Zhou Xuan nodded and replied, "I will." Generally speaking, people who work on ships are very straightforward, don't care about details, and are easy to get along with. Sometimes, people on ships stay on the ship for one or two months, and sometimes for only a few days. For example, Fu Gui and his crew are on a fishing boat, so their time at sea is relatively short. If it were other large cargo ships, the longest time could sometimes be several months.
Moreover, sailing is risky. At sea, waves and storms are common. Sailors are always risking their lives, not knowing what tomorrow will bring. Therefore, sailors are people who live for the moment.
Zhou Xuan was naturally in no mood to talk to Fu Gui about romantic matters, and instead focused on boiling water and making instant noodles in the cramped room.
A pot of water boiled in just two minutes, enough for the instant noodles. The canned fish was quite fragrant. Zhou Xuan wanted to ask Fu Gui if he wanted some more, but then he heard the sound of a cart coming from the shore.
Fu Gui rushed out. Zhou Xuan looked out the glass window and saw a taxi parked on the shore. A woman in a red winter cotton dress walked over from the scaffolding. Fu Gui went over and hugged her, laughing heartily.
The two men joked and laughed as they boarded the boat. Fugui reached out and pinched the woman's breast. The woman twisted her body and then put her hand into Fugui's pants.
Zhou Xuan quickly pulled his head back and closed the door. Then he heard Fu Gui and the woman talking nonsense as they came in. After opening the door and going in, he soon heard the steel-framed bed creaking loudly and the woman moaning.
Zhou Xuan blushed and her heart pounded. Suddenly, she thought of Yingying, who had just gotten married. Her heart ached. She looked up at the dark night outside the window. Where was Yingying now?
Are you back in New York or still in Beijing?
Although he had left Fu Ying, Zhou Xuan missed her every moment. But he also knew that he could not go back to see her, otherwise all his efforts would be in vain. Did he want to see Yingying in such pain again?
Shaking his head to get rid of those thoughts, otherwise he wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. But when he couldn't think about Fu Ying, all he could hear was the sound of Fu Gui fighting with the woman. Although Fu Gui didn't make a sound, his panting was very clear, and the woman was shouting without any restraint.
Zhou Xuan couldn't hold back any longer, so he quietly got up, gently opened the door, and then crept onto the ship. He went far to the other end of the deck and sat down on the ship's side. The deck was cold, but Zhou Xuan wasn't afraid of the cold. His supernatural abilities hadn't disappeared with his escape.
Looking at the night view of the East China Sea, it was a pity that it was too dark and the naked eye could not see far away, while the superpower could only detect two hundred meters away. On the vast sea, two hundred meters felt like an ant climbing a mountain.
Zhou Xuan had excellent hearing. Even though they were twenty meters apart, Fu Gui and the woman's voices still reached his ears, though without the same thrill as if they were right next door.
Fu Gui didn't last long before collapsing, panting heavily. Zhou Xuan heard the woman start dressing and putting on her shoes and socks, then heard Fu Gui handing over money, and finally, the words, "I won't see you off anymore, I'll meet you again next time."
The woman chuckled, then left Fugui's room and walked onto the deck. As she was about to reach the bridge plank on the shore, she suddenly saw a dark figure sitting on the side of the ship. She screamed in fright and almost fell into the sea.
Zhou Xuan quickly stood up and said, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, I'm on the ship."
The woman stopped, looked at Zhou Xuan (who was in complete darkness and couldn't see clearly), but seeing that he had spoken and made no other move, she felt relieved. However, she couldn't help but say angrily, "You, hiding in this dark place, trying to scare me to death!"
Zhou Xuan didn't want to say anything more to her, so he turned around and walked into the cabin. The woman behind him then grumbled and walked ashore, and she walked very fast. There was a dark road for three or four hundred meters in this area, and only after that was the road with streetlights, so she couldn't help but be afraid.
After Zhou Xuan returned to his room, he heard snoring coming from Fu Gui's room next door. After such intense exercise, Fu Gui was sleeping like a pig, and he probably wouldn't even wake up if they carried him away.
