Father and son worked away in the darkness, with no one around. One wielded a shovel, the other a spade, and now and then they scraped with a hoe too. Barnacles and juvenile shellfish rattled down from the hull, covering the beach, but they had no time to gather them yet.
They planned to scrape clean all the way around the sides of the hull before dealing with the shell-covered things on the sand.
Although the April night wind still felt chilly, father and son were sweating all over. They had taken off their jackets and tossed them onto the handcart, and even in just their undershirts, they were still drenched in sweat.
Mainly, they both wanted to take advantage of the nighttime low tide and finish early, so they were putting their backs into it.
Ye Yaodong stood on the beach one moment and climbed onto the boat the next. The main problem was that the fishing boat lay grounded on the sand rather than standing upright, making it awkward to scrape. They could not reach the underside at all, so for now, they could only clean the exposed edges of the hull.
After two hours of work, Ye Yaodong finally lifted his undershirt to wipe his face. "Nearly done, Dad? Have you finished your side?"
"Get it a little cleaner so it'll be easier to paint afterward."
"Wipe it with a rag, then scrape any spots we missed. That should do."
"Mm. Clear these shelled things off the ground first. Get them into the baskets, or we won't even have anywhere to put our feet."
"All right."
Ye Yaodong took all the baskets off the handcart to hold the juvenile shellfish and barnacles. He shoveled them in heap by heap, filling a basket in no time.
Whenever a