Chapter 1110

When Ye Yaodong went out to sea early the next morning, he discovered that there were an unusually large number of boats at the pier, especially trawlers, far more than in previous days, and there were many people at the pier as well.

He felt puzzled, but only thought that since everyone hadn't gone trawling last night, that was why there seemed to be more boats.

And as they were moving the longlines onto the boat, Chen Jianian's group also started their boats and set off one after another; once Chen Jianian brought people to the location and they recognized the way, he probably didn't need to worry about them anymore.

The group from their own village also set off one after another, all heading to the same destination, everyone looking forward to the jellyfish increasing quickly, afraid of missing out.

After such a large group of people boarded their boats and left, more than half of the people on the shore were gone, and it was no longer as lively as just a moment ago.

After Chen Jianian's group arrived, there were too many fishing boats; Ye Yaodong only recognized the boats and people from his own village, and he didn't know a single person from that side at all.

Moreover, with the fishing boats sailing on the sea one after another, no one could tell if there were any additional fishing boats.

They couldn't be like last year, where they could immediately spot any unfamiliar boat tailing them, because they couldn't distinguish which boat belonged to whom.

Therefore, even though Ye Yaodong felt there were an unusually large number of boats today, there was nothing he could do but let it be and let the boats behind follow.

He probably also realized that there should be quite a few local boats heading in the same direction now.

For the past two days, they had been bringing in thousands of jin of hairtail, and it was all caught by line, selling for thousands of yuan each time; the news had spread like wildfire, and the locals were surely jealous, definitely thinking of following them to see where they were fishing, hoping to get a piece of the pie.

He thought that the secret base would probably be exposed today.

He had originally been optimistic, thinking that after they fished for a few days, the locals would only react and track them once they saw how much cargo they had, but now it seemed they wouldn't be able to keep it hidden until then.

Plans couldn't keep up with changes.

Even though he knew there should be some local fishing boats mixed into their fleet behind them, they were helpless.

It was impossible not to go, and even if he could choose not to go, how could the others not go?

Along the way, there were quite a few fishing boats in front and behind, all of them trawlers; only he was still towing two small boats behind him. Since they hadn't confirmed that the quantity had increased, the other fishing boats hadn't specifically brought small boats, so the small wooden boats they brought were still docked at the pier.

Ye Yaodong steered the boat following the tracks of the fishing boats in front, heading straight for the trench. By the time he arrived, quite a few fishing boats were already docked on the sea around the trench.

He estimated that over a dozen had arrived before him, and everyone was busy scooping up the jellyfish floating on the sea; the quantity was higher than any morning in the past few days, and when he arrived, there were still plenty on the sea that hadn't been scooped up yet.

The boatmen on his boat had already prepared their tools in advance, and as soon as the boat stopped, they started scooping too—even a mosquito's leg has meat.

Five or six boats arrived at the same time as him, and the boats following closely behind arrived one after another; however, those who came a step late saw nothing, and he didn't know if that could be considered a blessing in disguise.

And just as they had swept the jellyfish off the sea, Ye's father, Aguang, and the other fishing boats also arrived one after another.

Aguang, with his brows tightly furrowed, climbed onto his boat first.

"Dongzi, there are too many boats..."

"Wait and see. It's not suitable to go into the water right now; with so many boats watching and so many boats parked on the sea, the light is blocked."

He was also afraid of someone causing trouble; diving is a dangerous job.

Ye's father also climbed over and said, "Aren't there too many boats on the sea today? They're all here."

"The local boats must be mixed in too."

The two of them opened their mouths in surprise, but immediately understood—who doesn't know how to fish in troubled waters? They couldn't distinguish at all which boats were local and which were brought by Chen Jianian.

"Well, that's it. It's exposed before the peak season."

"Let's see. We'll take it one step at a time; after all, our boats from out of town are still the majority."

He had no choice, but fortunately, they had already earned 10,000 yuan in the past three days.

Aguang looked out at the fishing boats on the sea and the jellyfish constantly surfacing, saying, "There are quite a few more jellyfish this morning, one or two times more than yesterday morning."

Ye Yaodong nodded, "Not only has the quantity doubled, but the speed at which they surface has also increased."

In the short time they had arrived and stopped, although the sea had been picked clean, one or two would float up from time to time as they spoke, and of course, they were scooped up by the nearest fishing boat.

