Chapter 546: Something Falls Over
Chapter 546: Something Falls Over
Jiang Xia asked, noticing the dangerous glint in his eyes, and quickly ran downstairs.
Her body had recovered, and her movements were as agile as ever!
She slipped away like an eel.
Zhao Cheng Lei watched her fleeing figure, took a deep breath, and followed, calling out, "Slow down!"
Halfway down the stairs, Jiang Xia turned at the corner, thinking of something, and stopped to ask, "Dad, do Mom and Dad know about this?"
Zhao Cheng Lei strolled down the stairs, not chasing her. He was afraid she might trip and fall in her haste, and even if he caught up, there wasn't much he could do: "They know. They have no objections. My mom says it's something I should do."
She also said that men tend to go bad when they have money, so it's better to nip it in the bud and cut off the root of the problem.
She even made his father get a small procedure done, as he often went out to sea, and she didn't want to worry about him coming back with a son as old as her grandson and expecting her to take care of him.
Zhou Fu was furious!
Of course, Zhao Cheng Lei didn't have the time to explain all this to Jiang Xia just yet.
He didn't know if his father would change, but he was sure he wouldn't.
The couple went downstairs, and Zhao Cheng Lei briefly told Zhou Mu before rushing to the dock.
Zhou Fu had already left twenty minutes earlier to buy diesel.
After Zhao Cheng Lei left, Zhou Mu had to feed the chickens, but she was worried Jiang Xia might feel pressured, so she reassured her, "Don't feel pressured. Having three children at once is incredibly hard and painful. Men don't know that, but I do. Why should they only enjoy the benefits? They should suffer a bit too! Otherwise, how would they know pain? People only understand others' pain when they feel it themselves! I wish your father could experience it too! Why didn't we have such a good thing before?"
Jiang Xia: "…"
*
Over the next two days, Zhao Cheng Lei and Zhou Fu were busy checking the kelp nets and the pearl oyster nets, preparing for the typhoon.
They still used the small wooden boat to go out to sea, and Zhou Fu would always cast two nets when they set out, retrieving them in the afternoon.
Each time, they could earn a hundred or so yuan, and they would keep a lot of the fish to freeze in the fridge for the typhoon days.
One evening, as the boats returned, the western sky was painted with blood-red sunset.
The dock was especially busy, with boats coming and going. After unloading their catches, all the fishing boats would head to the sheltered harbor.
Jiang Xia, still holding her daughter, came out for a walk, with her two sons in Zhou Mu and Tian Caifua's arms.
They watched as their four fishing boats unloaded their catches.
Baskets of fish were carried down, and Zhao Cheng Lei and his two brothers carried the heavy loads to the buying station, the poles bending under the weight.
Tian Caifua smiled, "Today's harvest is good."
Jiang Xia gently patted her daughter's bottom to soothe her to sleep and replied with a smile, "Yes, it's quite good."
The other two boats were always operated by Zhou Kang Ping and his team. Each boat could earn between one to two hundred yuan daily, and sometimes even three to four hundred when they were lucky.
During the one and a half months Jiang Xia spent in the city for her confinement, the two boats together earned over eight thousand yuan.
While it wasn't as much as what Zhao Cheng Lei earned by going out to sea, it was still a decent amount.
During Jiang Xia's confinement, Jiang Yang and Zhou Yong Guo also led a trip to the deep sea, earning over sixty thousand yuan. After deducting fuel and labor costs, they netted about fifty thousand.
They also brought back thirty thousand pounds of dried small fish to ensure the food processing workshop operated smoothly every day.
Business was profitable. The small food processing workshop sold two to three thousand pounds of goods daily, meaning Jiang Xia could earn two to three thousand yuan a day.
During the recent small squid season, they shipped out about two thousand pounds of multi-flavored small squid daily.
Jiang Xia made over three hundred and twenty thousand yuan from the small squid season, which allowed her to quickly start building the factory.
However, the costs for building the factory, ordering equipment, plastic bags, and dried fish were substantial, like the tide receding.
But once the factory was operational and the product line diversified, Jiang Xia believed the money would flow back like the tide.
Jiang Xia made plans in her mind, thinking about what she could do with the three hundred and twenty thousand yuan.
