Being debt-free is a relief.
Even if it was just a few hundred yuan owed, Ye Yaodong didn't want to owe it unless it was necessary. He would feel relieved if he paid the debtor back immediately and could sleep peacefully.
It was not until he woke up in the afternoon that he found out that his father had been there. The news was spreading all over the village, and everyone knew that several families had specially taken the goods to the city and sold them for a good price.
In their small village, word spreads quickly. Who doesn't have many aunts and uncles
If he is not envied by others, he is a mediocre person. Anyway, he doesn't take it to heart. He works all day and has no time to wander around. He doesn't hear what people are saying and he won't lose any money.
Just after waking up, he stood at the door and looked at the tide, and planned to go to the beach to collect the traps. It was already afternoon, and the tide had been high for almost two days. Now it had receded a little, and the traps were exposed. It was almost time to collect them, but he didn't know how many he could collect.
Lin Xiuqing watched him put on his rain boots and said, "The rice is still warm in the pot, why don't you eat something first? It's great, I'll call dad over and ask him to help with the collection later."
"No, I'm not hungry now. I can have dinner after I finish collecting the traps. This way I won't have irregular meals and keep you busy."
"Then you can ride your bike to ask dad to come over and collect the items together. It will be faster and easier for two people to collect the items, so you don't have to be so busy alone."
"Yes, I know."
Lin Xiuqing originally wanted to ask him about the shop and the balance, but seeing that he seemed a little anxious, she swallowed the question and planned to ask again in the evening.
Really, I didn’t give her a chance to speak at noon.
She was also worried that if she stayed in the room for too long, people would think too much. After all, she had come twice, and he had rushed out after finishing the job, without even asking any detailed questions about the follow-up.
Ye Yaodong rode his bicycle to the old house to call his father, but to his surprise, the old house was empty. There was only a pig grunting in the small room at the back door where the old lady used to live.
He asked his neighbors and found out that his mother went to work today and was so busy that she didn't have time to come back at noon. His father had nothing to do, so he went up the mountain with his second brother and his wife to collect grass for pigs.
He had no choice but to leave a message for his neighbor and went back to collect the traps.
There were some people picking up scallops scattered along the beach. The tide had receded a little, and everyone came to try their luck. The more they could pick up, the better, as they could sell them for some money.
No one dared to steal his trap, after all, it was right at his doorstep.
Empty shells and corpses of small fish and shrimps were scattered all over the shore. Even without the sun in summer, the temperature was not much lower. After being stranded for two days, the surroundings were filled with the unique fishy smell of seafood.
The ducks in their family were leisurely walking around and pecking at food on the beach with their heads held high. They were eating but not quacking. In the past two days, they had eaten a lot and their bellies were plump.
Next year we can really raise more ducks. It will be easier. We can just drive them out and let them swim and hunt on the beach. The same goes for chickens. They can find stranded fish and shrimp to eat. They can't eat much bran.
When he waded through the water to pull the rope at one end of the trap, he didn't expect that the ducks would follow him and swim into the water, swaying.
He smiled as he looked at the ducks paddling in webbed feet and quacking in a neat line beside him, and couldn't help but say, "You guys are the best."
“Ga ga~”
"But your carefree days will only last for half a year. You can start killing in a few months."
“Ga ga ga~”
After Ye Yaodong talked to himself for a few sentences, he hummed a tuneless song in a good mood, pulled the rope of the trap towards the shore, and stood on the shore to collect it to avoid getting wet again.
The heavy weight and the sea water made him feel a little tired, but fortunately he didn't have to soak in the water, and he pulled the trap up one by one.
From time to time, some shrimps and crabs could be seen stuck on the grid, and when he collected them, they fell down into the fish collecting bag.
"Youhe~ There is also a spring fish weighing one pound."
Ye Yaodong immediately became excited. A fish weighing 150 to 180 grams might only be worth 50 or 60 cents, but one weighing more than 1 kilogram would be worth 80 or 90 cents. A big one could probably be sold for one dollar.
Fish and shrimp are generally more popular and more expensive than other seafood, and spring fish is much more valuable than sea bass.
He quickened his pace to collect the net, and scattered the collected grids randomly on the ground. He had no time to tidy them up now, as he had to collect the entire trap, and it would not be too late to do anything else after he had collected everything.
As the trap became longer and longer, he saw a lot of scallops hanging on the trap net, and then they fell into the fish collecting bag.
Judging from the number he just saw, these traps were not placed in vain.
With full confidence, he made one last effort to pull up the fish bag, and saw a heavy pile of grayish shells at the bottom, mixed with some still-jumping fish, shrimps and crabs.
Although he already had a rough idea of what was inside when he pulled it up, and did not feel the joy of opening a blind box, he was still happy when he saw the goods inside.
There were two orchid crabs, a red flower crab, a few sword lobsters, a fairly large oyster snail, and some small crayfish. The most beautiful one was the spring fish, and there were also the seven or eight kilograms of scallops weighing heavily at the bottom.
