1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 37: Cold Sweating
Liang Ziqiang got up very early today.

After all, a day is limited. Excluding the round trip, there is not much time left on the island.

I ate a quick breakfast, grabbed a set of tools and ran to the beach.

As usual, he brought a scoop net, bent pliers, a chisel, a rake, a hammer, a bucket, and a snakeskin bag.

We also filled a large pot with mountain spring water, enough for drinking on the boat for the whole day.

As for food, I roasted some sweet potatoes and had several steamed buns.

These steamed buns were made with the same Fuqiang flour he bought from the supply and marketing cooperative last time. Some of it was made into steamed buns and flower rolls by his mother.

When I went out, I grabbed two cantaloupes from the corner of the house. When I got to the island, they would fill my stomach and quench my thirst.

When they arrived at the big pier where the boats were docked, Lin Baixian was indeed more proactive than him and had already arrived there first.

Liang Ziqiang found that what he saw in front of him was a half-new, half-old wooden boat.

It is not as new as the boat of Party Secretary Zhong Yongrui, nor as big.

But it is still much newer and bigger than the old antique at home.

"Has the ship been inspected?" Liang Ziqiang asked.

Fishermen still need to conduct routine inspections of their boats before going out to sea.

"Why do you think I came earlier than you? Don't worry, we have checked everything." Lin Baixian began to untie the ropes.

Liang Ziqiang carried his things onto the boat.

"Fuck, Qiang, is it necessary for you to bring so much food? We are just going to an island. We will be there in the morning and back in the afternoon!"

"I have a big appetite, do you have any objection? If you get hungry later, don't steal my buns!"

"When we get to the island, isn't the freshly caught and grilled fish delicious? I don't want the steamed buns you give me, I just throw them into the sea!" Lin Baixian retorted in a mean way, and then he saw that Liang Ziqiang was actually holding a half-full bottle of diesel in his hand, so he shouted again:

"It's fine if you brought sweet potatoes and steamed buns, but why did you bring diesel? Do you want to drink it?"

"I kindly brought the diesel from my home here. Of course it's for filling up the boat! It's not a short trip there and back. Don't you want oil?" Liang Ziqiang replied unhappily.

"I bought the oil yesterday afternoon and filled it up. OK, OK, go ahead and fill it up. More is better than less!"

Liang Ziqiang really carried diesel and filled the tank up.

As the two were bickering back and forth, the diesel engine started to roar, and the bow of the boat cut two water lines in the tide and headed towards the distant sea.

At the stern, Lin Baixian was controlling the direction.

Lin Baixian's family doesn't even have a boat, but he knows how to drive a boat. There is a reason for this.

Before his father and his brothers separated, they shared a boat and took turns going out to sea. It was at that time that Lin Baixian learned how to sail and go out to sea.

But later, when the family was divided, the boat did not get to his father, so Lin Baixian's family had no boat to use.

Like Liang Ziqiang, he is still working hard to save money, hoping that when he has enough money, he can have a new boat for his family.

Liang Ziqiang came over and asked Lin Baixian:

"Ah Xian, the uncle I'm lending you the boat to is your cousin's father, right?"

Lu Feng and his group who came from the city the day before yesterday are friends of Lin Baixian's cousin, so Liang Ziqiang asked this question.

As far as he knew, that cousin was the son of Lin Baixian's uncle.

He was wrong. Lin Baixian shook his head and said:
"You mean the cousin who went to the city to trade in clothing? No, that's not him. He's the son of my eldest uncle, and the one who lent me the boat is my second uncle."

"So that's how it is. Your second uncle is very kind to you and is willing to lend you the boat."

"Him? Actually, he is just a lazy guy. He fishes for three days and rests for two days. He often lends his boat to others. It's still lending it to others. If he lends it to me, I can still charge four dollars for rent..."

"Four more dollars for rent? Why didn't you mention a word about it yesterday?" Liang Ziqiang was quite surprised.

Seeing Lin Baixian hesitating, he understood instantly.

This guy originally didn't intend to tell anyone about the rent. He wanted to use the spoils from panning on the island to pay the rent by himself.

But just now, as I was speaking, I accidentally let it slip.

As an uncle, Liang Ziqiang lent his nephew a boat for one day and charged him four dollars for rent. He suddenly felt that this uncle was not that good.

After all, the boat that Party Secretary Zhong Yongrui rented to them the day before yesterday was much bigger than this one, and he only charged them five dollars.

"You still haven't told me about the rent, which is really pointless! You've been running around looking for a boat, which is already very tiring. Don't argue about the rent, I'll pay for it when we come back from fishing!"

Liang Ziqiang made the decision immediately.

"That won't work. If you really want to pay, just pay half of your share, two dollars will be enough!"

Lin Baixian was unwilling to take any advantage of the situation, so he had no choice but to do this, and each of them paid half of the boat rental fee.

As they were talking, the fishing boat sailed farther and farther away, and almost reached the sea area where they had gone fishing the day before yesterday.