At this time, the fishing boats on the sea were also gathered in twos and threes, with those who were familiar staying close together, probably discussing the situation there.

Pei's father climbed over at this moment and asked with a frown, "What should we do now? With so many boats, can we still go into the water?"

"No, it would be very dangerous."

Ye Yaodong explained the potential dangers of diving and also shared his guess, "Perhaps there are no hairtail fish down there today."

"None left?"

"How could there be none?"

"Didn't you say a large school was in the trench down there?"

He looked at Aguang, "The jellyfish spawning season is here, and large quantities of jellyfish are surfacing from the trench. Do the hairtail fish have to give way? And jellyfish sting people, and of course, they also sting fish and shrimp; they have neurotoxins that can paralyze them."

"It's fine if the number of jellyfish is small, but if the number is large, the schools of fish have to give way. Large fish will eat them, but hairtail fish aren't exactly large fish."

"If the number of jellyfish surfacing today is large, the hairtail schools down there might have already migrated away."

Everyone listened to his logical explanation and felt it made sense.

Pei's father felt a bit stifled, "But we just replenished our longlines."

"But you haven't earned little these past few days; you've made a lot of money. What's this little bit of investment? No one could have predicted the subsequent developments. We can consider ourselves to have had the first-mover advantage. Some people went to buy materials early yesterday morning to make a few longlines and came today to get a piece of the pie—they are the ones who truly ended up with nothing."

"Wait and see for a while. If the number of surfacing jellyfish is small and not enough for so many fishing boats to divide, maybe most of these boats will leave."

"Hard to say," Aguang disagreed, "Staying here, you can still try your luck occasionally. If they float next to your own boat, you can still scoop up a few. If you leave, wouldn't that just benefit others?"

"Then there's no way around it. If it were me, and you told me to leave now, I definitely couldn't leave. If I leave, wouldn't I be letting others earn more? Staying parked here, I can at least see if the quantity is high."

Ye's father also furrowed his brows, "Then we can only waste time here."

"Waste it then. Otherwise, you can take the boat to go trawling; I'll just park this boat here and watch."

"What kind of trawling can you do now? Everyone is watching here, and all our village's fishing boats are here. Who's going to go trawling?"

"Then let's all try our luck here. If they float next to us, that's good luck, and we can scoop them up. You can also move the boat to the side later; let's spread our boats out a bit and see if we can be lucky enough to scoop up a few more, just to subsidize our costs."

Aguang asked again, "Dongzi, how many local boats do you think are here?"

"I don't know. Probably not many. It must be just a small portion who discussed it and blocked us at the pier early in the morning; most of them should still be diligently out at sea since the night."

"Fortunately, the quantity surfacing today isn't high; as soon as they surface, they get scooped up, so you can't see the scene of large-scale gathering."

"But with so many of our out-of-town boats all parked here, they will definitely know something is fishy. Since they didn't go out to sea at night and planned to spend a day blocking us, they definitely won't just walk away like that; they'll somehow waste time here to see what's going on. If we don't leave, they definitely won't leave either. Staying for a whole day, they'll surely figure out the clues."

"Then we can only waste time. We can't go into the water, and we can't distinguish the locals," Pei's father said.

"That's right. Let's watch. If others don't leave, we won't leave either. We can afford to waste time."

"It's just a pity we didn't go into the water to take a look and confirm if there's anything left..."

"Don't even think about it. There's basically no hope of going into the water today. Our out-of-town boats won't be willing to just leave like that. Jellyfish surfacing from time to time is one thing; the other is that they might all be waiting there to see how we fish for hairtail, and by the way, drop their own longlines."

Aguang also realized that yesterday afternoon, a bunch of fishing boats were watching them unload, and he knew some people had gone to buy materials to follow the trend.

"Then there's even less need to go down tomorrow. The number of jellyfish tomorrow will only be higher than today."

"Yes, if we can't fish for hairtail today, we'll be even less able to tomorrow."

"Forget it then. At least we earned 5,000 yuan in two days."

At this moment, Ye Yaodong lifted his chin at them and pointed to the sea in front, signaling them to look over.

There were fishing boats dropping longlines, probably thinking that since they had already made them, they might as well try—it's better than leaving them on the boat. With so many boats on the sea, the surfacing jellyfish weren't even enough to go around, and everyone was in a stalemate, waiting there.

