The old lady smiled, revealing her toothless gums. After handing the child to Ah Qing, she stood by the bed and watched Ye Yaodong count the money.
"You haven't had lunch yet. I thought you were talking about something, so I didn't dare to knock on the door to disturb you. I'll go cook you something first."
"I'm not hungry," Ye Yaodong took a break and replied, "Let me finish counting first."
Lin Xiuqing sat on the stool next to her, holding the child and feeding her, but her attention was always on them. She felt a little embarrassed when she heard the old lady's words.
"Then I'll help you count them one by one, quickly." The old lady also sat down beside the bed and helped sort the banknotes.
"Didn't my father count it so he could tell you?"
Ye Yaodong nodded and shook his head.
He counted silently, how could he have time to answer her questions? Isn't it a bit late to ask now
"Nodding and shaking your head, what does that mean?"
"Stop making noise! You just told me not to count out loud, and now you're sitting there without counting and you're nagging."
Lin Xiuqing was speechless.
The old lady smiled and took the money in her hand and patted him, "Answer it. It won't take you too long. I'm not asking you questions all the time."
Ye Yaodong stopped counting mercifully when he reached the integer. "Dad only knows the approximate total. He remembers how much money he earned every day, but he doesn't add it up every day because he thinks it's troublesome to add it up and it's hard to remember, so he only remembers the money he earned."
After Lin Xiuqing got the answer, she stopped arguing with him.
After counting 100 sheets, Ye Yaodong took out one and put it between two clips to avoid making a mess, and then piled them up in small piles.
By the time A-Qing finished feeding, he and the old lady had almost finished counting, with only coins left.
There weren't many large-denomination banknotes, almost all of them were small bills. I really experienced what it means to count money until my hands cramp.
"Take these small changes and give them out for settlement tomorrow to save a lot of money. I almost have no place to put them. I'll have to pack them in a box next time."
The old lady nodded seriously, "We need to make a box and lock it up."
"Then when a thief comes, he can just take the box away..."
"What?" the old lady asked with a smile.
"Just kidding. I'll nail a box I bought back to the closet. Nail it shut."
"Shh, don't tell anyone."
"Of course, it's directed at you."
Ye Yaodong continued to count the pile of banknotes that covered the bed. After he had a rough idea of the number in his mind, he gave the coins to A Qing to count and then went out for a while.
Just come back and ask for the numbers.
The old lady was still calling from behind, "Would you please leave after dinner?"
"You cook first, I'll be back soon."
Lin Xiuqing added, "He went to Uncle Pei's friend's house and promised to buy their dried dragon head fish. But we don't have room to store it at home. We'll have room for it tomorrow. He went over to tell them."
"Oh, then we have to tell them so that they can feel at ease."
Ye Yaodong rode his bicycle there and back quickly, and it didn't take him long. On his way back, he happened to run into his eldest and second sisters-in-law.
It turned out that the wind started to blow, so they came back early. The eldest and second brothers were still selling goods at the dock, so the two sisters-in-law pushed a cart of goods and went back first.
"Today's delivery looks pretty good."
Mrs. Ye smiled and said, "It's not bad. I also dug up some kelp. It's not very big yet. It will probably take another two months for it to grow very big. I'll ask Ah Qing to take two pieces back to fry later."
Mrs. Ye couldn't wait to take a bucket off the cart and ran to him. "Ah Dong, look at this small bucket we dug today. Is this the chicken feet of the sea that you took to the town to sell a few days ago?"
"oh?"
"I think its legs are very long, longer than the ordinary Buddha's hand." She looked at Ye Yaodong with anticipation.
Mrs. Ye also quickly stopped the cart and walked over. She was thinking of waiting until she got home to ask.
Ye Yaodong quickly stopped his bicycle, put on the foot brake, reached into the bucket and grabbed a few at random.
Eh? It really is!
"You guys are pretty lucky."
"real?"
The two sisters-in-law were immediately happy. This one just had a little longer legs, but was very expensive.
They went fishing these days and had a great harvest~
Either you catch some stranded fish, or you dig up some clams, and you can occasionally pick up one or two blue crabs. Not to mention the ones that are dug up and dried in the sun, just picking up some on the island by chance is better than sitting at home weaving a net for a whole day.
Although most of the work was based on luck, it was obvious that they had been lucky these past two days. Today they even had an unexpected surprise and found some of the sea chicken feet that Adong mentioned in the cracks of the rocks.
Ye Yaodong nodded affirmatively, "Well, when I went to sell it the day before yesterday, I sold more than ten kilograms for 200 yuan. You should have five or six kilograms here, so you should be able to sell it for several dozen yuan, right?"
They were even happier.
"Then Adong, could you please help us sell some of them this afternoon while they are fresh?"
"Ah? Me? I just got back, so I might not be free. You can go by yourselves."
