Mother Ye

Biodata

Background / History

Family and household

Chen Lixiang is the second child in her natal family and married within her own village. She and Father Ye have three sons—Ye Yaopeng, Ye Yaohua, and Ye Yaodong—and a daughter, Ye Huimei. Before the household division, Huimei shares a room with her parents, while each son's family occupies one of the other three rooms in their crowded, deteriorating home 5 6 7.

Mother Ye has cared for all three daughters-in-law after childbirth and helped raise their children. During the discussion about who will live with the parents in old age, she feels hurt by the eldest and second daughters-in-law's reluctance; only Lin Xiuqing is willing to share a home with them 14.

Building separate homes

The family's large yellow croaker catch sells for 1,200 yuan at five yuan per jin. Mother Ye initially considers the buyer generous for rounding up the payment, then regrets the sale after Ye Yaodong says the fish could have fetched twice as much in the county town 3.

She and Father Ye decide to put the windfall toward new houses, supplementing it with later fishing income. Besides relieving overcrowding, spending the money on construction will stop relatives from coveting it. Their plan ultimately provides separate houses for all three sons, leaving the parents to support themselves 6 14.

Mother Ye is tasked with choosing an auspicious construction date. Once work begins, she helps supply meals for the workers and carries gravel to the building site. She also checks with Ye Yaodong about whether his friends should receive half a day's wages for helping 16 36 49 50.

Recognizing Ye Yaodong's change

Mother Ye initially doubts Ye Yaodong's promises to work. On their shore-gathering outing, she entrusts him with collecting oysters and other shellfish but assumes he has run away when he disappears from view. His return with a catch proves otherwise, and she defends him when Auntie Zhu Hua insults him and their family 9 10.

Her trust grows when he reports to the wharf as instructed and efficiently helps sort the catch. She restrains herself from scolding him in public and later tells his sisters-in-law to let him spend time with friends because he has completed his work 33.

His larger hauls still astonish her. She questions him about the Spanish mackerel catch and later sells his sea centipedes and seven mud crabs for over ten yuan. By then, his dependability makes her happier than earning the money herself, though she continues insisting that he help with construction when he is not gathering seafood 41 49 50.

Appearance

• Callused palms: Years of work have left her hands heavily callused; Ye Yaodong notes that her slaps hurt 11.

Personality

Mother Ye is blunt and quick-tempered about idleness. She repeatedly challenges Ye Yaodong to support his wife and children, assigns him work, and threatens punishment when he evades responsibility. Her discipline nevertheless contains affection: during the early beating, she deliberately uses less force than Father Ye because she still feels tenderly toward her son 4 12 43.

Her thrift focuses on turning valuable seafood into savings rather than eating it. She softens when Ye Yaodong explains that he wanted the mud crabs for the children, but still sells them because two crabs cannot fairly feed so many youngsters. She also accepts keeping Spanish mackerel for fish balls after Lin Xiuqing points out that his friends have retained fish too 11 41.

She tries to treat her sons and daughters-in-law fairly. When the other daughters-in-law take seafood to their parents, she offers to reserve a good selection for Lin Xiuqing's later visit. Her warmth toward grandchildren is more immediate: she comforts Ye Chengyang by pretending to punish his father and promising food 11 33.

Abilities & Skills

Shore Gathering and Seafood Assessment

Mother Ye gathers shellfish and recognizes which catches are worth selling 9 11 28.

• Pries oysters from rocks with a screwdriver and digs for sand clams 9.
• Checks mud crabs' shell hardness and estimates their sale value 11.
• Identifies large blood clams as valuable enough to sell with Ye Yaodong's tiger grouper 28.
• Recognizes sea centipedes as a desirable catch despite their writhing appearance 49.

Catch Handling and Food Management

She helps process fishing catches and organizes how the household uses its seafood 33.

• Binds crabs and sorts them by size at the wharf 33.
• Directs the family to braise larger fish and boil, shell, or dry smaller seafood before it spoils 33.
• Prepares corn and noodles, including blue-mussel noodle soup for the construction workers 5 31 49.
• Works on fishing nets with the household women 7.

Relationships

• Father Ye — Husband and partner in planning the new houses and household division 6 14.
• Ye Yaopeng — Eldest son; his hardworking habits form part of her unfavorable comparison with Ye Yaodong 4 5.
• Ye Yaohua — Second son; likewise regarded as hardworking, unlike his younger brother's former behavior 4 5.
• Ye Yaodong — Third son; she scolds his laziness but protects him from outsiders and gradually acknowledges his improvement 4 10 33 49.
• Ye Huimei — Daughter; lives in her parents' room before the household divides and is expected to remain with them while unmarried 6.
• Lin Xiuqing — Third daughter-in-law; Mother Ye recognizes her net-making labor, passes along money from Ye Yaodong's sales, and appreciates her willingness to live with the parents 11 14 50.
• Ye Grandma — Mother-in-law; Mother Ye resents her indulgence of Ye Yaodong but helps with her crops and household needs 4 5.
• Ye Chengyang — Grandson; she defends him from his father's teasing and quickly soothes his complaints 7 11.
• Eldest maternal aunt — Mother Ye's elder sister; invites her to go shore-gathering 7.
• Auntie Zhu Hua — A woman from the neighboring village with whom she trades insults after Zhu Hua disparages Ye Yaodong and the family's poverty 10.

Notable Quotes

“Of course. Anything worth money should be sold.” 28

“Let him go. It's already good enough that he helped with the work.” 33

Trivia

• Mother Ye says the family made proper offerings to Mazu before its first fishing trip to ask for safe, smooth sailing 41.