Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982

   Chapter 11 Selling the Blue Crabs

The members of the Ye family also noticed Ye Yaodong's harvest at this time. Mother Ye, astonished, was the first to exclaim, "You even caught two blue crabs?"

As she spoke, she reached out and squeezed the crabs, happily saying, "They feel quite firm. With both of them together, they should weigh over a jin. We can sell them for one or two yuan!"

"What are you talking about? We'll bring them home and eat them ourselves!"

"You only know how to eat, eat, eat! You wasteful person! Your wife can't even earn 1 yuan a day making fishing nets, and these two blue crabs could be sold for 1 or 2 yuan. Yet, you want to eat them!" Yelling, Mother Ye also gave him several slaps on the back.

Ye Yaodong took two steps back to avoid his mother's palm. His mother, who had been working hard all year round, had calloused hands, and her slaps could be quite painful.

"Mom, I didn't plan on eating them myself. It's rare to catch two blue crabs, and I wanted to stew them to nourish the children at home..."

Mother Ye’s expression brightened, instantly looking better, and her tone softened. It's a good thing to care about the children. "With so many children at home, how will these two crabs be enough?"

"We can have a leg each and a bowl of soup!"

"With so many children, it's bound to be chaotic and they might end up fighting over it. These things are worth some money, so let's sell them. Your father also caught a few mud crabs yesterday, and we have a jin of small prawns. We can just eat those."

Ye Yaodong frowned. These two blue crabs together weighed just over a jin, and considering the current prices, they would only sell for a little over one yuan. Compared to the future, it was too cheap.

Blue crabs are also called sturgeons, and they also refer to farmed blue crabs as green sturgeon.

In the future, wild blue crabs are more affordable at the port, selling for around 150 yuan per jin. It's difficult to find wild blue crabs in the market, as most of them are farm-raised, and they also sell for around 150 yuan per jin.

Seeing him furrow his brows, Mother Ye quickly gestured at him and took the rope from his hand. "I'll take these to the port and sell them for you. You wait here, and while I'm at it, go  dig up some more sand clams. The tide will be rising soon."

This foolish guy, while his wife works hard to earn money, he finally manages to catch two blue crabs, and now he wants to divide them with the whole family. Instead of thinking about saving some money for his wife, he actually wants to share it out?

Seeing his mother quickly walking towards the shore, Ye Yaodong had no choice but to give up. Selling a bit was better than nothing. He realized that he hadn't thought it through, money is valuable now, so it’s a good idea to sell.

When Lin Xiuqing saw her mother-in-law briskly taking the crabs to sell, she felt relieved. Those two blue crabs could be worth the fishing nets she had made for several days.

Everyone has selfishness, and her husband was naturally lazy. He couldn't earn money like his eldest and second brother. Now, with an unexpected extra income of one or two yuan, she didn't want to share it with everyone.

Seeing the actions of Mother Ye, Second Sister-in-law pouted her mouth but didn't say anything. She knew she had to go and sell her findings too. She squatted down and continued digging.

Eldest Sister-in-law Ye became curious instead. "Yaodong, where did you catch the blue crabs? No wonder I didn't see you earlier."

"Over there!"

After the incident just now, he didn't have the desire to talk to these people. He casually shook his head, gestured in a direction, and walked towards his wife, glancing at the nearly full bucket next to her.

"The harvest is good, you dug a lot."

"Not bad, but it's a pity that the tide is coming in. We'll have to wait for the tide to recede tonight, so we can only come back tomorrow."

She glanced at his rolled-up pants and then looked towards the rocks. "Did you go out into the tide to dig these?"

She gave him a smile, at least. Ye Yaodong nodded and said, "Yeah, there wasn't much on the rocks near the shore. The sea melon seeds and snails were tiny. So I walked a bit farther out, probably hidden by those oddly-shaped rocks, which is why you didn't see me."

