Fifty nets are really a lot. By 12 noon, they had only collected eighteen of them. This was mainly because they spent about an hour on the road and another two hours on longline fishing.
However, with one more person, efficiency would be higher. According to the subsequent progress, we should be able to collect the nets by dark. Even if we collect them, it will take another half an hour to an hour to put them down, and it will still be seven or eight o'clock when we get back.
However, there will be no longline fishing tomorrow, so we should be able to reach the shore just after dark.
It’s too difficult. It’s difficult to make money!
It’s even harder when there’s no money to be made!
It’s not easy.
Ye Yaodong saw that it was time for dinner, and most importantly, he was hungry, so after collecting the net in hand, he stopped.
"You guys collect the fish first, I'll go heat up the food, and by the time I'm done the food will be ready."
"Go ahead."
Smelling the delicious bone soup made him even hungrier. Fortunately, he had eaten dry rice in the morning, otherwise he would not have made it until noon.
When he felt that the radish and skull soup in the pot had boiled, he was the first to scoop out a bowl and drink it. He put rice on top as it did not heat up so quickly.
He smacked his lips a few times before calling on others to come and drink the soup first.
"Dried radish slices stewed with pig skulls taste even better, and adding a little rice wine will make it even more fragrant. Tomorrow, after drying the fish, ask A-Qing to dry some more dried radish."
"Wait until the weekend and ask your mother to do some sunbathing."
"That's right. Ah Qing is too busy, so my mother has to do it. On weekends, I can also ask the boys at home to pick radishes. They love to do this kind of thing."
Ye Yaosheng was filled with envy when he heard this, but he just smiled and drank the soup without saying anything.
After a quick and simple lunch, they continued working without stopping.
As Ye Yaodong had expected, they only pulled up all the nets when it was just getting dark.
He let out a long sigh, looked at the time, and then continued to release the net he had collected earlier.
"We'll work all day tomorrow, collect the nets and take them home to wash and dry them. Otherwise, there will be too much stuff stuck on the nets, and the fish will be alert, and the catch will become less."
This kind of fishing net is easy to catch fish because it is transparent when put into water.
"We'll see tomorrow. Today's harvest is not bad. Some of them are a little broken, but it doesn't matter."
Ye Yaosheng couldn't help but say, "If we take the nets back tomorrow to wash and dry them, we can set out the longlines tomorrow. Set them out tomorrow and collect them the day after tomorrow. Anyway, there won't be any sticky nets set out the day after tomorrow, so you can be busy."
Ye Yaodong nodded, "Yes, I'll ask someone to sort it out when I get home at night, and I'll use the longline fishing when the nets are drying. It's just the right time to stagger the fishing, so I can make money on both ends."
"I envy you for making money so easily. It's much easier than for us."
"You just need to be diligent and have a little luck. We all depend on luck for our livelihood. No one is better than anyone else. You just lack luck."
He just knows more, is bolder at times, or dares to think more.
Ye Yaosheng smiled and shook his head, "Take your time! Take your time."
Ye's father went to drive the boat, Ye Yaodong set down the nets again, and Ye Yaosheng sorted out the remaining fishing nets and also sorted out the things on the boat, each doing his own job.
Just as he was stacking the goods neatly, he noticed the things in the corner that were neatly covered with cloth and nylon bags.
He went over to touch it, patted it and asked, "Dongzi, what is this? It looks like a small machine? I see it has been piled up for a long time, and you don't seem to have touched it. I wanted to ask this when I was fishing for jellyfish before."
Ye Yaodong turned his head and saw what he was saying.
He had told them before that this was borrowed and had to be returned, and asked everyone not to touch it, lest it get bumped and he would be embarrassed to explain to others. Unexpectedly, Brother Asheng asked about it again at this moment.
"This is a small machine I borrowed from someone before. Now I have no use for it and planned to return it, but my friend said there was no rush and left it with me first, so I haven't touched it yet."
"oh."
"Don't worry about it. Just leave it there."
"I just saw it out of curiosity. I heard before that you were going to return it, but I didn't expect it was still there. It looks like it takes up quite a bit of space."
"Well, never mind."
Ye Yaodong felt that it was time to tidy up the cabin and move this in, so that no one would have to ask about it when they got on board.
Put this thing in the cabin and take it out when you need it, so you don't have to keep it outside all the time.
Ye's father also kept looking at him, not understanding why his drainage machine could not be seen by others.
In fact, it’s not that they are afraid of being seen, but they just want to avoid unnecessary trouble. After all, nowadays people dive naked no matter what they go into the water to fish for, and most of them rely on their real skills.
He continued to change the subject, "Brother Asheng, come and help me light a flashlight. It's completely dark now and I can't see clearly. Even a flashlight makes things blurry."
