After six lively, bustling days, Mazu's birthday celebrations finally came to an end. Over those days, the fishing boats in their village had stayed ashore because nobody wanted to miss the festivities. Everyone had remained in the village to watch the operas, enjoying a rare few days off.
Only after today's banquet did fishing boats begin heading out that night.
Ye Yaodong sat with one leg crossed over the other, enjoying the sea breeze and munching on the brown sugar cake the village committee had sent someone to deliver that afternoon. Soft, fluffy, and sweet, it tasted quite good.
They had been quite generous, sending him one-eighth of a huge slab of brown sugar cake. A Qing had cut it into five or six pieces and packed two for him to take aboard, one each for him and his father, to serve as breakfast as well.
After finishing it, he licked his fingers, wiped them on his clothes, then stood and walked over to his father.
"Want to scoop up some water and see if the fishing season's nearly here?"
His father was better at this. With all his years of experience, there were still things Ye Yaodong needed to learn from him.
"Let's get there first. Who knows whether we can still approach the waters around that island? Are the Border Defense Production Team people still there?"
"Probably. It's only been a day. How could they withdraw that quickly? If they've withdrawn, I reckon I'll be able to go collect the boat too. Just yesterday, they warned us not to go near the island. Let's keep our distance and take a look first. If nobody drives us off, we'll keep working around there."
Finding somewhere else to fish would be difficult and far too much trouble.
Father Ye did