After the villagers asked in a flurry how to do it, they happily ran around and told each other the story.
The cart was also parked again on the open space in the threshing ground. The villagers who had been waiting there early with their small stools and winnowing baskets immediately surrounded it as soon as they saw it, fearing that if they were a step late there would be nothing left for them to choose from.
Ye Yaodong also took a look and planned to go back to the old house to tell his mother, as his mother usually had to be involved in such matters.
Unexpectedly, when he was halfway there, he saw his mother and his younger sister running hurriedly, each holding a stool and a round winnowing wheel.
Really well-informed!
"Why are you in such a hurry? That's a huge cart of dried shrimps. It would take the whole village a whole day to pick them."
"If you go too late, there won't be enough seats. Since you have nothing to do, go and call your eldest sister-in-law and second sister-in-law over. Otherwise, they are far away and there will be no one to tell them."
After saying this, Ye's mother ran away in a hurry without waiting for his response.
He shook his head and had to go home to tell his two sisters-in-law. Unexpectedly, his wife was also quite moved.
"I'll go too. I won't feel tired just sitting there and choosing..."
Ye Yaodong looked at her with a gloomy look in his eyes, and she glared at him, "I can't tell. Why are you like this? You were never this nervous even when you had two children before."
"That's different. Last night, you stood up and everything went black. You almost fell. Did you forget?"
"No, I'll be careful if I sit down." She went to find a round basket and whispered, "Some people go up the mountain to chop wood when they are seven or eight months pregnant. I'm only four months pregnant, my belly is only a little bit, and I'm wrapped in a cotton jacket. Who can see..."
She rambled on for a while, picked up the bench and prepared to go out. Ye Yaodong had no choice but to go up and help her get it. "Then pick it up and come back in a while."
"Uh-huh."
The children also ran and jumped in front like little tails.
When we ran to the threshing ground, we saw it was already packed with people. Most of them were women, the elderly, and some half-grown children from the village. There were very few young and middle-aged people, and most of them had gone to work.
In the venue, everyone had a round dustpan on their knees, holding either a ladle or a small basket in one hand, and fiddling with shrimps with the other hand.
Some people just pick them up with their hands and put them in the corner of the winnowing basket. After a while, they grab them and put them into the ladle.
At this moment, the truck driver glared at a woman and said, "Take out all the shrimps in your pocket. I won't let you pick them. Take these small fish and weigh them. Now you can go."
"Ah... I... I didn't..."
"I saw you put a handful of dried shrimps in your pocket. I asked you to pick them, not to eat them. It would be fine if you just tried two, but you put a handful in your pocket. Take them all out and weigh the small fish in your basket. I don't need you anymore."
The woman was exposed in public for hiding the secrets, and her face instantly turned red. We were all from the same village, so we all knew each other. She felt so embarrassed that she lost face instantly...
The others who also had money in their pockets were also a little embarrassed and secretly took it out. If they were caught, they would lose all their face and dignity, and it would become the talk of everyone in the village. Not everyone can be so shameless as to not care.
Her face flushed with embarrassment as she listened to other people whispering and her mother-in-law scolding her for being a disgrace. She simply couldn't bear it and ran away covering her face with her hands in embarrassment without taking her things.
The truck driver then shouted to everyone, "No one is allowed to steal or eat anything. Take out all the shrimps in your pockets. Otherwise, if we find out, you will have to pay compensation..."
The crowd finally became quiet and started looking for opportunities to take out the shrimps from their pockets. Some people even dared not move their cheeks.
As soon as he arrived, he saw a lively scene. Ye Yaodong also said to Lin Xiuqing: "Shrimp skin can supplement calcium. Wait a minute, we will buy some to take back."
Lin Xiuqing nodded and held back her son who was about to reach out to Ye's mother and said, "You are not allowed to eat it now. You can eat it after you buy it. Otherwise, people will think you are a thief and cut off your hand. Are you afraid?"
"But the others..."
Ye's mother quietly took a small amount and put it into Ye Chenghu's mouth, and he immediately started chewing...
The couple frowned immediately. When teaching children, they are most afraid of such bad teammates.
At this time, the truck driver yelled again: "Adults should also keep an eye on their children, otherwise they will be fined when the time comes. We have two people patrolling and will remember who is cheating. If you do this again, we will leave and will not let you choose..."
Suddenly, the scolding and the children's crying sounded at the same time...
Lin Xiuqing couldn't say anything to Ye's mother, so she could only stare at her eldest son, "Did you see that? You can't just take other people's food to eat. You have to pay for it. You can only eat it after your parents buy it for you."
"Oh well."
Ye Chengyang didn't get to eat it, but he didn't dare to reach out. He could only stare at it. After calling dad, he called mom, and then grandma. His drooling look made everyone know that he was greedy.
Ye Yaodong patted his head and said, "I'll go buy some for you. Come with me."
The truck driver didn't expect that there was someone so considerate and willing to pay for the goods instead of stealing them, and he was happy to weigh the goods.