He had several rooms full of goods at home, all waiting for him to weigh them. How could he have the time to help them send them to town to sell
The two looked at each other and smiled awkwardly. Second Sister Ye said bluntly: "We have never been there either. We are scared. How can we dare to send them to the hotel? The same goes for your eldest brother and second brother. What if they are kicked out? You have been there a few times, so you must be familiar with it..."
Mrs. Ye also nodded in agreement, "Yes, yes, yes, you have sold it twice, you are more familiar with it... It won't take you long to ride a bicycle, and you can ask your two brothers to help with the housework, it won't delay you at all."
Ye Yaodong frowned.
The two sisters-in-law continued, "It won't take up too much of your time. You're familiar with it anyway, so you can be back in a moment."
"It's only 1 o'clock now. It won't take long to weigh the dried fish. There's still plenty of time in the afternoon and evening. Just consider it as helping your brother and sister-in-law..."
Alas, I have to go whether I want to or not.
Ye Yaodong nodded, "Okay, when the eldest and second brothers come back, let them come with me. Next time we dig something up, we can send it over ourselves."
"Hey, okay, when your eldest and second brothers come back, we'll tell them."
"Well, I'll go back first."
"well."
Ye Yaodong pushed his bicycle and walked ahead, but he stopped riding after just a short distance to avoid shaking his butt.
The old lady in the room had already fried the rice cakes and made him a shrimp soup to go with it, and covered them all with a plate to prevent them from getting cold in the cold weather.
Seeing him coming back, she waved to him, removed the plate covering it, and handed the quickie to him.
"Come and eat quickly before it gets cold. I don't know when you'll be back, and I'm afraid the noodles will get too wet, so I fried some rice cakes for you and soaked them in a shrimp and soy sauce soup."
"OK."
It was fried rice cake with crab, shrimp, oysters that my two sisters-in-law had opened yesterday, eggs and cabbage. It was still steaming, and his appetite increased greatly.
There was soy sauce dripping into the shrimp soup on the side, and green chopped green onions and white shrimps were floating in it, with a little bit of oil. It looked like a little onion oil was added, and it smelled like animal oil, very fragrant.
The old lady loves him!
He first stirred the shrimp soup with a spoon, drank two sips to warm his stomach, and then picked up the soup and started eating it in big mouthfuls.
"Mmm, delicious, really fragrant!"
The old lady smiled kindly, "You must be starving. What did you eat in the city this morning?"
"Meat buns and porridge. My father-in-law and his family cooked porridge, so I bought a few meat buns to eat together."
"It's good that you have food, I'm just worried that you haven't eaten."
"How is that possible? I am the kind of person who wants to try everything I see. How can I let myself go hungry?"
"Okay, okay, eat quickly, and scoop out the soup to go with it. Where did you get this basket of dried shrimps? You brought back a basket a few days ago, and you brought another one today. I'll hang it up for you."
The old lady picked up the basket of dried shrimps that he had just taken off the bicycle and placed on the table, intending to collect them and hang them on the wall.
“No need to hang up!” Ye Yaodong said this with his mouth full, then he bit the food into pieces and swallowed it before speaking.
"This was just given to me by someone. I plan to give it to Uncle Zhou. I trouble him to go back and forth every day. Although it counts as transportation fare, it doesn't fall into his hands. So I thought of giving this basket of dried shrimps to him."
The old lady nodded and said, "Of course, we don't have anything else at home except dried fish."
"Um."
Lin Xiuqing also finished counting the money and came out of the house. "Would you like me to deliver it to you later? You still need to weigh the goods."
"No, let's weigh the goods later. Sister-in-law, my second sister-in-law dug up some sea chicken feet and asked me to help her take them to town to sell. I'll drop them off on the way later, that's perfect."
"Ah? Are they so lucky?"
"Yeah, it's really good."
Everyone was thinking well at the moment, but they didn't realize that unexpected events would come unexpectedly.
"Then eat quickly. It will take a while to weigh 3,000 kilograms of goods, and they have to be moved around. I'll ask Dad to move the goods to the yard so that you can weigh them directly when you come back."
"That's fine."
The old lady didn't know that they had sold 3,000 kilograms of meat today, so she asked in surprise, "We need to weigh out 3,000 kilograms of meat all at once, is there anyone who wants it?"
"yes."
Ye Yaodong repeated it to the old lady, and she was happy.
She heard them say that they could make room today and collect several thousand kilograms of dried dragon head fish tomorrow. She thought that Dongzi would send another truck to the city at night and make room at home. She didn't expect to make such a large sale. No wonder she excitedly pulled Aqing into the house when she came back.
"Then you should thank them for buying so much at once," the old lady said, and she was worried about him, "I don't think we have anything to give as a gift... except dried fish..."
"It's okay. The shellfish meat that my two sisters-in-law dried should be dried. We'll weigh all the dried ones over here later and send some to you tomorrow. We can also promote it and maybe expand our business."
"Oh, yes, yes, you are smart and can think. Eat quickly, eat quickly, don't just talk..."