They Got the Whole Boat Dirty

Zhou Chenglei ignored Yang Dayou. If he said he wasn't selling to him, then he wasn't selling.

Xu Wen'an grew anxious. "Help me unload the Red Seabream first. I need to have someone send them back to the restaurant."

Old Hou said, "I'm not in a hurry. Let's unload Manager Xu's Red Seabream first! The rest is mine."

Xu Wen'an rummaged through them and, seeing that the fish in the bamboo baskets hadn't been passed off as bigger fish, had Zhou Chenglei unload them.

Zhou Chenglei and Father Zhou carried the Red Seabream he wanted off the boat.

Xu Wen'an and Old Hou didn't just stand around either. They helped carry them.

Jiang Xia sorted the miscellaneous fish on the boat while keeping an eye on the catch.

She figured the restaurant would need shrimp for its banquet, so she wanted to pick out the shrimp first.

The four of them quickly finished unloading.

Old Hou returned to the boat and said, "Can I take a look at the Yellow Croaker?"

Father Zhou opened the live well and let the two of them take a look before covering it again.

Yang Dayou crowded over too and stole a glance. Good heavens—the fish were golden and gleaming, and some of them even looked alive. That was incredibly rare. Yellow Croaker hauled up in a Trawl Net were generally dead.

Yang Dayou's eyes went wide as he looked at Zhou Chenglei. "Comrade, brother, Eldest Brother..."

Zhou Chenglei ignored him.

Old Hou said, "You ran into a school of Yellow Croaker before dawn, and you weren't using a Trawl Net, were you?"

It sounded like a question, but his tone was one of certainty.

Father Zhou nodded with a smile. "We ran into the school not long after heading out to sea."

Xu Wen'an said, "No wonder their color is so golden."

Old Hou said, "You really lucked out!"

Father Zhou smiled. "It's all thanks to my daughter-in-law."

The two men glanced at Jiang Xia when they heard that.

The sun hadn't set yet, and Jiang Xia was wrapped up so tightly that they couldn't see what she looked like.

Still, it was genuinely rare in their area for a woman to go out to sea fishing. But they didn't say anything about it.

Live Yellow Croaker fetched a slightly higher price than dead ones.

The Yellow Croaker hadn't been sorted yet. Some were big and some small, but they all looked to weigh around a pound or eight or nine taels, with a few particularly large ones.

Zhou Chenglei haggled with the two men for a while.

In the end, the Yellow Croaker sold for one yuan and twenty-five cents per pound, regardless of size. They were scooped up and loaded into baskets.

Xu Wen'an also bought all the shrimp Jiang Xia had picked out, along with a load of Spanish Mackerel, one spotted grouper, and several Sea Bass.

Old Hou bought all the remaining Red Seabream, Yellow Croaker, and Spanish Mackerel.

Zhou Chenglei refused to sell the miscellaneous fish, or Old Hou would have wanted to buy those too.

There were quite a few valuable fish in that pile, he reckoned. Miscellaneous fish sold for little before sorting, but Jiang Xia had already picked out some of the larger fish.

In the end, there were four loads of Red Seabream weighing about one pound each. At one hundred yuan per load, that came to four hundred and forty yuan. There were three loads weighing one and a half pounds each, totaling three hundred and ninety yuan. Then there was about one and a half loads of two-pound fish, totaling two hundred and four yuan. There were only five three-pound fish, which sold for thirty-six yuan altogether. There was also one four-pound fish, which sold for fifteen yuan. The fish under one pound filled one load and sold for eighty yuan.

The Red Seabream alone sold for one thousand one hundred and sixty-five yuan! That was already what other people earned from going out to sea for a year or more.

The Yellow Croaker sold for a total of five hundred and seventy-two yuan and twenty cents.

There were over three hundred pounds of Spanish Mackerel. At thirty cents per pound, they sold for one hundred and five yuan and seventy cents.

The few Sea Bass sold for three yuan and fifty-five cents.

The shrimp and squid sold for eleven yuan and twenty cents as well.

The other large fish picked out from the two piles of miscellaneous fish sold for forty-three yuan and seventy cents in total.

In the end, they had one thousand nine hundred and one yuan and thirty-five cents in hand.

There was still a pile of small fish, shrimp, and other miscellaneous fish left on the deck. It was probably worth a few yuan too.

Jiang Xia said, "If we haul one more net, we might just make enough to reach two thousand!"

Father Zhou's dark face was full of smiles. "This is already incredible. Other than the big boats that go into the Far Sea, boats like ours have never made this much."

Today was absolutely his shining moment! He could brag about it for the rest of his life! He had fished at sea for so many years, and the most he'd ever made in one trip was nearly two hundred yuan. He hadn't even dared dream of making nearly two thousand.

Two thousand yuan!

Before this, they couldn't earn that much in a whole year of fishing.

Zhou Chenglei steered the boat without saying anything.

