Chapter 61: Return Voyage
Zhao Wenjun took out the prepared torches and lit them. Fortunately, the heavens were on their side today, and the sea wind wasn’t too strong.
The boat traveled on the sea for another four or five hours. Around seven or eight in the evening, Zhao Wendong and his brothers finally spotted the coastline.
After carefully identifying the terrain and pinpointing the direction of the Commune’s pier, Zhao Wendong adjusted the fishing boat’s course. The four of them stretched their stiff limbs as the boat chugged along the coast toward their final destination.
Meanwhile, at the Commune pier, six figures stood on the pitch-black shore, stomping their feet in the cold wind as they stared anxiously out at the sea.
"It’s already past seven. Wendong promised they’d dock here even if they didn’t catch anything. Nothing could have happened to them, right?"
Little Shanghai, wrapped tightly in his cotton-padded jacket with his hands tucked into his sleeves and ice clinging to his eyebrows, nervously asked Liangzi beside him. Liangzi waved his hand with complete confidence.
"No way. Don’t worry. The good die young, but a scourge like Dongzi will live for a thousand years!"
Hearing this, Liangzi’s father, who was standing nearby, was not pleased.
"You little brat, what nonsense are you spouting? Wendong is such a good kid!"
"Exactly! Wendong is so capable now. Not like you, who’s never serious about anything!"
Liangzi’s mother chimed in to agree.
Yesterday, their son had brought home so much food. When they asked, they found out it was all from Zhao Wendong. They were both touched and felt a bit indebted. When they heard from Zhang Liang that he was coming to the pier to wait for Zhao Wendong today, they insisted on coming along to help.
A little farther away, two more figures stood hand in hand, the minus-twenty-degree cold unable to extinguish the sparks of their love.
Zheng Guangrong looked apologetically at the beautiful, curvaceous woman beside him, who was wearing a floral-patterned cotton jacket.
"Ling, ah, I told you not to come, but you insisted. Now you’re suffering in this cold! Wouldn’t it have been better for you to just wait for me at home in your warm bed?"
"I want to be with you!"
Big Sister Hua’s simple words warmed Zheng Guangrong’s heart, almost moving him to tears. ’Sigh, why couldn’t I have met Big Sister Hua before I got married?’ Just as he opened his mouth to say something, he suddenly heard Zhang Liang’s excited shout.
"Holy shit, they’re back! It’s Dongzi and the others, they’re back!"
Everyone looked up toward the sea. In the distance, a point of light was moving along the coast toward them. After a moment, the CHUG-CHUG-CHUG of a boat engine became faintly audible. The silhouette of a fishing boat, illuminated by the torch, grew clearer and clearer. It was indeed Zhao Wendong, for whom they had been waiting so long.
While Liangzi and the others huddled together to block the wind, Liangzi’s father lit a diesel lamp. Little Shanghai switched on the agricultural station’s flashlight and waved it toward Zhao Wendong’s boat, providing a guiding light.
"Haha, look! Liangzi and Little Shanghai are over there!"
Zhao Wendong spotted the lights on the shore and said with a smile to his brothers.
The exhausted brothers instantly grew excited. They were finally back. Deep down, all of them had been secretly worried that they would run out of diesel before reaching the shore, but they hadn’t said a word, fearing it would be bad luck.
The moment the boat docked, Zhao Wendong was the first to jump off, with Zhao Wenjun right behind him. The two of them tied the boat securely to the pier’s bollard. Worried about any mishaps, Zhao Wendong then had Zhao Wenjun drop the small anchor.
"Haha, Wendong! You’re finally back! You had us worried sick!"
"See? I told you, anyone could have gotten into trouble, but not a scourge like Dongzi!"
Watching Liangzi and Little Shanghai rush over to greet him, Zhao Wendong’s heart warmed. They weren’t in a hurry to ask about the catch; they were more concerned about his safety. ’These are true brothers.’
But Liangzi’s next sentence nearly made him keel over with rage.
"Hehe, so? Didn’t catch a thing, did you?"
"Get lost!"
Zhao Wendong jumped up to kick him, but his body was so stiff from the biting sea wind that his movement was clumsy, and he nearly fell on his ass.
"Hahaha, can’t catch me!"
Liangzi twisted his body, taunting Zhao Wendong and making his teeth itch with frustration.
"Get over there. Dongzi, how are you? You’re not frozen, are you?"
Liangzi’s father followed that up by kicking his son on the butt, a true display of ’a father’s love is as solid as a mountain.’