Ye's father: "They're really dropping longlines there..."

Aguang: "They're dropping them casually on the sea without precision; they probably won't catch anything."

Ye Yaodong: "But there's no other way. Idle is idle; they can only try their luck."

He looked around the sea again; not a single fishing boat had left, all afraid that if they left, they would benefit others.

Thinking that today would probably just be wasted time in a stalemate, he directly moved a small stool over, leaned against the gunwale, and sat down, resting his hands on the edge of the boat.

At this time, there were also fishing boats unwilling to miss out that came to ask them why they weren't dropping longlines or going into the water today.

Ye Yaodong told the truth: there were too many fishing boats, making it inconvenient to go down, and with the number of jellyfish increasing, the hairtail might have run away. Staying here today, they couldn't do anything but wait to scoop up jellyfish.

And after some fishing boats approached them, other fishing boats followed suit and ran over to ask about the situation.

After all, they didn't go into the water or drop longlines today. It did seem a bit unusual to everyone; they had earned so much the past two days, so there was no reason not to follow suit and earn money today.

Unusual events must have a hidden reason. Seeing people coming to inquire, others also gathered around.

A large bunch of fishing boats came over and left one after another, and their side seemed particularly lively.

Ye Yaodong and the others explained until their mouths were dry.

After the fishing boats learned the reason why they weren't dropping longlines anymore, they all moved to the side with some regret, but not a single boat was willing to leave.

Aguang and Pei's father also returned to their own boats during this time; they couldn't do anything, so they could only return to their own boats and wait.

If they were told to go trawling at this time, they would really rather just wait here and watch the situation; after all, all the boats were waiting here, and they couldn't fall behind others.

Dozens of fishing boats were all wasting time in this sea area; it was surprising and unbelievable to say it out loud, but the fact was that so many boats really did waste a day here, from morning until dusk, without a single boat leaving.

Although the separated jellyfish had to be sent to the shore as soon as possible, the quantity was too small—just a few hundred jin—and the money earned might not even be enough for the fuel for a round trip, so no one left.

Those who brought materials would separate them and pickle them casually to leave there, waiting to sell them for money after returning; if they didn't bring alum and salt to pickle them, there was no way to stop them from turning into water.

And all the fishing boats had scooped up some jellyfish today, more or less; the most had six or seven hundred jin, and the least had a few dozen jin.

After all, a jellyfish could be ten or twenty jin for a small one, and seventy or eighty jin for a large one; scooping up the size all depended on luck.

After half a day, the newcomers who hadn't been here last year and had stayed here in a stalemate for so long today also understood: the jellyfish floating up here were indeed more numerous than in other sea areas.

In other sea areas, you had to turn around everywhere to search, and they were particularly scattered and few; here, they seemed exceptionally concentrated. With so many boats, basically not a single boat was empty-handed.

If there weren't so many fishing boats, and there were only a quarter or a fifth, the harvest for the day would be quite considerable.

And as the sun slanted to the west, the fishing boats that had dropped their longlines early in the morning also pulled them up. The long-term worker on his boat even specifically called out to him, making him stretch his long neck to look.

After all, yesterday they were all still pulling them up, and the fishing lines were filled with hairtail; today, others were dropping them, and they weren't, so everyone was curious to see if those who dropped them today had any harvest.

"Ah, it's empty..."

"Nothing at all?"

"Really nothing. We pulled up such a long line... don't even talk about being like us, we didn't even see one or two."

"Was it their inaccurate placement, or did they all run away?"

"That's hard to say. None of us went to the bottom today, so we couldn't take a look to see if there were any left in the trench."

"They worked for nothing..."

Ye Yaodong watched them pull up empty hooks, with only a rare one or two fish hanging on.

"It seems we can't do this anymore; we can't go into the water again."

The boatmen were also full of regret; they had hoped that going into the water would earn them an extra wage, but they didn't expect their hopes to be dashed after only three days of work.

"Don't be discouraged. We can't do it now, but once the jellyfish here are scooped up, they will naturally leave and go search on the sea; by then, we should be able to go down and scoop up some sea urchins."

"Who knows, it might be like today, all stuck here, no one willing to leave; there really are a lot of boats that came today."

"Wait and see later; it's hard to say."

This was also possible; after all, last year there were fewer boats, and the boats that came would give him face and politely yield; if there wasn't much cargo, they would go search on the edge of the sea, leaving this area for him to scoop up sea urchins.

