Chapter 1151

After committing the mischief, everyone was extremely excited. As soon as they walked out of that circle, they began chattering away. Ye Yaodong was afraid their voices were too loud and would disturb the surrounding residents, so he told them to lower their voices.

Once they reached home, their excited expressions faded, and they all returned to a calm state. They washed their hands, greeted each other, and went back to their respective rooms.

Ye Fu was also woken up by the noise of them entering the door. He looked at Ye Yaodong and asked, "Did you get it done? Did it go smoothly?"

"Yeah."

"Were there no cats or dogs barking around there?"

"There were, but just throwing a few leftover bones was enough to quiet them down. How could I not be prepared for that?"

"Then get some sleep early; we still have to head out to sea tomorrow."

"No need to be in such a rush. Let me sleep until I wake up naturally tomorrow. If I'm not up by 8 o'clock, then you can call me."

"That late? Who heads out to sea that late? Everyone rushes to leave early, not late..."

Ye Yaodong stripped off his clothes and lay down, saying indifferently, "Let's see how the situation is on the first day. No need to rush so much. It's useless to go too early anyway. The local fishing boats will definitely sweep through the sea trench first and won't leave until it's cleared out. Last year, we also fished intermittently until mid-September, and we spent the latter half of the month harvesting sea urchins."

"That's true. Then late is fine. We'll just avoid the local fishing boats for now. Anyway, we didn't plan on harvesting jellyfish."

"That's not necessarily true. If we see them, we should still harvest them if we can."

"Hurry up and sleep. It's so late already; I doubt you'll even be able to get up by 8 o'clock tomorrow."

Ye Yaodong didn't speak. He rested his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.

He wanted to sleep until he woke up naturally, but unfortunately, life at home had been too comfortable lately. He had been going to bed early and waking up early, and his state was particularly good. Plus, since they really had to head out to sea tomorrow, he was still thinking about it.

Then, after hearing his father's movements at 6 o'clock in the morning, he woke up too. After tossing and turning a few times and failing to fall back asleep, he simply climbed out of bed.

Since he was already up, there was no reason for everyone else to still be sleeping there.

After the people on duty finished cooking, he called everyone else up. They ate and then headed out to sea, leaving only the two people on duty today at home to keep watch.

He even gave them two instructions: "If anyone comes to make trouble, just open the door and go out to argue with them. They won't dare to do anything to you anyway, and the neighbors will also intervene."

"They probably won't have time to come over early in the morning. Those things from last night were enough to keep them busy all night. By the time they finish dealing with that and get some sleep before coming to trouble us, it will probably be after lunch."

"Got it! If they come to the door, we'll scold them to death. By the way, we'll tell them you're an official and see if they still dare to act up. Two have already gone in; if they dare to make trouble again, we'll make sure their whole family goes in too. That should quiet them down."

Ye Yaodong chuckled and then led the people away.

At this time of day, the sun was already high up. There were no longer any people heading out to sea at the pier, and there were barely even a few fishing boats left. The late bird gets no worm.

Everyone moved the baskets and other miscellaneous equipment onto the boat. Ye Yaodong checked the machinery and some other things on the boat. After everything was fine, he waited for his father to finish burning the yellow paper before driving the boat away from the shore.

In the bright, sunny sky, the dazzling sunlight spilled onto the sea surface, as if plating it with a layer of gold. The sparkling sea surface felt like it was shimmering.

Ye Yaodong took out his toad-eye sunglasses and put them on to relieve the glare of the golden light. The others had long since hidden in the shade away from the sun; as long as they weren't exposed to the sunlight, the sea breeze was still very cool.

He steered the boat straight toward their destination. At the speed of the Dongsheng, it only took about an hour and a half to an hour and forty minutes to reach the sea trench.

When they arrived, it was just past 9 o'clock. However, there was no sign of any fishing boats at the sea trench, and there were barely any jellyfish floating around.

After this period of high-intensity fishing, it had probably been cleared out. The number of jellyfish floating up after dawn probably wasn't even enough for them to harvest for an hour if they came out early in the morning. He had experience with this.

The jellyfish underneath weren't inexhaustible. If they were fished out every day, leaving not even the small ones behind, and not giving them a chance to sink, how could there still be so many jellyfish floating up in large quantities every day?

Anything overfished has a point of exhaustion. If you don't even leave the roots, it will only get scarcer year by year.

