Ye Yaodong thought that only a few familiar acquaintances knew about the boat purchase, so he did not tell everyone. However, his silence did not mean that other people did not tell others. His mother happily walked around the village that afternoon and told all relatives and friends.
When he returned to his new home from his old house, several rolls of firecrackers were already piled up in the corner of his house.
He saw the bright red color as soon as he came back.
"It spread so fast?"
"The news has spread throughout the village in the afternoon. I'm thinking of ordering a board of sugar cakes tomorrow to share with relatives and friends. After all, they all sent firecrackers." When Lin Xiuqing saw him come back, she took the food out of the pot and said with a smile.
It is the custom here to distribute sugar cakes when there is a happy event in the family. On the day of moving, they also steamed two boards of sugar cakes to share with relatives and friends.
The same applies to buying a new boat, there is also the custom of distributing sweets and cakes, which means prosperity.
Ye Yaodong originally thought that it was just a second-hand iron boat, so he kept it low-key and didn’t need to tell everyone about it, but he didn’t expect the news to spread so widely.
"It must have been my mother who said it, that's why it spread so quickly. Go order it tomorrow. Order a board of cakes and share it with your relatives and friends!"
"Well, a few of your friends also sent a few strings of firecrackers. Since you weren't at home, they said they would come over after dinner."
"oh."
"I thought that since this is the boat we just bought, we must choose a good date for the first day of sailing. I just checked and found that tomorrow is not suitable. There is a good date the day after tomorrow. Nine o'clock the day after tomorrow is a good time. We can set off firecrackers then and then go out."
Ye Yaodong frowned, "Isn't it necessary to be so particular about a second-hand ship?"
He was thinking of going out at night to try setting up the net for a day, then coming back tomorrow to paint it and let it air dry for two days.
"Although it's second-hand, it's also our family's new boat. Now that it has a new owner, it should have what it needs."
"Okay, let's paint tomorrow. I'll go talk to Dad after dinner."
This is what they call a sense of ritual, right
When they encounter something in the countryside, they like to choose a good day to do it, to seek a good omen, and if it is not necessary, they will not travel far on the first and fifteenth day of the month.
He had only finished half of his meal when his friends started to show up.
"Wow, you got a new boat without telling anyone. That's awesome!"
"It was so disloyal that they didn't even tell us in advance. We only found out about it from the villagers."
Ye Yaodong quickly shoveled the remaining rice in and said, "I didn't know that the boat could be bought so quickly. I just bought it this morning and you guys found out about it this afternoon. It's not too late."
"That's different. I didn't hear you mention it when we were at sea the other day. Damn, you're changing boats so quickly. Zheng and I don't know when we can get on a bigger boat."
"Yes, there will definitely be a chance."
Ah Guang did not go out to sea today, and asked from the side: "Have you checked the date? When will we set off the firecrackers?"
"I originally thought it didn't matter if it was a second-hand boat, so I went out tonight, but my wife insisted that she had already checked the date and said she would go out to sea after setting off firecrackers at 9 a.m. the day after tomorrow."
"Of course, a second-hand boat is more than ten meters long. Of course we have to set off firecrackers to celebrate. We even set off firecrackers on our small wooden boat."
Ye Yaodong responded with a "hmm" and they chatted for a few more words. Then he agreed to come over at nine o'clock the day after tomorrow to help set off firecrackers and then went back.
He went back to the old house and bought a bucket of dark blue paint. The next day, he got up early, asked someone to help lift the boat ashore, and then started painting.
I thought about it, after painting and setting off firecrackers, it was time to launch the boat into the water again with a brand new look. With a sense of ritual, it would indeed make me happier psychologically than just sailing it out directly. After all, it was the boat I had been looking forward to for a long time.
Moreover, the sun started to come out today and the sky cleared up. It had been cloudy for several days and it was still a sunny day that made people feel comfortable.
Ye Yaodong applied a coat of paint in the morning, and then came out to apply another coat after lunch. Only then did he go home satisfied with his work. Then, he drove the small wooden boat out to collect the trap nets.
I have been putting the traps in the sea for two days and have not had time to collect them. I did not collect them yesterday because it was windy, otherwise I should have collected them yesterday. I am busy again until the afternoon today.
His father had quickly sold the small wooden boat to his second uncle's cousin this morning. Since they were family, he had asked in advance to borrow the boat. It wouldn't be a problem to go out to sea and collect some traps.
But he didn't expect that as soon as he arrived at the dock, he heard a major news that a local ocean-going fishing boat had encountered a bloody massacre at sea.
Ye Yaodong's heart tightened, and he quickly moved closer to the crowd, "What did you say? What did you say? When did it happen?"
"I heard that the fishing boat was in international waters, and a crew member on the boat had frequent quarrels with the first and second mates, and then the crew member poisoned the first and second mates at night. I heard that the crew member was a fugitive and was brought aboard by Lao Gui..."
The person who just came over and heard it also asked anxiously: "Then what, then what?"
"Then I heard that the conflict on the ship got even worse, and the fugitive killed several sailors who were in conflict while they were sleeping and threw them into the sea. Things completely broke out, and in the end only 5 of the 28 people survived, and the captain, the first mate and the second mate all died..."
