Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982

        Chapter 41 Weighing

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes. It was right there in front of them, yet his mother still asked a bunch of unnecessary questions, showing that she didn't trust him!

"Mother, you saw it for yourself, why ask? It's obvious."

"When did you go out to sea? Why didn't you tell me beforehand? Whose boat did you go on?"

"I mentioned at noon that I was going out. I asked Ah Qing to cook noodles for me early so that I could eat before leaving. The boat was rented."

"It's only been a few hours, and you've already..."

"Oh, wait, we'll talk later. I'm busy right now. There are still fish on the boat. Let me finish unloading and weighing them before I explain to you." He interrupted his mother's questions with a frown. It wasn't the time for detailed explanations. The priority was to unload all the fish first.

The curious villagers widened their eyes in surprise. "There's more? You haven't finished unloading yet?"

"Tsk tsk tsk~ The Ye family is getting rich again. How come your family's financial luck has been so prosperous lately? Did you worship Mazu?"

With a smile on her face, Mother Ye replied to the onlookers, "Of course! It was our first time going out to sea a few days ago, so we definitely had to pay our respects to Mazu and pray for smooth sailing for our family."

"Indeed, luck has arrived and nothing can stop it. Even Yaodong managed to catch so many mackerel while going out to sea. He's really making progress."

"Oh my, Yaodong and the others usually seem quite idle, but who would have thought that they would be so skilled and manage to catch a whole school of mackerel. Look at all those baskets filled with them. Impressive, isn't it?"

"Yes, there should be several thousand jin, right? Each one is so big..."

Under the envious and jealous gazes of everyone, Ye Yaodong and his friends finally unloaded all the mackerel from the boat. They were exhausted, drenched in sweat with their clothes clinging to their backs.

Ye Yaodong handed the bucket he was holding to his mother and said, "These are the ones I saved for us: two mackerel and some other seafood. You can use the mackerel to make fish balls for dinner."

"Why do you want to keep them? These two can be sold for quite a good price. Just eat the miscellaneous fish instead..."

After enduring enough hardships in life, the elderly are reluctant to consume valuable things.

"Oh, after working so hard to catch so much, I deserve to treat myself. Besides, with so many fish, these two won't make much of a difference. Take them back and make fish balls. I want to eat them!"

"All you think about is eat, eat, eat! You're already spending money in your mind before it's even in your hands. This one alone is worth a yuan..."

Lin Xiuqing intervened, holding onto Mother Ye who was still nagging. "Mother, these two fish won't make much of a difference. Ye's other friends may have also left some. Let's take them back and make fish balls. The children haven't had them in a long time."

Now Mother Ye fell silent. Everyone had left some, so she couldn't possibly return them, could she?

Ah Cai grinned as he looked at them. "Is everything unloaded? Can we weigh them now?"

"Let's agree on the price first. If it's too low, I won't sell them to you. We can get a tractor to transport them to the Yujing Pier!" Ye Yaodong wasn't foolish. With so many fish, he wouldn't have to do anything and could make a big profit by changing hands.

"Twenty cents per fish is not low. I can only make a dime if I resell them, and that's because your father's yellow croakers from a few days ago helped me get to know some fish vendors. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to sell so many mackerel myself. There's really not much profit in it, and others need to make money too. You have to leave some room for others to earn."

What he said makes sense.

Exactly, with multiple transactions involved, there should be room for others to make a profit. If there's no money to be made, who would be willing to trade?

With a playful smile, Ah Zheng put his arm around Ah Cai's shoulder. "Brother Cai, you have a wide network and it's much easier for you to make money compared to the rest of us. We all work hard for our earnings, so why not give us a little extra profit?"

"You call that hard work? I heard you came back after just a few hours. Nobody had it as easy as you did, alright?"

Growing impatient with their argument, Xiao Xiao interjected, "Oh come on, why do you care how many hours we spent? Just decide whether you're going to give us extra money or not!"

Mother Ye chimed in, "Yes, that's right! Just add a little extra. With so many mackerel, even if you only make a profit of 1 cent per jin, you can probably still make tens or even hundreds of yuan."

After some contemplation and hesitation, Ah Cai gritted his teeth and said, "I can add at most one more cent, but that's coming out of my own profit."

Ah Guang furrowed his brow and added, "Isn't that too stingy? Just one more cent?"

"It's already a lot!"

"How about two cents?"

"Normally, there's no room for negotiation. I only added one cent because you have a lot of fish. If you were to sell them at the Yujing Pier, you wouldn't even get 20 cents. Besides, you would have to pay for transportation costs. If you don't sell them to me, I won't lend you my baskets. So, how are you going to transport all those fish?" 

"Alright, alright, let's stick with twenty-one cents per fish. It saves us from further hassle.”

Indeed, in most cases, the prices at the fishing port are non-negotiable, and the attitude is often "take it or leave it." Ye Yaodong didn't want to make things more complicated either. Mackerel was not an exceptionally valuable fish, and the profit margin was indeed limited. Twenty-one cents per fish was already a reasonable price considering the circumstances.

"Alright then, if Yaodong says it's okay, then it's okay. Let's quickly weigh them.”

"Well, take some paper and write it down."

Under the excited help of the onlookers, they weighed all the mackerel.

"How many jin?"

"What about an abacus? With so many numbers, it's hard to calculate. Ah Cai, can you use the abacus to calculate for us?" 

None of them know how to use an abacus…

Ye Yaodong knew how to press the calculator, but there was no calculator at this time, it was all abacus.

Everyone watched patiently as Ah Cai fiddled with the abacus.

"Okay, a total of 7628 jin, 21 cents a jin, a total of 1601 yuan, 88 cents."

The villagers who were watching became excited. "Wow~ 1,600 yuan! That's even more than the sale of the big yellow croaker from a few days ago."

"Can't compare, can't compare, how many jin is the yellow croaker? How many jin is this mackerel? But the yellow croaker is more valuable. If this were yellow croakers, it would be really great.”

"Who doesn't know that yellow croakers are valuable? But it also takes luck to catch so many mackerel. It's quite remarkable."

"With this much money, each person can get 400 yuan. Which is what others earn in two months of trawling nets."

"It's worth four months of working as a laborer!"

“Why has the Ye family been so lucky recently?"

"I will also go to worship Mazu tomorrow..."

…

…

...

Unlike the reactions of the onlookers, Ye Yaodong was taken aback by the calculation. He had expected to earn several thousand yuan, but to his surprise, it amounted to only 1,600 yuan!

Perhaps he hadn't fully adjusted to the prices of this era, causing him to feel that 1,600 yuan was too little.

"Did you calculate correctly?"

Ah Cai rolled his eyes and said, "If you doubt my calculations, then you do it."

"I won't…"

"Let me do it!"

At this moment, Lin Xiuqing stepped forward. She had completed elementary school, knew how to read and write, and had some experience using an abacus, although she was not as skilled as others who had more practice.

She carefully fiddled with the abacus, afraid of making any mistakes. Ye Yaodong didn't dare to interrupt her and silently calculated in his mind as well, finding that it seemed correct.

Considering that a worker's daily wage is just a little over one yuan, earning 1,600 yuan would be equivalent to nearly three years' worth of their wages. Looking at it from that perspective, it didn't seem like such a small amount after all.