Recaps

Ye Yaodong and Lin Xiuqing welcomed their daughter while Ye Yaodong dealt with a relative’s gambling and the family’s birth fine. After taking the children to forage along the shore and gathering firewood and fruit, Ye Yaodong and Father Ye found the squid season in full swing and brought home a huge catch.

• Ye Yaodong kept his abalone and sea cucumbers’ source secret, then Lin Xiuqing learned the seafood’s value and scolded him for serving it to the family.
• Ye Yaodong reported Lin Jianqiang’s gambling to the Border Defense Station, and Lin Jianqiang was arrested and sentenced to ten years.
• Ye Yaodong and Father Ye tested their new net hauler, salvaged a diesel engine from a shipwreck, and returned home as Lin Xiuqing went into labor.
• Lin Xiuqing gave birth to Ye Xiaoxi before the inspectors reached their house, and Secretary Chen later helped the family settle its 500-yuan fine.
• Ye Yaodong tipped his boat for cleaning and took children, including Lin Guangyuan, to gather shellfish, sandworms, crabs, and anchovies along the shore.
• Ye Yaodong sold the crabs and a large yellow croaker, gathered sandworms with his family, and warned the children away from dangerous sea creatures.
• Ye Yaodong and Father Ye found squid stranded by the receding tide, then began placing branch bundles near Oarfish Island to attract spawning squid.
• Ye Yaodong and Father Ye hauled in nearly ten baskets of squid, while Mother Ye and the daughters-in-law salted squid eggs and processed leatherjacket fish.

Ye Yaodong confronted poachers, sold their seized engine, and took his brothers-in-law fishing as the squid run continued. After neighbors crowded into his home and stole his fake ambergris, Xu Laifu’s confession revealed that Li Lao'er had arranged the theft.

• Ye Yaodong and Father Ye gathered squid, while Ye Yaodong welcomed Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng to fish beside them.
• After the rain kept the boats ashore, Ye Yaodong took his in-laws squid gathering and confronted a boat poaching near the island.
• Ye Yaodong and his companions beat the poachers and took their squid, net, and engine, then fought off the men who came to reclaim it.
• Ye Yaodong sold the engine to Licheng for 210 yuan and divided the proceeds among the adults and Lin Guangyuan.
• Ye Yaodong bought the Old Lady a phonograph and a radio, while his family listened to broadcasts and teased him about his spending.
• Ye Yaodong took Lin Xianghui and Lin Xiangrong fishing, collected seabird eggs and pen shells, and sold his catch as squid prices fell.
• After discovering that a neighbor had stolen his fake ambergris, Ye Yaodong heard that the Xu family was claiming it as a treasure.
• Li Lao'er confronted Xu Laifu, who confessed that he had stolen the piece from Ye Yaodong's home for a promised yuan, and the villagers sent word to Ye Yaodong.

After the Xu family dispute, Ye Yaodong moved on to new fishing grounds, teaching Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng to dive and evading A-Qiu’s pursuers. He found successive mullet schools and shared the fishing grounds with a few villagers, leaving them eager to follow him again.

• Ye Yaodong and his family confronted the Xu family, learned Xu Laifu had stolen only a painted piece of wood, and drove Li Lao’er’s family from the village after taking eggs as compensation.
• Ye Yaodong celebrated Ye Xiaoxi’s one-month milestone, then took Lin Xiuqing to the county hospital for her sterilization operation.
• Ye Yaodong and Father Ye hauled fishing pots near a submerged reef, where Ye Yaodong gathered valuable seafood and showed Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng how to use his diving equipment.
• Ye Yaodong split the divers’ catch into three shares and later went fishing with Father Ye, finding a live East Star Grouper among the day’s catch.
• When A-Qiu and his relatives pursued their boats, Ye Yaodong, Father Ye, Xiao Xiao, and A-Zheng used hit-and-run tactics to escape them.
• Ye Yaodong and Father Ye chased mullet schools, following seabirds and bringing in more than four hundred jin of fish in one day.
• Ye Yaodong fished near his brothers for several days, let three villagers’ boats follow him, and later refused to guide a larger group while advising them to watch seabirds for signs of fish.

Ye Yaodong uncovered a bronze cauldron and a chest of gold while helping county officials salvage a Western Han wreck, then helped negotiate the cauldron’s transfer from Mazu Temple. With the salvage area under watch, he returned to fishing alongside Father Ye and the soldiers, ending on a shellfish-gathering trip to an island.

• Ye Yaodong helped plant osmanthus trees, refused another savings pool, and endured a long storm that ended with the family collecting seafood on the beach.
• Ye Yaodong and Father Ye returned to sea after the storm, found their net caught on a submerged reef, and hauled up a bronze cauldron and other artifacts.
• Ye Yaodong donated the cauldron to Mazu Temple and secretly discovered a box containing a hundred gold cakes, which he buried beneath an osmanthus tree.
• County officials questioned Ye Yaodong about the find, and he guided their soldiers to the wreck, where they recovered bronze vessels, porcelain fragments, and chests.
• Ye Yaodong and Father Ye hauled Captain Chen from the water with bronze chamber pots in his hands, then took the soldiers for oxygen treatment and food.
• Ye Yaodong warned his relatives not to collect cultural relics and proposed that officials fund repairs to Mazu Temple in exchange for the cauldron.
• Secretary Chen arranged village positions for Mother Ye and Lin Xiuqing and asked Ye Yaodong and Father Ye to patrol the salvage area until the salvage team arrived.
• Ye Yaodong fished with the soldiers, learned the wreck held Western Han treasures, and later landed a large Akahata before showing Captain Chen how to collect shellfish on an island.