"well."
Now the nights are getting longer and longer, and when the winter solstice comes, that night will be the longest night of the year, because the winter solstice is the longest night in the northern hemisphere in the year.
After the winter solstice, the days will begin to gradually shorten again until the summer solstice, when the days become longer and the nights shorter again.
After putting down all the nets one by one, Father Ye stepped on the horse and headed for the shore.
Ye Yaodong just checked today's goods received. He had been busy collecting goods since morning and had no time to pay attention to how much goods he had received.
I can only check what fish are there when the nets are pulled up, to see if there are any rare or large ones. But there really weren't any today.
There were still three otters yesterday, but today's goods were super ordinary, so he was not in a hurry to see how much he had received in total.
On the way back, I unexpectedly ran into Uncle Lin. He unexpectedly docked so late today.
Everyone was in a hurry to go back and had no time to chat. They just said hello when the boat approached, and then went on with their own boat.
After getting ashore, he saw that he had caught two otters today, one big and one small.
"No wonder you're so late today too. It turns out you were delayed by catching two otters, right?"
"Yes, I happened to see a group of otters near an island not far from the island town, so I thought I could try my luck and see if I could catch two. When I came back to the dock yesterday, I saw someone else caught two."
"It's good luck."
"How much have you received today? 50 sticky nets, can you handle it?"
"You're right. Two people can't handle it. I worked until nine o'clock yesterday evening. Today, I specially asked Brother Sheng to help. It's considered early to come back."
"That's why I only put out 30 nets, otherwise the father and son wouldn't be able to handle it."
Father Ye smiled and said, "You only have one son, so it's much easier for you. You just need to work hard to make ends meet. I have three sons, so I have to earn more, otherwise there won't be enough to share."
"My children and grandchildren have their own blessings. They all have their own boats and can make money. Why should we share? We can't do this for a few more years. Then we can only go back to grow vegetables."
"That's not the case. The boat that the eldest and second brother worked on together was rented to them by me, and I can't take it back when the time comes. I can only earn more money to compensate Adong. There are many grandchildren in the family, so I can give some to them when the time comes..."
Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes as he listened. His father was only 50 years old, but he was already thinking about giving his sons some of the family property, and then some to his grandsons. He would be thankful if what they earned was enough for them to spend until they were old, without having to rely on the three brothers for retirement money.
After all, they still have 30 years to live, and prices are soaring. If they save tens of thousands of yuan now, according to their nature, they will not spend money on food and clothing, and wait 30 years later, haha, they will still want to divide the inheritance for their grandchildren...
"Don't talk about this, Dad. Wait until you earn enough money for your retirement," he said to Lin Jingye, "Uncle Lin also had a good catch today. The boat is full of fish."
"No, you guys have more fishing nets and catch more. Don't bother chatting. It's late now. We're probably the only ones left. The lights at the purchase point are off. Go call Ah Cai over first."
"Hey, Brother Sheng, can you help us call Ah Cai over? He must be still awake at this hour. Could you please run a trip for us?"
"Okay, I'll go right away."
After Uncle Lin finished moving the goods on his own boat, the father and son came over to help their family move the goods. When they saw the harvest on their boat, they couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.
"I knew you guys would catch a lot, but I didn't expect it to be this much. It looks like you caught twice as much as we did."
"That's because we received 1,000 hooks today, so there is a lot of goods, right? With more work, there is naturally more goods. We even hired one more person to help."
"How much does it cost to hire one person? With so many goods, I really make a lot of money."
"It's OK. I can't do more. I also bought a rolling wheel. I have to make back the money I spent."
"Good boy, it turns out that young people are more willing to spend money. For example, an old guy from the next village is reluctant to do so. Yesterday, I met a father and his two sons from Dongqiao Village. The three of them were working hard there. With that efficiency, it's really not as fast as buying one to make money."
"That is to say, human power is no match for machines."
"First come, first served, there are too many of you."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome~"
Ye Yaodong had counted the number of baskets before. They caught more frogfish today, one more basket than yesterday, and the sizes were generally a little bigger. He estimated that they should have caught another 100 or 200 kilograms.
However, there was no decrease in other fish. It still looked like there were about five or six hundred kilograms. I just don’t know if they are more valuable. I guess there is not much fluctuation compared to yesterday.
But today he also collected longline fish, and according to his initial estimate, today's profit would be over 200 yuan. After deducting the money for the toadfish, the profit would still be around 150 or 160 yuan.
Just as they were waiting there to be weighed, a woman's voice suddenly screamed not far away. They were startled and turned their heads to listen to the voice.
"What's that sound? Who's calling?"
"It's so dark at night, who is still outside? What's the noise?"
"Who is it? Why do I hear scolding again?"