After a sleepless night, the whole family got up late this morning because they all went to bed too late last night, including the two children.
But as soon as they woke up and saw Ye Yaodong, the two of them immediately remembered the oil cakes and malt sugar their father had promised them. They had fallen asleep while waiting for him yesterday and had no idea when he would come back.
"Dad, Dad, where are our oil cakes and maltose?"
"Dad~Dad~"
The two men crawled directly to Ye Yaodong, one pushed him and the other sat on him, scaring him so much that he woke up immediately to protect his vitals.
"Go down!"
"Dad, you promised yesterday to bring us oil cakes and maltose!"
"Yeah, yes, oil cakes and maltose!"
Lin Xiuqing was also woken up and sat up. "I started reciting it early in the morning and I recited it all night yesterday."
"Dad promised us! We must keep our word!"
Ye Yaodong's face was wrinkled, and he was tormented by the two men without even opening his eyes. The younger one was even twisting and turning on his stomach. He turned sideways and laid him down, and said quickly: "Buy it, buy it. It's on the table outside."
"Oh~ yeah yeah~"
“Yeah yeah yeah~~”
The two were so excited that they climbed out of bed without even putting on their clothes and rushed out one after the other.
After Ye Yaodong breathed a sigh of relief, he took the quilt to cover himself and continued to close his eyes.
Lin Xiuqing sat beside him and laughed at him while getting dressed, "Let's see if you dare to tempt them again next time. If you say something else, they might forget it. But if you say you're bringing them food, they'll remember it for a long time."
"That's right. I asked as soon as I opened my eyes. I thought they would forget about it after a night." Ye Yaodong sat up and hugged her, pushing her back to the bed and taking off the clothes she had just put on. "Lie down for a while. You went to bed too late last night."
"What are you doing? Both kids are awake. It's time to get up and make breakfast."
"Don't worry, sleep a little longer."
Ye Yaodong put one arm around her waist and one leg across her body to hold her down.
"Stop it, it's already daybreak..." Lin Xiuqing struggled and said in a low voice.
"I've been holding it in for a long time..."
More than half a month has passed since he came back from his mother-in-law's house, and he dared not act rashly. He endured it as much as he could, but it has been too long and he will always think about it. Otherwise, what if it overflows
"There's nothing we can do about it. It's early in the morning and the two kids are still outside. They'll rush in soon."
"That night?"
Lin Xiuqing said hesitantly, "Let's talk about it in the evening. Let me get up first, otherwise the children will see it."
Ye Yaodong reluctantly let her go after he had satisfied his urge, letting her get up. He then rolled up the quilt and planned to lie down for a while, taking it easy as it was easy to be impulsive early in the morning.
Every day the tide recedes about 50 minutes later than the previous day. He gets up late in the morning again. It is now past 8 o'clock and the tide is low. The water level is too shallow and it is difficult for the boat to go out. He can rarely stay in bed and wait until after lunch before going out to collect the trap nets.
But wishes are beautiful, but the reality is that the two children ran in chattering again.
"Dad, Mom put away the maltose and won't let us eat it."
Ye Yaodong turned over and looked at them. "If your mother doesn't give you food, there's nothing I can do about it."
"Tell her, didn't you buy it?"
"I bought it. If she doesn't give it to you, I can't do anything about it. I have to be controlled by her."
"Aren't you the head of the family? If you scold her, she will listen to you."
Lin Xiuqing just came in from outside and was about to put clothes on them when she heard this. She twisted his ear and slapped him hard on the butt.
"You're itchy, aren't you?"
Ye Yaodong also glared at his eldest son, saying that he deserved to be beaten for being heard saying such things.
"Oh, I was wrong, mother..."
"Why don't you give them some to eat? You've already bought them, are you going to leave them to go bad?"
Lin Xiuqing said angrily, "You listened to his lies. I told him to keep half of it and not eat it now after dinner. But this kid couldn't wait and ran in to complain."
This time Ye Yaodong did not speak for them and even quoted them out of context, which was quite smart.
After watching her scold her son, he came to his senses and simply got up and went to the back door to see how the shelled ones from yesterday were being divided.
I saw a pile of bamboo baskets in the corner of the back door, all neatly sorted into different categories. Only a sack of oysters was left intact in the corner.
This is because he told her yesterday not to move.
"Didn't Adong go out to sea today?"
"Well, sister-in-law, the tide hasn't come yet. Let's go in the afternoon."
"We have made two more traps. Do you want to take them and set them up this afternoon?"
"OK."
He now has nearly 60 traps, which can be placed in 6 rows.
He silently calculated the family savings in his mind, and gave her a little over 700 at noon and in the evening. He estimated that the family had only about 2000 in savings, which was still too little. If he took all of it, he could only buy a second-hand trawler. In fact, the most important thing was that the machinery on the boat was expensive.
After thinking about it, I decided to sail the small boat first. This small wooden boat hasn’t been sailing for very long. I’ll change it next year when the baby is born safely, the fine is paid, and I have money on hand.
Thinking of this, he went into the house and took out a basin for washing vegetables. After washing the vegetables, he put it aside. Then he dragged the sack of oysters out from the corner, untied the straw rope tied to the opening, and poured it out.
I put on gloves and took a flat-blade screwdriver, planning to help open it a little while I had some free time before breakfast, so I wouldn't let anyone else do the job.
Each of these oysters is over 5cm in size. When you pry open the shell, the meat inside is so full that it almost overflows. It is very plump.
It’s a pity that there is no mustard, otherwise I could squeeze some mustard on it and spread it on, and it would be very delicious if eaten raw.
