Chapter 169: Conches
Han Yong had thought things through after meeting with Han Ruochen. His sister was correct; he had been too careless. Because he was not paying attention to his family, his little siblings were the ones who were being bullied left and right. All of their savings were wasted by his mother, and they had nothing left in their hands. Given the current situation, there was a very good chance that the Han family would end up in even bigger trouble if he did not pick up his slack.
"Han Yong, you! How dare you hit me? I will complain to my brother!" Xu Yuanshu couldn’t fight with Han Yong, so she could only think of dragging her brother forward.
"Go and complain if you want," sneered Han Yong. "Do you think that I am scared of your brother?" That sleazy and sickly brother-in-law of his only knew how to drink all day long and play with women. If he could fight with him, then Han Yong would take his hat off for him.
Xu Yuanshu was also aware of her brother’s strength. She flushed red when she saw how careless Han Yong looked when she told him that she was going to complain to her brother. Her eyes turned red as she said, "You will truly regret treating me like this, Han Yong!"
She turned on her feet and then hurried out of the house; of course, she did not forget to take Han Zhicheng away with her. As her son grew up, everyone could see that he did not resemble Han Yong at all. Because of this reason, she always kept the two of them away from one another.
Han Yong watched her leave and sneered coldly. He had to say that this woman really knew how to be careful.
On the other side, Han Ruochen did not know that her brother had started to change under her influence. She was busy with her own things; as soon as she got wind of the fact that Han Ziyan was going to return from the dormitory to visit home, she took Han Beijiang with her. The ordeal of buying clothes had not yet been over, and she was worried that if she stayed at home, she would be dragged down by the mother-daughter pair. So she took Han Beijiang to his school in the county before returning to the shore.
As soon as she arrived at the shore, Tong Zhaodi also came over. She looked a bit better than the last time Han Ruochen saw her; at least the injuries on her face seemed to have lessened, which confused Han Ruochen.
"My mother took my brother to grandmother’s home this morning." When Tong Zhaodi saw that Han Ruochen was looking at her with a bewildered expression, she explained. Her grandmother was quite lucky that she caught a big batch of fish last night and asked her mother to come and eat with them. Of course, this feast was only for her brother and not for her.
So they all left her alone at home, but Tong Zhaodi did not care; as long as she could stay at home and eat something warm without being beaten and scolded, she would be happy. This was the first time Tong Zhaodi had been left alone at home; usually, her mother would take her along to her maternal family to do work. But this time around, she was worried that Tong Zhaodi would sneak some bites of the feast so she left her alone at home.
And that was how Tong Zhaodi came to taste the freedom of staying alone. There was no one to beat her and no one to scold her. She could live as she wanted without worrying about anything at all.
Han Ruochen nodded when she heard her reply. She then said to her, "We are going to the twin waterfall today." she was going to check the crab cages later on. For now, when the tide was low, she was going to take a look at what they could find at the shore.
Tong Zhaodi had nothing to say against this suggestion of Han Ruochen. She nodded and the two of them borrowed the cycle from Second Aunt Han before going straight to the twin waterfall. Though they were called waterfalls, they were neither too big nor too small. As it was currently summer, the waterfalls were flowing with a soft pressure which wasn’t dangerous.
Han Ruochen walked over and started turning the kelp that was thrown on the side of the shore. When Tong Zhaodi saw her throwing the kelp aside, she couldn’t help but feel a pinch in her heart. She said to Han Ruochen, "Why are you throwing away the kelp, Sister Ruochen? We can sell it too."
When Han Ruochen heard her remark, she was speechless and did not know what to say. Indeed, they could sell the kelp, but kelp was not hard to find. And even if they collected ten or twenty jin of it, they would be able to sell it for one or two yuan at most. She said to Tong Zhaodi, "Don’t bother looking for kelp; instead, go and dig what’s under them."
Tong Zhaodi had a lot of flaws, but she was also obedient to those who helped her. She immediately went to dig the spot where Han Ruochen had pointed. She picked up her sand shovel and dug through the sand only to find three to four conches buried in the sand.
"There are conches here!"
Conches were expensive and quite easy to sell; it seemed like they had made another fortune.
Compared to her, Han Ruochen was much calmer; she could easily see through the sand and picked up three more conches that weighed a pound.
"Han Ruochen? You found conches? And that too so many at that?"
She turned around and almost jumped in the air when she saw the person standing behind her because the person was covered from head to foot!
