now, with his eyes closed, he fell asleep directly, not feeling the noise around him.

He slept without waking until dawn broke. Today, he woke up on his own, his mind preoccupied with matters, and his biological clock was very punctual.

On the boat, the boatmen either covered their heads with clothes or placed their arms over their eyes to block the light.

As he sat up, Ye's father sat up at the same time and whispered, "The sky is about to brighten."

"Hmm."

Ye Yaodong took a look at the sea. Yesterday's swarm of jellyfish clustered around the fishing boat was nowhere to be seen today; he only spotted two drifting in the far distance, and he had no idea yet what was going on inside the net bags.

"None today, Dad. Go on back to sleep for a bit."

"None, then. Let's keep sleeping a while longer."

Father and son were both a touch disappointed, but Ye Yaodong figured it had only just turned light, so he could check again a little later. Maybe the net bags already had something in them. It was still early, and the tide hadn't gone out yet.

The two of them pulled the covers over their heads, planning to keep sleeping, while on the other boats there were also people who had woken early to see if any jellyfish swarms had shown up today. They got the same result though—one glance and they lay back down.

That sleep lasted until broad daylight, the sun hanging high in the sky. A few of them got up, and then the others followed one after another. A bit of chatter began to rise all around.

"Ah Dong, are you up? You can go check the net bags you put down yesterday…"

"The tide's gone out. I can see jellyfish inside…"

"Right, we can pull the nets up and have a look."

Some of the fishing boats were spaced far apart, so they couldn't see clearly and were all shouting across to each other.

Ye Yaodong had also woken up and climbed onto the reef. After a quick scan, he saw a few different colors, so he immediately called over seven or eight men to go in the water with him and pull the two nets in for a look.

Everyone else was curious too, watching from their boats or standing up high on the reef.

The tide had already gone out, so they didn't have to swim over like last night. Ye Yaodong and the others had only just waded up to the net bags when they saw five or six jellyfish of various colors, big and small, all translucent, inside. They were thrilled.

"There really are some!"

"Dongzi, your idea really works. There are some in the net bags over here too—two big ones, two small ones, must be over a hundred jin."

"Ours is about the same—three big, two small, should be two hundred jin. Setting out net bags like this really does work."

"Let's pull them up first. Split into two groups, three or four people per net. These are heavy."

Hauling in the nets was hard work. They'd only casually set out two nets to test last night, yet they'd caught nearly ten jellyfish, half of them quite large, adding up to around three hundred jin. Worth it.

With the jellyfish plus the weight of the net bags and seawater, the load was genuinely heavy. Even with three or four of them working together and using a bamboo pole as a lever, they could only inch it bit by bit toward shore.

Still, every face was brimming with the joy of a good haul.

The people on shore, seeing the nets being moved up little by little, all started whispering among themselves.

Ye Fu was beaming too. "It really works."

"Setting out two nets like this, looks like we can get an extra two or three hundred jin. Not bad—we made our money back in one day."

"Right, two or three hundred jin. The jellyfish blood alone can yield a jin or so, and that alone covers our costs. Whatever we get for the jellyfish heads and skins is pure profit."

"Then tonight we can all give it a try too, set up around the island and see."

"Trying it out is fine. Earning a bit more is good too. Otherwise the ones we didn't see just drift past, and if we don't catch them, they drift away again."

Seeing the net bags almost at the beach, everyone jumped down for a closer look and lent a hand, dragging them up onto the sand.

"Let's count—one, two, three… nine…"

"Not bad—five big, four small, should be about 300 jin…"

"That works too. It's extra on top of everything else, doesn't take much time, and it's easy."

"How much did you pay for the two nets?"

Ye Yaodong didn't hide it and answered honestly, "Ten-something yuan is enough. These two nets today already cover the cost."

"That's a great idea of yours—you can earn a bit more every day."

"This is just the start. We should be able to catch even more later, right?"

