Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982
Chapter 84

The four of them worked together. There were a total of 5 sacks: 2 sacks filled with baby clams, 1 large sack of sea lettuce, 2 sacks mixed with cockles, geoducks, snails, and sea urchins. A bucket was filled to the brim with razor clams and small abalones, another bucket with gooseneck barnacles and sea turtle eggs. Crabs and fish were poured into bamboo baskets, otherwise there wouldn’t have been enough room to hold everything.

As for the king blue crab, its legs were tied up and it was thrown directly onto the boat, as there was really nothing left to contain it.

The entire boat was full of goods, piles of sacks everywhere. Fortunately, the tide had risen, with water flooding over the outermost reef wall. They had deliberately waited for the tide to come in completely before preparing to leave, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to push the boat.

“Dongzi, don’t you think this is too much? Isn’t it troublesome? Bringing back so much, if you can’t finish eating it all, won’t you just be wasting effort giving it away everywhere?”

Ah Guang helped lift the last sack of shellfish onto the boat, wiping away his sweat. This sack was not light; things with shells are naturally heavy.

Xiao Xiao also chimed in, “Yeah, I already think my two sacks are a lot. Luckily, a sack of baby clams probably only yields about ten catties (5 Kg) of oyster meat. My family is big, eating it every meal, it’ll probably be gone in two or three days.”

“Who says I’m going to give it away everywhere? My mother told me to dig up more to bring back. She wants to extract the meat and dry it, then store it to eat slowly. Otherwise, with so many mouths at home, plus the workers, the consumption is huge.”

Ah Zheng smacked his lips, “Your mother really knows how to economize. Isn’t it too much trouble? How long will it take to dig out all of this?”

“There are many people who can work at home, three daughters-in-law and one daughter. It shouldn’t be too much trouble for her, right?”

“That’s true. It’s still better to have more sons, more people to work.”

Ye Yaodong glanced at Xiao Xiao. Wait until he’s old, then he’ll know the value of daughters.

Sons, ah~ By then they’ll all be running to their in-laws’ homes to work~

“Is everything loaded onto the boat? Don’t leave anything behind. I won’t make a special trip back if something’s forgotten.”

“There shouldn’t be anything left. We loaded our stuff onto the boat early. If anything’s left behind, it’d be your stuff. That’s your problem, hehe~ Let’s set sail.”

Ye Yaodong glanced at Ah Zheng, “Don’t you feel like you’re missing something?”

“What? I don’t think so?” Ah Zheng uncertainly scanned the boat. “No, everything’s here. I just have one bucket and two sacks.”

“Then I’m starting the boat. Don’t ask me to come back for your fire tongs later. Let your mother give you a good scolding.”

“Ah, the fire tongs? Right, where are my fire tongs?”

He immediately climbed off the boat and ran to the beach to search. It turned out he had placed them on a reef while helping Dongzi carry the shellfish. They were grayish-black, no wonder he hadn’t noticed.

“Hehe, found them. Let’s go back.”

Ah Guang sat crookedly on the boat, mocking him, “Slapped your own face, didn’t you?”

“Hmph hmph…”

Ah Zheng just grunted twice and didn’t say anything more.

Ye Yaodong checked once again, making sure nothing was left behind before starting the boat to return.

By now, the sun was almost setting, and he was also eager to get home. They had been out all day and were quite tired.

His father should be home by now, right? After all, the tide had been up for a while.

The thousand-catty sea wolf fish from noon had already filled everyone’s stomachs. On the return journey, everyone just wanted to get home quickly and didn’t want to bother casting nets again.

Foraging at sea is no less tiring than trawling, especially when climbing up steep reef walls. Luckily, the fifteenth day’s tide had receded completely, exposing all the reefs, so there was no fear of slipping and being swept into the sea by waves.

If they had come at any time other than during the big tide, the danger would have increased manifold.

By the time he rowed the boat near the dock, the area around the pier was already full of boats of all sizes. He was one of the last to dock, and he didn’t know if there were any boats still not moored behind them.

After mooring the boat, they carried the goods in pairs, bringing the sacks of baby clams down from the boat and placing them on the shore.

Because they had used sacks this time, people coming and going on the pier couldn’t see clearly what was inside. Some curious people came up to ask.

They all said it was nothing much.

These weren’t their relatives, so why explain in detail?

Since they didn’t say, the others just muttered a few curious words about how mysterious it was… and then went about their own business. No one was that idle.

After borrowing a handcart from Ah Cai, they loaded the things onto the cart and brought down the buckets from the boat, placing them on the handcart.

Thinking that there were some valuable goods among these sacks of shellfish, Ye Yaodong wasn’t in a hurry to send the king blue crab to Ah Cai’s place now. He planned to take it home and send it over together after sorting out all the items.

The group happily delivered the goods to each home in order of proximity, with Ye Yaodong being the third. Ah Guang’s home was in the back mountain, the farthest.

When they arrived at the Ye family home, the whole family had been waiting for him alone. The sun had already set, and he still hadn’t returned. They were worried that something might happen on his first solo oar trip.

Lin Xiuqing was also anxious and scared, constantly sitting at the door looking out.

When she finally saw him and Ah Guang’s figures, she quickly shouted into the house and went to greet them.

“Why are you back so late? Next time if you’re going to be late, let us know. The whole family has been worried about you.”

“The four of us went together, what’s there to worry about? We collected more shellfish today, which took more time, so we’re a bit late.”

“It’s not about fearing the likely, it’s about fearing the unlikely.”

When Mother Ye came out and saw a whole cart full of sacks, plus an extra-large blue crab, her eyes widened in surprise.

“How is this blue crab so big? How many catties? More than three, right? Why did you bring it back? Didn’t you take it to Ah Cai’s place for him to buy?”

“No rush. There are other things in the sacks. We’ll sort them out later and take them over together. Let’s move the stuff inside first.”

“Oh, alright. Oldest, Second, help carry these sacks to the backyard first.”

“Alright!”

Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua looked envious. How come Dongzi never comes back empty-handed whenever he goes out? Today he even caught such a big blue crab.

Second Sister-in-law said sourly on the side, “Yaodong really made the right choice buying that small wooden boat.”

Ye Yaodong didn’t even raise an eyelid or respond to her words, only saying to his oldest and second brothers, “Two of those sacks are Ah Guang’s, don’t move the wrong ones.”

“Got it.”

It was dinnertime now, and every household was eating. There were only fishing nets at the doorways, no people, so it was quite peaceful.

After moving all the goods, Mother Ye smiled and invited Ah Guang to stay for dinner too.

“No need, I’ll eat at home.”

“Don’t be polite, just eat at our place. It’s just an extra pair of chopsticks. You’ve been busy all day, fill your stomach first.” Ye Yaodong didn’t give him a chance to refuse and directly pulled him into the house to eat.

“I eat a lot…”

“Are we going to go bankrupt just because of you?”

Mother Ye also smiled and said, “That’s right. You only have two younger sisters at home now. At this time, they might have already finished eating. Just eat here.”

Ah Guang couldn’t refuse anymore, so he stayed to eat dinner, feeling a bit embarrassed. In his heart, he thought about helping more at their new home tomorrow.