After the tide reached its lowest point sometime past ten, it would slowly begin to rise again. There were two high tides and two low tides every twenty-four hours, and low tide came forty-five minutes later each day than it had the day before.
When they saw that the tide had nearly finished going out and there were hardly any shrimp left to scoop up, they called it a night and headed back onto the beach.
Chen Xiaoqi was still on the beach by himself, picking things up all over the place. He had piled at least twenty or thirty jin of fish, shrimp, and shellfish beside the sack, which was pretty impressive.
When he saw their flashlights shining toward him, he jumped up and down on the beach in excitement.
"Dad, Mom, brothers, sisters, I picked up so many fish, so many~"
They dragged a sack ashore, all of them sniffling from the cold.
Mother Chen praised him with a smile. "Our Xiao Qi is so capable. Pick the fish up and put them in the bucket beside you. We'll take them home and clean them, then cook them for you tomorrow."
"Great!" he cheered happily. "I also saw a really big crab in a pool over by those rocks. It's hiding under a rock and won't come out. Hurry and catch it!"
"All right, your brother will catch it for you."
Father Chen said to the others, "Wait here for a bit. I'll go back and get the handcart, or it'll be hard to carry all these sacks."
"Then hurry back."
As they waited on the beach, they also searched nearby for stranded fish, shrimp, and crabs to pick up.
Since dried shrimp could be sold for money, perhaps they could dry some of the other fish and sell them along the way too. Their eagerness to gather goods had reached its peak. How could they still feel cold? Their hearts were burning, and they were bursting with energy.
After a grown adult worked for a year and deducted the cost of food and drink, they only had about sixty yuan left. A mere twenty jin of dried shrimp could sell for forty. What was there they couldn't endure?
If it weren't for the limits imposed by the tides, they could have worked by the sea all night.
They weren't afraid of hardship or exhaustion. What they feared was working themselves to the bone and still earning no money, with nothing to look forward to.
By the time they hauled four large sacks of their catch and a big bucket of fish home, it was already eleven. They didn't stop to deal with any of it. The whole family washed up briefly, soaked their feet, and went back to their rooms to rest.
Tomorrow, the tide would probably reach its highest point around four or five in the morning and then slowly begin to recede. By nine or ten, it would probably be more than halfway out. It would start rising again at noon, then begin going out again at seven in the evening.
Without a watch to check, they could only make a rough estimate based on today's tides.
Lying back in bed, Chen Haichao felt as though the entire day had been a dream.
From waking up early that morning and discovering he had been reborn, everything he had done played back in his mind, one thing after another.
He had saved a child and changed Fourth Brother's fate, then ruined Third Brother's matchmaking date, sold dried shrimp and earned his first pot of gold, and caught his future third brother-in-law in bed with another woman that night, exposing the scandal ahead of time. All in all, it had been a day of abundant gains.
He rested his hands behind his head and thought over his plans again. Overall, he still had to wait until the household contract system was introduced. For now, he would enjoy the New Year first.
Chen Xiaoqi slept under the same quilt as him. Like a maggot, he wriggled from the head of the bed to the foot, then from the foot back to the head, letting cold air in the whole time.
He kicked him. "If you're not going to sleep, go crawl around on the floor."
"Brother, what does 'messing with a worn-out shoe' mean?"
"A shoe that's worn out. Normally nobody wants it anymore, but someone still wants to pick it up and take it home to wear."
"Huh?" Chen Xiaoqi had the quilt wrapped around his head, leaving only his face exposed as he stared with his bewildered little eyes.
"Go to sleep already, or I'll throw you out."
Chen Xiaoqi turned around, tucked his head under the quilt, and stuck his butt out.
"Pfft~"
Chen Haichao's expression changed, and he brought his palm down hard. "You little fool!"
Chen Xiaoqi had originally planned to fart and quickly crawl to the other end, but he wasn't fast enough. His butt took the full force of the slap, and it hurt so much that tears nearly came to his eyes.
"That's what you get for saying you'd throw me out."
"Believe it or not, I'll throw you out right now."
"Don't! I'll go to sleep right away."
He crawled down to Chen Haichao's feet and pulled the quilt tightly over himself.
To get revenge for that fart, Chen Haichao stuck his foot in his face and ground the sole around it.
Caught completely off guard, Chen Xiaoqi suffered the assault and let out a yell. "Ah! Dad, Mom, Brother's bullying me!"
From the room on the other side came Mother Chen's scolding. "Stop making noise and go to sleep! If you keep it up, I'll get the whip and give both of you a beating."
"Stinky Brother, I'm not sleeping with you tomorrow."
