The father and son took advantage of the night when there was no one around and kept busy there. Some took a shovel, some took a shovel, and from time to time they used a hoe to scrape. The barnacles and clams under the boat fell all over the beach, and they had no time to pick them up.
They planned to clean the entire side of the hull and then deal with the shells on the beach.
The wind was chilly on that April night, but the father and son were sweating profusely. They took off their coats and threw them casually on the cart. They were only wearing vests but were still sweating profusely.
The main reason was that everyone wanted to take advantage of the low tide at night and finish it early, so they all worked very hard.
Ye Yaodong stood on the beach for a while, then climbed onto the boat. The main reason was that the fishing boat was stranded on the beach and could not stand up, so it was difficult to scrape it, and they couldn't even scrape the bottom of the boat. Now they could only scrape the edge of the hull first.
After working for two hours, Ye Yaodong finally lifted up his vest, wiped his face, and said, "Almost done, Dad? Have you finished shaving that part?"
"Clean it up so you can paint it later."
"Wipe it with a rag. If there are any parts that are not scraped clean, just shovel them again."
"Well, first clean up the shelled ones on the ground and put them in the basket, otherwise there will be no place to step."
"good."
Ye Yaodong took down all the baskets on the cart to hold the young barnacles, and used a shovel to shovel piles of them into the baskets. Soon, the baskets were full.
When one bamboo basket is full, pull it aside and fill it with another one.
After shoveling for a while, he finally stood the shovel there and rested his hands on it.
"Phew~ I'm so tired. I don't feel tired even when I go to the field."
"Have you ever been to the ground?"
"Speaking of which, don't I have land in my yard?"
Even though it was only a little bit, it was still land. After all, he had used a hoe, turned the land, and sowed seeds a few times.
"You call that a small piece of land in your yard a cultivated land? When the double harvest season comes, why don't you go to the neighboring Dongqiao Village and try to harvest some rice?"
"You're crazy. Don't you have any work to do at home? Stop talking nonsense. Are you feeling better?"
"Almost done, come over here and shovel it."
The father and son exchanged positions again.
After working for more than half an hour, they finally cleaned the hull, put all the shelled fish into bamboo baskets, and loaded them onto the cart.
"That should be about right, right?" Ye Yaodong said when he saw the full baskets on the cart.
He raised his hand and looked at his wrist again. It had taken him and his father nearly three hours just to shovel out these barnacle juveniles. They hadn't even cleaned up the bottom of the boat yet. It was already nearly eleven o'clock, and the tide would rise again at around three in the morning.
He looked at the intertidal zone in the distance and said, "We have to hurry up, Dad. We need to finish brushing and dry the water before the tide comes in."
"Alright, alright, go get the paint and paint the hull. We don't need to clean it. After cleaning, we have to wait for it to dry and get water. It's too troublesome. Wipe it with a rag, paint it once, and let it dry after the marks are removed."
"good."
The hull is painted black, which is rare anywhere. Most people paint it blue or red.
Most of the large ships that sail in the deep sea of 20 to 30 meters have red bottoms and blue hulls.
The black paint covered up the markings on the ship in just two strokes, and the effect looked good, but the more he looked at it, the more it looked like a pirate ship...
Originally, they just painted the letters in black, not the whole ship, but after he painted it like this, it looks more like a real pirate than others...
Ye Yaodong's movements became slower and slower as he brushed...
"Dad, do you think that we painted this boat all black and it looks more like a pirate ship?"
"Uh...what should I do then?"
He didn't say it, and he didn't think about it. Once he said it, Father Ye looked at the large area of black on the hull and felt that it seemed quite similar.
Ye Yaodong stood up, walked back and forth with a brush in one hand, looked left and right, up and down, and walked around the boat. When he thought of the red and white paint on the boat, an idea came to him.
"It's already been painted. There's nothing we can do. No other color can cover it up. Black is the only color available, so let's just paint it black. We'll use the red and white paints later. I just brought them out, and I was planning to use them to make markings."
Thinking that his father's brain was not as good as his, he gave the task of painting black to his father and went to carry the red and white paints from the cart himself.
"You just paint the middle of the hull black, and I'll paint a white line on the top of the hull, going around the hull, and then paint a red line after the white. This way it will look good, and it won't look like a pirate ship anymore, with three colors!"
Fortunately, when he was painting just now, the first thing he did was to cover up the mark, and he only painted around the mark and did not paint the area above the hull.
Now only the middle of the hull is black, covering up the original marks, and they can add their own marks after painting.
Father Ye thought about it and felt that it was feasible, as long as it didn't have to be all black.
"Then let's paint the part of the hull below the waterline red. Although it's not a special paint, it will give it more color and make it look better. With more color, it won't look like a pirate ship anymore."
"Sure, this way only the middle is black, and the top and bottom are red and white, which looks better."