After taking a look, Ye Yaodong threw the fish bag onto the beach, went to the cart to take the basket down to load the fish. When he came out, he pushed out the cart and the basket together to facilitate loading.
The clattering sound of the shells lasted only a few seconds before they all fell into the basket along with the fish, shrimp and crabs.
Ye Yaodong took the lead in picking out the spring fish separately, threw it into the bucket on the cart, and arranged a bucket for it in the luxurious VIP cabin.
At this time, Lin Xiuqing had finished her housework. She left the child to the old lady and trotted out to help.
She supported the basket with both hands and took a look inside. "How many nets are there in here?"
"How many more do you have? One please!"
Ye Yaodong tied up the empty fish bag again, threw it to the ground, and planned to continue to collect the next net along the rope.
"There are so many in one basket? There must be about 150 kilograms in here, right? You put four rows of traps there, right?" She was surprised, and she lifted the basket and shook it twice. "It looks like there aren't many shells, just a few clams."
"Well, they should all be alive. If nothing goes wrong, with 4 rows of traps and 41 nets, we should be able to catch about 200 kilograms. Pick out the fish, shrimps and crabs and put them separately, so I don't have to collect a few more nets and dump them down and crush them all."
"Okay, why didn't Dad come?"
"He and my second brother went up the mountain to collect grass for pigs. They haven't come back yet. I'll collect it first." While Ye Yaodong was speaking, he was pulling the net with all his strength with his hands.
Lin Xiuqing first caught the orchid crabs and pressed their backs with her thumbs. "These crabs don't look very fat."
Ye Yaodong turned around and chuckled, "You've only been married for a few years, and now you can tell if a crab is fat or not just by touching it?"
She rolled her eyes at him, "Will it get hard? How could I not know?"
"Oh~ Is it hard?"
"Just...barely..." Lin Xiuqing looked at him with a smirk on his face, and always felt that he seemed to be hinting at something.
“Just barely!”
She said unhappily, "Otherwise, at this time of year, the crabs aren't very fat to begin with. In another month, the roe will be full."
"Yes, it's full!"
Lin Xiuqing frowned and didn't want to talk to him anymore.
"Be careful not to get your hands caught by its big legs."
"Yeah." That's more like what a human being would say.
Men and women working together make the work less tiring. One of the couple was collecting the nets while the other was picking up the goods. They were also chatting and did not feel bored at all. It was much better than working alone just now.
Ye Yaodong took another basket and poured the catch into it, because he saw that Ah Qing had not picked out all the seafood from the previous net and was still picking up crayfish.
However, she actually threw the crayfish she had just picked up back into the sea.
"Hey Youyou, why did you throw away this little candied shrimp?"
There are freshwater crayfish in the river, and there are sea crayfish in the sea. The two look quite similar, except that the crayfish in the sea are very small, almost the same size as white shrimps.
The crayfish in the sea are locally called sugar shrimps, which are actually a kind of crayfish.
Although it is small in size, the texture is not bad at all. It tastes very good when cooked spicy with some potatoes and cucumbers.
Even now, no one eats them. Everyone dislikes their small size and either throws them back into the sea or feeds them to chickens and ducks.
Lin Xiuqing did the same thing. Anyway, her chickens and ducks were all free-range by the sea. Recently, many fish and shrimps were stranded on the beach. She was not worried that they would have nothing to eat. But if she picked them up, she was afraid that they would not be able to finish eating them, and they would become smelly if left alone. So she did not keep them and threw them all back into the sea.
When she heard him ask this question, she was still puzzled and said innocently, "This is so small, why not throw it away and take it back? There are so many small fish and shrimps stranded on the beach, the chickens and ducks will not have nothing to eat."
"It's a waste. Let's pick it up and eat it ourselves."
"You're crazy. They're so small, what's so delicious about them? It's troublesome to peel them, and no one in the village eats them. Why do you suddenly want to keep them for yourself?"
"That's because you don't know how to cook. Every day you either steam or blanch it..."
Lin Xiuqing rolled her eyes. "Isn't seafood usually steamed or blanched?"
“This is delicious when stir-fried spicy.”
"I can't do it as I wish."
"If you don't know, then learn. Why are you talking so confidently? Didn't you teach me enough at noon?"
Lin Xiuqing was so angry that she clenched her fist and wanted to hit him, but he dodged it. "Don't attack me by surprise! Do your job well and I will show you my skills tonight."
"Bah...shameless, your mind is full of filth, and you can't even do your job properly..."
Ye Yaodong was stunned for a moment before he reacted, "Fuck, what did you think? When I said show off my skills, I meant I would cook you a spicy crayfish tonight. What did you think? Damn! The thief is crying thief, it turns out you are the dirtiest one..."
Lin Xiuqing realized that she had misunderstood, her face instantly turned red, and she angrily picked up a few candied shrimps and threw them at him.
"Shut up~"
"Okay, okay~ I won't say anything~"
"Don't laugh~"
"Okay, okay~ Don't laugh~"