Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 28

Chapter 28 – Caught a Tiger Grouper

“Wow, this fish is really slippery!”

Just as Ye Yaodong poked it out, he tried to catch it with his hand, but it escaped and darted back under.

The rock was too big to move, so he could only continue using the fire tongs to reach in and stir around, trying to make it come out again.

Ah Guang squatted down with his bucket, aiming it at the gap under the rock, “My bucket’s empty anyway, let me help you catch this fish first.”

Ye Yaodong looked at his empty bucket with mixed feelings – everyone else had caught something, but his bucket was still completely empty.

“Alright, help me catch it then!”

Ah Zheng’s eyes crinkled into slits as he smiled, “Ah Guang must be feeling really depressed inside, but he’s still trying to put on a brave face. Poor thing! What a good brother!”

“Sigh~”

“Hahaha~”

Listening to them continue teasing Ah Guang, Ye Yaodong’s lips curved up as he stirred under the rock with the fire tongs for a while, but found that the tiger grouper hadn’t come out for a long time. “Can you guys check the other side? See if it swam over there?”

“Here! Here! It swam out over here, give me the bucket!”

“It’s quite big.”

“Looks to be about one or two jin (0.5-1 kg).”

“Dong-zi really got lucky!”

Xiao Xiao took the bucket Ah Guang passed over and scooped towards the tiger grouper, catching it directly in the bucket. “Done, got it!”

Several heads leaned over to look at the fish thrashing in the bucket, their faces full of envy.

Sure, they could buy one if they wanted. But the point of beach combing was the joy and satisfaction of catching seafood yourself. Plus this wasn’t just any fish – it was a tiger grouper! They couldn’t help but grumble internally that Ye Yaodong had really lucked out.

“There’s too little water in the bucket, add some more or it might die.”

Ah Wei said: “I just have two jumping fish, I’ll pour them in your bucket, then you can use it to scoop water.”

Xiao Xiao said with a grin: “Well, looks like I gained two fish then!”

After filling the bucket halfway with water, Xiao Xiao handed it to Ye Yaodong, “Are you planning to keep it to eat or sell it?”

“Sell it of course! If I eat it, my mother would curse me to death and break my legs. Yesterday I caught two small blue crabs originally planning to keep them to eat, but ended up getting scolded badly by her. Only when I said they were for the kids did her expression improve a bit, but we still ended up selling them.”

This tiger grouper was worth much more than yesterday’s two small blue crabs. If he cooked it, forget his mother scolding him, his wife would be angry with him for several days.

Taking it to sell and getting a few yuan for her wouldn’t be bad either, saving her from having to weave nets all day just to earn one yuan.

Although he didn’t know exactly how much savings his wife had accumulated, he knew it couldn’t be much.

“Should definitely sell it. The older generation never wants to eat or wear anything nice. This one’s worth over one yuan per jin, and being this size, it could probably sell for three yuan. That’s equivalent to 3-4 days of making nets. Would be too wasteful to just eat it.”

“Yeah, it’s fine to eat the cheaper seafood, but this one should be sold!”

“While it’s still alive, you should take it to the buying station at the dock first. That’ll give us a chance to look for more big catches too! Otherwise everything’s gone into your bucket and I’ll end up empty-handed!”

Since everyone said so, Ye Yaodong nodded, “Alright, you guys keep playing here, I’ll be back in a bit.”

Ah Zheng said with laughter, “No worries, take your time, it’s fine if you don’t come back, we’ve got things covered here, don’t need you!”

He cursed with a laugh, “Damn, just jealous of my good luck. Without me here, you definitely won’t find anything good.”

“Get lost~ Get lost~”

He happily carried his bucket towards the group digging for clams, and after finding Lin Xiuqing, put the bucket in front of her, “I found a grouper, it’s a tiger grouper. Take it to the buying station to sell.”

“Ah? A tiger grouper!” Lin Xiuqing’s eyes lit up with joy as she looked at the bucket. “It’s so big!”

“What tiger grouper? Third Son, you caught a tiger grouper?” Mother Ye also walked over in surprise.

“Tiger grouper?”

Hearing this, people around them gathered over, chattering: “It really is a tiger grouper!”

“Where did you catch it? Such good luck?”

“There are even some rock crabs!”

“Oh my, there are snow clams too…”

“Where did Dong-zi find all this? So many things, how come we never saw any?”

“When we go down to the beach, we only ever find a few jumping fish and rock crabs. Ah Dong’s got good luck!”

Ye Yaodong ignored the surprised comments around him and just said to Lin Xiuqing: “Empty out a bucket to hold the fish, then take this tiger grouper to sell at the buying station. This bucket belongs to Ah Guang, I need to return it to him, and then go look around some more to see if there’s anything else to collect.”

“Alright, I’ll pour the clams into mother’s bucket, just wait a moment.” Lin Xiuqing said with a bright smile, quickly working to empty the bucket.

He estimated this tiger grouper would only sell for about three yuan, and couldn’t be bothered to go to the buying station himself. After pouring the fish into his wife’s bucket, he took the empty bucket along with his own and continued walking down towards the beach.

“Wait!”

Mother Ye called out to him, “Don’t you still have snow clams in your bucket? How many are there? If there are a lot, take them out too and let Xiuqing take them to sell. Why keep them in there?”

“Ah? The snow clams need to be sold too?”

“Of course, anything valuable should be sold,” Mother Ye took his bucket and gave it a shake, “The ones you collected are almost as big as fish balls, looks to be over a jin, could probably sell for one or two yuan. Why not sell them together, you weren’t planning to eat them, were you?”

“Alright… then let’s sell them too.”

Lin Xiuqing had actually wanted to say something earlier but was afraid he wouldn’t be happy, since he’d already contributed a tiger grouper. Now with Mother Ye’s words, she happily went to take them out.

“Be careful, those rock crabs’ pincers can pinch you, let me do it.”

Ye Yaodong stopped his wife from reaching in, and took out the rock crabs himself first, stepping on them to keep them from crawling away, then took out the snow clams and tossed them into the bucket with the tiger grouper.

“There, happy now? Just a few worthless rock crabs and sword shrimp left, plus jumping fish, and only one mantis shrimp that won’t sell for anything.”

Mother Ye nodded with satisfaction, “You’ve had good luck these past two days. People can beach comb for years without encountering a tiger grouper, go look around some more, if you find anything good bring it back for your wife to sell.”

“It’s not that easy, you think they’re cabbages? There’s only stuff to collect these couple days because of the tides, finding anything is just luck, you really think the whole beach is full of goods to just pick up?” Seeing the women around looking eager, he quickly said this. Otherwise they’d stop digging for clams and all go beach combing, then he wouldn’t need to go either.

His luck really had been quite good lately!

“I’m just saying, if I don’t remind you like this, you’ll go and waste it all!” Mother Ye glared at him irritably.

Who didn’t know it was just luck? How much could there be on their stretch of beach? How could she not know?

“Didn’t I bring it all over already? How did I waste anything…”

“Go, go, go, get back down there and look around some more.”

Sigh, he’d handed everything over but his mother still had to nag. It really wasn’t easy to change his family’s view of him, but no matter – going by his previous life where he died at 65, he still had several decades to go. Take it slow, let them gradually accept the changes.