Chapter 124 Brothers Go to the Jar

Chapter 124 Brothers Go to the Jar

Chapter 124 Brothers Go to the Jar

Father Li didn't want to argue with him, so he raised his hand and said, "Listen to what I said just now. I can't do heavy work now, and the third child is useless. He only works for three days and screens nets for four days.

Since your Agui said so, please let the boatmen who are waiting for work line up. I will keep the eldest and second sons at home to serve me. It won’t interfere with your work. They won’t go out with the boat anymore.”

Li Changle, who was caught in the crossfire again, turned his head and rolled his eyes, saying that everything can be blamed on me.

Seeing that he was using Li Changgui's words to block him, Li Guigao could not say anything more. "Atang, your leg is not seriously injured.

Even if your third child is useless, you still have your younger brothers and sisters-in-law and several daughters-in-law to serve you. It’s useless for you to keep them to look after you, right?”

“Raising a son is for your old age, storing grain is for your famine. Parents raise sons so that there will be someone to take care of them when they are sick or in pain.”

Father Li looked at Li Guigao with sarcasm in his eyes, "You said this when Dad was sick. Big brother, why did Dad insist on me staying? I don't need to tell you, right? Now that my leg is injured, it's right for me to keep the child, right?"

Li Changle immediately perked up after hearing this, and looked back and forth between the faces of Li's father and his brothers.

Is there anything else I don't know? My grandfather fell ill and asked Father Li to stay and take care of him? What did Li Guigao plot against my father? Why didn't my mother or grandmother tell me about it?

After hearing this, Li Guigao recalled the past and his expression changed a few times. "You want to keep them here, so what can I say as your uncle? I will try my best to talk to them about the wages."

"Then I'll trouble you." Father Li said lightly.

"Take good care of yourself. I have things to do at home. I will come to see you when I have free time." Li Guigao said with restraint.

Father Li looked at Li Changle and said, "Ah Le, send your uncle off!"

"Okay!" Li Changle stood up with a smile, "Uncle, take care, come to our house when you have time!" He hurriedly sent the person out and went back to the house.

"Dad, what's going on? What has Li Guigao plotted against you again?"

Big Brother Li and Second Brother Li also looked at him curiously, "Yeah, when we were at his house, he wasn't so easy to talk to."

"It happened when I was eighteen or nineteen years old." Father Li sighed, "When Panzhen first established a shipping company, they came to the village to recruit boatmen, and I was selected by them.

Your uncle instigated your grandfather to pretend to be sick and forced me to stay and take care of him. He replaced me as a worker in the shipping company. Your uncle was the eldest son and grandson, and your grandfather always favored him, so he listened to him and kept me.

Your uncle took my place at the shipping company, but they thought he wasn't doing his job well, so they sent him back after a few days, and I lost my chance."

After hearing this, the three brothers Li Changle were furious, "Why don't you settle the score with him?"

Although the shipping company was going to be disbanded, when we were in the production team, the monthly salary of a dozen yuan made life much better for the whole family.

Father Li showed a bitter smile and said, "I was kept in the dark the whole time until your grandma passed away and the eldest brother insisted on having a big celebration. Your second uncle was so angry that he told me about it.

After all, so many years have passed. At that time, I knew to grab him and punch him a few times and scold him. He did something wrong, but he didn't dare to say anything and just let me beat and scold him."

Seeing that the three of them were silent, Li Changle said with a playful smile: "Fortunately you are not a worker, otherwise we would not be here."

Brother Li looked at him puzzledly, "What do you mean?"

Li Changle shrugged. "My father is a worker, so he won't marry our mother. If they are not married, where do we come from?"

Big Brother Li and Second Brother Li stared at each other. Is there such a saying?

"Eat firewood!" Father Li hit him with his walking stick. "I was already eighteen or nineteen years old at that time, and I had already been engaged to your mother. We didn't have a wedding because our family had no money."

"Is that so?" Li Changle was heartbroken. "Why didn't you tell me earlier that your elder brother is preventing us from becoming a working class? I will spit in his face."

"You're such a funny guy!" Father Li tapped him with a smile, "You're already in your twenties. Even when Xiao Hai was older, he would have looked more stable than you."

After Li Changle's jokes, the atmosphere finally became relaxed. Since they had decided not to help the ship, Big Brother Li and Second Brother Li prepared to search for second-hand boats while fishing in the sea.

Father Li asked them to buy materials and make ground traps and crab cages like Li Changle's family did. Just as they were talking excitedly, Sister Li came and called them to eat.

Some dried shrimps were added to the winter melon and pork ribs soup. Li Changle took a sip of the soup and then remembered the tofu stewed with jumping fish that he had been drooling over in the morning.

After hearing this, Brother Li said that if he wanted to eat jumping fish, he could just go and catch them. The ones he couldn’t finish could be smoked dry with straw and stored so that they could be eaten for a long time.

The family had just finished their meal and put down their chopsticks when Chen Yongwei arrived.

Li Changle went home and got the mothballs that Zhou Ruonan had bought, preparing to keep watch tonight to catch Wang Mazi, the monkey.

He and Chen Yongwei brought about twenty traps this time. The four of them carried sacks full of cans and buckets of water and walked towards the grove.

Walking in the dim alleys, from a distance, it looked like they were about to have a big fight.

On the way there, Li Changle told Big Brother Li and Second Brother Li about Wang Mazi's evil deeds. The two brothers told him to go to Lucheng without worry, and they would guard the trap at night.

