John and Jill, upon learning that they bought the boat for fishing, praised them, saying, "You guys are amazing!"
Jill then asked, "Amy wants to go fishing at sea. We don't have a yacht in China. Can we go out to sea with you?"
Jiang Xia asked Zhou Chenglei and his father.
They both agreed, and Jiang Xia arranged to meet them at the city dock at 7:00 AM the day after tomorrow.
After touring the shipyard, with Jiang Xia's assistance, Jill and John happily signed orders, securing a deal worth hundreds of millions for the shipyard.
When the shipyard's director, Director Xu, arrived with a translator, the orders were already signed.
Two orders at once! Each order was worth tens of millions!
Director Xu was surprised that it was so easy. When negotiating with foreign businessmen, he was always subjected to criticism and scrutiny.
Today, a deal worth hundreds of millions was reached in just about an hour; he was extremely astonished.
Upon learning that Jiang Xia had been a great help and that he was there to buy a boat, the factory manager was overjoyed and offered an additional 500 yuan discount as a token of gratitude. He also said, "You'll get a discount every time you buy a boat in the future!"
The boat was already at a very low price, considering it was an order from three years ago. Lowering the price further would be unacceptable to the factory manager, hence the promise of discounts for future purchases.
Jiang Xia smiled and asked, "A 10%
discount?" The factory manager didn't understand. "What does 10% discount mean?" Jiang Xia explained,
"It means a 10 yuan discount for every 100 yuan, and a 100 yuan discount for every 1000 yuan." The factory manager mentally calculated that a 10,000 yuan discount was
only 1,000 yuan. That was quite a lot! However, how many thousands of yuan could these two orders represent? It practically covered an entire year's export earnings target!
Moreover, he thought that many people were already doing very well if they could afford one or two fishing boats in their lifetime.
He waved his hand generously, "Sure!" At that moment, he never imagined that his generous gesture would lead to such regret every year afterward!
How could he be so generous?
Even real estate agents don't offer such generous discounts! The house isn't even as expensive as the ship!
It was already past four when Jiang Xia and his two companions left the shipyard.
Factory Director Zhou reminded them to be careful on the road and try to take the main roads.
On the way home, everyone was in high spirits, and Zhou's father rode his bicycle much more briskly.
Perhaps because they were too happy, they drove far from the shipyard and were stopped on a side road!
Zhou Chenglei and his father slammed on the brakes, their feet firmly on the ground, as they saw several teenagers standing in the middle of the road, blocking their way.
Jiang Xia peeked out from behind Zhou Chenglei, raising an eyebrow: They'd run into some roadblocks!
However, the ones blocking their way were a few teenagers, the kind who, in Jiang Xia's eyes, hadn't even grown their hair yet.
The leader of the group tapped his palm with a stick and laughed, "Did you guys book a boat? How about you cancel it?"
Zhou Chenglei seemed not to hear him, squeezed the hand around his waist, then turned and helped Jiang Xia's arm: "Get off the bike first, don't jump, be careful your legs go numb."
Jiang Xia obediently got off the bicycle with his arm, and as usual, Zhou Chenglei even asked her if her legs were numb.
At this moment, several more teenagers ran out from behind them, blocking their way.
Zhou's father glanced back.
Jiang Xia raised an eyebrow and counted: twelve people in total, each carrying a wooden stick.
Zhou's father frowned when he saw so many young men. If it were just him and his son, it would be fine, but how could Xia, a delicate girl, withstand a blow?
The leader of the group said to the three, "Don't be afraid! As long as you agree to cancel the boat, nothing will happen!"
Zhou Chenglei still ignored the teenager and said to his father, "Dad, keep an eye on Jiang Xia later."
"Alright!" Zhou's father readily agreed.
He wasn't worried about the dozen or so teenagers at all. If his son couldn't even handle these young punks, then he'd wasted over a decade in the army. His only concern was
his daughter-in-law getting hurt!
The leader of the group laughed, "I don't like to bully the old, weak, women, or children. As long as you agree to return the boat, they'll be fine!"
Zhou Chenglei then looked at him, "What if I don't?"
The boy smiled, "What if you don't? Then none of them will leave!"
"Fine, then none of them will leave!"
The boy's face darkened. It seemed they thought he was just trying to scare them if he didn't teach them a lesson!
Today, he and his brothers were going to give them a good fight, show Boss Guo their abilities, and then they could work for Boss Guo!
"If you won't drink the toast, you'll have to drink the penalty shot! Brothers, charge!"
And so, the twelve men charged forward one after another!
Zhou Chenglei lifted the bicycle completely, gripped the handlebars with one hand, and swept the rear wheel horizontally, slicing through the crowd
. None of the men rushing towards him escaped; all were struck by the rear wheel! Some fell to the ground, others were swept off
their feet and tumbled down the sidewalk. Zhou Chenglei nimbly turned, crouching low, and swept the bicycle again.
The men behind, wielding wooden sticks, charged forward, unable to dodge in time. The foremost men were struck in the shins by the bicycle. Some
fell, some dodged.
In the chaos, they bumped into each other, trampled each other, and it was utter pandemonium. Those
who weren't hit by the bicycle continued to charge at Zhou Chenglei with their sticks!
Zhou Chenglei continued to use the bicycle as a weapon against them.
The sticks struck the bicycle with a loud "thud."
Behind him, the leader, a young man, charged fiercely at Zhou Chenglei with his stick!
Zhou's father shielded Jiang Xia beside him, shouting, "Ah Lei, watch out behind you!"
Zhou Chenglei was dealing with several people rushing towards him. Just as the boy's wooden stick was about to hit him, Jiang Xia had already picked up a
stick that had been knocked away from the ground and rushed forward! She struck the boy's arm with the stick!
The boy felt a sharp pain in his hand, dropped the stick, and glared fiercely at Jiang Xia. He grabbed the stick she swung at him again, yelling, "You bitch! How dare you..."
Jiang Xia twisted her wrist forcefully the moment he grabbed the stick, dislocating his joint!
The boy felt a sharp pain in his wrist, released the stick, and looked at his limp hand with disbelief.
Zhou Chenglei, holding the handlebars of his bicycle with one hand and the seat with the other, spun around and kicked the boy away!
Zhou Chenglei glanced at Jiang Xia, saw she was alright, then let go, gripping only the handlebars, and swung the back of the bicycle horizontally with lightning speed, sending the two people rushing towards him flying off the road!
At the same time, someone seized the opportunity to charge at Zhou's father with a stick. Zhou's father pushed his bicycle and used it to ram them!
Zhou Chenglei put his bicycle on the ground, grabbed a swinging stick, and punched the person in the face.
Jiang Xia saw the person fall and spit out a string of saliva!
Then those who weren't afraid of death rushed up, but he either dislocated their arms and kicked them away, or dislocated their arms and punched them down!
Those who kicked him, Zhou Chenglei dislocated their thighs and pushed them away!
He felt that Jiang Xia seemed to be very good at dislocating wrists; husband and wife working together, he had to learn.
Jiang Xia sat leisurely on the back of the bicycle, watching Zhou Chenglei violently crush more than a dozen young boys.
He beat them so badly they had no chance to fight back!
Ten minutes later, more than a dozen people lay on the ground, unable to get up. All of them had dislocated hands or feet, and their faces were swollen like pig's heads—not one was spared.
Seeing that they were still young, Zhou's father couldn't help but say, "Why don't you study properly and find some work? Why do you have to be used as pawns and become thugs! You're lucky you met us today; otherwise, we would have sent you to the police station, given you criminal records, and seen what future you'd have!"
Zhou Chenglei finished beating them and didn't lecture them.
Who hasn't been ignorant when they were young? Teenagers this age are hard to teach!
He came to Jiang Xia's side.
"Husband, impressive skills!" Jiang Xia sat on the back of the bicycle, her smile gentle, even her eyes were filled with laughter.
Zhou Chenglei met her gaze, and his heart rippled like a dragonfly lightly touching the lake. He couldn't help but pat her head: "My wife is pretty good too."
He knew she had some self-defense skills, probably taught by Jiang's father.
Jiang Xia chuckled at the address of "wife," "I only know that one move."
"I'll teach you others later." She was too weak, frequently getting fevers, so Zhou Chenglei decided to take her with him on his morning exercise from now on.
He gripped the handlebars with one hand and put his arm around her shoulder with the other, telling Jiang Xia to sit firmly. Then, he gently kicked the kickstand and gave the bicycle a slight push, and the kickstand snapped up.
He straddled the bicycle with his long legs, turning back to his father and saying, "Dad, let's go home!"
Zhou Chenglei pedaled hard, and the bicycle started moving.
"Good!" Zhou's father responded, but couldn't help but say to the boys lying on the ground, "Dare to block my son's way? Do you know who he is? Do you know that when he was your age, he was already on the battlefield, bombing two enemy warplanes with artillery? Young men, if you're so good at fighting, serve your country, don't be reckless!"
After saying this, Zhou's father whistled and triumphantly rode past the boys sprawled on the roadside!
"Dare to block his son's way?
Don't they know his son can take on a hundred men single-handedly on the battlefield?
" Only after the two bicycles had driven far away did the boys on the ground dare to speak: "Who was that guy? Is he really that good?"
Bombing two enemy warplanes? Sounds impressive!
And twelve of them against one of them couldn't even touch the hem of his clothes.
They considered themselves invincible in this area!
"Probably a king of soldiers! We have people in our village who are soldiers, but none of them are as good as him! We've really messed with him this time!"
The dozen or so boys couldn't help but show admiration and envy in their eyes.
"Let's go! Let's go find Boss Guo and explain." The leader of the boys looked thoughtfully at the departing bicycles.
