A Young Woman's Heart

Where?

“There…” she barely managed to raise her hand, “they’re all… the kind of stones you picked up.”

"Huh?" Mo Xueyao looked in the direction she was pointing and sure enough, she saw a small boat with a large pile of frosted stones, or more accurately, sea glass.

They come in all sorts of colors: yellow, blue, green, purple...

Of course, green is the most common color, followed by blue.

There are also some that have been polished and cleaned to remove impurities, making them look even purer and more beautiful.

The owner himself was hawking the items that had been made into jewelry.

There are rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets...

Some are polished into a spherical shape, some are slightly polished but still retain their original shape, and some are completely unpolished. When made into jewelry, each of these has a different feel.

There were quite a few people who came to buy, but most of them were young people. There were not only people from the city, but also many islanders.

Mo Xueyao even saw someone buy two jin (1 kg) in one go.

"Why buy so much, that person?"

Jiang Tao, as expected of the tour guide on this trip, was always able to answer Mo Xueyao's questions. At this moment, he seemed more like a teacher: "They either take them back to process and make ornaments to sell, or they take them to line fish tanks. It seems that the ones he bought are the uglier ones. They should be for lining fish tanks."

"Well, even though there are many for sale here, I still think the one I found is unique." Mo Xueyao pouted. "I'll make it into a necklace when I get back."

"Eek." Hua Yinyin was too tired to tease her anymore. Her delicate nose suddenly twitched. "It smells so good."

"Oh, and some people even come by boat to make food on the spot."

“It’s similar to the food stalls at the night market.” Mo Xueyao straightened up. “But those should be on a big boat, right?”

"Yes, it has to be at least as big as my ship. If the guests are to eat on board, it has to be even bigger."

At sea, a ship is a measure of one's wealth.

If you have money, everyone wants to buy a big ship.

And ships are indeed real tools of production.

People on land can live without cars, but people living on islands absolutely cannot live without boats.

"Oh, right, teacher!" Jiang Tao looked at Hua Yinyin—he didn't know her last name, so he could only call her 'teacher'—" "Would you like that drink?"

"what?"

"Freshly squeezed juice with some herbs and mint, mainly orange juice. Drinking it will make you less seasick."

"Really? I'll give it a try..."

"It should be one yuan for a large cup and fifty cents for a small cup."

"It's quite cheap."

……

Chapter 53 The Lively Scene at Sea (Part 1)

Countless ships bobbed on the sea, like dumplings about to be cooked in a big pot.

Hua Yinyin lay on the edge of the boat, and Jiang Tao held a plastic bag to catch her so she wouldn't pollute the seawater—after all, quite a few people still needed to go swimming!

Although seawater isn't exactly clean to begin with, at least it looks cleaner this way.

Of course, it will also make you appear more cultured.

Mo Xueyao turned her head away, lest she feel nauseous if she looked at it too much.

Fortunately, Hua Yinyin hadn't eaten anything since she left home that morning, only drank a few sips of water, so even after vomiting for a while, it was just some bile, which didn't look too disgusting.

"Hey, Yinyin, you're not even as good as the students!" Mo Xueyao teased deliberately.

"Cough cough." Jiang Tao coughed twice forcefully. "It's alright! After all, the teacher didn't grow up by the sea."

"It's just... Xiao Yaoyao doesn't care about me at all, boohoo..." Hua Yinyin looked like she was about to cry, but unfortunately, she couldn't squeeze out a single tear for a long time.

More and more boats gathered outside, sometimes only staying in one place for a short while before two boats crowded in front and behind.

Turning a boat around under the influence of waves is not as simple as turning a car around.

Fortunately, although Jiang Tao was young, he was quite skilled at driving the boat. He maneuvered the boat left and right and soon it was sailing away.

However, it is indeed becoming increasingly inconvenient to move around.

After vomiting, Hua Yinyin suddenly became energetic again, as if the person who had been lying on the boat like a dead dog just now was not her at all.

"Little Yaoyao, I'm hungry!"

"There shouldn't be any breakfast vendors here...?" Mo Xueyao said, turning to look at Jiang Tao.

This time, it wasn't him who answered, but Mr. Xue who pointed to the distance first—yes, he was still swaying from side to side with the small boat: "That boat seems to be selling breakfast."

"Huh? There really is one?"

"Of course, um—we probably can't get on that boat, let's stop it and buy it from there." Jiang Tao stood on tiptoe and looked around a few times, then picked up the oar and rowed hard again.

A number of boats of various colors had already gathered in front of that small boat.

This was definitely a novel experience for Mo Xueyao and the others.

This is roughly equivalent to the breakfast stalls outside schools being surrounded not by students, but by cars, or at least tricycles about the same size as the stalls.

Boats of different sizes were scattered about, some slightly spaced apart, while others practically bumped into the breakfast stalls.

