The shrimp weren't as active during the day, and there was no light to draw them all together into a circle as there had been at night. Now they were scattered, making them harder to scoop up.
A sweep of the net brought in less than half as many as it had the night before.
Still, it was better than nothing. Little by little, it would add up, so they scooped up as many as they could. It was all money, and much easier to earn than work points.
One work point was worth only about eight fen. An able-bodied grown man earned ten points for a full day at sea, just eighty fen, and that was before food or drink. After his grain ration was deducted, he had less than half left.
The fishing crew in their production team relied entirely on muscle when they went out to sea. It was hard, exhausting work, nothing as easy as scooping shrimp straight out of the water like this.
Everyone worked hard.
Once they had filled a sack, Father Chen told Chen Haichao to push it back on the handcart with Chen Sidi. They were to return and help once the shrimp were in the pot, and bring the cart back with them.
Chen Haichao was more than happy to go. He just didn't know whether Wang Zhiwen and Liu Chunlan had finished being criticized yet.
Before pushing the cart back, he took another look at the buried timber. Half of it was already above the water, and by the time he came back, it should be about ready to move.
Chen Sidi walked beside him and said excitedly, "I wonder what time it is. Has the meeting at the production team entrance started yet? I hope we don't get back only to hear about it from everyone else."
"It's all the same. What you hear at the members' meeting might not be as interesting as what the aunties and sisters-in-law have to say about it."
"Haha, you really do know them..."
"If you want, run on ahead. I can't go fast pushing the cart. The wheels sink into the beach sand, and once I'm off the beach, the road's uneven, all stones and dirt."
"Then I'll leave the cart to you and run ahead. I might still catch it. Once I've heard everything, I'll hurry home and tell you." With that, Chen Sidi ran off.
She was so lively. After all, she was still a young woman in her early twenties. It was rare to get another chance and see her so full of life, and it wouldn't hold anything up anyway.
Everyone had a taste for gossip.
Chen Haichao pushed the cart along at a leisurely pace. He saw hardly anyone on the village roads, not even many children. Only a few elderly people sat in their doorways, enjoying the sun. Presumably everyone else was over at the brigade office.
He had told the boy and girl twins to watch the house, but they had run off too, leaving the door wide open. Fortunately, his grandmother was sitting by the door picking over vegetables, a broom beside her. Whenever a cat or a chicken came close, she shooed it away with the broom. Otherwise, the cats would have made a mess of the shrimp and dried fish.
"Abao, you're back? What's in that huge sack on the cart?"
"Little shrimp."
"Huh? The whole space out front is already covered with them. Why bring back more? Can you finish them all? If you can't, they'll just end up feeding the mice."
Chen Haichao stuck to what he had said before: once dried, they would be sent to his two older sisters' families.
His father was forty-eight this year and would be only forty-nine after the New Year. His eldest uncle was fifty-two, and his grandmother was only seventy. People used to marry young, and her hair was still entirely black. She was nimble at her work, too.
His grandfather, on the other hand, had died young, falling into the sea before he was fifty. The death rate among people who made their living at sea was far too high. Fortunately, his father and his father's siblings had all been married by then, so his grandmother hadn't needed to remarry and find someone to help support the family.
According to his grandmother, it was all because of a curse from his dreadful great-grandmother, who used to call his grandfather a short-lived ghost every day. His great-grandmother had also died more than ten years ago.
He had been little then and didn't remember much, but his grandmother had been very fond of him. When he was the youngest in the family, she would secretly save any good things for him.
After the twins were born, though, he had to step aside. Those two were the apples of her eye now.
"Those two girls are lucky, with their birth family helping them out every day. If your great-grandmother were still around, she'd have cursed them from morning till night long ago. That old woman..."
Chen Haichao gave an awkward laugh and unloaded the sack from the cart. His grandmother got up to help him carry it.
She might have been seventy, but she was used to farmwork and still had plenty of strength. She could lend a hand.
"Let's carry it around to the back door. I'll help you wash them."
"An elder in the home is a treasure indeed."
Grandmother chuckled. "You always know what to say."
"Did everyone else go to the threshing ground?"
"Didn't they just? I heard catching those two in the act last night caused quite a stir. More than half the village went to watch. Before eight this morning, your aunt's whole family went to see the excitement. If those chickens and wild cats hadn't kept hanging around your door, I'd have gone for a look too."
"What about the twins? I told them to watch the house before I left."
"They heard a couple of firecrackers and couldn't sit still. How could you expect them to watch the house? They made a point of asking me to watch it for them, then turned around and ran off. They didn't even want their crabs anymore and left them with me."
Chen Haichao set the sack of shrimp beside the well. There was a well right outside their back door, so getting water was very convenient.
"First, help me light a fire in the stove. Then watch the wild cats and chickens out front so they don't eat the shrimp. I'll draw two buckets of water and wash these. It won't take long."
"All right. Call me if you need a hand," Grandmother said, and went to light the fire first.
There was still some warmth and a few embers in the stove. After adding several ladlefuls of water to the pot, she poked around the firebox with the fire tongs and put in a handful of straw. Before long, she had a fire going. She added a few pieces of wood and, once they caught, went to the front door to chase away the wild cats.
Before going out, she called toward the back door, "The water's heating. Wash a basinful and put them in first."
"All right."
The shrimp might have been small, but they were prickly. He went inside for an extra-large washbasin and a water ladle, picked out the fish, then gave the shrimp two quick rinses and removed the rubbish and debris. He poured one basinful into the pot to start cooking.
Chen Sidi returned shortly afterward, bringing Lin Zhiyu along as a free pair of hands.
Chen Haichao smiled and teased her, "You really did come to my house to work?"
Lin Zhiyu's cheeks reddened slightly. "Nonsense. I came to see Sidi and give her a hand while I was here."
Chen Sidi looked suspiciously at the two of them. She had a feeling there was something she didn't know. "What are you talking about?"
"Nothing, just joking around. What did you hear? You're back so soon."
She said excitedly, "You have no idea how bedraggled those two looked. They were giving their self-criticisms just as I got there. They said they'd been carrying on for two years. My heavens, all that time and nobody noticed!"
"It's actually been two years?"
"Hasn't it just? Everyone said they used to meet on the beach at night. Since the educated youths all went back to the city, and the weather turned cold, they've been sneaking over to the educated youth quarters for the past month or two. The place is out of the way and empty anyway, and it keeps the wind off."
Chen Haichao clicked his tongue. He had wanted to tease them about doing it in the wild, but seeing the two innocent young women, he held it back.
"Was there anything else after the self-criticisms?"
"That was it for the self-criticisms. Then the brigade leader announced their punishment in front of everyone. It was what they said last night, except it won't go in their records. Each of them loses half their work points for the whole year, and if they don't have enough points, they have to make up the difference in money."
Lin Zhiyu added softly, "And now the brigade leader has already written the certificate and taken them to get their marriage certificate."
"I expect the staff at the marriage registry will have their eyes popping out."
"Hahaha..."
Chen Sidi laughed without any regard for appearances. Lin Zhiyu's eyes curved as she pressed her lips together in a smile.
"Since you've finished watching the excitement, I'll leave this to you. The shrimp in the pot should be nearly done, so keep an eye on them and scoop them out. I'll push the cart back to the beach and help Mom and Dad."
"Hurry along. Leave this to me. Zhiyu will help too, and she just helped me borrow a flat bamboo tray from the production team. The two of us can manage here."
"All right, then. Thanks, college student."
Chen Sidi nudged Lin Zhiyu's shoulder and teased, "College student~"
"Oh, come on, let's get to work."