Chapter 111 The House is on Fire
Some villagers came on board to help move the goods, and Zhou's mother kept an eye and an ear to the ground, fearing that someone would take advantage of the situation and slip away the silver cake.
As soon as she saw Tian Caihua's movements, she hurriedly said, "Ah Hua, come over quickly and help divide and sell the fish. It's getting late!"
Tian Caihua ignored Zhou's mother and walked over to the two bags of oysters to look through them. "You've cracked so many oysters today? The ones I cracked yesterday were all quite plump. Are the ones today plump?"
Mother Zhou was afraid that she would turn the big silver cake over, so she hurried over and stepped on the mouth of a snakeskin bag. "The fat ones were almost all taken out yesterday, and today's ones are not as fat as before. Do you want to take some home to eat?"
Tian Caihua's eyes fell on the snakeskin bag at Zhou's mother's feet.
My mother-in-law is so nervous, it seems that she has picked up another pearl shell.
She knew that although they told her husband that they had found pearl shells, they would never tell her where they found them. As a result, they wasted a whole day of fishing yesterday, only hauled in two nets of fish, pried back a few bags of oysters, and only earned a few dozen dollars.
What does it mean to earn twenty or so yuan? It's not even a fraction of what Jiang Xia earns.
Tian Caihua said with a dark face: "No need. Chengxin and I dug oysters all day yesterday. There is nothing at home except oysters. Why do we need to come? I am a little busy today. I haven't cooked yet. The fish has been divided up. I will go home first."
After saying that, she left with a gloomy face, and she was in no mood to share the fish.
When Zhou's mother saw her eldest daughter-in-law walking away angrily, she knew that she was feeling unhappy again after seeing the boat full of fish.
I guess they think the two elders are biased.
In fact, both Zhou's father and mother love their children and grandchildren very much, and now they are indeed more partial to Zhou Chenglei and Jiang Xia.
That's because they felt sorry for their youngest son who had worked so hard and risked his life to earn so much money for the family, to take care of his second and eldest brothers, and to provide for them in their old age. But in the end, he had no house, no boat, and almost even lost his wife.
As parents, they just want every child to have a better life, so they are naturally partial to some.
Moreover, the youngest son is very filial and responsible. He has been like this since he was young. His character makes him live up to everyone. He resolutely joined the army knowing that he might lose his life, and left his parents to the care of his two older brothers. He felt that he owed his brothers, so he always took good care of his two older brothers over the years.
When he was in the army, he sent most of his money back home to his parents.
Later, he arranged a job for his second brother and built a new house for his eldest brother.
He could say that he had taken good care of everyone in the family, except for Jiang Xia, whom he felt a little bit indebted to.
After all, he gave the job to the second son after discussing it with Jiang's father and mother and getting their consent.
But he called back from the army to ask Jiang Xia's opinion. Jiang Xia was at school at the time and was not at home, so he asked Jiang's father and mother to ask Jiang Xia. Later, he called again and asked, and Jiang's mother said that Jiang Xia had no objection. Who knew that she didn't know about this and didn't agree at all. She cried, made a fuss, and even threatened to divorce.
Fortunately, everything is over and the two are now loving each other.
Therefore, the two elders also tried their best to help the couple live a good life, hoping that they could have a house and a boat. Although she was partial to the younger son, Zhou's mother still helped the older son with housework, but she lived with the younger son, so it was difficult to treat them equally.
It took the father and his two sons, plus several villagers, nearly twenty minutes to unload the fish to be sold from the boat.
It took nearly half an hour to weigh myself.
The three red king fish weighed a total of 306 kilograms, and the price was 1.3 yuan per kilogram, so the total sold was 397.8 yuan.
The two manta rays were not as valuable because Zhou's mother cut off their gills, so they were sold for only 29 yuan.
The remaining octopus, mackerel and other miscellaneous fish were sold for a total of 282.8 yuan.
Zhou Chenglei decided not to sell the last catch of mullet and took it home to dry.
Fresh croaker sells for 20 cents per pound, and after drying it can be sold for 80 cents per pound.
Including the fish I brought home, I sold them for a total of 709.80 yuan.
This is not to mention that Chenglei also kept a seven or eight kilogram octopus and four three-kilogram octopuses last week, as well as a yellowfin sea bream, two bags of oysters, a basket of small fish and more than two hundred kilograms of mullet.
Zhou Chenglei handed a large stack of oysters to Jiang Xia, and then he carried two bags of oysters onto the cart.
Only when Zhou's father held the silver in his hand did he feel at ease.
The father and his two sons moved the remaining fish onto the cart.
Zhou Chenglei gave Zhou Chengxin two red octopus and a bucket of shellfish that he had specially reserved, asking him to take them back to feed his nephews.
Zhou Chengxin agreed with a smile.
The family returned home happily.
When they were almost home, Jiang Xia looked at the thick smoke in the distance and became panicked: "Zhou Chenglei, can you see if that smoke is coming from our house?"
The whole family saw it and their faces changed! Zhou Chenglei put down the cart and ran away: "Mom, you push the cart, I'll go take a look!"
Zhou Chengxin, Zhou's father and Jiang Xia all ran quickly! Zhou's mother turned pale, and hurried forward with the cart, tears streaming down her face! Jiang Xia also ran forward with all her might.
If the house burned down, where would they live? Not only did Zhou Chenglei and his family run home, but other villagers also ran out with buckets of water when they saw the thick smoke.
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Someone saw Zhou's father and asked, "What happened? Is your house on fire?"
Father Zhou was so anxious that he still replied, "I don't know. I just came back from the sea! I guess some kids were playing with fire at home."
Zhou Chenglei was the first to run home. When he rushed into the house, he saw thick smoke coming out of the kitchen.
Grandma and her family were coming in and out carrying buckets of water!
Brother and sister Zhou Wenguang and Zhou Zhou stood in the yard with pale faces.
Grandma hurriedly comforted Zhou Chenglei: "It's okay, it's okay, it can be put out, don't panic!"
Zhou Chenglei picked up the basin of water that his great-grandmother had just filled and rushed in.
Zhou Yongguo ran out of the kitchen carrying a bucket of water. When he saw him, he said, "Ahem... It's okay, the fire is out. It was the firewood in the kitchen that caught fire. Nothing else was burned. Ahem..."
Great grandfather also rushed out: "It's almost out, but the smoke is too thick."
Zhou Chenglei was grateful in his heart, "Thank you!"
As he said this, he rushed in and poured water on the still smoking pile of wood.
Zhou's father, Zhou Chengxin and other villagers also ran over.
Grandma fetched water while soothing him: "Don't worry, don't worry, the fire is almost out, it's not burning!"
Jiang Xia ran back at this time and breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. She held on to the door frame, panting, and did not go forward to cause trouble.
Then Zhou's father, Zhou Chengxin, Zhou Chenglei and other villagers brought two buckets of water in and poured them on the firewood until the smoke stopped.
Zhou's mother came back with the cart at this time. She was relieved to see that the fire was out, but her legs were weak. She asked, "What happened? Why did it catch fire?"
At this time, Pan Daidi came out of the house, also with a look of horror on her face: "Yes, I don't know what happened? I was scared, so I went in to see if there was any other fire in the house!"
(End of this chapter)