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.

His reform eventually develops beyond occasional shore gathering into regular fishing and boat ownership. After operating a small wooden boat, he launches a seventeen-meter boat and works with his father using longlines, trawling gear, and cast nets. His catches and purchases gradually replace his reputation as a wastrel with that of a successful fisherman 79 81 187 192 208 260.

The family divides into separate households, with the three brothers living next door to one another. Lin Xiuqing becomes pregnant again, and the couple later has a living daughter, Ye Xiaoxi, changing the childless-daughter outcome of his previous life. His grandmother also remains alive and actively involved in family life during these later developments 170 345 452 575 814.

His growing activities include offshore jellyfish fishing, employing relatives, operating a city dried-fish shop with his in-laws’ help, and managing additional boats. By the later squid seasons, he is a well-known village figure whose return to shore attracts friendly attention 485 494 543 631 730 782 797.

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.
• Pride in his looks: He remains pleased with his appearance and welcomes the opportunity to have it photographed, joking that both elderly relatives and children like him 614.
• Physical effects of work: Carrying Mazu’s palanquin through a dozen villages leaves his shoulders red and bruised, requiring hot water and tea oil afterward 814.

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.

His later conduct shows a willingness to help without accepting unlimited responsibility for others. He shares unexpected salvage with his crew, considers reliable relatives first when hiring, and is pleased that his friends’ lives have improved. However, he refuses to guarantee his cousins’ safety merely because they want to follow him to distant fishing grounds 510 543 585 698.

He becomes increasingly cautious about mixing friendship with business. Although willing to help or invest in friends when able, he prefers control over his own ventures rather than arrangements likely to produce arguments. His estrangement from A-Wei and Rat also leads him to accept that not every friendship lasts a lifetime 528 580.

Food and family health remain important to him. He is willing to spend on nourishing meals and attributes his sons’ comparatively modest adult heights in his previous life to inadequate nutrition. His taste for keeping good seafood to eat sometimes draws his father’s disapproval 144 225.

He retains a forceful, sometimes violent response to theft and intimidation. He strikes Old Wang for taking scallops from his nets, confronts relatives grabbing household goods, and beats and restrains A-Qiu after catching him targeting the family’s dogs. Conversely, he explicitly disapproves of wife-beating and states that, despite his faults, he has never beaten his wife 190 452 514 664.

His growing prosperity brings confidence, but he recognizes how money changes others’ opinions. He observes that villagers reinterpret his disreputable past as a prodigal son’s reform once he becomes successful. He enjoys recognition and the prospect of appearing in a newspaper for an unusual encounter at sea, while disliking the attention that publicizing his wealth would bring 260 429 515 517.

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.
• Collects sea chicken feet from reef rocks and persuades his companions to help gather more by showing evidence of their sale value 84.
• Draws bamboo razor clams out of their holes with salt and teaches Lin Xiuqing the method 537.
• Uses a hand net to disturb a rock pool and spots a black seabream as it moves through the water 534.

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.
• Identifies a school of large yellow croaker from the broad golden patch moving beneath the water 162.
• Explains that longlining selectively catches larger fish and is less indiscriminate than nets that take both large and small fish 180.
• Uses submerged branches as squid egg-laying devices that attract spawning squid, allowing concentrated cast-net fishing 323 328 762.
• Follows dolphins herding fish to take advantage of the concentrated school, while accounting for the need to move the boat between casts 525.
• Recognizes that his two smaller boats lack the hauling capacity and specialized machinery required for purse seining 797.
• Understands the danger of needlefish striking people, recalling a fatal injury reported in his previous life 820.

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.
• Teaches inexperienced anglers how to bait shrimp correctly and bleed fish to preserve their meat 162.
• Negotiates a catch payment of 1,850 yuan from A-Cai, substantially recovering the outlay on his new boat 205.
• Distinguishes live-fish value from dead-fish value and recognizes the importance of keeping valuable groupers alive 207.
• Prices scallops according to their quality rather than simply matching competitors whose stock includes smaller specimens and empty shells 462.
• Promotes dried fish by emphasizing its storage life, convenience, quality, and affordability, serving both ordinary customers and bulk buyers 631.

