After chatting with everyone for a while, Ye Yaodong finally got up with a pat on his back as it approached four o'clock.
"I'm heading to the dock to help pick up goods. You all can handle the seafood. Once I'm done sorting, I'll come back."
Ah Guang looked at him in surprise.
"You really are responsible now?"
"Get lost!"
Ye Yaodong quickly took large strides and headed towards the dock.
By this time, the tide had risen on the shore, and the fishing boats were likely nearing the dock.
When he arrived at the dock, he noticed quite a few villagers were already gathered there, waiting for the returning boats to help sort the catch.
His mother, Ye Mu, was also waiting at the dock.
Upon seeing her son approach, she finally felt relieved.
She had been waiting for quite a while and had not seen him, worrying that this brat would only listen to the wind.
However, she noticed he seemed to have gained a little sense these past few days.
Ye Yaodong greeted her with a smile, "Mother, why are you here too?"
"Isn’t it because I'm worried about you? What if you don’t listen or forget something? Your father and elder brother can't do everything alone, can they?"
"Why don’t you trust me?"
"Do you deserve my trust?"
Nearby, the villagers laughed as one said, "Ah Dong is helping out today too?"
"That's how it should be. There's plenty to do at home, and young people should pitch in and be a bit proactive."
He replied absent-mindedly while keeping his eyes on the ships at sea.
There weren’t many families in their village with boats.
Aside from a few moored at the dock, most had gone out.
The ship coming back should be his father's, right?
"Dongzi, isn’t that your father's boat?"
"Looks like it. Let’s wait and see; it will dock soon."
As the small boat approached, its speed gradually slowed, revealing the blue paint on its body, confirming it was indeed their family’s boat.
Ye Yaodong and Ye Mu hurried down the stone steps, preparing to receive the goods.
On the boat, Ye Father noticed that his youngest son had come to the dock to help for once, but he didn’t say much.
After docking the boat, he and Ye Yaopeng started passing the goods to them to take ashore.
The first item they unloaded was a basket of mud crabs, followed by another basket of mantis shrimp.
Other than that, there were only a few pounds of scattered fish.
There were a couple of large shrimp, estimated to weigh two or three pounds; small shrimp were worth little but had more than ten pounds; and there were two pounds of small squid.
The waterfish varied in size, requiring sorting, and there seemed to be about ten pounds, along with four or five pounds of small yellow croaker.
The rest were some insignificant small fish.
Today, there wasn’t a large haul, but the catch looked quite decent!
Once everything was unloaded, Ye Father moved the boat aside to free up the docking space for the next boat that would come in.
Ye Yaodong and the others carried the goods into the purchasing point.
The mud crabs varied in size, and thus had different prices, so they needed to be sorted.
They would also need to use rubber bands to tie the crab legs together.
While Ye Father and Ye Yaopeng were on the boat, they made use of their spare time to tie up most of the crabs, but some still needed to be done.
Once the crabs were dumped out, their legs started to shake wildly, alive and feisty, making them look especially fresh.
He casually grabbed a few, feeling their hard backs, "They’re quite plump, even the small ones are tough with a lot of meat."
"Recently, crabs have been quite fat; even the mantis shrimp are full of meat, some even have red roe."
The three of them swiftly tied up the crab legs and sorted them by size.
Ye Mu and Ye Yaopeng were surprised at how quickly Ye Yaodong worked.
When did he ever do this kind of work? He was tying them so neatly, and his speed was not slower than theirs!
"Third brother, you’re fast! Who knew?"
"Come on, what’s the big deal? Just because you haven’t seen me do it, doesn’t mean I can’t!"
"You little rascal, you don’t help at home but go out to help others? Why are you always so unreliable..."
Listening to his mother's ramblings, he didn’t argue back; sigh, it was something he had to bear.
After sorting the crabs, they dumped out a small basket of mantis shrimp.
Sorting the mantis shrimp was much easier; they just needed to separate them by size.
The sword shrimp and waterfish were the same; they all needed sorting by size.
The larger ones could be sold for a better price, while the smaller ones were not worth much.
They put the small, insignificant fish and shrimp in a separate water bucket, including some small eels and miscellaneous fish, to take back and dry.
Once all the goods had been weighed, Ye Father went to calculate the accounts, and they began taking the seafood home.
