He had never expected Li Lao'er to be related to Xu Laifu's family. He was actually Xu Laifu's great-uncle and lived in Haiqing Village.
A few days earlier, when the father and his two sons from Haiqing Village had brought their fellow villagers over to cause trouble, Li Lao'er and his companions had returned late from sea and arrived a step behind. Luckily, they had avoided a beating and only watched from a distance, trembling with fear.
He had also recognized Ye Yaodong and his father. They were the ones who had caused his tuna to fall into the sea, and he was still brooding over that stone they had fished out.
Before running into them, things had been fine, since he had not known which village they were from. Now that he had encountered them, the matter he had put out of his mind came rushing back.
Not wanting to go up and get beaten, he had gone straight to the Xu family's house, asked Xu Laifu about Ye Yaodong's family, and told him to steal that stone from Ye Yaodong's home.
This grandnephew of his was always stealing things. Giving him a yuan to do the job could not have been more suitable.
But after waiting two or three days, he still had no news. Everyone had been busy catching squid out at sea lately, and Li Lao'er had no time to visit the village either.
Yet when he returned that evening, he heard villagers saying that a young man in White Sand Village had found a huge piece of ambergris by the sea. It was worth a fortune, enough to buy a bicycle, a sewing machine, a watch, a radio, and a television. Apparently, the family was even preparing to move to town.
Li Lao'er's pupils contracted.