Chapter 179 The whole family joins the battle

Chapter 179 The whole family joins the battle

Chapter 179 The whole family joins the battle

When Jin Hui's wife saw that it was cash, she excitedly pulled Zhou Ruonan and her sister-in-law to count their own pile.

"Oh, Uncle Jin has a good eye. There are twenty big ones, which are six dollars, thirty medium ones, which are also six dollars, and twenty small ones, which are two dollars, a total of fourteen dollars."

"Thank you, Teacher Zhou, you are so quick at calculating the bill!" Jin Hui envied his wife and excitedly took the money and carefully put it in her pocket, then picked up the bamboo basket and went to the beach to catch jellyfish.

The other families in the immigrant village arrived later and caught much less than them. The six families only caught 53 large jellyfish in total, 65 medium-sized ones and 40 to 50 small ones.

There were even fewer villagers who arrived later. There were about ten good ones and only seven or eight, or three or five bad ones.

The women were very happy to get the money, as they only earned a few dimes for a day of weaving at home.

The man has nothing to do at home and he still loses a few dollars at the card table!

Mrs. Li quickly scraped off the thin layer of brown blood under the jellyfish's umbrella with a scraper and put it into the bucket.

He turned around and whispered to Li's mother, "Uncle Jin's jellyfish are good. Several of them have jellyfish blood."

Mother Li turned her head to take a look and nodded happily, "It would be nice if there were more. One pound can sell for more than ten yuan!"

Mrs. Li looked at the pile of jellyfish and felt a little unsure. "Mother, do you think we can sell them after we cook them?"

"Didn't Ah Le say that the restaurant will accept jellyfish brains, jellyfish lining, and jellyfish blood?" Mother Li looked at the pile of jellyfish she had just collected and felt a little worried. "It would be great if the restaurant would also accept jellyfish skins."

Mrs. Li nodded. "Yes, I am also worried that I can't sell the jellyfish. You see, I have already earned dozens of yuan in a short time. I also need to buy large vats, sea salt and alum. If I can't sell them, it will be a waste of money."

"I'll talk to Ale!"

Mother Li brought the scraped jellyfish skin to Li Changle, who was digging sea sand to bury the jellyfish.

"Ah Le, when you go to the restaurant to sell jellyfish brains, ask them if they accept jellyfish skins and jellyfish heads?"

Li Changle thought that it would take another two or three weeks to pickle the food. "Don't worry, send it to them after it's done and let them try it. Once it tastes good, we can talk about other things."

Seeing that he questioned his skills, Li's mother glanced at him with dissatisfaction, "It's not like you haven't eaten the pickled jellyfish skin at home."

Li Changle smiled and said, "Mother, I'm not doubting your skills. It's mainly because we can only pickle a small amount of jellyfish at a time. One hundred kilograms is the maximum. This time, it must be more than ten thousand kilograms."

"One hundred catties and ten thousand catties are pickled in the same way, it's just that one has more and the other has less!" Li's mother whispered again, "I'm just worried that I won't be able to sell them and you'll need money again."

"Don't worry, as long as the pickled jellyfish is of good quality and looks good, even if the restaurant doesn't accept it, we won't have trouble selling it if we send it to Lucheng."

"That's good!" Seeing his confident look, Li's mother went back to work with peace of mind.

Li Changle buried the jellyfish and when he saw Chen Yongwei coming back, he poured the jellyfish brain, jellyfish lining and jellyfish blood in the bucket into the oilcloth bag respectively.

"Ah Wei, take these back and let my dad sort them and cook them. You take the ice cube to the dock and ask Ah Dong to buy a dollar's worth of ice cubes to keep them fresh."

"Okay!" Chen Yongwei put the oilcloth bag into his backpack and walked towards Nanshan with it.

More and more villagers came with bamboo baskets to sell jellyfish.

