"Fourth, stop what you're doing. Hurry and change your clothes and tidy yourself up. It's time to go to work. Your new padded jacket is finished, so wear it. You should look sharp on your first day." Mother Chen called out to Chen Sitian, afraid she'd be late.
"I remember. There's still time. I'm going now."
Chen Sitian answered with a smile and handed the work she was doing over to Chen Panpan.
As soon as she entered the room, the old lady spotted her and pulled another one from her pocket, giving it to her with the same instructions.
"Eat it secretly in the room. Don't let anyone else see."
"Huh? For me?" She looked at the boy-and-girl twins, who still had egg yolk on the corners of their mouths. Once she was sure they'd already eaten, she knew Grandma hadn't given it to her by mistake.
"It's your first day at work. Eat an egg for a good omen, so you'll be safe and sound."
"Did you secretly take it from Eldest Aunt's place?"
Grandma was displeased. "I'm the one who feeds the chickens. How is that stealing? Hurry up and eat it."
"Haha, thanks, Grandma." She tapped the egg against Chen Xiaoqi's head before slipping it into her pocket. It was still warm.
Grandma hurriedly rubbed Chen Xiaoqi's head. "You child, don't knock him silly."
Chen Haichao stood in the corner and shook his head. Such was a younger brother's place in the family...
After Chen Sitian marched off to work, full of spirit, the dried shrimp outside their house were nearly ready. The family hurried through breakfast, gathered their tools, and pushed the handcart to the threshing ground.
They repeated what they'd done outside the house that morning: first they ran a stone roller over the shrimp, then put them in large winnowing baskets, raised them high above their heads, and stood where the wind blew through, letting the sea breeze scatter them and separate the shells from the meat.
The whole family worked with bustling energy. Even the twins joined the labor, helping bag the shelled shrimp.
The six or seven hundred jin they'd hauled in on the night of the eleventh still needed a little more time. They weren't as dry; only the smaller ones dried quickly.
After rolling them, they left the ones whose shells still wouldn't come off to dry some more. After lunch, with time still to spare before the delivery, they came back and tried again. They bagged a little more here and there, adding only about twenty jin.
They took it home and packed it all into a burlap sack, filling one large sack right to the top with shelled dried shrimp.
Everyone gathered around the sack, joy showing on their faces.
Father Chen grabbed the two corners of the sack's opening and lifted it a little, smiling from ear to ear. "Goodness, there should be a hundred and twenty or thirty jin here."
"Why don't we borrow a wooden steelyard scale from the production team and weigh it? Then we'll know for sure," Chen Haichao suggested.
"Good idea. Hurry and go, then. I'll have your mother put the rest of the salted fish in a sack too, and we'll see if they want it. We're pushing it over on the handcart anyway. If they don't want it, we'll bring it back."
Chen Haichao ran quickly toward the production team's compound.
Behind him, Mother Chen was still speaking quietly. "Should I go tell Eldest Sister-in-law? I've been thinking it over these last two days. They probably don't have much. Our family only dried twenty jin altogether before this."
Father Chen thought for a moment before saying, "Just ask casually how much dried shrimp they have at home. If they have ten or twenty jin, tell her to pack it up and give it to you. If they don't even have ten jin, there's no need to say anything. It'll save the trouble."
"The production team only distributed so much in total, and none of them thought much of it or wanted any. With the New Year approaching, she must have had her daughters-in-law take some back to share with their birth families, and given some to her daughters too."
"Still, go and ask casually. We're two brothers, family after all. Otherwise, later they might say we had a chance to make money and never even mentioned it."
"All right. If we ask and they don't have much, at least we'll have asked. It'll be easier to explain if they find out later."
Mother Chen didn't even need to go next door. As soon as she reached the doorway, Eldest Aunt Chen called out curiously.
"After drying them for so many days, you can finally gather them up. Can you finish eating all of it? Your whole family's been at it for days."
Mother Chen smiled broadly. "I'll have Haichao send some to the eldest and second eldest later. Do you still have any at your place, Eldest Sister-in-law?"
"Yes, several jin. As long as there's enough to eat, that's fine. Once the production team starts work again after the New Year, there'll be plenty. Nobody wants it, and having too much left at home just attracts mice."
"That's true. If you don't have enough to eat, come and get some from my place then."
"Those girls were lucky to be born into your family. Even after they've married out, you still keep them in mind."
"What can I do? Children are debts..."
Mother Chen chatted with Eldest Aunt Chen at the doorway for a while. When Chen Haichao returned with the wooden steelyard scale, the two of them went inside together.
"What were you saying to Eldest Aunt?"
Mother Chen said quietly, "I asked. They only have a few jin of dried shrimp, so there's no need to bring them in later. We can just push it over ourselves."
"All right. Fewer people, fewer loose tongues."
Chen Haichao hooked the scale onto the burlap sack. Father Chen took a stick and slipped it through the loop of rope above the hook, and the two lifted it together.
Mother Chen adjusted the weight and checked the markings. Her face lit up, and she lowered her voice. "One hundred and twenty-three jin!"
"Take off one jin for the sack, and that's 244 yuan!" Chen Panpan covered her mouth and whispered, "So much..."
"Let's weigh this more-than-half-full sack of assorted dried fish too." Chen Haichao moved the scale over to it. The sack didn't look like it weighed a hundred jin, so he could manage it alone.
Mother Chen read the markings. "Seventy-three jin. How much can this sell for?"
