The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Winning Over Granny Cai with Half a Bucket of Small Yellow Croakers

When they arrived at Jinshan Bay Pier, Han Xiaorui moored the boat.

Liang Xiaoyu had already cleaned the boat. Seeing that the buckets were still full of small yellow croakers, each weighing less than two liang, she said, ”Xiao Rui, let me carry these fish home for you.”

Han Xiaorui smiled. ”Thank you for the help, Sister-in-law Xiao Yu.”

They each carried two buckets. There were also some assorted fish that Han Xiaorui hadn’t sold, which she planned to take home to eat.

By the time they got home, Han Xiaoqing and the children had already eaten dinner.

Just then, Pingping and An’an were in the courtyard with Cai Wenjun, feeding the chickens, ducks, and goslings.

Seeing her son smiling every now and then, Liang Xiaoyu felt completely at ease. Her resolve to build a strong friendship with Han Xiaorui only grew firmer.

’Not only can I help my son, but I can also earn money. I must be really lucky to have met such good people as Han Xiaorui and Han Xiaoqing.’

Han Xiaorui pointed to the two buckets, both full of small yellow croakers. ”Sister-in-law Xiao Yu, take one of these buckets for your family. As for the other, please share it out. Give some to Sister Cuicui’s family, some to Aunt Hongxia, the head of the Women’s Federation, and some to Sixth Uncle Song’s family so they can all have a fresh taste.”

Small yellow croakers were quite expensive.

Even the very small ones, villagers couldn’t bring themselves to eat them unless it was for the New Year or another festival. Most of them were sold.

Liang Xiaoyu quickly waved her hands in refusal. ”Xiao Rui, no, I can’t accept this. You’re already paying me such high wages, and Xiao Jing looks after my son. I can’t possibly take the fish, too.”

”If I had known you were going to give them to me, I would have urged you to sell them all back at the pier in the county seat.”

Han Xiaorui smiled. ”Sister-in-law Xiao Yu, please don’t stand on ceremony with me. While it’s true they could be sold for a bit of money, I’d rather use them to build good relationships with the other wives and aunts in the village.”

”If you want to get along with people, you can’t do it with words alone. In my eyes, these fish aren’t worth much. Others might not know how much I earn, but you do, don’t you?”

Liang Xiaoyu considered Han Xiaorui’s circumstances. ’She’s an outsider, and a divorced one at that. Just her and her sister raising the kids. If she wants to fit in here, she really does have to make an extra effort.’

Liang Xiaoyu stopped refusing and patted her chest. ”Xiao Rui, leave it to me. My mother-in-law has no other merits, but she’s a world-class gossip and loves a small handout.”

”I’ll take the fish home, and you won’t even have to wait until tomorrow. By tonight, my mother-in-law will make sure every single household in Jinshan Bay knows the Yang Family lost out on a great daughter-in-law like you.”

Han Xiaorui had heard a bit about Liang Xiaoyu’s mother-in-law, Granny Cai; she was known as the village megaphone. ”Then I’ll leave it to you, Sister-in-law Xiao Yu. Let me settle your wages for today.”

Liang Xiaoyu was about to refuse, but then she remembered she needed her mother-in-law to ”help” out. She nodded with a smile. ”Alright. I’ll give this five yuan to my mother-in-law as soon as I get home. In the future, she’s guaranteed not to say a single word when I come out to work.”

”You can hold on to the rest of the money for me. Just give it to me at the end of the month, and I’ll go open a passbook and deposit it all.”

”Good!” Han Xiaorui praised her. ”Put the two buckets on the bicycle and walk it over. Come right back after you’ve made the deliveries. We’ll have dinner—I’m cooking myself.”

”You got it!” Liang Xiaoyu agreed readily and pushed the bicycle out with excitement.

She first passed the home of Xu Hongxia, the head of the Women’s Federation. Liang Xiaoyu called out, ”Aunt Hongxia, are you home?”

Xu Hongxia answered from the courtyard, walking out as she spoke. ”I’m here! What’s up, Xiao Yu?”

Liang Xiaoyu smiled. ”I went fishing with Xiao Rui. These small yellow croakers weren’t fetching a high price, so Xiao Rui decided not to sell them and keep them for us to eat at home.”

”Thinking of how respected you are in the village, Auntie, and knowing we’ll inevitably need your help in the future, she had me bring you half a bucket. Grab a basin, quick, and I’ll pour them out for you.”

