"Ah Chan, do you want to keep a few of these mudskippers to take home and eat?"
Upon seeing Ah-Can enter, Feng Ye quickly asked.
He kept three for himself, all of them large and weighing just over a pound, and put them in an empty bucket.
"Keep two."
"What about the others?"
"You can decide what to leave, just don't leave me too much. It's just me and my mom at home, we can't eat much."
As Ah-Can spoke, without even looking at what Feng Ye had left behind, he carried a basket of fish out of the cabin.
Besides the mudskipper, Feng Ye also kept seven swimming crabs for himself, just enough for one person in each household.
In addition, some prawns, two sea bass, and two pomfret were left.
All the pomfret I caught yesterday was sold out; I forgot to keep a few for myself.
I'm determined to save a few to take home today so my family can try them.
After keeping some for himself, he took another empty bucket and left some for Ah-Can.
It's the same kind of goods, just in smaller quantities.
After all, it was just Ah-Can and his mother eating, and Ah-Can only ate dinner at home, while breakfast and lunch were eaten on the boat.
With just this seafood, plus one or two vegetable dishes, it would be enough for the mother and son to eat for a whole day.
They unloaded all the fish they wanted to sell from the boat and took them to Feng Jiafa's shop to sell.
The price of mudskippers was indeed very cheap; Feng Jiafa was only willing to pay 45 cents per fish.
This was the result of some haggling; he initially offered an even lower price, just over 40 cents.
Fortunately, the quantity was large, totaling 512 jin (246 catties), and it sold for a total of 230 yuan and 4 mao (0.4 yuan).
It can be considered a fairly substantial income.
Mudskippers can also be dried into fish jerky, which is quite popular in the market.
Feng Ye and A-Can had considered it, but considering that the spines of the mudskipper were poisonous and they were afraid of injuring people while killing the fish, they ultimately decided to sell it.
The price of pine sea bream is 1.75 yuan.
Although there were only a dozen or so, they were large, averaging five or six pounds each, and weighed 78 pounds after weighing, totaling 136.5 yuan.
The other miscellaneous fish, shrimp, and crabs sold for a total of 263 yuan.
Adding it all up, today's earnings are 629.9 yuan.
Although it couldn't compare to yesterday, Feng Ye was still quite satisfied.
I spent another day in that area, and there should be quite a few fish gathered there. I believe tomorrow's catch will be even better.
Ah-chan, however, was a little dissatisfied.
It's like being used to eating lots of meat and fish, and then suddenly having to eat coarse food and pickled vegetables; it just doesn't feel right.
After settling the bill, the two pushed the cart to the side of the boat, loaded the fish they had left to dry and the food onto the cart, and then pushed it home.
Not long after leaving the dock, they bumped into Xiao Chunxiu and A-Can's mother walking together.
"Mother, Aunt."
Feng Ye called out, "What are you all doing here?"
"Didn't the weather change a bit? We figured you should be back by now, so we said we'd wait for you at the dock and help you push your cart, but you came back first."
Xiao Chunxiu answered with a smile.
Despite her nonchalant tone, Feng Ye understood that the reason they went to the dock was because they were worried about them.
Every time the weather changes and storms rise at sea, almost every fisherman's family has to worry.
Just now at the dock, he saw many elderly women standing anxiously on the shore, their eyes fixed on the sea, hoping that their boats would return soon.
He didn't point it out, but smiled and said, "Well, you really are lucky to have arrived just in time to be going uphill."
"That's right, we just happened to run into each other here."
Ah-chan's mother smiled and walked to the cart, gripping the edges with both hands to help push it.
"Why did you bring back so many fish again? Yesterday's fish haven't even dried yet, and there are so many more today. There's no room left in the house to dry them."
Xiao Chunxiu also came over to help push, but when she looked at the twelve baskets of fish on the cart, she couldn't help but frown.
"Can't you get any more sun?"
"The yard was completely covered with drying cloths, and even the road outside was covered with them. We didn't have enough bamboo blinds, so we had to borrow a lot from the neighbors to finish drying them all."
Upon hearing this, Feng Ye was dumbfounded.
He genuinely hadn't considered this issue; he was simply thinking of drying more fish to store in advance, so that he wouldn't have nothing to sell later when he had time.
But thinking about it, it makes sense. Yesterday we brought home eight or nine hundred pounds of fish, so we need a lot of space to dry them.
His yard really can't be exposed to the sun.
"What should we do with these fish today?"
He was secretly annoyed, thinking of a solution while unconsciously muttering something to himself.
Ah-chan chimed in, "Go show off my house!"
Aunt Ling added, "Yes, my yard isn't small either. Adding the yard of Ah Can's uncle next door, it should be big enough to dry all these fish."
Upon hearing this, Feng Ye thought it was a good idea and nodded, saying, "Alright, these fish will be dried at your place today. It's just that Auntie will have to do the work."
Aunt Ling smiled and said, "What's there to be tired about? A-Can also had a share, didn't he? But..."
"Mother, but what?"
Ah-chan couldn't wait to ask.
Aunt Ling looked at Feng Ye and A-Can, then pointed to the fish on the cart: "If you bring back so many fish tomorrow, there really won't be anywhere to dry them."
Upon hearing this, Feng Ye couldn't help but ponder it to himself.
A significant portion of the fish they catch each day are worthless miscellaneous fish; if they aren't dried into fish jerky, they'll just have to be dumped back into the sea.
Among the fish that can be sold for money, some are ridiculously cheap, fetching very little profit, making it more worthwhile to dry them into fish jerky.
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
