Selling the mud crabs

The Ye family had now spotted Ye Yaodong's catch too. His mother was the first to exclaim in surprise, "You even caught two mud crabs?"

As she spoke, she reached out and squeezed their shells. "Nice and hard, too! Together, they should weigh over a jin. We could sell them for a yuan or two!"

"Why sell them? Let's take them home and eat them!"

"Eat, eat, eat! That's all you ever think about, you wastrel! Your wife doesn't even earn a yuan for a whole day of making nets. These two crabs could fetch a yuan or two, and you want to eat them!" Mother Ye glared at him and swatted him several times.

Ye Yaodong backed away two steps to dodge her hand. Years of work had left his mother's palms covered in calluses, and her slaps really did hurt.

"Mom, I wasn't planning to eat them myself. It's not every day we catch two mud crabs. I wanted to stew them for the kids at home, give them something nourishing..."

Mother Ye's expression immediately softened, as did her tone. It was good that he thought of the children. "With so many kids at home, who would get to eat these two?"

"They could each have a leg and some broth!"

"With that many kids, they'd end up crying and fighting over them. These are worth a bit of money, so let's sell them. Your dad saved a few swimming crabs and a jin of small sword shrimp yesterday. We can eat those."

Ye Yaodong frowned. These two mud crabs only weighed a little over a jin combined, and at current prices, they would fetch barely more than a yuan. That was dirt cheap compared with decades later.

Mud crabs were also known locally as xun, while farmed mud crabs were called cai xun.

Decades later, even at the docks, where prices were lower, wild mud crabs cost 150 yuan per jin. You couldn't even find wild ones at the market. Those were all farmed, and they still cost 150 yuan per jin.

Seeing him frown, Mother Ye hurriedly shot him a meaningful look and took the string from him. "I'll take them to the buying station at the docks and sell them. Wait here and dig up a few more sand clams while you're at it. The tide will be coming in soon."

What an idiot. His wife worked herself to the bone earning money, and now that he'd finally caught two mud crabs, with the household about to split, he wasn't even thinking of selling them and giving her the money to save. He actually wanted to share them with everyone?

Watching his mother hurry toward shore, Ye Yaodong could only let it go. A little money was still money. He just hadn't adjusted his thinking yet. Money was worth something these days, after all, so selling them wasn't a bad idea.

Seeing her mother-in-law briskly carry the mud crabs off to sell, Lin Xiuqing felt relieved too. Those two crabs were worth several days of her net-making work.

Everyone had their own interests to consider. Her husband was lazy to begin with and couldn't earn like his two older brothers. Now that they had unexpectedly come into another yuan or two, she didn't want to serve it up for everyone to eat either.

Ye Second Sister-in-Law pursed her lips at Mother Ye's actions but said nothing. She would have sold them too. She crouched back down and continued digging.

Ye Eldest Sister-in-Law, on the other hand, was curious. "Yaodong, where did you catch those mud crabs? No wonder we couldn't see you earlier."

"Over there!"

After what had just happened, he wasn't in the mood to talk to them. He jerked his head vaguely in that direction, then walked over to his wife and looked at the nearly full basin beside her.

"Not a bad haul. You've dug up quite a lot."

Lin Xiuqing gave a faint smile. "Not bad. Too bad the tide's coming in soon. It won't go out again until tonight, so we'll have to come back tomorrow."

She glanced at his trouser legs, rolled high above his ankles, then toward the rocks. "Did you wade out into the water to dig these up?"

At least she was smiling at him now. Ye Yaodong nodded. "Yeah. There wasn't much on the rocks nearby. The little clams and snails were barely bigger than specks, so I went farther out. Those big, oddly shaped rocks probably blocked your view of me. That must be why you couldn't see me."

Had he really become more hardworking? He'd actually spent all that time digging? No wonder she hadn't seen him nearby. He'd gone all the way out into the water.

"These little clams and rock snails are still a bit small." She reached into the basket and sifted through them.

"I dug up everything edible I could find. The clams are all right. They'll open on their own once they're cooked. They might look small, but there should be a fair bit of meat inside. The snails are a little small, though. We can sort them out at home and have the kids crack them with stones, then steam them with scallion oil."

"What? Scallion oil? You need oil just to cook some snails? All you have to do is boil them in water and pick out the meat. Where did you learn to eat them like that? Using oil for snails?"

Lin Xiuqing frowned at him in disbelief. He really had no idea how expensive the daily necessities were when he wasn't the one managing the household!

"Uh... heh... I heard about it somewhere. Let's just boil them, then." Ye Yaodong gave an awkward chuckle. Out of habit, he had brought up the way his family ate decades later, forgetting for a moment that they used lard now. They couldn't afford to squander it like that.

Fresh seafood was fine simply boiled. These days, his family boiled anything they could, saving the cost of seasonings.

Lin Xiuqing frowned at his odd behavior, then crouched down again. "Mom isn't back yet. I'll dig a little longer. Why don't you take our son ashore and wait?"

"Sure!"

Perfect. He didn't want to work anymore either! Soaking his feet for too long was uncomfortable.

Ye Chengyang had buried both his feet in the sand and was still giggling away. Ye Yaodong lifted the boy bodily out of his game, tucked him under one arm, and carried his catch ashore as well.

The moment he was tucked under his father's arm, the boy began wailing and flailing his limbs, spitting out words in little bursts. "Wanna play! Wanna play! Don't wanna! Go home!"

"The tide's coming in. Everyone's going home!"

"No! No! Yangyang! Wanna play!"

"We'll come again next time. There's still corn at home. Do you want some? If we get back late, your brothers and sisters will eat it all."

At the mention of food, the boy stopped struggling. "Want some! Yangyang! Want some!"

Once ashore, Ye Yaodong set him down on a rock by the water. "Sit here nicely and wait for your mom to finish digging, then we'll all go home."

"Hungry..."

"Why didn't you say you were hungry when you were playing? Just wait!"

Ye Yaodong was used to his two sons' displeasure decades later, along with their occasional backtalk and exasperated scolding when he failed to live up to their expectations. He really wasn't used to seeing one of them so small now, speaking in such a babyish voice. The contrast was too great, and he couldn't quite muster any tender feelings either...

Ye Chengyang's mouth drooped. Looking hurt, he hovered on the verge of tears just as Mother Ye came over, along with Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua, who had finished mooring the boat.

Mother Ye's heart immediately ached for him. "What's wrong, Yangyang? Who bullied you? Tell Grandma. Grandma will smack them!"

Now that he had someone to back him up, Ye Chengyang opened his mouth and wailed loudly. "Daddy! It was Daddy!"

Mother Ye immediately pretended to swat Ye Yaodong twice. "Grandma's smacked your daddy for you. Be good now. No more crying."

Ye Chengyang promptly closed his mouth and stopped wailing. He could turn his tears on and off at will; only a little moisture on his lashes showed that he had cried at all.

Ye Yaodong couldn't help the twitch at the corner of his mouth!

Little brat!

No wonder he was still so annoying when he grew up!

"Grandma! Hungry! Corn!"

"All right, all right. We'll go home and cook right away."

After soothing her grandson, Mother Ye called to her daughters-in-law on the beach. "Time to go home! Stop digging! It's getting late. We need to go home and eat."

All three daughters-in-law's stomachs had long since begun growling with hunger. Hearing their mother-in-law call, they each picked up their basins and buckets and headed ashore. The tide was coming in soon anyway.