Chapter 1012: To the Site of the Sunken Cargo Ship

Ye Yaodong was used to talking back, and Ye Fu didn't think there was anything wrong with him chasing Laozi off like that.

But as he got up, he was still muttering, "People aren't even as good as fish. If I'd known, I should have taken a few more photos during the New Year, saved you from wasting them on fish. I shouldn't have been so reluctant back then…"

"No matter what gets into your hands, you just burn through it. A few moves and it's gone. You don't even know how much that camera film costs—one shot outside costs a buck…"

"How many shots did you just take? So wasteful. You don't pay attention when running a household. How can money stand being spent like this? Not a single useful thing photographed. I wanted to say something last time, but those manta rays made me forget…"

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes. After his father came out, he quickly squeezed into the wheelhouse.

Ye Fu seemed possessed by Mother Ye—maybe it's just old age, they all love to nag.

"Save some for next year. Don't take any more from now on. Save it—take a few shots next year, a few the year after. Be frugal. Make one roll of film last a few years…"

Still thinking about stretching it for a few more years?

"Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

Ye Fu smacked his peeling lips a couple of times and did feel a bit parched.

"Then you have to store the camera properly. Bringing it out to sea, it'll get damp and break in no time. I'm going to eat first. You can start hauling the net right away. I'll go down and get people ready."

"Mm."

He let out a long breath, glanced at his father's retreating back. They were the ones who wanted more photos taken during New Year, the ones who couldn't bear to have them taken—and once he brought the camera out to shoot fish, here they come with the lecture.

Being someone's son, being someone's grandson—truly not easy.

Seeing the deckhands on deck already in position and ready, he immediately operated the net winch.

His father hadn't left this stretch of sea the whole time, had been circling around. As expected, when this net came up, it really was a bumper haul. Bright red horsehead fish poked out from the net mouth as it was hoisted out of the water, looking especially vivid in the sunlight.

Ye Fu happily called out from below, "Another bumper haul!"

He picked up the term "bumper haul" from Ye Yaodong. At some point it spread, and villagers in the village would bring it up from time to time—probably because it fit.

A word that's both practical and simply apt easily spreads in daily life.

"This haul has to be at least four or five thousand jin…"

"Should be about that. Looks a bit better than the last one…"

"Pour it out and take a look, then we'll know roughly…"

"Still have to wait until sorting's done to see. There's a lot of useless mixed catch too. Gotta see how much is worth selling. Catching a lot doesn't mean anything."

After the fishing net was lowered again, Ye Yaodong walked out of the wheelhouse, stood on the bridge wing looking down. Five people, including his father, were crouched over sorting the catch.

Each person had a bamboo basket beside them, both hands working at once sorting—extremely deft, like every second counted. The sooner it's sorted and cleaned up, the sooner they can rest.

Every basket was full of horsehead fish. This fish is a common deep-sea species—good-looking, good-tasting. Locally it's usually stewed with rice wine for fish soup, or steamed, or pan-fried or braised. The flesh is tender and smooth.

If this fish is sold to the fresh-purchase boat, it's just over a mao per jin, but compared to other catches it's already much better—better than the worst, not as good as the best. Catching a thousand jin or so in one go is a pretty good haul.

Below, they had the whole deck covered. That pile alone looks like it might be over 1000 jin. Each person has nearly filled a basket, and there's still plenty of bright red ones left.

This haul should bring in 200 yuan.

Thanks to the humpback whale wrecking the orcas' feeding, they managed to scoop up a bit.

The people below chatted in low voices as they sorted. Ye Yaodong watched for a while, then went back to the wheelhouse to avoid the cold sea wind.

Idle and bored, he pulled out the paper slip in his hand and compared it with the coordinates displayed on the instrument panel—felt like they weren't far apart.

After all, they had run into the two boats on the return trip. Now, though the working speed was slow, they had still sailed several hours through the night before lowering the net.

In his heart he was faintly looking forward to it—if they got closer later, he'd head toward the coordinates the slip pointed to and take a look.

Anyway, if he moved, the Fengshou would watch the situation and keep its distance from him, accommodating him, not letting the two boats get too far apart. It didn't matter which boat took the lead.

If one boat disappeared from view, the other would close in a bit. They accommodated each other without interfering.

After the fish below were mostly sorted, Ye Fu had to let the others keep searching. With nothing to do, he came back up to tell Ye Yaodong what the catch was and how many baskets of each.

17 baskets of horsehead fish, roughly 1300 jin or so. About 200 jin of red shrimp, over 100 jin of sword shrimp, over 100 jin of white pomfret, several dozen jin of small yellow croaker, seven or eight hundred jin of toadfish, plus another four or five hundred jin of scattered sellable fish.