All the boats continued to persist there until the sun was about to set, and everyone started to finish work one after another, approaching the familiar fishing boats and agreeing to return.

And their boats were also waiting for Ye's father and the other two small boats to approach.

"We scooped up three or four hundred jin of jellyfish today; adding the jellyfish blood, it should sell for over ten yuan, right?"

"There are other boats; when we move them all over to check the quantity later, we can at least earn a meal."

They couldn't earn a wage today, so they could only earn enough for vegetable money.

Aguang and his friends, as well as his older and younger brothers, also approached to ask about the harvest and exchange information.

According to what they knew, everyone's harvest was quite miserable; there were too many boats, and the division was too severe, all depending on luck.

Some had a bit more cargo, some had a bit less, and some hadn't prepared alum and salt, so everything turned into water, and they scooped up nothing.

Fortunately, the quantity was small today, so there was no competition yet.

"Dongzi, the quantity surfacing today seems quite large. Yesterday you were here all day and only sold seventy or eighty yuan in total. Today, it's just that there are more fishing boats, so it's distributed to every boat, making the quantity seem small..."

"It will be more tomorrow; the quantity will probably increase day by day from now on."

Except for Ye Yaodong and Aguang, everyone else showed joy, hoping for the quantity to increase so they could earn money.

"It's good if the quantity increases. We've been here for so many days, and only today did the quantity seem a bit higher."

"Finally we can start scooping jellyfish to earn money, it's just that there are too many boats..."

Ye Yaodong thought to himself, who knows, there might be even more boats tomorrow or the day after; this is going to be difficult...

Fortunately, he could earn another commission this year, which made lending the equipment to Aguang to go into the water and drop longlines these past two days worth it.

While they were talking, Ye's father and the other two small boats also brought up the few buckets of jellyfish they had scooped and separated throughout the day.

"Ah... I forgot you had more boats. Putting it all together, your harvest is still the largest. I heard that quite a few people didn't prepare anything, and after a long time, everything turned into water."

"Better safe than sorry. Anyway, my boat is big, and preparing a little doesn't take up much space. Alright, let's go back; they've all started sailing back too."

Some fishing boats started their engines to go home after exchanging information because the sun was about to set.

Seeing the fishing boats leaving one after another, everyone greeted each other and followed suit.

Ye Yaodong waited until the small boats were tied to the back, and he and his father each steered a boat to follow the main fleet back together.

In a short while, the sea, which had been full of fishing boats, was instantly empty, and all the fishing boats were heading back in one direction again.

When they reached the shore, a large wave of fishing boats all returned to the pier together. Some small boats were even surprised to see so many boats docking together so neatly.

People standing on the shore also felt it was spectacular; the small town had never seen so many boats before, let alone docking together.

The most conspicuous one was the largest, the Dongsheng, which was recognized from afar. Given that this boat had caught a large amount of hairtail for two consecutive days, people on the shore were also curiously waiting there, wanting to see how much hairtail this boat could bring back today and how much money it could sell for.

And before their boat even docked, discussions had already started at the pier.

Everyone had been puzzled since yesterday as to why their out-of-town fishing boats all went out together and came back together, yet only two boats could catch a large amount of hairtail while the others couldn't.

However, they were destined to be disappointed today. The only thing brought up on the Dongsheng was jellyfish, and the separated jellyfish heads and skins added up to only about 1,000 jin, even less than yesterday.

Other fishing boats that returned to the shore also had some jellyfish, and the scattered ones could sell for a few yuan.

The local fishermen also let out a long sigh of relief after seeing this; they weren't catching so much hairtail and earning so much money anymore, so they felt at ease.

And everyone also started discussing that the quantity of jellyfish was higher today. They weren't looking at the quantity on the sea, but at the cargo these fishing boats brought back.

Because the quantity wasn't high, Aguang also went out to sea today and wasn't on the shore to coordinate, so as soon as they returned, they sold everything to the collection point at the pier.

After everyone finished selling their scattered goods, everything was piled up in the open space of the collection point. At a glance, the quantity was indeed not small, over ten thousand jin, so the locals shifted their attention and discussed it heatedly.

"Is the peak season coming soon? They can bring back so much in one day."

"Maybe soon... all the jellyfish at the pier yesterday added together weren't this much..."

