Ye Ersao was silenced by Ye Father’s words, and Ye Yaohua shot her a glare.
Reluctantly, she stopped arguing.
Deep down, she felt that her husband worked a lot, while Ye Yaodong simply enjoyed the fruits of their labor without lifting a finger.
For a long time, she had been unhappy about it.
Now that their family earnings from fishing at sea had been seized, Ye Yaodong had gone off on his own to earn money, keeping it all for himself.
No matter how she thought of it, it didn’t sit well with her.
She felt that she had done more than her fair share.
Seeing that his daughter-in-law had quieted down, Ye Father turned to Ye Yaodong, glaring at him. “Did you hear that? Stop going off to fool around! We’re in the middle of a big project building a house. You need to come help with the land clearing every day. If I come back and find out you’ve run off again, I’ll break your legs!”
“Got it, got it, you’re always so naggy,” Ye Yaodong replied, clearly annoyed.
“I’m saying this for your own good! You’re in your twenties, not a child anymore. You have to help out around the house. You’ve got a wife and kids now, so you should take some responsibility...” Ye Mother couldn’t help but start to nag again.
Ye Yaodong felt a headache coming on.
Sure, he had been helping out ever since he returned, but his parents still viewed him as they did in the past, forgetting that he had changed.
It was normal for him to hang out with friends, right? He couldn’t just cut ties with everyone after coming back.
Besides, his friends were good people, brave and loyal.
He couldn’t say much more, only intending to show them gradually.
“Okay, okay... I know, I’ll work hard. Mom, can you just hurry up with dinner? Dad’s going to starve!”
“You little brat! You’re the one who will starve! Can’t you say anything better?” Ye Father snapped back.
“Ah… right… it’s me who will starve, I’ll starve... You guys eat, I’m leaving!” Ye Yaodong called out as he stepped outside, his voice growing dimmer as he went, only to be met with Ye Father’s complaints about how unmanageable Ye Yaodong was…
The smile he had worn when he first entered was long gone, as if it had been a shared illusion.
Though Ye Yaodong enjoyed hanging out with his friends, he knew to be mindful.
After eating enough, he noticed the sky turning dark and decided to leave early to head home.
“Did you smoke and drink again?” someone asked him.
“Does it smell that bad? I only had a couple of drinks.”
Lifting his arm to sniff, Ye Yaodong found the smell of smoke quite strong, and even his fingers reeked of seafood, having not washed them yet.
“I’ll go wash up.”
After cleaning himself again, he entered the house.
Lin Xiuqing eagerly asked, “Can we still rent the boat tomorrow?”
“We can, but it’ll cost more. The old lady from Ah Guang’s family found out we used her fishing net today to catch more than seven thousand pounds of mackerel, and she went straight to Ah Guang’s house this afternoon to ask for extra money.”
She frowned. “How could this happen? How much more do we need to pay?”
“Ah Guang said his aunt and uncle are quite easy to deal with, but the old lady is a bit tough. She said we can rent it for tomorrow, but it’ll cost five more dollars. Over two days, that’s ten dollars. We need to pay her eight bucks or she won’t rent it to us.”
She sat up in surprise. “Ah! Five dollars? Why don’t we just rob them? Other families go out for a day and only earn a few coins, even counting the fuel expenses. Renting for a month would be a hundred fifty bucks! What do those workers even earn in a month? They’re doing nothing and still making money.”
“Moreover, you’re just going out to sift for seafood. Today was luck since we happened to stumble upon a school of mackerel. It’s crazy to spend five bucks renting a boat. Fuel costs a few coins per unit and it adds up.”
He didn’t want to tell her that he rented the boat because he was confronting his own fears.
Who in their right mind would spend money to rent a boat only to be unlucky and not even cover the boat and fuel costs?
People in this era were very frugal; they wouldn’t waste money even on vegetables.
“Shh…” Ye Yaodong noticed the two kids were disturbed and rolled over, now lying awkwardly.
He whispered, “We definitely owe them. We only mentioned renting the boat, not the net. The old lady is very tough, and it’s hard to argue with the elderly. Anyway, we made a good profit today; we can just take it from the money we earned and divide it among ourselves.”
Having already tasted sweetness, everyone was excited to go again tomorrow.
Even Chen Wei and Fatty insisted on joining them.
They were all friends, so refusing would be awkward.
“More people are going tomorrow?” Lin Xiuqing’s focus shifted immediately, frowning tighter.
In terms of money, they could temporarily set that aside because they had made 1600 bucks, and even spending ten bucks wouldn’t hurt.
But with more people, what if there was a bigger haul? The profit would be split even thinner.
“Ah, they heard we caught over seven thousand pounds of mackerel today, and now they regret not going with us. They definitely want to join us tomorrow.”
Truthfully, they weren’t too pleased about sharing the profits, but they had been friends for many years, and it felt wrong to refuse.
Besides, luck had favored them today; it wouldn’t happen every day.
Since everyone wanted to go, they could only take them along.
They couldn’t fall out over uncertain matters.
If only they had their own boat.
“How could they be so shameless? As soon as they learn you’re making money, they come running to share the spoils…”
“Ah, stop talking! If they want to come, let them. Who knows where we can find valuable seafood nearby? We’ll have to go further out to sea. With this many people, they probably won’t even cover the boat and fuel costs, but we might manage to catch something. Let's just go take a look at the isolated island and see if we can come across something big again.”
However, chances like this were rare and hard to come by.
He wasn’t too hopeful, just hoping they’d find something worthwhile.
“You men are always like this, getting all sentimental about friendship and loyalty…”
Women can talk too much.
They worry about things that haven’t even happened yet.
He didn’t have a golden finger; if he did, he’d secretly go make money by himself, becoming rich quietly and not telling anyone else.
Seeing his wife was going on and on, Ye Yaodong decided to silence her with action.
“Don’t come. You were weak just yesterday…”
“Hey, who are you looking down on?”
Youth is an advantage, and a man’s pride doesn’t allow him to back down!
Even though the tide would only recede in the afternoon, and they had rented an expensive boat, everyone was still eager.
They couldn’t waste time like yesterday waiting for the tide to drop in the afternoon.
One early morning, Ye Yaodong had just gotten out of bed, and everyone had already gathered at his house to wait.
Amidst everyone’s urging, he just hastily gulped down some porridge, dumped in what was left over, and then took the tools Lin Xiuqing had prepared for him, heading off to the pier alongside his friends, excitement bubbling over.
Fatty was also very conscious and immediately went to buy diesel for the boat, even though he felt awkward about it; at least he could help share the fuel costs.
(The End of This Chapter)