Chapter 256: Good things are hard to do

Chapter 256: Good things are hard to do

Chapter 256: Good things are hard to do

After Ah Kun gave the money to Li Changle, he asked, "The dried cuttlefish you dried at home should be blooming now, right?"

Ah Le is a man who remembers favors. He can be used in the dry goods restaurant. It’s the same if he buys from others, so it’s better to take care of his business.

Li Changle was delighted. "The ones that have bloomed have been sent to Lucheng. I still have a few jars of them at home. They will be ready in two days."

A Kun hesitated for a moment and said, "Bring me a sample in a couple of days. Bring some dried eel, dried shrimp, and shrimp meat."

"Okay!" Li Changle thought of the shrimps at home, "Uncle Kun, we still have some shrimps at home. They are delicious when stewed with tofu, cooked in soup or used as stuffing. I'll bring some to show you."

"You can bring some here for us to see." A Kun looked at the bucket in the yard, "Remember to bring the jellyfish heads next time. Also, several old customers specifically asked for the Buddha's hand snails you sent. Go and see if you can still pick some?"

The conches he purchased in town always tasted worse, and even the ones he picked up from Haimen Port were not as fresh and sweet as the ones sent by Ale.

"That place is really too dangerous. I can only give it a try and try to bring back as much as possible."

"Okay, you can do whatever you want."

Li Changle agreed and hid the money in a bucket, carrying it out from the back kitchen. Lao Xu had already helped put the rubber bucket and cotton wool on the cart. When they arrived at the dock, he paid him the fare, and Li Changle gave him an extra fifty cents.

Seeing him coming back, Chen Yongwei hurriedly went ashore to help move the things onto the boat, "Brother, how much is that sole?"

"Four dollars and fifty cents a pound, and I sold it for nearly a thousand dollars." Li Changle said in a low voice.

Chen Yongwei looked at him with shining eyes, "So today we sold two or three thousand."

"That's all." Li Changle spread the cotton wool out on the deck, "Uncle Kun asked us to send him some dry goods to see. If he wants them, we have to increase production."

"Why don't we just go back and collect more fresh produce to dry in the sun?"

"Where's the venue?" Li Changle felt a headache when he thought about how many things were squeezed together. "It's autumn now, and it's the time to dry dry goods. We have to take advantage of these few months to dry more dry goods."

Chen Yongwei thought for a moment and said, "Brother, let's go back and clean up the land next to your house. It's more spacious than our two homes combined."

After hearing this, Li Changle thought this was a good idea. If the fish were dried over there, there would be no need to fetch sea water home to wash the fish. Instead, they could just kill and clean the fish at the beach and send them over to dry.

"Okay, I'll find time to clean up that piece of land in the next two days."

"Yeah!" Chen Yongwei increased the speed and soon arrived at the Shatou Village Pier.

As they came ashore with buckets and fishing gear, Wang Qiu Ming from the same village came over, took out cigarettes and handed them to the two of them with a smile on his face, "Come here, Ah Le, have a cheap one!"

"I'm not as good as you." Li Changle took it with a smile, "How was your catch today?"

"I didn't go today!" Wang Qiu Ming said happily, "I sent the diesel engine to Shuilu Zhang to have a look. He said it was usable, so I gave some money to Agui and bought the machine."

Li Changle then remembered that he was the one who carried away the diesel engine. "You are so brave, aren't you afraid that someone will report you?"

"What's there to be afraid of? It's not like I'm going to tell tales." Wang Qiu Ming said as he moved closer. "What rumors have you heard?"

"That's not the case." Li Changle made a bitter face and shook his head, "I just think it's hard to be a good person. Next time I go out to sea and encounter any situation, I'd better run fast and protect myself."

Wang Qiu Ming: "What's the matter? Did someone gossip about something? Why do you talk like a woman, saying only half of what you say and leaving the other half unsaid?"

Li Changle said with a bitter face: "Boss Wang, I'm not saying anything half-hearted, it's just that it's hard to be a good person and do good things!

You don’t know, this morning we just left the dock and before we reached Yantou Mountain, that monkey Lai Lao Da caught up with us and said that we brothers were lucky and none of us were injured when we encountered robbers…”

"Don't listen to that jerk. Brother Chen helped them, but the whole family didn't even come to thank him. That jerk deserves to be beaten!" Wang Qiumin cursed at the top of his voice.

The captain of a boat passing by also said: "Ah Ming is right. I think that bastard Lai Da is just jealous of your brothers' abilities. We all make a living on the sea, so we have to help each other."

Chen Yongwei took over and said, "That bastard is even more evil than cuttlefish ink. He was waiting there early in the morning to provoke us. Fortunately, we were able to go in and out safely today."

"That kind of monkey is a bad luck guy. Who will dare to help him when he encounters troubles when he goes out to sea?"

"That's right, don't pay attention to that kind of people. Everyone in the three nearby villages said it. Thanks to you brothers for catching those robbers, otherwise we wouldn't dare to go out to sea!"

"If you were in this situation, you would also lend a hand when it comes to matters of life and death."

"A Le, what's wrong?" Brother Li also ran over.

"Nothing. I just felt a little disappointed when thinking about what happened this morning, so I talked to Boss Wang and the others about it."

"Ignore that monkey. We are all grateful to you brothers. We all remember your kindness!"

