Chapter 25: Made the Boat Dirty

Zhou Chenglei ignored Yang Dayou; he had said he wouldn't sell to him, and he meant it.

Xu Wen'an grew a bit anxious. "Help me move the croakers off the boat first. I need to have someone deliver them to the restaurant immediately."

Old Hou interjected, "I'm in no rush. Let's move the croakers Manager Xu wants off the boat first! Whatever is left is mine."

Xu Wen'an checked the baskets. Seeing that the fish weren't being misrepresented by size, he let Zhou Chenglei move them off.

Zhou Chenglei and his father moved the requested croakers off the boat.

Xu Wen'an and Old Hou didn't just stand by; they helped with the unloading.

On the boat, Jiang Xia was sorting through the miscellaneous fish while keeping an eye on the cargo.

She figured a restaurant hosting a banquet would likely need shrimp, so she wanted to pick those out first.

The four of them finished moving everything quickly.

Returning to the boat, Old Hou asked, "Can we take a look at the large yellow croakers?"

Father Zhou opened the live well for them to glance at before closing it.

Yang Dayou also crowded closer to sneak a peek!

Good heavens, they were shimmering gold. Some even looked alive, which was quite rare; usually, large yellow croakers caught by trawling were dead.

Yang Dayou's eyes widened. He looked at Zhou Chenglei. "Comrade, brother, big brother..."

Zhou Chenglei ignored him.

Old Hou said, "You must have run into a school of large yellow croakers before dawn, and it wasn't from a trawl, was it?"

It sounded like a question, but his tone was certain.

Father Zhou nodded with a smile. "We encountered the school not long after heading out to sea."

Xu Wen'an remarked, "No wonder the color is so golden."

Old Hou added, "What incredible luck!"

Father Zhou smiled. "It's my daughter-in-law's doing."

Hearing this, both men glanced at Jiang Xia.

The sun hadn't even set yet, and Jiang Xia was wrapped up tightly, so they couldn't see what she looked like.

However, bringing a woman out to sea for fishing was truly rare in this area, though they didn't hold it against them.

Live large yellow croakers fetched a higher price than dead ones.

The large yellow croakers hadn't been sorted yet; they varied in size, but most looked to be around one jin or eight to nine taels, with a few exceptionally large ones.

Zhou Chenglei haggled with the two men.

Ultimately, the large yellow croakers were sold at 1.25 yuan per jin, regardless of size, and were scooped directly into baskets.

Xu Wen'an also bought all the shrimp Jiang Xia had picked out, along with a load of Spanish mackerel, one grouper, and several sea bass.

Old Hou bought the remaining croakers, large yellow croakers, and Spanish mackerel.

Zhou Chenglei refused to sell the miscellaneous fish; otherwise, he would have wanted to buy them all himself.

Among that pile of miscellaneous fish, he saw plenty of valuable stock, but since they hadn't been sorted, the price was low. However, Jiang Xia had already picked out some of the larger ones.

In the end, the croakers weighing around one jin totaled four loads, at 100 yuan per load, making 440 yuan. The three loads weighing one and a half jin totaled 390 yuan. The two-jin ones were fewer, totaling about one and a half loads for 204 yuan. There were only five three-jin fish, totaling 36 yuan, and one four-jin fish, which sold for 15 yuan. The sub-one-jin fish totaled one load at 80 yuan.

The croakers alone brought in 1,165 yuan!

This was equivalent to what others earned in a year and a half of fishing.

The large yellow croakers totaled 572.20 yuan.

The Spanish mackerel totaled over 300 jin, sold at 0.3 yuan per jin, for 105.70 yuan.

The sea bass sold for 3.55 yuan.

The shrimp and squid sold for 11.20 yuan.

The other large fish picked from the two piles of miscellaneous fish totaled 43.70 yuan.

The final total in hand was 1,901.05 yuan.

A pile of small fish, shrimp, and other miscellaneous scraps remained on the deck, likely worth a few more yuan.

Jiang Xia said, "If we pull one more net, we might just make enough to reach 2,000!"

A wide smile spread across Father Zhou's weathered, dark face. "This is already excellent. Aside from the big boats going into deep waters, our kind of boat has never earned this much."

Today was absolutely his moment of glory!

He could brag about this for the rest of his life!

In all his years of fishing, the most he had ever earned was nearly 200 yuan; he never dared to dream of earning nearly 2,000.

Two thousand yuan!

He couldn't even earn that in a whole year of fishing before.

Zhou Chenglei steered the boat in silence.