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.
• Later jumps into the sea to help a drowning woman. Exhaustion limits his strength, but two other rescuers assist him and the woman survives 197.
• Swims beside a speared swordfish until it stops moving, then helps bring the heavy catch back to the boat 216.

Boat Operation and Fishing Gear

He progresses from sculling a small wooden boat to steering engine-powered fishing boats and coordinating several fishing methods with his father and hired relatives 81 187 208 761.

• Sets strings of fishing pots at selected locations and marks them with buoys; by the beam-raising ceremony he regularly operates three strings 97 105.
• Sets and retrieves longlines, including anchors, branch lines, buoys, and stone sinkers. Working alone initially forces him to alternate awkwardly between steering and handling the line 174 179 181.
• Expands to one thousand hooks in ten baskets on his seventeen-meter boat, using hired help to organize the tackle 187.
• Combines bottom longlining with cast-net fishing or trawling to make use of the waiting time between longline hauls 196 208.
• Casts a hand net accurately enough to assist fisheries officials in recapturing a Chinese sturgeon 128.
• Uses line, hooks, and stone sinkers for handline fishing after his makeshift rod is broken, later securing a row of handlines along the gunwale 399 400 407.
• Plays hooked fish by alternating tension and slack, though large fish can drag him toward the gunwale or leave line marks on his arms 402 404.
• Improvises shore nets to intercept scallops washing back into the sea after a typhoon 452 453.
• Uses his cast-net experience, aim, and judgment of the wind to catch a person in storm-driven water while secured to his father by a waist rope 445.
• Works efficiently alongside his eldest maternal cousin with separate cast nets during the squid season 762 790.

Diving and Underwater Gathering

He later uses diving equipment to reach submerged reefs, retrieve snagged gear, and gather seafood beyond the intertidal zone 299 301 347.

• Brings diving gear and a homemade mesh bag when setting pots near submerged reefs, allowing him to investigate when the gear becomes stuck 299.
• Becomes sufficiently accustomed to the equipment to descend directly, encountering a fish school at a depth of six or seven meters 301.
• Tests his equipment before entering the water and uses waist-tied mesh bags to collect bulky pen shells. He can leave a full bag underwater and haul it up afterward by a long line 347.
• Handles an underwater-caught wolf-fang eel cautiously, spinning it in the net before gripping its head to avoid its bite 364.
• Gathers abalone, pen shells, sea cucumbers, and other reef seafood while searching underwater for squid 743.
• Considers visibility and daylight when planning dives, favoring noon when the sun is high and the light stronger 736 823.

Literacy and Learning

• Attends the village literacy class at Lin Xiuqing’s urging while an injured hand heals 205.
• Learns to recognize most of the seafood-related characters taught over several days, including names for crabs, shrimp, squid, octopus, and cuttlefish 205.
• Initially recognizes characters more readily than he can write them, then begins copying them onto paper as his hand improves 205.

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.
• Physical exhaustion remains a serious limitation, affecting him during longline work, intensive net fishing, and a swimming rescue 179 197.
• He does not assume another rebirth would follow a fatal accident and keeps away from a dangerous swordfish until he believes it is dead 216.
• His father still regards him as insufficiently experienced for a long voyage and takes over the helm after they leave their city’s waters 485.
• His fish identification is based on common species and those he has seen before; he explicitly denies recognizing every fish in the sea 400.

