Chapter 3: Heartache!

In his previous life, he only cared about hanging out with friends and never paid attention to what was happening at home. He would wake up, go out to mess around with friends, and only come back drunk for dinner. He vaguely remembered catching a big yellow croaker and, not hearing the price clearly, stumbled back to his room to sleep.

Although yellow croaker was rare, the average person’s living standard wasn’t high, so it wasn’t very expensive—just several times the price of ordinary fish. It wasn’t like in later years when it was sold at sky-high prices.

In 2022, a pound of wild yellow croaker was priced at around 600 yuan. A pound and three ounces would fetch about 800 yuan per pound; a pound and eight ounces would go for over 1000 yuan per pound. For a two-pound yellow croaker, the price would be around 1500 to 1600 yuan per pound. Anything over two pounds would typically be over 3000 yuan per pound. These were the prices paid by fresh catch boats at sea. Once ashore, the price for a one to two-pound yellow croaker could double! The price could fluctuate if there were many in quantity.

Even though he was a bit of a slacker, he was still a local fisherman and knew his stuff. Thinking about this, he couldn’t help but slap his thigh. Damn it, if he had hauled in that catch decades later, how great it would have been!

He lost millions!

The whole Ye family frowned, watching him slap his thigh in regret.

“What is Third Brother up to now?” Mother Ye couldn’t help but ask, “What are you doing, Third Son? Why are you slapping your thigh so hard? Did you take the wrong medicine?”

“Mom, how much did we sell yesterday’s yellow croaker for? I didn’t catch it clearly last night and went to bed.”

Mother Ye glanced at Father Ye. Since the whole family knew, she might as well say it, as Third Brother’s wife would tell him in the room anyway. “1200 yuan! The buyer bought it at five yuan per pound, a bit underweight, but the boss generously rounded it off.”

He got a big bargain, yet they praised him for being generous!?

Ye Yaodong beat his chest in agony, “Mom, you guys sold it too cheap! We lost a fortune!”

Everyone in the room, young and old, frowned and looked at each other. Eldest Brother couldn’t help but ask anxiously, “Third Brother, how do you know we sold it too cheap?”

“I’m out and about all day. How could I not know how valuable yellow croaker is?”

That was true; despite Third Brother being a bit of a rascal, he was the most knowledgeable in the family. Wandering the city with various folks every day, how could he not have some insight?

Mother Ye also tensed up, “What do you mean? How much does it sell for outside? Our village’s fish usually get bought by the docks, and it was only because we had such a large amount yesterday that the dock contacted a boss to buy it directly.”

“If you had packed it with some ice and called a tractor to take it to the county, you could have sold it for double!”

Ye Yaodong was heartbroken. In later years, 200 pounds of wild yellow croaker would be worth millions!

Hearing this, everyone felt regretful and rash…

Doubling the price would mean an extra 1200 yuan—a heartbreaking loss…

Father Ye’s heart was bleeding. His hands trembled while holding the water pipe. 1200 yuan… Ordinary workers only earned forty or fifty yuan a month. This was enough to make him vomit blood!

Father Ye’s chest heaved as he scolded, “You rascal, wandering around all day without doing anything serious! If you had gone out to sea with us, we wouldn’t have sold it for just five yuan a pound!”

“How is it my fault? I didn’t know you’d catch a big yellow croaker. If I had known, I’d have waited at the dock ahead of time! No, I’d have found a rich boss to wait at the dock ahead of time!”

Really, this was infuriating—200 pounds of wild yellow croaker! If only he had died a day earlier, could he have been reborn a day earlier?

Ah, spit… cursing himself!

Father Ye’s chest heaved, but in the end, he could only sigh, “Forget it. It’s sold already. No use regretting. Maybe this is all the luck our family has for now. Next time, we’ll be more experienced and won’t sell it so hastily.”

Yes, it’s sold now. No point regretting.

The family’s good mood was ruined by Ye Yaodong. Eldest Uncle and Second Uncle had come to share the wealth, which made them a bit frustrated but still in good spirits.

Now… sigh…

It’s a pity; they could have sold it for more.

After some regret, the family accepted it. After all, they had made a good profit.

The most frustrated was Ye Yaodong. “Dad, do you think yellow croaker is as common as cabbage? You think you’ll catch it again so easily?”

“Don’t you know that after several rounds of ‘knock-net’ fishing, the numbers have drastically decreased and are now almost nonexistent?”

“In 1954, the knock-net method spread from Guangdong to Fujian. This method was very efficient and productive, quickly becoming widespread. Yellow croaker was heavily fished…”

“In 1974, Zhoushan in Zhejiang conducted a massive fishing operation, almost driving the yellow croaker to extinction. In recent years, wild yellow croaker has been nearly impossible to find in the market…”

“Dad, do you think you’ll have this luck again in your lifetime?”

This was harder than winning the lottery! His grandfather’s boat was just over ten meters, only suitable for nearshore fishing, not far out to sea. Catching this haul of yellow croaker was a stroke of incredible luck.

The family listened to him, shocked by his knowledge.

Third Brother… when did he learn so much?

Only Father Ye had heard of the knock-net method, as their family didn’t have a large boat for offshore fishing, making a living through coastal and net fishing. They hadn’t paid attention to this before.

With limited information flow, even Eldest and Second Brother hadn’t heard of it. Yet, Third Brother spoke so knowledgeably, making everyone look at him differently.

Maybe… Third Brother wasn’t so useless after all…

Lin Xiuqing was also stunned. For the first time, she found her husband’s serious look quite… quite what?

That light in his eyes was a glow of confidence when speaking about something familiar.

Perhaps her husband wasn’t so useless?

Father Ye also put away his disdain for his third son, asking seriously, “How do you know about the knock-net method? And about what happened in 1954 and 1974?”

Father Ye had only heard of the knock-net method but didn’t know about the major fishing events between 1954 and 1974, especially with limited information flow.

Ye Yaodong had learned about these from fellow sailors in his future life while working on big boats. Otherwise, given his earlier lazy and freeloading self, he wouldn’t have paid attention.

But he couldn’t reveal that.

Seeing everyone’s expressions, he knew he had somewhat redeemed his image, which was a good thing, and straightened his back.

Having muddled through life for half his life, he matured in his last decade, taking on more responsibility. Reborn, he didn’t want to be a waste. Though he had no great skills, he could work and fish diligently to support his family.

He no longer wanted to rely on his wife to earn a living.

But change takes time; otherwise, he might be seen as possessed.

End of Chapter 3