Today, I didn't see the gorgeous dolphin, known as the "rainbow of the sea", jumping out of the water, but I could see other fish swimming close to the surface. "Damn, that's a Spanish mackerel, right? It's a pity that I forgot to bring my fishing rod, otherwise I could catch a few big fish and sell them!"

Lin Baixian left the stern and let the boat sail straight forward for a while, while he himself came to the bow and looked at the sea with deep emotion.

"You kid, why do you want everything? Fishing will waste your time. Don't forget that our purpose today is to go to Fox Bay Island to withdraw our deposits!"

"Withdrawing deposits?" Lin Baixian was puzzled for a moment before he understood, "That's right, withdrawing deposits is quite good!"

"Ah Xian, have you ever thought about this? Fox Bay Island alone can hide a lot of chicken claw snails and red crabs. What about other islands? Will some islands have more than Fox Bay Island?"

The reason why Liang Ziqiang had such an idea was because Yanghai City was known as the "City of Hundred Islands", with large and small islands scattered in the sea. Some islands like Fox Bay Island were well-known, but there were many more remote and nameless islands, which added up to more than "Hundred Islands".

Unlike the excessive tourism development in later generations, these islands today are truly "uninhabited islands" and "wild islands" and are rarely visited by people.

The wild islands in Yanghai City were not really developed until the early 21st century. Even Liang Ziqiang, who was working as a laborer in another place, saw the news and learned that in the first few years of development, the abundance of natural resources on several of the islands amazed the tourists who came here.

Of course, not every island is so blessed. Unfortunately, Liang Ziqiang did not deliberately remember the specific information of the wild islands in the news at that time.

After all, he could never have imagined that he would be reborn one day!

Otherwise, if you start twenty years in advance and search for them one by one, wouldn't you be able to find them all?

It was on the way to Fox Bay Island that a flash of memory came to my mind, and I connected the news of my previous life with my current livelihood.

It doesn’t matter if you can’t remember the specific information. Just look for it slowly. I don’t believe that you can’t find the islands mentioned in the news.

Lin Baixian didn't know the stories behind Liang Ziqiang's past and present lives, but he just listened and felt that there was some truth in it:

"Yes, let's talk about the chicken claw snail. It's impossible that it is only found in Fox Bay Island, right?"

"That's what I thought. After we finish searching Fox Bay Island this time, we can go look around next time when we have time!" Liang Ziqiang suggested.

"Do you think bigger chicken claw snails would be more expensive?" Lin Baixian guessed.

After all, the bigger the seafood, the more valuable it is, and marine delicacies like chicken claw conch are rare in themselves, and the big ones are even rarer than the others.

"Of course! In fact, I always feel that I was a bit cheated by Zheng Liu last time. Those chicken claw snails might have been sold at a low price."

"One dollar and eighty cents per pound, which is four times the price of swimming crabs. It shouldn't be considered a cheap sale, right?" Lin Baixian speculated.

Liang Ziqiang was speechless.

In fact, he really wanted to say that in later generations, the chicken claw snail was renamed "gooseneck barnacle", and its price was over one thousand yuan.

In this day and age, it shouldn’t be just over one dollar, right?
"Anyway, I don't want to sell the chicken claw snails I found this time to Zheng Liu.

Didn’t I ask Lu Feng to help contact the restaurant last time? It would be great if I could. If I can’t, I’ll just go to the city myself and ask the restaurant directly for the price!”

Liang Ziqiang didn't want to be a sucker. He worked so hard to fish in the sea and found some truly valuable treasures, but he ended up working for Zheng Liu, a profiteer.

Lin Baixian fully agrees with this:
"I can also ask my cousin to help me find the restaurant!"

In order to get out of their current impoverished situation, the two racked their brains.

As they were chatting, Liang Ziqiang looked at the sea again and suddenly found something wrong.

He deliberately looked up to confirm the position of the sun, and quickly said to Lin Baixian:
"The boat is going off the track. Go to the stern and steer the boat!"

Originally, Lin Baixian aimed at the direction and let the boat sail forward for a while.

I guess it has deviated due to the influence of the ocean current.

This is easy to handle. Lin Baixian ran back to the stern and took control of the steering wheel again.

The boat was heading east, so Lin Baixian turned the steering wheel to the west, which would adjust the boat to a slightly westward direction and return to its normal course.

Liang Ziqiang stood by the side of the boat and waited for a while, but found that there was no change. The boat was still moving eastward, and even drifted a little further.

"Why, haven't you turned the rudder yet?"

He walked directly to the stern and asked.

“It’s spinning. It’s always spinning!”

Lin Baixian said this and turned it a few more times for him to see.

Now, Lin Baixian was confused:
"Strange, no matter how I turn it, nothing seems to move?!"

He increased his strength, spun it like crazy, and then screamed loudly:

"Oh my god! It's out of control! I'm totally out of control!"

Liang Ziqiang's heart skipped a beat and he quickly pulled Lin Baixian away and took over himself.

After turning it hard, he found that the boat had really broken down!
In an instant, cold sweat broke out.

The more I turned the steering wheel, the colder my heart felt!

(End of this chapter)