"No, my foot hurts so much, it hurts every time I move it. Should I see a traditional Chinese medicine doctor for bone injuries?"
"My hand hurts too, it's dislocated!"
...
Zhou Chenglei rode his bicycle a short distance, then stopped. Jiang Xia was watching the teenagers supporting each other behind her when she saw him suddenly stop, puzzled: "What's wrong?"
"Did you forget something?"
Jiang Xia thought for a moment, then asked, "What?"
Zhou's father approached at this moment, and then he heard his son say, "Hold on to me."
Jiang Xia: "..."
She subconsciously glanced at Zhou's father who had caught up.
Zhou Chenglei added, "I'm going to speed up."
Zhou's father smiled knowingly: "Hold on tight, don't fall."
Jiang Xia: "..."
*
The three of them returned home after dark. Zhou's mother went in and out of the house several times to check before finally spotting them.
"Why so late? Did you buy it?" Zhou's mother couldn't help but ask.
Zhou's father pushed his bicycle into the yard and laughed, "It's a long story, I'll tell you later. I'm starving, let me eat first."
Zhou's mother quickly went to get the food. She hadn't eaten yet, waiting for them to come back to eat, only letting Zhou Zhou eat first, the child shouldn't go hungry.
Zhou Chenglei helped Jiang Xia off the bicycle before pushing it inside.
During the meal, Zhou's father vividly described the shipyard incident.
Zhou's mother's eyes widened, somewhat incredulous: more than 18,000? Her son actually bought a fishing boat worth more than 18,000, capable of going to the open sea!
Her daughter-in-law got a 500 discount by working as a translator at the shipyard?
Zhou's mother was so excited that her hand holding the chopsticks trembled, and she could barely pick up the food.
After Zhou's mother had calmed down for a while, Zhou's father instructed, "Don't tell anyone about this beforehand, don't tell anyone until the boat returns!"
Zhou's mother rolled her eyes: "Do you think I'm like you!"
There were still several thousand short, and she didn't know if she could earn enough in two months.
Zhou's mother was also uncertain. Several thousand yuan—they had never saved that much money in their entire lives!
If they couldn't raise enough money and couldn't buy it, and word got out, who knew what the villagers would say!
Besides, great things are done quietly; those things that are publicized usually don't end well.
...
That evening, Jiang Xia translated until 9:30, with about a quarter left to finish. She put the book away. She would
finish translating it when they went to sea the next day, check it again that night, and then send the book to the publisher when she went to the shipyard to pay the deposit the day after tomorrow. After
putting the book away, Jiang Xia took out the money box and counted all the money. Not counting the three thousand yuan she had given away that day, the family now had more than 11,870 yuan. This included all the money, including the red envelopes from Jiang's parents and Jiang Dong. Jiang's parents' red envelope contained two hundred yuan, and Jiang Dong's contained one hundred yuan. She didn't know if the scholarship was that much.
After counting the money, Jiang Xia went to the toilet. Zhou Chenglei had just finished hanging up the laundry, so he accompanied her.
He would accompany her to the bathroom at night. Although they were already in a very close relationship, Jiang Xia was still afraid he would hear her when she relieved herself, so she deliberately spoke softly, always feeling a little embarrassed.
Jiang Xia wanted to have a new house as soon as possible, so she wouldn't have to accompany him to the bathroom at night.
Jiang Xia also thought about the big ship that would be available in two months. Hmm, the new house wouldn't be far away!
The two washed their hands and feet and returned to the room. Zhou Chenglei closed the door and turned around to see that the books on the table were all packed away. He raised an eyebrow, stretched out his long arm, and pulled her into his arms. His voice was husky: "Waiting for me?"
Jiang Xia was about to put up the mosquito net when he pulled her into his arms, trapping her. Their foreheads met, their eyes met, and their breaths mingled. Her heart skipped a beat, and she denied it immediately: "No way!"
"Why didn't you want to buy that ship today?" Jiang Xia changed the subject.
Zhou Chenglei seemed dissatisfied with the answer, his eyes darkening further, his arms tightening around her, and he still replied, "If we buy it, the next two months will inevitably be a bit tight. I don't want you to live in a run-down house with me, having to live frugally."
He wanted to give her a stable happiness!
Jiang Xia felt a warmth in her heart and reached out to hug his neck: "Although a new house would be better, I don't feel that our current life is hard. Being a bit tight will only last for two months. I'm not so bad as to not be able to endure two months of hardship. Besides, don't you think that with a big ship, our future will be more promising? More motivating?"
Zhou Chenglei had never felt that life was promising before, but at this moment, he also felt that the future was promising.
Because he had her, she was his motivation.
He wanted to give her stability, wanted to give her happiness, and wanted her to live better than anyone else! To live happier than anyone else!
"Mmm." He responded softly, then lowered his head and kissed her lips.
Tonight, he was both gentle and not gentle.
Jiang Xia couldn't control herself in this gentleness.
She almost drowned in that deep and surging power.
The next day, the two had to get up at four o'clock to go out to sea.
When Jiang Xia got out of bed, her legs went weak and she almost fell!
Zhou Chenglei was getting dressed and was startled. He quickly helped her up, feeling a little sorry for her: "Why don't you not go out to sea today and sleep a little longer?"
She really didn't need to get up early and go out to sea with him every day; it was too tiring.
Jiang Xia leaned against him, recovered, and could
n't help but glare at him again. It was all his fault! He knew what he looked like.
And yet he was so deep.
Strong and energetic!
Jiang Xia pushed him away and went to find clothes to change: "No! We still need several thousand yuan to buy a boat. I won't feel at ease if I don't go out to sea with you."
Zhou Chenglei had guessed she would be like this; he knew that buying that boat would put pressure on her.
But Jiang Xia insisted on going out to sea, and he couldn't do anything about it. So this time, he rode his bicycle with her to the dock, then left the bicycle at the entrance of the production team. They could ride it back after going out to sea.
Actually, Jiang Xia's legs weren't so weak after she got up, but Zhou Chenglei was still worried.
Jiang Xia let him have his way; after all, walking to the dock would take quite a while, and cycling would give her more time to translate.
Jiang Xia sat on the boat, wearing a flashlight, translating while waiting for Zhou Chenglei to return with his bicycle.
Zhou's father was walking, so he hadn't arrived yet.
Wen Wan arrived at the dock and, with Zhou Guohua's help, boarded Zhou Bingqiang's new boat. There she saw Jiang Xia sitting alone, writing and drawing on a book.
Yesterday morning, she had seen Zhou's mother secretly dumping some seashells into the sea. After Zhou's mother left, she checked and discovered that she had dumped pearl oyster shells.
She was certain Zhou Chenglei had found pearls! Her dream had come true again!
Zhou Chenglei would definitely continue searching for pearls today, so she had begged Zhou Guohua to take her out to sea.
Wen Wan looked at Jiang Xia, sensing she was translating.
But given Jiang Xia's academic performance and her past life's experiences, how could she possibly be translating?
She probably hadn't given up and wanted to continue with the college entrance exam, so she was doing practice problems to prepare for next year's exam.
After all, Jiang Xia was also reborn and knew how valuable a college degree was in this era.
Zhou Guohua held Wen Wan's hand, reluctant to let go, and asked in a low voice, "Xiao Wan, do you really know where there are pearls?"
Wen Wan felt a wave of nausea. She subtly withdrew her hand, quietly pointed in Jiang Xia's direction, and made a "shh" gesture.
Zhou Guohua immediately stopped talking! He couldn't let anyone hear!
Zhou Guohua was Zhou Bingqiang's youngest son. His family owned three boats, now each of the three brothers had one.
Zhou Guohua liked Wen Wan, but Wen Wan looked down on him. He had been a fisherman all his life, a good-for-nothing! He
wasn't short of money, but his future was far behind Zhou Chenglei's, and he had even been in a car accident, leaving him with a limp.
However, now Wen Wan was being ridiculed by everyone in the village because of Jiang Xia. They said she was vicious, that she wanted to drive Jiang Xia away and sleep with Zhou Chenglei, that she wanted to be a vixen, shameless!
Her stepmother, claiming her reputation was bad, wanted to marry her off to the man from her past life, and her father agreed. Wen
Wan had been feeling incredibly wronged these past few days. One day, while crying by the sea, she happened to meet Zhou Guohua, who comforted her, and she realized he liked her.
To escape the marriage from her past life, Wen Wan had no choice but to date him.
Zhou Guohua's family owned three boats and were now the wealthiest in several villages. After Wen's father learned of their relationship, he no longer approved of the marriage arranged by her stepmother.
He was hoping Zhou Guohua would become his son-in-law and take care of him in the future!
Of course, Wen Wan wouldn't marry Zhou Guohua. Once she got into university, she would break up with him.
As compensation, Wen Wan would remind him of the car accident that would happen, preventing him from becoming crippled and changing his fate.
That way, she wouldn't owe him anything!
Moreover, although she was forced to date Zhou Guohua, she wouldn't take advantage of him.
Wen Wan took out her high school math textbook to study. She usually had to herd sheep, do housework, study for the college entrance exam, and translate to earn money; she didn't have enough time and could only use every spare moment to review high school material.
Fortunately, she found a translation job at a publishing house. The editor was quite satisfied with her translation and gave her twenty yuan for the book.
Then she brought back an even thicker book and a science magazine. She
could get thirty yuan for translating the book, but the science magazine was more expensive because many technical terms were difficult to translate, so the editor said he'd give her fifty yuan. If she translated well, he'd translate all the magazines for her in the future.
With this part-time job, she wouldn't have to worry about living expenses anymore.
However, she overheard the editor talking to her niece and discovered that translating French books was even more expensive, fifty yuan for a thin book.
Because few people understood French, it was more expensive than English.