Zhao Wendong hurriedly greeted everyone.
"Uncle, Auntie, why did you come? I’m sorry to trouble you on such a cold day!"
"Ah, it’s no trouble at all!"
"We’ve already got a hot meal waiting at home for you! Come back and eat something warm soon! And you’ll sleep at our place tonight. We’ve already heated the kang bed-stove for you!"
’It’s going to be a long night,’ Zhao Wendong thought. ’With this much cargo, I doubt we’ll get any sleep.’ He wasn’t being falsely polite. He would never be formal with Liangzi’s parents; they were like his own elders. He’d visited them often as a child, only seeing them less after he grew up and started messing around. The real surprise was seeing Zheng Guangrong waiting here.
"Brother Zheng, what are you doing here? And you brought sister-in-law with you?"
Zheng Guangrong’s nose was running from the cold. He sniffled and shot Zhao Wendong an annoyed glare, but then relaxed when he remembered who he was talking to. ’This kid is just a street-roaming punk.’
He had gotten the details on Zhao Wendong from Little Shanghai and Liangzi earlier today. He’d heard the name Zhao Wendong of Dragon King Pond before but hadn’t known it belonged to this kid who was so good at hunting. Now he could put a face to the name. But to be honest, Zhao Wendong didn’t quite fit his image of a punk.
"Piss off. I’m too old for you to be cracking jokes at my expense."
In contrast, Big Sister Hua, standing to the side, bent over laughing.
"Little brother, you’re so funny. Don’t you have another brother, the one built like a little calf? Isn’t he with you?"
Big Sister Hua seemed unusually forward for this era, but Zhao Wendong didn’t dislike her for it. Perhaps it was because, in his past life, he had seen too many "benevolent goddesses" or "sisters" who intentionally had children to trap a Master Wang or Boss Tong for living expenses. In comparison, he found Big Sister Hua to be refreshingly open and carefree.
He pointed toward the boat’s cabin, where Zhao Wenwu was bent over, butt in the air, pulling at a fishing net. "Over there. He’s still on the boat!"
"Then tell your brother to get down! What’s he still doing on the boat? So, little brother, how did it go? Did you catch anything?"
Zheng Guangrong asked the question on everyone’s mind.
"Take a guess?"
Zhao Wendong grinned, his eyes crinkling into slits.
Seeing that expression, Zheng Guangrong felt a sense of relief. ’Looks like we didn’t freeze all night for nothing. He must have really caught something.’
"How much? Fifty pounds?"
Zhao Wendong shook his head.
"More!"
Little Shanghai, beside him, asked, "A hundred pounds?"
"Hehe, more!"
Liangzi exclaimed, "Holy shit, don’t tell me you caught two hundred pounds?"
"Still more!"
Seeing Zhao Wendong’s smug look, even Liangzi’s father couldn’t stay calm.
He looked at Zhao Wendong, his voice trembling with excitement.
"Wendong, ah, you’re not kidding, are you? Could it be three hundred pounds?"
"Haha, Uncle, add a zero!"
"What? Add a zero?"
Little Shanghai leaped to his feet, staring at Zhao Wendong in disbelief, his face a picture of someone who had just seen a ghost.
"Damn it! You’re saying you caught three thousand pounds? Stop bullshitting!"
"You might as well claim Tiananmen Gate is your front porch!"
"Hahaha, Dongzi, I never realized you were such a braggart!"
Liangzi was also laughing so hard he was stumbling, completely unconvinced.
Zheng Guangrong shook his head with a wry smile. He had actually thought Zhao Wendong had caught two or three hundred pounds of fish, and his heart had skipped a beat. Turns out he was just joking all along.
What did three thousand pounds even mean?
Even in the summer, all the purchasing stations in the entire county couldn’t collect that much in a week, let alone in the dead of winter, and with only a small boat at that.
’What a waste of anticipation. Looks like my leader’s praise is going down the drain!’
In contrast, the women, with their sharper intuition, grew serious. Big Sister Hua and Liangzi’s mother stared intently at Zhao Wendong, feeling that he wasn’t lying or joking.
"Am I bullshitting or not? Why don’t you go see for yourselves?"
Zhao Wendong took a step back, turned to the side, and made an inviting gesture.
This threw the six people waiting on the shore into a state of suspicious uncertainty. They looked at each other, but no one was the first to step forward and check.
"Damn it, let me go! I don’t believe it!"
Little Shanghai turned on his flashlight to get a better look, and with that, he hurried toward the fishing boat.