Because Jiang Xia hadn't yet experienced the actual cost of living in this era or truly felt what 2,000 yuan could buy, she wasn't as moved by the amount as Father Zhou was, but she was still happy.

"How much can a big boat earn in one trip to the deep sea?" Jiang Xia asked.

"It's hard to say, but I've heard they can usually make thousands per trip. There are more fish in the deep sea."

Jiang Xia nodded. "When we have money, we'll buy a big boat."

Father Zhou didn't respond; a big boat cost tens of thousands. It wasn't that easy to buy one.

He crouched down to sort through the remaining pile of miscellaneous fish.

The sun had set, and the sunset spread across half the sky in a magnificent, domineering display, leaving half the sea shivering and the other half crimson.

Jiang Xia took off her straw hat and unwound her face veil. As the sea breeze hit her face, she felt an instant sense of refreshment.

Facing the wind, she took a deep breath of the ocean air.

As Zhou Chenglei steered the boat, his gaze drifted toward her. The sea breeze ruffled a few strands of her soft hair, and his expression softened.

The sky was beautiful, the sea was beautiful, but she was even more beautiful.

Jiang Xia put away her hat and veil, then crouched down to begin sorting the pile of miscellaneous fish and shrimp.

By the time they returned to the village's small pier, many fishing boats were already docked.

Long lines had formed at the purchasing stations. Jiang Xia saw villagers carrying baskets of fish off the boats, everyone wearing wide smiles; it seemed they had had good catches.

A few fishing boats were scattered across the sea, returning home.

Mother Zhou had been waiting at the pier for a long time. Seeing their boat return, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

While fishing income was high, the risks were great. From the moment the family left port, their hearts had been in their throats.

Tian Caihua had also come to the pier to "help," though she really just wanted to see how much the second household would earn so she could gauge things.

As the boat docked, Mother Zhou approached and asked Father Zhou, who was jumping off the boat to secure the ropes, "Why so late? Is there a lot of cargo?"

Without waiting for an answer, she glanced at the goods on the boat, and her heart sank.

Unbelievable!

Was that all? Just a pile of miscellaneous fish?

Mother Zhou quickly boarded the boat, turning her head frantically to look around. She found it hard to believe, yet she had no choice but to believe it.

Was it really just this pile of worthless small fish?

Today's luck was simply too poor!

Tian Caihua took one look and also thought it was bad luck. "There's hardly any cargo today! Why is there so little? We've never had such a small catch!"

The villagers glanced at Father Zhou's boat. Someone remarked, "Yongfu, your luck is mediocre today!"

Father Zhou smiled. "It's alright."

At that moment, several old men from this morning boarded their own boat and laughed when they saw him. "You call this 'alright'? Old Zhou, your mouth is tougher than a diamond! No, I should say you're broad-minded, being satisfied with this pile of junk. Keep it up, haha!"

Feeling as though their predictions had come true, they couldn't help but gloat. "We told you not to bring a woman out to sea, that it would bring bad luck, but you wouldn't listen. Look! Out all day just to catch this worthless scrap. You probably lost money on fuel! Everyone else's catch is good today—at least forty yuan. I sold over a hundred, and Bingqiang sold nearly two hundred! I don't even know if you've made ten yuan."

Zhou Bingqiang added, "You suffer for not listening to your elders. We told you women leak luck and shouldn't be on the boat, but you didn't believe us! I'm telling you, this boat won't catch anything good from now on! Don't disbelieve me; you'd better change it soon!"

Tian Caihua's expression instantly soured. She shot a glare at Jiang Xia's back, her hatred for her reaching its peak. She couldn't help but mutter, "Why does she even bother coming out to sea? Does she even know how to fish? She's just causing trouble!"

This was the only boat the family had; their whole livelihood depended on it!

Jiang Xia had made the boat dirty!

The more Tian Caihua thought about it, the angrier and more aggrieved she felt, her eyes reddening.

What if the boat got dirty?

If they went out to sea, they feared bad luck!

If they didn't go out, would they starve and drink seawater?

She felt like making Jiang Xia compensate her with a whole new boat!

Family scandals should not be aired in public. Mother Zhou glanced at Tian Caihua and said crossly, "What era is this, still clinging to feudal superstitions? Women hold up half the sky! Who can guarantee a catch every single time they go out? Which family hasn't had a time where they only caught a few fish and shrimp?"

Despite saying this, Mother Zhou was also afraid. If she had known, she wouldn't have let her follow them out this morning.

Truly, whoever married her was doomed!