Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982

     Chapter 39 The Icing on the Cake

Ye Yaodong was also very excited. He never expected that his intention to overcome the lingering fear of the sea would yield such unexpected gain.

Is he really the embodiment of a lucky koi?

He chuckled and said with a smile, "More than just paying my respects, I sacrificed myself entirely to Mazu, and that's how I obtained such good luck."

Ah Zheng widened his eyes and exclaimed, "Ah... I never knew we needed to make sacrifices. If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have saved you. Can't we catch even more fish?"

"Get lost! Maybe sacrificing you later will bring us an even bigger catch!”

"Hehe, when I go back, I'll also visit the Mazu temple to pay my respects."

Ah Guang interrupted their conversation, "Should we cast the net again? It's been a while, and the fish that escaped the net have probably swum far away. They could be heading in any direction."

Ye Yaodong said, "Do we have enough fuel? Let's cast the net one more time. The last haul had over a dozen fish, but we shouldn't let any escape. Let's make a few more rounds in the area. Even if we don't catch any mackerel, we can still gather other seafood. We can celebrate and have a good drink later tonight."

"We still have enough fuel, so let's cast the net one last time. We can take our time and even if we don't catch any mackerel, we can still catch some stone crabs, yellow croakers, and such. It'll be enough for a few dishes to accompany our drinks, and we won't need to buy seafood at the pier."

Just now, they sorted out the catch from the previous few casts of the net, separating the mackerel from the other scattered seafood and placing them in a bucket.

For the final cast of the net, they didn't expect to catch much. After releasing the net, they didn't pay much attention to it and headed straight to the cabin. Looking at the cabin filled with mackerel, everyone couldn't hide their excitement. Today, they truly struck it rich!

Since Ye Yaodong discovered the mackerels, his attention had been focused on them. As the boat sailed on the sea, casting the net and fishing, he didn't feel any anxiety or fear. It was only now that he realized he had confronted and overcome his fears!

Very good!

He rubbed his chin and said, "We should have several thousand jin of fish in the cabin, right?"

"Definitely! Each of those fish is quite large, almost half a meter long. Each fish weighs at least four to five jin. We cast seven to eight nets, so we should have caught about half of them.”

"I just saw a fish in the live cabin that was nearly one meter long. That one must weigh at least eight jin.”

"I noticed that one too. Damn, this trip is so worth it!" 

"Hahaha~"

Everyone was in high spirits, exchanging words and chatting excitedly. It had been so long since they felt this exhilarated. After all, who wouldn't be happy when striking it rich?

Ah Zheng kicked the bucket at his feet, looking at the digging tools inside, and quickly asked, "So, are we still going to go sea digging later?"

"Forget about sea digging! Once we pull up this net, let's quickly sail back. We need to sell this boatload of mackerel and turn them into cash!” Can't believe he’s asking such a silly question. Ye Yaodong is too excited to think about sea digging.

"Of course I'm also impatient. I was just asking casually. What if you guys thought that since we came all the way here, it might be worth taking a little time to go sea digging?"

"Are you stupid or what? Selling the fish and turning them into cash is the priority. When we get back, we can have Ah Guang ask his aunt to extend the rental for another day, and we can go sea digging tomorrow. After all, the tide rises slowly, so the reefs should still be exposed tomorrow.”

Ah Guang nodded in agreement, "Exactly, we can rent the boat again tomorrow for sea digging and try our luck along the way."

"We rented the boat? It wasn't borrowed? Why didn't you say so earlier?" After all that was said, only now did Little Xiao notice this detail.

"Oh well, whether it's renting or borrowing, what's the big deal? It's just a small amount of money, and it doesn’t matter who pays, we made a fortune today, so why bother about a small amount of money?" Ah Guang said nonchalantly.

Ye Yaodong also smiled sincerely, "That's right, just a small amount of money. What really matters is selling these mackerel and dividing the money among ourselves."

"Yes, exactly! Once we pull up this net, let's hurry back. I don't even know how long we've been out here."

As they conversed, they quickly put on their clothes and pants they had taken off earlier. They had been so focused on the mackerel that they couldn't care about anything else.

Since the last net had been dragged for a while, when it was time to pull it up, Ah Guang decided to make the most of the situation. Instead of wasting time, he steered the boat directly towards the pier and made a round in the middle of the sea before finally lifting the net.

Originally, everyone didn't have much hope for the final haul of the net, but to their surprise, there was a pleasant surprise awaiting them!

During the process of pulling up the net, a large bass weighing 5-6 jin was revealed, catching everyone's attention!

"Ah, a bass, a big bass..."

"Oh damn... There's still a big catch!"

"The icing on the cake! Hahaha! We're about to bring in the net and head to the shore, and here we are, unexpectedly catching a big bass!"

"Haha, there are also plenty of small fish and shrimp. We've got our appetizers for the drinks!"

If they had caught this large bass before encountering the mackerel school, everyone would have been excited. However, with such a precious find already in their possession, this big bass could only bring them a moment of joy. It couldn't match the excitement they felt when they caught the mackerel school.

After sorting through the seafood, aside from the big bass, they found a few mackerel and the rest were inexpensive small fish, shrimp, and crabs. They filled up two large buckets, which wouldn't fetch much money when sold. However, they would make a delicious meal.

“Let's sell the bass too. It can fetch a good price, probably several cents per jin." 

Upon hearing Little Xiao's words, Ye Yaodong couldn't help but twitch his mouth. In the previous life, the purchase price for sea bass was around 35 to 40 yuan per jin, and the selling price varied depending on the location. Some places even doubled the price. Now, to hear that the price is only “several cents" per jin...

Returning to 1982, the biggest contrast for him was definitely the prices. He couldn't help but compare them to the prices in the previous life in 2022.

With every comparison, his heart itched. If only he had a golden finger to travel back and forth between 1982 and 2022, how wonderful would that be!

In that case, he could take the seafood he caught in 1982 and sell it in 2022…

Indeed, those thoughts were beautiful, but apart from having slightly better luck, he didn't possess any magical abilities or golden finger..

Thinking about it, being able to have a second chance was already the biggest "bug" he could have. He should cherish this opportunity, and maybe good luck was his ultimate golden finger after all.

Otherwise, who else would have such luck?

Ah Guang? Little Xiao? Ah Zheng? He didn't believe it. Being reborn, he believed that it was his luck that brought him this opportunity.

As his thoughts started to drift, Ah Zheng's voice brought him back to reality.

"Should we sell it? We only have one large sea bass. How about we keep it and make a sea bass soup for dinner? We already have plenty of mackerel, so we won't miss this one sea bass!" 

"That sounds like a great idea. Let's keep the sea bass and cook it into a delicious soup. And how about we keep one mackerel for a braised dish? We can also make some dumplings with the rest.”

"Absolutely, let's keep them. With so many fish, a couple of them won't make much of a difference. It's been a while since I've had sea bass and mackerel dumplings too…”

Slurp~ Ye Yaodong seemed to hear the sound of everyone salivating. Indeed, they were all a bunch of indulgent prodigal sons.

Instead of thinking about selling all of them for money, they wanted to keep a few for themselves to enjoy.

But... he thought so too...

(end of this chapter)

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