Ye Yaodong thought about it and felt that it was feasible. Just thinking about it made him feel that it looked much better than the single-color painting they had done before, as there were so many colors.
In the past, in order to save time and money, folks would buy the same type of paint and paint everything once to avoid excess paint and waste.
Father Ye also smiled, "As long as it doesn't look like the legendary pirate ship."
The father and son rolled up their sleeves and got to work.
Ye Yaodong even went back home specially and took a piece of chalk that Ye Chenghu had secretly brought back from school to play with.
This guy threw it on the window, and he could see it every day when he went in and out and looked at the calendar, and it came in handy.
He took a piece of chalk and drew lines on the hull first to avoid it being too ugly.
Keeping the width of about five centimeters, he drew two adjacent lines, then picked up the white paint and painted them first, intending to paint the top line white and the second line red.
When Ye's father saw that he had finished painting, he took the remaining chalk and planned to draw the waterline first to avoid applying too much black paint.
The father and son have been working together for such a long time that they have a tacit understanding and work in an orderly manner by dividing the work.
Ye Yaodong increasingly felt that he was a good worker, and he became more and more proficient at it the more he painted.
Although there is not much red and white paint, and the area involved is not wide, it is barely enough for one coat.
After Ye's father finished painting the boat black, he looked at the white, red and black colors of the boat and became more and more satisfied. After painting it, it looked much better than their original boat.
However, while he was satisfied, he was also a little worried.
"Dongzi, let's wait until daybreak and tell our neighbors that we bought it. Is that okay? Will they believe us? What if the people on Luzhou Island ask around? And if we just happen to have an extra boat at this time, will they find out?"
"And our boat is on the beach so early in the morning. Isn't that a bit unusual? Should we sail it to another place for a few days and then sail it back openly? That would be more appropriate."
Ye Yaodong thought about it and felt that what his father said made sense. They did not let out any news in advance and no one knew about it. Suddenly, a boat appeared on the beach early in the morning. He said he bought it, which would be too surprising.
Moreover, he suddenly remembered that a big opera would begin in the village tomorrow. Five days later would be Mazu’s birthday. Not only would people from the surrounding villages, but even leaders from the county would be coming to the opera.
At that time, their village was reported in the newspaper for donating money to build the Tianhou Temple. What if people from Luzhou Island also come to join in the fun
A small statue of Mazu, but I would like to ask for one to bring back for safety...
What if people from Luzhou Island also come over to donate some money, buy the statue, and join in the fun
He is now a celebrity in the village. Everyone knows his family situation. If you ask around, you will find out the truth...
"Then let's drive to the town's pier and dock there for a few days? We can drive back after Mazu's birthday is over?"
"That's fine too. There are several docks in the town, large and small, and there's a sheltered harbor nearby. We can stop anywhere. There are also many boats at the docks in the town. We can go there and stop there for two days without causing any trouble."
"Well, we can't just suddenly appear on the beach, and at this time."
Mazu's birthday and the roof-raising ceremony of the Tianhou Temple have already put their village in everyone's sight. If he has one more boat at this time, it will really become a topic of conversation in the surrounding area. He is already famous enough, so thieves will have to think about his house instead.
It has to be postponed for a few days at least.
Whether it is to avoid the busiest days or to avoid arousing suspicion, the boat cannot appear directly on the beach tomorrow.
"After the Mazu birthday celebration is over, I will tell your mother that someone wants to sell the boat and you think it's cheap and you want to buy it. Let her go out and say a few words to spread the word, and then we can bring the boat back."
"Then the villagers won't be surprised. At most, they will say something sour out of envy. Anyway, everyone knows that you made money from selling dried fish. It doesn't matter if you buy an extra boat. A Guang's family also bought two boats."
Ye Yaodong nodded, "That's fine, it fully reflects my mother's value."
This is the correct way to use his mother!
Father Ye rolled his eyes at him and said, "Hurry up and get to work. We have to let the paint dry before the tide comes in, and then we have to drive to town."
"The one I bought is made in Taiwan. I heard it dries very quickly. There is wind at night, so it should be dry in time. The tide will not be full until after 3 o'clock in the morning, and it will rise to this position at 3 o'clock. I have almost finished brushing it."
"It also needs to be left to air dry for a while, to prevent it from fading when it goes into the water. My black one is almost done, and the paint is almost gone. The red paint is not enough, so let's not paint below the waterline for now. We have to paint two more coats on top anyway. After the Mazu Temple incident is over, we can drive the boat back and repaint it."
"Don't worry about fading. The paint I just applied to the marked location should have dried by now. I'll mark the same location first. Even if the black fades, the color won't fade away. At most, it will fade a little. The paint I just applied was quite thick, so it can still dry for another hour or two."
Ye Yaodong took a white paint brush and wrote the words "Ye San" on it. He could always find a reason to make one up.
Just say, 'I bought it in advance and had them paint it first, and then I chose an auspicious day to drive it back.' It's okay to say that, just write your name on it first.