"This haul's pretty good—about 6000 jin. The mixed small fish we should dump, probably over 2000 jin."

"What a pity…" Ye Yaodong was full of regret. Having to dump that much—in the future, all of it would be sellable goods.

In the future, boats like theirs would only pull in one or two thousand jin per net. Now, at their best, they could pull seven or eight thousand jin—really lucky as hell, hitting a school of fish. Ten thousand jin isn't impossible.

It's just they hadn't yet run into a big school that would let them pull ten thousand jin.

All luck of the draw.

"What's there to pity? It's already great. Dump the useless stuff back in the sea to feed the big fish—consider it fertilizing, they'll grow faster too."

"On the way back, we'll dock at the city, sell off a batch of the catch from the boat, then head home. I also need to stop by the shipyard in the city."

Ye Fu's eyebrows shot up again, and he glared at him. "What are you going to the shipyard for? You really want to build another fresh-purchase boat to collect that junk? I thought you were just talking last time. If you really haul it back, you won't even cover the fuel cost…"

"I'm not specifically collecting that junk—just collecting the good catch from our three boats, and letting them pick up the junk on the side. Just hauling it back along the way. Makes money, doesn't waste anything, and earns a bit extra—expand the workshop's scale."

The daily catch from three boats wouldn't even fill the hold. Hauling the mixed catch back along the way wouldn't be a loss—selling just the three boats' catch alone would turn a profit.

Anyway, his own fresh-purchase boat, coming by every day to collect, could give the fishing boats a bit of extra income.

There's plenty of fish in that mixed catch too—just not worth much. Some aren't small either. Make fish sauce out of them, sun-dry them into dried fish.

Sun-dry shrimp meat, sun-dry mantis shrimp—nothing wasted. Even the leanest mixed catch can be picked out for meat.

Everyone wins—that's the idea.

Anyway, Ah Qing already agreed. He was just informing his father, not asking for his approval.

"Three boats… You don't even have the boat the three brothers are going in on yet, and you're already counting it…"

"Of course. I call it planning ten steps ahead. I didn't even count Uncle Ah Guang's boat or Uncle Zheng's boat—I've already planned it out. These three boats I'm counting, I have a share in all of them, and a big share at that. I want to run a fresh-purchase boat, collect the catch from three boats—how could they not let me? Isn't that a sure thing?"

"See for yourself, see for yourself."

Last time it was brought up, he'd already been talked around pretty much—just didn't expect it to be for real.

It's an investment anyway. If he's got the money, let him do as he pleases. So far, it looks like the more he messes around, the better it gets.

"I'm just letting you know. Ah Qing has no objections either. The wife and I have already discussed it."

Ye Fu waved his hand, not wanting to talk to him anymore. Going up to the deck to chat with the old crew sounded more pleasant.

The old boatmen on the ship never spoke to him without flattering him—of course, chatting with them was much more pleasant.

His old man was getting on in years, preferred stability, was content with the status quo. Right now things were steady, he earned quite a bit every day, and he had a fair amount of property in his hands, so he felt things were already good enough. If Dongzi kept on making more trouble, he'd feel it was rather unnecessary.

It was also poverty that limited his imagination—he had no idea what one could do with money once you got past the ten-thousand-yuan household mark, no matter how much more you earned.

Ye Yaodong figured that as long as he'd said his piece to his father, that was enough. When they returned and docked in the city, he'd still need to ask his father to keep an eye on the boat.

Once they compared notes, they could decide right after getting home—the sooner the decision, the sooner the catch.

The fishing boat continued its work on the sea at an unhurried pace. With nothing particular happening, it all felt a bit dull. The simple iron-sheet ashtray on the operating console was already littered with quite a few cigarette butts.

And as time went on, the number kept gradually increasing.

The wheelhouse was also wreathed in smoke, until it was time to haul the net again, when he finally stepped out of the wheelhouse, tapped out the ash from his cigarette, and let the air inside circulate a bit.

After tidying up the deck, there wasn't much time before the next net came up, so everyone stayed on the deck chatting, eating seafood, and taking in the scenery.

Ye Fu was surrounded by everyone on the deck, laughing and talking, grinning so brightly his yellowish smoker's teeth were almost splitting past his ears.

By now the sun had already hidden behind thick clouds—even though it was only 3 p. m., it looked almost like dusk, as if nightfall wasn't far off.

He'd just stepped out and called out once, and once everyone was ready, he went back into the wheelhouse. But in just that short while, his hair had already been blown into a sunflower shape.

