Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 77

Chapter 77: The Small Wooden Boat

“What else would I do? Why would I buy a boat if not for fishing? Buy it just to look at?” Ye Yaodong replied irritably. He had been behaving well, yet they still doubted him.

The old lady hadn’t spoken until now, when she happily held his hand and said, “Dongzi has grown up, wanting to buy his own boat to go fishing. You must be extra careful when you go out alone.”

“I know!”

Father Ye glared at the old lady – he hadn’t agreed yet, and he needed to ask the eldest and second son’s opinions too.

He looked at his other two sons, “Third Son wants to buy that boat, what do you say?”

Ye Yaohua’s face reddened as he looked at his brothers, somewhat embarrassedly saying: “Dad, I… I also want… Ouch!”

He rubbed his arm and glared at Second Sister-in-law who had pinched him secretly. Second Sister-in-law smiled at Father Ye and said, “Dad, we’ll discuss it when we get back to our room. Yaodong probably isn’t in a rush for just a day or two, right?”

Father Ye frowned as he looked at her, not speaking to her – the second son was too easily swayed.

He looked at the eldest son, “What do you say?”

“How much is Dongzi planning to pay Dad for it?”

Ye Yaodong shrugged, “That depends on how much Dad wants to sell it to me for?”

“Eldest, what are your thoughts?”

“I need to think about it, consider it over. I’ll give you an answer after dinner, Dad.”

“Alright then, you all think it over. Third Son, go back and discuss it with your wife too. Don’t just blurt things out on impulse!”

In the end, Father Ye still didn’t trust him!

The second daughter-in-law’s behavior made him feel that the second son was too easily influenced, which he didn’t like.

As for the third son’s behavior, he wanted the third son’s wife to supervise him more, to manage this unreliable third son more, hoping the third son would listen more to his wife.

Being a father was just this contradictory.

When a son listened to everything his wife said, it frustrated him, but when a son didn’t listen to his wife, he wanted him to pay more attention to his pillow talk.

Mother Ye smiled and said, “Then you all go back to your rooms to discuss it. I’ll go make lunch first, it’s already noon and we haven’t eaten yet.”

Since they hadn’t been working, the meal was very simple, and Mother Ye didn’t need their help.

After Lin Xiuqing followed Ye Yaodong back to their room, she pulled him aside to ask, “Why did you think of buying that small wooden boat? Wouldn’t it be better to keep it as communal property, available for whoever needs it?”

Heaven knows how hard it was for her to hold back – from the moment he blurted out wanting to buy the boat, she had wanted to ask him what he was thinking, but couldn’t find the right moment to interject.

“If it’s communal property, whose money would the earnings be?”

Lin Xiuqing was speechless.

“Right now, working with Dad, the earnings go towards building the house. After the family splits, when we go out with Dad, he’ll either share the money or pay wages, but with three of us taking turns, we only get about ten days a month. If we need to repair machinery or if the weather’s rough, we might not even get that many days in a month.”

“With our own small boat, we can set some fish traps, check them every other day for catch, isn’t that more stable? And we won’t need to go out in the middle of the night.”

Lin Xiuqing stared intently at Ye Yaodong, “Are you serious?”

“Of course! When nobody else believes in me, you can’t not believe in me!”

“Why should I believe you?”

Well…

Ye Yaodong scratched his head, “Hey, haven’t I been doing well lately? You’ve seen it yourself, right?”

“Who knows how long you can keep it up?”

“Can you not discourage me? Shouldn’t you be encouraging me? Don’t you want me to work hard and earn money?”

She said seriously, “It’s precisely because I’ve seen your recent behavior that I think there’s still hope for you, that’s why I’m asking if you’re serious. If this was before, I wouldn’t even ask, and you wouldn’t get a cent from me.”

“If you’re really serious about working hard, I’ll definitely support you. But if you’re just going to work three days and slack off for two, then don’t waste the money.”

Ye Yaodong sighed helplessly, pulled her into his arms, stroking her short hair, and for the first time, said with complete sincerity: “Trust me this once, even a wastrel can turn over a new leaf.”

Hearing these words, Lin Xiuqing’s nose suddenly felt sour, and her eyes reddened.

After quite a while, she finally said: “You promised!”

“Yes, I promised!” He heard the emotion in her voice and comfortingly patted her back, “Let’s buy the boat. It’s a rare opportunity, and when we earn enough money later, we can buy a bigger boat and sell this small one. We won’t lose out.”

“Okay.” She hugged him back.

Seeing his recent behavior, she was willing to give him one chance. If he was deceiving her, she could always sell the boat – the cost of this trial wasn’t too high.

After the couple agreed, they discussed how much Dad would sell it to them for. It probably wouldn’t be much less than the market price, especially with the eldest and second sister-in-law watching.

But Ye Yaodong wasn’t worried, his parents weren’t the type to be greedy about money, “Let’s first see what Big Brother and Hua think, I saw Hua seemed a bit interested earlier.”

“Second Sister-in-law stopped him, getting money from her is harder than anything.”

He pursed his lips – she was like a pixiu that only took in and never gave out, no wonder she had saved quite a lot of money in his previous life.

“We’ll know soon enough, maybe they prefer working with Dad, it’s more stable and doesn’t require capital.”

“We don’t actually have to work alone…”

“If we don’t work alone, should the three brothers take turns? I’ll only go a few days a month, and spend the rest of the time eating, drinking, and playing?”

Lin Xiuqing pressed her lips tightly together – better to work alone. If he worked intensively, maybe he wouldn’t waste away playing.

“Then we’ll do as you say, let’s buy it first, but you can’t be selfish and just go set nets while your elder brothers work for the family. You need to help with the family’s work too.”

“I know, the family’s busy now, I can’t go out every day. I need to help with the new house too, I’ll just go during breaks when I have time.”

Besides, he still needed to learn how to row with an oar.

Operating a boat was easy for him, but rowing… it was a bit old-fashioned. He hadn’t learned it in his youth, so he’d need to spend some time practicing near the shore.

After the couple finished discussing, they went out, just in time for dinner.

During the meal, Ye Yaopeng directly said: “Dad, if Third Brother wants the small wooden boat, let’s sell it to him cheaply. It’s rare that he wants to work hard, I don’t want it.”

“Mm, what about Second Son?”

Ye Yaohua somewhat shamefully glanced at Ye Yaodong, “If Third Brother wants it, then give it to him. A second-hand wooden boat isn’t worth much… money…”

He grimaced, his brows furrowing…

Everyone could guess that Second Sister-in-law had pinched him again!

Any clear-eyed person could see what was happening. Mother Ye glared unhappily at Second Sister-in-law, “When men are talking, what are you doing?”

“Ah… I… I didn’t do anything, Mother…”

Father Ye glanced at them, too lazy to say anything to the second daughter-in-law – it wasn’t appropriate for him as a father-in-law to say anything.

He put down his chopsticks and said definitively: “Brothers should be clear about money matters. We certainly can’t give it away for free, and that small wooden boat isn’t really that small, it’s worth about two hundred yuan at market price. Since none of you object, let’s give it to Dongzi, and 150 yuan should be about right since we’re family. We can use this money towards building the house, any objections?”

Neither Ye Yaopeng nor Ye Yaohua had any objections. Second Sister-in-law had been warned, so she didn’t dare say anything, and the eldest sister-in-law had always been good at staying neutral.

And so the matter of the small wooden boat was settled.