Chapter 457: Fish Trap Stolen

Those two, jeez, early in the morning with nothing to do, actually came to loaf around my place.

After tidying up, Ye Cheng loaded ten sets of lines onto the tricycle, then rode over to call Xiao Hu.

Xiao Hu's eyes were also swollen; after Ye Cheng went home last night, he stayed at the dock for over an hour, adding water, oil, and ice, etc., so he probably didn't sleep much either.

"Brother, we're going out again?" Xiao Hu yawned.

"If we don't go, we'll lose money out of the blue—hurry up, later we'll buy some miscellaneous fish or chicken/duck entrails for bait."

"Hmm."

After getting dressed, Xiao Hu followed Ye Cheng to the dock; as soon as they arrived, they saw Duan Chunsheng coming from the other end, carrying a bunch of soft things.

"Well, Lao Er, I've already bought the miscellaneous fish and entrails."

"Uncle Duan, you're up early again—I and Xiao Hu are exhausted." Ye Cheng yawned.

"I'm older, so I wake up on time—hurry up and get on the boat."

Ye Cheng boarded the boat and checked everything; all was in order.

"Lao Er, I'm saying, after we're done today we should change spots—we can't keep staying in the same place." Duan Chunsheng suddenly said.

"Huh? Why? Afraid there won't be any catch?" Ye Cheng asked.

"One reason is that I'm afraid the resources over there have been mostly tapped out; another is that I'm afraid someone will find out and then sabotage us or steal from us."

Stealing fish traps does happen, especially those left in public waters overnight.

There are no cameras out at sea, so we can't really know who did it.

"Come on, we've been out to sea so many times—sometimes we just stop the boat on the water, go ashore for half a day and nothing happens."

Before, when Xiao Hu and I went ashore, the boat would just stay beside the island, and nothing ever happened.

"You can't be without caution—you can't assume everyone's like that, and everyone at the dock knows you always come back with a full haul; you think no one would have ideas?"

That makes sense; it's always been that way—wealth shouldn't be flaunted. Next time I'll try to keep a lower profile.

"Uncle, then let's change spots today."

The three were talking when Xiao Hu had already steered to the bend; Xiao Hu suddenly pointed ahead and said,

"There's a boat."

Ye Cheng looked up and saw a fishing boat coming from the side channel onto the main route, heading toward them.

The two boats slowly approached, gradually making the other side's situation clear.

Opposite were four sturdy youths; they looked a bit familiar, but we didn't know them.

Those four also glanced over at Ye Cheng's side, then suddenly broke into smug smiles, which left Ye Cheng feeling puzzled.

"Brother, I feel they're not friendly," Xiao Hu said in a low voice.

"Hmm, and I feel like I've seen these four before—Uncle Duan, do you know them?"

"No," Duan Chunsheng shook his head.

"Oh, I remember now," Xiao Hu suddenly exclaimed, then looked at Ye Cheng and said,

"Brother, yesterday when we ate at Pangzi's place, they were at the next table; one of them acted all high and mighty, so I glanced at them twice."

When Xiao Hu said that, Ye Cheng recalled—yes, it really was those four.

Seeing their smug looks, Ye Cheng felt really annoyed.

The two boats quickly passed each other, and Duan Chunsheng patted Ye Cheng,

"Forget it, A Cheng—some folks who go out to sea like to act that way, relying on their numbers to provoke anyone they see with fewer people, just out of boredom; don't bother with them."

"Brother, if you're not happy, just take them on—why overthink it? If you're upset, I'll just ram the boat into them; who's afraid of whom?"

Xiao Hu truly isn't afraid; if Ye Cheng lets him ram, he'll actually do it—thinking back to the time he bumped boats with Da Liu, that racing‑heart feeling was still exciting.

"Ramming over a laugh? If they jeer at us twice, we'd just fight—then we wouldn't get any work done today. Let's first make money, then later we'll find out where that idiot came from, showing off here—damn it."

Ye Cheng said "forget it" with his mouth, but as he went on he also started feeling unwilling to back down.

But just going to fight over a laugh is really kinda foolish.

We'll talk about everything when we get back.

Seeing Ye Cheng say not to fight, Xiao Hu didn't insist; he drove the boat in, soon reaching the spot where the traps were set, and began hauling them up.

Feeling irritated, he put extra force into the work—Ye Cheng grabbed a fish trap and yanked it up hard.

He just meant to vent his frustration, but he actually pulled it up in one go.

This left Ye Cheng feeling a bit at a loss.

"A Cheng, it's empty," Duan Chunsheng reminded him.

Ye Cheng glanced—sure enough, it was an empty fish trap.

Damn it, how could there be an empty trap—could today's luck value have gone wrong?

He opened the system and saw the luck value was 70—still fine—so what's going on?

Moreover, the dedicated bait inside the trap was gone; it felt like a mouse had gotten in, eaten everything, and run off.

Over there, Duan Chunsheng also hauled up a trap—it was empty too, except for a tiny shrimp, and the dedicated bait was gone.

"This? Are we really that unlucky today?" Ye Cheng muttered.

"Something's off," Duan Chunsheng shook his head, then pointed at the other traps and said,

"Hurry up and pull the rest up to have a look."

The three of them hauled up the traps together—one was empty, another empty; after they'd pulled them all, basically every trap was empty.

The fullest one held only two little white shrimp.

By then everyone understood.

Ye Cheng slapped his thigh and shouted angrily,

"Damn! They stole our traps!"

Xiao Hu's face was grim as he looked at Ye Cheng and said,

"Brother, it must be that boat just then; no wonder they're so pleased."

Duan Chunsheng's expression was also grim,

"These people are going too far; ordinary folks would just steal a few, but they took everything— they must have gone out to sea early; this was premeditated."

Ye Cheng repressed his anger, turning his head to look at another stretch of sea,

"Xiao Hu, go check the longline fishing."

He now worries that the longline fishing is also gone.

Fortunately, when the boat passed by, the float was still there, which at least indicates it hasn't been disturbed; after all, longline fishing isn't a fish trap— setting the line takes time, so if it had been stolen, the float would surely be gone too.

It seems they haven't stolen from this side yet, or perhaps they didn't have time.

But when he drew near, even that slim hope was dashed.

Of the ten longline sets, only five remain; the other five still have floats, but their catch has been taken.

Put simply, that float is just dragging a bunch of line in the sea.

This is a bit excessive— eighty percent of the catch I worked hard for all day has been taken.

"Damn, too much!" Duan Chunsheng couldn't stand it any longer.

"Brother, don't just let it go— let's go back and deal with them; if we hurry back we might still catch up." Xiao Hu's eyes were red, veins bulging on his neck.

They've always been the ones bullying others, but now people are riding on their heads and defecating; if we don't fight back, I can't swallow this anger.