Chapter 409: Chen Jinfa Follows the Boat

Duan Chunsheng and Xiao Hu turned back to look; far away they could see a light, likely the light on a fishing boat.

"Whose boat is this, deliberately following us?"

Ye Cheng shook his head,

"I don't know if it's intentional or just passing by; in a moment I'll lower the boat speed to check."

Saying that, Ye Cheng lowered the boat speed, and Xiao Hu and Duan Chunsheng went onto the deck to start preparing the nets.

Ye Cheng had slowed down, but the boat behind didn't slow down and soon caught up.

"It's the Chen family's boat." Ye Cheng recognized it at a glance.

Such large boats, only the two families have them in this area; there are some in the city, but this boat has been following us from the dock, so it must be theirs.

"Brother, what are the Chens up to? Trying to block us?" Xiao Hu, with an eager expression, wanted to fight again.

"Probably not; blocking us with just one boat wouldn't be enough. I think they want to follow us and pick up leftovers," Duan Chunsheng said. "Wang Defa did the same thing before."

Speaking of Wang Defa, he also seemed to have followed Ye Cheng's boat before, but it wasn't of much use.

As for being followed by boats, Ye Cheng didn't mind; after so many times, there was no benefit.

"Uncle Duan, Xiao Hu, let's lower the nets, ignore them." Ye Cheng called out.

Ye Cheng adjusted the direction, sped up, and then Xiao Hu and Duan Chunsheng lowered the nets at the back.

Meanwhile, on the boat behind, Chen Jinfa saw Ye Cheng adjust his direction and quickly sped up to follow the same course.

"Quick, quick, lower the nets, they've lowered theirs!" Chen Jinfa shouted toward the rear.

Several Chen family members behind fumbled and lowered the nets.

"Jinfa, is this okay?" Seeing the nets lowered, someone began to doubt.

Chen Jinfa gave a cold snort and said proudly,

"Hmph, what we're doing is called borrowing luck! They make tens of thousands each time, right? If we follow them, we'll get seventy or eighty thousand too."

"Yeah, it'll definitely be better than yesterday's thirty crates." Someone behind muttered.

Saying that made Chen Jinfa's face darken—yesterday's thirty crates were also his doing; truly, mentioning the sore spot.

Ye Cheng glanced sideways; the Chen family's boat was now neck-and-neck with him, and from afar one could roughly see Chen Jinfa's smug look as he gazed at Ye Cheng.

"Hmph, brainless." Ye Cheng couldn't be bothered to respond; as long as they didn't disturb him, he didn't care to intervene.

Here, Xiao Hu and Duan Chunsheng didn't dare go back to sleep, fearing a conflict with the Chen side that they couldn't handle in time.

Fortunately, Chen Jinfa just silently followed—when Ye Cheng veered left, he veered left; when Ye Cheng veered right, he veered right—mainly just tagging along.

When Ye Cheng slowed down to haul in the nets, he also slowed down to haul in the nets.

Zhang Guafu and her three companions had already risen, looking over at the Chen family's large boat, each feeling indignant.

"Lao Er, they're doing this on purpose, trying to ride on your luck," Qian Shen said.

"Exactly, A Cheng; since he's following you, find a reef for them to crash into and see if they still follow." Zhang Guafu's idea was a bit nasty.

To be honest, it's not impossible; it has actually happened before.

Someone once followed another's boat to see where they fished, and the person ahead deliberately sabotaged, guiding the following boat onto a reef.

Of course, Ye Cheng isn't incapable of doing such a thing.

But it hasn't come to that point yet.

"Alright, two aunts, we'll earn our money; don't worry about them."

Ye Cheng called out, and everyone returned to their posts to start working.

This net was eighty percent full, and a small mound piled up on the deck with a rustling sound.

This time nobody rushed to tidy up; everyone's gaze turned to the neighboring Chen family's boat.

As the net was hauled up, it bulged, making the crowd a little annoyed—this was letting the Chen family take advantage.

But soon, everyone noticed the Chen family's boat began tossing things overboard shovel by shovel.

As an old fisherman, one could tell without looking closely that they'd surely snagged something worthless.

Chen Jinfa was also gloomy; as soon as he came up, seeing the net bulge like a big A8 light, he jumped up excitedly,

"Success, success! It exploded, damn it!"

The whole crew followed with excitement, but when the net came down, they were instantly dumbfounded.

"Damn, what the hell is this junk."

"Scallops!"

"All worthless scallops and big shells."

"Not even a tenth of the catch were swimming crabs."

Chen Jinfa was about to become depressed; he clearly used a large-mouth trawl net, so how did it drag up so many nails and screws? Can't you just let them flow out of the net quietly?

Zhang Guafu, seeing that scene, happily burst into song,

"\"Whose net hasn't exploded? My net is full of crabs—\""

"Her voice wasn't great, but its volume carried far."

Chen Jinfa was so angry he could barely speak, but having no choice, he shouted angrily,

"You few, when lowering the nets, pay attention—open them up properly. What is this? You can pull up nails and screws through a few-centimeter mesh; that's your skill."

Those people, frankly, are just hired hands from various families unfamiliar with trawling; when they lowered this net, they never opened it, hence they caught all those small items.

Having been told, those few didn't mind; anyway, their families said they were just here to earn wages, and they didn't know when they'd get to go out on a boat again.

"Hurry up, get as many crabs as you can—we still have to wait for the next net."

"Tie the crabs, speed up—why are you all so slow with your hands and feet? Others have far more crabs and are faster than you."

Chen Jinfa flew into a rage—what a bunch of people he'd gotten, damn it.

If it weren't for his damned competitive streak, he could have made that thousand bucks too.

Ye Cheng's side are all seasoned workers now; after a quick tidy, they start deploying the second net.

Seeing how fast they'd deployed the net, Chen Jinfa realized his own side hadn't even finished tidying their net.

Furious, he began shouting on the deck and then lent a hand to help deploy the net.

Even so, they were still nearly a hundred meters behind Ye Cheng.

He was so angry he couldn't speak.

"Lao Er, how many baskets of crabs do you think the Chen family can haul today?" Duan Chunsheng burst out laughing.

"Yesterday they only got 32 baskets; I think today they might not even reach 30," Xiao Hu said, gloating.

"I spit on them! I wish they'd hit a reef tonight and lose everything," Zhang Guafu insisted, sticking to her curse.

Han Xiaotao didn't dare speak; that side belonged to the Chen family, so she didn't feel comfortable saying anything.

The second net's catch wasn't bad either—about eighty percent.

The Chen family's net came up flat and empty, leaving Chen Jinfa somewhat speechless with anger.

After thinking it over, he saw no advantage in following Ye Cheng, so when Ye Cheng launched his third net, he simply turned away and went off to amuse himself.