When they were fishing in the fishing grounds, it was normal for them to sleep only one or two hours a night. It was no big deal for them to stay up all night to guard the traps. The wind was a bit strong at night, and the moonlight was blocked by clouds, making it pitch black everywhere.

When they arrived at the grove, Ah Fa and his older brother Ah Fu had already started collecting traps. Li Changle looked around but didn't see Wang Laobian. He saw two other families setting traps, and there seemed to be about ten of them.

"Afa, how's the catch?"

"The first net was not good. We only caught a few hairtails and a stone crab. Fortunately, we got two blue crabs in the second net..." Ge Changfa came ashore with the trap, put it down and greeted everyone.

"Big Brother, Second Brother, how is the fishing season this year?"

"Not bad!" Brother Li took the cigarette he handed over, "Are you really planning to buy a boat and go fishing?"

"Yes! My brother and I have already agreed. How many days will you guys rest this time?"

"I'm not going back this time. I plan to do the same as you brothers and buy a second-hand boat to work offshore."

"It's hard to find a second-hand boat. My sister helped us get information, but when we got there, it was already sold."

"Take your time. The more careful you are when buying a boat, the better." The two exchanged a few more polite words, and then Brother Li followed Chen Yongwei to collect the trap nets.

Ge Changfa nudged Li Changle, who was loading bait, and said, "You brothers are the best." The two elder brothers would rather slowly inquire about buying a boat than ask him to take out the fishing boat and rebuild it.

"Of course we brothers are good!" Li Changle glanced at him, "Aren't you brothers good too?"

"All good, all good!" Ge Changfa responded repeatedly.

Chen Yongwei and Brother Li carried the traps ashore. The harvest from the few traps they cast was not very good. They only caught a conger eel, a few herrings, three blue crabs, two female crabs and one male crab, all of which were small.

The four of them worked together and moved much faster. In just over ten minutes, they had set up all the dozen traps. Li Erge and Ge Changfa stayed behind to guard the traps.

The three of them carried the mountain of cans to the rocky beach, took off their clothes, and walked towards the sea with the plastic cans in their hands. Wave after wave washed the beach.

After entering the water, the cool sea water dispelled the heat from the journey, and countless mosquitoes kept flying and hitting the headlights.

Brother Li is an old hand at this. After putting down a string of plastic cans, he didn't need the two people to remind him. He grabbed the buoy and lifted the fishing rope, and started to touch the cans along the vine.

The first plastic jar contained a Wangchao fish, a top-grade fish that weighed only about 10 to 20 grams each and could explode its head in one bite.

He held the tide watch and exclaimed excitedly, "This is a good idea. Buy more plastic cans and bring them back to the deserted island when we get the boat back. We will definitely catch more octopuses than here."

Li Changle smiled and said, "Last time we went to the Groove Island where you took me. There is a rocky beach on the island. We will go there to place the jars when the time comes."

"No wonder your sister-in-law is jealous and insists that I come back to buy a boat to fish in the sea. If I can live in half of the hundreds of plastic cans, I can earn more than ten yuan a day."

"That's more than that!" Li Changle said proudly, "Like the top-quality Wangchao you just caught, we can sell it to the restaurant for 45 cents each.

Wangchao wants as many good products as they can get. We only need 30 catties of octopus at a time, and they charge 30 centimeters per catty. "

Li Changping said enviously, "My goodness, you only brought six strings of plastic cans this time, plus the previous ones, there must be eight or nine hundred, right? We only collect a hundred Wangchao at a time, even if only half of them are top quality, they still cost more than ten yuan."

"There are 800 plastic cans. I used to buy 200. We collect them every other day. About 70% to 80% of them are filled with fish. We can get dozens of kilograms of octopus at a time, and 30 to 40 at the peak of the tide."

"That's great. If we keep going like this, we'll have enough money to build a new house next year." Brother Li excitedly put the octopus into the bucket, his movements more skillful than Li Changle and Chen Yongwei.

Two hundred jars were quickly collected, and more than thirty tide-watchers were collected, twenty or so of the best quality, and the octopus weighed about thirty pounds.

This time they brought ten strings of one thousand plastic cans. Big Brother Li and Second Brother Li placed two hundred here, Li Changle placed another three hundred, and the rest were prepared to be sent to the puddle.

There were too many plastic cans, and the three of them swam a long way before they all swam down. Then they put on their clothes and walked back with their backpacks. Halfway through, they entered a muddy flat and, under the guidance of Chen Yongwei, they walked towards the puddle, taking one deep step and one shallow step.

The tide had just receded and the mud on the mudflats became increasingly sticky, and soon my calves were covered with mud.

"Oh my god! What a big blue crab!"

Li Changle cried out in surprise, and the blue crab, which was bigger than his palm, quickly fled towards the puddle.

He rushed over, pressed down the crab shell with his hand and grabbed the big blue crab, pulled out a hemp rope from his waist, quickly tied it up and put it into the bucket.

The movements were so smooth that Li Changping was stunned. "Not bad, Ah Le, you are faster than me in tying blue crabs." Then he pointed at his waistband and asked, "Why did you think of tying the hemp rope around your waist?"

"When we encountered the crab moving, we didn't bring enough ropes, so we broke a lot of crab claws and claws, and lost a lot of money. From then on, I learned my lesson and always bring a bunch of hemp ropes with me every time I go out."

"Do you want to meet him a second time?"

(End of this chapter)