Chapter 106 Mrs. Li’s Plan
Chapter 106 Mrs. Li’s Plan
Zhou Ruonan and Li's mother were busy for a while, then they sorted the eggs, fish and shrimps and put them in basins and bamboo baskets, and asked Li's eldest and second wives to take them home first. They pickled the fish and shrimps with salt, and then they sorted out the conches.
Mrs. Li carried her things and followed Mrs. Li out. After thinking about it, she stopped her and said, "Ah Fang, Ah Le is so lucky. Why don't we wait for Ah An and Ah Ping to come back and ask if we can quit our jobs on the boat and buy a small boat to go fishing with Ah Le?"
She was really envious of what Ah Le had earned these past two days, and she was even more eager to wait for Ah An to come back and buy a fishing boat so she could start her own business!
Mrs. Li thought for a moment and said, "Of course I can quit. I'm just worried that if I buy a small boat and work there, I might not make as much as I did when I was helping out on the boat after a year. If I want to help out on the boat again in the future, I'll have a record of breach of contract and other boat bosses won't want to hire me."
"I don't have high ambitions. As long as I can earn one-third of what Ale earns every day, I'll be satisfied." Mrs. Li thinks that as long as there is money to be made by trawling the sea, who would want to help out on the boat and earn a monthly wage of just over 100 yuan?
Although I can stay at home after the fishing season, I don't make any money when I'm resting. I only earn about 1,000 yuan a year, and part of it is spent on socializing with relatives. I can't save much money in a year.
"How can it be that easy? Ah Le can earn so much because he is lucky. It is not certain if we go there. Besides, the fishing boat has been given to Ah Le. Where can we buy a boat in such a short time?"
"If you want to buy it, there will always be a way. You go back to Shaji Village and ask, and I'll go back to my mother's house and ask. There are so many boat captains that someone will definitely change to a bigger boat."
"They are going to be back in the next two days. I think we should wait until they come back to discuss it." Li Ersao felt that it was not easy to make money by fishing near the coast, otherwise their family would not be so poor.
If you want to make a lot of money, you have to be like Dafang, either partner with others to buy a big ship, or save money to buy a metal boat and go fishing in the wild sea and fishing grounds, only then can you make a fortune.
Seeing that she was still hesitant, Mrs. Li continued to persuade her, "Ah Fang, look, Ah Le bought the jars for us. When they go to collect the jars, we can go with them to fish for octopus.
Also, today he said he would take us to the island to fish for seafood, I want to go with him and give it a try, if I can make ten dollars a day by fishing for seafood and octopus, I will let Ah An quit his job. "
Although Li Ersao was somewhat tempted, she still felt that a small fishing boat could not make much money. "Sister-in-law, I think it would be better for us to wait for Big Brother and Ah Ping to return, and then sit down and discuss it before making a decision."
"Okay, let's talk about it after they come back." Mrs. Li secretly decided that even if the second son's family would not quit their jobs and join his family in buying a boat, she would make An quit his job, even if she had to borrow money to buy the boat.
Just fishing near the coast, I don’t have to worry and stay awake all night every time a typhoon comes, fearing that something might happen to the boss outside.
The two sisters-in-law put the fish, shrimp and eggs away, and went back to help sort the conches.
……
After a simple rinse at the well, Li Changle went home shirtless and in shorts to change his clothes. Then Chen Yongwei came with Grandma Chen, carrying a bamboo basket.
Seeing the bamboo basket full of sticky corn and melons, Li's mother said embarrassedly, "Aunt, all the sticky corn and melons you planted this year went into my family's food."
Grandma Chen laughed and said, "Ah Wei, that brat doesn't know anything. How can he come to Ah Le's house to eat every other day? How can the food rations at his house support us eating there every day?"
Chen Yongwei: "Grandma, no wonder you asked me to break so much corn, it's for my brother's food!"
"Don't listen to your grandma. How much can you two eat?" Li's mother laughed. "It's not like before. We had to rely on the little food rations distributed by the production team all year round. This year we opened up two more plots of land. With the coarse grains, we can never finish eating them all."
"Yes, now the land is ours, we can plant whatever we want, and even if we can't grow anything, we can buy food."
Grandma Chen said cheerfully, "When the weather gets hot, I take some summer hats and weave them. I can earn 13 or 14 yuan a month. I exchange it all for food. Awei and I can't even finish it all."
Everyone talked about their lives now, and they all felt that they were much better than before. They could eat white rice every few days, meat twice a month, and have extra money to buy cloth to make new clothes during the New Year.
Li Changle and Chen Yongwei went to their parents' house to put the octopuses in a backpack. When they came back, several women had already sorted the conches and weighed them. The big ones weighed 123 kilograms, the medium ones weighed 170 kilograms, and the small ones weighed about 200 kilograms.
Li Changle and Chen Yongwei put the best ones into baskets, pointed at the medium ones and said to Zhou Ruonan, "Anan, save some for dinner, and send the rest to Chen's to sell."
Zhou Ruonan nodded, picked up a bamboo basket and handed it to him, "I picked some small fish and shrimps, and also put a dozen turtle eggs in it. You can take it to Uncle Kun."
"I had forgotten about it. You are so thoughtful." Li Changle took over the backpack with a smile. Chen Yongwei picked up the basket and they went out together.
After the two left, Zhou Ruonan's sister-in-law moved the remaining conchs to a cart and sent them to Chen Ji to sell, and also returned the cart to their family.