Wen Wan decided that she would study multiple languages in university. The country was undergoing reforms and would introduce many foreign companies in the future, making translation a promising career path.
Zhou Bingqiang glanced at Wen Wan, who was reading a book, and then at Jiang Xia on another ship.
He'd heard that Zhou Yongfu's daughter-in-law had failed the college entrance exam three times, and that his son's girlfriend was a good student; he hoped she could get into university and give Zhou Yongfu a good slap in the face, so
he wouldn't keep praising his daughter-in-law like a treasure.
At this moment, Zhou's father and mother also arrived at the dock.
The family was still a few thousand yuan short of buying a boat. Seeing that the oysters they'd brought back the day before yesterday were quite plump, Zhou's mother planned to go to an island to shuck some more, dry them, and sell them to earn more money.
Yesterday, they sold dried shrimp for over seventy yuan and dried fish for over ninety yuan, earning almost two hundred yuan. They still had over a hundred jin of dried fish left to sell, which would earn them another hundred yuan or so; selling dried fish was clearly more profitable than selling fresh fish.
Zhou's mother was thinking of shucking and drying oysters to sell at the end of the year to supplement the family income.
Zhou Bingqiang saw Zhou's father and enthusiastically said, "Yongfu, where did you go yesterday? I didn't see you all day. Anyone who didn't know better would think you were hiding from me! Come, come see my new boat!"
Last night, he had deliberately moored his boat next to Zhou Yongfu's boat, determined not to be overlooked by him today.
This time, Zhou's father wasn't being sarcastic. He walked up to Zhou Bingqiang's new boat with a smile, and was surprised to see Wen Wan. He looked at Zhou Bingqiang and said, "Didn't you say we couldn't bring women on board?"
Zhou Bingqiang didn't want to either, but Wen Wan said she could find pearl oysters and even showed him some shells.
He laughed, "I think you're right. We can't believe in feudal superstitions. Women hold up half the sky! Besides, Xiao Wan is now Guohua's girlfriend."
Jiang Xia was focused on translating and hadn't noticed her surroundings. She only greeted Zhou's parents when they arrived.
Hearing Zhou Bingqiang's words, she noticed Wen Wan on the next boat and was surprised. Wen Wan and Zhou Guohua were dating?
But that wasn't Jiang Xia's business. She was surprised for a moment and then continued translating.
Zhou's father didn't care about any of that. As long as Wen Wan didn't cause trouble for his son and daughter-in-law, that was enough!
He looked around Zhou Yongfu's new boat, cheerfully asking a bunch of questions, like what brand the engine was, how much it cost, how many horsepower it had, how much the crane cost... he
asked about all the equipment on the boat!
Knowing yourself and your enemy is the key to victory.
Haha... none of them can compare to his newly bought boat!
Father Zhou secretly rejoiced, waiting for the boat to return in two months so he could prove them wrong one by one!
Seeing his father's beaming face, Zhou Bingqiang thought he was forcing a smile and comforted him, "Cheng Lei's been lucky lately, he'll definitely buy a boat soon." Yeah, right!
Father Zhou sighed and replied, "It's not that easy! He doesn't even have a house yet!"
Zhou Bingqiang felt that his father thought he was inferior to him and had finally given in, which pleased him. He comforted him, "Cheng Lei is so capable, he'll have everything soon!"
"Sigh, I hope so! I'm off to sea!"
At this moment, Zhou Cheng Lei returned carrying a bucket of diesel and a bucket of water. Father Zhou, feigning concern but secretly pleased, said this and went back to his boat.
Go to sea, make money, buy a big boat!
Today, Father Zhou was still the one sailing. He sailed the boat a distance out to sea...
Wen Wan then said to Zhou Guohua, "Follow their ship; they found those pearl oysters."
Jiang Xia translates, Zhou Chenglei goes fishing.
Zhou Chenglei notices that Zhou Bingqiang's fishing boat seems to be following them, but doesn't pay much attention.
Zhou's mother hasn't been to sea for many years, so she looks around. Everyone keeps quiet, afraid of disturbing Jiang Xia.
After the boat has sailed a distance, Zhou Chenglei goes to cast his net and notices that Zhou Bingqiang's fishing boat is still following.
He glances at it indifferently and then ignores it.
Zhou's father also notices a boat following: "Whose boat is that?"
It's dark, and he can't see clearly.
Zhou Chenglei, with his excellent night vision, says, "Uncle Qiang's new boat."
Zhou's father frowns: "What does he want? Is he deliberately following us because he sees we've been making a lot of money these days?"
Zhou's mother: "Definitely! How shameless!"
If Zhou's mother weren't afraid of disturbing Jiang Xia's translation, she would have started cursing!
They can't disturb Jiang Xia's translation; a book only costs fifty yuan, and they save five hundred yuan by chatting with a foreigner.
That's amazing.
Jiang Xia also stands up and takes a look.
Zhou Chenglei said calmly, "Don't worry about them."
The sea belongs to the public; people can go wherever they want.
Zhou's mother said, "But aren't we supposed to go to that island today to see if there are any pearl oysters? Should we still go? What if they find out? I went out to sea to shuck oysters on that island."
Jiang Xia, thinking of a scene from a book, said, "They should know we found pearl oysters."
Zhou's mother was a little incredulous: "How could that be? How did they know?"
Jiang Xia asked, "Mom, where did you throw those shells? Did you see them when you threw them?"
Zhou's mother threw the shells back into the sea!
Then she remembered seeing Wen Wan's figure when she threw them. "Pah! That sick chicken! She must have seen us!! What should we do? Should we still go to that island?"
Zhou Chenglei said, "Big brother went yesterday and didn't find any pearl oysters, so it doesn't matter. We're going to cook noodles for lunch."
Zhou's mother had also gone out to sea today and hadn't prepared lunch. They had already agreed to cook some noodles on the island for lunch, and Jiang Xia even said she would cook oyster noodles.
Moreover, Zhou Chenglei had told Zhou Chengxin that day to try his luck on the island, but his mother said last night he hadn't found anything.
Still feeling aggrieved, Zhou's mother couldn't help but curse, "I've never seen such a shameless person!"
Zhou Chenglei replied, "Mom, don't worry about it, it's none of your business."
Jiang Xia agreed with Zhou Chenglei.
Although the other party was shameless, the ocean wasn't theirs, and they couldn't stop others from following them.
Besides, not everyone had the ability to go into the sea to collect pearl oysters.
Jiang Xia was a very stable person; she could quickly process everything herself and was rarely affected by others. Therefore, she sat down, picked up her pen, and focused intently on her translation work.
Zhou's mother turned her head and saw Jiang Xia's serious expression, and suddenly felt calm.
Why get angry with others? It wouldn't be worth it to disturb her daughter-in-law's earnings.
By dawn, Jiang Xia had finished translating the entire book. She wrapped it in plastic and put it aside, planning to check it again when she got home that evening.
Since it wasn't time to reel in the net, Jiang Xia went fishing.
Zhou Chenglei then gave her his fishing rod.
Less than five minutes after casting the bait, Jiang Xia felt a fish take the bait. She quickly reeled in the line, only to find it difficult!
Jiang Xia hurriedly called for help: "Zhou Chenglei!"
Zhou Chenglei immediately came to help. He glanced at the sea and said, "Mom, quickly grab the net, the biggest one, and the casting net too."
Zhou's mother quickly picked up the largest net from the corner and ran over. She peered into the sea and saw a huge fish struggling in the water.
Zhou's mother's eyes widened. My goodness, what a huge fish!
"Such a big fish, could it be a shark?"
Zhou Chenglei took the net: "No. It looks like a red snapper. Mom, go get the boat and ask Dad to come help."
Zhou's mother immediately went to get the boat and asked Zhou's father to come help.
The boat was still trawling the net and couldn't stop.
The fish was indeed huge, and it was struggling fiercely in the water. Jiang Xia's heart was in her throat, afraid that the line would break and the fish would escape.
Zhou Chenglei shared this worry. The fish looked to be over a meter long and weighed nearly a hundred pounds, so the line would likely break.
Zhou's father arrived just in time.
Finally, the father and son worked together for a while before managing to pull a red snapper over a meter long onto the boat!
Zhou's mother's eyes widened, then she chuckled, "It really is a red snapper? I've never seen such a big one before! We've struck it rich!"
Zhou's father said, "This fish is over a meter long."
Jiang Xia said, "It should be about 1.5 meters."
Zhou Chenglei said, "1.5 meters, probably a hundred pounds."
Zhou's father's eyes practically disappeared from his smile!
1.5 meters!
A hundred pounds!
Wasn't that catching a king red snapper?
And it had to be his daughter-in-law.
She caught a king of fish right off the bat.
Jiang Xia asked, "How much does this fish usually cost per pound?"
Red snapper, also known as red amberjack, is less fishy and suitable for sashimi. It's reasonably priced, not as expensive as salmon, making it a popular sashimi choice.
Jiang Xia was tempted to eat red snapper sashimi, but making money was more important; she couldn't very well cut off a piece.
Father Zhou: "Usually, a 30-40 cm long amberjack sells for about a dollar a pound, but this king amberjack should fetch 20-30 cents more."
Jiang Xia: ...That range of 20-30 cents is really wide.
The people on the fishing boat following them at a moderate distance saw Jiang Xia catch a big fish.
Zhou Bingqiang squinted and asked, "Guohua, can you tell what kind of fish it is?" Zhou
Guohua shook his head: "I can't tell, but the shape looks a bit like a small shark."
Zhou Bingqiang was a little envious: "That's worth a lot of money! Zhou Yongfu's daughter-in-law seems to have a good sea catching ability; she caught a big fish early this morning."
