After they saw the production team leader off, the neighbors gathered around again, all talking at once about how dishonorable Zhang Cuihua had been.
Mother Chen also learned what had happened while she was out. She immediately unleashed a torrent of curses at the door, cursing Zhang Cuihua's ancestors back eighteen generations.
"All these jealous people have eyes only for other people's families. Their hearts are vicious and their bellies are full of dirty tricks, and they even tried to pin false charges on my family. Luckily, the team leader was wise and didn't listen to her nonsense."
"She's so lazy she could grow maggots, lying at home asleep in broad daylight. I went down to the sea before dawn to catch fish and shrimp, and the cold split the skin on my hands and feet. I worked hard to save a little food for the New Year, and she just opened her mouth and accused me of stealing collective property. Isn't she afraid the wind will twist her tongue?"
"The team's rules are right there. She's talking out of her ass. The communal mess only broke up last year, and she still wants to eat from the communal pot without lifting a finger..."
Mother Chen stood with her hands on her hips, shouting angrily in the direction Zhang Cuihua had gone. Not a single curse word passed her lips, but every sentence was satisfying to hear.
Chen Haichao watched his mother's animated, spirited expression, and a wave of emotion swept through him.
For decades, he hadn't seen her stand so straight or speak so loudly. For the second half of her life, she had lived with guilt in her heart, swallowing every insult.
It was good that she could still be so fiery now. Being a little fiery would keep her from being bullied.
Father Chen said to Mother Chen, "Don't just stand there talking. Hurry and boil these two buckets of shrimp and dry them while the weather's good these next couple of days."
"Coming. Where are Third and Fourth?"
"Fourth went to wash the clothes and quilts. She hasn't come back yet. I don't know where Third is."
"Then help wash the shrimp. I'll go start a fire and heat the water."
Before going inside, Mother Chen gave Chen Haichao a pat and praised him. "Not bad. What you said just now was pretty good, one argument after another. You almost had me fooled."
Father Chen carried the buckets inside and said, "I was wondering why you ran off so fast just now. Turns out you went to get your mother."
Chen Haichao followed him inside, saying as he walked, "Yeah. I was afraid you couldn't win an argument against that whole group of women, so I thought I'd get reinforcements. That's when I happened to see it. It was too close. He was this close to being swept away by the waves. I saw the wave come crashing down and carry that kid out to sea. Good thing I ran fast and grabbed his clothes as the water receded."
"As long as he's all right. It's cold these days, and the sea wind is strong, so the waves will be a little bigger too. Don't let the two little ones go to the shore," Father Chen said to Mother Chen.
"I know. I'm still scared thinking about it. Those two little brats disappeared again after watching the commotion. Who knows where they've gone off to?"
Once inside, Chen Haichao focused on what might happen next, so he wouldn't be left with regrets again.
But it had been so long that his memories of many things were a little hazy. He couldn't remember the order of events, and trying to think about them all at once, he didn't know where to start sorting them out. None of his older sisters had married particularly well, and they all had a pile of troubles.
The sight of the argument earlier had suddenly reminded him of this major event.
There was no hurry. He could take his time. They were already married, and there was still a long life ahead in this lifetime.
But Third Sister wasn't married yet. The wedding seemed to be set for after the New Year. Behind her back, her partner was actually tangled up with an older woman who was ten or twenty years his senior. Later, he'd directly put an end to the match and save another sister.
"Abao? Abao? Are you listening to me?" Mother Chen raised her voice.
Chen Haichao paused before he came to his senses. "I've told you, don't call me Abao."
"Honestly, child, haven't I called you that since you were little?"
"I'm grown up now. You should call me by my proper name. Don't call me by my nickname anymore."
He hadn't heard anyone call him Abao in decades. Though it sounded familiar, he was too unused to it.
"All right. Your aunt has found you a match, and your uncle's wife has introduced two more..."
"No. Find a different batch."
"I haven't even told you who they are yet..."
"I know who they all are. I don't want any of them."
In his previous life, when they learned that his family had run into trouble and made an enemy of the team leader's family, they had turned around and mocked them, making snide remarks. What did he want women like that for?
Chen Haichao changed the subject and asked his father, "Isn't there an abandoned salt field in our village?"
