Chapter 41: Weighing

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes. It was all right in front of her, yet his mother was still asking question after question, not believing him!

“Mom, you saw it yourself. Why keep asking? It’s clear as day.”

“When did you go out to sea? How come you didn’t say anything beforehand? Whose boat is it?”

“I told you at noon that I was going out. I even asked A-Qing to cook noodles early for me. I left right after I ate. The boat is rented.”

“It’s only been a few hours, and you already caught…”

“Ah, let’s talk later. I don’t have time now; there’s still fish on the boat. Let’s get everything weighed before chatting.” He interrupted his mother’s questions with a frown. Now wasn’t the time to talk—getting the fish off the boat was the main thing.

The curious villagers had their eyes wide open. “There’s more? You’re not done unloading yet?”

“Tsk tsk tsk… The Ye family’s struck it rich again! How is your family’s luck so strong lately? Have you prayed to Mazu?”

Mother Ye smiled at the onlookers, saying, “Of course! A few days ago, for his first time going out to sea, we made sure to offer a good tribute to Mazu to bless our family with smooth sailing.”

“When luck comes, you just can’t stop it! Even Ah Dong going out to sea can bring back so much horse mackerel. Truly impressive!”

“Oh, Ah Dong and the other boys usually loaf around, looking rather useless, but who knew that when they get serious, they’d be this capable? Even catching a whole school of horse mackerel—look at those baskets, they’re no small amount.”

“Yeah, it’s got to be a few thousand catties, right? Each of these fish is so big…”

Under the envious, jealous, and begrudging gazes of the crowd, Ye Yaodong and his companions finally unloaded all the horse mackerel from the boat. They were all drenched in sweat, their backs soaked through.

Ye Yaodong handed a bucket to his mother. “These are the ones I kept—two horse mackerels and some other seafood. Tonight, use the horse mackerel to make fish balls.”

“Why keep these? They could sell for a few coins each. Just use some cheaper fish for eating…”

After living through hard times, the elderly woman couldn’t bear to use anything valuable for food.

“Oh, come on, we worked hard for this catch, so we have to reward ourselves a little! Besides, with so much, two fish won’t make a difference. Go make the fish balls; I want to eat them!”

“Eat, eat, eat—that’s all you know! You’re already thinking of spending it before you’ve made a cent! Each one of these is worth at least a coin…”

Lin Xiuqing pulled Mother Ye aside. “Mom, it’s just two fish. Dongzi’s friends probably kept some, too. Let’s take them back to make fish balls—the kids haven’t had any in a long time.”

This finally silenced Mother Ye. If everyone else was keeping some, she couldn’t very well refuse.

A-Cai grinned as he looked at them. “All done? Can we weigh them now?”

“Let’s settle the price first. If it’s too low, I won’t sell to you. We’ll just rent a tractor and take them to the fish market at Yu Well Pier!” Ye Yaodong wasn’t foolish. With this many fish, he didn’t need to do a thing to make a hefty profit!

“Two cents per catty isn’t low. At most, I’ll make a cent per catty when I resell. It’s only because your dad’s big yellow croaker from a few days back helped me meet some fish traders that I’m able to take in this much horse mackerel. There really isn’t much profit; others need to make money too. You have to leave some margin for others.”

His words made sense.

From start to finish, the fish passed through several hands, and each person needed to earn something. Without profit, who would do it?

A-Zheng, laughing slyly, patted A-Cai on the shoulder. “Brother Cai, you’ve got connections. Making money is much easier for you than for us. We all earn our money through hard work, so add a few more cents for us, will you?”

“And you think you’re working hard? I heard you were only out there for a few hours before coming back—who has it easier than you?”

Xiao Xiao, impatient with the bargaining, said, “Come on, why do you care how long we were out there? Just say if you’ll raise the price or not!”

Mother Ye chimed in, “Yes, yes, just add a little. With this many horse mackerels, even if you only make one cent per catty, you could easily pocket tens, even hundreds.”

A-Cai thought it over, hesitated, then gritted his teeth. “Fine, I’ll give you one more cent, but that’s coming straight out of my own profit!”

A-Guang frowned. “Only one cent? That’s a bit stingy, isn’t it?”

“That’s actually quite a lot!”

“How about 22 cents?”

“Normally, there’s no bargaining at all. I’m only adding a cent for you because you’ve got so much fish. If you take this to the Yu Well Pier, they won’t give you more than 21 cents, plus you’ll have transport costs. And if you don’t sell to me, I’m not lending you any baskets. How do you plan to pack all that fish?”

“Fine, fine. 21 cents it is; saves us the hassle.”

The pier usually doesn’t allow bargaining; their attitude is always take it or leave it. Ye Yaodong didn’t want the extra trouble either. Horse mackerel isn’t a high-value fish, and there isn’t much room for profit. For this time, 21 cents per catty isn’t bad.

“Alright then, if Dongzi agrees, let’s go with it. Let’s start weighing.”

“Alright, alright. Grab some paper to take notes.”

Amid the excited pointing and murmurs of the onlookers, they weighed all the horse mackerel.

“How many catties?”

“Where’s the abacus? With so many numbers, it’s impossible to calculate by hand. Cai, get your abacus.”

Not one of them knew how to use an abacus.

Ye Yaodong could press a calculator, but calculators weren’t around in those days, and everyone used an abacus instead.

Everyone patiently watched as A-Cai rattled the abacus beads.

“Alright, a total of 7,628 catties, at 21 cents per catty, comes to 1,601 yuan and 88 cents.”

The crowd burst into excitement. “Wow, sixteen hundred! More than that big haul of yellow croaker from the other day!”

“No comparison. The yellow croaker was only a few catties, while this mackerel is thousands. Yellow croaker is worth way more, though. If all this was yellow croaker, it’d be unimaginable.”

“Sure, we all know yellow croaker’s valuable, but it takes luck to catch this much mackerel—it’s quite something.”

“With this much money, each person could get around 400, about two months’ wages for someone with a trawler.”

“That’s like four months’ worth for a regular laborer!”

“The Ye family’s luck lately is something else!”

“I’ll be going to pray to Mazu tomorrow too…”

…

Unlike the crowd’s enthusiasm, Ye Yaodong was dazed by the total. How could it only be 1,600? He had thought it’d be several thousand!

He wondered if he was still thinking in terms of prices from his previous life—1,600 felt way too little…

“Are you sure you calculated that right?”

A-Cai rolled his eyes. “Doubting my math? Then you do it.”

“I don’t know how…”

“I’ll do it!”

At this moment, Lin Xiuqing stepped up. Having finished elementary school, she knew how to read and had learned to use an abacus, although she wasn’t very practiced.

She carefully worked the abacus, afraid of making a mistake. Ye Yaodong didn’t dare interrupt her; he mentally did the math himself and realized it seemed correct.

A laborer’s daily wage was barely over a yuan, so 1,600 was nearly three years’ wages for them. Looking at it that way, it wasn’t too bad.