It took more than half an hour to walk on the main road to reach the parking spot in the town, and then we waited patiently for another hour before a car came to go to their Haiqingsha Town.
After winding around the winding mountain road, it was already noon when we got off the bus at the village entrance.
There was smoke from chimneys and birds flying everywhere in the village. Standing at the entrance of the village, they could smell the fragrance of food wafting from other people's homes.
Ye Yaodong asked his wife to watch over things on the roadside while he carried a light sack of vegetables and went back with his two children. He would push a cart out to load the vegetables later.
The two children were skipping and jumping in front, and they didn't need Ye Yaodong to show the way. There was no place in the whole village that they had not visited. Although they were small, they might be more familiar with the village than he was now.
“Walk slower!”
Just as he finished speaking, he saw the younger son slip while going downhill. The older son was very friendly and did not laugh at him. Instead, he helped him up, and the two continued to run hand in hand.
When he got home, the whole family was having dinner. Ye's mother came out to greet him when she saw him coming back.
"Mom, did you cook more rice? If not, just cook some noodles. I'm going to go out for a while. There are still some things at the entrance of the village that I haven't brought in."
After saying that, he hurriedly pushed the cart out again.
Mother Ye watched him going back and forth, with bags and baskets full on the cart, and was surprised, "Did you empty your in-laws' house when you went back?"
"My mother-in-law insisted on giving it to us, saying that our vegetables must have been eaten up when the house was being built, and they wouldn't grow back that fast. She chopped a lot of cauliflower and cabbage, as well as beans, taro and other things. She even let me take a few pumpkins. I couldn't refuse them even if I wanted to."
"You are so polite, my in-laws." Ye's mother smiled and helped to move.
Lin Xiuqing smiled and said, "There is nothing else at home, but vegetables are the most abundant. My parents can't sit still, and they grow this and that all day long."
"We have indeed eaten all the vegetables at home. My in-laws are so thoughtful. This bucket is rapeseed oil, right? You can take it to your new home later. We also have some sour bamboo shoots..."
Ye's mother did not leave all their belongings behind, and took away everything they could to their new home.
"There is one more thing I want to tell you. Two people died in the typhoon a few days ago in our village, and two also died in the neighboring village. A while ago, Yongshou also fell into the sea and disappeared. They all happened in this sea area. Too many people died at once, so the village decided to fast for a week starting the day after tomorrow to pray for blessings. During this week, our villagers are forbidden to go out to sea to fish, and then we will invite Mazu to come out and inspect the sea. It happens that the Mid-Autumn Festival will be over tomorrow."
As expected, I still have to fast and pray, but the time is one week shorter than in my previous life.
The couple nodded to show that they understood, and it just so happened that all the dishes they brought back were vegetarian.
"Your moving date just happened to coincide with this, so we have to postpone it. I checked the date again yesterday and it's set for the 26th. Aqing, go to the commune later and call your parents so they don't miss out."
"good."
Mother Ye looked at Ye Yaodong again, "You put the traps in the sea and will collect them later. Collect the goods while you can still sell them today. Tomorrow afternoon, the village entrance will be blocked and no seafood will be allowed to be transported."
"Okay, I'll collect it later."
After eating a bowl of noodles, Ye Yaodong hurried back to the dock. He went to his mother-in-law's house after collecting goods the day before yesterday. There was a day's interval, and he didn't know if there would be more goods in the cages. He couldn't release them for the next week.
It was noon and there were only a few boats at the dock, all of them had gone out to sea. He paddled his small boat to look for the buoy of his trap net, to make sure no one stole the goods inside.
This kind of thing is not uncommon in the village.
Some young people, when they have nothing to do, drive their family’s or their friends’ boats, sneak around the sea, and steal some goods from other people’s ground trap nets or Korean nets.
This kind of thing is very common. It's okay if you don't get caught, but if you get caught, you will be scolded to death.
After Ye Yaodong found his buoy, he pulled up the net and said, "Wow, so many prawns!"
He quickened the speed of collecting the net and poured the entire net into the bucket. Most of the goods were prawns, as well as some water carp smaller than the palm, small yellow croaker, and a dozen stone crabs. It was estimated that the prawns should weigh five or six kilograms.
Each one was half the size of his palm when not unfolded. He was smiling happily. It was just a ground trap net, which was really good. He could save a bowl for the Mid-Autumn Festival tomorrow.
He had to continue pulling the net and had no time to sort the items.
The second net was mostly prawns, which are more expensive and bigger than sword shrimps.
There are ten traps in a row. He pulled all the traps in the row and found that most of them were prawns, weighing nearly 20 kilograms. There were also other fish. The net burst!
Sure enough, there are a lot of goods these days.
After stacking all the traps neatly, he was full of confidence and rowed the boat to pull the second row. The result was...
"Fuck, what you fear is bound to happen. Damn it, which bastard stole my net?"
There were only a few small fish and an octopus in the whole net. There were so many fish in the first net, and the whole row of nets were good, but there were only a few in the second row. I would never believe that no one stole them.
Damn it xxxx…
He continued to pull while cursing.