More than an hour later, Chen Yongwei came back on his tricycle with lunch, "Brother, uncle has already cooked the jellyfish brains, and I put them in the fridge."

"Have you eaten? If you have, send these back." Li Changle handed the jellyfish brains in the bucket to him and asked him to take them back, boil them and put them in ice to keep them fresh.

"I ate it!" Chen Yongwei took out the sand pot from the tricycle and brought out a pile of bowls. "The rice and flour are in there, you can scoop them out yourself."

Grandma Chen glanced at her grandson and said, "Hey! Who cooked the rice and noodles at home?"

"Xiaoqing and Xiaohui cooked rice and noodles, Xiaoyang and Xiaotao stayed at home to dry oysters and fish, and the two younger ones helped uncle Tang with the sewing."

"Even the little ones are busy, the whole family is involved."

Chen Yongwei smiled and nodded, "I'm leaving. Bring the rubber bucket when you come back."

Li Changle waved his hand. He had worked for more than two hours without taking a break and was already hungry. He quickly took the bowl and chopsticks to scoop up some rice and noodles.

When you open the sand pot, you can smell the delicious aroma, which whets your appetite. It is filled with rice noodles cooked with oyster meat, dried shrimp, small Chinese cabbage, and eggs.

Each person scooped a large bowl full, found a rock to sit on and started eating, eating so noisily that he was sweating profusely.

After filling their stomachs, the group moved much faster. The beach was filled with piles of sand filled with jellyfish skins.

At this time, the wind and waves on the sea were getting stronger and stronger, and the jellyfish that could be caught were getting fewer and fewer. Many families put away their scoop nets and sent the jellyfish they caught to Li Changle's house where the jellyfish were killed.

This batch of jellyfish was much smaller, with the most being only a dozen and the least being only five or six. A group of people surrounded Li's stall, chirping like a bunch of ducks.

The Jin brothers and Jin Hui's father and son pulled the jellyfish over, and seeing that there were many people around, they put the jellyfish in the place where the Li family killed jellyfish, and went back to change clothes.

The man who used the Li family's scoop net also helped to use sea sand to press the jellyfish skin to dehydrate it, but Li Changle hurriedly asked him to go back. He lived in the front and back alleys, but he couldn't do it by using a scoop net and letting people get wet to help him work.

The villagers who received the money looked at the pile of jellyfish with envy, "Ah Le, you harvested more than 10,000 kilograms, right?"

Li Changle did not hide it from him, "We collected eight or nine thousand kilograms, plus what my family caught, it should be about thirteen or fourteen thousand, right?"

"Sea salt and alum cost more than 100 yuan, and jellyfish costs at least 100 yuan. If you collect so much and can't sell it, it will be troublesome!"

"There are people selling jellyfish skins everywhere in this town, but they can't even sell two kilograms a day!"

"Dad, you too. The jellyfish is pickled and soaked in brine. It won't go bad even if you sell it for a year." Jin Hui felt that his old man was meddling in other people's business.

Li Changle smiled and said, "I thought so too. The main reason is that my mother-in-law has a shop in Lucheng, and there is a vegetable market outside. I will send it over after the pickles are ready and ask her to help sell it."

"Oh, so they are going to be sent to Lucheng to sell. There are many people getting paid in big cities, so it shouldn't be a problem to sell ten kilograms a day."

"Aunt Xiaohua, your Ah Le is really lucky. Those in our village who marry in the city will not come back after they return to the city."

"That's right. Look at Teacher Zhou. She's well-educated and good-looking. She doesn't mind the hard life in our fishing village. Even my mother-in-law is so kind to your family."

Jin Hui's wife looked at Zhou Ruonan, who was keeping accounts nearby, with envy, and felt a little sad when she thought about how illiterate she was.

"My Anan and my mother-in-law are kind-hearted and don't look down on my family's poverty. The eldest and second son's wives are also good at managing the household. The family is run by them."

