Chapter 303: Everyone Can Only Follow Their Conscience
Chapter 303: Everyone Can Only Follow Their Conscience
"Brothers should settle accounts openly. What's the problem with that?" Li Changle felt that Ge Changfa's way of handling things was also problematic.
"I went home and thought that this wasn't going to work, so I went to my eldest brother's house to talk to him about it."
Ge Changfa said in a deep voice, "As soon as I opened my mouth, my sister-in-law said that those fish were originally caught by my eldest brother, and I was just helping out on the boat, so giving me half of it was already the most she could do.
I was so angry that I proposed to break up, and my eldest brother said whoever proposed to break up would withdraw. In the end, we had a quarrel and I withdrew to get 10% less money. "
Li Changle listened to him and said, "Ah Fa, I think whether we are brothers or friends, we can only do it with a clear conscience, and the rest can only be done according to our conscience."
He felt that what Li's mother said was right, people from the same family would marry similarly.
Ge Changfu also felt that the money was earned by him, and Afa was just helping him out. It would be too much of a loss to give him half, so he let his wife do those things.
"Ah Le, I know in my heart that my elder brother saw that the fish population in that area was getting better day by day, so he and my elder sister-in-law played a double game and wanted to kick me out to work on my own. Now I have quit, and I have a clear conscience. They are the ones who let me down."
Li Changle patted him on the shoulder, and the two returned to Nanshan together.
When he got home, Chen Yongwei had already returned from Tuxia Bridge. With him came Li Changxi and her mother and son, who also brought custom-made square cakes.
It was the first time that the brother's family bought a big boat, and the couple took it very seriously. They went to the bakery early in the morning and ordered square cakes to be sent back to the bride's family as a token of congratulations.
Zhou Ruonan and her sisters-in-law put the square cakes in copper plates and distributed them to neighbors, relatives and friends. Usually each family got two pairs for happiness, joy and good luck.
Square cakes are made by soaking glutinous rice and late rice in a certain proportion and grinding them into powder. Two pieces make a pair and are eaten as a celebratory snack. Blessings are printed on each square white cake.
After cooling down, the square cake becomes a bit hard like rice cake, but becomes soft when steamed in a rice steamer, and tastes sweet but not greasy.
Chen Yongwei took out the money from selling fish and gave it to him, "Brother, the harvest is good, more than 100 kilograms of octopus and 60 to 70 tuna.
The ground trap net was not very good, and I received two sea cucumbers and some shrimps and crabs, which I sold for a total of 87 yuan. "
Li Changle took the money and said, "I have already handed the boat over to Ah Fa, we will divide the money later."
Chen Yongwei nodded and said, "Brother, when Ah Cheng and I went to Yuandao to collect traps, we saw two men catching sea ducks.
We cast a few nets and sent 20 to 30 sea ducks to Huzi Island. That island is much bigger than Chuiyuan Island, and there are several large puddles on it. When will we have time to go and pump out the puddles?"
"Okay, let's go check it out later to see if those sea ducks have settled down on the island." Li Changle went into the house and put the money away, then went to find Li Changxi, intending to give her the agreed commission.
Li Changxi stuffed the money back to him with a scolding look, "You think I'm an outsider, don't you? How about I give you the money for the watch and the fabric as well?"
Seeing her say this, Li Changle had no choice but to give up, thinking of giving her a tape recorder or a TV to compensate them after a while.
In the evening, the Chen family and the Ge family went to Nanshanao. The Li family set up three tables and invited Uncle Li, Li Changshui's siblings, Old Man Jin's family, and Accountant Chen to their home to celebrate receiving the big ship the next day.
Li Asi's legs are still unable to walk, and Xu Xianmei is often not at home, so Li Changshui and his sister take care of him. Perhaps he has a change of heart, so Li Asi now occasionally helps Li Yufang tie hooks, weave trap nets, and stitch shuttle thread.
