Early the next morning, Ye Yaodong got up and went straight to the doorway to check the pile of dried fish covered with nylon bags, without even stopping to brush his teeth.
He had heard his dogs barking several times during the night and had gotten up repeatedly, but whenever he opened the door and went outside, he saw nothing except the pack barking furiously at an outer wall.
One time, they had barked at the wall on his brothers' side; another time, they had barked at the wall on the neighbors' side.
Only after he scolded them several times did the dogs reluctantly come over to his feet, looking back every few steps. Then they barked loudly twice more, as though complaining to him.
The darkness made the best cover. He had walked around along the outer walls twice, but after finding nothing, he had given up and gone back inside.
As his reputation gradually spread, everyone in the village knew his dried fish sold well. Not just his village, either-probably all the nearby villages knew about him.
His dogs had been barking more and more frequently at night, especially over the New Year and in the period afterward. Several nights, they had barked fiercely.
Whenever he was not out at sea, he often had to climb out of bed at night to check.
That was why, upon waking that morning, the first thing he did was go into the yard to look at the dried fish.
Next door, Ye Second Sister-in-Law had gotten up early to work. Seeing him moving the nylon bags around in the yard from her doorstep, she said, "Those dogs were barking pretty loudly last night. Your second brother was worried something might happen with all that dried fish piled in your yard. He