They had been killing fish there for two consecutive days, and their door was already full of dried fish hanging in the air and on the ground.
They are hung in the air with ropes, arranged in neat strings, while on the ground they are placed on bamboo sticks standing on the wall, or on stools. Even the door next door is basically full of them.
In the corner, there are baskets of frogfish covered with rags, which will be taken out later to continue killing.
When Ye Yaodong opened the door early in the morning, he smelled a strong fishy smell outside, which was even stronger than the smell of the sea. After being exposed to the sun, it smelled particularly salty and fragrant.
The dogs at home were also very greedy. Except for the big black one that was caught on the way and tied there for fear that it might bite people, the other four or five small ones walked at their leisurely pace, sniffing the bamboo flatheads on the ground.
They lined up and sniffed the food like a leader inspecting, arranged in an orderly manner, and everyone who saw them could not help but smile knowingly.
These local dogs have been raised since they were young and are quite obedient. If you don't allow them to eat, they will just watch and drool, and sniff a few times.
However, when they saw Ye Yaodong halfway through the inspection, they all ran over hurriedly and grabbed his legs.
Ye Yaodong hurriedly held up the waistband of his trousers, fearing that they would be pulled down. He didn't know when they developed this habit, but as soon as they saw him, they liked to hang on his legs, and then rub against him non-stop, or circle around his legs.
In the past, only Ye Chengyang liked to hang on his feet, but now this position has been occupied by a few dogs.
"Go away, go away. I still have work to do. Don't get in the way."
The dogs circled around his feet, whimpering and barking. As he strode forward, they trotted after him and followed him out of the yard.
Ye Yaodong was wearing slippers with his trouser legs rolled up because he had to wash the fishing nets. His feet really stunk from wearing rain boots for so many days. It was a rare occasion that he didn't have to go out to sea, so he just wanted to wear slippers to be more comfortable and breathe, otherwise he couldn't stand his athlete's feet.
As a result, the dogs followed too closely and stepped on his slippers...
When he stepped out with his left foot, his foot was empty, while the slippers were still in the same place several dozen centimeters away.
He looked at his bare feet and glared at the dogs, and they were extremely dog-like and scrambled to bite his slippers with their mouths. For this, they even had a collective fight to see who could help their master deliver the slippers.
Finally, a little yellow dog came to him, wagging its tail. Then it stuck out its tongue, squatted there, raised its head and made a "ha~ha~" sound, while its tail was wagging as if asking for praise.
Ye Yaodong watched in silence, took the slippers and put them on his feet, and patted its head to show his respect, "Well, very powerful, you won the fight, good boy, go play, I have to work."
The group of dogs continued to follow him with their tongues hanging out. He couldn't drive them away, so he could only let them follow.
In order to make it easier to wash the fishing nets, they pulled the nets directly to the old house yesterday. Because there was a well at the back door of the old house, he didn't have to carry water all the time, otherwise the water would be wasted.
He was planning to do some work before breakfast, and the dogs followed him all the way to the old house.
The folks he met on the road all greeted him. He didn't know when he became so popular. The whole time he walked, the corners of his mouth were never flat and could only be forced to rise.
"Adong, I heard you dried a lot of fish. When are you going to take them to the city to sell?"
"I don't know. It's not dry yet. I'll check later. At least I have to be free before I can go to the city."
There are no secrets in the village, and with so many dried fish hanging at his door, the word had already spread throughout the village, and everyone knew that he was going to make a fortune by drying fish again.
I don't know where everyone got the confidence from. He himself is not sure, but everyone is spreading outrageous stories, as if he has already made a lot of money again.
Rumors are terrible.
These women like to chat while working, and anything new in the village will always escape their mouths.
"I heard that dried toadfish can be sold for several cents? It's much more expensive than fresh ones."
Ye Yaodong laughed in his heart, "If these are not more expensive than fresh ones, who would dry them? It's better to sell fresh ones. Auntie, have you forgotten that these fish shrink a lot when dried, and only two or three kilograms can be dried out of ten kilograms?"
It’s a pity that there is no refrigerator. If there was a refrigerator, there would be no need to dry it so much. It can be half-dried, not very hard. I can put it in the refrigerator to freeze it, and then take it out to stir-fry it. It will taste better and have more meat.
"Yes, but we can at least make some money, right? I just don't know if it will sell well. We seaside people have nothing to eat, so we eat dried fish. I don't know if people in the city can get used to it."
"I heard you've dried a lot of them, several thousand kilograms, aren't you worried that you won't be able to sell them?"
Ye Yaodong shrugged, "Give it a try. If you can sell a little, sell it. If you can't, you'll just lose a hundred or two hundred yuan. If you want to make this money, you have to give it a try. If you really can't sell it and no one wants it, then give some to relatives and friends. You don't have to worry about wasting it."
"Haha, you're so generous. You must have made a lot of money now, right?"
"That should be it. I heard some time ago that he went to Zhejiang Province and earned several thousand yuan. Now he said that he gave gifts worth one or two hundred yuan to relatives and friends..."
The corners of Ye Yaodong's mouth twitched, and he stopped chatting with the aunties at the door.
