On the first and fifteenth days of every lunar month, the spring tides made the currents near the shore particularly fierce. A small boat like Yan Yuan’s could easily be swept away from the coastline.
Even on a rare day off, Yan Yuan had kept himself busy. He had bought a trailer-load of red bricks, cement, and sand.
Jiang Chengzhou was cleaning fish. Any fish they couldn’t sell had to be dealt with that same day and dried into fish jerky. Linlin was helping him, standing nearby with a dipper in hand.
“What did you buy all that for?”
With a grim expression, Yan Yuan unloaded the red bricks and cement onto a patch of open ground in the yard.
“I’m building a washroom.”
The two men lived rough. No matter the season, they simply showered in the yard. Linlin couldn’t do that. She had to carry water to her own room to wash, and she was too embarrassed to ask Jiang Chengzhou for help with something like that.
Once, Yan Yuan had returned early and seen the girl bent over, slowly dragging a washtub out of the house.
Jiang Chengzhou paused. “How much is it? I’ll pay.”
Yan Yuan frowned and glanced at him. “No need.”
Jiang Chengzhou efficiently finished cleaning the fish and sent Linlin inside. Then he washed his hands and went over to mix cement with Yan Yuan.
In a low voice, he said, “Yan Yuan, I want to make money.”
Yan Yuan shoveled sand into the gaps around the bricks without stopping. “Are you short of money?”
“I want to make big money.”
Jiang Chengzhou felt that the reason he didn’t dare let Linlin show her face openly was because he himself wasn’t strong enough yet, nor capable enough to protect her.
For a good-for-nothing like him, taking the honest path was too difficult—and too slow.
Jiang Chengzhou leaned toward Yan Yuan and lowered his voice. “I’ve looked into it. Taiwanese boats are trading with fishing boats from Hong Kong in the offshore waters. An imported tape recorder costs only two hundred yuan there, but I can sell it for seven hundred at the county’s black market!”
“Get lost!”
Yan Yuan shouted angrily, “You’ve gone crazy thinking about money!”
Jiang Chengzhou grinned, utterly unfazed. “That’s right. I’ve gone crazy thinking about money. The two of us go out to sea, and even on a good day, we make at most a few dozen yuan. I can earn five hundred by selling one tape recorder. Tell me, am I crazy or not?”
Yan Yuan fell silent for a moment. “Do you know that counts as large-scale smuggling? You could go to prison.”
“I won’t drag you into it. Don’t worry.”
Yan Yuan dropped the shovel and grabbed him by the collar. “You think that’s what I mean?”
Jiang Chengzhou sighed helplessly. “Yan Yuan, you know I’m not a good person. I need money right now.”
Yan Yuan let go and dusted off his hands. His gaze was deep as he stared at Jiang Chengzhou.
“If you get caught, have you thought about what will happen to your sister?”
“You’re the only family she has. If you’re arrested, who’s going to protect her?”
Jiang Chengzhou closed his eyes in frustration, feeling irritated and helpless.
“Brother.”
Linlin’s voice suddenly sounded behind them. Jiang Chengzhou jumped and turned around.
Linlin clutched the doorframe nervously, looking at the two men as though they were confronting each other.
“Please don’t fight.”
Jiang Chengzhou immediately broke into a smile. “Who says we were fighting?”
He draped an arm over Yan Yuan’s shoulder. “We were just fooling around.”
Linlin looked nervously at Yan Yuan.
Yan Yuan slowly nodded.
Only then did Linlin relax.
That night, after Linlin had fallen asleep, Yan Yuan called Jiang Chengzhou outside.
Life was hard for fishermen. Many men around their age had picked up the bad habit of smoking.
Of course, they didn’t smoke cigarettes from packs. They smoked loose tobacco, rolling their own.
But neither Yan Yuan nor Jiang Chengzhou smoked.
Yan Yuan was simply too stingy. Food was different—people had to eat. But why spend money on a habit that was also bad for your health?