Xu Hongxia had already seen the small yellow croakers in the bucket. Though they were too small to be braised or steamed, they were delicious when pan-fried or deep-fried. ”Xiao Rui is too kind. Please thank her for me.”

Xu Hongxia took half a bucket’s worth, which came out to five or six pounds. It was a generous amount!

She then delivered generous portions to Wu Cuicui’s and Song Sixth’s families before finally returning to the Cai residence.

The moment Granny Cai saw her daughter-in-law, she was furious. ’Instead of properly looking after her child, she goes off fishing? What could she possibly catch?’

”You’ve missed dinner. There’s nothing left,” Granny Cai snapped. She wasn’t usually so harsh, but to a lifelong penny-pincher like her, the thought of the family spending over two hundred yuan a month was as painful as having her own flesh carved away.

In the past, Liang Xiaoyu might have gotten angry, but now she was earning money with Han Xiaorui. She had a newfound confidence and couldn’t be bothered with her mother-in-law’s petty calculations.

Liang Xiaoyu dumped the small yellow croakers from her bucket into a basin. ”These are from Xiao Rui. There must be six or seven pounds here! Once we clean and fry them, they’ll last for days!”

Granny Cai froze. The sight of the yellow croakers made her swallow hard. ”Yellow croakers are nice and all, but is cooking oil free? She gives you a few little fish instead of wages, and you have the nerve to show them off to me?”

Liang Xiaoyu pulled five yuan from her pocket and pressed it into Granny Cai’s hand. ”This is my pay for today!”

As soon as Granny Cai saw the five-yuan bill, she snatched it. ”It’s money you earned, you should keep it yourself!”

Her words were insincere, but her actions were very honest.

Liang Xiaoyu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but she knew that while her mother-in-law had a sharp and gossipy tongue, she wasn’t a truly bad person.

Her father-in-law hadn’t wanted to pay for Cai Wenjun’s treatment, calling it a waste of money he’d rather save for their granddaughter. But once her mother-in-law heard it could help, she gritted her teeth, and despite her reluctance to spend, insisted they would try the treatment for three months.

If there were no results, they would stop.

However, after hearing her grandson call her ”Grandma” the previous night, she had immediately changed her tune. As long as he could be cured, she said, they would pay for the treatment, even if they had to sell the pots and pans from their own kitchen to do it.

This was why Liang Xiaoyu was willing to entrust the money to her mother-in-law.

”Ma, Wenjun’s treatments are expensive, and money is tight for us. From now on, I’ll give you the money I earn. You know how to manage a household; you can run things best.”

Hearing this, the corners of Granny Cai’s mouth curled up uncontrollably, though she tried to keep a stern face. ”Don’t try to flatter me. You just want me to slave away for all of you for the rest of my life.”

”Ma, Wenjun is still over at Xiao Rui’s place. He had lunch there, too. We’ll be back for dinner tonight. I’ll have to trouble you with the chores here at home.”

Granny Cai wanted to make her daughter-in-law do the housework, but with the five yuan in her hand and the fish in the basin before her, she grumbled through gritted teeth, ”I must have owed you all in a past life. Slaving away for this whole family, young and old... When will it ever end! Now hurry up and go back. Don’t make Xiao Rui wait for you to start dinner.”

Liang Xiaoyu, who knew her mother-in-law’s temperament inside and out, hopped on the bicycle and headed back to Han Xiaorui’s house.

As soon as Liang Xiaoyu left, Granny Cai carefully hid the five yuan, then carried the basin of fish to the creek to clean them.

And wherever she saw a crowd, she squeezed her way right into the middle of it.

Just as Liang Xiaoyu had predicted, before nightfall, every auntie and granny in Jinshan Bay knew that Han Xiaorui was not only tough and a skilled fisherwoman, but also incredibly generous—handing out half-buckets of small yellow croakers without a second thought.

To give away two buckets of yellow croakers just like that showed she didn’t think much of them, which could only mean she was catching much bigger fish.

Thanks to Granny Cai’s dramatic retelling, the story spread that the Yang Family losing such a wonderful daughter-in-law was a bad omen. Surely, they would have no good fortune from now on!

When these words reached the ears of Zhang Xiufang, she was so furious that she ran off to pick a fight with Granny Cai.

But Granny Cai had learned to be clever. After Zhang Xiufang gave her a shove, she went with the momentum and flopped right onto the ground.