Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982
Chapter 85

Mother Ye had actually slightly changed her opinion of Ye Yaodong’s friends because of the house construction recently. Moreover, today the group had diligently gone foraging at sea instead of idling around playing, and they had brought back so much seafood. That’s why she was so enthusiastic in inviting them.

“Is there so much on the isolated island? Last time you brought back a lot, and this time it’s even more. You all carried several sacks home. Third Brother, can you take me to see next time?” Ye Huimei asked hopefully while eating.

“The sun is too strong. What’s the point of you going? Be careful not to get tanned, or you won’t be able to get married!”

“As if helping at the house site doesn’t get you tanned! Look at my arms and face, my face is obviously darker.” Ye Huimei had deliberately worn long sleeves while working. Now as she rolled up her sleeves to pick up food, her arms were still snow-white, in stark contrast to her face which was obviously several shades darker.

Ah Guang glanced at those arms that were almost blindingly white, then looked at her face, and murmured, “It’s not that dark.”

Perhaps because there were many children at the table making noise, no one heard what he said. Instead, they heard Ye Yaodong say, “If you’re afraid of getting tanned, why do you want to go with me? It’s still okay at home, but on the isolated island, you’ll be in the sun all day with no shade. You could get sunburned! Look at my face!”

She pouted, “You just don’t want to take me.”

“That’s right, I don’t want to take you! We’re all men, what would you do there? It’s not even convenient to pee!”

Mother Ye also said, “What’s the point of going? There’s plenty of work to do at home.”

Ye Huimei glared at her third brother and didn’t say anything more. He always had excuses.

If he was willing to take her, her parents definitely wouldn’t say anything!

Stinky third brother!

Ah Guang watched her eyes move, observing her expressions, and couldn’t help but steal a few more glances, especially at her occasionally extended fair arms. The tips of his ears began to turn slightly red.

After the family finished eating, they all went to the backyard to help sort the goods. The women in the family were responsible for opening oysters, while the men helped sort, picking out those that could be sold.

Ye Yaodong deliberately brought the bucket of gooseneck barnacles that was mixed with sea turtle eggs to his father. “Dad, do you know what these are?”

“What? Aren’t these just Buddha’s hand barnacles? What else could they be?”

“Have you heard of gooseneck barnacles?”

“What thing? These are clearly Buddha’s hand, why call them gooseneck barnacles.”

Oh no, if even his dad didn’t recognize them, Ah Cai’s place probably thought they were geoducks too. They wouldn’t fetch a good price.

He picked up a Buddha’s hand from the ground and compared it with his dad, “Now do you think they’re still the same?”

“The feet are the same, the stem is a bit longer. Is there a difference?”

“Of course! These gooseneck barnacles are much more expensive than Buddha’s hands!” He just didn’t know if they were popular now.

Hearing this, others also craned their necks to look, but no matter how they looked left and right, they felt the difference wasn’t big. If they had seen these, they would have definitely mixed them with the geoducks.

“How expensive?”

Ye Yaodong spread his hands, “I don’t know, I just know these things are expensive.”

Father Ye wasn’t sure if he had misjudged, after all, the ocean was vast with many species he didn’t recognize. He hesitantly said, “Why don’t you take them to Ah Cai’s place later and ask?”

“Alright!”

He might as well ask and see. If Ah Cai didn’t recognize them, he could only take them to Hongsheng Hotel in town tomorrow to inquire.

“Pour them out and see how many there are.”

“Ah, don’t pour, don’t pour,” he quickly stopped his father’s action, “There are sea turtle eggs at the bottom.”

“Sea turtle eggs? You even found sea turtle eggs? How many?”

He grinned mischievously, “There were 78 originally, but I thought 68 sounded better, so Ah Guang and I each took ten to roast and eat.”

Hearing his frivolous words, everyone’s mouths twitched. If he ate ten, just say he ate ten. Why say 78 didn’t sound good? It had an 8 in it, how was that not good?

