They all wanted to come along

The novel by Liang Yusheng, "Ye Second Sister-in-Law was silenced by Father Ye's words. Ye Yaohua glared at her too, and only then did she reluctantly back down.

She felt that her husband did more work, while Ye Yaodong barely did anything and simply enjoyed the fruits of everyone else's labor. She had resented it for a long time.

Now whatever they earned going out to sea with the family went into the communal pot, while he went off on his own and kept his earnings. The more she thought about it, the more it bothered her. She always felt they were doing more than their share.

Seeing that his second daughter-in-law had backed down, Father Ye glared at Ye Yaodong too. "Did you hear that? Stop going out and fooling around. Building this house is a big undertaking for the family. You're to go help at the building site every day. If I come back and hear you've disappeared again, I'll break your damn legs."

"I know. You're nagging."

"We keep telling you all this for your own good. You're in your twenties, not a three-year-old. You need to help with the work at home too. You've got a wife and children now. You need some sense of responsibility toward your family..." Mother Ye couldn't help launching into another lecture.

Ye Yaodong's head immediately began to ache. Since coming back, he had helped with the work and gathered seafood along the shore. He wasn't acting like he used to anymore, but his parents' impression of him was still stuck in the past. They unconsciously overlooked the changes he had already made.

There was nothing wrong with spending time with friends. Surely being reborn didn't mean he had to give up all his friends? Besides, his friends were good people, loyal and dependable.

All he could do was keep proving himself little by little.

"Okay, okay, okay... I know, I know, I know... I'll work hard. Mom, hurry up and cook. Dad's starving to death!"

"You little bastard, you're the one starving to death! Can't you watch what you say?" Just hearing him speak made Father Ye angry.

"Ah... right... I'm starving to death. Me... You all eat. I'm heading out!"

"We're about to eat. Where the hell are you going now?"

"To eat at A-Guang's. Save the family some rice..."

Ye Yaodong spoke as he walked out, his voice gradually fading into the distance. Inside the house, Father Ye started cursing again, going on about how irresponsible Ye Yaodong was...

The smile he had worn when he first came in was already gone, as though everyone had imagined it.

Ye Yaodong might enjoy hanging out with his friends, but he knew his limits. Once he had eaten enough and seen that it was getting dark, he headed home early.

"Why have you been smoking and drinking again?"

"Is the smell that strong? I only had two drinks."

He raised his arm and sniffed. The cigarette smell on him did seem pretty strong, and even his fingers still smelled of seafood. He hadn't washed it all off.

"I'll go wash again."

Only after rinsing himself off once more did he go into their room.

Lin Xiuqing immediately asked, "Can you still rent the boat tomorrow?"

"Yes, but we have to pay more. The old lady at A-Guang's aunt's place found out we'd used their net to catch over seven thousand jin of Spanish mackerel today. She went straight to A-Guang's house this afternoon and demanded more money."

She frowned. "How can she do that? How much more does she want?"

"A-Guang said his aunt and uncle are pretty easy to talk to. It's just the old lady who's difficult. She said we could rent it tomorrow too, but it would cost five yuan. Ten yuan for the two days, so we have to give her another eight. Otherwise, she won't rent it to us."

She sat bolt upright in surprise. "What? Five yuan? Why doesn't she just rob you? Other people only make a dozen or so yuan dragging nets at sea all day, and they still have to pay for fuel. Wouldn't a month's rent come to a hundred and fifty yuan? How much does a worker earn in a month? They could just lie around doing nothing."

"Besides, you're only going to gather seafood along the shore. You only ran into that school of Spanish mackerel today because you were lucky. You'd have to be crazy to spend five yuan renting a boat for that. Fuel alone costs several mao to a yuan."

He couldn't very well tell her that he was renting the boat to overcome the fear in his heart. Otherwise, who would be stupid enough to pay to rent a boat just to gather seafood? Without enough luck, the haul wouldn't even cover the boat rental and fuel.

People in this era were extremely frugal. They couldn't bear to spend that sort of money. They didn't even like spending money on vegetables.

"Shh." Seeing their two children stir at the noise and roll over into awkward positions, Ye Yaodong lowered his voice. "We're partly in the wrong too. We only said we wanted to rent the boat, not the net. That old lady's pretty domineering, but we can't really argue with someone her age. We made quite a bit anyway. We'll just take it out of the money from selling the catch and split the cost."

Having tasted success, everyone was eager to go again tomorrow. Even Chen Wei and Fatty had excitedly announced that they wanted to join them.

They were all friends, so it was hard to turn them down.

"Even more people are going tomorrow?"

Her attention immediately shifted, and her brow furrowed even more deeply.

She could put the money issue aside for now. After all, they had made sixteen hundred yuan, so taking ten out of that was acceptable. But with more people going, if they landed another big haul, wouldn't each person's share be smaller?

"Ah, when they heard we'd netted over seven thousand jin of Spanish mackerel today, they slapped their thighs and regretted not coming. They said they were definitely going with us tomorrow."

To be honest, none of them were particularly happy about two more people taking a share. But they had all been friends for years, and they really couldn't bring themselves to refuse. Besides, today had been pure luck. It wasn't something they could encounter every day.

Since everyone wanted to go, they could only bring them along. They couldn't fall out over something that might not even happen. It came back to the same thing: if only he had his own boat.

"How do they have the nerve? They see you making money and immediately want a share..."

"Oh, stop it. If they want to come, let them. There isn't much valuable seafood to catch with a trawl around here anyway. We'd have to head farther out. With this many people, we might not even make enough to cover the boat and fuel. Getting a little seafood to eat should be fine, though. We'll go have a look around the isolated island. If we happen to find another valuable catch, we'll figure it out then."

But opportunities like that were rare. They depended on luck, not effort. He wasn't holding out much hope. Finding a few things would be good enough.

"You men are always like this, going on about loyalty to your friends and all that..."

Women talk so much. Nothing's even happened yet, and she's already worrying. I don't have some special cheat. If I did, I'd sneak off and make money on my own, quietly rake in a fortune, and never tell anyone else.

Seeing that his wife wouldn't stop nagging, Ye Yaodong simply used action to silence her.

"Not again. Your legs were still weak yesterday..."

"Damn it, who are you looking down on?"

Youth was an asset. Besides, a man's pride wouldn't let him back down!

Although the tide wouldn't go out until the afternoon, they had paid a high price to rent the boat, and everyone was brimming with enthusiasm. They certainly couldn't wait until the afternoon low tide to head out like they had yesterday.

Early the next morning, Ye Yaodong had only just gotten up when everyone came over to wait at his house.

With everyone hurrying him along, he shoveled down a few mouthfuls of rice porridge, then gulped down the rest once it was no longer scalding. Taking the tools Lin Xiuqing had packed for him in advance, he headed eagerly to the dock with the others.

Fatty was considerate enough to volunteer to buy diesel as soon as they reached the dock. Shamelessly tagging along was one thing, but he ought to help cover the fuel costs.