With all three of them, father and sons, hauling them in together, it went much faster than when he had done it alone.
They finished hauling in the remaining two rows of twenty fishing pots in just over half an hour. The handcart was piled so full that they could not keep up with sorting, and some little fish and shrimp were buried underneath.
"All right, stop sorting. We'll push it home and take our time sorting there. Leave these fishing pots here for now. Once we've pushed this back and unloaded it, I'll come back to tidy them up."
Ye Yaodong loaded all the baskets and buckets sitting on the ground onto the handcart, then lifted his younger son onto the edge in front of the handles to sit. He could slowly push him home along with everything else.
"Dad, I want to ride too! I want to ride!" Ye Chenghu did not want to walk either and clamored to get on.
Father Ye lifted him up as well. The two sat side by side, swinging their little legs back and forth.
"Sit tight. Don't fall off." Father Ye added, "You push it home first. I'll tidy things up here and keep an eye on them so the waves don't wash them away."
The people scavenging along the beach saw that they had finished hauling in their fishing pots and were about to push the cart home. Those nearby came over for a look.
"Oh, finished hauling them all in? Heading home?"
"What news? What does news from the city have to do with us?"
He was not sure whether they knew. They would find out sooner or later anyway, so he might as well tell them ahead of time and do them a favor.
A-Cai waved a hand.