Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982
Chapter 87

Ye Yaodong was quite reluctant to walk under the blazing sun, especially while carrying a bucket of gooseneck barnacle.

From their village to the town, it was a ten-minute ride by car, but an hour’s walk. In this scorching heat, he was already drenched in sweat by the time he reached the roadside.

However, with passing vehicles hard to come by, he could only walk and watch. Fortunately, he had plucked a taro leaf before leaving to cover the bucket, otherwise, the gooseneck barnacle would have spoiled in the sun.

As he walked, he surprisingly reached the town without seeing a single car.

His legs were weak~

He decided to sit in the shade of a roadside tree to rest his feet. Unexpectedly, a tractor puttered by from behind him.

“Damn, not coming early, not coming late, waiting until I’ve walked all the way here before a tractor shows up.”

Was the heavens deliberately making him walk?

It was infuriating.

After taking a couple sips of water and sitting for just two minutes, he got up, patting his bottom, and headed straight for the Hongsheng Hotel. It was only around 8:30 AM, and he wasn’t sure if they had started work yet.

Forty years later, the Hongsheng Grand Hotel would still be in the same location, only renovated to suit modern aesthetics, more grand and opulent.

The current Hongsheng Hotel looked a bit retro to him, but it was already the best in the surrounding county. Some hotels in the county didn’t even have as grand a facade as Hongsheng, and Hongsheng offered many forms of entertainment inside, after all, their town was a port town with many Taiwanese businessmen coming and going.

Ye Yaodong, dressed in dusty clothes and wearing liberation shoes, didn’t feel inferior as he carried his bucket. He was about to swagger in to inquire, but as soon as he pushed the door open, he was stopped by the security guard inside.

After explaining his purpose, the guard told him to wait at the entrance while he called for the person in charge.

Unexpectedly, a man in a suit who looked quite proper came over, glanced at his bucket, questioningly said “Buddha’s hand?” and then turned to leave.

“Hey, wait, this isn’t Buddha’s hand, it’s gooseneck barnacle!”

“What gooseneck barnacle? Sea duck feet? Don’t cause trouble!”

Ye Yaodong glared at his back, sighing inwardly. Forget it, it was a wasted trip. Selling it as Buddha’s hand wasn’t worth it, he might as well take it back home to eat himself, and let them taste what “seafood from hell” and “ham of the sea” really meant.

Just as he was about to leave with his bucket, the main door was pushed open, and a young man came out.

“Wait, comrade, are you selling gooseneck barnacle?”

Ye Yaodong turned to look, his eyes lighting up. Wasn’t this Hong Wenle, the young master of Hongsheng? Looking at the two foreigners following closely behind him, his heart leaped with joy. Someone who knew the goods had arrived!

“Yes, I risked my life yesterday to dig up a bucket of gooseneck barnacle, but such a big hotel like yours, and no one recognizes the goods.”

The two foreigners behind also came forward to look at the contents of his bucket, excitedly chattering away in a language he couldn’t understand.

He looked left and right, only able to discern from their expressions that they were quite happy. Hong Wenle was also smiling as he conversed with them, and the man who had earlier failed to recognize the goods now stood behind, nodding and bowing.

He waited patiently, inwardly grumbling: Damn it, can’t you speak Chinese with me first? Discuss the price first? It’s very hot under the sun, okay?

Wiping the sweat that had formed on his forehead, he moved towards the eaves.

“Wait, don’t go, I want this.”

“How much money? If the price is too low, I won’t sell.”

“Money isn’t an issue, it’s just that I never expected someone in our small place to know about gooseneck barnacle, you seem to know quite a lot.”

“It’s alright, how much are you offering?” Ye Yaodong said calmly.

They weren’t from the same world, he didn’t expect any favors from them, there was no need to curry favor, as long as he could sell this bucket of goods.

“This thing, the rocky beaches of Spain, France, and Portugal produce the best ones. The Orte waters in northwestern Spain are the best production area for gooseneck barnacle. I wonder how good our local gooseneck barnacle are?”

Huh? What’s he on about?

Ye Yaodong frowned as he listened to the string of information, but there was no mention of price. It was driving him crazy.

“Whether it’s good or not, you’ll know once you taste it. Anyway, this is all I have. If you don’t want it, I’ll just take it back home to eat myself.”

“Ah, no, we want it, we want it. How much do you want to sell it for? How many jin do you have here?”

“There’s 5 jin and 2 liang here. I’ll give you a good price, 20 yuan per jin. For all of this, just take it for 100 yuan. It would definitely cost more than this abroad.”

He called out a random price. The current 20 yuan was equivalent to 2000 yuan in the future. He didn’t know how much this thing was worth now, he only knew that decades later, good quality ones could sell for several hundred euros per jin.

It’s just that his had already been out overnight, so he was just throwing out a price. Ask for the sky, settle on the ground, right? You couldn’t buy this thing in the market, he just didn’t know if the young master from a rich family would haggle.

A hundred or so yuan was probably just pocket change for rich people, and these two foreigners seemed to be his friends. Face was more important than money.

He was counting on this point!

“Alright, I’ll take it all.”

Hong Wenle very straightforwardly took out his money, counted out ten big unity notes and handed them to him, then had someone behind him take the bucket to the back kitchen.

Ye Yaodong happily accepted, “Thank you, you really know your stuff. Please wash the bucket clean and return it to me. Although it’s not worth much, I’ll need it to hold things later.”

“Sure, if you have more gooseneck barnacle next time, bring them over. If you have other rare items, those are fine too.”

“Alright.”

When the money is given readily, everything’s easy to discuss!

Ye Yaodong, with a hundred yuan in his pocket, happily walked towards the street, his heart bubbling with joy, not even feeling the sun’s heat anymore.

Seeing a fried pancake stall on the street, he casually bought one. Walking such a long way, the bowl of thin porridge from the morning had long been consumed.

Taking a bite, it was fragrant and crispy, deliciously oily. Really delicious.

“Give me a plain pancake too, and cut it in the middle!”

He wanted to eat it folded, it tasted better that way.

“Fry me a few more oil pancakes… how many… 16 of them.”

At one jiao each, it was just 1.6 yuan. Having just earned a large sum, he thought to reward his family. One for each person.

They hadn’t divided the family yet, so it wouldn’t be right for just his immediate family to eat while the other children watched with drooling mouths. It was better for everyone to have one. It was just a mouthful of food, and not expensive.

All of them were wrapped in newspaper and placed in the cleaned empty bucket. Seeing the pastry stall next door, he felt a bit restless again.

The two packets of flour tea cakes from a few days ago had all been shared among the children, his wife hadn’t even gotten a bite. He remembered she quite liked them.

Feeling his pocket, he bought one separately. He’d put it in the room when he got home and take it out after the children were asleep!

He was feeling quite pleased with himself as he looked at each shop one by one, wanting to find a fabric store, but all he saw were food shops.