Whenever the wind picked up, they could not go out to sea for seven or eight days straight. It was especially hard on those who depended on the sea for a living. With no other choice, the villagers used their time off to haul sandbags at the pier to put food on the table. There was never any shortage of work at the pier.
The women in the village also took advantage of these windy but sunny days to dry fish.
Autumn and winter were the best seasons for drying fish in coastal fishing villages every year. It had become a way of life for these fishermen. With no mosquitoes or flies to bother them, the howling northwesterly wind could get the fish seventy percent dry in less than three days.
Walking anywhere through the village, every few steps you would see bamboo woven trays and fishing nets laid out for drying, as well as fish strung up one by one on ropes. It was a sight unique to coastal fishing villages.
The weather had cooperated these past few days, with no rain at all. Between the weak sunshine and the northwesterly wind, the fish dried especially quickly.
The nearly 4,000 jin of toadfish and assorted fish Ye Yaodong had laid out had become firm yet springy after four or five days of drying, giving off a faint salty scent mixed with the smell of the sea breeze.
He packed them all into burlap sacks, sorting the bags by type and stacking them neatly.
After bringing everything in that morning, he had even made a special trip to borrow a large steelyard scale to weigh the sacks of dried fish.
They passed a wooden pole through the rope loop on the wooden steelyard, then he and his father each lifted