"That depends on the situation. Hard to say…"

One by one, everyone nodded, all thinking they'd buy a few and try it themselves.

Ye Yaodong, meanwhile, was thinking he'd buy a few more in the afternoon—more of them—and line them up in a row farther out so he could catch more.

"Dad, you guys go ahead and cut these up. We're going to wash up and change clothes first."

Ye Fu had already started cutting them up with a knife. Everyone was gathered around watching. They'd just woken up early in the morning, hadn't finished eating, and hadn't gone out to sea yet—they could only watch his family get busy first.

"How about we take advantage of the free time now and go up the mountain to chop down a few bamboo poles? Then when the fishing nets arrive tonight, we can use them right away?"

"Sure, that works. Let's go now."

"Then let's go, let's go—right now. The rice isn't even cooked yet…"

A big crowd of people swarmed up onto the island. Ye Yaodong also asked the others to come along and chop down a few more bamboo poles. He was planning to set out another eight nets, making it ten in total.

That way, early every morning they could catch a bit more and earn an extra few dozen yuan a day.

But then, they weren't locals, they'd brought a lot of people with them, and their expenses were high—they could only think of ways to earn more money.

The dozen-plus boats all got busy. Once they were done and had eaten, Ye Yaodong had also finished salting the two or three hundred jin of jellyfish from this morning and stowed them on the boat, planning to make one more haul later and sell it all together to save time.

For the rest of the day, their four boats basically stayed near the sea trench. Ye Yaodong stayed there the whole day, only sending his father's boat back with one load.

His eldest brother and Ye Ye Erge did the same—sent one boat back and kept one boat there.

Correspondingly, the catch from their two families was more than all the other boats combined. The first trip was only about double that of an ordinary boat, but by the second and third trips, it took all the other boats put together to match the volume of their four boats.

And today's catch was also fifteen percent more than yesterday's.

In the morning trip, Ye Yaodong's two boats' cargo plus the jellyfish blood came to about 500 once settled. The afternoon and evening trips were both over 200. All together, the two boats brought in over 900 for the day.

Ye Ye Yaopeng and Ye Ye Yaohua brought in a bit less by comparison, but their three trips combined were also around 900 yuan, and tomorrow would be even more—sure to break a thousand.

The four of them—father and sons—working together with four boats, brought in today what the other 15 fishing boats did.

The main thing was that this morning there was no jellyfish swarm they could scoop up directly. If they went out to sea to look, they only found scattered ones—not like yesterday morning when they sold over 40 jin in one go.

And the afternoon and evening were even worse—they had to make a round trip back to shore to sell their catch. Each round trip cost them at least two hours, maybe three, and with the afternoon trip on top of that, they lost most of their fishing time to travel.

Ye Yaodong, his father, and his brothers had two boats for transport and two boats fishing nonstop. They didn't need to go anywhere else either—just staying near the sea trench, jellyfish kept surfacing one after another.

That was how their four boats could match the catch of the other 13 boats.

Of that, besides Ye Yaodong's own two boats, his two elder brothers' two boats accounted for another third. They'd made a killing.

Out of the 17 boats, he was the biggest winner.

Ye Fu also knew their catch was too eye-catching and too much. When it was time to line up and weigh in, he didn't rush—he just stood there and didn't haul the cargo ashore right away, letting the others weigh theirs first.

Most of the villagers felt it was safer to settle up every few days; besides, Ye Yaodong had worked with this man last year without any mishaps, so they were willing to trust him.

Only A-Zheng was close to A-Guang, so they specifically reserved their catch for A-Guang—let the fat water not flow to outsiders' fields—they wouldn't buy Chen Jianian's account.

And A-Guang's own two boats, of course, were also collected by him; how would he dare give outsiders a bargain?

In any case, Ye Fu always waited until the very end. Generally, by the time he got to the back, the tractor was already full, and he naturally sold all four boats' catch to A-Guang along with his son.

People have their close and distant relations; psychologically, of course, he favored his own son-in-law, but according to propriety, on the surface he still queued up with Chen Jianian's group first.