"Getting a haircut in the first month kills your maternal uncle"—he hadn't cut it very short before the New Year anyway, deliberately leaving it a bit longer so he could slick it back for the holiday. Now it was even longer.

He casually raked a hand through his hair and hauled the net.

Until Seeing Ye Mu fell, everyone kept repeating the daytime work, and only after dinner did they go to sleep according to the shift schedule.

They were also getting farther and farther from the coordinates Ye Yaodong had his eye on.

They fished methodically for two whole days, and only when the fish hold was full did they think to contact the fresh-fish collector boat to come pick up the catch. Because the weather was cold, the few nets' haul pulled up temporarily could be piled on the deck without worry.

They didn't know if that fresh-fish collector boat from last time, which had been caught and taken in, had been released yet. This was a good chance to see if they could get in touch. If they couldn't reach them, they'd switch to another boat—and they'd find out either way.

"Once the compensation is agreed on, they should be able to be released, right?"

"Their behavior could be called assaulting a police officer—how they get released isn't up to them. We'll know once Uncle Pei gets in touch. Has the person come out or not?"

"Good thing the fresh-fish collector boat was in slightly better shape than the other one—the boat was saved, didn't sink to the bottom of the sea."

"The other boat sank straight to the seabed. Setting everything else aside, losing every penny is certain. The collector boat didn't sink, but whether it was really saved is also hard to say."

"Did you forget? The entire cargo on board was confiscated—at least half their fortune is gone. The shareholders of that boat were probably all working for wages on board, and they all had a share in the assault on police. Lock you up for ten days to half a month, fine you a big sum, then let you out—wouldn't that be perfectly normal?"

"Cargo gone, half their fortune gone, plus a hefty fine—even compared to the boat sinking outright, it's not much better. The capital to start over would definitely require borrowing a large sum from outside, but given every family's circumstances these days, which household has money to lend?"

"City folks can't necessarily just pull out a few hundred or thousand to lend to others at will, let alone the people in this line of work—they're all fishermen, and most fishermen are dirt poor."

Ye Fu nodded. "That's true, they're about the same—probably all the money they've accumulated over the past few years will have to be paid out. But still, since they were able to run a fresh-fish collector boat, that means they know people, and probably know other boats too. Borrow a bit here and there, get some help from relatives—they should be able to get back on their feet…"

"You're thinking too simply, Dad. An entire boat's cargo—let's not exaggerate—needs at least ten thousand as a baseline, right? One collector boat connects with seven trawlers."

"Split it among five shareholders, each person has to borrow at least 2,000 yuan—and that's assuming they have enough cash on hand to cover the fine. But you wouldn't go out to sea to collect cargo with just 10,000 yuan. What if someone's catch is bigger? Whose boat would let you owe them? Each person has to borrow at least 3,000."

"In our countryside, borrowing a hundred or two from relatives is already a lot—nobody's money fell from the sky. 3,000 yuan would probably mean hitting up every single relative and friend, and you still might not be able to scrape it together. Not to mention the actual amount needed would only be more. Borrowing money is a huge problem."

Although reform and opening up had been going on for several years now, most families had only just reached subsistence level, and savings were absolutely not plentiful. On top of that, small home appliances were on the rise now, every household had demand for them—where would it be so easy to borrow a large sum?

Ye Fu sighed. "When a person's luck runs out, no amount of money is enough to weather it. Years of hard work, and in one morning you're right back to square one. Bad luck, and you have to start everything from scratch."

"So that's why I need to earn more money. Nothing you can't do without money, nothing you can't do without being sick."

"If it's really detention plus a fine, then even after they're released and the fishing boat is returned, they won't be able to go out to sea in the short term."

"That's right."

"This also serves as a lesson for us—at sea we have to…"

Just as father and son were talking, a connection sound came through the radio.

Father Pei's connection was also about the fresh-fish collector boat—the one from a few days ago couldn't be reached, and he had contacted a new collector boat.

Just as they'd expected.

After the connection was cut, Ye Fu couldn't help saying, "If after they're released they don't want to do it anymore and just sell the boat directly, it'd save you trouble to take it over."

"Dream on, Dad. We don't even know them. If they really wanted to sell, it wouldn't be our turn—their own relatives and friends could pool together and buy it. Besides, they've already done it once and know the profits inside—who'd be willing to just sell the boat outright?"

"Fair enough. Forget it, then. When you go back, stop by the shipyard in the city and take a look."

From when they contacted the collector boat in the morning to when the collector boat finally came in the afternoon to take away the hold- and deck-full of catch, two days of trawling had earned just over 2,000 yuan. He also took the chance to refuel and re-ice, spending 890 yuan.