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; later also reduce the strain of pulling fishing line by hand 46 402.
• 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; rope also serves as a safety tether during storm rescues and later dives 10 445 736.
• 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 — His father’s boat during the early post-rebirth period, rather than Ye Yaodong’s own vessel; his brothers repeatedly encourage him to join its fishing rotation 12 33.
• Small wooden boat — Operated independently after his early windfalls, initially using sculling and relatively simple fishing gear 79 81 97.
• Fishing pots / trap nets — Set in buoy-marked strings and retained as a sideline after his more profitable fishing operations expand 97 105 260.
• Longline tackle — Hooks and branch lines stored in baskets, with anchors, buoys, and stone sinkers; his seventeen-meter boat carries one thousand hooks in ten baskets 181 187.
• Seventeen-meter fishing boat — Launched with family help and firecrackers before its trial voyage. A later account identifies his newly purchased vessel as iron-hulled 187 192.
• Cast nets and trawl nets — Used alongside longlines to increase returns; his mother also makes additional cast nets for his later squid fishing 196 208 762.
• Makeshift fishing rod and handlines — His crude rod is eventually broken, leaving line and hooks that he adapts for handline fishing and a row of gunwale-mounted lines 139 187 399 400 407.
• Fish spear, cleaver, landing net, and pole-mounted hook — Tools used to secure, subdue, or lift large fish that cannot simply be pulled over the side 216 402.
• Diving equipment and mesh bags — Used for underwater gathering, inspection of snagged pots, and collecting bulky shellfish 299 301 347.
• Ambergris — A valuable item he brings home concealed under his shirt in a bucket; later theft-related rumors do not change the fact that the ambergris remains at home 192 356.
• Chest of gold ingots — Found in connection with a submerged wreck. Captain Chen identifies the recovered wreck material as Western Han treasures, and his father is astonished to learn what Ye Yaodong found 400.
• Dried-fish shop — A city retail and wholesale outlet helped by Father Lin and Lin Mother 631.
• Additional fishing boats — Later expansion includes a boat acquired from a desperate gambler and another reserved through the Border Defense Production Team. He subsequently operates a formerly confiscated vessel and coordinates two boats’ work 730 761 797.
• Household guard dogs — Include Big Blackie and Xiaohua. The dogs protect the courtyard, help catch A-Qiu, and accompany him on patrol 657 664 720.

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. Their later marriage includes shared business concerns, her encouragement of his literacy lessons, and affectionate, flirtatious shore gathering. She also cares for him after the strenuous Mazu procession 205 537 814.
• 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. He later accompanies his father on an outing near his maternal grandparents’ home and openly declares that he likes his father during a family photography gathering 228 614.
• Ye Chengyang — Younger son. Ye Yaodong increasingly carries and watches him, though he remains impatient with the boy’s behavior 2 11 17. The boy later hugs his leg and declares his father his favorite 614.
• Ye Xiaoxi — Daughter born in his second life. Ye Yaodong proudly insists that she resembles him, plays with her, and receives her affectionate comfort when his shoulders are bruised after carrying Mazu’s palanquin 345 575 797 814.
• 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. He later becomes Ye Yaodong’s regular fishing partner, sharing in the pride of his boat launch while continuing to supervise him and worry about his safety. His fatigue eventually requires changes to the fishing arrangements 187 485 707 797.
• 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. She continues helping by weaving nets and joining a later fishing trip, although her criticism and habitual lectures persist even as his success becomes evident 520 614 762 797.
• 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. She later secretly buys and stews an old hen to nourish him after exhausting work, helps him stop relatives grabbing goods, and worries over his injured shoulders after the procession 356 514 814.
• 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. The brothers later maintain neighboring households, share proceeds from a giant squid equally, and discuss sharing a newly obtained boat 289 373 730.
• Ye Huimei — Younger sister. She envies their grandmother’s special affection for him 5. He remembers her caring for Lin Xiuqing during her terminal illness and advancing medical expenses in his previous life, making him especially concerned about her marriage. Her match with A-Guang leaves him awkward about his friend becoming his brother-in-law. She later joins a family fishing trip and helps haul valuable longline catches 138 205 255.
• A-Guang / Pei Guang — Childhood friend and fishing partner who arranges access to the rented boat 32 39 44. His match with Ye Huimei alters their family relationship. He continues accompanying Ye Yaodong on outings, visiting the shipyard with him and helping restrain A-Qiu 205 575 664.
• Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng — Childhood friends and fishing partners; both rescue him when he sinks near the island 17 37 40. Their friendship continues through later fishing seasons and household visits. Xiao Xiao repays a five-hundred-yuan loan, after which Ye Yaodong retrieves the IOUs and has them torn up 331 379 790.
• Chen Wei and Fatty — Friends who join the later island expedition; Fatty contributes fuel 29 43 48.
• A-Wei and Rat — Companions who distance themselves after feeling excluded from the others’ early success. Ye Yaodong unsuccessfully invites A-Wei for drinks, while Rat later visits with pears. Their subsequent business-related difficulties reinforce his preference for keeping friendship and ownership separate 105 528 529 580 583.
• A-Cai — Dock buyer with whom Ye Yaodong negotiates the group’s fish sale 41 49. He remains a recurring buyer and conversational companion; despite considering him slippery, Ye Yaodong acknowledges his broad knowledge 205 570 790.
• 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. He later warns against investing in the wealthy cousin’s promised monthly returns, but she remains tempted. The eventual collapse damages both older brothers’ households 170 275 277.
• Father Lin and Lin Mother — Parents-in-law who join a squid-gathering trip and later help run his city dried-fish shop. He is pleased by their willingness to serve customers despite their limited Mandarin 331 631 692.
• Lin Xiangrong and his other brother-in-law — Lin Xiuqing’s brothers. Lin Xiangrong witnesses his release of a suspected Chinese sturgeon, and both brothers later visit the family and meet his baby daughter 126 345.
• Lin Guangyuan — Younger relative from Lin Xiuqing’s family who accompanies his fishing expeditions, gathers island seafood, and helps load squid catches 331 790.
• Ye Yaosheng / A-Sheng — Paternal cousin whom Ye Yaodong initially knows only distantly. After working together, he regards him as steady, hardworking, and trustworthy, making him a preferred person to hire 452 543 797.
• Eldest Maternal Cousin — A reliable relative and later fishing partner who helps operate the second boat and cast nets during squid season 543 761 762 790 797.
• Director Chen — Fisheries official associated with the Chinese sturgeon incident. He remembers Ye Yaodong on a later village inspection, and Ye Yaodong invites him and the accompanying officials to dinner 128 606.
• Captain Chen and the soldiers — Accompany him while watching the shipwreck site. They help with work aboard, learn handline fishing, and discuss the wreck’s recovered artifacts with him 399 400 407.
• Lü family — Thank him for rescuing Lü Hongwei and others, giving him rice, eggs, and vegetables during his jellyfish-fishing trip 494.
• A-Qiu — A man from Haiqing Village with an old grudge. Ye Yaodong catches him targeting the family’s dogs, beats him, and takes him away tied up with A-Guang’s help 664.

