New Year's Eve Dinner

Chen Haichao walked around the saltworks, carefully inspecting every spot without minding the dirt or stench. He also ran through his plan in his head.

He already had an outlet for selling dried shrimp, so converting a few of the ponds into shrimp ponds was the best choice. It was the quickest way to make money right now.

With a clear plan in mind, he headed back. For now, he would enjoy the New Year first, then go see the brigade leader after the brigade returned to work on the fifth.

It wasn't enough to reach an agreement with the brigade leader and have him arrange a designation for it. They would also have to hold a meeting with the village Party secretary and the captains of the various production teams.

Everyone had to agree.

Firecrackers began going off throughout the village, so they hurried back. That was the signal that dinner was starting.

When families sat down to New Year's Eve dinner, they would first offer three sticks of incense to the Kitchen God and his wife, then three sticks to heaven and earth in the middle of the doorway. They would offer one stick each to the door gods on either side, then set off firecrackers and begin dinner.

By the time he was walking back, there were few people left on the road. The air smelled of firecracker powder, red paper covered the ground, and peals of laughter drifted from every home. The New Year atmosphere was thick, and he quickened his pace.

Before he reached the door, he heard his mother yelling at the top of her lungs. "Abao, dinner's ready, Abao! That damned child, he's twenty years old and who knows where the hell he's gone. Someone still has to call him over and over just to get him to eat..."

He jogged to the door, where his mother was still cursing. The moment she saw him, she launched into another scolding. "Where the hell did you go? Don't you know what time it is? Everyone else has started eating, and you still didn't think to come home?"

"Look what time it is! Sitian's already back from town, and you were still nowhere to be seen. Even the twins know better than you do. They know to come home for dinner."

Chen Haichao put a hand over his mother's mouth and guided her into the house with an arm around her shoulders. "Stop talking and eat more. I had something to take care of, and I just finished."

Mother Chen slapped his hand away and glared at him. "What was so important that you couldn't even make it back for New Year's Eve dinner?"

"I thought it was still early. Stop nagging. Once we've offered the incense, we can eat."

"The whole family's been waiting for you."

Father Chen had already lit the incense. The table was covered with bowls and chopsticks, and everyone was seated. All that remained was to finish offering the incense and set off the firecrackers before they could dig in.

Chen Sitian asked curiously, "Where did you go? It's New Year's Eve, and everyone's already eating. Whose house did you visit? Or were you taking a walk with some woman comrade?"

Everyone at the table instantly turned to look at him.

Chen Haichao had just washed his hands. He said irritably, "Nonsense. Who would I take a walk with? The sun's already down, and it's freezing. Was I so full that I went out to drink the northwest wind?"

Wait, he supposed he had gone out to drink the northwest wind.

"Then where did you come from?"

"I went over to take a look at the old salt fields."

If he really went through with it, he would have to tell his family beforehand anyway. He needed their support.

Chen Panpan exclaimed in surprise, "Why did you go to the old salt fields again? Still thinking about those precious bugs of yours?"

"What bugs?"

Mother Chen had voiced the question on everyone's mind. The others were puzzled too.

"He went to the old salt fields a few days ago and insisted the bugs there were treasures. What did he go back for this time? To look at the bugs?"

"No, I looked at something else today." He glanced at the boy-and-girl twins, who were digging in and gnawing on pig's trotters. "Let's eat first. I can't talk about it with these two here. I'll tell you after dinner."

Having two children in the house was a nuisance. They might let something slip and go shouting about it outside, so anything like this had to be discussed out of their earshot.

Hearing themselves mentioned, the two looked up at him curiously.

"Eat your food. After you're done, take a bath and put on your new clothes."

"And there's lucky money too!" Chen Xiaoliu said with a grin.

Mother Chen picked up another piece of red-braised pork for her. "Just eat. Once you're done, take a bath. You won't miss out on your lucky money."

Looking at the table laden with a sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner, Chen Haichao felt his appetite surge. A good portion of the food on the table had been picked up on the beach that day.