He kept cursing as long as he pulled the nets. When he finished pulling the nets in a row, there were only three or four pounds of small fish. The obvious contrast between the two buckets made him so angry that he almost died.
If this product hadn't been stolen, it must be of good quality!
But no matter how angry he was, there was no point in stealing since the theft had already been done and the culprit had not been caught, so he could only continue to receive the goods.
When he pulled the third row, he was so angry that his liver ached because his things were stolen again.
There are only four rows of traps in total, and three rows were used. Only the first row had nearly 20 kilograms of shrimps, and there was nothing in the other two rows.
"Don't let me catch you. If I catch you, I'll beat you so hard that your whole family won't recognize you."
Since he didn't catch the person, he could only vent his anger. He was really angry and didn't even know if there was any stock in the last row.
While cursing, he drove the boat to the fourth row of traps and pulled up the buoy. No matter whether there was cargo or not, the traps had to be retrieved.
To his surprise, there were two red crabs when the first net was pulled up!
Red roe crab! The red roe crab during the Mid-Autumn Festival is the most plump and has the most red roe.
Fortunately, the net was not stolen.
His expression instantly became much better. He was the first to catch two red crabs. After taking a look, he found that both weighed more than 1.5 kilograms, which was very good.
There are also a few swimming crabs, stone crabs, and small yellow croakers in it.
After he finished pulling this row, he harvested 3 red crabs, 2 blue crabs, 6 red seals, 4 small white seals, three pounds of red shrimps, and a little less than a pound of mantis shrimps. Together with what he just pulled, there was more than a pound. The rest were some small miscellaneous fish and small yellow croaker.
After putting all the nets in order, he looked at the goods in the barrel and wanted to curse again. There should have been four rows, but two rows were stolen, which meant he lost half of the goods!
"Dongzi? Are you back from your mother-in-law's house?"
"Why are you so gloomy? Didn't the harvest go well?"
It was Zheng and Xiaoxiao who rowed over. It was already past three o'clock. They were exhausted after casting the nets all day and planned to call it a day and go home.
"I don't know which bastard stole two rows of my traps!"
Ah Zheng glared at him, "Ah? Damn, which short-lived bastard is so shameless."
"Fortunately, the harvest in the other two rows was good, and not all of it was stolen."
"Anything big?"
"Three red crabs, two blue crabs, 20 kilograms of prawns, more than a kilogram of mantis shrimp, two or three kilograms of red shrimp, three or four kilograms of small yellow croaker, and a few red and white snappers. It's a good harvest. The two nets caught more than the previous four nets."
Xiao Xiao rowed the two boats together, then stretched his head to look and said, "Sure, you can come here every other day to collect more than we do every day working from morning to night."
Ah Zheng also said, "Why don't we also cast the ground trap? This hand-cast net is cast from morning to night, even if two people take turns, their hands will be sore."
"Sure, you should have a good harvest from the nets you've been putting out recently, right? It's just the right time to use your capital to do this," Ye Yaodong agreed, "How was the harvest today?"
"It's OK. It's been pretty good in the past few days. I caught two red crabs and two blue crabs today. They can be worth ten yuan each."
"Sure, let's go. Let's sell the goods and go home. We'll start eating vegetarian food the day after tomorrow." He said as he rowed the boat.
"Is my mother-in-law's house fun? You can stay a few more days and come back after you finish eating vegetarian food and praying in the village."
"It's OK. There are mountains there. I went there to pick persimmons. I heard the cries of wild game all around. It's a pity that my father-in-law doesn't have a gun, otherwise I could go up the mountain to hunt at night."
"Really?" The two men's eyes lit up when they heard this. "In fact, there are wild pheasants in our mountain. A Guang lives in the back mountain and can hear the calls of pheasants every day. It's just that we don't have a weapon, so it's hard to catch them. It would be great if we could get a gun."
Ye Yaodong shook his head. "It doesn't matter if I can't get it. I'll just go fishing in the sea. I even caught a Chinese sturgeon in the river near my father-in-law's house."
"What?" Xiao Xiao stared, "You actually caught a Chinese sturgeon? I heard that this thing is very rare."
Ah Zheng was a little confused. "What is a Chinese sturgeon? It's something from the river. What's so special about it?"
"You don't know this, do you? I was listening to an expert on the radio once saying that because of the construction of the Gezhouba Dam, it can't go back to its home to lay eggs. In just two or three years, 97% of them have disappeared. In a few more years, they are expected to become extinct."
I gave him a brief introduction to the Chinese sturgeon, but he didn't know much else.
"Fuck, Dongzi, you got rich again?"
"No way! I'm a good citizen, so I just released it. Then my brother-in-law notified the Fisheries Bureau, and I helped catch it again. I guess we have to send it back to the Yangtze River! At least we didn't fail. We also caught more than 80 military fish and sold them to the Fisheries Bureau. Otherwise, these freshwater fish are really hard to sell."
"Danshui fish all have an earthy smell and are not tasty at all. No one will buy them, so there is no point in catching so many."