He couldn't help but glance at Wen Wan.
He had taken a big risk by agreeing to let his youngest son take her on the boat; he wondered how her sea catching ability was. Fishermen like them were superstitious and wanted to marry a wife who would bring good fortune
to her family and husband.
Wen Wan noticed Zhou Bingqiang's gaze and pursed her lips: What did he mean? Did he think she was inferior to Jiang Xia?
Everyone here is reborn. In their past lives, they had education and knowledge; in this life, they have a cheat code—the ability to dream and foresee the future. How could they possibly be inferior to Jiang Xia?
Wen Wan felt her luck should be even better than Jiang Xia's, so she said, "Do we have fishing rods on our boat? I want to fish too."
Jiang Xia could catch such big fish; she believed she could too.
Zhou Guohua immediately replied, "Yes! I just bought a new fishing rod the other day."
He immediately ran to get the new rod for Wen Wan.
However, while they had the rod, they didn't have bait.
But it was enough time to haul in the net, and then they could fish with small fish and shrimp.
The father and son went to haul in the net.
This net was a bit heavy, and the two happily pulled it up and poured it out. It
was all miscellaneous fish. Zhou Bingqiang glanced at it and laughed, "Not bad, there are squid, shrimp, and quite a few mackerel, and even some tiger grouper! This net will easily bring in thirty or forty yuan." Wen
Wan was a little envious. She only earned twenty yuan in several days of translation work; they could easily earn thirty or forty yuan in just two hours with a single net!
Zhou Guohua picked up a slightly smaller shrimp and handed it to her along with the fishing rod: "Xiao Wan, here, all the fish you catch later are yours."
Wen Wan instantly perked up. She smiled and took the fishing rod and bait, carefully hooking the fish: "How could I accept that? I can't."
Zhou Guohua: "What's there to be embarrassed about? You caught them, of course they're yours, no need to be polite."
Zhou Bingqiang didn't say anything; he wanted to see if Wen Wan was good at fishing.
He also wanted to find a daughter-in-law with good fishing skills for his son!
Wen Wan baited the hook and walked hopefully to the side of the boat, casting the bait into the water.
Soon, Wen Wan felt a fish take the bait.
She was overjoyed and quickly pulled it up.
The pull was quite strong!
Wen Wan also caught a big fish!
The fish struggled fiercely in the water, and she could barely hold onto the fishing rod!
"Zhou Guohua, come help me!"
Zhou Guohua quickly grabbed the fishing rod
, but when he saw the fish in the water, his face changed. "Sunfish, release it quickly, don't catch it!"
He cut the fishing line and released the fish.
Wen Wan's face changed.
Zhou Bingqiang's face also looked a little ugly, what bad luck!
Zhou Guohua comforted her, "It's okay, it's not like we caught it. Even if we did, it's okay, we can't be superstitious. Let's keep fishing, I still have an old fishing rod. Catching a fish so quickly is also a matter of luck!"
Zhou Bingqiang's lips twitched, "Hehe, this luck is unbelievable! It's rare to see such a big fish!"
Wen Wan: "..."
Zhou Guohua quickly smoothed things over with the old fishing rod, "It just means we're lucky, keep going, keep going, the next one will definitely be better, bigger and bigger."
Zhou Bingqiang couldn't bear to look, so he looked at Jiang Xia and the others' boat.
At this moment, Zhou's father and Zhou Chenglei were also pulling in the net.
Zhou Bingqiang's heart began to pound.
Zhou's father tugged at the net, raising an eyebrow: "This net is definitely going to burst!"
He was now very familiar with the feel of a bursting net!
"I estimate it's definitely no less than two hundred jin," he added cheerfully.
Zhou Chenglei thought it would be more than that.
The father and son struggled a bit to pull the net up.
After pulling it up, they found that there weren't many fish, but there were two extremely large amberjacks.
They were about the same size as the one Jiangxia had caught. The rest were all miscellaneous fish and shrimp,
which explained why it was so heavy. One amberjack weighed over a hundred jin, so two would be two hundred jin. Adding the other miscellaneous fish and shrimp, as well as the weight of the seawater, the net should have weighed around three hundred jin.
Jiang Xia: "What a lucky day! We actually caught three king amberjacks!"
Zhou Chenglei: "These fish like to swim in groups of two or three."
Looking at the three long king amberjacks neatly lined up on the deck, Zhou's mother beamed, "We're rich! We're rich!"
Zhou's father also felt rich; they'd only been out at sea for two hours and already had over three hundred yuan in hand!
Seeing that there weren't many small fish, he said to Zhou's mother, "Why don't you divide the fish and let Xia continue fishing? She's got good luck."
Zhou's mother readily agreed; every extra fish meant a few more cents, and if she caught a big one, she'd be rich!
She chuckled, "Okay, there aren't many fish, no need for two people to divide them, I'll divide them in a bit. Xia, you go fishing!"
Zhou Chenglei went to set the net.
Seeing him set the net alone, Zhou's father said, "Xia, why don't you help set the net too?"
Jiang Xia: "???"
Setting the net is so easy, why help?
Seeing the doubt in her eyes, Zhou's father said, "When husband and wife are of one mind, their strength can break metal. You two should set the net together; I think the next catch will be even bigger!"
Jiang Xia: "..."
Is that how "when husband and wife are of one mind, their strength can break metal" is used?
However, Jiang Xia still obediently went over to set the net, after all, it's good to learn.
Jiang Xia walked to the stern of the boat to Zhou Chenglei's side: "Let me try?"
"Come here." Zhou Chenglei stepped aside, letting her stand in front of him. He stood behind her and reached out to teach her how to set the net.
Zhou Chenglei had long arms and legs, so this posture didn't affect his net-setting movements, but it looked like he was holding Jiang Xia in his arms.
And that was pretty much the case; Jiang Xia was completely encircled in his arms, her back pressed against his strong chest.
Zhou Chenglei was focused on teaching, and Jiang Xia was focused on listening, neither noticing their intimate moment.
Zhou's father, steering the boat, watched the loving couple and smiled: "The incense offerings today are so sweet, it's worth a full net!"
Zhou's mother, observing the oblivious couple, suddenly understood why the old man had said she was just a memorial tablet.
After casting the net, Jiang Xia and Zhou Chenglei went fishing.
Zhou Chenglei again baited the hook for her; she only needed to cast the line.
Jiang Xia's hands were incredibly lucky.
She seemed particularly fortunate with big fish today; in less than five minutes, she caught another large one—a manta ray.
These fish leap out of the water, escaping the hook and almost pulling Jiang Xia in!
Luckily, Zhou Chenglei reacted quickly and grabbed her.
Jiang Xia bumped into Zhou Chenglei's strong chest, his powerful arms holding her tightly. Still shaken, she exclaimed, "That fish was amazing!"
Zhou's mother was also startled, but seeing that Jiang Xia was alright, she couldn't help but feel a little regretful. "What a pity," she said, "the fish's gills are good. Take them off, dry them, and keep them to guard the door. You can use them when you have children."
Manta rays are fish with medicinal value.
Manta ray gills are also called "puffy gills," and in some regions, they are used as a natural "fever reducer," which is why Zhou's mother said the children could use them later.
Jiang Xia had heard of them, but they seemed to be prone to heavy metal contamination and weren't included in the pharmacopoeia. She didn't know if it was true.
Jiang Xia knew that there were many folk remedies and prescriptions, varying from place to place. Some people found them effective, while others didn't. The effectiveness depended on whether they were appropriate for the condition, but undeniably, many folk remedies were the crystallization of wisdom passed down through generations of people.
Father Zhou chuckled, "As long as she's alright, that's all that matters. The fish got away, so be it; the next one will be bigger! Maybe the one that escaped just now didn't escape our inescapable net either!"
Jiang Xia put away her fishing rod and noticed the hook was gone. "The hook's gone."
Zhou Chenglei took the rod from her, not particularly concerned. "We'll just get another one when we get home. Next time, remember to let go; don't hold on so tightly."
As long as she was alright, the boat didn't matter! She'd
almost scared him to death.
Zhou Chenglei asked her, "Want to fish again?"
Jiang Xia nodded. "Yes."
Zhou Chenglei gave her another fishing rod.
This time, he did nothing but stand beside her, watching her fish.
The morning sunlight fell on her gentle, pretty face, her long eyelashes casting shadows like tiny fans, half-light, half-shadow.
The sea breeze gently ruffled her fine hair, making her look as delicate and beautiful as a lotus emerging from the water.
He reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, glanced at Zhou's parents, and then quickly kissed her on the cheek.
"..."
Jiang Xia was focused on fishing when he kissed her, and she turned to glare at him!
Zhou Chenglei's eyes and brows were full of smiles. He turned to the side, blocking the view behind him, his large hand holding her wrist, his long fingers playing with the small round bone on her wrist, his thumb gently kneading it.
Jiang Xia glared at him, then ignored him.
Sunlight fell on the two of them, casting their intertwined shadows on the deck, a silent sweetness lingering, which the gentle sea breeze couldn't dispel.
Jiang Xia's lips curved slightly, her face slightly flushed, as she intently gazed at the sea.
Zhou Chenglei's eyes and brows were full of smiles as he casually watched the sea.
Suddenly, a "plop" sounded, drawing their attention to the water.
Wen Wan saw Jiang Xia catch a manta ray on the boat, and it flew away, almost causing Jiang Xia to fall off the boat.
Although she shouldn't have, Wen Wan couldn't help but secretly feel a little happy.
Wasn't she lucky? Nothing special!
The big fish she had in her grasp flew away!
Just as this thought crossed her mind, she felt a fish take the bait!
And this time the pull was quite strong, it felt like a big fish.
