Recaps

After returning to 1982, Ye Yaodong tried to become a better husband and father while his family planned to split households and build new houses. The arc left him heading back to the exposed beach with his fishing gear to forage at low tide.

• Ye Yaodong returned to age twenty-five after drowning, defended his father’s claim to the family’s old boat, and learned the yellow croakers had sold for 1,200 yuan.
• Ye Yaodong reunited with Lin Xiuqing and their children, began helping with chores, and supported Ye Father’s plan to build separate houses for the family.
• Ye Yaodong gathered shellfish and mud crabs at low tide, stood up to Auntie Zhu Hua’s gossip, and later helped bring home food for his household.
• Ye Eldest Uncle and Ye Second Uncle asked Ye Father for money and the use of his boat, but the family rejected their requests after the uncles spoke of the danger at sea.
• Ye Yaodong joined his friends to prepare Dragon-and-Phoenix Soup from a rooster and a cobra, then took leftovers home to Lin Xiuqing and the boys.
• Ye Yaodong promised Lin Xiuqing they would build a good life together, though their night was interrupted by the children and their crowded bed.
• Ye Yaodong took the children and Grandma to gather corn and snake gourds, then helped Ye Yaohua move weeds to be burned at the building plot.
• After seeing people forage on the exposed beach as the tide receded, Ye Yaodong went home to fetch his hook and bucket.

Ye Yaodong tried taking a boat out with his friends, overcame his fear of the sea, and earned a large sum from a huge Spanish mackerel catch. He then led another trip to the Isolated Island, gathered valuable shellfish and other seafood, and prepared to take Grandma to the hospital for dentures.

• Ye Yaodong joined A-Guang, Xiao Xiao, and A-Zheng on a rented boat trip to the Isolated Island, overcame a leg cramp and his fear of the sea, and helped haul in thousands of jin of Spanish mackerel.
• Ye Yaodong and his friends sold 7,628 jin of Spanish mackerel for 1,601 yuan and 88 fen, then divided the earnings after expenses despite Ye Second Sister-in-Law arguing that Ye Yaodong should contribute the money to housebuilding.
• Ye Yaodong returned to the Isolated Island with a larger group, where the men made modest trawling hauls before gathering shellfish from the island’s rocks.
• Ye Yaodong filled sacks with shellfish, caught sea centipedes, mud crabs, razor clams, mudskippers, octopuses, and stonefish, and returned to the boat with a much larger haul than his companions.
• Ye Yaodong gave Ye Mother his sea centipedes and seven mud crabs to sell, while Lin Xiuqing sorted his remaining shellfish for sale and family use.
• Ye Yaodong and his friends collected the Spanish mackerel payment from A-Cai and split the proceeds four ways, saving the remaining money for a celebration.
• Ye Yaodong’s friends helped carry stones at the house plot, and Ye Yaodong persuaded Grandma to accompany him to the County Hospital for removable dentures after Lin Xiuqing gave him fifty yuan.

Ye Yaodong gathered valuable seafood after the typhoon, saved A Bin with CPR, and joined Father Ye on a successful fishing trip. As the Ye family began building their houses, Lin Jishang brought men seeking to buy their plot, and Father Ye agreed to hear their offer.

• Ye Yaodong took Grandma to the county hospital for dentures, then brought her home to show off her new teeth around the village.
• Ye Yaodong persuaded Father Ye to take him to the Typhoon Shelter, and after the storm he and Lin Xiuqing gathered a large haul of seafood, including a rare Melo pearl and a valuable Luhua grouper.
• Ye Yaodong sold the seafood to A-Cai, then helped revive A Bin with CPR and was asked by Secretary Chen to teach the villagers the technique.
• Ye Yaodong caught rice eels with his friends, then went out to sea with Father Ye and learned to steer and operate the trawl as they brought in several large catches.
• Ye Yaodong and Father Ye sold much of their catch for ninety-six yuan and five fen, keeping yellowtail scad and other fish for the family.
• Secretary Chen visited to thank Ye Yaodong for saving his grandson and warned the family that Lin Jishang had asked about buying their registered house plot.
• Lin Jishang and two men approached the Ye family about buying the plot, and after discussing whether to sell, Father Ye led the family men inside to hear their offer.

Ye Yaodong bought a boat, made a profitable catch with his friends, and began fishing independently while helping his family build their houses. After he and Father Ye sold a giant croaker, a fisherman drowned in a storm, leaving Ye Yaodong concerned about the widow’s future.

• Father Ye exchanged the partly built plot for a replacement plot, workers’ wages and meals, and a six-meter boat, which Ye Yaodong later bought from him for 150 yuan.
• Mother Ye returned 100 yuan to Ye Yaodong and Lin Xiuqing to support his fresh start, and Ye Yaodong took his friends to the Isolated Island to gather shellfish and catch fish.
• Ye Yaodong and his friends caught and sold more than a thousand jin of Sea Wolf Fish and silver pomfret, then divided the proceeds and gathered valuable seafood on the island.
• Ye Yaodong sold Sea Chicken Feet to Hong Wenle for a hundred yuan, gave Lin Xiuqing the sale money and fabric he had bought for her, and later tested pot traps with A-Guang.
• Ye Yaodong and A-Guang retrieved traps full of crayfish, fish, shrimp, and softshell turtles, while A-Guang grew close to Ye Huimei and their friends began teasing him about courting her.
• A-Guang, A-Zheng, and Xiao Xiao welcomed their jointly purchased boat, and Ye Yaodong began setting his own pot traps while searching for a suitable island to forage.
• Ye Yaodong sold a seventy-two-jin Sea Pig, then went trawling with Father Ye and caught silver pomfret, crabs, and a valuable meagre before steering toward another fishing ground.
• A storm overtook Ye Yaodong and Father Ye, who helped Ma Lifang return to shore after Lin Yongshou fell overboard, and the family discovered their catch included a giant croaker.
• Hong Wenle bought the fifty-five-jin croaker for five hundred yuan, but Ye Yaodong and Father Ye fell ill after working in the rain, and Ye Yaodong worried that Lin Yongshou’s widow might lose the family boat.