After eating and drinking his fill, Wei Donglai didn't linger. Besides the small fish for baiting tomorrow's fish traps, he packed some oysters to make an oyster omelet to eat with congee the next morning.
His family had grown tired of eating those things.
Wei Donglai, however, quite liked them. He thought that in later years, being able to eat this for breakfast would be pretty good.
Unlike now, when fishermen were so sick of eating things like filefish, crabs, and oysters that they didn't want them anymore.
Instead, pork, chicken, duck, beef, and mutton were the things fishermen loved most.
A few years earlier, things had been even worse. Only in the past few years, as reform and opening up increased market demand, had some seafood gradually begun to make its way onto the market.
Transport and refrigeration technology were still underdeveloped, and the purchase and sale of aquatic products had yet to be opened up, so seafood was also very cheap at the moment.
For prices to really rise sharply, it would probably take until after the purchase and sale of aquatic products was opened up in 1985.
Watching him walk away, Wei Guoqing grew a little wistful. "Haven't we been eating a little too well these past two days?"
"Not just eating well, but drinking pretty well too."
Li Yue'e narrowed her eyes, instantly sobering Wei Guoqing up considerably.
He didn't dare respond. Clearly, drinking that evening had upset his wife again.
"Mom, I'll go wash the dishes."
"I'll go give Yuanyuan a bath."
Seeing that things were going badly, the eldest and second sons made a timely escape from the storm at the heart of the battlefield, leaving their mother plenty of room.
Sure enough, before long, Wei Guoqing's pleas for mercy came from the living room.
The second son sighed when he heard them. "What liquid courage for cowards? It's all a lie."
After Wei Donglai returned to the house he was watching, he first took the meat out of the cupboard and cooked it.
It was only the seventh lunar month, and still very hot. If he didn't cook it, he was afraid it would go bad by tomorrow.
Then he lay down on the bed and rested for a little while.
With nothing to do that evening, Wei Donglai took his flashlight to the shore again to hunt for mud crabs.
But his luck didn't seem particularly good today.
In the end, he only caught two, both males. They weren't small, weighing about a jin and a half each.
The rest were mostly things like scallops and stone crabs. They weren't worth much, so he could only use them to add something extra to his own meals.
Just as he was about to head back, a sound suddenly came from a distance: the splashing of water.
It was very faint, but it still didn't escape Wei Donglai's ears.
He shone his flashlight and walked over, searching everywhere for the source of the noise.
But after looking for a long time, he still found nothing.
Did I mishear it?
Wei Donglai couldn't help doubting himself.
Unwilling to give up, Wei Donglai searched again, probing with his tongs, especially in places hidden by seaweed.
His persistence paid off. Beneath a patch of seaweed, his probing finally stirred something alive again.
As he parted the seaweed with his tongs, the creature beneath it came into view.
It was a stonefish.
Although this fellow ranked among the four most venomous fish and was ugly, it tasted incredibly fresh and delicious.
Good stuff!
The stonefish weighed about half a jin. Wei Donglai didn't dare grab it with his hands, so he used his tongs to put it straight into the bucket.
He'd just been thinking his luck wasn't much good today, and here it came right away.
With this stonefish, Wei Donglai no longer felt like carrying on. He picked up the bucket and hurried to the dock, needing to get it there before Li Laosan closed up.
"Coming over right as I'm closing up again?"
There wasn't a hint of reproach in Li Laosan's voice, and he wore a smile.
"What, you're complaining when I've brought you good stuff?"
"How could I? Mud crabs again?"
Thinking of the big mud crabs Wei Donglai had brought over last night, Li Laosan felt a little excited.
"Not many mud crabs today, only two, but there's a nasty old venomous one."
Li Laosan took the bucket Wei Donglai handed him and looked inside. "Whoa, a stonefish! That's good stuff."
"The goods are good, so the price had better look good too."
Li Laosan weighed them. The two mud crabs came to two jin and nine liang, and the stonefish was six liang.
"The two mud crabs aren't small. I'll give you 1.3 yuan for them, and 8 yuan straight for the stonefish. That's a good enough price, right?"
Wei Donglai gestured to show he had no problem with it.
They worked out the price and settled up. The total was 11 yuan and 77 fen.
"Round it up, make it 11.8 yuan."
Li Laosan felt a little helpless, but he didn't make an issue of it and gave him 11.8 yuan in cash.
Wei Donglai put the money in his pocket, lit a Qianmen, and strode home with his head held high.
After getting back, Wei Donglai took a cold shower in the courtyard, then went to sleep in peace.
With the mosquito net up, he no longer had to worry about being a blood bag at night and slept straight through till dawn.
After waking up, Wei Donglai first made himself an oyster omelet, then used a few stone crabs to cook some congee, which he was happily eating.
Someone entered the courtyard. It was his good brother, Li Changfeng.
"A Lai, I went to your house and only then found out you'd moved over here."
"It's a long story. What brings you over today?"
"A Liang's coming back this afternoon. Let's get together tonight."
"Sure. I'll prepare some dishes, then. We can do it here tonight."
Li Changfeng nodded, then looked toward the dining table, a craving look on his face.
"Want some?"
"I haven't had breakfast, as it happens, so I won't stand on ceremony."
Wei Donglai smiled, then went to get him a bowl.
Luckily, he'd cooked enough congee, though there wasn't much oyster omelet.
Li Changfeng picked up the last little piece of oyster omelet. After eating it, he still wanted more. "A Lai, how did you make this oyster omelet? It's much better than my mom's."
"If you want more, just say so. You don't need to flatter me like that."
"Good brother, make some more, then. I meant every word I just said."
Wei Donglai got up and fried some more. Oyster omelets were easy to make anyway and didn't take much effort.
He made another big plateful, and only then did the two of them eat to their hearts' content.
"I still have to go help pick chestnuts at my second uncle's place today, so I'll get going."
After Li Changfeng left, Wei Donglai washed the bowls, then carried the fish traps and small baitfish to the shore.
The spot wasn't far from yesterday's. His approach was that it was better to believe there were fish than to believe there weren't.
After setting the traps, Wei Donglai went to his mother's place to look for a fishing rod.
He wasn't planning to dig for oysters today. They were too cheap; even a whole day's work wouldn't earn him much. He planned to try rock fishing.
"What are you rummaging around the house for?"
Seeing Wei Donglai search the storeroom for so long, Li Yue'e finally couldn't help speaking up.
"Looking for a fishing rod. I'm planning to try the spot where I set the fish traps yesterday."
"Your dad put that thing away in the backyard. It's not in here."
"Ah, and here I've been looking for it all this time."
Wei Donglai emerged from the storeroom and ran to the backyard, where, following his mother's directions, he finally found the bamboo fishing rod.
Wei Donglai tested it a little and felt unsure. He reckoned there was a good chance the rod would snap if it encountered a big fish.
But there was nothing he could do about it. He could only make do.
Unlike in later years, when fishing tackle from all kinds of brands bloomed in competition,
At present, the fiberglass fishing rods on the market were basically all imported and outrageously expensive.
As for carbon fiber, that was even further out of the question. It was expensive to death.