Chapter 22

Buzhu originally did not want to go to the bow of the boat, but Hong Tao directly dragged her over. What the hell, women can't sit at the bow of the boat. In front of the other Tanka people, Hong Tao wouldn't do such a heaven-defying and people-hating thing, but away from the other Tanka people, Hong Tao would slowly start to influence their children. These children would be his good helpers in a few years. It's not too late to start guiding their thoughts now. A partner who can speak the same language as him is much more reliable than one who is incompatible with him.

"These pearls, you keep for me. When I have 100, I'll make you a pearl necklace." Hong Tao fiddled around in the sea, not only bringing up a lunch, but also a few pearls. They weren't top-notch, not even good, and some weren't very round, but Buzhu still carefully wrapped them in her headscarf. As a Tanka girl, pearls better than these weren't rare, but these were different. They were personally collected by Hong Tao from the sea for her.

"Alright, we've eaten, and it's noon. Let's go and collect the nets. Xiaojiao, you go and handle the sail!" Habitually raising his hand to look at his wrist... it was empty. Looking up at the sun, he estimated the time was about right, and threw the leftover food scraps into the sea.

"Isn't it supposed to be when we return that we collect the nets?" Azhu was a bit puzzled. They had only been out for half a day, why were they collecting the nets now?

"Stupid girl! If we wait until evening, there will be so many fish in the net, how can we lift it with just a few of us? Do as much as you can, don't overdo it! Hahaha..." This time, not only did Hong Tao laugh, but even the little fish and shrimp laughed along. They didn't really understand when to collect the nets, but they laughed because the adults did. This tall uncle who had only been there for a few days was very fun. Following him always brought endless joy.

The ground cage is not something where if you throw it down for ten hours, ten fish will enter, and if you pull it up after one hour, one fish will be inside. The time has to be just right. If the time is too short, not many fish will enter. If the time is too long, the number of fish won't increase much because the cage will be too crowded, and the fish outside won't enter. Many fish have territorial concepts.

This time, the early collection of the nets didn't yield great results. Three ground cages were pulled up, barely matching the catch of one cage from last time, but it saved a lot of effort. Hong Tao could lift one with just one arm. After opening the rope at one end, he shook out all the catch into the middle seawater compartment, then tied the rope back up, moved the boat a hundred meters away, and threw the ground cages back in, waiting for the second harvest.

Using the free time in the afternoon, Hong Tao started teaching the children to recognize characters using a sand tray, including Buzhu. In Hong Tao's eyes, she was still a child, just a bigger one. Hong Tao's Chinese textbook was the "Hundred Family Surnames." He couldn't recite all of it, only the first 25, but that was enough for the children to learn for a few days. There was also arithmetic to learn, which was enough to fill the free time. Once they learned addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and these 25 characters, Hong Tao had countless other things to teach them, such as natural science, geography, physics, geometry, and algebra. Hong Tao also planned to teach them Chinese pinyin and Latin, even though they might not be useful in the short term, they would be useful eventually.

Hong Tao didn't just teach others knowledge; he also had things to learn from the people of this era, such as language! In the three families of Buzhu, Huang, and Chen, there was Chen Ming'en, a literate Han person, so they could understand and speak a few words of Chinese. When they met others, they still had to use the Tanka language to communicate.

When the sun set, another small boat with a black sail approached. The first new sail was made and installed on Huang Hai's small boat by him, and he personally drove it to find Hong Tao and the others. An outsider taking a girl and three half-grown boys out for a day without returning for lunch made the adults worried. Bofu, who was on the same boat, grumbled a lot, but Hong Tao understood that it wasn't blame but concern. For the three children, this feeling of being involved was a burden, but for him, this lonely soul, it was a warm and sweet comfort, and he not only didn't find it annoying but enjoyed it.

With two adults present, the task of collecting the nets naturally fell to them. Seeing the lively fish, shrimp, and crabs in the ground cages, Bofu finally smiled. Unlike Hong Tao, who dumped all the catch into the seawater compartment, Bofu carefully took out each fish, shrimp, and crab from the cage, only putting those that needed to be kept in the seawater compartment. Fish and shrimp were separated, and crabs and sea urchins were tied up with thin hemp rope and neatly arranged in a wooden basin. He said this way the catch wouldn't be damaged, would live longer, and could be sold for a better price. This was a meticulous old man.

"Ah... Brother Fu, we are old. The catch that Taozi brings with a few children is more than what we get from four or five boats working all day. This is the blessing of Mazu. If it weren't for you saving Taozi, we wouldn't be able to eat white rice every day. When those crab cages and rolling hooks are made, our front compartments won't be able to hold so many live fish. It would be a pity if they all died!"

Chen Ming'en and Huang Hai's family watched their wives busy scooping fish out of the two small boats, pouring them into the front compartments of the connected boats, and started to suck their teeth. Few fish made them worry, and too many fish also made them worry. Poor people, they have many worries.

"Should we go back to Zhenzhou? There are fewer fish there, but with Taozi's sail, we can go further. In Zhenzhou, we won't have to worry about selling fish!"

Bofu deeply agreed with Chen Ming'en's concern. The town of Yazhen at the lower reaches of the Ningyuan River was just a small town with a hundred households. Even with the nearby Li people, the purchasing power was still weak, and too many fish couldn't be sold.

This simple truth was understood by everyone. Seeing the hard-earned catch at risk of being wasted, Bofu gritted his teeth and decided to change pastures.

"No, we can't go to Zhenzhou. There are too many people and too much talk. In a few days, our sails and fishing tools will be learned by others. If everyone can catch so many fish, Zhenzhou won't be able to sell them either. When the price drops, we will have worked in vain!" Huang Hai immediately raised objections. He had been to more places than Bofu, almost traveling all over Hainan Island. With more experience, his mind was naturally more flexible, and simple truths couldn't stump him.