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.
• After a typhoon, the couple gathers seafood together, including a large sea bass, mud crabs, and a huge fish they suspect is a Dussumier’s thryssa 62.
• Later island expeditions yield bamboo razor clams, large crabs, and sea chicken feet. A 478-yuan sale strengthens the friends’ interest in obtaining their own boat 84.

Independent Fishing and the New Houses

• He begins operating a small wooden boat and expresses the ambition to upgrade to a motorboat when he can afford it 79 81.
• He sets fishing pots at sea, developing a repeatable source of income rather than relying only on exceptional catches 97 105.
• He and his brothers participate in the new houses’ beam-raising ceremony, and their mother announces a move-in date on the twentieth of the lunar month 105.
• His attempt to renew friendly contact with A-Wei fails when A-Wei complains that he and Rat were excluded. Ye Yaodong regrets the estrangement but refuses to keep pursuing someone who rebuffs him 105.
• After the household division, the three brothers’ neighboring homes become the setting for continuing cooperation, disagreements, and shared family occasions 373 452 623.

Chinese Sturgeon and Expanding Fishing Methods

• He releases a fish he suspects is a Chinese sturgeon, hoping it will survive and reproduce rather than contribute to the species’ decline 126.
• When fisheries personnel locate it again but struggle to cast their net, he volunteers and successfully helps bring up the sturgeon 128.
• He experiments with simple rod fishing, then demonstrates proper baiting and casting for Hong Wenle’s inexperienced companions during a sea-fishing outing 139 162.
• During the outing, he catches a large silver pomfret and spots a school of large yellow croaker beneath the sea 162.
• He adopts longline fishing, experiments with shrimp, fish flesh, and squid bait, and discovers both the method’s strong returns and the difficulty of handling it alone 174 179.
• A large catch of blue-banded sea snakes attracts attention ashore, while he openly explains the fishing method rather than treating it as a secret 180 181.

