Chapter 1010: Humpback Whale

However, when he returned to the cabin and lay down, his mind kept replaying the earlier collision between the two boats—saving one while the other sank.

He still remembered the coordinates of that stretch of sea, but right now they were still very far from it, so he closed his eyes with peace of mind.

If he got the chance to pass nearby later, he'd go take another look; he'd already been mulling it over at home for two days.

Going into the water in winter is cold, but the temperature beneath the surface isn't that cold—only the moment of entry is.

He was strong and young now, not some old bones, and could take the chill; an occasional dip in cold weather was still fine.

If he didn't go down and take a look, he definitely wouldn't be able to let it go. Although the cargo on the deck had all drifted away, there must still be some in the hold—on a ship that big, how could the hold not have some better goods stashed inside?

Even if it wasn't better cargo, it wouldn't be worse than the canned fish piled on the deck outside, right? At the very least it should be about the same as what was on deck—things in the hold can't drift away.

If it was also canned fish, that would still be fine—any box fished up would be worth over a hundred yuan, and a few extra tins of fish roe would be pure profit.

He also wondered whether, after he reported it to Director Chen, the Haishi Bureau had sent anyone to salvage it. Or maybe they were still squabbling over it, still investigating, or perhaps they hadn't taken it seriously at all and simply let it slide.

It was also possible that Director Chen hadn't thought it important and hadn't reported it up, keeping it for himself to eat—that wasn't out of the question either.

Without seeing it with his own eyes, it was hard to say. Anyway, once he'd slept enough, he'd check where the boat was sailing, how far the coordinates were, and decide then.

The diving gear—he'd long since moved it all onto this boat. Things he'd bought with his own money, how could he let anyone else get the bargain? The gear still had plenty of uses.

Uncle Pei most likely wouldn't wander off either; he usually worked back and forth along routes he was familiar with.

After a bout of wild thinking, he finally drifted off to sleep amid the rumbling in his ears.

And because the machines were loud enough, the movements of the people around him couldn't be heard very clearly, so he stayed in a state between sleep and waking.

When he finally woke up fully, the bunks around him were already empty—probably because as the boss, apart from his father, no one felt right about waking him up to work.

He put on his sweater and pants under the covers before throwing them back, stretched with a big yawn, swung his hips a couple of times, then grabbed the padded jacket that had been kicked to the foot of the bed, put on his hat, and went out to pee.

The bright sunlight made his eyes sting so he couldn't open them. Apart from his father, everyone else was squatting on the deck sorting the catch; judging by the sun hanging in the sky, it wasn't very late.

He fished around in his pocket, pulled out his watch and took a look—it was only 8:30.

"Is this the catch from the first haul?"

"Yeah, just brought up half an hour ago."

"This haul doesn't look like it has many toadfish, but quite a lot of mackerel."

"Probably the toadfish fishing season is almost over; from here on the numbers should drop day by day—they've swum off somewhere else."

Ye Yaodong, wearing rain boots, nudged the pile around with his foot, kicked a bunch aside, and didn't spot anything particularly nice—an ordinary haul.

He looked up into the distance again—the sky was blue, the sea vast, seabirds wheeling in mid-air, occasionally diving down to snatch fish leaping from the surface. It really was a case of 'the sky is wide enough for birds to fly, the sea broad enough for fish to leap.'

"Where are we around here?"

"No idea, just drifting on the sea, water on all sides, can't tell where's where."

"Go ask your dad, your dad should know. Asking us, how could we possibly tell direction?"

"Oh."

He glanced at a small dot on the distant sea, then headed for the wheelhouse.

That was probably the Fengshou, probably—seen from afar it wasn't even as big as his thumbnail; to close the gap between the two boats would take about ten minutes of sailing.

"Dad."

"Slept well? Want me to let you take the helm for a while?"

"Sure. What position are we at now? What's the nearest town?"

"The nearest town—hard to say. You only find out when you make port with a purpose; otherwise out on the sea, how could you know how far the towns on land are?"

"Then let me put it another way—how far are we from the spot where those two fishing boats collided on the rocks a few days ago?"

"I didn't note the position."

"I did." Ye Yaodong pulled out a small slip of paper and handed it to his father.

A good memory isn't as reliable as a bad pen; no matter how sharp the brain, it's not as good as writing it down—especially since he never let things sit in his mind, he'd forget the moment he turned around.

