Chapter 111: Lets go fishing
Tong Zhaodi then said to Han Ruochen, "Other than paying the debt that my brother had owed, what else can I even do?" Tong Zhaodi had no hope for her brother; she knew that even if she were to confront him, the man would never take a penny out of his pocket, which meant that she could only slowly repay the money. What else could she even do in this situation? Her brother owed the money, and the sum was not small. If she didn’t take out the money, then her mother would sell her off to someone.
"There is another option," said Han Ruochen as she glanced at the woman beside her. When Tong Zhaodi raised her head and looked at Han Ruochen, the woman smiled at her and stated, "Separating from the family."
As soon as she finished speaking, Tong Zhaodi looked at Han Ruochen as if she had uttered a curse word. Her eyes widened, and her face turned pale. "Separating from the family? How can I separate from the family? What will everyone say about me, and how will I survive in this village?"
"Will you survive if you stay with your family?" Han Ruochen asked with a tilt of her head. She looked at the woman in front of her and questioned in a low voice, "Will they let you survive? If you keep living like this, you will only create a sucker and nothing else." Tong Hao was not the kind of man who would feel grateful if Tong Zhaodi helped him; if anything, he would think that since Tong Zhaodi helped him wipe his arse once, he could continue making a mess everywhere he went.
She didn’t believe that Tong Hao would feel even the slightest bit of affection for his sister. If he did, then Han Ruochen was willing to change her name.
After she finished speaking, she walked past Tong Zhaodi and headed twenty metres away from the shore. Her sea scanning system was tinkling quite loudly, and it seemed like there was something good under the surface, but because it was buried too deep, she could not see what it was clearly. She pursed her lips and then took out her shovel before starting to dig in a clean manner.
Behind her, Tong Zhaodi had already started to dig in the hope that she would find something good too.
Han Ruochen didn’t stop her, since the woman was still daydreaming about being accepted by the Tong family, so she would let her get disappointed first. Once Tong Zhaodi’s fire died down, she would separate from the Tong family on her own. With that, she put Tong Zhaodi’s matter at rest and started focusing on the digging. With her attention on the digging, Han Ruochen soon forgot about everything else. She started to scoop the wet sand and placed it neatly on one side, and then watched the hole getting bigger and bigger.
Soon, the pit was big enough, and the substance inside it became clearer and clearer.
When Han Ruochen saw what it was, her eyes lit up. It was actually sea urchins. Though these things alone were not very expensive, if she could collect at least twenty or thirty jin, she would be able to sell them for six hundred or eight hundred yuan, which would be a good fetch for a late-night digging.
With that thought in her head, she started to dig out the sea urchins one by one. She was quite glad that she had brought a set of big buckets with her, or else things would have become troublesome. She collected the sea urchins in one pit and then moved on to the other pit, where she dug out the sea urchins.
When the villagers saw her actions, their eyes couldn’t help but light up. They immediately walked over to the small mudflat and then started to dig the sand just around Han Ruochen’s pit. Since there were sea urchins in the pit dug by Han Ruochen, there must be some around as well!
But what they didn’t expect was that after digging for a long time, they only found clams and snails!
Why!
Han Ruochen, on the other hand, moved from that area of the shore and dragged Tong Zhaodi along with her. "Help me dig; if you collect ten or fifteen jin of sea urchins, I will give you a hundred and fifty yuan."
Tong Zhaodi sighed. But she was not envious of Han Ruochen.
Han Ruochen was educated, and she had read a lot of books; she was naturally more knowledgeable than her. So, what was there to feel sorry about? If she were as skilled as Han Ruochen, then she too would have been able to dig these sea urchins.
With that simple thought in her head, she walked over to the spot where Han Ruochen had pointed and started to dig.
Soon, with Han Ruochen and Tong Zhaodi working together, they dug out more than thirty jin of sea urchins. They looked at buckets that were full of sea urchins with satisfaction.
Han Ruochen looked at the sea urchins and said to Tong Zhaodi, "Let’s bring these back to my grandmother first. It’s too dark and crowded; we cannot separate them here. I will take them back to my grandmother’s house and then start separating the sea urchins. The ones that are broken, we will keep them with us and as for those that are well-preserved, we will collect them and sell them to the inland market."
Han Ruochen had a clear plan in her mind. This thing was not only rare but also rather nutritious. It was better to keep some and cook it with eggs for her younger brothers.
"Then let’s go." Tong Zhaodi picked up the two buckets and then walked toward the house of old Madam Han.
Han Ruochen also picked up the buckets and walked behind her. The two women soon arrived at Old Madam Han’s house, where they knocked on the door. Fortunately, Old Madam Han was still awake, so when they arrived at her house, Han Ruochen and Tong Zhaodi didn’t have to wait for long before the door of the house was pulled open.