Wen Wan was overjoyed, afraid of suffering the same fate as Jiang Xia, and hurriedly said, "Zhou Guohua, come help! A fish has taken the bait! Quick!"
She could barely hold the fishing rod.
Zhou Guohua was more than happy to oblige, he quickly half-embraced her and together they pulled the fish up.
Wen Wan felt disgusted and subconsciously avoided his touch.
As a result, she was pulled by the fish in the sea, and with a "plop," she fell into the sea!
Zhou Guohua reacted quickly and grabbed her hand, but it was too late; he too fell into the sea with a splash.
Jiang Xia and Zhou Chenglei turned around simultaneously and saw the two of them fall into the sea one after the other.
Jiang Xia said with lingering fear, "The fish were pretty fierce today!"
"Yeah." Zhou Chenglei held her wrist tightly, glanced at the two struggling in the water, and saw Zhou Guohua react quickly and swim towards Wen Wan, who was thrashing about. He knew there was no need to go into the water to rescue them. Anyone
who went out to sea to fish knew how to swim.
Most of the village children learned to swim from a young age.
Wen Wan could swim too; she was just a little panicked after falling into the sea.
Zhou Bingqiang, who was steering the boat, was stunned. After realizing what was happening, he could only stop the boat, throw down a large black swimming ring and rope, and pull the two of them
up. With great difficulty, he managed to rescue them both.
Zhou Bingqiang then remembered that he had been trawling!
When trawling, if the fishing boat stops, the net will sink. If
it sinks, it might get caught on rocks or other underwater objects.
He didn't care about the two soaking wet people anymore and quickly started to haul in the net!
Zhou Bingqiang's boat had net-hauling equipment, making it much easier.
But it got stuck, only halfway up!
Zhou Bingqiang tried to pull it up, but to no avail.
Zhou Guohua came over: "It's stuck?"
Zhou Bingqiang, already seething with anger, snapped, "Even a blind man could see that! Why ask?" Zhou
Guohua: "..."
Wen Wan, having recovered, also came over: "Is it snagged on a rock underwater? Should we go in and check, and pull it out?"
This time, Wen Wan really walked right into his trap. Zhou Bingqiang said irritably, "Sure! You go in and check, you go in and pull it out."
Sure enough, taking a woman out to sea never ends well.
"..." Wen Wan hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "I'm not a very good swimmer." Wen
Wan felt a little wronged. It wasn't her fault; it was an accident. If Zhou Guohua hadn't taken advantage of her, she wouldn't have reacted this way. Why was he yelling at her?
It was utterly inexplicable!
Besides, she had come out to sea with them to find pearl oysters; she didn't owe them anything.
Zhou Guohua also felt his father was a bit fierce. It was just an accident; nobody wanted it to happen. Wen Wan had been frightened, so he said, "Dad, why don't I go down and check? Maybe it's not too deep." "
If it's too deep, the pressure underwater is immense, and he can't hold his breath for long, so naturally he won't be able to go down."
Zhou Bingqiang was so angry he didn't even bother to speak, and simply abandoned the entire net.
Luckily, there was another spare fishing net on the boat, otherwise today's trip would have been a waste.
He was a little heartbroken, though, as the fishing net was brand new, and each net cost a lot of money.
He really shouldn't bring women out to sea!
This is still a new boat, and he was afraid it would bring bad luck to the ship. Zhou Bingqiang regretted it to the core.
He had been misled by Zhou Yongfu's words!
Saying that bringing his daughter-in-law out to sea would bring good fortune, and that a united couple could overcome any obstacle.
What utter nonsense !
Only Zhou Chenglei was lucky to have married such a blessed wife.
But not everyone has the business of seafaring like Jiang Xia, and not every woman is a good wife.
He would never bring a woman on board again.
Zhou Guohua quickly went to get the spare fishing net to cast the net.
Zhou Bingqiang went to steer the boat and continue trawling.
***
The boat kept moving, and the Zhou family's boat was getting further and further away from Zhou Bingqiang's boat.
Jiangxia caught a fish! This time, she hooked a yellowfin seabream.
It was a large fish, about 30 centimeters long and weighing around 7 kilograms.
It looked a bit like a crucian carp, but the biggest difference was that its pelvic, anal, and lower caudal fins were yellow.
This fish was considered high-quality, with tender, sweet flesh, delicious both fresh and salted/dried.
This one should fetch seven or eight yuan.
After Zhou Chenglei unloaded the fish, Jiang Xia noticed Zhou Bingqiang's boat hadn't moved and couldn't help but ask, "Wasn't the person rescued? Is something wrong?"
Zhou Chenglei had just seen the person rescued. "The person is fine. The net probably sank to the bottom and got caught on something."
"What should we do? Should we go into the sea to untangle it?"
"Going in to untangle it is too dangerous; most people would choose to abandon the net."
"Oh."
Zhou Chenglei took the fish off the hook, baited it, and handed it to Jiang Xia.
Jiang Xia casually tossed it into the sea.
On another boat, after changing to fishing nets and starting to trawle again, Zhou Guohua asked Wen Wan, "Still fishing?"
Wen Wan, unwilling to admit defeat and wanting to redeem herself, nodded, "Okay!"
Fortunately, this time a normal fish finally took the bait!
Wen Wan caught a mackerel.
Mackerel are relatively large and take the bait quickly, making the fishing quite exciting; Wen Wan had initially thought she had caught a big fish.
However, it wasn't small either, weighing about three pounds.
Wen Wan subconsciously looked at the boat not far away; Zhou Bingqiang had caught up with Jiang Xia's boat again.
The two boats were not too far apart, just close enough to vaguely see each other's movements.
Jiang Xia also caught a fish at this moment, another mackerel.
However, Jiang Xia's looked much longer; Zhou Chenglei spent quite a while in the water before finally getting it onto the boat, when it was too exhausted to struggle.
Zhou Bingqiang saw it too!
He thought of the mackerel Wen Wan had just caught.
No comparison, no harm!
One weighed about three jin (approximately 1.5 kg), and the other about thirty jin (approximately 15 kg).
He couldn't help but think that his son's girlfriend, Haiyun, didn't seem very good at fishing. Was it really a good idea to marry her?
Zhou Guohua, oblivious to his feelings, even praised, "This mackerel is really big! Xiaowan, you're amazing!"
Wenwan felt incredibly embarrassed and resentful!
How come Jiang Xia always caught such big fish? Was her luck really not as good as Jiang Xia's?
Could it be a problem with
her fishing rod and bait? If that were the case, what was the point of fishing? It would only be embarrassing.
Zhou Guohua then asked, "Are you going to fish again?"
"No, I don't know how to fish, and I need to read." Wenwan didn't want to humiliate herself any further, so she sat down in a corner and picked up her book.
Next, Jiang Xia caught a beautiful blue-green wrasse, a sea bass, and a filefish.
These fish weren't very big, only a little over a jin (approximately 0.5 kg).
Finally, she caught a red snapper, weighing about seven or eight jin (approximately 3.5-4 kg), which was considered a large fish.
Jiang Xia smiled, "Let's take this home and eat it. I want to eat amberjack sashimi."
Zhou Chenglei carefully removed the fish and replied, "Okay."
Just then, it was time for the two boats to haul in their nets.
Zhou's father said to the two of them, "Stop fishing, it's time to haul in the nets!"
Jiang Xia replied, "Okay."
Zhou Chenglei put down his fishing rod and went over.
Zhou's father smiled and waved to Jiang Xia, "Xia, come and help haul in the nets." Zhou
Chenglei immediately said, "No need."
What's wrong with his dad?
Didn't he see how thin and frail Jiang Xia's arms and legs were?
She could barely support his strength; she was so delicate, how could she possibly have the strength to haul in the nets?
Zhou's father knew his son doted on his wife, and he was happy to see it happen. He chuckled and said, "Don't worry, I didn't let Xia Xia haul in the net. I just called her over to feel it. She's lucky."
If he wasn't afraid his son would think he was being disrespectful, Zhou's father would have said: "It would be best if you held Xia Xia's hand and hauled in the net together."
Zhou Chenglei almost rolled his eyes at his father.
His dad was becoming more and more superstitious!
Jiang Xia just thought Zhou's father was kind of cute lately. She obediently walked to Zhou Chenglei's side and reached out to tug at the fishing net.
The old man was superstitious; she could make him feel good just by moving her fingers, so why not?
Zhou Chenglei reached out to support her. The waves were a bit big, and the boat was rocking a bit. He was afraid she would lose her balance and fall into the sea. After she tugged at the net, he said, "Dad and I can haul in the net. No need to help."
"Okay," Jiang Xia replied and walked away so as not to interfere with him and Zhou's father hauling in the net.
Zhou Chenglei helped her walk a few steps, making sure she was steady before letting go.
Then the father and son worked together to pull up the net.
It was heavy!
So heavy that Zhou's father gritted his teeth and couldn't pull it up!
So heavy that Zhou Chenglei's long leg muscles tensed, and the veins on his arms bulged.
But the heavier it was, the happier they were.
The heavier it was, the more fish they would catch!
Jiang Xia and Zhou's mother came to help.
Finally, the four of them managed to pull a large bag of fish onto the boat.
After dumping it out, mackerel and amberjack covered the entire deck, piled up like a small mountain!
There were also two stingrays.
Zhou's mother excitedly said, "Could it be that the stingray that Xia caught has fallen into the net again?"
Zhou Chenglei checked the two stingrays: "Yes."
Zhou's father said, "I told you it couldn't escape our inescapable net. This net must weigh at least 300 pounds!"
Zhou Chenglei felt it must be more than that, because it was so heavy.
Jiang Xia and Zhou's mother quickly divided the fish.
Zhou Chenglei: "Dad, shall we go to the island now?"
