The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 246: Chapter 246: No Choice But to Concede

Liang Xiaoyu’s eyes lit up when she heard that. ”Oh, wow, he sounds like a great guy. Sister Yun, why don’t you meet him when we get back?”

Sister Yun had only mentioned it as a joke; she never expected the shipowner to actually try and set her up.

Chen Yishui chuckled. ”Ah Yun, you’re still young. You should get out there and meet more people.”

”You can’t let one bad experience make you give up on all the good men out there. The key is whether you want to get remarried or not.”

Everyone could see that Sister Yun was also thinking about settling down again.

She had been bullied and driven out by her in-laws back then, and now living with her own family wasn’t comfortable either.

Among her three brothers and three sisters-in-law, there were always some with less-than-kind intentions.

Before, when Sister Yun didn’t earn much, she was looked down upon.

Now that she was making more money, it felt like her family would ask her for cash whenever the slightest thing came up.

In reality, she already paid for her share of the food and had also given her parents money to thank them for helping with her child.

This situation with her family left Sister Yun feeling more and more disappointed, with less and less to look forward to.

She wanted to move out, but she worried that when she was out at sea, her child was too young to take care of themselves.

If she hired a babysitter, she was afraid her parents and brothers would criticize her.

In short, Sister Yun wanted to start a new family to have a legitimate reason to leave her own, which, despite appearances, felt like a quagmire.

”Alright, I’ll meet him when we get back,” Sister Yun said with a smile. ”If it really works out, I’ll buy a house in Jinshan Bay.”

’She felt that working for Han Xiaorui now held a lot of promise.’

Han Xiaorui hadn’t expected her first attempt at matchmaking to be met with such a quick agreement. ”Okay, when we get back, I’ll ask around for more details for you.”

They pulled up four more nets during the night, all filled with good fish that could be caught in the East Sea.

Silver pomfret.

Golden pomfret.

And the gray pomfret, highly sought after by men.

There were also hairtail fish as wide as a palm, with thick, high-quality meat.

Han Xiaorui slept soundly on the boat all night; sleeping on the vessel was like being rocked in a cradle.

The boat across from them also had a great haul today.

They were busy through the night, but everyone was in high spirits.

”What a great haul today! We can head back tomorrow afternoon,” a crewman said with a smile as he worked.

Captain Qi, having only slept for a few hours, felt a bit uneasy and quickly got up.

He was also very pleased with the catch. ”Not bad at all.”

After the sorting was done, Captain Qi handed out cigarettes to everyone. ”Have a smoke, take a break.”

A crewman asked, ”Old Qi, how come the shipowner didn’t come aboard this time?”

Old Qi replied, ”Old Yang said that from now on, whenever the other boat goes out to sea, as long as Xiao Han is with them, he won’t come aboard. If anything comes up, just find Xiao Han. What she says goes for him too.”

The crewman blew a smoke ring. ”No exaggeration, this Xiao Han is really something else. Our hauls are always huge, even better than when Old Yang was in charge.”

”Mazu and the Dragon King must be looking out for their family. Of all the fishing boats in this area, only our two have such good hauls.”

Another crewman sighed. ”Actually, it’s no wonder Uncle Yang treats his former daughter-in-law so well. I really don’t get why his son divorced her. Han Shipowner is good-looking and so capable.”

”Tell me about it. Any man who married Han Shipowner would be so happy he’d wake up laughing in his sleep. But that Yang Jianming... he actually divorced her. Not long ago, I saw Han Shipowner’s new partner bring his elders over to Captain Xiao Han’s house for a visit. Looks like good news is on the way. Uncle Yang must have mixed feelings about it.”

At this, Captain Qi chuckled. ”This is why you guys are crewmen and Old Yang is the shipowner. You think on different levels. Old Yang said that when Xiao Han gets married, he’ll give her a huge gift. He even agreed to let his two granddaughters start calling Xiao Han’s new partner ’Dad’.”

