Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Everyone Was Astonished

Ye Yaodong smiled and said to everyone, “I want to take two or three mackerel back home. My house construction starts tomorrow, and I need to feed the workers. These fish would be perfect for making fish balls. And as for all these miscellaneous seafood, we can’t finish it all in one meal. I’d like to take some back for tomorrow’s dishes. Since we’re dividing everything equally anyway, whatever I keep, we can deduct the money from my share when we sell them…”

“Oh come on, what deduction are you talking about? We’re all good brothers here, just take what you need…”

“Yeah, yeah, just take what you need, why talk about deducting money? Are we strangers?”

“Exactly, we have hundreds of mackerel, what difference do a few make? Since your house construction starts tomorrow, you might as well take more. You can cut them into pieces and preserve them. In this hot weather, fresh fish won’t keep, but salted fish can last for several days. Since we caught them ourselves without spending money, what’s wrong with keeping more?”

Their words were so heartwarming; these friendships weren’t made in vain.

He smiled and shook his head, “These fish are worth some money, it would be extravagant to take so many just for eating. Two will be enough. My father goes trawling every day and always brings back some less valuable fish. That should be enough to cook for the workers tomorrow.”

“Let’s divide these two buckets of seafood too. Keep some for drinking tonight, and everyone can take some home. It’ll make for some extra dishes.”

“As for the mackerel, you all should take two each back home for your families. They’re good for making dumplings or fish balls.”

He didn’t like mackerel dumplings, but he loved fish balls.

Since nobody wanted to deduct money from his share, they might as well divide everything equally, so everyone could take some home to add to their family meals.

Listening to his arrangement, everyone felt something was different about him.

He actually thought about family members and considered their needs.

A-Guang patted his shoulder, “Dongzi, you seem to have suddenly matured a bit. Is it because you’re about to separate from your parents?”

“Of course, I’m about to become the head of my own household. Once I stop living with my parents, I’ll definitely become even more mature.”

“Is it because you’re getting scolded less? Haha!” A-Zheng teased.

“Get out of here, you’re always ruining the moment!”

“Let’s do as A-Dong says then. Everyone takes two mackerel home, and pick whatever small fish and shrimp you want. Whatever’s left, we’ll use for drinking tonight.”

A-Guang shook his head, “I don’t need any. It’s just me and my two sisters at home, we can’t eat that much. Just having some side dishes for drinking tonight is enough.”

A-Zheng also said, “My four sisters are all married off, it’s just me and my parents at home. We can’t eat much either. I’ll just take one mackerel and a bowl of small shrimp.”

“You guys take what you want first, I’ll pick from what’s left,” Ye Yaodong said casually.

The four of them picked out what they wanted to keep before reaching the dock, each taking one or two mackerel according to their needs.

At this time, the tide hadn’t fully come in at the dock, and some people were still digging for clams.

The water was too shallow for the boat to come in, so they had to stop near the reef and come ashore from there.

Leaving one person on the boat, the others ran to the purchasing station to get baskets. They never imagined they would catch so many fish and hadn’t prepared anything, not even baskets.

A-Cai at the purchasing station watched them burst in like bandits, not even saying hello before carrying away all the bamboo baskets that were stacked half a person’s height, and then asking if he had more.

“What are you doing? Where are you taking all my baskets? That’s a lot of them.”

“We caught thousands of jin of mackerel, come help us carry them,” Ye Yaodong said while pulling A-Cai along, hurriedly taking away the remaining baskets too.

“What thousands of jin of mackerel? Where did you catch them? Is this for real? Don’t fool me!” A-Cai stumbled as he pulled away from his grip.

“Oh come on, stop talking and hurry up. You’ll see when we get there.”

Since the tide was too low and no boats were coming into the dock anyway, he had nothing else to do, so he followed them to the boat with half-belief.

As soon as he stepped on the boat and saw the live well packed full of mackerel, A-Cai’s eyes lit up, “It really is mackerel! So many! Did you catch an entire school of mackerel in one net?”

A-Guang said without looking up, “More than one net. There’s even more in the hold, hurry up and help us load them.”

“How much are you buying mackerel for?” Ye Yaodong was most concerned about this.

“0.2 yuan.”

“Damn, can’t you give us a bit more?”

“That’s already high. I only make one or two fen profit when I resell them.”

“Like hell I believe you. Just help us carry them down first.”

“Ah~ There’s this many more in the hold? Where did you guys run into a small school of mackerel?” A-Cai was stunned to see the hold also packed full of mackerel.

“Why so many questions? Come help already!”

As basket after basket of mackerel was carried off the boat, people around the dock were amazed.

Their village dock was just a small one, usually only handling cargo from small trawlers or trap nets, never seeing much cargo from a single boat. No one had ever seen so many baskets of mackerel. People at the purchasing station were buzzing with discussion.

“Heavens, so many mackerel! Whose boat caught these?”

“How can there be so many? Did a big boat dock here?”

“Definitely not, we didn’t see any big boats.”

“Tsk tsk tsk~ Another fortune made! Just a few days ago, Old Third Ye caught a net full of yellow croaker, and today someone caught thousands of jin of mackerel.”

“Whose catch is it? Looked like A-Dong’s group just now?”

“A-Dong, A-Guang and their bunch…”

“No way? Those guys can actually do proper work?”

…

As baskets of mackerel piled up at the purchasing station, the people digging for clams on the beach below heard that someone had caught thousands of jin of mackerel, and Ye Yaodong was involved.

The Ye family was shocked. Dongzi caught thousands of jin of mackerel?

Is this real? When did he go out to sea?

“Let’s go up and see, the tide is coming in anyway,” Ye’s mother stood up impatiently.

When had her third son ever been this reliable?

Lin Xiuqing held her son with mixed surprise and joy. She knew her husband had gone to sea, but wasn’t he supposed to be diving at the lonely island? How did they catch thousands of jin of mackerel?

The Ye family walked to the purchasing station with doubt in their hearts, seeing baskets of mackerel piled everywhere on the ground. As Ye Yaodong and A-Guang carried over another basket, they were so surprised their mouths gaped open.

Lin Xiuqing was the first to react, pulling his sleeve after he put down the basket, “A-Dong, did you catch all these mackerel?”

“Not just me, A-Guang, Xiaoxiao, A-Zheng, we all did it together.”

“So it really was you guys?” Ye’s mother still couldn’t believe it. When had her good-for-nothing third son ever done any proper work?