"Mother, how much do you think we can sell these goods for? The crabs must weigh over thirty pounds in total, the mantis shrimp over twenty pounds, and we have plenty of other fish too—it looks quite good."
"We had a good catch today. The big crabs fetch thirty cents, the smaller ones twenty cents, the large mantis shrimp are thirty-five cents, the smaller ones twenty-six cents, and the shrimp are more expensive at fifty cents. Adding in the other odds and ends, we should make about thirty bucks. But we have to deduct two bucks for diesel costs, and the machinery isn’t cheap; it often breaks and needs repair."
"That’s still pretty good. We can save a decent amount each month!"
Ye Mu gave him a sideways glance, "You think you can just go every day and earn this much? We’re at the mercy of nature; who knows what we’ll catch? Just yesterday, some people only sold for a small sum."
"Still better than working odd jobs."
Ye Yaopeng sincerely proposed again, "Third brother, why don’t you join us and take turns going out to sea? We should learn from Father."
"Huh? You and Second Brother learn first; once you know, I'll learn!"
Hearing his refusal, Ye Mu opened her mouth to scold him but forcibly held back.
Since he had performed reasonably well today, she would let it slide for the time being.
Once they split the family, she would definitely have him go out to sea with them.
The money earned now could be counted as communal funds for building a house.
After they split, wouldn’t the eldest and second son go out to sea and take the earnings? The third son would just lounge around, waiting to either starve or rely on them; how could that be right?
In other families, they raise sons to defend against old age; they just had a little ancestor!
Ye Yaodong was unaware of his mother’s grievances.
As soon as they reached their home, he slipped away, leaving behind a note that he wouldn’t be having dinner at home since he had already helped out with work today.
Ye Mu felt helpless yet thought it was normal for the third son to behave this way.
Today he had gone to the homestead, scoured the beach, and helped at the dock so diligently that she hardly recognized him.
Sister-in-law Ye Er rolled her eyes, “He’s finally looking responsible, and now he’s off again!”
"Let him be; it’s good enough that he can help with some work. You two, take some fish and shrimp to your maternal family, and the rest we’ll process—big ones for braising and smaller ones to dry. Even for the small shrimp, we’ll boil a bowl, and the rest we'll shell and dry for shrimp paste; with this weather, they won’t last until tomorrow."
The three daughters-in-law nodded in agreement.
Lin Xiuqing’s maternal family was far away, and she didn’t have the chance to send fish home.
She could only watch her two sisters-in-law take the fish back while she stayed behind to gut the fish.
After the two left, Ye Mu turned to Lin Xiuqing, "You should think about when to go back to your family; I’ll save some good goods for you to take back."
"Okay, Mother, no rush. I'm waiting until the Mid-Autumn Festival to go back."
…
As for her three sons, Ye Mu always tried her best to treat them equally.
Note on Prices:
I recently asked my father about the seafood prices in the 80s.
My grandparents used to purchase seafood for sale back then, and my father was around eighteen at that time, often following them to nearby ports to wholesale seafood, so he knows a bit about the prices.
The only discrepancy is with the yellow croaker, which was not as valuable back then.
A one to two-pound wild yellow croaker, my father said, sold for only six cents a pound.
At that time, a day’s wages for skilled workers was over two bucks, while an inexperienced worker earned just over a buck.
Even with those prices, most people wouldn’t spare the money for yellow croaker; only the wealthy could afford it.
Seafood typically went for a few cents a pound, but most people wouldn’t buy it since wages were only one or two bucks a day.
Even the dragon-head fish (tofu fish) was just six cents a pound.
The starting price of yellow croaker mentioned in this book is somewhat inflated.
It’s designed for narrative purposes, so please enjoy the story without overanalyzing historical prices.
Only the price of yellow croaker is expected to remain higher.
The price of mantis shrimp has also been revised, and I’ll make sure to ask for accurate prices in the future.
Just a little side note to explain the situation.
My family is unaware that I’m writing a novel, and it feels embarrassing to ask my father, who now constantly questions me about my work (awkward)…
Let’s take this opportunity to request some support, suggestions for collection and following my work, and tips would be even better! During the initial release, there’s no payment until it’s officially published, and I’m purely doing this for love!
Thank you, everyone, for your support! Bow deeply!
(End of Chapter)