"Why did you note this down? You still want to go there? Going into the water to salvage the machine?" Ye's father caught on at once, since it had happened before.

"The machine is secondary. I want to go into the hold of the sunken ship and see if there's anything good. The deck was piled full of cargo—there's no reason the hold wouldn't have some stashed. I want to go see if it's still there, if there's anything left to pick up."

"Could it still be there?"

"No idea—who knows whether they went to investigate and figured it had sunk to the bottom and ignored it, or whether they didn't take it seriously. I just want to go over there and have a look."

"That's fine, but we're not familiar with that stretch—there are submerged rocks, so it's a bit worrying. When we get close, don't let our own boat hit the rocks too."

"We'll follow the coordinates, stop early, and at worst I'll go down a few more times to scout the way. If we're careful, we shouldn't hit any rocks."

"Then we'll take a look in a bit, or check on the way back whether we pass by it. Otherwise, if you go into the water and catch a cold, you'll be stuck on the boat for several days—it's rough on anyone. On the way back it would be better; by then the main business of trawling would be done anyway."

"That works too. I'll keep an eye out on the way back."

"Have you eaten?"

"Oh right, I haven't eaten yet. Then I'll go have breakfast first and come relieve you. You all go get some sleep too."

Ye Yaodong slapped his forehead and remembered—the meal in the middle of the night counted as a late-night snack, not breakfast. If his father hadn't mentioned it, he wouldn't have felt hungry.

There was a little porridge left in the pot—probably saved for him—and the other pot was packed full of seafood: everything but fish, all steamed together in one pot.

He spotted a Xiao Bai Zhang, reached straight out, grabbed it by a tentacle, and lifted it out to taste first, not bothering to serve the rice yet.

The flesh was springy and chewy; putting it in your mouth was like chewing a piece of gum, making you want to bite down a few more times to savor the pleasure of your jaws opening and closing. The whole point of seafood is its freshness—straight from the catch and straight into the pot is the proper way.

After he finished eating and went to relieve his father, two of the men working on the deck got up and followed his father back to the cabin to sleep; the rest were tidied up by the other two in his group, and they'd be done in time before the next haul came up.

Ye Yaodong kept the fishing boat working at a not-too-close, not-too-far distance from the Fengshou, until it was time, when he notified the two men to get ready to haul the net.

To his surprise, within sight of where their two boats were working, an extra fishing boat had actually appeared today—quite a rarity.

On the vast ocean, having come out this far, running into another vessel wasn't easy—after all, this was the 80s, the fishing industry wasn't developed, big ships were few and far between, and the sea was infinitely wide.

The newly appeared fishing boat—he didn't pay it much mind either; it was just passing through on its own work. He continued standing in the wheelhouse, watching the two men below pulling on the cables, one on each side.

But he didn't know whether the fishing boat that had suddenly appeared had a preset course that actually ran around them; somehow it was heading their way, getting closer and closer.

As their fishing boat slowly moved forward while hauling the net, that fishing boat gradually grew larger in his sight, until it appeared right around them.

At this moment, Ye Yaodong also saw the other party hauling in their catch—no, wait, they were hauling in rope.

"Hairtail? Are they fishing for hairtail?"

He could see that within his line of sight, two people stood on each side of the other boat's gunwale, hauling in the line there. A string of silvery, glittering hairtail were pulled out of the water, their slender bodies shimmering in the sunlight, reflecting the light.

Hairtail can be fished not only at night but also during the day. Although they are phototactic, they feed all year round and all day long.

Hairtail prefer warm water. During the day they like to rest on muddy or sandy seabeds with a faint light. At dawn and dusk they move into the middle and upper layers of the water, traveling in vertical schools to feed mainly on small fish.

As the fishing boat moved, the two boats drew closer and closer. He could also see several fishing rods on the other boat. He didn't know whether they had come specifically to fish for hairtail, or whether they were using a longline-style method to catch big fish.

After all, in this day and age small fish really weren't worth much; big fish were still worth a bit of money.

Trawling one net takes several hours. Running out to deeper waters to do this kind of trolling fishing could instead keep bringing in catch nonstop. With luck, the haul might be big fish of the same species.

Now, running a boat dedicated to hairtail should also be tough. After all, you had to go to a fishing ground to fish for the catch to be plentiful, and you also needed an underwater fish-finder. Nowadays most people mainly trawl and rely on luck.

