"It's calculated this way! Eating other people's food doesn't cost money, but eating your own food does. Of course, you should eat other people's food. This is called eating the rich! Dongzi said so."
Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes. "You are the rich dog. Your family has two boats. Today, they have collected nearly 2,000 kilograms of goods, half of which are dragon fish and half are toad fish. They are twice as much as other boats. There are also two large swallow pomfret weighing more than 3 kilograms. You are making a lot of money, and you don't even have to do anything."
"Ah? A giant pomfret weighing more than three pounds? So amazing? I'm so lucky today."
"Well, everyone else's harvest seems pretty good today, let's get the goods off the boat first. Ah Cai has gone home for dinner, so he should be here soon."
As for the episode about Haozi, when he gets home, his father will naturally talk about it, and he won't say anything more.
It was better to move the cargo down quickly. After nightfall, the sea breeze became even colder. He went out early in the afternoon and did not wear a scarf, so the cold wind kept blowing into his neck, making him feel chilly.
There were many people who could work at the moment, and they carried baskets of fish off the boat in pairs.
The three baskets were sold directly. After they were emptied, sorted and weighed, Ye Yaodong borrowed his scale to weigh all the fish that were to be taken home.
The more Ah Cai looked at it, the more upset he became. "Because of what you did, our delivery volume has shrunk. We used to be able to transport two or three trucks a day, but now we can only transport one."
"The catch of those small boats cannot compare to that of boats like yours. Besides, the weather is cold, and the seafood has all moved to the open sea. The small boats can't catch much in the surrounding area."
"Hey, don't be so stingy. These fish are not worth much. They can make a little more money by drying them and buying them for me. This is good for everyone. You have to be more aware of it."
"You're so arrogant, now you don't even have the money in Hukou, how can you eat enlightenment?"
"You're just complaining about being poor, so hurry up and help me calculate how many pounds there are in total? I've written down the number of pounds here. Hurry up, we're in a hurry to go home for dinner."
Ye Yaodong pushed the list of baskets weighed and recorded in front of him and urged him on without any politeness.
"You cut off my beard and still use it to your advantage?"
"Hurry up, stop talking nonsense. It takes a long time to add up one by one. If I knew how to use an abacus, I wouldn't call you."
After muttering something, Ah Cai picked up the abacus and shook it twice to put all the beads back in place, then took the list and started tapping it.
The others craned their necks to watch.
Father Ye looked at Ah Cai's smooth movements and couldn't help but say, "Dongzi, you were so idle last year that you went to a literacy class. Why didn't you learn how to use an abacus?"
"When have you ever seen me idle? I'm busy as a top. I took a break last year. How could I have the time to learn how to use an abacus?"
"It's quite useful to learn how to use an abacus."
"We'll talk about it when we have time. We've already weighed them. You can load the goods onto the cart and take them back first. You can't finish them in one trip."
What's the point of learning it? Calculators will be available in a few years and it will be so quick to just press “micro-zero”. Why bother with all this effort
Ah Cai stopped after he finished his calculations and said, "If you want to learn how to use the abacus, pay me some tuition and I'll teach you. I promise you'll learn it all. I can also teach you how to use a wooden donkey."
"You are a wooden donkey. You can cheat me, but you can't cheat me of my money. How many pounds are there in total?"
"Why would I cheat you? No one would want it even if I sold it to mine coal. It's 1,111 kilograms in total."
“All are 1.”
Mother Ye said with satisfaction: "A little over 1,000 jin will be enough."
Ye Yaodong was also calculating in his mind that the goods would be delivered in five days. If it was a sunny day, most of the goods that everyone had left over today would be dried, and there should be enough, and even some left over.
The items collected in the next few days can be put aside for the next delivery.
As long as it doesn't rain and it's sunny for a few days, he can definitely earn one or two thousand yuan. But if it rains, it's hard to say.
He was not the only one who was looking forward to a few more sunny days. Several families who had made good deals were also hoping that the weather would be better so that they could earn more money.
Although his action of collecting dried fish was only in a small area, the news spread throughout the village the next day.
There are no secrets in the countryside. Everyone has a lot of free time and likes to listen to gossip.
What's more, several families had their entire doorways hung with fish that had been slaughtered overnight, and many of them even asked people to help with the slaughtering. By the middle of the morning, the whole village knew about it.
It’s just that Ye Yaodong went out to sea to collect the nets early in the morning and was not at home. He didn’t know that his wife was having a headache at home.
I spent the whole morning dealing with the villagers who came to ask about the dried fish. Everyone wanted to sell them dried fish, and people from the neighboring village also wanted to sell dried fish to them...
Several nearby villages are close to each other, and they intermarry and interact with each other. They are all related and can pass messages very quickly.
She had been busy all morning and had talked till she was done. As soon as she sent this group of people away, she quickly bolted the door, not daring to open it wide, and hid in the house.
"The tea I just poured for her is still a little hot. Drink it later. Warm your hands first. You've been standing outside and it's freezing." The old lady poured her a cup of tea in advance and left it there to cool.
