During these days of building their new home, Ye Mu had softened her attitude towards Ye Yaodong’s friends.
Today, as the group busied themselves digging in the sea rather than idling about, and returned with plenty of fresh seafood, she invited them warmly.
"Is there really that much to find on the island? You brought back so much last time, and this time even more! You’re all carrying back several sacks! Third Brother, you have to bring me along next time!" Ye Huimei asked eagerly as she ate.
"It's so sunny. Why would you come? Be careful or you'll get dark and not be able to marry!"
"You make it sound like helping out at home avoids the sun! Look at my arms and face; my face is clearly darkening."
Ye Huimei had worn long sleeves, but as she rolled her sleeves up to grab food, her arms were still fair.
Compared to her face, which had darkened quite a bit, it was obvious.
A Guang looked at her strikingly white arm, momentarily stunned, then glanced at her face and mumbled, "It's not that dark, is it?"
Perhaps because there were many children at the table, no one heard him.
Instead, Ye Yaodong chimed in, "If you're afraid of the sun, why would you come with me? At home, you still get a break, but out on the island, you're in the sun all day with nowhere to hide. You'll get sunburned! Look at my face!"
She pouted, "You just don't want to take me."
"Exactly! We’re all boys. What would you be doing there? It’s not even convenient for you to relieve yourself!"
Ye Mu added, "What’s the point of going? There’s plenty of work to do at home."
Ye Huimei shot a glare at her third brother and kept quiet.
He always had excuses.
If he was willing to take her, their parents wouldn’t mind!
Stupid Third Brother!
A Guang gazed at her beautiful eyes and the playful expressions that crossed her face, stealing a few more glances.
His ears turned slightly red at the sight of her occasionally extended fair arms.
After they finished dinner, the whole family moved to the backyard to sort the goods.
The women opened the oysters while the men helped pick out what could be sold.
Ye Yaodong deliberately lifted a bucket of sea chicken feet, which he had placed alongside the turtle eggs, in front of his father.
"Dad, do you know what this is?"
"What? Isn’t this just the Buddha’s Hand? What else could it be?"
"Have you heard of sea chicken feet?"
"What is that? It's clearly Buddha's Hand; why change the name to sea chicken feet?"
Oh no, if his father didn’t recognize it, maybe A Cai would mistake it for Buddha's Hand too, and it wouldn’t fetch a good price.
He picked up a piece of Buddha's Hand from the ground to show his father.
"Do you still think it looks the same now?"
"The foot looks the same; the stem is a bit longer. Is there really a difference?"
"Of course! This sea chicken foot is much more expensive!" He just didn’t know if it was currently in demand.
Curious, everyone else leaned in to see, but after looking closely, they felt the differences were minor.
If they were shown it, they would definitely confuse it with Buddha's Hand.
"How much more expensive are we talking about?"
Ye Yaodong shrugged, "I don’t know! I just know this thing fetches a high price."
His father wasn’t sure if he had made a mistake in judgment.
The ocean was vast, and there were many types of sea creatures he didn’t recognize.
He hesitated, saying, "Why don’t you take it over to A Cai later and ask?"
"Alright!"
It was worth asking.
If A Cai didn’t recognize it, he would have to take it to Hong Sheng Hotel in the town tomorrow to inquire.
"Let’s see how many we have."
"Ah, no! Don’t dump it out!" He quickly stopped his father, "There are turtle eggs at the bottom!"
"Turtle eggs? You found turtle eggs? How many are there?"
He grinned, "There were originally 78, but I thought 68 sounded better, so A Guang and I each took ten to roast and eat."
Hearing his nonsensical words, everyone twitched at the corners of their mouths.
So what if he had ten? Why was he making a fuss about the number being 78? It all had 8 in it; what was wrong with it?
His father replied with annoyance, "I’ll cook some tea eggs for your mother with those turtle eggs; they will taste good."
"Sure, take them."
After sorting through the valuable goods, Ye Yaodong took everything, including the sea chicken feet, over to A Cai's place.
As expected, A Cai thought the sea chicken feet were Buddha's Hand as well.
After all, apart from the stem, everything else looked the same.
Ye Yaodong tried to explain but felt it was useless.
He couldn’t just rely on words to get a high price; the key was that he didn’t know what was a fair selling price either.
He said they would hold off on selling these for now and finalized the rest of the goods before bringing everything back home.
Seeing him returning with the items, Ye Father hurriedly asked, "What did he say?"
"He doesn’t recognize it either."
"Did you make a mistake? Maybe they are the same thing?"
"Absolutely not! I’ll ask at Hong Sheng tomorrow."
"You’re just causing trouble... There’s a ton of work to do at home, why bother with Hong Sheng? Don’t go there and get thrown out for causing a scene."
Ye Yaodong shot his father an eye, deciding to take them back into the house.
He couldn’t give up without trying.
Lin Xiuqing saw him enter, noticing the bucket of sea chicken feet he mentioned still sitting in the corner.
She quickly asked, "Did A Cai say it was Buddha's Hand too?"
"Yes."
"Then let it go, yeah? Maybe you made a mistake?"
"I’ll ask at Hong Sheng tomorrow."
Seeing his furrowed brow, Lin Xiuqing didn’t dare to say much more.
As Ye Yaodong began to undress, he asked, "Are all the oysters opened?"
"Not yet, there’s still quite a bit left. Mom said to save it for tomorrow; it’ll be fresher."
"Can you all manage? You have to help out at the house with so many clams to open, cook and dry."
"That’s why Mom asked little sister to handle these tomorrow, so we don’t get overwhelmed and let them spoil."
"Oh."
He stripped off his clothing and reached into his pocket to pull out the receipt, handing it to her.
"This is the receipt from selling those shellfish earlier. It totals 8.2 yuan. You can swap it for cash with A Cai in a couple of days."
"Really that much?" Lin Xiuqing received it happily, checked it, and once satisfied, locked it in the cabinet.
"Wait, there’s another one."
He rummaged beneath the pillow until he found the receipt from selling the sea wolf earlier that day.
When he bathed, he had pulled it from his dirty clothes pocket and casually placed it under the pillow, worried she might wash it not knowing.
"What’s this? Why is there another one?"
Lin Xiuqing looked at him in surprise, curious about what else he had sold.
Once she saw the numbers on the receipt, she was stunned.
So much money?
"Today, in addition to those several sacks of shellfish and blue crabs, I unexpectedly caught several nets of sea wolves, over a thousand catty, and 68 catty of white pomfret. A Zheng even brought his hand-cast net; he really did well."
She carefully examined the note in her hand.
Although the writing was a bit messy, it was clearly marked as sea wolves and white pomfret.
"That’s a lot of money! 478.4 yuan! How many people will share that?"
If it were all theirs, how wonderful that would be!
Ye Yaodong chuckled, knowing her thoughts were clear as day.
It was too obvious; he wished he could keep all the money for himself.
But as they went together, they would surely have to split it.
"It’ll be four of us splitting it. You should find the time to finish the net for me; I can use it to catch fish, then we won’t have to share with anyone else."
"Things are just too busy lately. The back door is still piled with shellfish. I can’t complete the net that quickly."
"Alright, take your time; we made good earnings today, so you calculate how much each person will get."
"Okay."
She was excited at the thought of counting money.
If it were about counting even more, all the better!
"Each person gets 119.51 yuan!"
"That much?"
Ye Yaodong's eyes lit up.
Today's earnings were indeed substantial!
"Yes!"
Lin Xiuqing nodded vigorously, delighted!
(End of Chapter)