In a previous life, I spent all my time having fun with friends and never paid much attention to what was happening at home.
I'd wake up and rush out to hang out with them, only returning home drunk and dazed after dinner.
The only thing I remembered was catching a big yellow croaker, but as for the price, I simply couldn't recall and just went to sleep.
At this moment, yellow croaker was indeed a rare catch, but for ordinary folks, it wasn't prohibitively expensive—just a little more expensive than regular fish.
It was nothing compared to later times when its price skyrocketed.
In 2022, wild yellow croaker weighed about one pound and was sold for around 600 yuan per pound.
A croaker weighing one pound and three ounces might go for about 800 yuan, while one weighing one pound and eight ounces would cost over 1,000 yuan.
If you caught one around two pounds, the price would likely be between 1,500 and 1,600 yuan per pound.
For those over two pounds, they usually fetched over 3,000 yuan each.
This was the direct price from the fresh fish boats before they even reached the dock; once they came to port, the price for one to two-pound croakers would double! And if there were a large quantity, prices could fluctuate as well.
Even though I’d become a bit aimless, I was still a local fisherman and could recognize quality fish.
Thinking about it, I couldn’t help but slap my thigh.
Damn it, how nice it would have been if I had brought in that catch decades later! The losses would stack up to millions!
The whole Ye family furrowed their brows, watching me slap my thigh in regret.
What's this third brother up to again?
Mother Ye frowned and couldn't help but ask, “What on earth are you doing, third brother? Why are you slapping your thigh so hard? Did you take something wrong?”
“Mother, how much did we sell that catch of yellow croaker for yesterday? I didn’t hear clearly before I went to sleep.”
Mother Ye exchanged a glance with Father Ye.
Everyone in the family knew the details, and if she didn’t say it, the third brother’s wife would definitely tell him when she got home, so she said directly, “1,200 yuan! They bought it at five yuan per pound, and since there was a slight difference in weight, that boss generously rounded it up.”
They were taken for a ride and still praised the boss for being generous!
Ye Yadong pounded his chest, “Mother, don’t you realize? You all sold it at a loss! What a huge loss!”
Everyone, young and old, frowned and exchanged worried glances.
The eldest brother couldn’t stop himself from asking urgently, “How do you know we sold it at a loss, third brother?”
“I hang out outside every day; can I not know how precious yellow croaker is?”
It was true.
Despite the third brother being a bit of a rogue, he had the most knowledge in the family.
Spending all day wandering around the city, mingling with all kinds of people, how could he not be informed?
Mother Ye’s heart sank as she asked, “What were the outside prices, then? Fish in our village usually goes to the dock for sale, and just because we had a big catch yesterday, the dock directly contacted a boss to come collect it.”
“If you had packed ice and contacted a tractor to take it to the county seat, you could have sold it for double!”
Ye Yadong felt a crushing pain.
Double the price! In later years, over two hundred pounds would be worth millions!
Upon hearing this, everyone felt regretted; they had been too hasty…
Doubling the price…
That would be a direct loss of 1,200 yuan! Heart-wrenching…
Father Ye felt his heart bleed; his hand holding the water pipe trembled.
1,200 yuan…
Nowadays, ordinary workers only earned about forty to fifty yuan a month; it was enough to make someone furious!
Father Ye's chest rose and fell with anger as he lashed out, “You rogue! Spending all day wandering around and not doing proper work! If you had gone to sea with us, we wouldn’t have had to sell it at five yuan per pound!”
“What does that have to do with me? How was I to know you could catch yellow croakers? If I had known, I’d have gone to the dock early to wait! No, I’d have found a rich boss to wait at the dock!”
It was truly infuriating; over two hundred pounds of wild yellow croaker! If only I had died earlier, perhaps I would have been reborn sooner.
Ah, curses… am I cursing myself here?
With his chest heaving, Father Ye groaned in the end, “Alright, it’s already sold. There’s no point in regretting now. Perhaps our family’s financial fortune is just this limited for now. Next time we catch more, we’ll know better and not be so rash.”
Yes, it was already sold, and regretting wouldn’t change anything now.
The good mood of the family was completely crushed by Ye Yadong’s words.
Originally, Uncle Ye and Second Uncle Ye had come by to share in the fortune but were only slightly annoyed; their mood was still good.
Now…
Sigh…
How regrettable it was; we could have sold it for more.
After a moment of heartache, the family accepted it with calmness, knowing they had made a profit after all.
However, it was Ye Yadong who felt the most miserable, “Dad, do you think yellow croaker is like cabbage? Just wait for next time to catch some more and learn from our mistakes….”
“Do you not know that yellow croaker has drastically declined in numbers after being caught with the gǔ (cast net)? They’re almost invisible now!”
“Back in 1954, the gǔ method was introduced from Guangdong to Fujian. It was an extremely efficient fishing method with a high yield and quickly got popularized; a lot of yellow croaker was caught in the oceans….”
“In 1974, there was a massive overfishing incident in Zhejiang Province that nearly wiped out the yellow croaker. In recent years, wild yellow croaker has been hard to come by in the market….”
“Dad, do you think you’ll ever have this kind of luck again in your lifetime?”
That would be harder than winning the lottery!
The only boat left to me by my grandfather was merely a small boat of ten-plus meters, capable of fishing only close to shore.
The fact that I caught this one haul of yellow croaker truly felt like a blessing from the heavens.
Hearing him go on about this, the family listened in astonishment, taken aback by his fervor.
When did the third brother become so knowledgeable?
While only Father Ye had heard of the gǔ method, they didn’t own a large boat to go out to sea.
They only survived day by day mending nets and doing manual labor, so they never paid attention to fishing methods.
With scarce information available back then, even the eldest and the second brother hadn’t heard of it.
Now here was third brother, explaining it so confidently, making their parents and siblings look at him differently.
Perhaps… the third brother wasn’t as useless as they thought?
Lin Xiqing stared in surprise.
It was the first time she noticed her husband when he spoke seriously; he looked… rather impressive?
The light in his eyes when he spoke about things he knew was radiating confidence.
Or maybe her husband wasn’t so useless after all?
Father Ye stopped regarding his third son with disdain and curiously asked, “How do you know about the gǔ method? How do you know about the events from 1954 to 1974?”
Father Ye had only heard of the gǔ method and didn’t know about the significant events that occurred between 1954 and 1974. After all, there was little information circulating back then.
Ye Yadong had actually learned about these events when he was out on a big ship in the future as the crew talked about it.
Otherwise, given his lazy lifestyle in his past life, he wouldn’t have bothered to pay attention to such things.
But he couldn’t let that slip now.
Seeing the expressions on their faces, he realized he was regaining a bit of his image.
That couldn’t be a bad thing, making him straighten his back a little.
Having been aimless for half his life, in the last few years, he had finally matured and taken on some responsibility.
If he got another chance, he didn’t want to be useless again.
While he still had little ability, at least he could do some work, go fishing, and with a little bit of effort, he could probably support a wife and kids.
He never wanted to rely on his spouse to sustain him again.
But change takes time; otherwise, he feared he would end up possessed by a ghost.
The price of yellow croaker had risen compared to when it was first sold.
A brief explanation will be provided at the end of Chapter 33.
(End of Chapter)