When Zhou Xuan ran away from home this time, he didn't take anything else with him, but he did take a Nine-Star Bead. This thing was still helpful to him, just like the crystal back then. When his energy was exhausted, it could supply a continuous source of energy like a power plant, just in case. So Zhou Xuan took one with him.
After absorbing and converting the energy from the Nine Star Beads, Zhou Xuan focused on practicing his skills and fell asleep without realizing it. However, at 2:30 a.m., he was startled by a noise. Zhou Xuan used his special ability to detect that five people had boarded the ship.
Two middle-aged men in their forties and three young men in their late twenties, a total of five people, Zhou Xuan quickly got up and turned on the main light in the cabin. All five of them stared at Zhou Xuan.
"My name is Hu Yun. I just arrived this afternoon. Um..." Zhou Xuan introduced himself, but when he mentioned that the fat man had recruited him, he realized that he still didn't know who the fat man was.
The oldest man in the group waved his hand and said, "I know." Then he pointed to the man next to him and said, "Let me tell you first. He's the first mate on this boat, let's call him Lao Jiang. My name is Yu Jinshan, and I'm the captain of this fishing boat. In this area, you need to remember to do more and talk less."
Zhou Xuan nodded, then looked at Yu Jinshan and asked, "Captain Yu, what should I do now?"
"Let's work as assistants on the ship with Fu Bao and Fu Shan for now," Wang Jinshan said, pointing to the two young men beside him. "Don't call me Captain Yu anymore. Everyone here calls me Uncle Yu. Just call me Uncle Yu."
Fu Bao and Fu Shan immediately waved to Zhou Xuan and said, "Come with us and help us gather the planks."
Zhou Xuan followed silently. The anti-fog and waterproof headlights on the deck were on, illuminating the deck brightly. Fu Bao pointed to a pile of plastic fish baskets that had been brought to the shore and said, "Now move the fish baskets onto the boat, and then pack up the deck."
Those baskets were exactly the same ones Zhou Xuan had moved that afternoon, but now they were empty. They were getting heavy, with dozens of baskets as tall as a person. Zhou Xuan moved twenty or thirty baskets at a time, and in six or seven trips he moved two hundred empty baskets onto the boat.
Fu Bao and Fu Shan were quite satisfied to see that Zhou Xuan was quite efficient. If the previous one hadn't left, they would have had to do all the hard work. Now, however, they had to direct a new assistant, and while others did more work, they could do less.
Fu Bao and Fu Shan are both from Fu Shou Village, but they are among the poorest families. They are not well-educated and only have brute strength. They work in factories, but the wages are low, so they simply go to work on the ship. Relatively speaking, the wages on the ship are quite good. They only spend half of the month on the ship, but they can earn about five thousand yuan.
As for Zhou Xuan, a newcomer, his salary was naturally low. However, the fat man didn't tell Zhou Xuan that as long as he passed the trial period, he could earn more than three or four thousand yuan as an assistant. This was the minimum standard, because there weren't many young people willing to work on the ship now. The work on the ship was too hard and too boring, and there were many rules. Women were not allowed on the ship, so it was difficult to find suitable workers.
Tonight, Fu Gui called for a woman, but that was only before Uncle Yu arrived. If Uncle Yu and Lao Jiang were there, he wouldn't have dared to. Actually, Fu Gui is also a member of the Fu family in this village. He, Fu Bao, and Fu Shan are cousins. In Fushou Village, the Fu family is one of the two major surnames, alongside the Yu family. However, the Fu family has declined in recent decades, while the Yu family has developed very rapidly.
Village chief Yu Changhe is the most outstanding member of the Yu family. The Yu family is a well-known and prominent family in the entire Haibin City. The Yu family's business is extremely prosperous, with assets amounting to hundreds of millions, involving catering, entertainment, transportation, real estate and so on.
However, the Yu family's earliest business was a small fishing boat. In the decades after liberation, the small fishing boat became four large fishing boats, but this was only a drop in the ocean for the Yu family. Because it was their earliest foundation, they did not abandon it after they became wealthy. The Yu family's fishing boat business was handed over to Zhao Chengguang, the eldest son-in-law of the Yu family, who was the fat man Zhou Xuan met in the afternoon and asked to work on the boat.
