Off to Sell Sea Cucumbers

Seeing Wang Dachun stammering and hesitating, Wang Yufen’s face was filled with confusion. Her brows furrowed slightly as she couldn’t help but say, "Just say whatever is on your mind! Why beat around the bush? The two of you being all secretive like this doesn't look like you at all."

Wang Dachun scratched his head, gave a silly grin, and quickly tried to change the subject, "It's nothing, Master's Wife. It's just that today's harvest was indeed quite substantial, much bigger than the last one. Just you wait, tomorrow after Xiao Yu sells the seafood, he’ll drive a big horse-drawn carriage back for you. Don't be too surprised when that happens."

Upon hearing this, Wang Yufen burst out laughing. She waved her hand dismissively, total disbelief written all over her face, and said, "Oh, give it a rest. How big of a harvest could you possibly have to be able to afford a horse-drawn carriage just like that? Do you have any idea how huge a catch that would require? If that were true, everyone would die of jealousy. I'm not buying your tall tales."

Wang Dachun kept grinning foolishly and persisted, "Master's Wife, you really shouldn't doubt it. This time the harvest is genuinely massive. You'll see once the catch is sold."

Wang Yufen curled her lips, refusing to take his words seriously at all.

After all, though she no longer went out to sea for fishing, Lin Yu's father had once been the most formidable fisherman in the village. Even back in the days of their most bountiful harvests, the earnings were at best enough to buy a single carriage wheel, let alone an entire horse-drawn carriage. To her, this sounded like a pure joke.

Wang Dachun knew well in his heart that if he kept talking, his cover would be blown. So he stopped arguing about it, merely offering a dry, awkward smile while letting his eyes dart around nervously, terrified that if Wang Yufen asked a few more questions, he would accidentally spill the secret.

Just then, little Lin Yao took small, hurried steps up to the edge of the brick-bed (kang), grabbed the hem of Lin Yu's shirt with both hands, and tilted her little head upward. Her large, watery eyes were filled with eager anticipation as she said in a childish, sweet voice, "Brother, when you come back tomorrow, can you buy me a hair clip too? I like Erni's hair clip so much. Please buy me one as well."

Seeing the little girl's adorable and spoiled expression, Lin Yu's heart melted. He smiled and readily agreed, "Alright, Brother will buy you one tomorrow. Just be a good girl and wait at home, and take good care of your younger brother."

The next day, while the sky was still shrouded in the dim light of dawn, Lin Yu arrived early at Wang Dachun's house.

All the sea cucumbers were packed inside wooden buckets of various sizes, filled to the brim with fresh seawater. After passing the night in this suitable environment, the sea cucumbers remained completely unchanged—still plump, chubby, and exuding an air of vigorous vitality.

Lin Yu hurried over to Village Chief Luo Quan's house and borrowed his donkey cart.

With much effort, the two of them carefully loaded the several large buckets of sea cucumbers onto the donkey cart. Just as they were about to set off, Erni came running in a flurry of excitement. Her cheeks were flushed pink from running in haste, and she panted slightly as she said, "Brother Lin Yu, you're heading to the city, right? I'm going with you."

Hearing this, Lin Yu immediately shook his head in refusal, wearing a stern expression as he said, "What are you going for? The road is rather dangerous, and it's not safe for a young girl like you to tag along. You should just stay home."

However, Erni tossed her head back defiantly and replied stubbornly, "No way! I'm this old, and I've never been to Yingkou City. Taking this trip with you is a good chance for me to broaden my horizons. Besides, I'm not a little kid anymore; I can take care of myself."

Lin Yu still disagreed, his brows furrowing into a tight knot.

The route was filled with desolate wilderness; what on earth would they do if something went wrong?

At that moment, Wang Dachun spoke up from the side, smiling as he persuaded, "Xiao Yu, let her come. If you're buying a horse-drawn carriage on your way back, how are you going to drive it back all by yourself without someone accompanying you? Besides, Erni is a sharp girl. Having her along will definitely be a help, and she can keep you company on the road for a chat to liven things up. Stop being so stubborn and let her come."

Hearing this, Lin Yu pondered for a moment before finally nodding.

***

Seeing this, Erni’s face instantly lit up with joy, and she plopped right down onto the donkey cart.

Once seated, Erni's gaze was immediately drawn to the barrels upon barrels of sea cucumbers packed tightly onto the cart. Her eyes widened in astonishment as she turned to look at Lin Yu, blurting out, "Did you really go become a 'sea-diver'?"

Lin Yu smiled at her and teased, "Stop playing dumb. Didn't Brother Dachun tell you everything?"

"How did you know?" Erni froze instantly, a flash of surprise crossing her face before she asked the question.

Lin Yu glanced at Wang Dachun and couldn't help laughing, "If Brother Dachun hadn't told you, would you have run over here at the crack of dawn? But since you ran off to go to Yingkou with me, do your mom and dad know?"