Ye Yaodong gave them a brief introduction to military fish. As people living by the sea, they were more familiar with marine fish, and as for freshwater fish, they could only simply recognize crucian carp, grass carp, and loach.
After hearing this, Ah Zheng said enviously, "You never go anywhere without getting anything. Why don't I have this kind of luck?"
"It's a pity that we have to fast after the 15th, and the dock won't be accepting any goods tomorrow. Otherwise, we could go fishing tomorrow. We haven't been there for a long time." Xiaoxiao felt a little regretful, otherwise she could have followed Dongzi to share some good fortune.
"Pray first to ensure safety. There is a long time to come. Let's wait until next month," Ye Yaodong said indifferently.
Thinking of what his mother said about delaying the move, he added, "Oh, by the way, my mother said the moving date has been postponed to the 26th day of the lunar calendar."
"That happens to be two days before Ah Zheng's wedding, so we can have several banquets in a row, including a housewarming banquet, a matchmaking banquet, a wedding banquet, a long table banquet at night, and a return banquet. That's great~"
"Eh~ It is true that you can eat it for several days in a row. It is a good idea to change the date."
…
The two boats rowed side by side and approached the shore together.
Ye Yaodong put the trap net on the boat and took the goods to Ah Cai first. He asked, "Is there anyone who doesn't have a trap net at home who comes to sell goods these days?"
Ah Cai said in confusion, "No! These days, I have only fixed fishing boats to receive the goods. There are no idle people coming to sell the goods. What's wrong?"
"Two rows of my traps were stolen. I was so angry. I don't know which bastard did such a wicked thing."
"Oh, that's normal. Who hasn't had their traps and nets stolen? If you don't have any nets at home, how dare you sell them? They will definitely take them back to eat."
"Forget it, bring out a basket and I'll pick out these goods and weigh them."
I've already been angry and cursed, and I'm just asking casually now. There's nothing I can do unless I catch you red-handed.
Ah Cai looked at the two buckets of goods he poured out and said in surprise, "You have quite a lot of goods, including three red crabs and two blue crabs. This is more than the seven or eight rows of traps that other people put out. There are a lot of prawns recently."
“If those two rows hadn’t been stolen, they might have doubled.”
Hearing what Ah Zheng said, Ye Yaodong felt heartbroken again, "Stop talking. If you continue, I'll be heartbroken to death."
Xiao Xiao consoled him, "It's already pretty good. At least you caught more than we did in a tiring day. We couldn't catch as many as you even in two days."
These words really comforted him. After all, he was not as good as the best, but better than the worst.
Ah Cai weighed all the sorted goods and quickly wrote out the order. "Your goods today are 25.6 yuan. Others only sell for 10 yuan at most. You only have two rows, but you have so much goods. It's amazing. The bulk of the money is from that basket of prawns, blue crabs and red crabs."
The price instantly cured his depression. He folded the bill with a smile on his face and put it away. He also kept about one pound of prawns for the Mid-Autumn Festival tomorrow, and for his wife to nourish her body.
Regardless of whether you have a baby or not, you must keep up with the body's nutrition.
Xiaoxiao and A Zheng looked at him enviously.
"It's our turn to weigh in."
Ye Yaodong was also waiting on the side. He could ask them to help get the trap on the way. His own cart was not available yet, and it would not be convenient to borrow someone else's every few days.
Ah Cai listed the goods they were selling and handed them to them, "Yours is 9.80 yuan."
"Gap! Either make it an integer for us, since we are so familiar with each other, just round it up."
"No, you have to give me two cents. You've already sold a lot of these. Have you really changed your ways in this period of time? Why are you working so hard?"
"You're the one who supports the family in Hukou. Can you just sit around and do nothing? Even Dongzi has changed his personality. We can't let the gap between us become too big."
"Good job, young man."
There is no gap without comparison, and Ye Yaodong is satisfied now.
"Are you done? If you are, help me move the trap. It's still on the boat."
"So you're waiting here just to make us do hard labor."
Xiao Xiao rolled her eyes, put her arm around Zheng's shoulder and said to him, "You just found out? When I saw so many traps, I knew we had to help move them."
"One of you can help me move it, and the other can help me borrow a cart."
Xiao Xiao raised an eyebrow, "I have to help you move it, and I have to help you borrow it. Why don't you borrow it yourself? Your own cage!"
"I'm sorry, I've borrowed it too many times. Please at least change the person. Just go with anyone you want."
Ah Zheng also said, "You knew you had to come out to collect the traps, so why didn't you push a cart out? Everyone's carts are marked anyway, so no one can steal them."
"I came out in such a hurry that I didn't think about it. Go and borrow one for me."
Ah Zheng looked at Xiao Xiao, "Rock, paper, scissors, if you lose, go borrow it?"
Xiaoxiao glanced at him sideways, "Childish!"
Then he turned around and went to borrow a cart from a nearby household.
Ah Zheng glared at his back with disdain. "Tsk~ This morning we were playing rock-paper-scissors to see who would cast the net first. Why are you pretending now?"
"Come and help me move it, don't be so long-winded."