The villagers were green with envy when they saw that his casually set net had caught seventy or eighty jin of scallops in just a few hours. No wonder that Old Wang had tried to steal them.
Every one of them worried that what they had raked into their arms might all be empty shells. After all, everything in his net was genuinely alive, so wouldn't what remained be shells?
There were simply too many people and too many shells to slowly sort through them one by one. In the time it took to do that, someone beside them would already have gathered a whole sack.
Ye Yaodong looked at the heavy fishing net in his hands, its scallops crowded into a heap in the middle, and felt delighted too.
He had only thought it a pity to watch the scallops escaping into the sea. An idea had struck him, and he had decided to stretch out a couple of nets and give it a try.
It wouldn't be wasted effort anyway. Even if there weren't many, he could still catch a few. He hadn't expected a net measuring less than ten meters across when spread out to catch seventy or eighty jin.
What a gain.
Grinning happily, he gathered the net toward the middle with Father Ye, surrounded by the villagers' envious chatter.
His friends had already gathered up the other net beside them. Working together, each holding a corner, they carried it over to him.
"Do we put the net on the handcart with the scallops still inside? Should we empty it first?" A-Guang asked.
"No need. Just put the net and scallops straight onto the handcart. We'll empty it and sort everything once we've pushed it home."
As Ye Yaodong spoke, he craned his neck to look