Father Ye said irritably, “Give some to your mother to make tea eggs later. These sea turtle eggs are good for making tea eggs.”

“Take them.”

After sorting out the valuable goods, Ye Yaodong took everything, including the gooseneck barnacles, to Ah Cai’s place.

As expected, he also thought the gooseneck barnacles were Buddha’s hand barnacles. After all, apart from the stem, everything else looked the same.

Ye Yaodong couldn’t explain it clearly, and he couldn’t expect others to pay a high price just based on his words. The key was that he didn’t know what price would be appropriate now.

He just said he wouldn’t sell these for now, settled the accounts for the other goods, and then brought them back home.

Seeing him bring them back, Father Ye hurriedly asked, “What did they say?”

“He didn’t recognize them either.”

“Did you make a mistake? Maybe they’re the same thing?”

“Definitely not. I’ll take them to Hongsheng to ask tomorrow.”

“You’re just making trouble… There’s a pile of work to do at home, why go to Hongsheng? Don’t get kicked out for causing trouble.”

Ye Yaodong glanced at his father, and simply took them back to the room. How could he give up without trying?

Seeing him enter the room, with the bucket of gooseneck barnacles he mentioned still in the corner, Lin Xiuqing quickly asked, “Did Ah Cai also say they were Buddha’s hands?”

“Mm.”

“Then just forget it? Maybe you misidentified them?”

“I’ll go to Hongsheng to ask tomorrow.”

Seeing him frown, Lin Xiuqing didn’t dare say more.

While undressing, Ye Yaodong asked, “Are all the oysters opened?”

“Not yet, there’s still more than half. Mom said to leave them for tomorrow, to keep them fresher.”

“Can you manage? You need to help at the house site, and at home there are so many shellfish to open, cook, and dry in the sun.”

“Mm, so Mom told little sister to stay home tomorrow to do these things, to avoid being too busy and letting things spoil.”

“Oh.”

He took off all his clothes and pants, then rummaged in his pockets and handed her the receipt, “This is from selling those shellfish just now, a total of 8 yuan and 20 fen. You can take it to Ah Cai’s in a couple of days to exchange for money.”

“So much?” Lin Xiuqing happily took it and glanced at it. Seeing no problems, she locked it in the cabinet.

“Wait, there’s another one.”

He felt under the pillow and handed Lin Xiuqing the receipt for selling the sea wolf fish today. When he took a shower earlier, he had taken it out of his dirty clothes pocket and put it under the pillow to prevent his wife from washing it without knowing.

“What’s this? Why is there another one?”

Lin Xiuqing looked at him in surprise, somewhat shocked. What else did he sell?

When she saw the number on the receipt, she was stunned. So much money?

“Today we not only harvested those sacks of shellfish and the blue crab, but we also unexpectedly netted several nets of sea bass, over a thousand catties, and 68 catties of pomfret. Ah Zheng specially brought his family’s cast net, and it really came in handy.”

She carefully looked at the receipt in her hand. Although the writing was a bit sloppy, it clearly said sea wolf fish and pomfret.

“That’s a lot of money, 478 yuan and 4 fen. How many people is it split between?”

If only it was all for their family!

Ye Yaodong chuckled lightly. Her thoughts were written all over her face, too obvious. He also wished all this money was his alone, but who told him he didn’t have a fishing net? Since they went together, of course it had to be split equally.

“Split between 4 people. When you have time, try to finish making the trap net as soon as possible. Then I can go set it, and we won’t have to share the catch with others.”

“There’s too much going on recently, too busy. The back door is still piled full of shellfish. The trap net won’t be done that quickly.”

“Mm, it’s okay, take your time. Anyway, we’ve got two good incomes today. Calculate how much each person gets.”

“Okay.”

She was happy to calculate money. It would be even better if she could count it!

“119 yuan, 50 fen, and 1 cent per person!”

“So much!”

Ye Yaodong’s eyes lit up. Today’s income was considerable!

“Mm!”

Lin Xiuqing also nodded heavily with joy!