At this moment, the members of the Ye family noticed Ye Yaodong's catch.
Ye mother was the first to exclaim in surprise, “You caught two blue crabs?” As she spoke, her hands pinched at them, and excitedly added, “They’re nice and firm! Together they should weigh over a pound. We can sell them for a couple of coins!”
“Sell them? We should keep them to eat ourselves!”
“Eat, eat, eat! That’s all you ever think about! You spendthrift! Your wife works all day and barely makes a coin, and you want to eat these two blue crabs worth one or two coins?” Ye mother glared at him, hitting him several times for emphasis.
Ye Yaodong stepped back, dodging her hands.
His mother had worked hard all her life, her hands were calloused, and her hits packed quite a sting.
“Mother, I wasn’t planning to eat them myself. It’s rare to catch two blue crabs. I thought I’d stew them for the kids at home…”
On hearing this, Ye mother’s expression softened, and her tone became gentler.
It was good that he thought of the children. “There are so many kids at home, how will these two be enough?”
“Each can have a leg and drink some soup!”
“With so many kids, there will be crying and fighting over them! These crabs can fetch some money; let’s just sell them. Your father left a few swimming crabs yesterday and a pound of small shrimp. They can have those to eat.”
Ye Yaodong frowned.
These two blue crabs weighed just over a pound, worth a little over a coin at current prices.
Compared to the prices in later times, it was far too cheap.
Blue crabs, also known as sturgeon crabs, were referred to as vegetable sturgeons in their farming variety.
In later times, even wild blue crabs sold for 150 coins a pound at the docks, and wild ones were hard to find on the market.
The farm-raised ones were priced the same.
Seeing him frown, Ye mother quickly winked at him, snatching the rope from his hand. “I’ll take them to the docks to sell. Wait here for a bit, and dig some sand clams while you’re at it; the tide is about to come in.”
This silly boy! His own wife works herself to death, and now that he’s caught two blue crabs, he wants to share them with everyone instead of thinking of earning some money to give to her!
Ye Yaodong watched as his mother hurried up the shore, and he had no choice but to give in.
A little bit of money was better than nothing.
After all, money was valuable now; selling them was a good idea.
Lin Xiuqing saw her mother-in-law quickly taking the blue crabs to sell and felt relieved.
Those two blue crabs were worth several days’ worth of her fishing net work.
Everyone has their own desires.
Her husband was lazy and unable to earn money like his elder brothers.
With the unexpected extra income of a coin or two, she really didn’t want to share it with everyone.
Seeing Ye mother’s actions, Ye Ersao pouted but said nothing.
She, too, had to go sell something and continued to dig.
Ye Dajie grew curious. “Yaodong, where did you catch the blue crabs? No wonder we didn’t see you just now.”
“Over there!”
After what had happened earlier, he had no desire to talk to anyone and simply nodded in the direction before walking over to his wife, glancing at the basin beside her, which was nearly full.
“Good haul! You collected quite a number.”
Lin Xiuqing smiled faintly. “It’s alright. It’s a pity the tide is coming in; we’ll have to wait for the tide to go out at night and can only come back tomorrow.”
She glanced at his rolled-up pant legs and then towards the rocks. “Did you dig these out by going out to the water?”
Was he really being meticulous? Had he diligently dug for so long? No wonder they hadn’t seen him around; he had gone out past the tide line.
“These sea clams and spicy snails are still a bit small,” she remarked while sifting through the basket.
“I’ve already dug up everything I could. The sea clams are decent; they’ll open up on their own when cooked. Though they may be smaller, I think they will have plenty of meat. The snails are a bit small, but we can take them home, split them up, and let the kids smash them with stones to steam with some scallions.”
“What? Scallions? You’re cooking snails with oil? Just boil them in water and eat the meat. Where did you learn that? You don’t need oil to prepare snails!”
Lin Xiuqing frowned, looking at him in disbelief.
It’s true that you don’t realize the worth of things until you’re in charge of buying groceries!
“Uh… haha… I heard it somewhere. Let’s just blanch them instead,” Ye Yaodong chuckled awkwardly.
He had habitually brought in cooking methods from later times, momentarily forgetting they were using lard now, which was less suited for such cooking.
Fresh seafood was best when briefly boiled.
Their family now preferred simple cooking to avoid wasting money on seasonings.
Lin Xiuqing looked at him with a puzzled expression and then squatted down again. “Mother hasn’t come yet, so I’ll dig for a bit longer. You should take our son up to wait on the shore.”
“Alright!”
That was good; he didn’t want to dig anymore! His feet were uncomfortable from being in the water for too long.
Ye Chengyang had buried both his feet in the sand, laughing giddily.
Ye Yaodong picked up the boy, tucking him under his arm, and took his catch back to the shore.
As soon as the child was wedged under his arm, he began to wail and squirm, shouting, “Want to play, want to play, no, go home!”
“It’s tidal now; everyone needs to go home!”
“No, no, Yangyang wants to play!”
“We’ll come back next time. There’s corn at home; don’t you want to eat? If we go back late, your brothers and sisters will eat it all.”
Mentioning food made the child stop struggling and say, “Want to eat, Yangyang wants to eat!”
Once ashore, Ye Yaodong set him down on a rock at the edge of the shore. “Sit nice and wait for your mother to finish before going home together.”
“Hungry…”
“Why didn’t you say you were hungry when you were playing? Just wait here!”
Ye Yaodong was used to his two sons’ complaints and occasional sass after so many years.
Now, seeing this small child, so innocently pouting and on the verge of tears, felt strange, a stark contrast that he didn’t know how to respond to...
Ye Chengyang pouted, looking somewhat wronged, almost crying.
This sight was just then spotted by Ye mother, who was walking by, and the brothers Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua, who were docking their boat.
Ye mother instantly felt sympathy. “What’s wrong, Yangyang? Who bullied you? Tell Grandma, and Grandma will beat him!”
Having someone to back him up, Ye Chengyang immediately opened his mouth and howled, “Dad, it’s Dad!”
Ye mother pretended to hit Ye Yaodong. “Grandma already hit your dad for you. Be good and stop crying.”
At once, Ye Chengyang closed his mouth and stopped crying, with only the glimmer of tears on his eyelashes showing he had cried before.
Ye Yaodong couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth!
Little rascal!
No wonder he was so unappealing when he grew up!
“Grandma, hungry, corn!”
“Okay, okay, we’ll go home and cook soon.”
After calming her grandson, Ye mother called out to her daughters-in-law on the beach: “Time to go home! Stop digging, it’s getting late and time for dinner.”
The three daughters-in-law were also feeling hungry, and upon hearing their mother-in-law calling them, they each grabbed their baskets and water buckets and made their way up the shore.
The tide was rapidly coming in anyway.
(End of Chapter)