"These aren't mine. I brought burlap sacks, and these two bags are mine, along with this little pile here. The others didn’t bring bags, so they just piled everything on the boat. Now, one by one, they're running back to get their bags."
After explaining, Ye Yaodong handed his mother a bamboo basket and a bucket.
"This is what I caught. You can take it to Ah Cai and see if he'll take the sea centipede. There are seven blue crabs in this bamboo basket too..."
Ye Mu was stunned by his haul.
"So many blue crabs! There’s so much to catch on the deserted island, and sea centipedes too? This bucket is heavy!"
Looking at the squirming sea centipede in the bucket, she didn’t feel disgusted at all.
Instead, she was quite pleased, her eyes sparkling.
Sea centipedes were precious, and they weren't found in the mudflats near their home.
"The deserted island hasn’t been touched. There are all sorts of things on the rocks. Look at these mussels, and the clams are huge. Others caught a few blue crabs too; it’s quite a catch. If I wasn’t worried there’d be too many shellfish and we couldn’t finish them, I could have dug up a bit more."
"That's enough. If we can't eat it all and it goes bad, that would be a waste. I'll take these to sell. Is there anything else?" Ye Mu asked, beaming, one hand holding the bucket and the other clutching the bamboo basket.
It was rare for her third son to be so dependable; she was even happier than if she had made the money herself.
Ye Yaodong kicked the small pile at his feet.
"There are some more that need sorting. Some of the snails are pretty big too, and they can be sold, plus there are Buddha's hands. Those mussels aren’t worth much; let’s leave them for the workers building the house."
"Alright then, I’ll take these to sell first, and I’ll sort the shellfish later."
Just as they spoke, the others arrived with burlap bags to load their catch, and Ye Fu’s fishing boat also came in.
Hearing Ye Mu mumble about the third son’s great haul today, particularly the half-bucket of sea centipedes and seven blue crabs he caught, and that he had sold for over ten coins while picking up two bags of shellfish, Ye Fu was much more pleasant.
The catch today wasn’t as much as yesterday; they had only sold around twenty coins in total.
For the third son to return with so much after just a morning, that was already quite good.
After the family helped to carry the shellfish home, Ye Mu immediately sorted out some mussels, ready to cook a pot of noodle soup to send to the workers as a snack.
She had meant to do it much earlier, but had gotten delayed by going to fetch Ye Fu and the others.
Ye Yaodong got home and gulped down half a pot of tea before finally sitting down to rest in the main room, waiting to eat.
Ye Fu, bare-chested and enjoying a few puffs from his treasured water pipe, finally asked Ye Yaodong, "Did the others catch a lot?"
"Not as much as me."
After a long day of work, he didn’t really want to talk much, just wishing to eat and rest well.
"There won’t be any tide tomorrow. We’ll wait until the fifteenth when there is tide again and see if we can rent another boat."
"That old lady wants too much; it’s hard to rent from her, and too expensive. Let’s talk about it then."
If worst came to worst, if they couldn’t even recoup their expenses, wouldn’t it all be for nothing?
Ye Fu nodded.
"We’ll see later. After dinner, you should go with your wife to Ah Cai’s house to collect the over a thousand coins from yesterday’s sale; we should split it fairly."
"Mm."
After Ye Mu sent some snacks over, Lin Xiuqing realized Ye Yaodong was back.
She hurriedly took the selling money that Ye Mu had slipped to her, disregarding the snacks, rushing home.
When she arrived home, Ye Yaodong had just finished his meal and put down his bowls.
"Have you had your snacks? Mother left some in the pot."
"Sure."
Ye Fu and Ye Yaohua had eaten their fill and headed toward the homestead, leaving just the couple at home to talk.
While eating, Lin Xiuqing asked, "There were a lot of people around just now. Mother didn’t say much but stealthily slipped a pile of cash to me, whispering that it was money from your sale."
"Mm..."
Ye Yaodong recounted his harvest from today and pointed to the back door, indicating there was another pile of shellfish.
"After you finish eating, sort through it to see if there's anything left to sell. Then, take it to Ah Cai and settle up the accounts from yesterday."
Lin Xiuqing nodded with a smile, nothing made her happier than seeing her husband earn money.
Watching her brightened demeanor these days, Ye Yaodong felt the little fatigue he held was worth it.
"It seems Mother also sold the three small white catfish; otherwise, we could have stewed some wine for you."
"What to eat? Anything that can be sold is definitely sold. Lately, Father has been dragging the net, and there’s a pile of small fish and shrimp left over. We have plenty to eat at home, plus you've dug up so many shellfish that we can’t finish."
"That’s not the same, though!"
She had suffered from colon cancer in her past life, which certainly had a lot to do with diet, and he always felt guilty about it.
Now that he’d returned, he wanted to give her better food.
"Alright, let’s talk about it after we split up."
Living under one roof, it wasn’t easy to take everything for oneself.
Plus, he had previously been useless, so if he cooked secretly, his two sisters-in-law would surely have something to say.
Lin Xiuqing quickly finished her meal, washed the dishes, and went to the backyard to sort through the shellfish, keeping everything she thought would sell well.
Big snails, pen shells, wild abalone, etc., were all collected separately, while the smaller, less valuable ones would be kept for their own meals.
Honestly, he had also chosen the bigger ones to dig, so now that a selection was made, not much remained.
Thankfully, she didn’t want mussels or clams, leaving two bags behind.
"Should we open up these oysters to sell?"
"Let’s skip it. There’s such a big bag; it’ll require your mother and the others to help open them, and you won’t finish on your own tonight. Better to keep them at home to eat together."
"Alright then!" Lin Xiuqing felt a little regretful; such a big bag of young clams could yield quite a few oysters.
Watching his wife’s greedy expression, Ye Yaodong smiled.
"Let's just grab yesterday's receipt. I’ll go call Ah Guang and the others; we’ll go to Ah Cai’s place together to settle the money."
"Good."
With a large sum of money tucked away from Ah Cai’s place, Ye Yaodong looked at the vast sea not far away, knowing it was a treasure trove for the whole village.
He heard that his grandfather wasn’t originally from the village but had come over during a famine, wandering in from elsewhere and eventually settling down in this village, living by the sea.
That sea had nourished so many people.
After retracting his gaze, he cheerfully said, "Let’s go! Time to split the spoils at Ah Guang’s place!"
Sixteen hundred and one coins and eight cents was quite a big sum for the people of today, equivalent to a worker’s two-year salary.
With four people sharing, after deducting boat rental and diesel costs, each would get nearly 397 coins.
"My wife has calculated it; each person gets around 397. Everyone can count their own money, and once you tally it up, we’ll see how much change is left to check if it’s correct!"
Ye Yaodong laid a pile of cash on the table for everyone to count.
The additional selling money had been separated by Lin Xiuqing, so it wasn’t included here.
Everyone happily counted their money, and once they had it all safely tucked away, there remained 1.88 coins on the table.
Ye Yaodong chuckled, asking, "There’s still over a coin! Do you want to split it or...?"
"No need to split anymore, right? A few cents each is pointless; let's buy some wine instead."
"Yeah, let’s buy wine! We’ve worked hard all day. Tonight, we should celebrate properly. We can enjoy the fresh catch as side dishes."
"Sounds good, sounds good."
"Let’s call the others!"
"They’ll be jealous again..."
(End of Chapter)