Tian Caifua couldn't resist kissing her eldest nephew's cheek, "Since our three babies were born, our maritime business has improved!"
Today, the fish from their boat should fetch about three hundred yuan.
Elder Brother was almost asleep when he suddenly felt a kiss. His eyelids flickered, then closed again.
The look in his eyes made Jiang Xia feel like he was annoyed.
But at such a young age, he shouldn’t be able to recognize people yet, right?
*
After the sun set, the evening sky gradually turned a deep purple-red, as if a veil of the same color had been draped over the entire sky.
Zhao Cheng Lei suspected that the typhoon might arrive tonight, so he took two fishing nets and went to the beach to set them up.
Around midnight, as dawn approached, the wind started to pick up.
It was hot, and Zhao Cheng Lei and Jiang Xia had left their windows open while they slept. The curtains were being blown around by the wind.
Zhao Cheng Lei quickly got up to close the windows.
Jiang Xia turned on the light to check if the children had woken up.
They were sleeping soundly, showing no signs of waking.
Jiang Xia felt their foreheads to see if they were sweating and checked their diapers, which were wet. She changed them.
Zhao Cheng Lei, having closed the windows, came over. "Let me change them, you go back to sleep."
"Let’s do it together; it’ll be faster."
After changing the diapers, the couple lay down and tried to go back to sleep.
It was hard to fall back asleep after being woken up. After some time, when Jiang Xia was just about to drift off in Zhao Cheng Lei’s arms, a loud "bang" echoed through the room!
Jiang Xia jumped.
The three children started crying simultaneously.
The couple quickly got up to soothe the babies.
Jiang Xia placed two of the children in Zhao Cheng Lei’s arms and picked up the third.
After a while, the babies were still crying. Jiang Xia checked the time. "It’s past five. They’re probably hungry. I’ll make some formula."
The children usually had a bottle at midnight and could sleep until dawn, around six or six-thirty.
Jiang Xia put Elder Brother back in bed and went to the living room to prepare the formula.
Zhao Cheng Lei held the two younger ones and tried to calm Elder Brother with his words. "Don’t be afraid. It was just something being blown over. Mom and Dad are here."
Zhou Mu came up from downstairs and helped by picking up Elder Brother. "Elder Brother, don’t be scared. Grandma’s here!"
"What fell?" Jiang Xia asked.
"The wall of our neighbor’s yard collapsed halfway! Luckily it didn’t fall our way! And it happened in the middle of the night, or it could have killed someone! I told them to add some supports in the middle, but they didn’t listen!"
Jiang Xia: "..."
Zhou Mu immediately softened her tone and gently said to Elder Brother, who was crying loudly. "Did we scare Dabao? Did we? Don’t be afraid, Grandma’s here."
Zhou Mu patted Elder Brother’s chest to comfort him.
Jiang Xia prepared two small bottles of formula and gave them to Zhao Cheng Lei and Zhou Mu to feed Elder Brother and Younger Brother.
She took Little Sister and went back to the room to breastfeed her.
Now, her breast milk wasn’t enough to satisfy all three children at once, so they had to take turns.
After feeding them, the three of them patted the children’s backs. Zhou Mu and Zhao Cheng Lei could usually make the children burp after a few minutes, but Jiang Xia’s efforts never seemed to work.
Zhao Cheng Lei laid his son back in bed and took the daughter from Jiang Xia’s arms to pat her back.
After Zhou Mu finished, she placed Elder Brother next to Younger Brother, close enough for their limbs to touch.
She even placed Younger Brother’s hand in Elder Brother’s, so they could hold each other.
"Mom, go back to bed and get some more sleep!" Zhao Cheng Lei patted his daughter’s back and set her down to play with Elder Brother.
"Okay."
Just after waking up and having a full meal, the triplets were in the best mood. They would lie there contentedly without crying.
When the three children lay together, they could entertain themselves for nearly an hour until they got tired and cried again.
Sometimes they would even fall asleep while playing.
Today, the wind was howling outside, and the sound of the waves was intense. The children’s heads moved slightly, showing their curiosity.
Jiang Xia let the children play on their own while she stood by the window, watching the turbulent sea surface.
(End of Chapter)
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