Not long after, Ye Yaodong had already found five stone crabs, six or seven sword prawns, and a few jumping fish.
The best find was a big nine-segment shrimp.
He continued wandering around the shallow waters when suddenly he exclaimed, "Ah, snow frogs! Wow, there's a whole nest!"
In this era, few people wore glasses, and especially for someone like him who couldn't read, his eyesight was quite sharp.
From a distance, he could already spot a few snow frogs with their mouths open and antennae visible on the sandy surface.
He quickly jogged a couple of steps closer.
"It truly is a nest!"
"What nest?" Xiao Xiao, who was not far away, heard his excited voice and turned her head to ask.
"Snow frogs! I've found a whole nest of them, and they're all out playing," Ye Yaodong said as he bent down to pick one up.
Just as he grabbed it, the frog’s mouth snapped tightly shut.
He weighed it in his hand, a big grin spreading across his face.
"Not bad at all! It's a big haul! A big haul!"
With a thud, he tossed it into his bucket!
Xiao Xiao curiously ran over to take a look.
"Wow, what luck you have! You found such a big snow frog, and a whole nest too..."
Azheng also came over to sneak a glance.
"Damn, what kind of lucky charm did you step on? You've already got so many stone crabs in your bucket! Look at mine, just two sword prawns and two jumping fish—nothing else!"
"Same here! I have even less, just two jumping fish," Chen Wei said from a distance, shaking his bucket lightly.
"It's your bad luck!" Ye Yaodong happily gathered all the snow frogs together and tossed them into the bucket.
Hearing the thud-thud-thud of frogs dropping into the bucket, everyone else watched with envy and jealousy.
"How many are in there? And they're all big ones! They must taste amazing!"
He shook the bucket, estimating by their size.
There was definitely more than a pound.
"I forgot to count; it seems there are about eighteen or nineteen. At least over a pound!"
"Damn luck! Go on, find your own spot! I still have an empty bucket over here!" A Guang, filled with envy and jealousy, waved his long hook to shoo Ye Yaodong away, ready to claim the area where he found the frogs.
Ye Yaodong stepped to the side with a laugh.
"Ha ha! I was wondering why you weren't speaking up. Turns out your bucket is empty, and you can’t speak with confidence!"
"Get lost, get lost—I've claimed this area! You go find somewhere else, let me get some lucky finds too!"
"I think your bad luck is because your dad didn’t give you a good name. Pei Guang, which means losing light—doesn’t that mean empty and unlucky? Don’t you notice you lose more when you play cards? You only won once yesterday, and for these past years, nothing you’ve done has gone smoothly."
He spoke rather earnestly, as A Guang's luck had indeed always been poor.
When he went to Zhoushan, they occasionally exchanged phone calls, and all he heard were stories of A Guang losing money no matter what he did.
By the time he was in his forties, someone reminded him to change his name, hoping it’d turn his luck around.
Unexpectedly, after he changed his name, everything he tried went smoothly.
Within a few years, he had cleared his debts and could even buy a house for his son’s wedding.
Ye Yaodong felt he needed to give A Guang a gentle nudge.
Better to believe than to not believe; folks in the countryside were rather superstitious in this era.
A Guang touched his chin.
"I think my name isn’t very good either!"
"Why not let your dad change it for you to A Wang? Ha ha ha!"
"Ha ha—that’s a good idea! That name’s nice!"
"No way! If you’re called A Wang and start winning in cards all the time, how will I survive? I’d lose all my money."
"Right, right! Can't be called A Wang, too lucky! Let’s change it to something that won’t make me lose all my money!"
Everyone laughed heartily, teasing him back and forth.
"Scram, go do your work!" A Guang shot a disdainful glance at his friends.
"Or you could change your name to Pei Shun! Everything goes smoothly, great fortune!" Ye Yaodong cheerfully walked to the spot where he had found the frogs, as he himself had once been named Pei Shun in his past life.
"Hey, Pei Shun isn’t bad! It sounds good and has a great meaning!" A Guang showed some interest.
"Naming truly is a profound study. I heard it relates to a person’s fate and luck. Nowadays, aren’t fortune-tellers calculating children’s birth charts based on the I Ching? I have a copy of the 'I Ching' at home; should I bring it back for you to look at? Better to believe than to not believe."
A Guang looked at Azheng in amazement.
"What’s 'I Ching'? You have that? Are you planning to self-study to become a fortune-teller?"
"Pfft! I just stumbled upon it at home, along with a pressure-point manual that might be from my ancestors! Do you guys want to try? It’s a family treasure, you might even become a martial arts master!"
"Wow, so your ancestors might not only be fortune-tellers, but could also be heroes of the martial world. Do you have the Sunflower Manual or the Evil-Repelling Sword Art?"
"Do you want to learn? I can recite it for you—if you want to practice, you must first become a eunuch. I don’t mind helping you with that! Use a dull hatchet? It’ll keep your little bird hanging around a bit longer."
"What little bird? You’re the one who would be a eunuch! Mine is a big bird!"
As they humorously bantered, Ye Yaodong suddenly noticed a fish tail with black-gray spots sticking out from beneath a big rock.
He interrupted their chatter excitedly.
"Wow, come quick! Is that a grouper tail sticking out from under this big rock?"
"Where? Where?" A Guang, thrilled, directly ran over and crouched to peek under the rock.
"Wow! It’s a tiger grouper! I just walked around this rock and didn’t see it at all!"
"I told you, your luck's just poor. Step aside, let me poke it with the fire tongs to see if we can get it to swim out. It’s impossible to grab it hiding under the rock."
Ye Yaodong was bursting with excitement; a tiger grouper was a big prize!
Others gathered around, unable to hold back their complaints, "Why is it that every good catch goes to you? A Guang just scoured this area for ages and found nothing!"
"Maybe my luck has finally turned?"
Or perhaps it's the law of opposites? Being so unlucky before, now reborn, with bad luck fading away, good fortune could come rushing in?
A Wei patted A Guang on the shoulder.
"When your dad comes back, hurry and change your name!"
A Guang felt just as frustrated.
He had indeed just searched around that big rock thinking there should be something there, yet he saw nothing.
Hearing Ye Yaodong shout about finding a nest of snow frogs, he hurried off eagerly.
It truly was pathetic luck; he had looked for so long without seeing anything, and the moment Ye Yaodong arrived, he discovered a grouper—how infuriating!
(End of Chapter)