Chapter 455

Lao He, how is it? How many catties of hairtail?

He Lao Ban held a small notebook and a calculator, calculating there,

Lao Er, the hairtail totals 432 catties, at 31 per catty, that's ___ money.

Ye Cheng nodded; the three-net fish brought in over ten thousand dollars, so it wasn't in vain for him to come back specially.

Other crabs, shrimp and whatnot, I'll give you a good price; that mouse grouper is a bit small, I'll count it as 1000 dollars, making a total of 3400 dollars.

Lao He pressed the calculator several times, then said,

The total is ___; I'll give you a round number; that's it.

"Hmm." Ye Cheng nodded subconsciously.

Just as he finished nodding, Xiao Hu poked him with his hand,

Brother, you're an idiot, still saying 'hmm', he wiped off the zero for you.

"Hmm?"

Ye Cheng didn't react at once, but Xiao Hu's words made him understand immediately,

Damn you, Old He, you think you're selling stuff and still rounding? Who rounds like that?

Lao He covered his face, even he laughed,

Oh dear, habit, habit,,,, I was wrong.

Lao He quickly pulled out money, handing over ten thousand plus dollars to Ye Cheng.

"Damn it, Old He, you've become sly now." Ye Cheng teased him.

Lao Er, what slyness do I have? It's just 2 dollars, and you call me sly? My slyness is too cheap.

"Tch, little bits add up; who knows what you're up to." Ye Cheng said teasingly, then waved his hand, unable to go on speaking.

Alright, we still have to go out to sea, so we won't quibble over 2 dollars.

The three boarded the boat; Duan Chunsheng had almost finished eating; this guy said he didn't need more, but when he actually ate, he didn't leave a single piece of the kidney, while the other side dishes were left plenty.

For now, we won't split the money; we'll talk after we finish today's affairs.

Xiao Hu, speed up; it's almost 1 o'clock, and there's still a lot of stuff not collected; the fish traps and longlines haven't been set yet.

The back-and-forth delay is already considerable; if we don't speed up, time will be even more insufficient.

Along the way there wasn't much to do; Xiao Hu steered the boat while Ye Cheng and Duan Chunsheng chatted, exchanging a sentence here and there.

When talking about Chen Jinfa being beaten, Duan Chunsheng only found out after returning yesterday.

He sighed: one, he hadn't expected Chen Jinfa to really do that black-hearted deed; two, he also marveled at how ruthless the Chen family's methods are.

Then he started analyzing with Ye Cheng: who exactly did this?

In the end, his analysis pointed to an insider of the Chen family; Ye Cheng nodded repeatedly, "Right, as long as it's not me."

They were just chatting when Xiao Hu suddenly spoke up,

Brother, look at that boat behind us—is it following us?

Ye Cheng's expression tightened; is there another tail?

He glanced back; behind them was a fishing boat just like theirs, heading the same direction, and its speed was also fast.

According to logic, not many people go out to sea at this time; it's an odd hour. Duan Chunsheng muttered.

Going out to sea, it's either morning or evening; only if there's a temporary matter would someone go out at noon; normally they wouldn't choose this time.

From that distance, Ye Cheng couldn't make out who was aboard.

But after observing for a while, that boat didn't approach; it just kept following, though this is the main route, so it's not strange to have a ship traveling alongside.

To reach that small island for coconut crabs, one must turn off the main route; after Ye Cheng and the others turned off, the boat behind continued straight along the main route.

It wasn't going the same way as them.

Only then did Ye Cheng breathe a sigh of relief, self-mockingly saying,

"Nowadays, I always feel like someone wants to harm me."

"You're just rich; if you shared your money with us, you wouldn't have this worry." Duan Chunsheng joked.

Actually, that's not wrong; it's just that having money makes you a target; if you were a poor loser, who would follow whom, and what benefit could you get from a poor loser like me?

Returning to the spot where the fish traps were set, it was already almost 2 o'clock.

The three dared not delay further; they hurriedly hauled up each fish trap.

They caught over thirty swimming crabs and blue crabs, over sixty catties of pond shrimp, eighty catties of white shrimp, plus over ten catties of sea cucumber, a basket of octopus, and the rest were small miscellaneous fish.

After finishing with the fish traps, the three began handling the longlines; yesterday they'd caught so many groupers, and today the luck value is high, Ye Cheng believes it won't be bad either.

The first hook of the first line brought a flash of red, making the three delighted, thinking it was another red grouper or Eastern star grouper.

Unexpectedly, it was a big-headed, sturdy fellow with a square fish head—this is the Japanese square-headed fish.

Its most striking feature is its square, laterally flattened head, which from the side looks like a horse's profile, hence also called 'horse-head fish'.

Its coloration is very vivid, usually pink or orange-red, with a silvery-white belly and a glossy surface, making it look quite noble.

Moreover, the horse-head fish's meat is extremely tender and white, with a light, fresh, delicious flavor, moderate fat, and a melt-in-the-mouth texture; whether steamed, boiled, pan-fried, or roasted, it's delicious, especially suited to steaming, which best preserves its original juices.

Therefore, the horse-head fish's price is not low, generally graded by size. Since horse-head fish are usually not large, those over two catties have one price, those under two catties another; this horse-head fish is only a little over one catty, estimated to sell for forty or fifty per catty, higher than black seabream and yellowfoot.

Although it's not a grouper, it's still not bad.

Although the first line had no groupers, its hook-up rate reached 60%, mostly sea bream and horse-head fish, with some peelskin fish.

The second line's hook-up rate also reached 60%; at that probability, six lines with six hundred hooks could catch over three hundred fish.

The three spent over an hour reeling in the lines; the previously empty fish hold filled up again, with another five or six hundred catties of fish.

Duan Chunsheng looked on, shaking his head repeatedly,

Lao Er, next time I'll get you an aircraft carrier; you'd better be able to fill it up.

Hahaha, Uncle Duan, you say that—why don't you buy me an aircraft carrier first, and I'll give it a try?

After they finished gathering everything, they began to lower it.

As for the fish trap, it was still manageable—it was done in just over half an hour.

Originally, following Ye Cheng's plan, his ten sets of lines were already all coiled and ready; he just needed to lower them directly.

But in fact, when Ye Cheng lifted those ten sets of lines out, his face instantly darkened.

Damn!

The bait that Han Xiaotao had hung up earlier had already, damn it, wind‑dried; the small fish turned into dried fish—how can we still fish?

He just asked: which fish would eat dried fish?

Duan Chunsheng said, taking pleasure in the misfortune,

"Well, let me tell you, some work is still indispensable; you guys, sit down honestly, re‑hang the bait—good thing I brought bait, otherwise you'd be just like Jiang Taigong fishing."