Larger Boat, Family Growth, and Changing Reputation

• His seventeen-meter boat is launched before a crowd of congratulating villagers, with his father visibly proud of his achievement 187.
• He uses one thousand longline hooks and seeks additional net gear to occupy the waiting periods between hauls 187.
• He brings valuable ambergris home discreetly, while recognizing that his regular work and boat ownership have already changed how villagers treat him 192.
• He combines bottom longlining with intensive cast-net fishing, then helps rescue a drowning woman despite being physically exhausted 196 197.
• A negotiated 1,850-yuan payment delights Lin Xiuqing because they have nearly recovered the cost of the new boat 205.
• While his injured hand heals, he attends literacy classes and learns to recognize seafood-related characters 205.
• His work expands to coordinated longlining and trawling with his father, as well as physically demanding captures such as a speared swordfish 208 216.
• Lin Xiuqing’s pregnancy is followed by the birth of a daughter. Ye Yaodong proudly argues that the baby resembles him, and she is later identified as Ye Xiaoxi 170 345 575.
• By the time acquaintances begin flattering him about his earnings, he recognizes that prosperity has transformed his old reputation into a story of successful reform 260.

Investment Warnings and Family Responsibility

• He warns his brothers and sisters-in-law against trusting their wealthy eldest cousin’s offer of monthly investment returns 168 170.
• The later crisis reveals that both sisters-in-law invested one thousand yuan, with the eldest sister-in-law having secretly increased her original amount 275.
• During the resulting disorder, Ye Yaodong and A-Guang beat back two looters and recover stolen possessions for the cousin’s wife and children 277.
• His nephew Ye Chenghai calls him dependable, a striking reversal of the family’s earlier judgments. Ye Yaodong urges the boy to study rather than romanticize earning money without an education 277.
• He and his brothers later sell a giant squid, escape men pursuing them through town, and divide the proceeds equally 289.

Diving, Squid Grounds, and the Shipwreck

• He begins taking diving equipment to submerged reefs, using it when fishing pots snag and subsequently developing underwater gathering into a regular part of his work 299 301 347.
• He places egg-laying branches to attract squid and gains an early advantage before other villagers prepare similar devices 323 328.
• A squid-gathering expedition with his in-laws and Lin Guangyuan brings him together with A-Zheng and Xiao Xiao. When another boat circles the island, he approaches cautiously with his companions rather than immediately starting a fight 331.
• His expanding catches and hard work continue alongside domestic care: after one exhausting day, his grandmother secretly brings him a specially stewed hen 356.
• Villagers later follow his boat in search of fish schools, placing trust in his ability to find profitable grounds 377.
• While watching a submerged wreck with Captain Chen and soldiers, he occupies himself with handline fishing and develops a row of lines along the gunwale 399 400 407.
• Discussion of the recovered Western Han artifacts reveals to his father that Ye Yaodong found a chest of gold ingots, leaving the older man stunned 400.
• A newspaper correspondent later seeks an interview about reports that he rode a large marine animal, freed it from a net, and fed it. He welcomes possible publicity for this encounter, unlike publicity centered on his wealth 429.

Typhoon Rescue and Scallop Harvest

• During a typhoon, fish washed toward the houses tempt him and his father outside despite the dangerous conditions 442.
• He later uses a cast net to catch a person in the water, securing himself to his father by rope. A wave overturns him, but the tether provides protection against being swept away 445.
• Afterward, he improvises nets to intercept scallops escaping back into the sea 452 453.
• He catches Old Wang stealing from one of those nets, confronts him physically, and rejects the claim that an indirect prospective marriage connection excuses the theft 452.
• With his father and Ye Yaosheng helping settle the dispute, he obtains a basket of shellfish as compensation and retrieves a heavy catch before astonished villagers 452.
• He takes the better scallops to market and prices them according to their quality, using the opportunity to cultivate buyers 453 462.

