The moment Ye Yaodong's boat docked, he went ashore before they had even unloaded the catch.
He wanted to see how long the queue at the dock was and whether they should leave one person to watch things while everyone else went home to eat. They could come back to unload and weigh the catch when there were fewer people, rather than all waiting there on empty stomachs.
They had returned late the previous few days, so there had only been one or two people ahead of them. Today, the dock was crowded with people and goods. There was no need for everyone to wait there.
But the moment he stepped ashore, he heard everyone gossiping as they queued-and they had even brought him into it.
"Oh? A-Dong, you're back? Hurry home and take a look! No, go to that scoundrel Xu's house! That Xu boy stole your ambergris..."
"Huh?" Ye Yaodong looked utterly bewildered. By "that Xu boy," did they mean Xu Laifu?
If he hadn't checked it last night, he really would have had a fright.
But hadn't Xu Laifu stolen that piece of wood yesterday?
Hadn't everyone mistaken it for ambergris?
Had no one discovered it was fake yet?
Surely not?
His handiwork only held up from a distance. Only a fool would fail to recognize it up close.
And why had he suddenly been dragged into this?
Seeing his blank, baffled expression, a kindly auntie said sympathetically, "You still don't know, do you? Xu Laifu picked up a piece of ambergris on the beach yesterday. Just now, he admitted that his great-uncle had told him to steal it from you. Loads of villagers heard him."
"Did you pick it up at sea, not recognize what it was, and leave it lying around, only for that Xu