However, in reality, there is still a slight distance between them.

No one will actually crash into it. The boat is already quite unstable, and if it did crash, the boss would probably spill something.

That would be too rude.

However, sometimes, accidents are unavoidable.

If a boat behind doesn't stop in time and lightly bumps into the boat in front, and the boat in front happens not to have dropped its anchor, then it's very likely that it will hit the boss's boat.

Some small boats, especially the one Jiang Tao was driving, didn't even bring an anchor; they only brought ropes to secure it to the dock.

On the small boat the boss was driving, there was a sesame seed cake oven, and next to it, a pot of oil was frying dough sticks, which were bubbling and popping.

There was also a large styrofoam box filled with chilled soy milk and milk—this stuff seemed to be even more popular than fried dough sticks and sesame flatbread.

This boat specializes in selling sesame cakes and fried dough sticks. The reason it doesn't sell more is firstly because it can't hold them all, and secondly, perhaps it's just too busy.

The boss is in charge of making the sesame cakes, while his wife is in charge of watching the oil fryer and also has to find time to give change.

The oil in the pot was noticeably shallower than that in a typical breakfast shop, perhaps to prevent it from splashing out as the boat rocked.

Although things seemed stable, Mo Xueyao couldn't help but feel a little worried for the two of them.

Selling breakfast on a small boat is something not everyone can do.

"I want to drink iced soy milk!" Hua Yinyin had vomited up the only bit of juice mixed with herbs, so her stomach was empty. Mo Xueyao had even heard her make a 'gurgling' sound.

"Try to drink less iced drinks! Are you about to get your period?"

"They're not here yet!"

"You are not allowed to drink it."

"Oh dear, why is Xiaoyaoyao just like Wanyan? I always hear this kind of conversation between you and her."

"Cough...no way..." Mo Xueyao scratched her cheek a little embarrassedly, letting Jiang Tao come closer.

There were also some very small kayaks and inflatable lifeboats nearby. These definitely didn't come from the shore; they must have come from the larger ships.

After all, the boats selling breakfast are too small, and if larger boats get too close, it could cause unnecessary trouble or even lead to accidents.

So the large ships would stop some distance away, and then they would use these boats, which were probably even smaller than canoes, to buy breakfast.

"Boss, how much are the sesame seed cakes and fried dough sticks?" Mr. Xue shouted in a loud voice, his voice still reaching the boss's ears clearly even in the bustling market.

The proprietress, who was frying dough sticks, looked up and said, "A sesame seed cake is three mao, and a dough stick is two mao!"

A sesame seed cake and fried dough stick cost 50 cents, no different from what you get on land.

Think about it, this is a breakfast stall at sea, so their labor costs should be higher than those on land.

Mo Xueyao ordered a sesame seed cake and fried dough sticks. The owner wrapped them together and put them in a bag, but Mr. Xue ordered three fried dough sticks. He stacked them together and took a big bite.

The way they were eating it was just like eating a three-layer burger advertised by a Western fast food restaurant.

He also asked for two bags of soy milk—he drank the first bag in one go as soon as it arrived.

Hua Yinyin only ordered a bag of room-temperature soy milk in the end, and bought Jiang Tao a bag of iced soy milk as an extra 'tip'.

A bag of soy milk costs only two cents here, which is quite cheap.

However, the taste didn't seem rich enough, as if too much water had been added, making it somewhat thin. When I got to the bottom, there was still a lot of undissolved white sugar.

“Although we’ve only gone halfway around, I think we should find a temporary dock.” Jiang Tao looked up at the sun with an air of experience. “It’s probably around 6:30 now. There will be even more people by then, and there won’t be any place to moor boats at the temporary dock. There are limitations to temporary docks, otherwise, with so many small boats, they could tow the big boats.”

"Ah, shall we stop at that big ship up ahead?"

"Okay." Jiang Tao wiped his sweat. "I'll wait for you on the boat, in case someone takes it away."

At sea, small boats don't require keys like cars, so it's quite convenient to drive them away whenever you want.

Unless it's a boat with an engine, then you'll need a key to start it...

From a distance, these ships don't look very big, but up close they look like connected buildings or sea fortresses.

Looking up, it was several meters away from the deck, and even climbing up would not be easy.

Next to the large ship, there was a simple platform that could float halfway on the water, and it was tied to the ship with several iron chains.

It's less of a platform and more of a marker float.

Jiang Tao brought the boat closer and tied the rope securely to a low pillar on the temporary dock.

There is also a manually operated elevator here used to lower lifeboats onto the sea.

Mo Xueyao and Mr. Xue quickly stepped over, while Hua Yinyin hesitated for a long time before closing her eyes and jumping over.

"Thump!" The elevator suddenly shook, startling her so much that she quickly grabbed Mr. Xue's shoulder.