Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes.
It was right in front of her, yet his mother still had to ask all these questions, as if she didn't believe him.
"Mother, you saw it all. What are you asking for? It's obvious!"
"When did you go out to sea? Why didn't you tell me in advance? Which boat did you take?"
"I said at noon that I was going out and asked Ah Qing to cook some noodles for me. After I ate, I left. The boat is rented."
"It’s only been a few hours, and you already…"
"Ai ya, let’s talk later. There’s no time now; we still have fish on the boat. Let’s weigh them first, and then I’ll tell you."
He furrowed his brows and interrupted his mother’s questions.
Now was not the time to go into detail; getting the fish off the boat was the priority.
The nosy villagers watched with wide eyes, "Is there more? You haven’t finished moving everything?"
"Tsk tsk tsk—Old Ye’s family is getting rich! How come your luck is so good lately? Did you pray to Ma Zu?"
Ye's mother smiled at the gathering crowd, "Of course! A few days ago was the first time out to sea. We had to properly pray to the goddess Ma Zu and ask her to bless our family to sail smoothly."
"Looks like good luck is here; it can't be stopped. Even Ah Dong has managed to catch so many mackerel—truly impressive."
"Ai ya, Ah Dong usually seems so lazy; I didn’t expect him to be so capable when he put his mind to it. He actually caught a whole school of mackerel, and it looks like there's a lot!"
"Yeah, there must be thousands of pounds! Each fish is this big…"
Under the envious gazes of everyone, Ye Yaodong and the others finally moved all the mackerel off the boat.
Everyone was exhausted and sweating profusely, their shirts soaked through.
Ye Yaodong handed a bucket to his mother.
"This is for you. Two mackerel and some seafood. You can make fish balls with the mackerel tonight."
"Why are you leaving this behind? These two can sell for quite a bit! We can just eat the other fish…"
Having lived through hard times, she found it difficult to part with anything valuable.
"Ai ya, after putting in so much effort to catch these, I should treat myself! Besides, we have so many already; what’s two more? You take them home and make fish balls—I want to eat!"
"All you think about is eating! You already have the money, and you’re thinking of spending it even before we earn it. Each of these could sell for a dollar…"
Lin Xiuqing interrupted Ye’s mother’s nagging, "Mother, it doesn’t really matter. Dongzi’s other friends have probably left some too. Let’s take them back and make fish balls. The kids haven’t had them in a long time."
Hearing this, Ye’s mother stopped arguing.
Everyone was leaving some, so how could she go back empty-handed?
A Cai smiled broadly, looking at them.
"Are you all done? Weighing time now, right?"
"First, let’s set the price. If it’s too low, we won’t sell to you. We’ll just use a tractor to take them to the fish market!" Ye Yaodong wasn’t foolish; he had a lot of fish.
With a little effort, he could make a good profit!
"Two dimes is fair. I can only give you one dime at most on my end because of the yellow fish your father caught the other day. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to eat much of this mackerel. There’s really not much profit; everyone has to earn a living. You need to leave some space for others to profit too."
The reasoning made sense.
Business was about making a living, and in the end, everyone needed a chance to earn.
A Zheng playfully put his arm around A Cai's shoulder.
"Cai Ge has wide connections; it’s much easier for you to earn than for the rest of us who have to work hard. Just add a few cents for us."
"You guys find it hard? I heard you were back after just a few hours. Is there anyone more comfortable than you?"
Xiao Xiao, feeling impatient, exclaimed, "Oh come on! How many hours we spent is none of your business. Just tell us if you’re adding money or not!"
Ye's mother chimed in, "Yes, yes! Just add a little. With all this mackerel, even if you earn just a penny a pound, you’d make a good sum."
A Cai hesitated for a moment, grinding his teeth.
"I can give you one penny more at most, but that’s already from my own profit."
A Guang frowned, "That’s too stingy! Just one penny more?"
"Really, that’s not too bad!"
"Let’s say two dimes and two cents?"
"Normally, there’s no haggling; it’s a fixed price. I’m only giving you one penny more since you have so much fish. If you went to the fish market, you wouldn’t get two dimes and one cent, especially considering the transport fees. If you don’t sell to me, I won’t lend you my basket. How will you pack those fish?"
"Alright, alright, two dimes and one cent it is. Let’s save ourselves the trouble."
At the market, they usually didn’t haggle with prices.
The attitude was always take it or leave it.
Ye Yaodong didn’t want to make things complicated.
Besides, this mackerel wasn’t very valuable, and there wasn’t much room for profit either.
For the current situation, two dimes and one cent were already decent.
"Alright then, since Dongzi agrees, let’s go ahead and weigh them."
"Good, good. You write it down on the paper."
With the excited gazes of the crowd upon them, they weighed all the mackerel.
"How many pounds?"
"Where’s the abacus? With so many numbers, we can’t figure it out. Cai Ge, use the abacus to calculate."
None of them knew how to use an abacus...
Ye Yaodong, on the other hand, knew how to use a calculator, but there wasn’t one available now.
Everyone used the abacus.
Everyone patiently watched as A Cai clicked the abacus, sounding out the familiar clicks.
"Alright, the total is 7628 pounds. At two dimes and one cent a pound, that makes it a total of 1601 dollars and 88 cents."
The gathered villagers erupted in excitement.
"Wow—1600! That’s more than the big yellow fish we sold a few days ago."
"That can’t be compared. How many pounds was the yellow fish? This mackerel is how much? We all know yellow fish is valuable; if this were yellow fish, that would be amazing."
"Who doesn’t know yellow fish is valuable? But luck also plays a part. To catch so many mackerel is impressive."
"With this much money, each person could get around 400 dollars. You’re matching someone’s net haul for months."
"That could be equal to four months' worth of work for a laborer!"
"Why is the Ye family so lucky lately?"
"I'm going to pray to Ma Zu tomorrow…"
...
In contrast to the crowd's excitement, Ye Yaodong felt confused.
How could it only be 1600? He thought he could sell it for several thousand!
Not sure if he hadn’t adjusted to the price from the last generation, he thought 1600 was far too little...
"Are you sure your calculations are correct?"
A Cai rolled his eyes, "You doubt my calculations? Why don’t you try?"
"I can’t do it…"
"I’ll do it!"
At this moment, Lin Xiuqing stepped forward.
She had finished middle school and knew how to read; she had also learned to use the abacus, though she wasn’t very skilled.
She slowly manipulated the abacus, afraid of making a mistake.
Ye Yaodong didn’t dare disturb her and did the calculations in his head.
Still, he felt like she wasn't wrong.
A laborer’s daily wage was only a little over a dollar; 1600 dollars was equivalent to almost three years of their salaries.
That didn’t seem so little.
(End of Chapter)