Zhou's father glanced at his watch. "It's only a little past ten. Let's do one more haul before going to the island to cook something. What do you think, Xia?"
Jiang Xia: "Okay."
Zhou Chenglei looked at Jiang Xia: "Are you hungry?"
One more haul would bring it to around one o'clock.
Jiang Xia: "I'm alright. Didn't Mom bring some boiled eggs? And I brought some biscuits and chocolate. We can eat something if we get hungry. It's too early to go to the island to cook. Let's do one more haul and earn more money."
Zhou's father agreed wholeheartedly: "Exactly!"
Zhou Chenglei went along with them.
Zhou's father added: "Xia, you and A-Lei go set the net first. There's no rush to divide the fish."
"Okay."
So the couple went to set the net together.
After setting the net, Jiang Xia and Zhou Chenglei returned to divide the fish. The boat was full of fish waiting to be divided, so they had to hurry.
Two hours later, they hauled in the net again. This haul also yielded a lot of fish, totaling over two hundred pounds. However, this time it was mostly miscellaneous fish, a mixed bag of all sorts.
The fish were mostly red snapper and mackerel, along with sole, sea bass, mackerel, red octopus, ribbonfish, squid, shrimp, and cuttlefish. The deck was covered in ink from the cuttlefish.
There were many different kinds, some of which Jiang Xia didn't recognize, and even a sea snake!
Afraid of scaring Jiang Xia, Zhou Chenglei immediately grabbed them and threw them back into the sea.
Jiang Xia only noticed when he grabbed them and was startled too, hesitant to sort the fish.
But fear aside, the work had to be done, and with Zhou Chenglei beside her, she wasn't so afraid anymore.
While sorting, Zhou Chenglei threw a poisonous fish back into the sea and then caught a conger eel and put it in the bucket.
Jiang Xia suddenly saw the conger eel, mistook it for a snake, and was startled.
Soon after, they arrived at the island.
After the boat docked, Zhou Chenglei got off first and held out his hand to Jiang Xia: "Jump down, I'll catch you."
This time, Jiang Xia didn't hesitate and jumped directly into his arms.
Zhou Chenglei caught Jiang Xia steadily again and then carried her to the beach and put her down.
Zhou Bingqiang and his boat followed.
Wen Wan and Zhou Guohua both witnessed this scene.
Wen Wan found it cringeworthy: Jiang Xia was just being dramatic, needing to be carried even after getting off the boat.
Zhou Guohua thought to himself: he'd have to carry Wen Wan like that later.
Zhou Guohua said to Zhou Chenglei, "Chenglei, we haven't been to this island in a long time. We'd like to get some oysters to take back and eat. You don't mind if we come with you, do you?"
After putting Jiang Xia down, Zhou Chenglei turned back to take the aluminum pot, bucket, and other things his father handed him.
He took a bucket of clean fresh water from his father and said casually, "This island isn't my family's, there's nothing to mind."
Zhou Guohua chuckled, "That's good! You haven't had lunch yet, are you planning to cook something on the island?"
"Yes. Have you eaten?"
"Yes, we brought food and ate on the boat."
Zhou Chenglei ignored him and went to find Shi Tou.
After Zhou Bingqiang moored the boat, Zhou Guohua jumped in first, extending his hand to Wen Wan: "Xiao Wan, come on, jump down, I'll catch you."
Wen Wan: "No need. I'll jump in myself."
Zhou Guohua insisted: "The water's deep here, you'll get your clothes wet. And it's so high, what if you twist your ankle?"
Wen Wan hesitated now, afraid of twisting her ankle. She said: "Give me your hand, just for a bit of leverage."
Zhou Guohua raised one hand for her to lean on.
As Wen Wan jumped in, she was about to grab his hand for a bit of weight, but Zhou Guohua reached out to grab her!
As a result, the force was too great, and both of them fell, directly into the water.
They splashed up a puddle, making quite a commotion.
Jiang Xia and Zhou Chenglei both looked over.
Both of them had fallen into the water, Wen Wan clinging to Zhou Guohua.
Zhou Bingqiang heard another "splash," peered over, and thought the two of them were incredibly stupid!
Zhou Guohua quickly got up and helped Wen Wan up, saying, "I'm sorry, I didn't expect you to be so heavy!"
"..."
Wen Wan stood up and irritably shook off his hand, "Don't touch me!"
Heavy?
She was so much thinner and shorter than Jiang Xia, how could she be heavy?
Zhou Chenglei caught Jiang Xia without even swaying.
Clearly, he was weaker than her, yet he presumptuously tried to catch her, and when he couldn't, he complained about her weight.
Compared to him, Wen Wan felt Zhou Chenglei was truly kind!
Jiang Xia almost laughed out loud; this kid was too honest.
If Zhou Chenglei had done something like this and said something so stupid, Jiang Xia thought she would have been angry too.
Fortunately, Zhou Chenglei wasn't that stupid.
Seeing Wen Wan was angry, Zhou Guohua quickly said, "I'm sorry, I didn't know it would be like this. I prepared an extra set of clothes on the boat; shall I take them down for you to change into?"
He thought it would be easy since Zhou Chenglei caught Jiang Xia so easily; he really hadn't expected this.
"No need!" Wen Wan stormed towards the beach, then noticed Jiang Xia watching her. Her composure returned instantly, and her tone softened. "It's alright, no need. We'll be in the water soon anyway, it's fine. Besides, it's hot, wet clothes will be cooler."
She was furious! She'd already gotten her clothes wet from falling into the sea, and just when they were almost dry, they were wet again!
But oh well, she still needed to look for pearls underwater later, so it didn't matter.
Thinking this, Wen Wan added, "This island seems pretty big, let's look around!"
She saw Zhou Chenglei and Jiang Xia looking like they were going to have a picnic on the island?
Perfect, they could take advantage of the time to look around and pick up anything good.
Zhou Guohua naturally had no objections, and the two went off to explore the island.
Wen Wan had only taken a few steps when she felt something strange under her feet.
Wen Wan felt a "poof" sound under her feet; something had broken beneath her!
She squatted down, dug it open, and found a nest of eggs! But she had crushed two of them.
Overjoyed, she quickly picked them up.
Zhou Guohua laughed, "Xiao Wan, you're so lucky! You found a nest of turtle eggs as soon as you got off the boat."
Wen Wan smiled, "I was worried you'd find me a bother, so I offered you half."
"No need."
Zhou Bingqiang was about to disembark when he heard this. He glanced at his simple-minded son, feeling a pang of sadness, and decided not to disembark. Instead, he looked towards Jiang Xia's boat.
Because Jiang Xia and Zhou Chenglei were cooking on the island, and cooking didn't require many people, Zhou's parents stayed on the boat to divide the fish.
Zhou Bingqiang surveyed the cargo on the Zhou family's boat. Baskets were already sorted and covered, making it impossible to tell what was inside. However, the pile being divided on the deck contained quite a few good catches, including two manta rays. Based on his experience, this net would easily fetch fifty or sixty yuan.
Looking at himself after a busy morning, he realized he'd only lost a fishing net and a fishing rod—that was already a loss of several tens of yuan. Although the first catch he pulled up was good, with over a hundred jin of fish, enough to sell for thirty or forty yuan, it barely covered the losses.
The contrast was stark!
He regretted bringing Wen Wan on board again. In his decades of fishing, he'd never been so unlucky.
Finding a nest of eggs was considered good luck? Pshaw!
When Zhou Bingqiang looked over, Zhou's father smiled knowingly and asked, "Guohua took his girlfriend out to sea today. A good catch, right?"
Zhou Bingqiang found his father's smug look annoying and laughed, "Guohua took his girlfriend out to sea for fun. They're just kids, just playing around. They caused a ruckus, and I figured I'd let them have their fun. We have three boats, we fish every day, so what's one more day? I brought the kids to the island for a day. They said they wanted to shuck some oysters and find some mussels to take back. They're tired of eating big fish and shrimp every day."
Zhou's father chuckled and retorted, "Your three fishing boats are certainly well-off! It's just a fishing net and a catch of fish, plus one or two fishing rods—only a few dozen yuan. You can afford that!"
"Then have some fun! You're lucky, you don't have to work so hard! Our whole family is working non-stop, this one net brought in hundreds of pounds of fish, the whole family is dividing them up until our hands are sore! We're busy all morning and only earn four or five hundred yuan, it's not as good as your family having three fishing boats, we can't afford it!"
Four or five hundred yuan? Zhou Bingqiang's face turned ugly, his heart even more depressed: "The two kids said they want to shuck oysters, I'll go down and check!"
After saying that, he jumped off the boat.
He hoped that Wen Wan could really find pearl oysters, otherwise he would really lose a lot today.
Seeing him flee in panic, Zhou's father was so happy that he almost whistled. Bah, three boats are so great?
His family's small fishing boat earned more in one morning than his family's three boats combined!
If they wait for the big boat to come back and go out to sea to fish, hehe...
He could almost see gold coins falling down!
Zhou's father divided the fish faster!
On the beach, Zhou Chenglei found two rocks to put an aluminum pot on and started a fire.
After starting the fire, Jiang Xia asked him to shuck some oysters. She had just picked some shrimp and squid from the boat.
She planned to cook some seafood noodles.
After such hard work, they needed to eat well.
Jiang Xia felt that shrimp and squid alone weren't fresh enough, so while the water boiled, she went to the sand to collect some shellfish to make the soup sweeter.
This isolated island was rarely visited, so there were many shellfish on the beach. Jiang Xia quickly collected half a bucket of white clams and oysters.
The water in the aluminum pot was also boiling. She first blanched the shrimp and prepared squid rings in the water and then added the cleaned shellfish to blanch them.