In the early morning of the next day, Zhou Ruonan and her mother-in-law put the two Yuan Datou coins into a large pot, boiled a pot of "silver soup" and put it into a tin pot, and brought it to the boat to exorcise evil spirits and bring good fortune.
After breakfast, Chen Yongwei and his grandchildren also arrived. The family moved two loads of thin bamboo baskets onto a cart. The baskets were filled with bowls for the boat sacrifice, incense, paper money, old wine, candlesticks, and firecrackers.
Next are the fishing gear, as well as food, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, meat, vegetables, bedding, clothes and other supplies for the boat.
Grandma Chen bought a jar of fermented rice wine and made a full jar of meat sauce with pork belly, and gave it to them to take on the boat.
The dregs are the lees produced in the process of making old wine. In the final stage of making old wine, after fermentation is completed, the dregs left after filtering out the old wine.
The red yeast rice used to make old wine is made from yellow rice. It has a very unique aroma and high nutritional value.
Red yeast has the function of preserving, removing fishy smell, increasing aroma, umami taste and coloring. Fish cooked with red yeast has no fishy smell and even has a faint aroma of wine.
Zhou Ruonan, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and Grandma Chen sent them to the intersection before turning around and walking back. They still had to prepare the bowls for the sacrifice at the Lord's Temple.
Li Changle and his party arrived at Zhangjia Wharf, where Old Zhang was already waiting. Everyone moved the bowls to be used for the boat sacrifice onto the boat.
When the auspicious time arrived, Brother Li took out a big red tablecloth embroidered with auspicious patterns and surrounded the table.
Father Li placed bowls of cooked pig's head, raw bean noodles, dried tofu buns, snacks, etc. on the Eight Immortals Table, offered old wine, made a wish, burned paper money, and then Li Changle lit the firecrackers.
Father Li, eldest brother Li, second brother Li, Chen Yongwei and Wang Xincheng knelt respectfully in front of the Eight Immortals Table, worshiping the Dragon God and praying for his protection.
As the captain of the boat, Li Changle does not need to be worshipped, because fishermen believe that the captain is greater than the Dragon God.
After the worship, Father Li carried a tin pot filled with "silver soup" and poured it into the eye of the boat, commonly known as "opening the eye of the boat".
After opening the boat's eye, they picked up the "silver soup" and poured it on the bow, and then poured it on the left and right sides of the boat, the sail, and the rudder in turn, to drive away evil spirits and bring good luck.
After completing one set, Li Changle and Brother Li boarded the ship holding the five-star red flag and solemnly hung the national flag on the flagpole at the stern. At the moment when the five-star red flag fluttered in the wind, Brother Li and Lao Zhang lit firecrackers on the shore.
After the firecrackers were set off, Lao Zhang led them to carry the diesel that he had helped buy onto the boat and load it into the diesel tank, preparing to go out to sea for two days. Just in case, Li Changle prepared three days of diesel.
Chen Yongwei and Wang Xincheng filled up the diesel engine with fuel, and everyone moved all the things onto the boat, filling it with fresh water and ice. Old Zhang had an acquaintance, and the ice was delivered this morning, filling up a whole truck.
After everything was ready, Brother Li took Chen Yongwei to check the fishing gear on the boat and put the bamboo baskets and rubber buckets together.
After waving goodbye to the Zhang family on shore, Li Changle started the fishing boat and headed towards the dock.
When they arrived at the dock, they found that Accountant Chen, Old Chen, Uncle Li, Li Changqing, Ge Changfa, Li Changshui, Agen and several families from Nanshanao were all waiting there.
There were also quite a few people watching the fun, and some were envious and jealous when they saw Li Changle and his crew's big ship coming over.
Seeing that they were almost at the dock, Brother Li was worried that Li Changle would not be able to dock smoothly as it was his first time driving a large ship, so he planned to go forward to help. When he saw him maneuver the large ship smoothly to dock, he was a little surprised.