"With all those farts, who wants to sleep with you?"
"Hmph."
Chen Xiaoqi wrapped himself in the quilt, buried his head, and closed his eyes, finally settling down.
Chen Haichao smiled silently and wrapped himself in the quilt too.
The next morning, he woke at the first hint of light. He had things on his mind, and on top of that, he had only just been reborn, so the excitement hadn't worn off yet.
There were already faint sounds outside the room. His parents had probably gotten up early to deal with the fish and shrimp.
He took his ice-cold sweater and pants under the quilt to warm them for a while. Only then did he hunch his neck against the cold and hurriedly pull them on, shivering as he did.
A layer of white condensation had formed on the bedroom window, making it impossible to see outside.
He glanced at Chen Xiaoqi and pulled the quilt over him properly. So the boy-girl twins had been this cute when they were little.
He was supposed to have been sleeping at the foot of the bed, but now he was sprawled sideways on his stomach, butt in the air and head toward the wall.
As soon as Chen Haichao tucked in a corner of the quilt, he rolled over and lightly bumped his head against the wall with a thump. As though nothing had happened, he stayed asleep, rolled over again, and continued sleeping.
The surrounding walls weren't padded. They were rough stone, with nothing but a layer of newspaper pasted around them.
No wonder he was so goofy and silly. It turned out he had knocked himself silly in his sleep.
Chen Haichao smiled, then tiptoed out and gently pulled the door shut.
As soon as he reached the main room, a blast of cold air hit him in the face. He pulled his padded jacket closer. Outside, it was only just getting light. His father was already washing shrimp, while his mother was cleaning fish by the stove, a fire blazing in the hearth.
There had been at least six or seven hundred jin of small shrimp in the four sacks last night. Who knew how many pots it would take to cook them all?
Mother Chen scraped some fish scales off her hands and looked up. "Why are you awake so early? Why not sleep a little longer? Your sisters aren't up yet."
"I heard the noise and woke up. We brought back so many shrimp yesterday, so I thought we should hurry and cook them and put them out to dry today, in case they don't dry in time."
"With only one stove, cooking them is a bit slow. But your dad and I slept for just two hours last night and got up at two to start cooking. We're almost done."
"You two barely slept?"
Chen Haichao lifted the lid off the pot, and a cloud of steam rushed into his face, making him feel warmer instantly. The huge pot was heaped full of shrimp and looked close to boiling.
"How could we sleep? If we'd left several hundred jin of shrimp until morning, how long would it have taken with just one pot? We're going back to the beach in a little while to scoop up more while the tide is out. We can't leave these piled up and let them hold us back."
"Besides, it's no good leaving dead shrimp sitting too long. It affects the taste. We're selling them, after all, so we have to prepare them properly before we sell them to people." Mother Chen picked up the spatula and stirred the heaping pot of shrimp so they would heat evenly.
"Then why didn't you wake us up to help? We could have finished faster."
"No need. There's only one pot, so we couldn't have gone any faster even if we'd wanted to. Your dad and I can manage, with one washing and the other cooking, and putting them out to dry along the way. We can catch up on sleep after lunch. Once you've rested, you'll have the strength to work this morning."
"All right, then. Are they all cooked yet?"
"Almost. One last pot should do it. Then we can cook breakfast and save a bowl of shrimp to eat with the congee."
He nodded and went to wash up. Once he was done, he went outside to help his father lay the shrimp out to dry.
The area in front of their house was covered with bamboo drying trays of every size and fishing nets. They had even brought out the family's summer grass mats and spread them on the ground to dry shrimp. Everywhere he looked was bright red, and the fresh aroma of shrimp filled his nose. There was hardly anywhere to put his feet, with only a path wide enough for one person left clear.
"So many? Are they nearly all laid out to dry? Dad, have you been down to the beach? Is the log still there?"
"When would I have had time? I'd barely closed my eyes, and the quilt had only just warmed up when your mother called me up. I've been busy ever since. If you want to see, go look for yourself, or wait until later, when the tide starts going out at six or seven. Then we can scoop up some more shrimp to bring back and dry. There really have been a lot of small shrimp lately. Don't let them go to waste."
"Then I'll go take a look first. I'll be right back."
That was very likely ebony wood. How could he set his mind at ease without checking? If they hadn't been unable to move it last night, and if it hadn't been too awkward to ask anyone for help in the middle of the night in such bitter cold, they would have dragged it home overnight.
Now that it was light, he could go take a look and make sure whether it was ebony wood. If it was, he'd strike it rich.
In the future, he could sit on an antique worth ten million and drink tea!
With that, Chen Haichao jogged toward the beach.