Back to 1984: Earning Money, Raising Kids, and Keeping the Household Busy

Chapter 30 Buying a Ground Fryer

When Lin Qin announced the final number, Lin Yi was stunned for a long time, muttering, "This is equivalent to the monthly wages of four or five workers."

Lin Qin said happily, "Dad, you haven't even included what you earned yesterday! If you add it all up, it's over two hundred."

Lin Yi realized what was happening and his heart was filled with excitement. "Girl, if this trend continues, buying land and building houses won't be a dream for you!"

He was even more excited than Lin Qin at this moment.

Honestly, in his eyes, Chen Wenjun had no major flaws; his biggest weakness was poverty—he had no land or farmland.

Now that his biggest worry is about to be resolved, how could he not be excited!
When a person is in a good mood, all their ailments disappear, and Lin Yi even felt that he could get out of bed and walk again.

Lin Qin dared not let him do anything reckless, and instructed the two children to keep an eye on Lin Yi.

Chen Wenjun ate a steamed bun with pickled vegetables and then slurped up half a bowl of river snails, which made him full. He was then eager to go and set off the fish trap.

The traps have been set for a day and a night, but I don't know how much I've harvested.

When the first fish trap was pulled out of the water, Chen Wenjun shook it as he checked it. By the time the fish trap was pulled up, his mouth was practically stretched to the back of his ears in a wide grin.

"Look, are there two pounds of river shrimp in here?"

Lin Qin's eyes lit up. "There must be! There's probably more than that! Let's pour it out first."

Chen Wenjun handed the fish trap to her and then went to set off for the second one.

This one is similar to the first one. The river shrimp in these two traps alone weigh five pounds, along with some small carp and crucian carp, a few snails, and several half-grown river crabs.

Lin Qin was busy sorting them; the small river crabs didn't have much meat, so they were perfect for the children to play with.

Put the river shrimp in one bucket, and pack the rest separately.

Lin Yi set off six traps.

Except for one that yielded no results, the others were all pretty good.

Those river shrimp probably weighed over ten kilograms.

We really need to sell them quickly, otherwise they'll be stuck with us.

It's not even one o'clock yet.

Chen Wenjun hurriedly docked to sell river shrimp.

Lin Qin continued fishing on the boat, and following the baiting method Chen Wenjun taught her yesterday, she had a bountiful catch today.

Chen Wenjun arrived home a little after 3 p.m., and Lin Qin had already caught more than a dozen fish.

He quickly gave Lin Qin the money he got from selling the river shrimp. "Those river shrimp weighed thirteen pounds and three ounces. I rounded it down to thirteen pounds. It was 1.9 yuan per pound, so I sold them for 24.7 yuan. I sold eight bamboo shoots for 5.76 yuan. I also added three palm-sized crucian carp to the deal. Boss Zheng gave me 30.5 yuan. Keep them all for me. I'm going to set some more traps."

Mr. Zheng said it would be even better if the delivery could be made before 10 a.m. in the future. I'll go to Grandpa's place later to see if he has any extra fish traps to sell me; I'll buy five or six more.

Nowadays, people buy the fishing line and weave the nets themselves to make their own fish traps.

Chen Wenjun didn't have that much time, and Lin Qin didn't know how to do it either, so they had to find someone to buy it. The price wasn't expensive, only four or five yuan each.

After dinner.

They were placed in the cage.

Chen Wenjun rowed his fishing boat to a Tanka family's house and quickly jumped over.

"Is Grandpa home?" he called out, and a woman in her forties popped out from inside. "What brings you here?"

As the woman spoke, she glanced at Lin Qin on Chen Wenjun's boat, her eyes gleaming with gossip, "Is this your wife?"

Chen Wenjun nodded, revealing eight teeth, "Yes! My wife, Lin Qin!"

"You're something else! You've managed to marry such a beautiful wife without making a sound! We can invite her over for dinner tonight!" Zhou Shuifang said enthusiastically.