Ye Fu was happy to see that there wasn't even a single fishing boat here. "We arrived just in time. No boats and no jellyfish, so we don't have to worry about getting stung."

"We saw two or three over there earlier. I didn't expect there to be none here."

"It was fished too clean. I guess everything underneath floated up. It's gone."

After Ye Yaodong parked the boat, he also came out and stood on the wheelhouse, using binoculars to look at the sea in all directions.

Looking through the binoculars, he could still see some scattered boats in the vicinity, but they were all dispersed, and he wasn't sure if they would come over here again. Anyway, there were no boats coming over now, so he also went down to the deck.

"Let's get to work, let's get to work. Whether we eat meat or vegetables today depends on everyone's performance."

He shouted as soon as he came down, and the others followed suit with cheers.

"Oh~ work, work~"

"Rock-paper-scissors. The two who are the same go down first. If there are many of the same, just pick two at random... Come, come, come..."

Ye Yaodong let them arrange it themselves, with two people taking turns going into the water in order.

Two people were left at home, so there were 9 people on the boat now, including him. In reality, only 6 people went into the water, while 3 people stayed on the boat to help organize the goods later.

He stayed on the boat temporarily to keep watch, waiting to be the last one to go into the water.

The 6 people formed three teams. Without any pauses, one cycle would take about an hour. However, it was impossible to have no pauses; they would definitely have to delay a bit when handing over on the shore.

So, by the time they finished one cycle, about an hour and a half had passed, and a new round began again.

The deck was piled with baskets of black balls. Some people just grabbed one and started eating, calling out that it was slippery and tender while they ate.

"The big ones are still the best to eat. There's a lot of yellow roe inside. One mouthful is satisfying, but if you dig it all out, it's only a spoonful..."

"Stop eating. This stuff is super expensive. If you eat a few more, that's a day's wages gone... and you're picking the big ones to eat..."

Ye Fu watched them with a smile and said politely, "It's fine, it's fine. You all worked hard to fish them up, so it's nothing to have a taste."

Although he said it nicely, his heart was actually bleeding. Every time one was opened, he had to stare at it twice, feeling heartbroken. He couldn't bear to eat them himself, but since they were all working for him and helping him make money, and they were the ones who worked hard to fish them up, there was no reason not to let them eat a few mouthfuls.

He could endure not eating them himself, but how could he be critical? If he made the others unhappy, a little bit of slacking off would be enough to cause them losses.

"Haha, won't eat anymore, won't eat anymore. This can't be eaten as a meal, and it's all raw, and there's no other sauce to dip it in. I'm afraid of getting diarrhea if I eat too much."

"Just a few mouthfuls is enough. If you want to eat it, keep a few to take back tonight to steam with eggs or fry with rice. Adong definitely won't say anything."

Ye Fu also hurriedly nodded in agreement. "Yeah, if you want to eat it, keeping some to take back to steam with eggs tonight is better than eating it raw like this. Eating it raw is just for a taste; eating too much easily causes diarrhea."

"Adong is going to get rich again this time. It's only been an hour or so and they've already fished up two or three hundred jin. Who knows how much there will be by the time we're busy until dark..."

Meanwhile, Ye Yaodong was currently underwater, having just finished digging up sea urchins and was about to float up.

He placed both nets on the seabed, watched the small fish swimming around, and casually picked up a sea urchin, pried it open with an iron claw, and scattered the sea urchin roe toward the small fish around him.

The fish around immediately opened their big mouths and swam toward the sea urchin roe, swallowing it in big mouthfuls. Even the fish not far away all swam over quickly. Seeing this, he opened another one and scattered it toward the fish.

Seeing another person swimming up from the sea trench, he made a gesture, and the two of them swam upward together, ignoring the small fish that were still eating the sea urchin roe.

After finishing 2 rounds, it was already past 12 o'clock noon, so he let everyone take a break and eat first.

The three people who stayed on the boat and didn't go into the water were also responsible for cooking. They couldn't run back halfway to eat and then come back.

During the time they were in the water, fishing boats came by one after another. Even a patrol boat from the Ocean Bureau came by once. However, seeing that there were no jellyfish on the nearby sea surface and only their boat was staying there, they just curiously took a look and left.

Everyone also saw the license plate nailed to their boat and knew that they had also applied for permission. No one looked for trouble. Anyway, there were no jellyfish, so they didn't need to stay here, so it was actually quite peaceful.