"Thank you, everyone." Brother Li patted Li Changle and said, "As a man, why would you bother with that kind of idiot? Go and help me carry the things."

"Yes, yes, yes. You guys are busy. Tomorrow my family will also sell you the prawns and cuttlefish."

"Okay!" Brother Li said with a smile, "If you guys catch any jellyfish, you can send them over."

"I will definitely deliver it." After the crowd dispersed, Brother Li walked towards the stall where the goods were collected first. When he got there, he asked, "Did you tell them that on purpose?"

"Yes, he dared to wait at the dock to cause us trouble, why should we pretend that nothing happened?"

"You did the right thing. If you didn't tell him, he would have thought we were guilty!"

"What the hell!"

Li Changle saw that the bamboo basket was already filled with a lot of bluefin bream, mackerel, mantis shrimp and cuttlefish. "How many kilograms of cuttlefish did you collect?"

"More than 540 kilograms." Brother Li whispered, "You came at the right time. I borrowed 300 yuan from Adong. Please pay him back first."

Li Changle agreed, took out a stack of money from the bucket, counted out three hundred and handed it to him, "Just take it and pay it back."

"Then you watch the stall." Brother Li took the money, thought about it and said, "I asked Lao Chen to borrow three hundred yuan, and he counted out three hundred to me without saying a word."

"What's the big deal? We're from the same village. It's not like I won't give it back to him."

"It's three hundred yuan, not thirty or three yuan. Do you think it's so easy to borrow money?"

When Brother Li Er thought about borrowing money, he felt a little sad. The fresh goods they sent back were only sold for more than 50 yuan by the two families together.

As soon as he opened the stall, Boss Chen and his friends sent over 100 kilograms of mantis shrimp, over 100 kilograms of cuttlefish and swordfish. After giving out all the money he had, he was still several dozen yuan short.

There were two other families waiting to sell goods, so they had no choice but to go to Chen Ji to ask Adong to borrow three hundred yuan, saying they would return it to him when Ale came back. But the man gave him the three hundred yuan without saying a word.

Li Changle understood what he meant and patted him on the shoulder, "Brother, our family is different now, and it will be even better in the future."

No matter what era it is, people treat each other differently based on their status. If you have money, people will certainly not be afraid that you will not pay them back. But if you are really poor, it will be difficult to lend them even a dollar or a dime.

"Yeah!" Brother Li patted him back and walked towards Chen Ji with the money.

Li Changle and Chen Yongwei moved the fresh goods from the plastic buckets to the tricycle, and then Li Erge came back. The three of them packed up their things and walked back.

When they got home, Li's mother, daughter-in-law and several other women were already busy at the well, and eldest brother Li was chopping dried fish with a knife in front of the washboard.

After the brothers unloaded the fresh goods, Li Changle and Chen Yongwei went to the beach to fetch sea water on a cart.

When we arrived at Nanshan, Zhou Ruonan and Grandma Chen were preparing dinner, while sisters Li Xiaoqing and Li Xiaoyang were helping to peel taro.

The younger ones were more free and played with the sand in the sand pile with the children from the Jin and Wang families.

There were two families, plus the craftsmen, a total of thirty or forty people, and the two of them were very busy preparing meals.

"Anan!" Li Changle shouted from the kitchen doorway and handed her the bucket of money. "Put it away and wait for big brother and the others to come back before dividing it."

"Yeah!" Zhou Ruonan took the bucket and looked at him with a smile, "I heard from my brother that you caught a sole today that's wider than a door panel?"

Li Changle looked around, quietly squeezed her hand, and whispered: "More than 200 kilograms, sold for more than 900. I'm going to get some sea water, I'll talk to you in the evening."

"Yeah!" Zhou Ruonan responded, and happily carried the bucket into the house to hide the money.

Li Changle went out and saw some people playing in the sand. Suddenly, he had an idea. He went over and kicked Li Xiaohai on the butt and said to the kids, "Do you want to make money?"

There are three capable people in the Li family, three in the Jin family, and three in the Wang Daobiao family. There are nine children in total. If they can clean up half of them before dark, they can save a lot of effort.

"Yes!" Several children stood up.

Li Changle pointed to the vacant lot next to his new foundation and said, "Clear the weeds there, and I'll pay you 10 cents each."

Li Xiaohai quickly threw away the sand in his hand and said, "Dad, we have some too?"

Li Changle nodded, "As long as they work, they will have it."

Li Xiaotao hurriedly asked, "Do you keep your word?"

Li Changle tapped him on the forehead with his finger, "When have I ever broken my word?"

"Uncle A-Le, we're helping out too. Will you give us some too?" asked the eldest brother of the Jin family, who had just had a haircut.

"Here, as long as you've worked, you can have it." Li Changle stroked his bald head, "Remember to hit it with a bamboo pole first, be careful not to cut your hands."

Boss Jin puffed up his chest and said, "Don't worry, we raise our pigs by cutting grass for them."

Li Changle smiled and nodded, "Keep working hard. If you can clean up before dark, each of you will get five points as a reward."

"Oh! Hurry up, there will be a reward when you finish it!" Several children cheered and rushed home to get the sickles.

Father Li looked at the children who had all run away, pointed at Li Changle and shook his head, "You are the only one who has so many tricks up his sleeve."

(End of this chapter)