"I was in a hurry to work, and the aunts took their time weaving the nets and sweeping the floor."
After saying that, he quickly slipped away, but he could still hear faint voices coming from behind him.
"Adong seems to be quite promising now..."
"Who said he wasn't? I heard he's making a lot of money now, more than his older brothers."
"I heard that Lixiang was able to join the Women's Federation because of Adong. She walks with the wind now..."
"The Women's Federation is really great... They even distribute mooncakes, rice, and pork during the Mid-Autumn Festival..."
"Oh, you are so envious of me... Why don't I have a promising son..."
…
By the well at the back door, Ye's father had gotten up early in the morning and was fetching water to wash the fishing nets. Without a water gun, it would be more troublesome to clean them.
As soon as Ye Yaodong arrived, he divided the work with his father, one fetched water and the other cleaned.
Fortunately, when they were about to collect the fishing nets, they had tied knots and tied the nets neatly. It only took one person to pour water and one person to scrub them. In just a few strokes, a net was cleaned. It only took half a day to clean fifty nets.
The baskets of toadfish piled up at the doorstep are more difficult to kill.
Toadfish is different from other fish. The mucus on its body is particularly slippery and disgusting. It is difficult to catch without gloves, and it is easy to be pricked by its spines.
Its belly is particularly soft, so when killing it, you have to start from its mouth and then use scissors to cut to the bottom of the belly, alternating between using the scissors and the knife.
After washing the fishing nets, he joined in the killing, not following the current habit of men not doing housework.
Most men nowadays believe that men are the breadwinners outside and women are the homemakers. No matter whether they work outside or not, they are the boss when they return home.
When the fish were being killed, his sisters-in-law and the neighbors who had come over to watch the fun couldn't help but discuss him and the dried fish.
He was too lazy to say more and just responded casually with "hmm" and "ah".
However, after his elder and second brothers knew that he had a good catch in the past few days, they stopped going out to sea for a day and ran to buy fishing nets. They also planned to make some sticky nets to try.
But they don't have a scroll wheel, and they are reluctant to spend a lot of money. It seems that they only plan to put out 20 cards, hoping that it will be better than the worst but not as good as the best.
There have been fewer fishing boats going out to sea in the village recently. Seeing that the catch is scarce, most people have gone home to do other things. Only a few small wooden boats are still standing there placing traps.
Originally, Ye Yaodong was worried that the yard was already full of dried fish. If he went out to sea again, he would have no place to hang the frog fish he caught. It was not suitable to put them in the old house. His mother was at work and his father was out to sea, so there was no one at home to look after them.
Unexpectedly, they had only rested for one day when the wind started to blow the next day.
When she came early in the morning to help cook breakfast, she saw the waves crashing and the north wind blowing. Not only did Ye's mother regret it, but even Ye's father slapped his thigh in annoyance.
"If I had known it would be windy today, I would have let out the nets for an extra day yesterday. Today I'm bringing them back to clean and dry them, so I can earn an extra day's income."
"Money can't buy early knowledge. There's nothing to worry about. It's better to have two more days of rest."
This saves him from having to worry about whether to kill or sell the frogfish he catches if he continues to go out to sea.
Like now, the goods are worth more than 100 yuan. If you sell them, you will make a profit. If you can't sell them, you won't lose much. It's enough to test the waters with these first. If they sell well, it won't be too late to continue drying them.
Ye's mother also said distressedly: "Isn't this a pity? I don't know how many days I have to rest at home after this storm."
"You want me and my dad to die? We can rest for a few more days. We are going to rest for the whole winter."
"Then you should rest for the whole winter too!" Ye's mother said unhappily.
"Then stop nagging me and tell me to take a break. I'm sure there's no problem with that. I'd love to take a break for the whole winter and gain some weight."
"You don't want to do anything after making a little money. You're only 26 years old. If you don't want to work now, what will happen in the future? Who do you expect to support you? Your son is still so young..."
Mother Ye kept muttering, "You are so lazy and don't want to work all day. Why don't you buy two boats and leave them there to collect rent? Let others do the work for you. This way you can at least have something to eat and won't starve to death when you are old, or be disliked by others because you have no money..."
"Humph, when I get old my son will definitely rush to take care of me in my old age."
Ye Yaodong looked at Ye Chengyang confidently, "Right, son?"
"No, I want a dog!"
"… "
Lin Xiuqing couldn't hold back her laughter and fell forward and backward.
Ye's mother was also amused, "Did you hear that? Your son would rather raise a dog than you."
"You little brat, let's cook some dog meat hotpot tonight to nourish ourselves in advance. We don't have to kill chickens or ducks tomorrow for the beginning of winter."
Ye Chengyang burst into tears and said, "No~ Don't eat the dog."
After howling a few times with his eyes closed, he quickly ran to the gate of the yard, hugged the heads of several dogs in his arms, and cried as sadly as he could.
I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the adults in the room.
Children are easy to be fooled and will take seriously whatever adults say.
Ye Yaodong couldn't help but curse, "This idiot! How could I give birth to such a stupid son."
"Who asked you to tease him?"