Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Wanting to Borrow a Boat

The sun was still scorching at two or three in the afternoon. Ye Yaodong tried to walk in the shadows as much as possible. Fortunately, A-Guang’s house was behind the mountain, surrounded by trees, making it quite cool.

When he arrived, the others were playing cards under the tree by the door as usual, with only A-Guang lying alone in a reclining chair enjoying the cool air.

“Why are you lying here alone, not playing with them?”

“With such bad luck today, what’s the point of playing? I’d rather save some money. What’s up with you these past two days? Why haven’t you been playing?”

“No money, ah. Always asking my wife for money isn’t very dignified.”

“That’s true, but doesn’t your family have a boat now? You could go out to sea with your father and get a share of the money. That way you wouldn’t have to ask your wife.”

He wanted to, but thinking about the feeling of being overwhelmed and drowning in the middle of the sea made him anxious, his heart racing. He thought he’d take it slow.

He made up an excuse: “I’ve never been out to sea before, I’m afraid of getting seasick. If I go out and get seasick, my father would have to send me back – wouldn’t that be asking for a beating? If there was a small boat to try going around the nearby islands first, that would be better.”

“That’s easy. My aunt’s husband accidentally broke his hand a few days ago and can’t take his boat out recently. Tomorrow I’ll ask to borrow his boat, we’ll buy our own diesel, and I’ll take you out to sea, circle around the nearby waters.”

Ye Yaodong’s eyes lit up, “That would work! We could also check out the isolated islands, do some beachcombing!”

“Heh~ You seem quite enthusiastic about beachcombing lately!” A-Guang looked at him with a slight laugh.

“Of course, I’ve had such good luck these past few days. Yesterday I caught two blue crabs, and today I even found a tiger grouper and a nest of snow clams. Having tasted success, I’ve got to strike while the iron is hot.”

“That’s true. If I had luck like yours, I’d go every day too. It’s better than doing odd jobs at Yujing dock. Working at the dock only gets you a bit over one yuan a day, not even two yuan.”

Yujing dock was a large dock by the sea in their Shanhai town. Big ships all docked at Yujing, and many people from their village did odd jobs there moving cargo.

Their town was located close to the Taiwan Strait. Besides fishing boats, there were many cargo ships, and because of this, their town also had many Taiwanese goods stores.

In this era, their town was more famous and bustling than the county seat. Many outsiders knew their town but not their county.

When they went out with friends, they usually went to town to play, rarely to the county seat.

He put his hands in his pockets, one foot against the tree trunk, leaning there. “Beachcombing is all about luck, you can’t go every day. First ask if you can borrow the boat?”

“I’ll ask tomorrow morning. If we can borrow it, we’ll just go buy diesel and take it out. It’s too hot now, I’m too lazy to walk, and we’re drinking tonight anyway.”

“Alright, let me know when you get the boat. Tomorrow’s the first day of the lunar month with high tide. If there’s no wind and few waves tomorrow morning, it’ll be perfect to check out the isolated islands.”

“Good, I’ll follow you and see if I can change my luck too?”

Ye Yaodong smiled, “Maybe changing your name would be more effective. When is your father coming back?”

“Don’t know, he’s been gone for a month. I’m not sure how many more months before he returns.”

Although the “Aquatic Resources Reproduction Protection Regulations” issued in February 1979 included fishing ban periods, they only specified closed seasons for various fish species and different customized fishing gear, which didn’t really restrict vessels in their waters.

There weren’t regular fishery patrols either, so they continued fishing as usual.

It wasn’t until 1995 that the summer fishing moratorium system was fully implemented, and they had to follow the regulations.

Their area’s regulation was a fishing ban from May 1st to July 31st, with fishing reopening on August 1st!

However, where there’s a policy from above, there’s a countermeasure from below. Small boats in their area would secretly go out fishing. Even if caught by fishery enforcement, they’d just dump the seafood back into the sea. They could bear this loss, after all, fishery enforcement didn’t patrol the sea every day.

In this era, they could fish freely in their waters, and big boats wouldn’t return for several months once they set out.

“Then you’ll have to wait until your father returns.”

“Ah, I’ll enjoy myself for a couple more days. In a few days, I’ll have to find work at Yujing dock. If I don’t work soon, I’ll run out of money. You’re lucky to have a hardworking wife. I can’t even get married yet.”

“With money, why worry about finding a wife? Just gamble less, work harder to earn money. Even with a wife, you can’t rely on her to support you for life, that would be pathetic.”

A-Guang put his hands behind his head, looking at him with a slight laugh, “Why do you seem more hardworking these past few days?”

“Seeing my wife unable to earn even one yuan a day, my conscience kicked in. Besides, after our house is built, we’ll be separating from the family. I need to start supporting my own household. Before, I could lean on the big tree for shade, but that won’t be the case anymore.”

“That’s true. After separating, if you’re not more hardworking, life won’t be so easy. Want to look for work at the dock together?”

Somehow he had found a straw to chew on, “I’d scare my family, they’d run to get a Taoist priest to exorcise me.”

This was the truth!

“That’s right, at least we’ve all done some work and odd jobs, but you’ve always been ‘Third Young Master Ye’!”

“Stop teasing me. Got any cigarettes? Give me one, haven’t smoked for two days, my mouth is itching!”

“Things that bad? Didn’t you sell over ten yuan worth these past two days?”

“Handed it over to my wife, I’m a good husband!”

A-Guang rolled his eyes – who didn’t know what was what!

Ye Yaodong took a drag of the cigarette and finally felt better. Actually, he wanted to quit smoking these past two days but found it difficult. After decades of smoking, he felt he shouldn’t torture himself. Being a good husband had nothing to do with whether you smoked or not.

“Hey, tomorrow A-Guang says he’ll borrow a boat to take us out to sea for a spin, want to come?”

The four people playing cards turned to look at them.

“What’s there to see? Haven’t we seen enough sea since childhood?”

“Didn’t get enough sun today? Still want to take a boat out to get more?”

“Why bother borrowing a boat to go out?”

Fatty as usual wouldn’t go, “Don’t call me for things like getting sunburned when you’re too well-fed. Drinking and playing cards, I’m in!”

Ye Yaodong said irritably, “Go ahead and get fat then, even lazier than me. Tomorrow’s the first day of the lunar month with high tide, we can go to the isolated islands and see if we can find some good stuff. Those uninhabited islands rarely see people, forget seafood, the shells on the reefs must be big and plentiful.”

A-Wei asked curiously, “You’ve never been, how do you know?”

“Just say if you’re going or not!”

This was his experience, how could it be wrong? He couldn’t be sure about seafood, but there would definitely be plenty of snails and shellfish.

“Whether we can borrow the boat is still a question. I’ll see tomorrow. If we can borrow it, let’s go together, have some company. Otherwise, I won’t have time in a few days,” A-Guang said seriously.

“Alright, then let’s go together.”

Among the four playing cards, except for Fatty, Xiaoxiao and A-Zheng agreed to go. A-Wei said he didn’t want to go – there wasn’t much catch yesterday, he didn’t want to join in the excitement.