Then once it was his turn and no more goods could be taken, he would naturally switch lines.

He gained a reputation for yielding, didn't err in propriety, his son-in-law profited, and Dongzi could save half the brokerage fee.

One had to admit, Ye Fu was actually quite cunning in his heart. Since things had come to this, of course, he had to maximize the benefits for his own people.

In case he docked early while the others hadn't, he didn't care either—he'd just sell directly to Chen Jianian, fulfill propriety, fill up his cart and leave; the villagers could only choose A-Guang.

No matter what, he wouldn't be at a disadvantage.

So, as a result, after a whole day, all the boats knew that the father and his three sons had caught the most, but they didn't know exactly how much more the four boats had earned.

By evening, when they returned to the island, everyone busied themselves spreading out fishing nets, learning to set nets like Ye Yaodong had done the night before, making various marks on the bamboo poles, and for the moment had no time to ask how much they had earned today.

When Ye Yaodong docked to sell his catch in the evening, he bought three more nets on the way—not that he didn't want to buy more, but the fishing nets at several nearby shops had been completely swept clean by their few boats.

However, he also reserved five more, paid a 10-yuan deposit, and just said if any were finished in the next few days, he'd come back to pick them up.

They kept busy until 8 o'clock, and everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief. Many more fishing nets now dotted the area around the island—not very obvious at high tide, but at low tide, they were clearly a beautiful sight.

After finishing all the catch, Ye Fu and Ye Yaodong finally had time to greet Father Pei and Uncle Zheng, who had only arrived in the evening.

They had just come back together from the town dock; admittedly, the big ship's speed was a bit faster—they arrived quite early and had rested at the dock for a while before waiting for everyone's fishing boats to dock.

Father Pei waited for them to finish before inviting Ye Fu and the three Ye Yaodong brothers onto his big ship to chat, to talk about what had happened over the past two days and the situation with jellyfish on the sea.

But he also had a rough idea. When Ye Fu was selling the catch, Father Pei had stood by watching, chatting as they went, and he knew how much Ye Yaodong had earned in the evening and how much the others had earned.

He also knew in his heart that it was largely due to that sea trench, and also related to the fact that they had only sent two boats back to deliver goods.

But he hadn't expected that A-Guang could bite off a big chunk of meat from Chen Jianian and get a share of the spoils. In his view, this was a good thing, and he didn't mind it. Moreover, when people talked about it now, they all said the two of them were doing it together.

"Looking at it this way, having two boats on hand is best—one boat docks, and the other stays in place to fish."

A-Guang immediately chimed in, "Right, Dad, I know all too well the gap between the goods Dongzi's group sold today and the other boats. The other boats might not be clear on how much Dongzi and his two brothers-in-law earned today, but the difference is huge. It would be a shame to send both our boats out."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it. Who could have foreseen it? Last year everyone had one boat, going and returning together. It's too late to say anything now, let's not talk about it."

Father Pei also wanted a boat to help deliver goods and dock, so his ship could stay in place and keep fishing. His eyes kept looking at Ye Fu.

Ye Fu understood what he meant. Anyway, he was making one trip to deliver goods, so he could take his goods along and deliver them together, but—why should he?

That one boat of his belonged solely to Dongzi, meaning Dongzi would have to dedicate one boat specifically to deliver goods for everyone, while they reaped the ready-made benefits. After all, Dongzi only held three shares of that boat—sacrificing him alone benefited everyone.

Ye Fu saw it all clearly in his heart, but kept silent.

Ye Yaodong didn't respond either.

Although he also benefited at the same time, he was also making a sacrifice, while others didn't have to give anything at all. There had to be some compensation.

"In-laws, I think it's good that you keep one boat and send one back—it increases efficiency. So I also want to send my goods on your boat tomorrow. After all, our boats will all be fishing at last year's spot; we're all in the same area, close to each other. Let's not leak this to the others."