Shellfish need to be blanched to remove mud and sand.
In the sweltering midday heat, cooking on the beach, Jiang Xia, who had been wrapped up tightly after sunrise, felt like a stuffy rice dumpling, sweating profusely from the heat of the fire.
Zhou Chenglei returned with a plate of oyster meat.
He came to Jiangxia's side: "I'll cook it. You go to the shady spot under the boat to escape the sun."
"It's alright, it'll be ready soon. Pour out this pot of water." Jiang Xia scooped up the opened clams and rinsed them with clean, cold water, then washed the oyster meat.
Zhou Chenglei poured out the pot of water and added water to make noodle soup.
Twenty minutes later, a large pot of seafood noodle soup was ready!
Zhou Chenglei called his parents to come ashore to eat noodles.
Jiang Xia filled four large enamel bowls with noodles, each containing half a pair of halved eggs (cooked and brought aboard by Zhou's mother that morning), four shrimp, three plump oysters, plenty of shellfish meat, and two green vegetables.
Neatly arranged in the bowls, it looked very appetizing!
Zhou's father sighed inwardly, "She's truly cultured; even a bowl of noodles can be made with a touch of poetry and art.
My daughter-in-law is so good at managing a household, so refined and particular, and most importantly, she's lucky—she brings good fortune to her husband!"
Jiang Xia took out a jar of pickled bamboo shoots in a fermented bean curd jar, which Zhou's mother made in her spare time; it would make the seafood noodles even more appetizing.
Zhou Chenglei took the bowl, unscrewed the lid, and the whole family took a little and put it in their bowls.
The noodles were chewy, the oysters were plump, the various shellfish were sweet and delicious, the shrimp was fresh and bouncy, the spicy and sour bamboo shoots were refreshing, and even the broth was exceptionally sweet—everything was just right.
Zhou's father had never eaten such delicious noodles before; he was so impressed by how delicious they were.
His wife and eldest daughter-in-law's noodles used to be a mushy mess with hardly any broth; he actually hated noodles.
He never imagined noodles could be so good!
Wen Wan and Zhou Guohua searched the island but couldn't find any pearl oysters.
Zhou Bingqiang's face grew increasingly grim, and Wen Wan couldn't stand it anymore, so she came back to see where Zhou Chenglei and Jiang Xia were.
Then she saw the family eating noodles, the deliciousness of which made her mouth water.
Zhou Guohua's mouth watered at the sight. He said, "Let's go out to sea tomorrow and bring some utensils to the island to cook noodles."
Wen Wan hadn't had a decent meal since her rebirth, but thinking of Zhou Bingqiang's expression, she shook her head, "Never mind."
Zhou Guohua whispered, "My dad doesn't need to come tomorrow, just the two of us. I'll borrow a boat from my aunt. They're not going out to sea tomorrow, so we'll split the fishing profits."
Wen Wan nodded, her heart softening, and whispered, "We don't need to split the money. I just think Jiang Xia might have deliberately led us to another island because our boat was following us. This island might not be the one where they found the pearl oysters." "
Maybe. We'll secretly follow them again tomorrow."
Seeing that they were still eating, the two decided to actually shuck oysters.
Zhou's father ate three large bowls, Zhou Chenglei ate four large bowls, Zhou's mother ate three bowls each, and Jiang Xia was full after one bowl, mainly because Zhou Chenglei had peeled many shrimp for her. The whole family ate until they were sweating.
The aluminum pot was spotless, without a single drop of broth.
After eating, Zhou's mother went to wash the dishes.
Zhou's father said to Zhou Chenglei, "Let's do the trawling later this afternoon, and we'll shuck more oysters and collect more clams to cook noodles with."
He wanted to eat this seafood noodle soup again tomorrow morning!
It was so delicious!
Zhou Chenglei had no objections. He said to Jiang Xia, "You and Mom collect some clams on the beach, and Dad and I will shuck oysters?"
Shucking oysters was hard work and could easily lead to injury, while collecting shellfish on the beach wouldn't be so strenuous.
Jiang Xia agreed, "Okay."
Shellfish weren't so easy to collect either; you had to dig, digging wherever there were bubbles.
Jiang Xia dug and dug, until she unearthed something hard—a silver corner peeking out from the yellowish-brown sand.
Jiang Xia glanced around and found that Wen Wan and the others were not there.
Only Zhou's mother was bending over and digging for seashells not far away.
Jiang Xia then took the small shovel and carefully dug it out.
With each dig, she could hear her heart pounding.
Jiang Xia kept glancing around, afraid that Wen Wan and the others would come back.
Soon, she dug out a solid silver basin shaped like a UFO.
Jiang Xia's heart was pounding!
She quickly emptied the seashells from the bucket, then put the "UFO" into the bucket, and then put the seashells back into the bucket, but it still couldn't cover the "UFO".
Jiang Xia filled in the hole she had dug, and then quickly carried the bucket to Zhou's mother.
The bucket was noticeably heavier after the "UFO" was placed in it.
"Mom!" Jiang Xia arrived at Zhou's mother's side.
Zhou's mother straightened up and looked at her: "What's wrong?"
"Mom, pour the white clams from your bucket into mine."
"But there aren't many, only half a bucket." Zhou's mother replied, looking at Jiang Xia's bucket.
She paused for a moment: "What's this?"
Jiang Xia whispered in Zhou's mother's ear.
Zhou's mother: "..."
She quickly looked around and hurriedly poured the clams from her bucket into Jiang Xia's bucket, covering the "UFO."
But it still wasn't full, a corner was still sticking out.
Jiang Xia said: "Mom, I'll go find Cheng Lei and put this bucket of white clams on the boat, you stay here and watch over it."
Zhou's mother hurriedly said: "No, I'll go, I'll go, don't go!"
This big thing, she dared not stay here to watch over it.
After saying that, Zhou's mother ran off.
"Mom, be careful, don't run so fast." Zhou's
mother slowed down when she heard this, yes, she couldn't let anyone see that she was anxious.
Zhou's mother suppressed her excitement and found Zhou Cheng Lei and Zhou's father.
Wen Wan, Zhou Bing Qiang and Zhou Guo Hua were all there.
They were all shucking oysters.
From afar, Zhou's mother called out to Zhou Chenglei, "Chenglei, Xia just felt a little dizzy. I asked her, but she said she was fine. I'm worried, go check on her."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Chenglei immediately put down his things and ran over.
Zhou's father also stopped shredding oysters. "She's probably suffering from heatstroke. I'll go check on her."
Zhou's father picked up the two bags of oysters he and Zhou Chenglei had shredded and headed back.
Zhou's mother didn't wait for him and ran straight back.
Zhou Bingqiang and the other two glanced at them.
After they had gone some distance, Wen Wan said, "Let's go too, let's follow and see."
Zhou Guohua: "What's so interesting about heatstroke?"
Zhou Bingqiang packed his things: "She's probably faking heatstroke to move on. Let's go!"
The three quickly packed up their tools, picked up three bags of oysters, and followed.
Zhou Chenglei ran back to the beach and saw Jiang Xia still bent over digging. He pulled her up and hugged her, saying, "Don't dig if you're dizzy. If you like to eat it, I'll go to the beach every day to dig it for you. This stuff is everywhere."
He looked at Jiang Xia's face; her usually pale skin was now pinkish, clearly from being hot.
Jiang Xia saw him and excitedly said, "I'm not dizzy, no, I really am dizzy! I was knocked unconscious by a UFO!"
Zhou Chenglei: "..."
Seriously? She's rambling incoherently!
Jiang Xia hugged his waist, stood on tiptoe, and tried to get close to his ear.
Seeing this, Zhou Chenglei bent down to accommodate her height.
Jiang Xia whispered in his ear, "Zhou Chenglei, I found treasure! Quickly, take this bucket to the boat."
Jiang Xia's voice was very soft, but even in such a soft voice, her excitement was palpable.
Zhou Chenglei raised an eyebrow and glanced down at the bucket at his feet. It was full of white clams and other shellfish, and he couldn't tell what else was there.
At this moment, Zhou's father and mother also ran back.
Not far behind them were Wen Wan and two others.
Jiang Xia pushed Zhou Chenglei away, trying to stand up on her own.
Zhou Chenglei held onto Jiang Xia tightly, not letting go, since his mother had said she was dizzy.
Of course, he had to
hold her if she was dizzy. He said to his father, "Dad, Jiang Xia probably has heatstroke. Let's go back to the boat!"
"Okay!" Zhou's parents quickly ran over.
Zhou's mother said to her father, "Old man, help me onto the boat first, then hand me the things."
"Sure."
Zhou's father helped his mother onto the boat first, then handed her the items one by one.
The bucket of shellfish was the last thing they handed up because it was far away.
Zhou's mother was anxious, but didn't want to remind them.
After everything was handed up, Zhou's father also got on the boat.
Then Zhou Chenglei lifted Jiang Xia up, and Zhou's parents pulled her onto the boat.
Seeing this, Wen Wan and the other two all thought Jiang Xia really had heatstroke.
Zhou Guohua: "Why go to sea if you're so delicate? You can't even stand the sun for a short while, it's unbelievable!"
Zhou Bingqiang: "What do you know? Being delicate is a blessing! She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, her parents doted on her and treated her like a treasure, that's why she's so delicate. Who can be delicate these days without good fortune? Otherwise, look at those women who are unloved by their parents, toiling in the fields every day, do they have this kind of delicacy? They're just lucky, they're born with good fortune!"
Zhou Yongfu made so much money taking Jiang Xia to sea time and time again, which made Zhou Bingqiang think that Jiang Xia was a lucky woman who brought good fortune to her husband.
He couldn't help it, he was superstitious.