"Let me tell you, they were all fishing in the same sea area..."

"Right, we specifically didn't go out to sea at night and got up early to wait at the shore, following behind them. We originally wanted to see where they caught the hairtail, but we didn't find any hairtail; instead, we saw them heading straight for a sea area, and all of them were scooping them up on the same sea surface..."

The surrounding crowd was in an uproar.

"All scooping in the same place??? Really?"

"Impossible... how could it be so concentrated..."

"Don't believe it if you don't want to. We were there all day and didn't move, just watching the jellyfish constantly popping up in that sea area. It's just that there were too many boats; as soon as a jellyfish popped up, the nearest boat scooped it up immediately. I was lucky to scoop up ten or so..."

"There really are a lot of jellyfish constantly popping up there..."

"It's true. Several of our boats followed behind this morning, and jellyfish really were constantly popping up at that location..."

"Where is it? Tell us, we'll go tomorrow too; we can't let those out-of-towners benefit..."

"Your small boats can't go there; it takes over an hour to sail there. If you go, you'll probably have to row for a day. Only our trawlers can keep up and go there."

"Damn it, doesn't that just benefit those out-of-towners? With so many boats, won't they scoop everything up?"

"I know now, no wonder they scooped up so much last year; they must have been fishing in the same place..."

"Right, right, right. Last year, this group of people scooped up a lot of jellyfish. It's just that they were carrying guns, and everyone was afraid, so they didn't dare follow behind..."

"Damn it, last year they made a fortune, so more boats came this year... I was wondering why there were more boats this year than last year..."

"We locals don't have enough to scoop; the fishermen in the whole town rely on this peak season. Small boats can earn a few dozen yuan a day, and we rely on this peak season all year round. If they scoop everything up, what are we supposed to scoop?"

Some people also hesitated and said, "But they went quite far. Even if they didn't scoop them up, we wouldn't be able to either..."

"Are you stupid? Our local big boats can go scoop them. With so many boats of theirs, isn't that robbing us..."

A burst of discussion erupted in the crowd.

Their cargo was small today, so after weighing it casually, they settled the bill quickly. It was just because there were so many fishing boats that everyone was queuing to be weighed, so it seemed a bit slow, and then all these conversations from the locals reached everyone's ears.

The locals thought they couldn't understand, but in fact, some of their local tones were the same, so everyone understood fifty or sixty percent and guessed what they were talking about, and they also started whispering to each other.

"I was wondering why there were so many boats on the sea today. It turns out the locals were secretly following behind us..."

"Damn, these people are too shameless, actually following behind us..."

"Then what should we do? That location is exposed and they all know it..."

"What are you afraid of? We have over a dozen boats here, nearly a hundred people, plus the ones who came later, there are over twenty boats, and they also have nearly a hundred people. If the locals appear on the sea, they don't even have as many people as us. We don't bully them, and they dare to bully us?"

"That's true... on the sea, I bet they wouldn't dare."

"But on the shore..."

"On the shore, who's afraid of them? We also have 200 people. Do the locals dare to mess with us? We go out to sea during the day and come back at night. Isn't the police station near where we're staying? As long as we don't cause trouble, the police station can't drive us away just because we're from out of town. We didn't break the law."

"Right, we're not afraid of them either. So what if they know the place?"

"Exactly, don't worry about them. We'll still stay here to scoop and earn money. If it were just one or two boats, we'd really be worried about them messing with us on the sea. With our dozens of boats coming in and out together, who's afraid of them?"

Ye Yaodong had already sold his cargo, but he wasn't in a hurry to leave immediately. Since some people on their side hadn't finished selling, he just stayed where he was and listened to the two sides talking there.

Ye's father also said, "You really guessed it right. There really were locals following behind us today."

"Mm."

"They all feel that we came over to rob their resources..."

"Mm..."

"Is something going to happen later?"

Ye Yaodong sighed, "Hard to say. Who knows what it will develop into? At first, we all thought the worst would be scooping for two or three days, with the quantity increasing and a bunch of us coming in and out together, and then being discovered by the locals. As a result, we haven't even started large-scale scooping yet, and it's already known by others."

"This money is becoming harder and harder to earn."

"Let's go back and talk about it. We can understand fifty or sixty percent of what they say, and the locals can also half-understand what we say."

"Your older brother and the others have finished selling too, so let's go back and talk."