Lin Xiuqing sat in the recliner, rubbed her cheeks, and then held the bowl of tea.
"I couldn't smile so hard when I was making money, but now my face is stiff when I'm smiling at these people. This morning, everyone is like cats smelling fish. People they know and don't know come running to ask if they want more dried fish. They really treat Adong as their boss, and they keep saying nice things to him without asking for money."
"You are a young wife, thin-skinned. If it were your mother, she would just say no, that's enough, and just close the door."
"Everyone said nice things to their smiling faces, so I felt embarrassed to chase them away."
The old lady smiled and said, "It's okay. You'll get better as you gain more experience. If you want to hear good things, just chat with them for a while. If you don't want to listen, just say you have something to do."
Lin Xiuqing laughed, "Is it better to have more experience? Do you think that people will come to our door to curry favor with us every day? Ah Dong is not that capable yet."
"That's not necessarily true. I think Dongzi is becoming more and more successful."
"You used to feel that way."
"This shows that I was right in my prediction. Dongzi is the most promising of the three brothers."
Lin Xiuqing was so happy when she heard this that she sipped the tea in small sips. After swallowing a mouthful of hot tea, she felt warm all over instantly.
Ye Yaodong didn't even have time to take a sip of hot tea.
It is not pleasant to go out to sea in such cold weather. The cold wind blows in your face all the time, making a rustling sound.
Ye Yaodong wrapped himself up so that only his eyes were exposed, and he also wrapped the sewing cap on his head up to his ears to feel better.
His father and brother Asheng were not as well protected. The wind blew on their faces and their lips were frozen purple. His father was better off, as he was still wearing the sewing hat crocheted by Aqing.
Brother Asheng's ears were frozen red and he looked like he was about to get frostbite. The wind blew his hair up into a mess and I don't know how long it has been since he last had his hair cut.
The cotton jacket he was wearing looked very thin, and there was a hole under his armpit, allowing cold wind to blow in. I didn't hear him sneeze, which showed that he had a good physique.
It's really not good without a woman to take care of things at home.
He turned around and shouted to Ye Yaosheng, "I'll ask Ah Qing to hook a hat for you tomorrow. It will keep you warmer."
Then he said to his father: "Didn't I give you a mask before? Why don't you wear it? Your nose is frozen red."
"I can't breathe smoothly with that thing on. It's like I'm suffocating. Why wear it? What's the big deal if a grown man gets a little wind? I won't wear it."
If you don’t want to wear it, forget it!
Ye Yaosheng smiled and said, "It's okay. I'm not cold. I'll be fine once I get used to it. The wind direction looks relatively favorable today, so we should be able to go back early. The sun is out now, and it feels a little warmer."
"When I woke up in the morning, there was a thin layer of frost on the roof. I don't know how many days I can go out to sea. Fortunately, it didn't rain, and there was still sunshine."
Father Ye said as he collected the fish in the fishing net: "The frost may get heavier in the future. It would be great if we can dry out 10,000 kilograms of fish in the next few days and put them there. Then we don't have to go out to sea anymore."
"I'll go back later and count today's harvest. I was standing outside the dock yesterday waiting, and I know how many pounds of goods each family took back. If everything goes well, we should be able to dry 10,000 pounds of goods and put them there in the next few days. We won't have to dry them later, and we just need to deliver the goods on time."
It's getting colder and the wind is actually a bit strong today. The boat is shaking quite violently, but we can still bear it. They take the risk just to earn the money.
If they can get enough sun in a few days, they may not come out in this kind of weather.
The wind and waves are strong and it is freezing cold. It is very painful to go out to sea.
Ye Yaodong was reeling in his fishing net as he spoke, and just in time he saw a large red and purple fish coming up from the reel, which looked particularly pleasing to the eye.
"Hey you you you~ There is a red fish. This fish is good, very red and purple."
The scientific name of this fish is Purple Snapper, and it also often lives near the coast. However, the red snapper in deep water is redder and brighter than those in shallow water. The red snapper caught in shallow waters near the coast is usually grayish in color and not as beautiful as those in deep waters.
Generally, colorful fish are more common in deep sea, such as tiger fish, horse head fish, wave fish, redwood fish, etc. These fish are all brightly colored, all red, with the stone nine king being the only exception.
Ye Yaodong did not stop after seeing this and continued to collect the fishing nets. Ye's father, who was behind him, was also collecting the fishing nets. Seeing the red fish, he was also very happy.
"It's a pity that it's not big, only two or three pounds. This fish can grow to several dozen pounds."
"I heard that it can grow up to 50 kilograms, but when I was working on a ship before, the largest I saw was about 15 kilograms. I have never seen a bigger one," said Ye Yaosheng.
"15 jin is already big. This one is probably only about 3 jin. It can be sold for two or three yuan. It's not bad. It's very...hiss..."
When Ye's father received the fishing net, he reached out to grab the red fish first. However, the fish was still alive and bit his thumb fiercely with its mouth. Blood immediately flowed all over his thumb.
He felt a little pain and quickly put his thumb in his mouth and held it.