Ye Yaodong

Biodata

Background / History

Ye Yaodong nearly entered the world on the beach. Among his siblings and more than a dozen cousins, he was apparently the only child his grandmother delivered herself. His smile when she first held him made him her favorite, and she continued saving food for him throughout his childhood 5.

As a young man, he became known as the village layabout: he spent his days with friends, frequently fought, and avoided useful work. Marriage reduced his fighting but did not make him a reliable provider. Lin Xiuqing earned money weaving fishing nets while the extended Ye family continued living and eating together because they could not afford separate houses 1 5 7.

In his previous life, Lin Xiuqing supported him for decades before dying of cancer. He only began taking responsibility after her death; at fifty, he had less than two hundred yuan to his name. He remained unmarried for more than a decade and worked at sea, returning to the village during the fishing moratorium 2 22.

At sixty-five, while employed as a deckhand aboard a large ship, he went onto the deck to urinate and was swept overboard by a wave. After drowning, he awoke in 1982 as his twenty-five-year-old self, retaining memories of the intervening forty years 1.

His second chance gives him an opportunity to prevent two remembered family tragedies: the loss of an unborn daughter after Lin Xiuqing fell while picking tea, and his grandmother’s fatal fall. However, he cannot remember which year his wife’s pregnancy occurred 16.

Appearance

Ye Yaodong is handsome, unusually tall within his family, and initially much fairer than the relatives who regularly work outdoors 2 31.

• Height: 180 centimeters 1 31.
• Skin: Soft and smooth from years of avoiding labor; his friends tease him about his fair complexion 2 21.
• Early tanning: After two days gathering seafood, his face and neck become noticeably darker than his body, though he remains fairer than his older brothers 31.
• Childhood nutrition: He attributes much of his height to his grandmother ensuring that he received eggs and a chicken drumstick whenever the family slaughtered a chicken 31.

Personality

Ye Yaodong is outspoken, mischievous, and quick to challenge anyone taking advantage of his family. When his uncles demand a share of his father’s fishing proceeds, he threatens to bring the dispute before the villagers rather than preserve the appearance of family harmony. His established reputation as a hooligan makes this behavior unsurprising to his relatives and neighbors 1.

Rebirth leaves him more conscious of his failures as a husband, father, and son. He begins sharing food, carrying his younger child, helping with family work, and considering how to protect his wife and grandmother. He knows that declarations alone will not repair his reputation and decides to prove himself gradually 2 5 12 16 22 43.

His reform remains uneven. He still readily leaves childcare to his wife when friends invite him out, dislikes lectures, and uses jokes or excuses to avoid uncomfortable questions. His renewed desire for marital intimacy also makes him persistent and intrusive toward Lin Xiuqing, including disregarding her wish to sleep separately 17 18 22 33.

Friendship remains central to him. He considers himself a failed family man but a successful friend, values his companions’ loyalty, and sees no reason to abandon them simply because he intends to become more responsible. He nevertheless resists joining their gambling on one occasion 17 19 43.

Abilities & Skills

Shore Foraging

He combines childhood coastal experience with knowledge retained from his later life to search beaches, rocks, and mudflats 8 26.

• Finds sand clams by their small airholes and digs them out by hand 8.
• Searches low, water-filled rocky areas where fish, shrimp, and crabs become trapped as the tide recedes 26.
• Spots a nest of eighteen or nineteen large blood clams using his excellent eyesight 27.
• Uses fire tongs to shift rocks, grip crabs, and drive a tiger grouper from cover; his friends help capture the grouper 26 28 46.
• Collects sea centipedes despite his disgust, carefully drawing buried ones out of the mud 46.
• Recognizes the danger of a stonefish’s venomous fin spines when handling it 47.

Tide Reading and Fishing Knowledge

His experience at sea allows him to understand conditions that his younger self would not normally be expected to know 3 8 44.

• Estimates upcoming high and low tides from the water’s current state 8.
• Explains the depletion of large yellow croakers through intensive fishing, drawing on conversations with crew members in his previous life 3.
• Understands why nearshore trawling often yields little and why less-visited islands retain abundant shellfish 43 44.
• Cannot predict when calm weather, favorable tides, and his relatives’ availability will coincide 9.
• Conceals some of his fishing knowledge to avoid making his changed behavior too conspicuous 44.

Catch Handling and Sales

He proves unexpectedly efficient at preparing seafood for sale and recognizes when local buyers may be offering poor value 3 33 41.

• Binds mud crabs with rope and sorts swimming crabs by size as quickly as his experienced relatives 10 33.
• Suggests transporting valuable fish to the county town with ice rather than accepting the village dock’s price 3.
• Negotiates with A-Cai by threatening to take the Spanish mackerel haul to Yujing Wharf 41.
• Gradually accepts his family’s practice of selling valuable catches and retaining cheaper seafood for meals 11 28 49.