Mother Li and Grandma Chen cleaned up the dried swordfish at home. After cleaning them, they cut them into thick slices and marinated them in light salt water. They fried the small fish until both sides were browned and cooked winter melon soup.
The shrimps were stir-fried with ginger and garlic, the sea eels were braised, and the Buddha's hand snails were cleaned and soaked in light salt water, waiting for the people who went out to sell the catch to come back before putting them in the pot. After the two of them finished cleaning up, Zhou Ruonan and her three sisters-in-law also came back from the dock. The small ones were 35 cents per catty and sold for 75 yuan, and the medium ones were 50 cents per catty, so 170 catties sold for 85 yuan.
As soon as Mrs. Li came into the room, she pulled Mother Li aside and said, "Mother, I've decided. When An comes back, I'll ask him to ask Uncle to quit his job. If he has an old fishing boat, that would be the best. If not, ask Le to borrow some money to buy a new one."
They earned another 160 yuan, plus the 480 yuan, which is 640 yuan. When they came back from the restaurant, they earned another 100 yuan. Ah Le earned 800 to 900 yuan today. With last night's money, it was more than their annual income.
This time even Li Ersao was tempted. She thought that even if there was no second-hand fishing boat, she could scrape together money to buy a new one and go to the islands specifically to dig Buddha's hand conches, oyster conches and other snails and bring them back to sell. If she was lucky a few times, she could earn a year's wages.
"Okay, if your two ships go to the island together, you can take care of each other..." Before Li's mother finished her words, a woman's voice was heard outside.
"Awei, Second Auntie..."
Grandma Chen walked out quickly and saw the round-faced woman and said happily, "It's Ah Xiu. Ah Wei has already sent the crank and the key to your house, and has also paid the rent to Uncle Ah Lai."
Liu Chunxiu forced a smile, hesitated for a moment, and then mustered up the courage to say, "Second Aunt, Awei only paid for the boat rental. They used my fishing net to catch fish, and they haven't paid yet!"
She was a little afraid of this seemingly amiable second aunt. Even her mother-in-law said that although her second sister-in-law looked kind on the outside, she was actually the strongest.
Think about it, if a widow is weak and incompetent, it would be impossible for her to support the family, raise three daughters, and even raise a grandson after her husband and son left and her daughter-in-law returned to her parents' home to get married.
"Huh?" Grandma Chen was stunned for a moment, squinted her eyes and looked at her, and said in a calm voice: "You have to pay extra for the fishing net? Why didn't Wei pay before?"
When Awei rented their fishing boat before, he also cast nets and caught some small fish and shrimps. He never heard them say that he had to pay for using the fishing nets.
Today I encountered a school of fish and sold them for a large sum of money, so I rushed over to my door in a hurry.
Liu Chunxiu looked at her awkwardly, "Second Aunt, the small fish and shrimps that Awei caught can't be sold for money, so we didn't take them for the sake of our relationship."
"This time it's different. They caught thousands of kilograms of fish and sold them for hundreds of dollars. Second aunt, think about it. We rented a boat, not a fishing net. They used our fishing net to catch fish. Shouldn't they pay extra?"
The more she talked, the more she felt that this was the truth. They should have received the money. If it weren't for his fishing nets, how could they have earned more than 400 yuan? Besides, they didn't want more.
According to the rules of Acan's family for renting a boat, they only take 10%. 10% of the fee of more than 400 is only more than 40, not much at all.
Li's father, Li's mother, and Zhou Ruonan's sisters-in-law were all standing there, looking at Liu Chunxiu with mockery in their eyes. If it weren't for the relationship between her and Grandma Chen, they would have responded with a retort long ago.
"Ale's mother, is there such a saying? Why have I never heard of it?" Grandma Chen turned her head and looked at Li's mother and asked.
Such a thing has never happened in the village before, because no one who rented a boat had ever encountered a large school of fish near the coast like Ale and his companions did.
"That's not true!" Li's mother sneered, "If you rent a fishing boat without a fishing net, what are they renting it for? Are you asking them to catch fish with their hands?"
Father Li stepped forward and said, "Alai's family, our fishing boat has been rented out to others before. The people who rented the boat also used the nets to catch fish, and we never charged any money."
When renting a boat to someone else, we follow the established rules and charge whatever is due. Besides, most of the people who rent the boat are from the same village. If you don't keep your word, you will have a hard time living in the village in the future.
Liu Chunxiu curled her lips and said, "How much is your hand-cast net worth? Mine is a motorized seine net, which is not even of the same level!"
"Whether it's powered or manual, they're all nets!" Mrs. Li curled her lips and said, "You guys are obviously jealous of Ah Le and the others for selling for several hundred yuan, so you came up with this idea to split the money.
Li's mother sneered, "That's right, you are just jealous. We are all from the same village, and A Wei even calls you aunt. How can you be so shameless as to ask for it?"
Zhou Ruonan: "Ah Xiu, since your family charges for the fishing nets, why didn't you mention it when Ah Wei rented the boat? Also, when Ah Wei went to your house to return the crank and keys, why didn't Uncle Lai mention it?"
"…We didn't know you used my fishing net to catch so many fish!" Liu Chunxiu shouted at her, "Teacher Zhou, your man rented the boat, and he gave me 48 yuan for 10% of the rent. Pay me the money quickly, and don't come to my house to rent a boat in the future."
(End of this chapter)