Because Jiang Xia hadn't truly experienced the prices of this era or what two thousand yuan could buy, she wasn't as deeply affected by the amount as Father Zhou was, but she was happy too.

"How much can a big boat make on one Far Sea fishing trip?" Jiang Xia asked.

"That depends, but I've heard most trips bring in over a thousand yuan. There are more fish in the Far Sea."

Jiang Xia nodded. "Once we have the money, we'll buy a big boat."

Father Zhou didn't respond. A big boat cost over ten thousand yuan. How could it be that easy to buy one? He squatted down and continued sorting the remaining miscellaneous fish.

The sun had already set. The evening clouds spread domineeringly across half the sky in a dazzling blaze of color, half the sea shivering beneath them and half the sea dyed red.

Jiang Xia took off her Straw Hat and untied her face covering. The sea breeze rushed against her face, and her whole body instantly felt refreshed.

She faced the wind and inhaled deeply, drawing in the scent of the ocean.

Zhou Chenglei steered the boat, his gaze falling on her without meaning to. The sea breeze brushed a few wisps of her fine, soft hair, and her brows and eyes were gentle.

The sky was beautiful, the sea was beautiful, and she was even more beautiful.

Jiang Xia put away her Straw Hat and face covering, then squatted down and began sorting the pile of miscellaneous fish and shrimp.

When they returned to the small wharf in the village, many fishing boats were already moored there.

A long queue had formed at the Purchasing Station as well. Jiang Xia saw the villagers carrying basket after basket of fish down, every face wreathed in smiles. Their catch seemed pretty good.

Several fishing boats returning to shore still drifted here and there across the sea.

Mother Zhou had been waiting at the wharf for a long time. When she saw their boat return, she finally let out a sigh of relief.

Fishing at sea paid well, but it was dangerous too. From the moment the boat left shore, the hearts of everyone at home began to hang.

Tian Caihua had come to the wharf to help too. That was what she claimed, but she really wanted to see how much the second branch had earned today, so she could know what to expect.

Once the boat reached shore, Mother Zhou approached. She asked Father Zhou, who had jumped off and was pulling at the ropes, "Why are you so late? Did you get a lot of fish?"

As she spoke, she didn't wait for Father Zhou's answer. She glanced at the catch on the boat, and her heart gave a jolt.

Unbelievable!

There was only this pile of miscellaneous fish? Mother Zhou quickly climbed aboard and couldn't help turning her head to look around, unwilling to believe it yet unable not to.

Was this really just one pile of worthless little miscellaneous fish?

What terrible luck they had today!

Tian Caihua took a look and felt they were terribly unlucky too. "There isn't much catch today! Why is there so little? We've never had so little before!"

The villagers all glanced at Father Zhou's boat. Someone said, "Yongfu, your luck wasn't great today!"

Father Zhou smiled. "It was all right."

At that moment, the several old men from that morning climbed onto their boat. The moment they saw the catch, they laughed. "You call this all right? Old Zhou, your mouth is harder than a diamond drill! No, we should say you're broad-minded. You're satisfied with hauling in this pile of junk? Keep it up, hahaha."

They all felt their predictions had come true and couldn't help gloating. "We told you not to take a woman out to sea. It brings bad luck, but you wouldn't listen. Look! You spent a whole day out and hauled in this pile of worthless stuff. You lost money on the fuel, didn't you? Everyone else had a decent catch today. The least anyone got was forty yuan. I sold over a hundred yuan's worth, and Bingqiang sold nearly two hundred! Yours might not even be worth ten yuan."

Zhou Bingqiang said, "You suffer right before your eyes when you ignore an elder's advice. We told you women have leaky bottoms and can't come aboard. It brings bad luck! You didn't believe us! I'm telling you, this boat won't bring in any good catch in the future. Don't refuse to believe me—change it as soon as you can!"

Tian Caihua's expression instantly turned ugly. She shot a glare at Jiang Xia's back, and her loathing for her reached its peak. She couldn't help muttering, "Why come out to sea for no reason? Can you even fish? All you do is cause trouble!"

Their family had only this one boat, and the whole household depended on it to make a living!

Jiang Xia had gotten the whole boat dirty!

The more Tian Caihua thought about it, the angrier and more aggrieved she became, until her eyes reddened.

What were they supposed to do with a dirty boat? Go out to sea and risk bad luck?

But if they didn't go out to sea, were they supposed to eat the northwest wind and drink seawater?

She even wanted Jiang Xia to compensate her with a boat! Family scandals should not be aired in public. Mother Zhou shot Tian Caihua a glance and said irritably, "What era are we living in, and you're still engaging in feudal superstition? Women hold up half the sky! Who can guarantee they'll catch fish every time they go out to sea? Whose family hasn't had a trip where they caught only a few fish and shrimp?"

That was what she said, but Mother Zhou was worried too. If I'd known this would happen, I wouldn't have let her come out to sea with us this morning.

Whoever married her was truly doomed!

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