Father Chen was taken aback. The subject had changed a little too quickly. "There is. Why ask about that out of the blue? It's been abandoned for years. It's dirty and stinky, and nobody goes over there."
He rubbed his chin. "I'll go take a look later."
"What are you going to do?"
"Nothing. I just want to see what it looks like."
"What's worth seeing? Everybody hates the place. It's dirty and stinky, just a muddy flat."
"You wouldn't understand."
Father Chen shot him an irritated sideways glance, then went to rinse the shrimp at the back door.
Chen Haichao knew about the village's old salt field.
The production team had built the old salt field back in the fifties or sixties by enclosing the tidal flats. It had been piled together entirely from earth and stones, and every year seawater, tides, and typhoons washed it apart. There was no telling how many times it had to be repaired each year. It was like a bottomless pit.
By now, handmade sun-dried salt wasn't worth much, its output was unstable, it had lots of impurities, and its quality was poor. A few years ago, the neighboring town had built a large state-owned saltworks with high output and low costs. The salt it produced looked beautiful, and handmade coarse salt simply couldn't compare.
On top of that, work in the salt field was dirty and exhausting. Corrosive brine was everywhere, and soaking in it too long could easily make a person's hands and feet fester. Nobody wanted to work there.
Back when everyone ate from the communal pot, all they thought about was slacking off, much less putting real effort into this work.
So it had been abandoned these past few years.
But there was a treasure in the abandoned salt field. He had heard about it, though he still needed to go see for himself.
Mother Chen was curious why he had suddenly taken an interest in the village's abandoned salt field. "What are you going to look at the old salt field for? Everyone else can't get away from it fast enough, afraid their hands and feet will rot."
"Can't I just wear rubber boots?"
He'd take some gloves too. With that thought, he rummaged through the trunks and cupboards.
"Do we have any rubber gloves? Waterproof ones."
Mother Chen stood up to get them for him. "What do you need gloves for now? You jump from one idea to another."
She searched but didn't see them. "Did that lazy girl Fourth wear them to wash the clothes and quilts? Wait until she comes back and see."
Though Chen Haichao was eager to go see the old salt field, he decided to wait a little longer. He couldn't go without gloves. He really was afraid his hands and feet would rot.
He wanted to see whether the village's salt field had brine worms, also called brine shrimp or artemia.
In aquaculture, they were known as high-quality feed for farmed fish, shrimp, and other aquatic animals, the equivalent of a human baby's first mouthful of formula after birth. As such, they were also vividly called "water gold."
Reform and opening up had only just begun, and nobody knew about them yet. Once the aquaculture industry developed, demand would outstrip supply. In the future, 80 percent of the world's aquaculture hatcheries would depend on them.
If the village had them, he wanted to talk to the team leader about contracting the salt field when household contracting was introduced.
By this time, some places had already begun dividing up the fields for households to farm independently and assigning production quotas to them.
The policy could not be implemented overnight, and there were disagreements over it, so it was rolled out slowly in pilot programs before being implemented across the board.
This was the turning point when the policy was moving from fierce debate to its eventual approval, and practices in different places were also in that transitional stage.
He just didn't know whether his family had any money... Looking around, the house was bare but for its four walls...
Seeing him jump from one idea to another without showing the least interest in finding a partner, Mother Chen felt anger well up inside her.
"Stop fussing over this and that all day. Finding a partner and getting married is what you should be doing."
"What's the hurry? Chen Pandi (Third Sister) and Chen Sidi (Fourth Sister) aren't married yet. I'm in no hurry."
"You're still not in a hurry? Isn't it cold sleeping alone under the quilt in the dead of winter?"
"No. I've got plenty of internal heat."
Mother Chen picked up the fire tongs and made to hit him. Chen Haichao nimbly got up, dodged her, and headed for the door.
"You're getting on in years. Don't be so hot-tempered, hitting people at the drop of a hat."
"Get your dead ass back here."
"No. I'm going to find Chen Sidi (Fourth Sister)."
He took the rubber boots by the door, changed into them, and went out, ignoring her calls.
P.S. I'm looking for a cover and trust you esteemed readers' judgment! Requirements: 600×800 resolution, title + written by Mifan de Mi. Thank you! Urgent, urgent, urgent~
Hand-typed and dictated the old-fashioned way. I hope everyone will give me lots of support. A new book's stats are very important, so please keep up with it daily.