Zhou Yongfu had such good fortune when he took women to sea, but he had such bad luck when he took women to sea, he could only conclude that Jiang Xia was lucky and brought good fortune to her husband.
Wen Wan pursed her lips, she felt that Zhou Bingqiang was implying that she wasn't lucky.
Because she was someone who wasn't loved by her parents.
But she wouldn't admit that she wasn't lucky, Jiang Xia's life in her previous life was much worse than hers!
Jiang Xia's family's good fortune quickly ran out. After
Zhou
's father steered the boat out to sea, Zhou's mother excitedly said, "Xia, take that thing out and let me see."
Jiang Xia transferred the shellfish from one bucket to another, revealing the UFO, which she then picked up.
Zhou Chenglei raised an eyebrow: "Found it on the beach?"
Jiang Xia nodded: "Yes!"
Zhou's mother reached out and touched it. "Is this really silver?"
Because the "UFO" had been buried in the sand and soaked in seawater for a long time, its surface had turned black, but the silver color was still visible.
"Most likely."
Jiang Xia recognized it because she had a college classmate in her past life whose grandfather was a scrap metal refining man. She had shown Jiang Xia photos of silver her grandfather had extracted from discarded electronic devices and CT scans. She
had even pointed to the photos and explained how to tell if the refined silver was pure, of good quality, and what kind of patterns would form in the middle of good silver.
Of course, Jiang Xia was also certain it was pure silver for another reason: in the book, this piece of silver was found by Zhou Chenglei.
Zhou Chenglei took it and examined it carefully: "It's silver."
Zhou's mother's eyes practically disappeared with laughter: "We're rich! We're rich!"
Zhou's father, who was steering the boat, couldn't help but say, "Old woman, come and steer the boat, let me see."
Zhou's mother, beaming, quickly ran to steer the boat.
Zhou's father ran over, took the "UFO," his hands trembling: "Is it really silver? The price of silver is very high now, isn't it?"
This silver basin must weigh ten pounds, right?
How much is that worth?
Although Zhou's father had been saying he was rich every day before, he hadn't really been rich; he was just expressing his feelings.
But Zhou's father felt that this time he was truly rich!
My God! Xia is simply a treasure trove!
Zhou's mother: "Can this be a family heirloom?"
Jiang Xia: "No, sell it."
Jiang Xia vaguely remembered that the price of silver was very high now, the highest in history, and hadn't reached such a high price even in the 21st century.
If it were gold, it could be kept, but there was no need to keep silver.
The price of silver was at its historical peak.
There wouldn't be such a high price for decades to come.
Tomorrow I'm taking Jill out to sea, and the day after tomorrow I'll go to the city to ask Brother Zhang about the current price of silver.
When Zhou's parents heard that Jiang Xia wanted to sell the silver, they had no objections.
The two elders believed that their children and grandchildren had their own lives to live, and they wouldn't interfere with what their children wanted to do.
Zhou's mother chuckled and said, "It's good that it's sold. The price of silver seems quite high these days! Isn't Aunt Guo preparing to marry off her son? I heard her say the other day that she went to have a silver ring made for her daughter-in-law, which cost over twenty yuan."
Such a large piece of silver, it must be worth several thousand yuan after selling it, right?
Mr. Zhou chuckled, "When we went to sell pearls last time, Manager Zhang from the gold shop also said that the price of silver has been rising, reaching fifty dollars an ounce, and he estimated it would rise even further this year."
Mrs. Zhou didn't quite understand, "What does 'ounce' mean? One tael? Does it mean that silver is currently fifty dollars an ounce? It seems like we can get more money in dollars when we exchange them for our currency?"
Mr. Zhou replied, "I don't know, but it probably means one tael!"
Jiang Xia simply explained the ounce to give the two elders a rough idea: "One jin (500 grams) is about seventeen ounces."
Mrs. Zhou held up her fingers. One ounce is fifty dollars, ten ounces is five hundred dollars, plus seven ounces...
she couldn't calculate it all, but Mrs. Zhou knew a lot of money.
So much that she couldn't even count it!
She excitedly asked, "Will the money from selling this big thing be enough to buy a big ship?"
Jiang Xia calculated that this "UFO" weighed ten jin, and at fifty dollars an ounce, "it could probably sell for more than eight thousand eight hundred dollars."
She wasn't sure about the current dollar exchange rate; she remembered it wasn't high, only around 1.5, but it would get higher and higher.
However, the price of silver started to drop after the year, and the drop was quite significant, so it's rare to have the best of both worlds.
Jiang Xia was still quite satisfied, though. In the book, Zhou Chenglei had found this piece of silver and sold it at the peak price, for around 13,000 yuan.
She'd essentially found a boat today. When
Zhou's mother heard about the 8,800-plus US dollars, she laughed: "Now we don't have to worry about not having enough money to buy a boat!"
Zhou's father chuckled, "We even have 5,000 extra dollars! That's enough to pay the deposit for another small boat!"
Zhou's mother couldn't contain her joy: "Yes, yes, yes, 5,000 extra dollars! Even if we don't order a boat, it's enough to build a house! I wonder how big a house 5,000 yuan can build now; cement and bricks seem expensive again." "
5,000 yuan can buy a small apartment in the city. Converting dollars to yuan would be even more; a two-and-a-half-story house in the village would be no problem. Before..."
The two old people were enthusiastically discussing how to use the 5,000 dollars.
Listening to their conversation, Jiang Xia was also wondering whether to build a house first or order another boat.
The cost of building houses and buying boats is getting higher every year.
It's a difficult decision, so I'll discuss it with Zhou Chenglei tonight.
Zhou Chenglei went to set the net again; it's only three o'clock now, he can haul in one more net before going home.
Zhou's father and mother were excitedly talking, but as soon as he saw Zhou Chenglei setting the net alone, he immediately called out, "Xia,..."
Jiang Xia already knew what Zhou's father was going to say, and before he could finish, she smiled and replied, "Okay, Dad, I'll go set the net now."
Zhou's father laughed: his daughter-in-law is much smarter; his son is truly hopeless!
Jiang Xia walked to Zhou Chenglei's side, and Zhou Chenglei made way for her to stand in front of him so they could set the net together.
Suddenly, Zhou's father had a flash of inspiration and thought of a new posture.
So, holding the "UFO" plaque, he stood straight and silently chanted behind them: "Wealth, wealth, wealth rolling in! Rolling in! Like waves in the ocean, one after another rolling in."
Zhou's mother, who was steering the boat: "..."
Zhou Chenglei felt his father behind him and turned around to look: "..."
Jiang Xia felt Zhou Chenglei turn around and also turned around to look, then smiled: How cute is Zhou's dad?
Jiang Xia moved slightly, and Zhou Chenglei, afraid she would fall into the sea, instinctively put his arm around her waist to protect her.
Seeing the unspoken intimacy between the two, Zhou's father felt reassured: Haha, wealth will surely come!
Seeing Jiang Xia smile, Zhou Chenglei turned back to his father: "Dad, continue!"
Zhou's father felt that under his own radiant light, wealth would surely come. He had finished reciting and shining his light enough, and was about to withdraw his posture when his son said this!
Was he being treated like a monkey?
Although he wanted to kick his unfilial son off the boat, harmony brings wealth, and for the sake of a rolling in of money, he should hold back and shine his light one more time?
***
The last net of fish was hauled in at five o'clock as they were returning to port, a whole bag full of mackerel.
These fish weren't expensive, about two cents a pound, but there were many, about three hundred pounds!
They could sell for about sixty yuan.
Zhou's father was very satisfied!
The waves of the sea vary in size, that's normal.
A small wave this time, a big wave next time, right?
He loves both big and small waves! He welcomes them all!
As the boat approached the shore, Zhou's father reminded Jiang Xia, "Xia, remember to keep a close eye on that thing. Old woman, you keep an eye on it too."
They'd caught so many fish today; some villagers would probably come aboard to check. If someone stole it, he'd have to treat it like a memorial tablet.
Jiang Xia, while dividing the fish, replied, "Okay."
Zhou's mother said irritably, "I know."
He'd said it a hundred times already, wasn't she annoyed?
She was even more afraid of it disappearing than he was!
As soon as the boat docked, it attracted another group of villagers, filled with envy and jealousy.
"Is this amberjack? No! Such big amberjacks? You caught three in one go?"
"And two stingrays? Is the ocean your private fishing ground?"
"More than that! Didn't you see all these baskets and baskets of amberjacks too? Zhou Yongfu, are you even human? How can you catch so many!"
Zhou's father chuckled, "Haha, you can tell I'm not human? I'm just a memorial tablet, it's all thanks to Lei's wife!"
What's a memorial tablet? The villagers didn't understand, nor did they care, but their gazes towards Jiang Xia changed!
A bit busy today, Zhou's father didn't say much to everyone, quickly unloading the cargo from the boat.
Zhou Chenglei and Zhou Chengxin had already carried a load of fish off the boat.
Some villagers enthusiastically helped unload the fish to weigh them.
They couldn't help but inquire which sea area Zhou's father was fishing in, and some even expressed a desire to follow.
Zhou's father generously said, "Sure, come if you want!"
Experience proved that they weren't memorial tablets, and there wasn't a Wangcai (a mythical creature) in the family, so following them wouldn't be of any use!
Just look at Zhou Bingqiang.
Seeing so many villagers boarding the boat, Zhou's father, fearing the silver would be discovered, said to Jiang Xia, "Wangcai, no, Xia, don't forget what I just said!"
Jiang Xia: "..."
Was Zhou's father calling her "Wangcai"?
Tian Caihua looked at the boat full of fish, too jealous to speak.
She went straight to the two bags of oysters, wanting to see if they had found any pearl oysters today.