He's actually becoming more diligent? He dug seriously for so long? No wonder they didn't see him nearby. He actually went out beyond the tide.

"These sea melon seeds and spicy snails are still a bit small." She reached into the basket and rummaged through them.

"I've dug up as many edible ones as I could. The sea melon seeds are alright; once cooked, they will open up on their own. Despite being small in size, they should have good meat in them. The snails are a bit small, but we can bring them home and let the kids smash them with stones, then steam them with scallion oil."

"What? Scallion oil? Do we need oil to cook the snails? Just boil them in water until they're cooked, then pick out the meat and eat it. Where did you get this cooking method? Who uses oil to cook snails?"

Lin Xiuqing furrowed her brows and looked at him incredulously. It seemed that he didn't understand the value of basic household items like tea, rice, oil, and salt.

"Uh... well... let's just boil them then," Ye Yaodong chuckled awkwardly. He was accustomed to the eating habits from the future and momentarily forgot that they were using lard for cooking now, so such elaborate methods were not practical.

Just boil the fresh seafood, that's good enough. In their household, they have been opting for boiling whenever possible to save on seasoning expenses.

Lin Xiuqing furrowed her brows and gave him a strange look, then squatted down again. "Mother hasn't come yet. I'll keep digging for a while. Why don't you take our son to the shore and wait there?"

"Ok!"

Perfect, he also didn't want to continue working! His feet were starting to feel uncomfortable after being in the water for so long.

Ye Chengyang had both of his feet buried in the sand and was giggling away. Seeing him engrossed in his play, Ye Yaodong simply lifted him up, holding him under his arm, and carried him ashore along with his own harvest.

As soon as the child was held under his arm, he began to cry loudly, flailing his limbs and repeatedly shouting, "Play, play, no, go home!"

"The tide is rising, everyone needs to go home!"

"No, no, Yangyang, play!"

"Next time we'll come again. Do you want to eat some corn at home? If we go back late, your older brothers and sisters will eat it all."

As soon as food was mentioned, the child stopped struggling and instead said, "want to eat, Yangyang, want to eat!"

After getting ashore, Ye Yaodong put him down and let him sit on a rock by the shore, "Sit here quietly and wait for your mother to finish digging before we go back together."

"Hungry…"

"Why didn't you mention being hungry when you were playing just now? Wait here for me!"

Having witnessed his two sons' dissatisfaction and occasional defiance for decades, Ye Yaodong was accustomed to it. Their impudence and stubbornness never failed to provoke him. Seeing his son, who had now become so small and speaking in a childish voice, it felt unfamiliar. The contrast was too great, and he couldn't muster any pity for him...

Ye Chengyang pouted his mouth, feeling a bit wronged. His almost-teary expression caught the attention of Mother Ye, who happened to be passing by, as well as Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua, who had just parked the boat.

Mother Ye immediately felt distressed for him, "What's wrong, Yangyang? Who bullied you? Tell Grandma, Grandma will punish them!"

With a backer, Ye Chengyang suddenly opened his mouth and cried out loudly, "Daddy, it's Daddy!"

Mother Ye immediately pretended to hit Ye Yaodong twice, "Grandma has already helped you 'beat up' your daddy. Be good, stop crying."

Immediately, Ye Chengyang closed his mouth and stopped crying. Tears were held back effortlessly, with only a slight dampness on his eyelashes indicating traces of crying.

Ye Yaodong couldn't help the corner of his mouth from twitching!

Brat!

No wonder he's so unpleasant when he grows up!

"Grandma, hungry, corn!"

"Alright, we'll go home and cook soon."

After comforting her grandson, Mother Ye shouted to the daughters-in-law on the beach, "Let's go home now, stop digging. It's getting late, and it's time to have lunch."

The three daughters-in-law, who were already starving and growling in hunger, saw their mother-in-law calling them and each carried their buckets and basins to go ashore. After all, the tide was also rising quickly.

(end of this chapter)