Father Chen gave Mother Chen another reproachful look. "Honestly, why didn't you tell me about something this important sooner? Why wait until now?"
"How could I tell you? Once you'd had your drink, you couldn't tell east from west. You slept like the dead and only got up at mealtime, and the twins were there then. How was I supposed to say it? It's not too late now."
Chen Haichao changed the subject. "Mom said we could tell Eldest Uncle and let them make some money too."
"Would that work? Wouldn't too many people know about it?"
"Eldest Uncle's family should be fine. If we sell together, we'll all be grasshoppers on the same rope. We just need to tell Eldest Uncle and Auntie not to let the children know. Adults know what's at stake, but children don't have a gate on their mouths."
"All right, then wait until you're ready to deliver and sell the goods before telling them. There's no need to tell them ahead of time. They have some stock at home too, so they can sell whatever they can. If too many people know in advance, word will get around. Just have them bring their goods along at the last minute."
"Mm."
His father and Eldest Uncle got along quite well. The two brothers cared for his grandmother together, and his mother got along well with Eldest Auntie too.
Eldest Auntie had given birth to three sons in a row, while his mother had given birth to four daughters in a row. When people said his mother would have no one to care for her in old age or see her off when she died, Eldest Auntie had helped her curse them back. Supposedly, the two had stood together against his great-grandmother's preference for boys over girls.
His male cousins were good too. They were all family, and even if you broke the bones, the tendons still bound the brothers together. They stood united against outsiders and had no real conflicts among themselves. They had married and set up separate households early on, each living his own life.
So he had no objection to taking their goods along to sell for some money too. After all, opportunities like this were rare. Once they passed this village, there would be no shop.
It was already 1980, and policies had loosened in many places. Before long, private businesses would be permitted, and then the term "ten-thousand-yuan household" would appear.
They were skirting the rules a little now, but as long as they did it secretly, it wasn't much of a problem.
"Let's put our backs into it and scoop up as much as we can. We'll come back at low tide tomorrow morning," Father Chen urged, finally realizing they needed to hurry.
As Mother Chen worked, she said, "Let's borrow another flashlight tomorrow night. We can split up and scoop up more that way."
Chen Pandi suddenly said excitedly, "Oh, there are so many little squid too! They're delicious. So they're transparent in the water."
"They're all attracted by the light. This is phototaxis too. Wherever there's light, they come up. Scoop up however many there are. We'll sort them out when we get home and have an extra dish tomorrow."
"There are plenty of these too..."
The whole family was working up a storm, growing more energetic the more they did. They wished they could scoop up everything right under their noses.
Marine resources were abundant these days. Every low tide left heaps of small fish and shrimp stranded, but no one cared to pick them up. There was more than they could eat, and they couldn't sell them. The production team also handed some out every day, so nobody bothered collecting them.
Only children craving a bite to eat, with nothing else available, would come to the shore to pick up some snails and take them home to pick out the meat.
As Chen Haichao worked hard, he kept wondering how things were going with catching the adulterers over there. Would they manage to catch them?
If they couldn't catch them today, he could only ask his friends to keep watch again tomorrow.
Just as the whole family was getting into the swing of things, a beam of flashlight light appeared on the shore. He noticed it immediately; he had been keeping a close eye on the shore the whole time.
"Brother, Brother, we caught them, we caught them!" Chen Xiaoqi shouted from the edge of the beach.
"Stop working! They caught them!"
Chen Haichao hurriedly tossed his hand net onto the exposed beach and dragged the sack in his hand onto it as well.
Mother Chen was excited. "They really caught them? Come on, let's leave our things here. No one will take them."
Father Chen and Chen Sidi were both utterly bewildered. They didn't know what the others meant by catching them. Only the other three knew.
"What are you talking about?"
"They caught some adulterers. No more talking, hurry up and run! Leave the things on the beach for now. Nobody will take them."
Mother Chen put the things in a pile and nimbly ran after Chen Haichao.
They had caught some adulterers?
Wasn't this far too exciting, far too lively?
Father Chen dropped his tools and hurried after them too.
Once Chen Haichao reached the shore, he scooped up Chen Xiaoqi, tucked him under his arm, and ran.