Hearing this, the crew, who had been a bit drowsy, suddenly perked up. ”Old Qi, really? Tell us the details!”

Captain Qi said with a grin, ”When Old Yang’s son divorced Xiao Han, Old Yang was incredibly generous. He gave everything in the family to Xiao Han—land, the boat, living expenses. His only condition was that Xiao Han couldn’t leave Jinshan Bay. Old Yang has to watch his two granddaughters grow up.”

”If she took the kids away, where would Old Yang get to see his granddaughters? Later, when Ms. Han started dating and Old Yang found out it was Ye Feng, of course he was thrilled. The man’s a police officer with good skills. With someone like that as a father to his granddaughters, who would dare bully them in the future?”

”Could any of you do what Old Yang did, if you were in his shoes? You’d probably think two granddaughters aren’t enough, push your son to remarry and have a grandson, and you certainly wouldn’t provide so many guarantees.”

The crewmen thought about it and nodded in agreement. ”We definitely couldn’t do that! It’s like, since she couldn’t be his daughter-in-law anymore, he started treating Ms. Han like his own daughter.”

Captain Qi nodded. ”Exactly. That’s what you call character. And Ms. Han respects Old Yang like an elder in return. The most fucked-up part is, Old Yang’s son abandoned the child from his second marriage at home and ran off to the United States with some American girl.”

Hearing this, the men didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ”No wonder Old Yang often flies into a rage and curses that he’s disowned his son.”

Captain Qi was deliberately telling everyone about Yang Zhigang. Although these were just trivial details from daily life, they reflected Yang Zhigang’s sense of responsibility.

This was far more effective than just rigidly lecturing them to behave.

’If any of them had any ill intentions, they’d have to wonder: if they left such a good shipowner, could they ever find another one like him, or another job this good?’

It was also very effective; the crewmen all respected Yang Zhigang and Han Xiaorui.

The daytime was just as busy, a day of high-intensity work, but everyone was happy.

In the early morning, Liu Huamei made a deluxe homemade seafood and abalone congee.

She really just tossed in whatever good things were hauled up onto the boat.

Without needing to be told by Han Xiaorui, Liu Huamei would come onto the deck to pick out some seafood fresh from the ocean.

If Han Xiaorui were the one picking, she would insist on eating only the biggest ones with the best appearance.

But everyone else felt that was too extravagant.

They tried to pick the ones that didn’t look as good, or the smaller ones, like the abalone.

Han Xiaorui would have definitely grabbed the biggest, but Liu Huamei always picked the small ones. After cleaning them, the seafood congee she made was just as delicious.

As for the large ones, they were saved to be sold for money.

For crewmen doing manual labor, just having congee for breakfast wasn’t quite enough.

So Liu Huamei also made pan-fried buns filled with pork and beef. They were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, fragrant and crunchy with every bite.

You could say that the food they ate on the boat was better than what the crewmen ate at home.

After all, while their wives could cook, they were still a notch below a real chef.

It was a rich, satisfying breakfast that left everyone full.

Everyone got up and took a stroll around the boat.

An hour later, they dove back into the busy work of sorting.

In the morning, they began to change course, preparing to circle around other areas on their way back.

They continued to trawl as they made their way home.

By nightfall, the fish holds were full, and they were just an hour from shore.

As evening fell, everyone was eager to get home.

Liu Huamei called everyone to eat. ”Come and eat, everyone! We’ll still have a few hours of work once we’re ashore, and you can’t do that on an empty stomach.”

Chen Yishui smiled. ”Huamei, what’s for dinner tonight? Did you make any heavy hitters?”

Liu Huamei laughed, ”All homemade specialties. I just braised the ’lion’s head’ meatballs I fried ashore. And the crispy fried fish—I made it myself, it’s delicious.”

Hearing there were several substantial dishes, everyone was thrilled and ran over with their meal boxes.