Chapter 70: Who, who's there?

This time it wasn't stuck; as soon as the two pulled, it moved.

However...

"Brother, this is a bit heavy." Xiao Hu gave it a tug alone and felt it was a bit strenuous.

"You jerk, didn't you eat enough dinner? Sometimes it gets stuck, sometimes it's heavy—you just insist I help, right?" Ye Cheng complained, but still walked over.

He lifted it, and his hand sank down.

Xiao Hu stood to the side, hehe-laughing, eyes on Ye Cheng, meaning "Come on, you go up, you go up."

"Hurry up, together."

The two of them exerted force together, jerked hard backward—this time it moved, feeling heavy, as if they'd snagged a stone.

This second fish trap had more cargo than the first; as soon as one-third of the trap surfaced, the inside started bustling.

Ye Cheng looked and thought, if we keep hauling it up like this, the trap will probably break.

"Go into the water and pull it up bit by bit."

Ye Cheng said that, and the two stopped pulling, found a slightly gentler spot, and slowly stepped down.

In the dark, and in an unknown sea area beside the shore, if you step down recklessly, you might hit a big hole.

After Ye Cheng secured his footing, he let Xiao Hu come down too, and the two gradually dragged the trap out of the water.

Splish-splash sounds, visible fish, white and glistening.

Fortunately the two were strong enough; otherwise it would have felt hard to drag up.

Finally they had to turn the trap upside down, lift the rear first, open the mouth to let the fish out, and keep the middle of the trap temporarily in the water so it wouldn't be too heavy.

As soon as the opening was opened, these things scrambled to jump into the water tank—no way, the buckets couldn't hold them all.

Once they went in, they woke up the buddies from the first trap, and two waves of panicked creatures were bouncing around inside.

After much effort they sorted through this trap—again cheap sardines—so they sent them to the snakeskin bag; the water tank wasn't worthy of them.

This time there were several large half-fish, which was their share; Ye Cheng estimated it at about twenty catties.

The rest were similar to the first trap—tiger shrimp, pond shrimp, and some octopus; this batch of octopus was a bit larger and also went into the snakeskin bag, anyway they're tough enough.

With two traps hauled up, even one water tank couldn't hold it all; luckily the gear itself isn't heavy, or if it were iron, Ye Cheng and the other wouldn't need to go back.

"Brother, this is a lot; if we keep doing this, we two won't be able to get back." Xiao Hu began to worry.

Ye Cheng glanced at the water tank; there was still an empty one, but he wasn't sure if it would be enough.

"Put these half-fish into the snakeskin bag too, soak them in water, to save some space."

The two moved the half-fish to another spot together, "Brothers, I'm really sorry, there are just too many of you."

When it came to the third trap later, the two were full of confidence, expecting another big haul.

But when Xiao Hu lifted it with one hand, both of their faces could only manage a wry smile.

Inside this trap they found two large blue-spotted crabs, oh, and a small sea turtle, no idea how it ended up wandering about.

Ye Cheng tossed it far away, "Little buddy, this place is dangerous; don't come back here again."

The latter two traps yielded little; combined they amounted to about as much as the first trap.

"Ah, no good—this is just a little; even both traps together only match the previous one." Ye Cheng said dissatisfiedly.

Xiao Hu gave him a sideways glance, "Brother, just stop showing off; this is already high-yield. If my second uncle saw this, he'd smash the boat."

"Come, brother will teach you a new word—stop pretending all the time, how vulgar!"

"Come, repeat after me: Versailles."

Xiao Hu blinked slightly, "Versailles? What word is that? Feels like something French."

"Holy cow, nice, you even know about France. Come, let me explain: Versailles means showing off, get it?"

"For example, the fact that I'm better-looking than you—you could say I'm Versailles, get it?"

Xiao Hu silently rolled his eyes, flexed his biceps, triceps, and facial muscles, and said, "I think bragging suits you better."

"Get lost, this is a new word, understand? It'll be cool when you're picking up girls, got it?"

"I don't get it; my mom said, as long as the family has money, you don't have to worry about not finding a wife."

Ye Cheng looked speechless, "Fine, your mom is truly wise beyond measure—she's already figured out the lesson people summed up over the years."

Only the last fish trap remained; the two sat and smoked a cigarette.

In the night, two points of firelight flickered, appearing especially glaring.

After finishing the cigarette and replenishing their energy, the two headed toward the last trap.

This trap was thrown farther out—Ye Cheng had tossed it from atop a large reef.

The reef was wet and slippery, only enough space for one person to stand.

For safety, Ye Cheng had Xiao Hu tie a rope, then he himself went over.

Ye Cheng climbed onto the rock, took a few steps outward, carefully.

Waves surged back and forth under Ye Cheng's feet; if he fell, he'd probably be done for.

Ye Cheng was about to squat down to pull the trap when he heard a loud shout from the shore,

"Who? Who's there?"

That shout startled Ye Cheng so much his foot slipped, and he nearly fell.

"Damn, who the hell is yelling nonsense?" Ye Cheng shouted back, turning his head.

All he saw was a person holding a flashlight coming down from the other side of the mountain, a strong beam sweeping over Ye Cheng back and forth.

Since the person had a flashlight, Ye Cheng and Xiao Hu couldn't see them, but they could see Ye Cheng and Xiao Hu.

"Yo, Lao Er and Xiao Hu, it's me, Chen Lao San."

Ye Cheng recognized the voice at once—Chen Lao San, a relative of the Chen Jinhai family, ranked third in the household, a few years older than Ye Cheng and company, though in seniority he counts as an uncle.

Of course, Ye Cheng normally doesn't call him uncle, and he himself just goes by Chen Lao San.

I don't know how he came.

Damn, Chen Lao San, you know scaring people to death, right? In the middle of the night, what are you yelling for? Xiao Hu shouted back.

Who knew it was you guys? I thought bad people had come to destroy our beautiful homeland.

Get lost, we're pulling up a fish trap, destroying your mom's country.

Chen Lao San came down in a few steps, lowered his head to look at Ye Cheng's water tank, and suddenly exclaimed,

Holy shit! So many? Did you get this from the fish trap?

Stop making a fuss, we still have another fish trap to pull up, stand to the side.

Oh, oh, you go ahead, I'll just watch. Chen Lao San felt like he was about to get red-eye disease, "Tiger shrimp, pond shrimp, damn, so much good stuff."

They were all from his own village, so Ye Cheng didn't bother with him and started pulling the fish trap.

This time it wasn't heavy; although it took some effort, he could pull it up by himself.