Ye Yaodong dipped his thumb and index finger in saliva twice, and then began to count the pictures one by one. After counting twice, there were 56 pictures in total.
"Yes, that's right."
He put away the 56 big unity notes and the seven yuan in change, and stuffed the remaining fifty-six cents into Chen Jianian's pocket, "On this hot day, just treat it as buying a popsicle and two packs of cigarettes."
"Haha, you're welcome. This makes me earn more money."
"As you should. We make money together. I'm counting on you to help me get the money for the remaining goods."
Chen Jianian received the money and patted his chest happily, promising solemnly, "Of course, if you trust me, I will definitely do the job for you. I also hope that we can come back and make some money next year."
"Okay, okay..."
Everyone was envious, and even those who didn't know the truth now knew that Ye Yaodong sold nearly 600 yuan on the first day he arrived.
"Dongzi is still brave and can make money."
"Yeah, who would have thought that going around Zhejiang and Fujian to catch jellyfish could earn so much money."
Ye Yaodong smiled and said, "This is called high risk with high returns. There are risks in everything we do. We make a living on the sea, and although we earn more than others, it is also more dangerous than others."
Father Pei smiled and said, "Anyway, we followed you, and this trip was the right one."
Ye Yaopeng also said enviously: "Dongzi really caught the right wave of jellyfish. He sent it here once and it increased fivefold. He can continue to fish here. This trip will really make a lot of money."
"I told you a long time ago to follow Dongzi here, but you were not willing to do so because you felt it was far away, unsafe, and uncertain. If we had come here the day before yesterday, we could have gotten another day..."
"Alright, alright, keep talking... Aren't you all here? If you hadn't come, how would you know what the situation is here? Didn't I want to be on the safe side?"
The two brothers started arguing again about this.
Father Pei smiled and tried to smooth things over, interrupting them, "We're not too late, we're just in time, right? We also encountered a natural trench today, this time we can make a lot of money again."
Father Ye also glared at his two sons, "Don't worry about it, hurry up and get all the goods on the boat to the beach first, people will come to collect them later. There is also a net of jellyfish at the stern, they are still waiting for you to work."
"Let's go, let's go and carry the goods to the ship..."
With the incentive of money, everyone was like a chicken with its blood pumped up, and rushed to the ship to load the goods in high spirits.
After a while, the person who was going to receive the goods also came over by a detour.
When they saw the fierce battle on the shore, they couldn't help but complain, "Why is there a fight here?"
"We already had a fight yesterday afternoon, and I don't know when it will stop."
Because everyone was weighing the goods, they turned their attention back and didn't say much.
Because they encountered a trench today, they no longer had to drift on the sea looking for jellyfish, and their harvest was much better than yesterday.
Although he didn't know how many kilograms of jellyfish he had dragged up, the number after division was half more than yesterday. The jellyfish heads and skins together weighed a little over 3,000 kilograms. He estimated that he had caught about 5,000 kilograms, or about a hundred jellyfish, in the morning.
Although the price has dropped by another 5 cents compared to yesterday, at least the quantity has increased, and I can earn a little more than yesterday.
His two brothers and Pei's father also weighed the fish and received today's delivery note. The three of them were very happy. Then they took the tractor and bypassed the people fighting on the shore and went to the educated youth point to collect what they had caught yesterday.
Ye's father went to the stern slide of the boat to collect the nets and untie the fishing nets.
Ye Yaodong had a large sum of money on him, so it was inconvenient for him to go into the water as he would get wet. So he waited on the shore and cut up the jellyfish when they pulled it up.
He lit a cigarette and looked at the two groups of people who were still fighting in the distance. Although he felt that he shouldn't be happy there, he still felt that the fight between the two groups was quite timely and directly diverted the attention of the whole village.
They were selling and dividing the goods here, and no villagers had seen them yet, otherwise the three large boats had sold large quantities of jellyfish and were hauling in a large net, which exceeded the amount the villagers caught on a daily basis, and would have attracted their attention.
After all, they are on someone else's territory, so it is better to be low-key. They also want to stay a few more days and make more money, so they don't want to arouse envy.
Father Ye also thought that this fight was just right, and urged the others to quickly pull up the jellyfish in the fishing net one by one. He also took a hook and randomly hooked one and dragged it to the beach.
Ye Yaodong was on the shore, holding a knife and cutting up the jellyfish that were dragged up. He was skilled and fast, and he could cut up one every time the four of them dragged up a wave.
After all the jellyfish were dragged ashore, he had already divided them into 1/4. Compared to his two brothers and Pei's father who were busy catching jellyfish one by one, their group was extremely efficient.
"We've got all the jellyfish in the net. There are also some fish and shrimp in the net, as well as three turtles of different species, some big and some small. Do you plan to release them?"
