Chapter 458: The Four Zhu Brothers

Ye Cheng's face was dark, and he didn't say a word.

Rush over and then stop them to argue?

They can deny it; even if there are many catches above, it can't be said that they came from Ye Cheng's fish trap.

Most likely it would just end in an argument or even a fight, and then we'd still be in the wrong.

Moreover, these four people look like brothers, young and strong, while we have only three, and Duan Chunsheng is older; if we really fought, we wouldn't have the advantage.

Seeing Ye Cheng thinking, the two also watched him silently.

When facing a major issue, this small team still takes Ye Cheng as the leader.

Ye Cheng thought for a long time, gradually calmed down, and finally spoke calmly:

"First, collect the longlines; we'll talk about the rest later."

Seeing Ye Cheng's firm tone, Duan Chunsheng and Xiao Hu exchanged a glance, didn't argue, and started working.

Only five sets of longlines remained, with a hook-up rate of about 40%; they caught a few ordinary groupers, then got around a hundred horsehead fish, small yellow fish, or tongue sole.

The other five sets of longlines that were retrieved, Ye Cheng hauled them up; the ropes cost money too, can't waste them.

"Let's go, we won't cast lines today; let's go back and ask who knows those people."

Seeing Ye Cheng so nonchalant, Xiao Hu couldn't hold back and directly asked:

"Brother, are we just going to let it go like that?"

Duan Chunsheng glanced at Ye Cheng; knowing him, he was sure this guy wouldn't let it go so easily.

Indeed, Ye Cheng's mouth curled up with a meaningful smile,

"What's the rush? Once the prey is full, you think they won't come back?"

Although Xiao Hu didn't understand the 'coming or not' part, he got the gist: Ye Cheng planned to wait for them to come again.

"Brother, then we gather a bunch of people, wait for them, and when they come, we'll go up and beat them! Damn, we can't kill them."

Ye Cheng's wise smile instantly froze; 'Damn, I want to play Zhuge Liang's schemes, and you just want to use brute force?'

"You've been getting beaten all day, beaten all day—first go back, we'll talk later." Ye Cheng said softly, scolding.

Xiao Hu's facial muscles twitched, then he lowered his head and drove the boat back.

Along the way the atmosphere was a bit awkward; Duan Chunsheng passed over a cigarette and then asked in a low voice,

"A Cheng, what are you planning to do?"

Ye Cheng took the cigarette, a sharp light flashing in his eyes,

"Tossed cold!"

Back at the dock, Ye Cheng couldn't find that boat; mainly everyone's boats look alike, and without paying close attention, it's really hard to tell them apart.

They returned early this time, just after ten; after docking, Ye Cheng directly had Xiao Hu call He Lao Ban over to collect the goods.

"Lao Er, why so early today?" He Lao Ban found it strange; Ye Cheng usually isn't back at this time.

"Hmm, the catch wasn't good today, so we hurried; take a look at the stuff."

Ye Cheng made room, letting He Lao Ban come aboard to inspect the cargo.

"Hmm, it's less than the past two days, but there are over a hundred fish, plus groupers—not bad." He Lao Ban wore a 'you should be satisfied' expression.

"Fine, have your workers come collect." Ye Cheng said lightly.

Lao He also saw nothing odd, and called over the workers to sort.

Ye Cheng seized the moment, gave Duan Chunsheng a look; Duan Chunsheng immediately walked over and pulled Lao He aside,

"Ah, you're the boss now—let the workers handle it themselves; come, have a smoke."

Saying that, Duan Chunsheng handed a cigarette to Lao He and Ye Cheng, and they started chatting.

Lao He lit his cigarette, took a puff, blowing out clouds, and then said,

"Workers are workers; if we don't watch them, they just want to finish quickly—where's the dedication?"

"Come on, it's just this little cargo—what could go wrong?"

Ye Cheng also took a puff, then casually remarked,

"Hey, Lao He, yesterday I saw four young guys at the dock who looked quite alike; could they be quadruplets?"

Lao He immediately shook his head upon hearing that,

"Not quadruplets—if they were, their mother would be exhausted to death; they're four brothers."

"Not quadruplets, but where are they from? What's their name?"

"They're from Xia Ling Village, surnamed Zhu, the eldest is Zhu Liwen." Saying this, Lao He's interest rose, and he lowered his voice to say,

"Let me tell you, these four brothers aren't easy to provoke."

Ye Cheng curled a smile; finally, it had arrived.

He pretended to be very gossipy and said,

"Oh, why aren't they easy to provoke?"

"Hehe, these brothers rely on their big stature and fierceness, often going out to sea to do shady stuff—stealing others' fish traps, fishing lines, and such."

Ye Cheng and Duan Chunsheng exchanged a glance; they were indeed habitual offenders.

"Steal fish traps? No way—doesn't anyone deal with them?" Ye Cheng said in surprise.

"How could there be none? Before, people tried to deal with them but couldn't win; they always attack as four brothers together—once someone gathered a dozen or so to surround them, it was over a dozen versus the four."

"We thought it would be an easy win, but these brothers fight recklessly, then chased down those ten or so people and beat them up; though they got hurt too, afterwards nobody dared provoke them."

Again, just a typical hot-headed person, Ye Cheng nodded,

"Then how come we haven't seen them before?"

"They were locked up—because they fought in their village and seriously injured someone, they were imprisoned for over a year; now they're out, you guys be careful—this type of person is best not provoked." Lao He kindly reminded.

Ye Cheng gave a light smile,

We don't cause trouble either, it's fine.

You don't cause trouble, but we're worried they'll take the initiative to come find us— speaking of which, this morning they seemed to have a decent haul; I hope they can fish honestly and not mess up the market.

Lao He was also a bit worried; if such people are around, in the long run it'll be bad for those going out to sea, and also bad for those who buy their catch.

A few years ago, during the most chaotic period, there was indeed a gang of triads on the dock; all the fish catches had to go through their hands, and they took a cut.

Back then their profit from buying fish was low, but with no other good business to do, they could only muddle along like that.

Now that the triads are gone, if these four people show up again, there's no guarantee they aren't the next triad.

"It's fine, Lao He; now we live in a society ruled by law— if anything happens, just call the police." Ye Cheng comforted him with a few words.

However, reporting to the police requires evidence; without evidence it's easy to invite retaliation, so most people just let it go.

After roughly understanding the backgrounds of those few brothers, Ye Cheng had a rough idea in mind.

Over here, Lao He had also roughly finished counting; total sales were over seven thousand, Ye Cheng kept over a thousand for fuel and such, and each person got two thousand.

Back in the village, Ye Cheng let Xiao Hu and Duan Chunsheng go first; he needed to think about what to do.

He still hadn't figured it out when Qian Shen came to his door.

"A Cheng, I just saw you at the village entrance— you came back so early today?"