Wei Donglai and Xue Li were among the last to leave the beach, but they had also brought in the biggest haul.
As they passed the house, he put the ground traps back and tossed the dogfish into Xue Li's bucket.
As for the plastic bucket holding the groupers, he found its lid and snapped it on, taking care to punch several holes in it for ventilation.
Now he could carry it to the dock without worrying about anyone seeing inside.
When they walked into the courtyard, Li Yue'e saw the two dogfish in Xue Li's bucket and casually asked, "Where did the dogfish come from?"
"Donglai caught them in his ground traps."
"Mm, not bad. Setting them wasn't a waste."
"Mom, there are lots of groupers too."
"What groupers?"
Xue Li pointed behind her at the covered plastic bucket in Wei Donglai's hand.
Curious, Li Yue'e walked over and lifted the lid for a look. Her expression was exactly the same as Xue Li's when she had first seen them.
"These all came from the ground traps?"
"Mm."
"You got this many from the last trap?"
"No, the groupers were all in the first three traps. There were only two dogfish in the last one."
"Then why did you just say you hadn't caught anything? Well, well, you've started lying to your own mother, have you?"
"Wasn't I just worried other people would get jealous? What was I supposed to do, shout at the top of my lungs that I'd caught loads of groupers?"
The explanation made sense, so Li Yue'e let the lie go.
Chen Fengying came over at that moment and was also stunned when she saw the catch in the bucket.
"Donglai, what kind of dogshit luck is this? You caught this many groupers just by setting ground traps."
"Tsk, tsk, listen to how sour you sound. This isn't dogshit luck. Mazu is feeding me with her own hands."
What a show-off.
Chen Fengying was indeed envious, but she had no other thoughts about it. After all, fertile water shouldn't flow into outsiders' fields; at least someone in the family had caught them.
"Don't go sell them on your own now. In a bit, go to the dock and sell them with your dad and the others."
Hearing Li Yue'e's words, Wei Donglai nodded.
If he took them to the dock now, he might be able to keep people from seeing them on the way, but once he sold them, word that he had caught groupers could spread throughout the village.
If that happened, a whole row of ground traps would probably appear where he had caught the groupers, perhaps as early as tonight, without even waiting until tomorrow.
He still wanted to try his luck there again over the next few days.
"Lili, cook at home. Let A-Ying pick up the children. I'll go to the dock with Donglai."
Li Yue'e was a little worried. She had to keep an eye on Wei Donglai.
"Mom, why don't we keep this little dogfish to eat tonight?"
"Eat it? You haven't even made much money yet, and all you know how to do is squander it."
"People live by their mouths, don't they? Isn't eating what it's all for? I didn't even ask to eat the groupers."
Li Yue'e knew her son's gluttonous ways all too well, but she was used to being thrifty, and it still pained her a little to eat the fish instead of selling it.
"Mom, if you won't keep it, I'll take it back and eat it myself later."
"Then you'd better leave it here."
Better to squander it together than let him squander it alone. He had caught it, after all, so it was up to him.
"Aren't you going to dry this oyster meat into dried oysters to sell?"
Li Yue'e asked as she looked at the bucket Wei Donglai had brought over.
Wei Donglai shook his head. "Too much trouble. I'll just sell it as it is. It wouldn't fetch much more anyway."
Dried oysters fetched a higher price, but they had to be washed, cooked, and dried in the sun for several days. Wei Donglai truly thought it was too much trouble.
"What, you've barely made a little money and you're already getting picky?"
"If you want them dried, you do it. I'm not doing it."
"Do I owe you or something..."
Seeing his mother start to get angry again, Wei Donglai hurried to make amends. "Once they're done, the money is yours. I don't want it."
Sure enough, the moment he said that, Li Yue'e's scowl instantly softened.
"You said it yourself. Don't come asking me for the money after I've sold them."
"Would I really? Just look at your son's luck. I make more than ten yuan a day. Why would I care about that little bit?"
Li Yue'e clenched her fists, resisting the urge to hit him.
After gathering everything, she headed to the dock with Wei Donglai.
Under the setting sun, boats returning to harbor left trails of ripples across the water.
At the dock, women watched for their husbands and sons to return safely, while laborers waited to sort and carry the fishing boats' catches.
Amid all the lively chatter, there was also a sense of peace.
This was the truest picture of life in a fishing village.
As soon as the family boat came alongside, Li Yue'e and Wei Donglai went up to meet it.
"How was the catch today?"
Hearing Li Yue'e's question, Wei Guoqing gestured with his chin toward several baskets on the boat's gunwale.
Wei Donglai took a quick look. The baskets were all filled to the brim.
"That much? Not a bad catch."
But when he got closer and took a look, he had to take back what he had just said. The baskets were full of scad and filefish, neither of which was worth much.
"Dad, didn't you get anything valuable?"
Wei Guoqing opened the livewell. "It's good enough to have this much. You think we can haul in good fish every day?"
Wei Donglai came over and peered inside. There were a dozen or so sea bass and some golden pomfret, but the quantity was worlds apart from yesterday's. The rest was a mix of species, one or two of each, with nothing valuable among them.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Your luck really isn't up to scratch."
Wei Guoqing rolled his eyes. How did this son of his make people want to smack him every time he opened his mouth?
Wei Fangchun, standing nearby, was also displeased with Wei Donglai's showing off.
"You think we have such good luck every day we go to sea? If every day were like yesterday, wouldn't our family have struck it rich long ago? Who have you ever seen haul in good fish every day?"
"Second Brother, that's where you're wrong. Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. No need to look far; there's someone in our own family who does."
"In our family? You?"
"Second Brother, you really do have an eye for talent."
Seeing Wei Donglai's tail practically sticking up into the sky, Wei Guoqing immediately looked at Li Yue'e. "What's gotten into Third Son this time?"
"Showing-off sickness, prideful sickness, and the sickness of jumping around as soon as he gets a couple of stinking coins. Multiple conditions all at once."
Wei Guoqing was momentarily baffled. "What's going on? It's like something happened at home that I don't know about while I was out at sea for a day."
"He caught a few big mud crabs last night and sold them for over ten yuan. First thing this morning, he went and bought four jin of meat. And look, he set some ground traps today and caught several groupers too."
Wei Guoqing was astounded by Li Yue'e's words.
Big mud crabs, groupers-what had he missed?
A bucket of groupers from ground traps? He just couldn't believe it.
When the lid came off and the facts were right in front of him, Wei Guoqing had no choice but to believe it.
Calling it a bucketful was a bit of an exaggeration, but those five live groupers were real enough.
The brothers Wei Fangchun and Wei Fanghua were just as shocked.
"Third Brother, you caught these groupers in ground traps today?"
"What else? Could I have jumped into the sea to catch them?"
"What kind of dogshit luck is this?"
"Dogshit luck caught me big mud crabs yesterday too."
The corner of Wei Fangchun's mouth twitched. He exchanged a glance with his father, and both felt their hands itch.