"I heard that a high-voltage wire was pulled from the back and it fired at the heads of the survivors, killing two people..."
"It was so tragic... Later I heard that there were people hacking with knives, blood everywhere, knife marks, broken limbs, and a crew member was tied to the mast..."
"Is this true? It's so scary..."
"I also heard about it when I went to town this morning. It's so tragic. There are fugitives on the boat. I don't know where they hired the boatmen. It's so scary..."
"Really? Then...the family must be crying. They went to the boat to make money, but ended up losing their lives..."
A man watching the excitement frowned and said to everyone with certainty: "My relative is from the Maritime Administration. This is true. I heard that the fugitive was brought aboard by Lao Gui. The two conspired to seal the cabin tightly, deliberately damaged the cooling system, put poisonous gas into the cabin, and then tricked the first and second mates into going in, locked the cabin from the outside, and poisoned the two people to death. The conflict became more intense afterwards."
"Finally, the four survivors killed the fugitive and threw him into the sea, then tied the old rail to the mast, thus ending the bloodshed."
The chief engineer is called Lao Gui by the locals.
Ye Yaodong felt a chill down his spine when he heard this. In his previous life, there were occasional news reports about bloody accidents on certain ocean-going ships at sea. These were usually not caused by pirates, but by internal strife on board.
You should know that depending on the mode of operation, distant-water fishing vessels go out to sea for as short as half a year or as long as two to three years. The long time at sea and the boring life can easily affect a person's mood. It is normal to have conflicts. When you meet someone with a bad character, a small matter can trigger a bloody conflict.
It is very common to kill someone at sea and throw him into the sea and then just say that he fell into the sea accidentally.
Therefore, the risks of going out to sea are extremely high, and man-made disasters account for a large part of the risk.
In his previous life, he never dared to sail in the ocean. Not having a license was not a big problem, but he was mainly afraid that something might happen over time, so he only went fishing in domestic waters for people, and he could return in a few months at most, which was much better than sailing in the ocean.
He pricked up his ears and continued to listen...
"I heard that the remaining boatmen didn't know how to drive the boat, so they had to let it drift on the sea. It ran aground yesterday and was discovered by the lighthouse staff. They reported it to the marine patrol team, and then contacted our police. He was brought back for interrogation in the early morning. The news spread all over the town this morning. It's so scary. It's really a sin..."
"Why didn't you screen the boatmen before choosing them? Why didn't you find some reliable and familiar ones..."
"It's easy for you to say that. How can a boatman be found? It's even harder to find one for ocean-going work. How many people are willing to sail on the ocean? It's better to get a small boat at home and do some work there than to sail on the ocean."
Deep-sea fishing often encounters typhoons, machine failures, pirates, and infighting. Despite the considerable income, many traditional fishermen are unwilling to participate.
"I heard that those ship workers are all inland people introduced by agents. Except for the captain, the first mate, the second mate and other management personnel, none of them have received seafarer training. Many of them have no ocean-going sea experience. They are introduced by one person and are not familiar with each other. If there is a conflict, who will be polite to you?"
More and more people gathered at the dock, and the news spread more and more widely. Many people stopped going out to sea and just listened to the news there. It was because the news came from a fishing boat in their town that the news spread so quickly.
"It's so tragic. The ocean is so dangerous..."
"Isn't it? We are just ordinary fishermen. We just want to live a stable life by fishing. We can't go on ocean-going ships..."
"It's not that absolute. The main reason is that there are all kinds of people on that boat, so you have to look for boatmen who are familiar and reliable."
Ye Yaodong agreed with this. It was normal for a few people to die at sea, so he asked his father for advice when looking for a boatman. Otherwise, if he didn't find the right one, people might die.
"I guess this will be reported in the newspaper tomorrow..."
Ye Yaodong stood there and listened for a long time. Everyone repeated what they said over and over again. He waited until he had heard enough before leaving to sail the boat.
The ocean was out of reach for him.
But it also warned him to be cautious when choosing someone, and that his father was the most trustworthy person.
The ground trap nets were confiscated after two days, and the goods inside were considerable, including blue crabs, swimming crabs, stone crabs, mantis shrimps, sword shrimps, white shrimps, red seals, white seals, small yellow croakers, yellow croakers, water fish, etc. There were many kinds, both big and small.
He specially picked out a bowl of white shrimps, which are very fat recently, with red paste on the head and red or light purple shrimp roe on the belly. He also kept a 2-jin sea bass, which can be stewed in clear soup in the evening. Sea fish is rich in nutrition and can make people smarter, so it is just right for his wife to eat.
The two boys at home are not good at studying. I hope the one in his wife's belly can be more successful and eat more fish.
When he returned from collecting goods at sea, people on shore were still discussing the killing incident on the ocean-going ship, and it was estimated that the incident would not be resolved for several days.
When they returned home, Lin Xiuqing was there saying, "Luckily we found our father, otherwise I would have been worried."
"We are just a small boat operating offshore, it's okay."