After praising Zhou Ruonan, Li's mother also did not forget to praise the two older ones.

Ge Changfa came over dripping wet, dragging a bamboo basket and threw it in front of Li Changle. "Take inventory. I'll go back and change my clothes and come help you!"

"Okay, let's make jellyfish brain and eggs to go with wine tonight." Li Changle pulled the bamboo basket over. "Not bad. I caught about ten in a short while."

"Thanks to Awei for sending me your scoop net. I caught it from the reef." Ge Changfa said and was about to leave.

"Don't panic, there are only about ten of them. I'll give you the money before you leave." Li Changle took the jellyfish out of the bamboo basket, counted them, and asked Zhou Ruonan to give him the money.

Ge Changfa took the two dollars and left happily.

Li Changshui and his sister also gave up catching jellyfish and returned to the beach to sort the jellyfish and sell them.

Li Yufang excitedly pulled out a 30-40 jin jellyfish and put it in the pile of big ones. "Brother, how many big ones are there?"

"Including yours, there are fifteen now." Li Changshui put a medium-sized one aside, "There are twenty medium-sized ones and fifteen small ones."

"The big ones are fifteen, three cents each, and the small ones are twenty cents. How much are twenty of them?"

Li Yufang couldn't figure it out. She was angry that she had never been to school and couldn't even do arithmetic. She found Li Changle, who was counting the money for the villagers, and said, "Brother Ale, go and help us count and see how many jellyfish my brother has caught."

Li Changle turned around and saw that the three sparse hairs on her head were still dripping with water. She said hurriedly, "You're soaked all over. You'll suffer when you get old."

"It's okay. I have thin hair and it will dry in a while." Li Yufang took him back and helped them calculate the first pot of gold after the brother and sister separated.

"Brother will help you calculate. Go back and change your clothes first. Otherwise, you will suffer from rheumatism and bone pain when you get old!"

Li Changle thought that the brother and sister separated early in this life, and Yufang would not be like in her previous life, dying in her thirties or forties without even seeing her son grow up.

Upon hearing the voice, Li's mother turned around and stepped forward to pinch her, "You little girl, look at you, you are all soaked, go back and change into dry clothes, your brother and sister-in-law know how to deal with this, they won't charge you less."

Then he pointed at Ah Shui and said, "You go back too, ask your second uncle to get some ginger, cook it and eat it before coming back."

Li Yufang's clothes were dripping with water, and her mother never cared about her. Her eyes were reddened, "Second Aunt, we are not busy for this..."

"You don't have to waste a little time even if you're busy. Let's go." Mother Li waved at the brother and sister as if she was driving ducks.

Zhou Ruonan took the account book and stepped forward, "Ah Shui, Yufang, go back and change your clothes quickly. Sister-in-law promises to help you calculate it."

The brother and sister have almost finished sorting them, and the remaining ones can be seen at a glance.

"Okay, sister-in-law." Li Changshui pulled his sister and said, "Second aunt, we will go back now."

After the brother and sister left, Li Changle helped to count the items. There were eighteen large jellyfish for five dollars and forty cents, twenty-one medium-sized ones for four dollars and twenty cents, and sixteen small ones for one dollar and sixty cents. In total, he made eleven dollars and twenty cents.

Zhou Ruonan took note of the account and found that Ah Shui was almost catching up with the Jin brothers. He couldn't help but sigh: "Ah Shui and Yufang work harder than those adults!"

Mother Li shook her head. "We only have so much food at home, and this house has been lived in for generations. If we don't work harder, we won't even be able to get a wife in the future."

After collecting all the jellyfish, Zhou Ruonan continued to kill them. Li Changle dug a hole on the beach alone, and piles of sand were built along the place where his family killed the jellyfish.

Li's mother, her daughter-in-law and Grandma Chen were busy for more than half an hour, killing the jellyfish that had just been collected, and then Chen Yongwei came on his tricycle.

(End of this chapter)