Erni waved her hand dismissively, saying, "They don't know. My dad went out to sea, and my mom—she was fussing since early morning about how the Chinese cabbages needed their cores bound, and she left the house with a bunch of old cloth strips."

Speaking of binding Chinese cabbage cores, that was an important little trick for farmers tending to their cabbage crops.

When the cabbages reached a certain stage of growth and the hearts began to close inward, in order to make the cabbage hearts grow tighter and more tender, farmers would find clean strips of soft cloth or flexible rope to gently gather the outer leaves of the cabbage toward the center, loosely tying them together. It was akin to putting a "protective coat" on the cabbage heart.

Doing this not only prevented cold external winds from directly chilling the heart and damaging it, but also kept pests from burrowing inside to ruin the core, helping it continue growing in a relatively warm and safe environment. When harvest time came around, those cabbage hearts would be exceptionally white and tender.

Cabbages treated this way were not only easy to store, but they also tasted much better when used for making pickled sauerkraut.

When his father was still alive, during this season, he would also go out to the fields to bind the Chinese cabbages they grew. Once the weather turned cold, they would pickle a massive vat of sauerkraut that would last them all the way until the spring of the following year.

"When the cabbages are harvested and brought back, I'll send you a couple of heads," Erni added.

Lin Yu shook his head.

"What good are those two heads you'd send? I reckon that in a few days, I'll just buy a whole cartload back," Lin Yu said. "You can't get through the winter without pickling sauerkraut; there wouldn't be any vegetables to eat."

In truth, during the winters in China's Northeast, storing vegetables was an essential and major preparation for every single household.

Every year in late autumn and early winter, when the biting cold wind began to howl across the fields, signaling the arrival of winter, the ordinary folk of the Northeast would bustle about, kicking off the grand project of vegetable storage. Cabbages, radishes, and potatoes were indispensable staples for every family.

Seeing other families making their preparations, Lin Yu thought that their household should get ready too.

Lin Yu drove the donkey cart, moving slowly along the village path. Erni sat in the cart, the two of them chatting and laughing merrily, creating an exceptionally harmonious atmosphere.

Just as they were about to leave the village bounds, they spotted two local men standing leisurely by the roadside smoking cigarettes. Catching sight of Lin Yu and Erni approaching, the men greeted them warmly, "Xiao Yu, where are you headed?"

Lin Yu responded with a smile, "To Yingkou."

The two men were Dapan and Liu Jia.

They were a few years older than Lin Yu, probably around twenty-one or twenty-two this year, but unlike Lin Yu, who was steady and hardworking, they were usually idle, hanging around and occasionally even stealing chickens or dogs.

Standing at the village entrance smoking at the crack of dawn, there was no telling what kind of mischief they were plotting.

Hearing that Lin Yu was heading to Yingkou, the two men directly blocked his cart. Paying no heed to whether Lin Yu consented or not, they reached out and flipped open the straw covering the cart, instantly exposing bucket after bucket of sea cucumbers to their eyes.

Both men widened their eyes in absolute shock. One of them couldn't help asking, "Lin Yu, where did you get these sea cucumbers? So many of them, and all so plump! These must be worth a small fortune!"

Maintaining a calm composure, Lin Yu replied unhurriedly, "I caught them out at sea yesterday with Brother Dachun, and I'm rushing off to sell them today. I won't chat with you guys anymore, I need to hurry on my way."

With that, he urged the donkey cart forward, soon passing out of the village and heading further and further away.

The two men stood rooted to the spot, watching Lin Yu's retreating figure before huddling together to whisper among themselves.

"Going out to sea and catching sea cucumbers? And in such quantities? Do they take us for people who weren't raised in a fishing village? The kid is obviously lying," Dapan said with a suspicious frown.

Liu Jia nodded repeatedly in agreement, "Exactly! Then tell me, where did they get so many sea cucumbers? Looking at those buckets, I'd conservatively estimate there are seventy or eighty pounds there. How much would that sell for? Good grief, didn't they just strike it rich overnight?"

"Yeah, how is it that these two fellows have such good luck? Back in our village, only those legendary 'sea-divers' could manage to get sea cucumbers, abalones, and sea urchins. Nowadays, nobody in our village does the sea-diver trade anymore..."

After Lin Yu's donkey cart left the village, Erni kept looking back over her shoulder until the figures of the two men were completely out of sight. Only then did she complain, "Those two are so annoying! Even though we covered the cart with straw, they still insisted on lifting it to take a look."

Frowning with worry, Erni continued, "Now what? Seeing you haul so many sea cucumbers, aren't they going to be green with envy? Aren't you afraid they might go down to the seabed and scoop up all the sea cucumbers themselves?"

Hearing this, Lin Yu burst into laughter, looking thoroughly confident as he replied, "What are you imagining? The sea-diver trade—do you think anyone who wants to can just do it? It takes real guts, excellent swimming skills, and a thorough familiarity with the underwater terrain. If it were that easy, our village wouldn't be left without a single sea-diver nowadays. Stop worrying yourself over nothing."