Swimming and Recovery from Sea Fear

Although he knows how to swim, memories of drowning initially cause panic in open water. After jumping into the sea near the island, he loses coordination and begins sinking; Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng pull him to the surface 37.

• Recovers his swimming rhythm while moving toward shore 38.
• Realizes that concentrating on the Spanish mackerel catch has eliminated his panic aboard the boat 39.
• Travels out to sea without fear on the following trip 44.

Limits of His Second Chance

• His future memories are incomplete, particularly concerning the timing of his wife’s third pregnancy 16.
• He explicitly has no special “cheat ability” beyond what he regards as slightly improved luck 39.
• Knowledge does not make him proficient at every task: he overturns a loaded barrow while helping haul earth for the new houses 36.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Fire tongs — Used to move rocks, probe hiding places, and catch crabs 26 28 46.
• Screwdriver — Used to pry juvenile abalone from island rocks 45.
• Gloves — Keep his hands from directly touching sea centipedes 46.
• Buckets, bamboo basket, and sacks — Carry tools and hold gathered seafood 37 47 49.
• Hemp rope — An improvised restraint for his first two mud crabs 10.
• Rented boat — Obtained through A-Guang’s aunt’s family for island trips; the later rental costs ten yuan for two days 32 43.
• Family fishing boat — Owned by his father, not Ye Yaodong; his brothers repeatedly encourage him to join its fishing rotation 12 33.

Relationships

• Lin Xiuqing — Wife and former household breadwinner. Initially skeptical of his promises, she becomes more hopeful as he contributes labor and brings in income 2 7 22 50.
• Ye Chenghu — Older son. Ye Yaodong reprimands him for taking corn from another family’s plot and begins participating more in his care 24 30.
• Ye Chengyang — Younger son. Ye Yaodong increasingly carries and watches him, though he remains impatient with the boy’s behavior 2 11 17.
• Ye Father — Father, whose frustration with his idleness leads to frequent scolding and punishment. His attitude briefly softens after the Spanish mackerel haul 4 42.
• Chen Lixiang / Ye Mother — Mother. She doubts his reliability but defends him against outsiders, sells his valuable catches, and passes the money to Lin Xiuqing 7 10 33 49.
• Ye Grandma — His most devoted supporter. He promises her dentures, offers to live with her, and hopes to prevent the fatal fall he remembers 4 5 13 16.
• Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua — Older brothers. They encourage him to learn fishing, and he begins helping with their work on the family’s new houses 12 25 36.
• Ye Huimei — Younger sister. She envies their grandmother’s special affection for him 5.
• A-Guang / Pei Guang — Childhood friend and fishing partner who arranges access to the rented boat 32 39 44.
• Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng — Childhood friends and fishing partners; both rescue him when he sinks near the island 17 37 40.
• Chen Wei and Fatty — Friends who join the later island expedition; Fatty contributes fuel 29 43 48.
• A-Cai — Dock buyer with whom Ye Yaodong negotiates the group’s fish sale 41 49.
• Ye Second Sister-in-Law — A persistent critic of his idleness who questions whether his independent earnings should help fund the family houses 10 26 42.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Rebirth and Early Reform

• Defending the household: Immediately after rebirth, he forces his uncles to abandon their demand for a share of his father’s yellow croaker proceeds by threatening public scrutiny 1 2.
• First practical contributions: He joins shore gathering, catches two mud crabs, picks crops, and begins helping clear the new building plot 9 11 24 25.
• Earning cautious approval: A tiger grouper and blood clams provide saleable catches, while his appearance at the wharf to sort seafood surprises both his mother and brother 28 33.
• Volunteering for elder care: He and Lin Xiuqing offer to live with his parents and grandmother, although his father doubts whether he will actually support them 13.

First Sea Trip and Spanish Mackerel Windfall

• He arranges a short island trip to test his ability to return to sea, presenting his fear as possible seasickness 32 34.
• His panic and rescue are followed by recovery in the water and an unexpected Spanish mackerel feeding frenzy 37 38.
• The group returns with thousands of jin of fish, astonishing villagers who had regarded them as good-for-nothing companions 39 40.
• His independent earnings prompt a dispute over unequal contributions to the family’s house-building fund 42.

Island Foraging and Renewed Household Hope

• On the next expedition, ordinary trawling disappoints the group, but the island’s rocks prove densely covered in shellfish 44 45.
• Ye Yaodong gathers sea centipedes and seven large mud crabs—two females and five males—alongside other seafood 46 47 48.
• His mother sells the valuable catches, while the remaining shellfish are sorted for sale or meals for the house-building workers 49.
• The resulting income gives Lin Xiuqing renewed hope that he may genuinely become dependable 50.

Notable Quotes

“Anyone trying to extort money from my family is my enemy. Let’s talk outside!” 1

“Qing, once the family splits into separate households, let’s make a good life together!” 22

“Sea, I, Ye Yaodong, am back!” 44