Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Going to the Dock to Sort Cargo

After chatting with everyone for a while, it was almost four o’clock when Ye Yaodong finally got up, patting his bottom.

“I need to go help sort cargo at the dock. You all handle those seafood, and I’ll come back after I’m done sorting.”

A-Guang looked at him in surprise, “You’re actually being responsible now?”

“Get lost!”

He took large strides, quickening his pace towards the dock. By this time, the tide had risen at the shore, and the fishing boats should be arriving at the dock soon.

When he reached the dock, there were already quite a few villagers there, all waiting for their family members’ boats to return so they could help sort the catch.

Ye’s mother was already waiting at the dock, and she was satisfied when she saw Ye Yaodong arrive.

She had been waiting for half an hour without seeing him, thinking this brat had ignored her words again. The fact that he listened showed there was still hope for him; he seemed to have grown more mature these past few days.

Ye Yaodong also saw his mother and walked towards her, saying cheerfully, “Mom, why are you here too?”

“Isn’t it because I don’t trust you? What if you didn’t listen or forgot? Don’t your father and older brother need help?”

“Why don’t you trust me?”

“Are you trustworthy?”

The villagers nearby laughed and said, “A-Dong is helping out today too?”

“That’s how it should be. When the family’s busy, you should lend a hand. Young people should be diligent and show some initiative.”

He responded casually with some “mhms” and “ahs,” his eyes fixed on the boats at sea. Not many families in their village owned boats. Besides the few docked at shore, most were out at sea. The one approaching from the front should be his father’s boat, right?

“Dong-zi, that’s your father’s boat, isn’t it?”

“Probably? Let’s wait and see, it’ll dock soon.”

As the small boat slowly approached, they could clearly see its blue paint, confirming it was their family’s boat.

Ye Yaodong and his mother quickly walked down the stone steps, preparing to receive the cargo.

Father Ye also noticed his third son had unexpectedly come to help at the dock, but he didn’t say anything. After docking the boat, he and Ye Yaopeng started handing over the cargo for them to carry ashore.

The first basket carried off the boat was swimming crab, followed by a basket of mantis shrimp, and some other loose cargo.

There were about two or three jin of large prawns, and the small prawns, though not worth much, were about ten-something jin. There were also two jin of cuttlefish, various sizes of croakers that needed sorting – looked to be about ten-something jin, four or five jin of yellow croaker, and other less valuable mixed small fish.

There wasn’t any major catch today, but the harvest looked quite good!

After all the cargo was unloaded, Father Ye moved the boat to the side, clearing the dock for other incoming boats.

Ye Yaodong and the others carried the cargo to the purchasing point. The swimming crabs were of different sizes and would fetch different prices, so they needed to be sorted and their legs tied together with rubber bands.

Father Ye and Ye Yaopeng had already tied up most of them during their spare time on the boat, but some were still left undone.

When the swimming crabs were poured out, their legs were all twitching, jumping around, looking very fresh and lively.

He grabbed a few randomly, feeling their hard backs, “They’re quite plump, even the small ones are firm, lots of meat.”

“The crabs have been plump recently, the mantis shrimp too, very meaty, some even have roe.”

The three of them efficiently tied up the crab legs and sorted them by size.

Mother Ye and the eldest Ye watched Ye Yaodong’s skilled movements with great surprise.

When had he ever done this work before? Yet he could tie them so neatly and quickly, no slower than them!

“Third brother, you’re quite fast at this? Didn’t expect that!”

“Hmph~ What’s so special about this? Just because you haven’t seen me do it doesn’t mean I can’t!”

“You little rascal, you never do work at home, but you help others? Running around being irresponsible all day…”

Hearing his mother’s nagging, he didn’t argue back. Sigh, he deserved this.

After sorting the crabs, they poured out a small basket of mantis shrimp. Sorting these was much simpler, just separating them by size. The same went for the prawns and croakers – they all needed to be sorted by size.

The larger ones could fetch better prices, while the smaller ones weren’t worth much.

They put all the small, less valuable fish and shrimp in separate buckets, along with some tiny eels and mixed fish, to take home and dry.

After everything was weighed, Father Ye went to settle accounts while they carried the fish home first.