Ye Yaodong glanced at the fishing net they were dragging to the shore, "Let's release it? We haven't caught a whole group of sea turtles, let alone those few. Let's release them back into the sea."
"what ever."
"I gonna go see."
He picked up a basket and walked towards the fishing net, pouring out all the seafood inside.
In addition to jellyfish and sea turtles, this net also caught six or seven kilograms of shrimp, crabs and fish. The near-shore resources are a little less.
This amount of goods, if added to what the other two boats had hauled, would be enough for two meals for the ten or so people, so they could save on food.
He took the turtles out of the basket one by one, put them in the water, and let them swim to the sea by themselves.
"It's not easy for all of you to grow up this big. I'm going to do a good deed today, just count it as one good deed a day..."
The activity of releasing animals has existed since ancient times.
Releasing animals is an act of immeasurable merit in Buddhism. It not only accumulates merit for yourself, but also accumulates blessings for your children.
Turtles also represent longevity, and releasing turtles also means praying for yourself and your loved ones to live long, healthy, and free from illness and disaster.
At this moment, Ye Yaodong thought that today seemed to be the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar
I heard that releasing animals on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month is most effective!
He couldn't help but become interested when he saw that there were many barnacles growing on the back of the turtle in his hand. He originally planned to put it directly into the water, but he pressed it down to prevent it from moving.
"Brother Asheng, please get me a knife."
After that, he continued to chant to the turtle, "God is merciful, you are lucky to meet me. Today is the fifteenth day of the lunar month, so I will be a good person and scrape the barnacles off your back."
He took the knife handed to him by Ye Yaosheng and started scraping it from the edge.
"Shaving will make you healthier. I'll help you shave clean and reduce your weight so you can swim faster and avoid being crushed to death. Remember to bless me when you return to the sea..."
"Don't move, the knife has no eyes, it will be fine soon..."
"You know what, this process is quite stress-relieving..."
Ye Yaosheng looked at his strange behavior and was powerless to complain, since he was the boss after all.
He shook his head with a smile and went back to Ye's father to help divide it.
Ye Yaodong muttered to himself as he scraped. He saw fewer and fewer barnacles on the turtle shell. When it was completely cleaned, he felt instantly refreshed.
"It's done!" He tapped the turtle's head with his knife, "Let's go~"
After the turtle was no longer suppressed, it began to crawl on the beach using its limbs. However, before it had crawled a few steps, the turtle suddenly turned back.
Ye Yaodong became happier instantly.
In his previous life, he heard someone say that if a turtle turns back when you release it, it means good fortune and is being grateful and thanking you.
"It's really quite spiritual. I think it's because I feel the weight of my body has been reduced and I feel comfortable."
After looking back for a moment, the turtle continued to crawl forward and then slowly swam into the sea.
Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaosheng were busy dragging the jellyfish onto the beach and did not see him releasing it. Only after they finished dragging the jellyfish did they notice that he had been squatting there for quite a while.
"Dongzi, what are you doing?"
"Why did you let the turtle go? This can be sold for money."
"Today is the fifteenth day of the lunar month. I heard that releasing animals is very effective. I'll give it a try. I just saw a turtle turn its head back. It seems to be very effective."
Ye Yaodong then explained to them the concept of releasing animals into the wild.
Ye Yaohua scratched his head. "Really? It seems that people used to release turtles frequently."
"Um."
After he responded, he returned to their group, looked at his watch, and pondered for a moment.
"Dad, you and the eldest and second cousins can just divide the fish on the beach. You guys should be able to handle the work here. Brother Asheng and I will go out to sea again and bring back a net so we can have dinner. We can go out to sea again in the afternoon and catch them again."
"Okay, then go ahead. Be careful. Ask your elder brother and the second brother to go with you. Having several boats together will help you to look after them. If anything happens, they will have to think twice because they see that you are so many people."
Father Ye also noticed that the surrounding villages seemed to be in unrest, and it seemed that armed fights were commonplace. They were outsiders who were unfamiliar with the place, so they had to stick together to feel safe.
"Well, I'll go talk to my elder brother and second brother, and call Uncle Pei along as well."
Of course they have no objection to going out and hauling in another net before dinner. It’s okay to earn a little more money, be a little more tired and a little more troublesome, but what does it matter
What made Ye Yaodong laugh was that his elder and second brothers also released the two turtles they had caught.
Ye Yaopeng said helplessly: "Your second brother thinks you did the right thing and what you said makes sense."
Haha~
Ye Yaodong didn't expect that his second brother still trusted him, it was a bit funny.
Pei's father also found it funny.
"My second brother thought that he didn't need the money, and he wanted to do some good deeds and accumulate some virtue."
Ye Yaohua laughed naively.
Ye Yaodong added: "Let's go now, hurry up and catch another net."
"Well, let's go."