Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: A Nest of Blood Clams!

In just a short while, Ye Yaodong had found five stone crabs, six or seven sword shrimp, and several jumping fish. The best catch was that large mantis shrimp.

He continued wandering around the shallow water area, “Ah, blood clams, holy shit, and it’s a whole nest!”

In this era, few people were nearsighted, and especially since he wasn’t a reader, his eyesight was excellent. From far away, he could see several blood clams on the sand surface, their siphons exposed. He quickly ran a few steps forward.

“It really is a whole nest!”

“What’s a whole nest?” Xiao-xiao, who wasn’t far from him, heard his excited voice and turned to ask.

“Blood clams! I found a nest of blood clams, all with their siphons out playing,” Ye Yaodong squatted down to pick one up, and as soon as it was in his hand, its shell snapped tightly shut.

He weighed it in his hand, grinning happily, “They’re not small at all. What a harvest! What a harvest!”

Thunk! He threw it into his bucket!

Xiao-xiao ran over curiously to look, “Damn, what kind of luck do you have? Finding such big blood clams, and a whole nest of them…”

A-Zheng also ran over to take a peek, “Motherf*cker, what kind of dog shit luck did you step in? And you’ve already got so many stone crabs in your bucket? Look at mine – two sword shrimp, two jumping fish, that’s it!”

“Same here! I’ve got even less, just two jumping fish.” Chen Wei called from afar, lifting his bucket and shaking it.

“It’s just your bad luck!” Ye Yaodong happily picked up all the blood clams clustered together and tossed them into his bucket.

Hearing the thunking sounds, everyone was filled with envy and jealousy.

“How many are in this nest? And they’re all so big – these will be delicious!”

He shook the bucket and estimated based on their size, “Forgot to count, seems like eighteen or nineteen maybe, definitely more than a jin (500g).”

“Dog shit luck! Go, go, go, let me search this spot, you go somewhere else. My bucket’s still empty, aren’t you ashamed?” A-Guang, full of envy and jealousy, waved his long hook to shoo him away, planning to take over this search area.

Ye Yaodong moved a few steps aside as he was pushed away, “Hahaha, I was wondering why you were so quiet! So it’s because your bucket’s empty – no confidence to speak up!”

“Get lost~ I’m taking over this area, go look somewhere else, let me try my luck too!”

“I think your bad luck comes from the name your father gave you. Pei Guang sounds like ‘losing everything’ – isn’t that why you’re empty-handed and nothing goes right? Haven’t you noticed you usually lose at cards? Yesterday was a rare win, and for all these years, nothing else has gone smoothly for you either.”

He said this quite seriously – A-Guang’s luck had always been poor. After he went to Zhoushan, during their occasional phone calls, all he heard about was A-Guang’s losses!

It wasn’t until his forties that someone suggested he change his name to see if his luck would turn around.

Unexpectedly, after changing his name, everything went smoothly. Within a few years, he cleared his debts and could even buy a house for his son’s marriage.

Ye Yaodong felt he should remind A-Guang – better to believe it exists than not. Rural people of their era were quite superstitious.

A-Guang rubbed his chin, “I also feel my name isn’t very good!”

“Why don’t you ask your father to change your name to A-Wang (prosperous)? Hahaha~”

“Haha~ That could work, that’s a good name~”

“No way, if he’s called A-Wang, he’ll win at cards every day – that won’t do! My pockets would be empty.”

“Right, right, right, can’t be A-Wang, too prosperous isn’t good, he’d win all our money. Choose another one, another one, can’t be too prosperous!”

Everyone laughed heartily, teasing him back and forth.

“Get lost, go do your work!” A-Guang looked at his terrible friends with disdain.

“Or you could change your name to Pei Shun – everything smooth and auspicious!” Ye Yaodong said cheerfully as he walked to A-Guang’s previous searching spot. In his previous life, that’s what A-Guang had changed his name to.

“Ah, Pei Shun could work, it sounds good and has a good meaning!” A-Guang seemed interested.

“The art of naming is really mysterious indeed. They say it’s related to a person’s fate, luck, and future. Don’t fortune tellers nowadays calculate birth times using the Eight Trigrams when babies are born? I have a copy of the ‘I Ching’ at home, want me to bring it for you to study? Better to believe it exists than not.”

A-Guang looked at A-Zheng with surprise, “What’s the ‘I Ching’? You have that? Planning to be self-taught and switch careers to become a mystic?”

“Psh, I just found it by chance at home, along with a pressure point manual – might be from my ancestors! Want to practice? It’s hereditary, maybe we could become martial arts masters!”

“Damn, so your ancestors might not only have been mystics, but also martial arts heroes? Even having pressure point manuals – do you have the ‘Sunflower Manual’? The ‘Evil-Dispelling Sword Manual’?”

“Want to practice? I can write it down for you from memory. To practice this skill, you must first castrate yourself – I don’t mind helping! Shall we use a chopping knife? A duller one, so your bird can stay around a bit longer.”

“Have you already castrated yourself? Is that why you haven’t married yet? Damn, you’re your father’s only son, how could you be so cruel~ Giving up your little bird~”

“What little bird? You’re the one who’s castrated! I’ve got a big bird!”

…

During their banter, Ye Yaodong surprisingly discovered a fish tail with black-gray spots showing under a large rock nearby. He quickly interrupted their conversation, “Holy shit, come quick and look under this big rock, is this tail from a grouper?”

“Where? Where is it?” A-Guang excitedly ran over and lay down to look under the big rock, “Damn, it’s a tiger grouper! I just circled around this rock earlier, how did I not see it?”

“Told you your luck is bad. Move aside, let me poke it with the fire tongs, see if I can make it swim out – can’t catch it while it’s under the rock.” Ye Yaodong was very excited – a tiger grouper, this was a big catch!

The others gathered around, couldn’t help but complain, “How do you find all the good stuff? A-Guang was here for ages and didn’t see anything!”

“Maybe my luck has turned around?”

Or perhaps things had reached their extreme and reversed? In his previous life, he’d been so unlucky he’d fallen into the sea and died while taking a piss. Now reborn, with his bad luck gone, wasn’t it time for his good luck to explode?

A-Wei patted A-Guang’s shoulder, “When your father gets back, hurry and change your name!”

A-Guang was also depressed. He had indeed circled around this big rock earlier, thinking there should be something, but hadn’t seen any fish come out. When he heard Dong-zi say he found a nest of blood clams, he had rushed over there.

His luck really was terrible beyond measure – he’d searched here for ages and seen nothing, but as soon as Dong-zi came over, he immediately found a grouper. It was truly frustrating!