Jiang Chengzhou knew Yan Yuan’s stinginess all too well.
That was why he had been so surprised when Yan Yuan decided to build a washroom and wouldn’t let him contribute any money.
Yan Yuan didn’t smoke, and neither did Jiang Chengzhou.
The two men walked to a large rock not far from the house. Yan Yuan gazed at the calm sea in the distance.
“What do you think about your plan from this morning? If you still intend to go through with it, then you and…move out.”
Jiang Chengzhou grinned. “That heartless?”
“I’m not joking with you.” Yan Yuan turned and met his eyes. “I’m serious. You know what I’m like.”
The smile faded from Jiang Chengzhou’s face. He raked a hand through his hair in frustration.
“I’m desperate.”
Yan Yuan understood why he felt that way.
A girl like Linlin was living with two grown men. Sooner or later, people were bound to start gossiping.
For the time being, Linlin rarely went outside, and most people didn’t even know there was a girl living in their home.
But she couldn’t hide there forever. What would they do then?
When Linlin had suddenly run away from home, Jiang Chengzhou naturally hadn’t been able to stop himself from investigating what had happened to her before.
Some rumors were never spoken openly. People only whispered them behind one another’s backs, chewing over them in private.
If Jiang Chengzhou and Yan Yuan hadn’t looked into the matter carefully, how would they have known about the things people had been saying behind Linlin’s back?
Jiang Chengzhou had been furious at the time and had nearly gone to beat up the Zhou household.
If Yan Yuan hadn’t stopped him, he might really have caused a death.
It was after that incident that Jiang Chengzhou began thinking about taking Linlin away from the island.
Yan Yuan slipped his hands into his trouser pockets.
“You can make money, but you can’t break the law.”
“You have an idea?”
Yan Yuan nodded.
“Then say it.” Jiang Chengzhou’s eyes lit up, and he urged him on impatiently.
“A large shopping center has opened in the suburbs of Guangzhou, and it has shops available for rent. I plan to register for an individual business license and sell seafood.”
Jiang Chengzhou waved his hand when he heard that. “No. There are too many vendors in Guangzhou. Opening a shop gives us no advantage at all. We’d be better off as we are now.”
“I’m not doing this for the shop. Once we have a license, we can collect seafood here and sell it inland.”
Actually, this wasn’t entirely legal either.
Both the island and Guangzhou had state-run aquatic-product stations and purchasing stations, and most of the seafood served in restaurants in inland counties was supplied through them.
The purchasing stations kept their buying prices very low, but there was an enormous demand for seafood inland. A single round of reselling could earn four or five times the original price.
Yan Yuan only wanted to open a shop so they could use that channel to transport the goods and avoid the inspections at the Commerce and Industry checkpoints.
Jiang Chengzhou thought it over for a moment.
“Let’s do it!”
Only then did Yan Yuan’s expression ease.
“I’ve already submitted the application materials. For now, focus on working and keep your head down.”
Jiang Chengzhou nodded and punched him lightly in the chest.
“Yan Yuan, seriously—if you tell me to go east from now on, I won’t go west.”
Yan Yuan lowered his eyes and covered his chest.
“Just make sure you keep your word.”
Jiang Chengzhou raised an eyebrow and hooked an arm around his shoulder. The two of them walked home together.
At the time, being self-employed was still considered rather embarrassing. But neither of them gave it a second thought. As far as they were concerned, making money was what mattered. They didn’t care whether it brought them shame.
Linlin was delighted when she learned about their plan. Even though she had escaped from the Zhou household, it was still nearby, and she couldn’t help worrying that someone from the Zhou household might come looking for her one day.
Going out to sea was highly unpredictable.
Typhoons, thunderstorms, fog…and the fishing moratorium. There were many times when they couldn’t go out to sea at all.
Jiang Chengzhou and Yan Yuan had to make the most of this period and earn as much money as they could.