Still, watching the other fellow continuously pull up hairtail one after another was pretty satisfying. Too bad he hadn't brought a fishing rod—otherwise he could have called his dad up to steer the boat while he tried fishing like them.

As that fishing boat passed by them, their own big haul of fish was also brought up. He shifted his attention from the other boat back to his own.

"Whoa! There's hairtail too. There are hairtail all around here today!"

The moment his words fell, a big bundle of catch spilled directly onto the deck. Each freshly surfaced hairtail still gleamed silver, dazzlingly bright—though still not as pretty as the hairtail brought up at night. The hairtail caught at night really were like satin, especially gleaming, completely different from the iced fresh ones at the market.

Hairtail also die the moment they leave the water. After being out a little while they look pretty much the same as the ones at the market, without the luster of freshly caught ones.

Ye Yaodong looked down from above and felt that among the big pile of catch there were still quite a lot of hairtail—only some were pressed down, with just a head or a tail showing.

Watching the net go back down, that one boat also sailed farther and farther away. Figuring there wouldn't be any big problem, he went up to the deck, poked through the pile of fish, and checked the haul from this net.

"There are quite a few shrimp in this net too—all prawns and red shrimp, with fewer small shrimp."

"Right, this net's haul is good. There are quite a few hairtail too, and the price for hairtail is pretty good."

Ye Yaodong poked through the catch and casually picked up one to measure. It was already over half a meter long, with thick flesh—surely it could fetch a good price.

"Oh, this one's head and tail are biting together, connected into one piece."

He said with a smile: "I once saw someone fishing for hairtail. They hooked one, and it turned out there was another one hooked on its tail, head to tail connected. That's not like this one, which got tangled together inside the net."

"Doesn't that mean you hook one, and its tail can be used as bait to hook another? That is rather rare."

"Dong-dong-dong-ge! Wh-where did you s-s-see it?"

"Saw it when I went deep-sea fishing with some rich folks."

"Un-understood… the b-bosses in t-town…"

"Ah right, you guys sort the catch. I'm going to the wheelhouse to keep watch, so we don't make mistakes like those other people and run aground or collide."

The old boatman reacted immediately: "Ptooey ptooey ptooey—we can't say that kind of unlucky talk."

"Ptooey ptooey ptooey, great luck. Alright, I'm off."

Based on his rough eyeballing just now, there were probably about 1,000 jin of hairtail, the two kinds of shrimp should also be three or four hundred jin, other fish that could be sold for money could also be around a thousand jin, and the small mixed catch should only make up about a third.

Thinking this net's haul was pretty good, he continued working the surrounding waters, not planning to leave this area.

And the Fengshou Hao's distance from him still remained at the point where it only appeared about the size of a thumbnail, and would sometimes even disappear from view, but after a while it would reappear and be a little bigger.

In any case, the two boats kept their distance at all times, striving not to be out of each other's sight for too long.

The warm sun shone in the sky, but it couldn't reach inside the wheelhouse, nor could the wind blow in. He steadily focused on the work, only occasionally stepping out of the wheelhouse.

When the catch on deck had been sorted halfway, he noticed the time had unknowingly reached 12 o'clock, so he called out, telling Chen Shi to go put the rice on to cook first.

Just then, however, he heard a burst of exclamations and quickly turned to look.

An enormously large fish leapt out of the water beside them and did a somersault, dark and bulky. He saw it too and let out a surprised sound.

"It's a humpback whale!"

Instantly, a huge splash churned up and sprayed all over the deck. Because they were close, the massive body slamming into the sea also made the fishing boat rock.

"Th-th-th-this… f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-fish…" Chen Shi stared dumbfounded, and once he came back to his senses he stammered even more.

"It's a whale! A whale!"

"Sp-sp-sp-sp-spraying water!"

The fishing boat rocked once, which also jolted Ye's father and the others awake. Originally, under such harsh conditions on the boat, they couldn't sleep deeply either.

They also hurriedly ran out of the cabin onto the deck.

Just then that one enormous humpback whale didn't leave, and was swimming right beside their fishing boat, its huge back exposed.

"Ah, heavens, such a big fish?"

"Another fish this big…"

"Is it a whale?"

"It's a humpback whale!"

"Dongzi, quick quick quick, move farther away."

"It's fine, this fish won't hurt people. We'll just stay here nearby and watch, it's fine."

It was rare to be able to get this close to look.