Subtracting the fuel and ice expenses from town when they set out, after two days at sea, the net profit was five or six hundred.

However, the next two or three days at sea wouldn't require much outlay. If in the next two or three days they could also sell another 2,000-plus, that would all be pure profit—though they'd still need to keep refueling and re-icing.

It was also because their fishing boat's hold capacity was too small, and the technology wasn't that advanced now, yet the daily catch was large, so they contacted the collector boat frequently, and refueling and re-icing happened in small amounts, many times.

The two fishing boats worked in tandem on the sea, net after net, without stopping for 24 hours, and kept at it for three more days. After selling the catch on board once again, they'd been out for five days.

The fishing boat also needed to start heading back, but on the return trip they'd certainly keep fishing as they went. Once they reached the nearshore waters that weren't deep enough for trawling, they'd haul in the nets and push full speed back.

On the trawling return trip, luck wasn't quite as good—the hold wasn't full for the next two days, but they had gotten much closer to the coordinates he had his eye on.

At their current position, he estimated that at full speed it would only be two or three hours to the city district.

It was early morning now. When he was handing over the shift to his father, before going back to the bunk to sleep, he specifically reminded his father not to stray far from the coordinates. By the time he woke up and finished lunch, it would be just around noon when the sun was strongest, and that would be the friendliest time to go into the water.

Ye Fu knew he'd been fixated on this for many days, chattering about it from the moment he boarded, so he didn't pay lip service while doing the opposite either—he followed what his son said, slowly and gradually approaching the coordinates all morning, waiting for him to wake up and give further instructions.

His mind was very set now—even if they didn't let him go into the water now, on the next trip he'd still insist on going down.

Ye Fu himself actually also wanted to know whether they could salvage anything—after all, he'd personally watched that boat sink with his own eyes, and there were definitely things in the hold.

Ye Yaodong had the matter on his mind and couldn't fall into deep sleep. Combined with the sound of machinery in his ears, he hadn't slept at all—he'd just been resting with his eyes closed.

Whether he could sleep or not, he had to keep his eyes closed and conserve his energy.

After staying home for two days, he'd finally managed to feel refreshed. These past few days at sea, he'd gone back to looking haggard and worn—a full stubble of beard had grown out without his bothering to shave, and there was a big patch of dark circles under his eyes again. Money earned at sea didn't come easy.

Fortunately, for now he was only going out to sea for short trips—a few days and back—so he could still recuperate.

He rested with his eyes closed until he heard movement from the other bunks—Chen Shi and another boatman got up, and he sat up along with them.

"Dong-dong-Dong-ge? Y-you're n-not g-going to s-sleep a bit more?"

"No need, I've slept enough."

"We've got things to keep us busy, you sleep a little longer."

"It's fine, there are other things to do."

Ye Fu couldn't help himself again as they drew near, "How about we wait until the weather warms up before going into the water? Anyway, since it's sunk down there, if the Haishi Bureau hasn't gone to salvage it, it definitely won't have disappeared. A few months won't spoil those cans sitting on the seabed — they're all sealed."

"When we came out, I said I wanted to go down, and you told me to wait until we were heading back. Now you want me to wait until it gets warm. You've said everything already, so what could I possibly say?"

"It's just that it's only the start of spring, still freezing cold, and changing seasons makes it easy to catch a cold. Out at sea the sea breeze keeps blowing too."

"It's fine, we're already here, so stop talking. I'm young, strong and healthy, what have I got to fear? It's not like you, old man. While it's just been sunk, only a few days, I'll go down and take a look first. After we eat, boil up a pot of hot water first, and it'll be ready by the time I come back up from the water."

"Alright then."

Actually, he shouldn't have listened to his father — he should have taken advantage of when he first came out, when his spirit was still high and his body strong, and gone down to take a look. He'd brought a change of clothes anyway, so all he'd need was a hot shower once he got back on board.

He washed up briefly. There was still cargo on the deck that hadn't been sorted, and most of them ate in shifts, only occasionally eating together.

The three who had just woken up took advantage of the fact that the next net's catch hadn't been hauled up yet, and the little cargo on the deck was more than enough for the others to handle. They all hurried to eat, and once they finished, he planned to have his father haul the net again.

Once it was hauled in, they didn't cast another net, but slowly made their way toward the coordinates where the cargo ship had sunk nearby.

It happened that he had timed it right — the tide was going out now.

This way the deckhands had work to do, sorting cargo on the deck, and he could slip down into the water to check things out.