“Mom, how much can today’s catch sell for? Adding up the large and small crabs, there’s over 30 jin, plus over 20 jin of mantis shrimp, several jin of prawns, and other fish – it looks pretty good.”

“Today’s catch is quite good. Large crabs fetch 0.3 yuan per jin, smaller ones 0.2 yuan, large mantis shrimp 0.35 yuan, small ones 0.26 yuan, prawns are more expensive at 0.5 yuan. Adding up all the odds and ends, we should get over 30 yuan, but diesel costs two yuan, and the machine needs maintenance, it breaks down often and needs repairs.”

“That’s still pretty good, you can save quite a bit in a month!”

Mother Ye glanced at him sideways, “You think we can go out every day and always get this much? We depend on the weather, who can predict what happens at sea? Yesterday some people only made ten-something yuan.”

“That’s still better than doing odd jobs.”

Ye Yaopeng sincerely invited again, “Third brother, why don’t you take turns going out to sea too? We live off the sea, we should all learn from father.”

“Ah? You and second brother learn first, I’ll learn after you guys know how!”

Mother Ye, hearing his excuses, wanted to scold him but held back since they were at the dock. Considering he had been quite diligent today, she’d bear with it for now.

After the family division, he’d have to go out to sea with them. The money earned now could still be counted as family funds, used for building houses.

After the division, if the eldest and second sons went out to sea, wouldn’t they keep their own money? What about the third son who idles around all day? He’d either starve to death or wait for them to support him in their old age – what kind of arrangement was that?

Others raise children for their old age, but they had raised an ancestor!

Ye Yaodong was unaware of his mother’s internal complaints. As soon as they reached home, he slipped away, just throwing back a line that he wouldn’t be eating dinner at home, but he had helped with all the work he should do today.

Mother Ye felt both helpless and thought this was more like the normal third son. Today he had gone to the house foundation site, gone beach combing, and helped at the dock – being so diligent made her almost not recognize him.

Second Sister-in-law Ye pursed her lips, “Just when he was starting to seem reliable, he runs off again!”

“Let him be, it’s already good that he helps with work. Take a bowl of fish and shrimp to send to your parents’ homes, butcher the rest – braise the large ones, dry the small ones. Same with the small shrimp – cook a bowl, shell the rest and dry the meat, this weather won’t keep them until tomorrow.”

The three daughters-in-law agreed. Lin Xiuqing’s parents’ home was quite far, so she didn’t have the chance to send them fish. She could only watch her two sisters-in-law take fish back to their parents while she stayed to clean the fish.

After the two left, Mother Ye said to Lin Xiuqing, “Think about when you want to visit your parents, I’ll save some good catch for you to take back then.”

“Alright, Mom, no hurry, I’ll wait until Mid-Autumn Festival to go back.”

…

With three sons, Mother Ye always tried to be fair to all.

—

Author’s Price Note:

I specifically asked my father about seafood prices in the 1980s. My grandparents were seafood wholesalers during that era. My father was eighteen or nineteen then and followed my grandparents to nearby ports and docks to wholesale purchase seafood, so the prices shouldn’t be too far off.

The only difference is with yellow croaker – it wasn’t as valuable then as it is now. My father said wild yellow croaker weighing one or two jin only sold for 0.6 yuan per jin.

At that time, skilled workers earned over 2 yuan per day, and manual laborers only earned over 1 yuan per day. Even at these prices, ordinary people couldn’t afford to eat yellow croaker; it was only for wealthy people.

Seafood was only a few mao per jin then, but ordinary people still couldn’t afford it, since daily wages were only one or two yuan. Back then, flathead fish only cost 0.06 yuan per jin.

The yellow croaker prices mentioned at the beginning of this book were actually a bit high, but that was to set up the plot. Please just take it as it is and don’t compare it to the actual prices of that time. Only the yellow croaker price was inflated.

The book will continue to maintain the inflated yellow croaker prices, just to clarify this point.

I also corrected the mantis shrimp prices earlier, next time I’ll make sure to confirm prices before writing.

This is a side note to tell everyone the actual situation; other seafood prices basically match the prices of that time.

My family doesn’t know I’m writing a novel, and I was quite embarrassed to ask my father, but now my family keeps asking about my writing (embarrassing)…