After thinking for a while, he simply shouted to Lin Xiuqing in the room: "Ah Qing? Have you put out the porridge? Can I wash some oysters and steam them?"
"Okay, I'll free up the pot."
He picked out the meat and put it in the basin, then picked out ten with beautiful shapes, rinsed them and brushed off the sand and dirt on the shell with a brush.
Then he took it into the house and gave it to Lin Xiuqing to steam, and then he went back to the back door to continue opening oysters.
Each piece of meat is very full. It would be a pity to dry it, but it cannot be stored without drying. A sack of this much meat cannot be eaten in two days.
He opened four or five oysters in a row, but none of them contained what he wanted. However, he was not very disappointed. After all, probability is hard to predict. It is possible that there would not be a single oyster in the entire sack.
While he was busy, Ye's mother came in happily, and he could hear his mother's loud voice at the front door even from the back door.
After a while, she came out from the back door of his sister-in-law's house, looked at him with shining eyes and said, "Come over quickly."
"Dongzi, you didn't open it yesterday? I thought you opened it yesterday, and I was just about to come over to ask you how many you opened."
He raised an eyebrow. Seeing his mother so happy, she must have had some harvest yesterday. "Did you find any pearls yesterday? How many?"
Sister Ye followed Mother Ye and was shocked when she heard the words, "Pearl?"
Second Sister-in-law Ye had just poured the oysters that Mother Ye had brought over into her own bowl. When she was taking the bowl out to return it to her, she heard First Sister-in-law Ye say "Pearl!"
What pearls
She came forward curiously, "Mom, what pearls are you talking about?"
Mother Ye narrowed her eyes in a smile and said happily, "I'm telling you guys, don't tell anyone. Last night Huimei and I opened the whole bag of oysters and we got three pearls. Together with the one she opened on the island, she got four pearls this time."
"What? Four pearls?"
Both sisters widened their eyes in disbelief.
Ye Yaodong was also a little surprised. He could get 2 pills out of one bag. That was pretty good. He didn't know if he could get any out of this bag.
Fatty and his family were not at home last night just like him, and he didn't know whether their wives came out yesterday.
Mother Ye said happily, "Yes, they came out of oysters. I never thought that pearls could really be found in oysters. I have only heard of them before, but never seen them."
"Yesterday at noon, Huimei came back but didn't tell me. It wasn't until I opened one last night that she was willing to tell me. This little girl must be afraid that I would take hers..."
Mother Ye complained as she spoke, "She is still young and not married yet. I am keeping it for her, so how can I not return it to her? There is such a large sum of money, and she has to keep it for herself. I am her biological mother, not her stepmother. How can I be greedy..."
The two sisters were confused again. What does a large sum of money mean
There are pearls and money here, why don't you explain it clearly, mother
Only Lin Xiuqing, who came out after hearing the noise, understood what had happened. She smiled and said, "My little sister isn't young anymore. She's already 20. Didn't mom always ask people to introduce her to a date? It won't be long before she gets married. There's nothing wrong with keeping what you earn yourself."
The two sisters-in-law felt like they were being pawed by a cat, and were feeling very uncomfortable. Why didn't they just explain it clearly
Mrs. Ye couldn't help but interrupt, "Mom, what are you talking about, pearls found in oysters, and a large sum of money? Can you explain it more clearly? We are all confused."
"Hey, I've explained it so clearly, why don't you understand?"
Lin Xiuqing smiled and explained it to them again. The two sisters finally understood and were immediately envious. They slapped their thighs and regretted why they didn't have the nerve to go with them yesterday.
They took a few quick steps and came to Ye Yaodong, looked at the oysters all over the ground and the sack next to it, picked up an oyster and took a look, but didn't find anything special.
How can pearls be found
When they heard about it before, they thought it was a rumor and fake. They didn’t expect that oysters could really be opened
Mrs. Ye couldn't help but ask, "Is it really made from oysters?"
Mother Ye rolled her eyes. "I've told you several times, and you still don't believe it! When Dongzi comes out, you should believe it."
Ye Yaodong listened to the four women chattering there, each one louder than the other, and couldn't help shaking his head. One woman is equal to 500 ducks!
Mrs. Ye asked again, "Mom, did my younger sister really earn more than 300 yuan yesterday?"
She looked so conflicted and upset, as if she had missed out on a hundred million!
Ye Yaodong felt sorry for her when he saw this.
"How could it be true? Dongzi helped to sell it in town. What a pity! I wanted to go with you yesterday morning, but you aunts called me to go digging for sand clams at the beach, so I missed it. Oh, it really makes me angry..."
Sister Ye also asked Lin Xiuqing, "My sister's has sold more than 300, did you sell more?"
How can I tell them exactly how much money I earn
Lin Xiuqing smiled, "Not much different, just a little more than my younger sister. My younger sister has opened pearls, but ours haven't opened yet. Ah Dong didn't tell me yesterday, he just told me not to touch the bag of oysters, and then he left in a hurry and didn't come back until the night. When we went to my hometown yesterday afternoon, my younger sister didn't tell me either, I didn't know that pearls could be found in oysters."
"That's great. These are pearls, and they can be sold for money. You have made a lot of money again." Mrs. Ye was extremely envious.
Mrs. Ye was also extremely envious. "We got several sacks of food. These will last us a long time."
"ah!"
At this moment, Ye Yaodong shouted in surprise, and they immediately turned their heads.
"pearl?"
“Is it really open?”
Hearing others talk about it is not as real as seeing it with your own eyes. It is so incredible!