There were big trumpet snails, cat's-eye snails, steamed wild large yellow croaker, pomfret in hot-and-sour soup, mantis shrimp, mud crabs, big prawns, clear clam soup, red-braised pork, red-braised pig's trotters, eggs stir-fried with dried shrimp, stewed free-range chicken, and rice cakes stir-fried with seafood. Every one of them was a substantial dish rarely seen.

For people living by the sea in this era, though, many of the dishes were everyday fare. Aside from the few meat dishes, the rest could hardly be considered extravagant.

After all, meat cost money and meat coupons, unlike the other things, which could be picked up by the sea.

Wild large yellow croaker, for instance, would nearly go extinct in the future and sell for over a thousand yuan per jin during holidays. Now it was still an abundant, ordinary catch that went for a few mao per jin. So many were caught that even the fishing team's members were unhappy about it.

The family's chickens were also raised according to the number of people in the household. The brigade stipulated that no household could raise more chickens than it had members.

They only slaughtered chickens for holidays and festivals, and even then, they killed the roosters. The hens had to be kept for laying and brooding eggs.

He first picked out a piece of chicken for himself and ladled out a large bowl of chicken soup. It was fragrant, absolutely divine. In the future, it would be hard to get such authentic home-raised free-range chicken.

The pork was amazing too, unbelievably fragrant. The production team had raised the pigs entirely on a mixture of pig fodder and rice bran, without any commercial feed.

"This meat is so good..."

Mother Chen chuckled and gave the twins more meat. "If it's good, eat more. We don't get to eat it normally, only during holidays and festivals. Today we even have an extra bowl of pig's trotters brought back from mooching. Everyone, eat more and get some fat in your bellies."

"Now that I have a job, I can buy some meat in town from time to time to improve our meals." Chen Sitian's mouth was glistening with grease as she ate.

"You've only worked two days, and you're already thinking of buying meat every few days?" Mother Chen shot her a sidelong glance. "Don't spend money recklessly. Focus on doing your job well first. We'll talk once you've settled in."

"Mm-hm, mm-hm..."

Everyone was so dazzled by the fragrant New Year's Eve dinner that they had no time to talk, eating fish and meat in big mouthfuls. Their New Year's Eve dinners in previous years had never been this lavish.

Once the twins had finished eating one after the other, Mother Chen put down her chopsticks too. She went to get them some hot water and help them bathe.

Only then did Chen Haichao swallow the food in his mouth and say to his father, "Dad, I went to the salt fields because I was thinking we might be able to use the reservoirs there to trap prawns and small shrimp when the tide comes in."

"I've looked at them. The two outermost reservoirs are probably around ten mu each. Although the earth-and-stone embankments have collapsed and fallen into disrepair, I took a look, and fixing them wouldn't take more than a few days or cost much."

"Then we could set up a sluice gate and open it ahead of high tide, letting the seawater carry the seafood in. We'd close it just before the tide goes out and keep the catch inside. Then all we'd have to do is scoop it out of the reservoirs. That way, we wouldn't have to chase the tide and soak in the sea every day, and we'd have a steady shrimp catch every day too."

"The purchasing station pays a decent price for prawns, five or six mao per jin. We could pick out the big ones and take them to the station, which would also help the brigade meet its delivery quota."

Father Chen frowned deeply as he listened and put down his chopsticks.

"Do you think... that would work? Would the brigade leader allow it? The policy doesn't seem to allow individuals to contract collective land..."

Chen Haichao said seriously, "I asked the brigade leader. As long as we maintain our attendance and work points, we're allowed to develop a family sideline. We just can't call it contracting the old salt fields. We'd have to phrase it differently and say we're claiming responsibility for non-cultivated land resources."

"How many years have those old salt fields been abandoned? The villagers wouldn't even give them a second glance. But if we claimed responsibility for them and made a few changes, couldn't we make some money?"

P.S. My editor told me I'll be on Sanjiang on the 20th and the novel will go premium on the 21st. I'll release tens of thousands of words in a burst then. Exactly how many depends on how much I can write, but at least 50,000 words! Please give me monthly tickets! Monthly tickets, please! I'm begging for monthly tickets until my heart and lungs tear apart!