I wanted to say something, but as soon as the boat stopped, deafening firecrackers sounded on the shore.
Li Changle and his party hurriedly got off the boat to express their gratitude, and a bunch of people came up to congratulate them.
"Ah Le, good luck, and a full boat of fish!"
"Good luck and good fortune..."
"Fish follow the tide..."
Li Changle and his party expressed their gratitude repeatedly and gave the prepared square cakes and steamed buns to the relatives and friends who came to congratulate them.
Father Li greeted everyone happily. Li Changle was also very happy when he saw Father Li, whose mouth was almost grinning to his ears.
After chatting with Li Changqing and Ge Changfa for a while, the group returned home. Zhou Ruonan, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, had already prepared the dishes.
Everyone put pork, old wine, tofu, and bowls of rice into thin bamboo baskets and carried them to the Lord's Temple to worship the gods, burn the thousand-year incense, set off firecrackers, left the Lord's Temple, and went to the dock together.
"...Be careful!" Zhou Ruonan looked at him for a long time, and thousands of words were combined into one sentence.
"Don't worry! We will be back in two or three days at most." Li Changle shook her hand and said gently.
Over there, Grandma Chen, Mother Li, Sister-in-law Li and Sister-in-law Li were also giving instructions to Chen Yongwei and Father Li. They waved their hands and strode onto the boat.
Li Changle drove the fishing boat along the old route towards the waters of Huzi Island. It was a quarter after six when he arrived at Huzi Island.
As the fishing boat passed Huzi Island, he shouted into the loudspeaker connected to the cabin: "Get ready to cast the net."
Big Brother Li was the first to come out of the cabin. After he replaced him, Li's father and several others also came out of the cabin. As usual, the old man checked the knots at the bottom of the net first, then lifted the trawl and threw it into the sea.
The current carried the trawl quickly into the sea until the trawl line with the buoy fell into the water.
Li Changle stood at the stern, watching the trawl getting longer and longer in the water and gradually sinking into the sea, his heart full of anticipation.
The Dongsheng moved forward slowly, the sea breeze blew, and a faint salty smell came towards us.
Suddenly, a dolphin in the distance jumped out of the water, made a big turn, and fell into the water again. Then another dolphin jumped up and fell into the water again.
After one fell into the water, another one jumped up immediately, and one after another, jumping out of the water and then falling into the water again, having a lot of fun.
Li Changle looked at this group of elves playing and frolicking in the water like children, as if he saw a school of large fish.
"Brother, we saw dolphins again. This trip out to sea will definitely yield a great harvest!"
"I definitely will!" Li Changle turned and walked towards the cab, "Let's go, let Big Brother follow behind Dolphin."
"okay!"
The two of them arrived at the cockpit, and Li Changle pointed in the direction of the dolphins, "Brother, follow behind those sea beasts."
Brother Li looked in the direction he pointed, "They are not tigers, why are we following them?"
"Aping, I heard from your grandfather before that there would be a school of fish behind the sea monsters. Just listen to Ale and let's follow and take a look." Father Li said from the side.
"Okay, let's follow and take a look." Brother Li began to turn the rudder, and the fishing boat slowly approached the group of dolphins.
Li Changle and his companions then discovered that these dolphins were playing with a pufferfish, which was as swollen as a big ball and was tossed around by them with nowhere to escape.
Father Li exclaimed, "Oh my God, a dolphin is biting a pufferfish!"
After hearing this, Li Changle thought of the saying, "We are all women, so why make things difficult for women?" She felt that changing "women" to "pigs" would be appropriate to describe them.
"It's not a blowfish, it's a poisonous one!" Chen Yongwei's eyes widened. "These guys dare to bite even pufferfish, aren't they afraid of being poisoned to death?"
Li Changle looked at the group of dolphins with intoxicated expressions. He didn't expect that he would see a group of ocean "addicts" with his own eyes.
(End of this chapter)