All toolboxes and storage rooms are built-in, making efficient use of space. Fishing holes, water guns, hoists, and winches have all been improved for greater efficiency, less effort, and easier storage.
Chen Hong thought this person was too amazing. Except for the engine, Geng Dazhi could build a new one for any other equipment on the ship at any time.
He could build a ship on his own without any problem.
Back home, Chen Hong had no heart to do any work. She took a durian to the village and arrived at the village chief's house, where the old couple were staring at each other.
"What's wrong, Auntie? Is something wrong between you two? The atmosphere seems off." Chen Hong was very puzzled. The old couple seemed fine, so what could have happened?
Aunt Guo took the durian and said, "You're buying such expensive things again! It's nothing, the children have all gone back to Jinan, and the house is a little empty now."
The children are home every day, making so much noise it's like raising ducks. But now that they're gone, we feel a void and it's quite sad.
"Then you can go visit other people's homes, or come to ours. You can watch TV, play with the dog, and you'll get used to it after a while. They're still not used to it after they left!"
The village chief, puffing on his cigarette, said, "It's not just our family. Go to town and see for yourself. Almost every household in the village is like this. Everyone has gone out to work, leaving behind only the elderly, the weak, the sick, the disabled, and pregnant women."
Chen Hong sighed, "Our resources here are still insufficient to support so many people. Only five or six families in the surrounding villages are engaged in animal husbandry; the rest are just observing."
We hope they all have a good harvest, so that more people will dare to join in next year. Once the scale of farming increases and more people are employed, villagers won't need to leave their homes to work elsewhere anymore.
The village chief then asked Chen Hong, "I noticed you've been staying home quite a bit before and after the New Year. Is it because the weather's cold and you're catching fewer fish?"
Chen Hong nodded: "The near-shore fishing is really not good anymore. The fish are small, few in number, and not many in variety. I'm planning to get a better boat and go fishing further out. I can't just keep catching fish right in front of my house."
"Wow, changing ships is no small matter. Buying a new ship must cost a lot, right?"
"It's not cheap; any ship that can go out to sea costs hundreds of thousands or even millions. But I bought a smuggling vessel that was confiscated and seized by the Maritime Safety Administration through a friend's information. It's currently being refitted, which will save me a lot of money."
"Oh, a second-hand boat? That's fine. A second-hand boat in good condition is quite good, and it can be much cheaper than buying a new one. But did you ask if the boat has been in any accidents? We need to choose an auspicious day to perform a ritual for the boat after we buy it!"
The village chief worriedly said that the elderly are very superstitious about boats that have been involved in accidents.
"Nothing serious has happened. They just smuggle in head, feet, and offal that foreigners don't eat to sell for money. There's no other murder case involved," Chen Hong explained to the village chief.
"Isn't that great? Foreigners don't eat it, so we bring it to our country. We can make everything delicious. Why is that considered smuggling?"
"If I had known that sewage was free in foreign countries, I would have brought it back and cooked it myself. Isn't it a waste to just throw it away?" Aunt Guo wondered.
“Auntie, this is a big deal. The country has very strict controls on meat and live poultry, for fear of infectious diseases being brought in from abroad. Not to mention the animal parts left after slaughter.” Chen Hong could only tell them what the elderly could understand.
"That won't do. It would be too dangerous and frightening if they were carrying infectious diseases. We have to catch them. If there's a problem with the food, it could spread to a whole family, and that would be terrible!"
The three of them chatted and talked, and the elderly couple forgot their sadness. It wasn't until their child got out of school that Chen Hong and Yu Yang went home together.
The children had just started school and were still excited. When they got home, they were telling Chen Hong about the funny things that happened to their classmates during the Spring Festival.
The mother and daughter enjoyed their dinner together, chatting about what they had done that day, who they had been with, and what fun things had happened.
After dinner, the mother and daughter watched TV together in the living room. The TV in the living room was a newly replaced 42-inch color TV after the renovation, and the picture was very clear and high-quality.
At first, the mother and daughter were quite interested, but once they got used to it, that was it. A TV costing seven or eight thousand yuan was no different from a small color TV costing around 2,000 yuan.
Yu Yang suddenly remembered to ask Chen Hong, "Mom, are you going to find me a dad?"
Chen Hong was surprised to hear this. "Who told you that? Why do you ask that?"
Yu Yang pouted, "The aunties and grandmas in the village all say that our family has built such a big house, the two of us definitely can't live in it all."
"If you find another husband and have two more sons, when they grow up and get married, our villa will be full."
Chen Hong laughed and said to Yang, "Mom has to go out to sea to fish and earn money every day. She's so busy that she doesn't even have time to take care of you. How could she possibly find you a stepfather?"
"Mom earns money, and it's so much better for just the two of us. Look how much better our lives are since your dad and I divorced!"
Yu Yang nodded with sparkling eyes: "Mom is amazing, she can earn a lot of money!"
Chen Hong hugged her son and said, "Look, Mom can make a good life for us both on her own, so why do we need to find another man to come to our family?"
Our family has plenty of money and a house. Mom even bought a really nice fishing boat, so we can earn even more money in the future.
Yu Yang asked again, puzzled, "But they said that if Mom doesn't have a man, she won't be able to sleep at night and will be itchy all over. She'll also have to pick beans one by one, all night long, which is really tough and miserable."
Damn, those old women in the village! They're just bored and have nothing better to do.
Still itchy all over? My hands are incredibly itchy right now!
They even assigned her to pick beans. Why didn't they assign her to pick sesame seeds? Wouldn't that have been a more appropriate level of difficulty?
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