The Yu family's main businesses are managed by Yu Changhe's eldest son, Yu Rui, and second son, Yu Xiang. The son-in-law is a step below, so he only manages the most inconspicuous businesses. But even these inconspicuous businesses, which are just four fishing boats, have a net income of three to four million yuan per boat per year, and the net profit of the four boats can reach more than ten million yuan per year.
Because the Yu family owns a large number of sea fish, they also have supporting fish product factories, such as fish canneries and sea fish processing plants. Yu Changhe is actually the richest man in Haibin City. Since his ancestral home is in Fushou Village, his headquarters is located in Fushou Village. Of course, it is only his personal headquarters; the company headquarters is actually in Haibin City.
"Never forget your roots," is a phrase Yu Changhe often says. His hometown is Fushou Village, and he started his business with two small fishing boats. So he never gave up the Yu family's fishing industry. He often tells Zhao Chengguang that although the boat business he is in charge of is tiring and dirty, it is the lifeblood of the Yu family. The Yu family started out because of this.
That's what he said, but Zhao Chengguang and his wife, Yu Changhe's eldest daughter Yu'e, didn't say the same thing. Zhao Chengguang wouldn't say it even if he was angry, but Yu'e thought differently. She often complained to her father, Yu Changhe, that the old man was biased and didn't give Zhao Chengguang the good money.
The captain of this boat, Yu Jinshan, was Yu Changhe's cousin. He wasn't very educated, but he had worked on Yu Changhe's boat since he was a child. After Yu Changhe became wealthy, he shifted his main business to land, and this fishing boat hired several experienced fishermen, including Yu Jinshan. They were family members, which made them better than outsiders.
Besides Fu Bao, Fu Shan, Fu Gui, Lao Jiang, and Uncle Yu, there are two other young men, one named Yu Qiang and the other named Guan Lin. Yu Qiang is a member of the Yu family and a distant nephew of Yu Changhe. They are not related, but they share the same surname. Guan Lin, on the other hand, is the son-in-law of Uncle Yu's own elder brother. He is not from this village, but he is his direct relative.
Guan Lin and Yu Qiang held relatively high positions on the fishing boat, second only to Uncle Yu and Lao Jiang. They were the most skilled workers – Yu Qiang helped Uncle Yu drive the boat from the wheelhouse and learned to drive, while Guan Lin operated the net caster, assisting Lao Jiang as well. The three Fu brothers were purely manual laborers, going wherever they were needed, and were the lowest-ranking workers on the boat. Now that Zhou Xuan had joined the boat, he was practically the lowest-ranking employee.
Seeing Zhou Xuan deftly carry the fish basket onto the boat, Fu Bao and Fu Shan immediately pulled up the anchor and worked together to retrieve the plank. However, this thing was semi-mechanical and not very strenuous. After retrieving the plank onto the boat, Uncle Yu Er announced the departure of the boat through the loudspeaker.
After the boat set sail, everyone went to their cabins. Fugui got up at this time. The journey was the most leisurely part, and Fugui shouted, "Let's play cards! Let's play cards!"
Because it is the dry season now, the sea level recedes in winter, the weather is cold, and there are few fish near the coast. You can't catch much fish in the near sea, so you have to go to the deep sea to fish. So a trip can take several days, sometimes even more than a week. A one-way trip often takes more than a day. During this trip, the people on the ship have nothing to do. The only activities to pass the time are playing cards, gambling, and watching DVDs. They don't sleep much, and even if they do sleep for a few hours, they can't fall asleep.
Gambling and watching porn on the boat are not forbidden by Uncle Yu and Lao Jiang. They are all grown men, and who doesn't enjoy this? If even this is forbidden on the boat, then they really won't be able to recruit any more people.
Volume 1, Chapter 441
Chapter 441
Uncle Yu and the others on the ship didn't ask how Zhou Xuan got there; it seemed no one cared.