Chapter 43: They All Want to Come Along

Second Sister-in-law was left speechless by Father Ye’s words. Ye Yaohua also glared at her, and only then did she unwillingly back down.

She simply felt that her husband did the most work, while Ye Yaodong barely did anything and had always been enjoying the benefits without contributing. Deep down, she had long felt dissatisfied.

Now her husband’s earnings from going out to sea with the family were being handed over for house construction, while Ye Yaodong went off on his own and kept all the money he earned. No matter how she thought about it, it felt unfair, like her side was doing more work.

Seeing that his second daughter-in-law had quieted down, Father Ye glared at Ye Yaodong too.

“Did you hear me? Stop running around fooling around outside. The family’s busy building the house right now. Every day you need to go help at the building site. If I come back and hear you disappeared again, I’ll break your damn legs.”

“Yeah yeah, I know already. So naggy.”

“I tell you all this every day for your own good. You’re already over twenty, not some three-year-old child anymore. You need to help with family work too. You’re married with children now. You need some sense of responsibility toward your family…”

Mother Ye couldn’t help starting her lecture again.

Ye Yaodong instantly felt a headache coming on.

Ever since returning, he really had been helping out and going tidal gathering. He wasn’t acting like before anymore. But in his parents’ minds, their impression of him was still stuck in the past. Subconsciously, they ignored the fact that he had already changed.

And spending time with friends was perfectly normal too. He couldn’t just abandon all his friends after being reborn. Besides, his friends were all pretty loyal.

He could only keep proving himself slowly over time.

“Okay, okay… got it, got it… I’ll work hard properly. Mom, hurry and cook already, Dad’s starving to death!”

“You little brat! You’re the one starving to death. Can’t you speak properly?”

Father Ye got irritated the moment he heard him talk.

“Ah… right… I’m the one starving to death… You all eat. I’m leaving first!”

“We’re about to eat and you’re already running off again? Where the hell are you going now?”

“I’m eating at A’Guang’s place. Saving the family some rice…”

Ye Yaodong spoke while walking out, his voice gradually fading into the distance.

Inside the house, Father Ye’s cursing started up again, all about how unreliable Ye Yaodong was…

The smile Father Ye had earlier completely vanished, as though everyone had imagined it.

Even though Ye Yaodong liked fooling around with friends, he still knew moderation. After eating and drinking for a while, seeing the sky darkening, he headed home early.

“Why do you smell like smoke and alcohol again?”

“Is it that strong? I only drank two cups.”

He lifted his arm and sniffed himself.

The cigarette smell did seem pretty heavy, and even his fingers still carried a lingering seafood odor that hadn’t washed off.

“I’ll go wash again.”

After taking another quick rinse, he finally returned to the room.

Lin Xiuqing immediately asked impatiently,

“Can the boat still be rented tomorrow?”

“Yes, but they want more money. A’Guang’s grandmother found out we used their fishing net today and caught over seven thousand jin of Spanish mackerel. She went straight to A’Guang’s house this afternoon demanding more money.”

Lin Xiuqing sat upright in shock.

“What? They’re doing that? How much do they want?”

“A’Guang said his aunt and uncle are actually pretty reasonable, but the old lady’s difficult. She said we can rent it again tomorrow, but it’ll cost five yuan. Since we already rented it one day, she wants another eight yuan added, making ten total for the two days. Otherwise she won’t rent it.”

She stared in disbelief.

“Five yuan? Why not just rob people outright? Fishermen going out trawling all day only make a little over ten yuan, and they still have fuel costs. If someone rented boats out for a month like this, wouldn’t they make one hundred fifty yuan? How much does a worker even earn in a month? They could just lie at home without doing anything!”

“And you guys are only going tidal gathering. Today was just lucky because you ran into a school of Spanish mackerel. Only crazy people would spend five yuan renting a boat just to go tidal gathering. And you still need to spend fuel money too.”

He couldn’t exactly tell her he rented the boat mainly to overcome his fear of the sea. Otherwise, who in their right mind would spend money renting a boat just for tidal gathering? If your luck wasn’t good enough, you wouldn’t even make back the boat rental and fuel.

People in this era were incredibly frugal. They hated spending money, even on vegetables.

“Shh…”

Ye Yaodong noticed the two children turning over in their sleep from the noise, sprawled messily across the bed.

Lowering his voice, he said,

“We’re partly in the wrong too. At first we only mentioned renting the boat, not the net. And the old lady’s pretty overbearing. It’s not like we can argue with an elder. We already made a lot anyway. We’ll just deduct it from the fish money. Split between everyone, it’s not much.”

After tasting success once, everyone was eager to go again tomorrow.

Even Chen Wei and Fatty had excitedly announced they were joining them this time.

Since they were all friends, it was hard to refuse.

“More people are going tomorrow too?”

Her attention immediately shifted.

Her brows furrowed even tighter.

Forget the money for now. Since they had already earned sixteen hundred yuan, paying ten yuan for the boat was still acceptable. But with more people joining, if they encountered another big catch, wouldn’t everyone get even less money?

“Yeah… after hearing we netted over seven thousand jin of Spanish mackerel today, they all slapped their thighs in regret for not coming. They insist on joining tomorrow.”

Honestly, none of them really wanted two extra people splitting the profits either.

But they’d all been friends for years. It was hard to outright refuse them. Besides, today had only been luck. It wasn’t like they could encounter something like that every day.

Since everyone wanted to go, they could only bring them along. They couldn’t exactly ruin friendships over something uncertain.

Again, if only he had his own boat.

“How do they even have the nerve? Seeing you make money and immediately wanting a share…”

“Aiya, stop talking about it. If they want to come, let them come. The nearby waters don’t really have valuable catches anyway. Boats only catch good seafood farther offshore. With so many people, we might not even make enough to cover the boat rental and fuel. At most we’ll gather some seafood to eat. We’ll just go check out the island. If we happen to encounter another big catch, we’ll decide what to do then.”

But opportunities like that were rare and depended entirely on luck. He wasn’t expecting much. Being able to gather some seafood would already be good enough.

“You men are always like this, obsessed with friendship and loyalty and all that nonsense…”

Women really did talk too much.

Nothing had even happened yet, and she was already worrying endlessly.

He didn’t have some magical cheat ability.

If he actually had a golden finger, he’d quietly make money alone and get rich in silence without telling anyone.

Seeing his wife continuing to nag endlessly, Ye Yaodong simply used actions to shut her up.

“Don’t start again. Yesterday your legs were already weak…”

“Damn it, who are you looking down on?”

Youth was capital.

And a man’s pride absolutely wouldn’t allow him to back down!

Although the tide wouldn’t fully recede until afternoon, everyone’s enthusiasm was sky-high after paying such an expensive boat rental. Naturally, they couldn’t wait around until afternoon like yesterday.

Early the next morning, Ye Yaodong had only just gotten out of bed when everyone already came over to his house waiting for him.

Under everyone’s urging, he hastily shoveled down a few mouthfuls of porridge while it was still hot, then grabbed the tools Lin Xiuqing had prepared for him beforehand and excitedly headed toward the dock with the group.

Fatty was also quite self-aware. The moment they arrived at the dock, he voluntarily went to buy diesel fuel.

Since he was shamelessly tagging along, the least he could do was contribute to fuel costs.

(End of Chapter)