Tucked under his arm, Chen Xiaoqi didn't mind being jostled. He even held the flashlight for him. "Brother, your friends said they're at the old educated youth quarters."
"Well, look at that. They sure know how to pick a spot."
It was only around seven or eight, and most of the villagers hadn't gone to bed yet. When they heard the commotion, things grew lively. One after another, they came running out in disarray, cotton coats thrown over their long johns, afraid they'd be a step too late.
"Where? Where? Didn't I just hear someone shouting that they'd caught adulterers?"
"I heard there's a shameless pair fooling around at the educated youth quarters!"
"Run faster! Someone's fooling around at the educated youth quarters..."
"What? Someone's fooling around... Hurry..."
"Ah, my shoe..."
As Chen Haichao ran, he asked Chen Xiaoqi, "Were you the one shouting as you ran?"
"No, it was Brother Qiangzi. He was afraid I wouldn't know the way in the dark, so he ran with me for part of the way, shouting as he went. Then he left me at the turnoff to the shore and told me to call you. He ran back to the educated youth quarters, shouting all the way."
"What a shame. Next time I'll get him a bronze gong."
Mother Chen was now full of energy and caught up with nimble strides. "Xiao Qi, did they really catch them? What did you see?"
"We followed someone to the educated youth quarters, and then an auntie came too. The two of them were in a room saying, 'I missed you so much,' and then Brother Qiangzi wouldn't let me listen. He said I was a little tagalong and took me to the village to call people."
"You really are a little tagalong!" He had kept them from eavesdropping.
"I am not! I came all this way to call you. Without me, you wouldn't even know where it was. The educated youth quarters are a long way off, and so is the shore. Brother Qiangzi still had to run all over the village calling people."
Mother Chen said as she ran, "Xiao Qi did well today. We should praise him."
"Then you have to give me a reward!"
"I'll give you a reward when we get back."
The road was now full of people running toward the educated youth quarters, discussing it as they went.
"Who's so bold as to fool around like that?"
"We'll know when we go see..."
Father Chen caught up and said, "In previous years, the production team never stopped work this early. We always worked until the day before New Year's Eve. It's rare for us to get time off on Little New Year this year. They must have too much time on their hands, fooling around like that."
Mother Chen cursed as she ran. "Pah, that shameless pair..."
By the time they reached the educated youth quarters, a crowd had already gathered three layers deep, pointing and gossiping.
After the college entrance examination was reinstated, the movement to send people up to the mountains and down to the countryside came to a halt. In 1979, the educated youths had begun finding ways to return to the cities.
No educated youths lived in the quarters now. They had only recently been vacated and weren't run-down, making them quite suitable for an affair. There was no need for the illicit lovers to take the sky as their blanket and the earth as their bed.
Li Zhengjun held an armful of clothes and trousers and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Folks, I went out to use the toilet and heard someone shouting about catching adulterers at the educated youth quarters, so I hurried over!"
"I never expected that when we all got to the educated youth quarters and broke down the door together, we'd find him having an affair with Widow Liu! They'd stripped stark naked and were hugging each other!"
"Heavens, my goosebumps are falling all over the ground! It's a romance between young and old! I can't take it, my eyes are going blind... Help..."
"Those pale, bare buttocks... I'm going blind, going blind... Why did I have to see that..."
Li Zhengjun kept shouting without letup. There were always people who hadn't heard, so he had to keep repeating himself.
The others chimed in too.
"As soon as we arrived, we heard noises inside the room. It gave us such a fright that we hurriedly broke down the door, and there they were, both stark naked..."
The two childhood friends were clever too. They didn't stick their necks out. Instead, they waited until they saw villagers appear before coming forward, squeezing into the crowd and helping shout to whip up the atmosphere.
With so many people showing up together, the hatred naturally wouldn't fall on them. Everyone had caught the adulterers together!
Xiaoqiang stood in front of Li Zhengjun, stopping the man and woman, who were wearing only underpants, from snatching their clothes back.
It had to be said, Li Zhengjun was truly ruthless, truly wicked. When he rushed in with everyone else, the first thing he did was snatch up the pair's clothes and hold them in his arms, refusing to let them get dressed.
He left the two of them there with their pale arms and thighs exposed, on display right under the villagers' noses.