He put the sack down and removed the hook. "I don't know. It's questionable whether they'll even want it."
"It's food either way, isn't it?"
"Who knows if they'll think it's worth having? Let's take it along and see."
"I'll go bring a bundle of straw to put on top. It'll at least cover things up a little. We can push the handcart to the back door and load it there. How about letting your father go with you?"
"That works."
Mother Chen immediately went about it, beaming with delight.
Father Chen happily patted the sack. "We can have a bountiful New Year this year. We're counting on these."
Once the dried shrimp had been loaded onto the handcart and everything was ready, they figured out when to leave and set off.
In broad daylight, even taking the back paths, they were bound to be spotted by villagers. Father and son agreed on the same story: they were visiting relatives, and since they had nothing good at home, they could only bring some dried fish as a gift.
Plenty of people did visit friends and relatives around the New Year, and nothing out of the ordinary usually happened at their house, so no one kept watching them.
After making it out of the village without trouble, father and son both breathed deep sighs of relief.
"No wonder they say a thief has a guilty conscience. It's true. Before, when we took things to your eldest and second sisters, we did it openly. We were never nervous."
In such broad daylight, Chen Haichao was also worried something might go wrong. "It's fine. If there's another chance, we'll tell them to make the exchange at night. We were too inexperienced before."
"Right. If there's a next time, we must choose nighttime."
It was around one in the afternoon, and there weren't many people on the main road. Generally, it was busiest in the morning or just before mealtimes, with people either setting out early in the morning or hurrying home to eat before a meal.
The journey went smoothly, and they didn't run into anyone they knew.
Chen Haichao and his father pushed the handcart to wait near the entrance to his eldest sister's village again. Afraid of running into people they knew from White Stone Village, they deliberately stayed a little farther from the entrance and stopped beside the fields to wait.
Father Chen looked all around. "Is it here?"
"Last time it was up ahead, closer to the village entrance. But what if someone we know sees us? Let's stay a little farther away for now. If a truck comes through, they'll see us, and we'll see them."
"Then let's wait here patiently."
"Yeah. The timing definitely won't be that exact, so let's wait. They should come before sunset."
Father and son squatted by the roadside and waited patiently, chatting to pass the time. They had no watch, so they could only judge the approximate time by the sun's movement.
Whenever they saw a large truck approaching, they stood up, only to squat back down in disappointment.
After waiting about two hours, only two large trucks had appeared, and neither had stopped. The longer they waited, the more uneasy they grew.
Father Chen shifted his legs, which had gone numb from squatting. "The sun's already slanting west, and they still haven't come..."
"Let's wait a little longer. The sun hasn't set yet. We were prepared for this anyway; it wouldn't be such a coincidence that the timing would be just right..."
The moment he finished speaking, another large truck appeared in view. The two stood up again, full of expectation.
This time, their wait paid off.
The truck had been driving on, but suddenly it braked sharply.
Father and son watched with broad smiles as two men climbed out of the truck. They were the same two from a couple of days ago, one middle-aged and the other young.
Chen Haichao stepped forward, took two cigarettes from his pocket, and handed them over. Smiling, he said, "You really did keep your word, sir."
The man took the cigarette and tucked it straight behind his ear. "Same to you. You've been waiting a while, haven't you? I'm in a hurry, so let's make this quick. How many jin of dried shrimp did you bring?"
"I weighed it before we left: 123 jin. If you don't believe me, we can weigh it again."
The man looked pleasantly surprised. He hadn't expected there to be so much, and he raised his thumb.
"Not bad. Impressive, young man. More than a hundred jin in just a few days. Let me take a look. I trust you wouldn't cheat me, unless you don't want to do business again."
Father Chen hurriedly opened the sack of dried shrimp and poured a little out for them to inspect.
Chen Haichao's eyes lit up. "I was just going to say, our family can dry and supply it to you long-term, with the quality and quantity guaranteed. Are you planning to buy long-term too, sir? The weight will only go up, never down. If it's short, we won't take a cent. There are 123 jin here, but you can just give us 240 yuan. Forget the other six yuan; consider it money for you to buy cigarettes."
The middle-aged man examined it and tasted some, then smiled in satisfaction.
"All right, young man, you know how to do business. I'll trust you this once. There's no need to weigh it again. Those twenty jin of dried shrimp last time were good quality, and this batch tastes the same. Delicious."
"I won't check the rest now. Time's tight, there's a lot of it, and it's inconvenient here by the roadside. I'll check it when I get back. If the quality is good, I'll be passing through here again on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month. I'll take however much you have then. I trust you won't be concerned only with this little bit of money right in front of you."
Chen Haichao smiled and nodded. "Don't worry, our family are all honest people. These dried shrimp have been picked completely clean. There definitely aren't many shell fragments, and the weight won't be short either. They were all freshly dried, so there won't be any problems. It's just, could we change the exchange to nighttime? It's too conspicuous in the daytime, after all, and that's not safe for either of us."
"Then eight in the evening on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month..."
He immediately broke in, "Could we do it at the entrance to Seashell Village? It's five kilometers back the way you just came. There's a stone marker with the name carved on it at our village entrance."
"That works."
P.S. Comrades, my editor told me the book will go on sale with a Sanjiang feature before the end of the month and asked me to prepare 100,000 characters in reserve for a mass release. I... Help...
Please keep reading, and whatever you do, don't stockpile chapters. The numbers when it goes on sale are very important. I'm also asking for monthly votes for encouragement...