The moment Ye Yaodong thought about the good stuff waiting for him underwater, his spirits soared, his face lit up, and none of the listlessness from before sleep remained — he just looked a bit scruffy and disheveled, that's all.

As soon as he finished eating, he went to take over his father's work and haul the net. The deckhands also rotated — some eating, some hauling.

This net brought up quite a haul too; the bundle being hoisted looked to be four or five thousand jin by eye, just enough to fill the hold.

His mind was already down at the bottom of the sea now, so he didn't pay much attention to that bundle of cargo.

He had warned the deckhands in advance not to cast the net back out once it was hauled in, then he slowed down and gradually steered toward that reef.

Ye Fu also stood on the deck watching the whole time, and only felt a bit of relief once the boat came to a steady stop. Then he dropped the anchor too, to keep the boat from drifting with the wind.

"Let's just stop here for now. I'll go down and take a look first. If it's too far, we'll shift over a bit. Coordinates at sea are bound to be a little off anyway."

"Then go down and take a look first. Take it slow, don't rush."

"Mm."

"Ah Dong's going into the water?"

"I was wondering why we suddenly stopped casting nets. The sea is colder than land — it's only the start of spring and you're going into the water, how cold is that? Easy to catch a cold. What are you going down for? The net didn't snag on anything, there's nothing down there…"

"The seabed is dangerous. Didn't we see that fish the size of half a boat the day before yesterday? If you go into the water and happen to run into it, what then? Open its mouth and it could swallow a person whole."

"No, the big fish down at the bottom, as long as you don't provoke them, they generally won't bother humans either. Sharks only go after you when they smell blood. If you tried to offer yourself to one, it'd probably think you were too small — barely enough to stick between its teeth."

Those big whales and sharks looking at you is probably just like you looking at a toad on the ground — weird-looking, doesn't look like it'd taste good.

"What are you going into the water for?"

Ye Yaodong figured there was no point hiding it from them. "Didn't a cargo ship sink here a few days ago? The other fresh-catch boat got out safely…"

"Oh~ so you want to go down and check out the cargo ship?"

"You might not even be able to see it, right? Even if you see it you can't reach it. We can only go down three or four meters, four or five meters at most. The whole ship is over thirty meters long, and it sank tilted, but who knows if it's still tilted once it's at the bottom? Tilted at what angle?"

"Even though there are reefs down there, who knows how many meters deep it is, or where exactly the ship sank. In the vast ocean, with just one coordinate, finding a ship underwater isn't that easy."

"Let alone two or three hundred meters deep — even at a hundred meters, you wouldn't see a thing."

Ye Yaodong shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I'll go down and take a look first. If we don't find it, we'll shift position. I've got a whole day to spend here. Stop talking and sort the cargo — help me move some stuff into the hold."

Everyone worked together to haul the machine he'd stashed in the hold's storage room, half-dragging, half-lifting it out — which was pretty much half a warm-up exercise.

The deckhands exchanged glances. Seeing he had already stripped down to just his long underwear and said he planned to spend a whole day at it, they knew his mind was made up and there was no point trying to talk him out of it.

Ye Fu also said, "If you want to go down, then go down and take a look. I'll go boil some hot water for you."

Anyway, this trip out to sea had earned a decent amount, so losing one day wasn't too bad.

If they dawdled through the day, by nighttime they could head toward the city area and drag in one more net on the way.

After docking, they'd sell the catch in the early hours of the morning, and once it was light, head to the shipyard.

Dongzi had already arranged everything himself, so he didn't try to talk him out of it anymore — a grown son doesn't listen to his father.

After stripping down completely, Ye Yaodong warmed up for a while longer, to avoid cramps and a spike in blood pressure, before gearing up and jumping into the water.

The instant he hit the water, he shivered violently, his whole body tensed up, his scalp went numb, his teeth chattered — and yet he couldn't make a sound.

Winter swimming really does take great courage and great willpower.

After shivering in the water for a bit, he quickly started moving. After about five to eight minutes, his head was foggy, his limbs wooden, his breathing rapid.

Once he'd been in longer and gotten used to the water temperature, he stopped moving so tentatively and began to swim downward slowly.

As his exertion increased and he kept diving deeper, the water actually wasn't quite so icy. His body gradually warmed up, and his breathing quickened a bit.

His strokes grew more and more natural.

Early spring sunlight could only be called mild and gentle, not scorching, so the light underwater wasn't as good as in summer.

At five or six meters down, he still couldn't see any sign of reefs around him, so he knew he'd picked the wrong spot.

He decisively kicked his fins and headed back up, planning to move forward a stretch — he'd just checked, and it was safe to sail ahead.