After Ye Yaodong filled the two children's pockets with dried shrimps, he also took out two cigarettes and started chatting with him.
It turned out that this truckload of shrimp skins were all brought back from Chenjiamen by fishing boats, and several other truckloads were also pulled to nearby villages to find people to pick them up. There were too many impurities and small fish in them, so they needed to be picked out before they could be packed.
Thinking that Ah Guang went to Chenjiamen with his father to sell dried shrimps in his previous life, and only made some money after changing his name in his forties, he couldn't help but light up two cigarettes and started chatting with the driver.
"There are so many shrimps in the Shenjiamen area, but our fishing boats are small and we can only fish near the coast, so the yield is not high, the efficiency is poor, and we don't have the equipment. We can't put the fresh shrimps in the boat and dry them directly, so we can only do it carelessly..."
Ah Guang also came over at this time, and when he heard this, he smiled and said, "It's good to trawle the net at home. My father wanted to go to Shen's Gate with his friends a few months ago, but fortunately he didn't go."
Humph... If you go, you won't be my brother-in-law anymore, and you can only be a widower in middle age.
"Why didn't you go out to sea today?"
"The machine broke down, so I had to come back halfway. It was just right for me to take a two-day break."
After chatting for a few sentences, the two went to help pick the dried shrimps. Ye Yaodong helped his wife pick, and A Guang of course helped Ye Huimei pick.
It was just that the previous farce had just ended not long ago, and the children running around saw that Ye Chenghu and Ye Chengyang’s pockets were full of shrimp skins, so they ran to tell the adults at home, saying that their pockets were full of shrimp skins and they wanted some too.
The adults were so annoyed by the noise that they quietly grabbed a handful of money from their pockets, thinking that if others could do it, then they could do it too.
Who knew he would be caught red-handed again.
"Weigh the dried fish in the bag. I don't want you to do it anymore."
"Why? They can fill the pockets of children, so they can't do it."
Ye Yaodong listened to the noise and looked up, only to see Awei's wife pointing her index finger at them and speaking with her neck stiff.
They are all from the Xu family. No wonder they can still be so shameless after being caught and righteously blame others.
"Since they bought it themselves, just take the dried shrimp out of the kid's pocket, weigh the groceries and you can leave. We don't need you anymore."
"How can it be… "
"How is it impossible? Do you think everyone likes to take advantage? They bought them with their own money. Go away, there's no need to weigh them. These small fish are worth the money you just stole and the money in the kid's pocket."
Awei's wife was a little unconvinced and wanted to argue, but Awei held her back and scolded her to stop her. He felt it was too embarrassing.
Ah Wei's wife didn't notice at all. She shook off his hand and started packing her things, cursing, "It's all because of that friend of yours. He filled the kid's pocket with dried shrimps for no reason. He has too much money to burn..."
"Shut up… "
His wife was holding a dustpan and a stool in her hands. As she walked, she turned around and gave Ye Yaodong and his wife a fierce look.
Ye Yaodong watched from afar and cursed, "Fuck it, I'm happy with it."
Lin Xiuqing tugged at his sleeve and said, "Don't worry about them."
He felt even more upset and went straight to the driver to ask for suggestions.
"You can't stop them from stealing by doing this. I suggest you collect all the shrimps first, and then weigh ten kilograms for each person. After picking them, weigh the shrimps and small fish together. If the total is less than ten kilograms, the difference will be deducted from the wages, and the amount can be repeated in the book."
The driver's eyes lit up immediately after hearing this. "This is good. We don't have to keep watching them stealing food."
After Ye Yaodong returned to his original position, not long after, the two men discussed it and asked everyone to come over to weigh themselves, and then implement it according to his method.
Now no one dares to eat too much and it saves the trouble once and for all.
Occasionally, I could hear sounds of beating and scolding, as well as the sound of children crying.
Ye Yaodong chatted with A Guang while choosing and found it quite interesting. They sat there for two or three hours. The couple picked quite a lot and when they got home at lunchtime, they weighed the items and found that they had picked 60 cents.
You can't make a lot of money from this job, it's just fun, but for the women and the elderly in the village, it's pretty good and easy. After all, you can't make a dollar a day from weaving nets, and you can still steal a few bites of food, so it's not a big problem.
After lunch, Lin Xiuqing went to pick shrimps again. Ye Yaodong turned over the dried fish and planned to go out to sea to collect the traps. They couldn't go out because of the low tide in the morning, but the high tide came in the afternoon and they could go out to sea.
After collecting the waste once before the earthquake, he never went back after it.
On the night of killing the toadfish, he asked his eldest brother and second brother to help him collect the fish when they came back. However, they came back late the next day and did not collect the fish.
When he came back to collect it yesterday, he said he couldn't find it. He was a little puzzled for a moment, thinking that it might be lost. He planned to wait for the tide to rise in the afternoon and then go out to check it himself.