"In-laws, Dongzi would be at a disadvantage. It would mean he has to dedicate one boat to go back and forth delivering goods—two trips a day on the road plus selling the goods would take up five or six hours."

"I won't let him lose out either. Aren't we splitting into ten shares? When the time comes, we'll deduct half a share from the net profit and give it to him as the daily transportation cost."

Cunning!

It was half a share of the net profit, not half a share of the sales! Half a share of the sales wouldn't have any expenses deducted—equivalent to a brokerage fee, 50 out of 1000.

His two boats earned nearly 1000 today; half a share of one boat's 500 in sales would only be 25. If you deducted fuel and labor costs, it would be even less. Big ships consume fuel more heavily—how much would that be in a day?

If he could spend 20 yuan to free up five or six extra hours for his ship to fish, he'd be willing to spend that money.

Sitting on this treasure trove of a spot, in five or six hours he could earn far more than 20 yuan—just selling jellyfish blood alone would be more than that, and he didn't have to scour the whole sea like other fishing boats.

"Uncle, what you said is too insincere..."

Ye Yaodong laid out the mental calculation he had just done for him.

Father Pei gave an awkward smile. "Calculated this way, it does seem a bit less than the gains. I didn't think it through, didn't consider it carefully enough. I just thought of it on the spur of the moment and said it casually."

"How about we do it the same as the brokerage fee? How about 5 points of the sales? Based on your one fishing boat's earnings today, 500 would be 25, which counts as extra compensation. After all, you also have to make one trip, and the extra time the big ship gains might only earn around 100 yuan more, so that's giving you 1/4, and the rest counts as the collective partnership's benefit."

"Uncle, you can't calculate it that way either. You can't say that my boat's daily docking load is already assigned to my boat's capacity. Look, would my eldest brother and second brother be happy if it were assigned to them? The weight increases, and the fishing boat's fuel consumption also increases."

One thing at a time—in-laws are in-laws, but when it comes to cooperation, the accounts must be calculated clearly and distinctly.

"At the very least, the extra portion your boat earns should be split fifty-fifty. I help you with the back-and-forth transport, saving you five or six hours. If you earn 100 in that time, you should give me 50."

"Don't you think that's reasonable? Isn't that how it should be calculated? And I'm also bearing the fuel cost, so calculated that way, I'm actually at a loss. But since I have two boats, I accept this loss too. At the very least, I'm doing you a favor, and everyone can benefit—everyone gains."

With Ye Yaodong's clear calculation, everyone understood better that indeed the extra earnings had to be split evenly, not just a quarter.

"But how can we guarantee how much is earned in those few hours? How much should be split?"

Father Pei frowned as he listened to his analysis. Although he felt he had a point, he thought it was impossible to calculate it so precisely.

"That's simple. You try it tomorrow—do the transport run yourself. Then the day after, try switching to my boat for delivery, saving time. Compare the two days to see how much extra you earned, and then we'll roughly split the difference."

"You've only just started out, so tomorrow you can also take the opportunity to learn how the goods are sold."

"Anyway, we're sitting on this treasure trove of a spot and don't need to move much. Jellyfish will basically surface all around us. The difference during fishing season isn't that big for us because the numbers are already high—when the peak season brings more, our daily catch is already capped there."

"The biggest difference is for the outsiders—they earn more during peak season, making the contrast more obvious. We're in the sea trench, so peak season or not, the difference isn't that big."

"At most, the quantity from one net dragged in the evening will increase significantly, earning a bit more, but that's a collective benefit for our partnership and has nothing to do with my transport runs."

Father Pei's brow instantly relaxed.

"You're really clever, analyzing everything so logically, not taking any loss at all."

"Hehe, when it comes to money, it's better for everyone to calculate clearly. Agreeing in advance also avoids any problems later—this is also for the sake of pleasant cooperation. Being muddled isn't a good thing."

"Alright, then we'll do as you say. Let's try it for a day. This way it's a win-win."