Chen Wenjun quickly refused, "Auntie, let's do it another day! I'll ask Grandpa to get me a few fish traps and then go back. The weather's been good these past few days, so I'll come back when I'm less busy."

Zhou Shuifang nodded repeatedly, her gaze never leaving Lin Qin. "That's easy! We only used the two new fish traps we had at home once. Your grandfather and Uncle Wenfa went to haul goods with someone, so we didn't use anything while they were away. We'll give them to you first."

"Going to pick up cargo again? It's not time to release the rafts yet!" Chen Wenjun frowned slightly.

Zhou Shuifang shook her head. "Rafting requires waiting for heavy rain. What are you rafting now? We're going to take tea. They say it's heading towards Xiamen Bay. It will take several days. They can earn twenty or thirty yuan per trip, so the two of them will earn fifty or sixty yuan."

"That's quite a lot," Chen Wenjun remarked.

Zhou Shuifang clearly thought so too, and she couldn't stop smiling. "Wenjun! Now that you're married, you have someone to take care of you. You can go with the boat to deliver goods and earn some extra money. You can't support so many people by just relying on the meager income from fishing."

She was genuinely worried that Lin Qin wouldn't be able to endure the hardship and would run away, which would leave Chen Wenjun all alone again.

Chen Wenjun nodded perfunctorily, took the two fish traps and examined them carefully. After confirming that there was nothing wrong with them, he hurriedly gave the money to Zhou Shuifang and returned to his own boat.

Chen Wenjun breathed a sigh of relief once the boat had gone a bit further away. "Aunt Shuifang is good in every way, except she's a chatterbox. If you're with her, she can talk to you all day long!"

Lin Qin couldn't help but chuckle to herself.

She knew Zhou Shuifang's family. In her previous life, after they found out that there was a woman on Chen Wenjun's boat, Zhou Shuifang came up and talked to her. Even though she didn't say anything, they could talk for a long time.

Lin Qin really couldn't handle that overly friendly attitude.

With two more fish traps, Chen Wenjun focused all his attention on them. After all, if he could catch fish every day, he could earn about forty yuan a day, which was equivalent to a worker's monthly salary.

In addition, Lin Qin's fishing and the bamboo shoots he catches with his net can bring in a large sum of money. Insurably, his daily income will not be less than fifty yuan. If he saves up like this, he will have more than two thousand yuan in less than two months.

Then he'll have the confidence to inquire about the price of deserted islands from the Land and Resources Bureau.

With hope for the future, the two were full of energy. They would go out to sell fish almost as soon as they opened their eyes, delivering river shrimp, bamboo shoots, and some large fish that they couldn't sell to Guoxing Hotel before 10 a.m., and then return to the fishing boat to cook and eat.

We take a one-hour break at noon and then get back to work.

Lin Qin fishes, Chen Wenjun sets the fish traps and catches the fish, cooks dinner in the evening, and after putting the children to sleep, the two of them will fish for another two hours at night before they finish.

In the midst of their busy lives, Lin Qin, Lin Yi, and Liu Yaya have already been living on the fishing boat for a month.

With the weather getting warmer and the children still not having enough clothes, Lin Qin originally thought of saving money by cutting Chen Ping'an's hair herself.

Then I thought about it and realized that we don't need to spend a few cents on a haircut, so it would be better to take the child to the barbershop for a haircut.

He just mentioned it to Chen Ping'an.

Chen Ping'an immediately shook his head in fright, "Auntie can cut it for me, or Dad can cut it for me too."

Lin Qin patted his head and chuckled, "Your dad cut your hair into a toilet seat shape, it's too ugly, and Auntie doesn't have that skill. Be good, listen to me, we'll go to the barbershop, and Auntie will take you out for a walk and buy you some things."

Liu Yaya, who was standing nearby, immediately shouted excitedly, "I want to go too! I want to go too! Brother Ping An, I'll go with you!"

(End of this chapter)