Jellyfish Expedition and Salvaged Cargo

• He undertakes a longer voyage toward the Zhejiang–Fujian border with his father, who remains cautious about his experience on extended journeys 485.
• He makes contact with local fishermen and gathers information while avoiding unnecessary disclosure about his own origins 488.
• During the jellyfish expedition, the Lü family thanks him for rescuing Lü Hongwei and others. His father urges him to stay out of a local village fight, and he watches the men return bruised with their recovered engine and jellyfish 494.
• On the homeward journey, his group retrieves floating cargo near a damaged smuggling boat, finding fabric, electronic watches, cassette tapes, clothing, shoes, and mosquito nets 510.
• He allows the crew to choose a few goods for their families, treating the salvage as an unexpected windfall that can be shared 510.
• Back in the village, he uses a basin and laundry beater supplied by his grandmother to interrupt relatives grabbing goods, warning that kinship does not entitle them to take household property 514.
• The journey increases his local prestige, but the stream of visitors and widespread discussion of his earnings also become burdensome 515 517.

Business Expansion and Dried-Fish Trade

• He increasingly employs trusted relatives, considering Ye Yaosheng suitable because of his reliability and the difficult circumstances he has observed 543.
• He visits the shipyard with his father and A-Guang, learning about multipurpose fishing boats and their equipment from Factory Director Wu 575 576.
• Business disagreements reinforce his preference for keeping control of his own ventures rather than entangling ownership with friendship 580 583.
• He sees his friends’ steady work and improved lives as a positive consequence of his own changed direction after rebirth 585.
• During a later Fisheries Bureau visit, Director Chen recognizes him from the sturgeon incident. Ye Yaodong hosts officials and village cadres at his home while the family prepares extra seafood 606.
• His dried-fish shop opens strongly with his in-laws helping serve customers. He replenishes stock overnight, brings furniture, and catches a thief attempting to steal dried fish 631.
• The shop attracts both household customers and fish dealers, including a five-hundred-jin bulk buyer, while a subsequent morning’s business exceeds two hundred jin 631.
• His trade later draws a large Jiefang truck to the family courtyard, attracting villagers’ attention and help from his brothers’ households 657.

Household Protection and Additional Boats

• His dogs catch A-Qiu attempting to snare one of them. Ye Yaodong beats him, A-Guang frees Xiaohua, and the two men bind and take A-Qiu away 664.
• He declines to promise responsibility for cousins who want to follow him to distant waters, although he acknowledges that he cannot prevent independent boats from following 698.
• During the Luzhou Island developments, he boards an unattended boat, checks its cabin, raises its anchor, and starts its engine while his nervous father keeps watch 707.
• He later tells Lin Xiuqing that the Border Defense Station rescued two captured scouts and made arrests on the island, although he still does not know what the island concealed 720.
• He stations dogs around his home and takes Big Blackie on village patrol, where the dog barks at strangers and drives off troublemakers 720.
• Further expansion brings two additional boat opportunities: a gambler’s hurried sale and a vessel reserved through the Border Defense Production Team. He discusses sharing a boat with his brothers 730.
• He subsequently operates a formerly confiscated fishing boat with his eldest maternal cousin, then coordinates its fishing with the family’s other vessel 761 762 797.

Later Squid Seasons and Mazu Procession

• With egg-laying branches attracting squid, he and his eldest maternal cousin cast separate nets to work more efficiently 762.
• A particularly full boatload leads him to tell A-Cai that he has exceeded the day’s catch record, after hearing that Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng brought in more than sixteen hundred jin of squid 790.
• His father’s fatigue disrupts the usual departure arrangements, and his mother accompanies him while Ye Yaosheng and his eldest maternal cousin operate the other boat 797.
• He considers his mother’s suggestion of two-boat purse seining but explains that their vessels lack the necessary hauling capacity and equipment 797.
• He carries Mazu’s palanquin through a dozen villages during a large procession, with crowds kneeling to welcome it. Lin Xiuqing photographs the event 814.
• Returning with bruised shoulders, he receives care from Lin Xiuqing and his grandmother, while Ye Xiaoxi blows on the sore area and kisses him 814.
• His later fishing continues to involve natural hazards: a cabin light attracts needlefish that suddenly rain onto the deck while the two family boats are traveling together 823.

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

“Take care, buddy. Wishing you a safe journey and plenty of children and grandchildren!” 126

“Study hard. Working for a living is tough.” 277

“Ah, true. Being born into the right family takes skill too. Cherish life while you're living it! My next life might not be as comfortable as this one.” 400

“You have to be eager when it comes to making money, or how will you get rich?” 761

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