Mainly because there was nothing there, so there were no conflicts of interest. It was probably because they had been fishing in this spot for a while, and everyone knew there shouldn't be many jellyfish left.

During this period, because of the gunfight incident, the secret of the sea trench had been spread wider and wider. Now, it wasn't just the fishermen around that town who knew; it had already spread to the entire city.

So, with many monks and little gruel, it was snatched up every morning. They hadn't seen many jellyfish all morning, and there probably wouldn't be any more goods to harvest here later.

After finishing lunch and resting for an hour to digest, they continued to go into the water.

6 people in three waves took turns until the sun went down, and everyone finished work and went back, looking exhausted.

And after they returned to the shore, the fishermen on the shore also suddenly realized. After all, many people had seen them staying in that sea trench at that time, not moving at all.

Although it was strange at the time, they didn't meddle in other people's business. After all, their boat was big, and the Dongsheng had been staying at their pier for this period, so some fishermen in the city also recognized it.

After all, there were only a few such big boats in the city, and they basically all went to more distant sea areas. Who would waste time staying at the pier every day? Not heading out to sea to fish for a day was a loss.

"I understand now. There are harmful sea urchins underwater there. I was wondering why their boat kept staying there during the day. I went there twice wanting to find jellyfish, and both times I ran into their boat not moving at all, and even the fishermen on the boat were sitting there chatting. I thought it had broken down."

"I thought so too. I saw them three times on the return trip..."

"Is that so? I've been watching that sea trench these past two days and there haven't been many goods. I only go over to take a look when heading out to sea in the morning, and I haven't gone back since. It's really been fished empty over there. I don't know if there will be any next year."

"Next year's business, we'll talk about it next year. Now it feels like the fishing season is coming to an end..."

"What nonsense are you talking about? Aren't you curious about these sea urchins?"

"Tomorrow we'll go over too, go into the water and take a look..."

When Ye Yaodong and his group were moving the sea urchins to the shore, listening to everyone's constant discussion, he also knew that sea urchins couldn't be hidden anymore. Who let the location of this sea trench be exposed to the entire city?

Fortunately, those people didn't have the equipment to go into the water, so they could only sigh in regret.

"Dad, tomorrow we'll drive the boat out to sea to trawl for three to five days. Let's not harvest sea urchins there for now."

"Huh? Not harvesting anymore? The harvest today was so good, there are several thousand jin here..."

"Tomorrow, there should be many local boats going over there to go into the water to harvest sea urchins. Although they definitely don't have the ability to harvest them, let's not linger over there for now. Let's go out and trawl for a few days, and then come back and continue harvesting. With a few days of buffer, I guess they will give up, and we can harvest with peace of mind again."

His essence was to make money. With the lesson from the past, anyway, avoiding it and going out to trawl for a few days wouldn't be a loss for him. After they tried this sea trench, they would definitely give up, and it would still belong to him.

"That's true. Anyway, no one has the ability to go that deep, so it's still yours. If so many boats surround that place tomorrow, who knows if something might happen. You are already in danger when you are in the water, so you definitely have to ensure the safety of the surroundings."

"Yeah, that's right."

When they were lifting the goods up basket by basket, quite a few people surrounded them again, and they all came up to inquire one after another.

When he first moved to the city, he hadn't harvested so many sea urchins in front of everyone. At that time, he had only come here to take refuge.

Ye Yaodong's boat workers also cunningly used their hometown dialect to speak, making everyone ask for a long time, talking at cross-purposes, and they had to give up, making up their minds to go take a look tomorrow.

Today, their three waves of people harvested a total of 2260 jin of sea urchins. After all, the total number of people was less than the last time, which meant the interval time was less. Everyone also needed time to rest more, so they could only extend the time during the lunch break, and they came out a bit late today.

2260 jin, regardless of size, the unified purchase price was 0.22, selling for a total of 497 yuan.

After deducting the wages of the 9 workers and the fuel money, plus the subsidies for the 5 people who went into the water, they could still net over 300, which was worth it.

Seeing that they sold for so much money, Ye Fu was a bit reluctant again. After all, trawling for a day couldn't earn this much.

"Are we really going trawling tomorrow?"

"Yeah, don't worry. These sea urchins are in the sea trench; they won't grow legs and run away. What's ours will eventually be ours."

"Alright then."

On the way back, Ye Yaodong also told the others, and everyone had no objections. Anyway, they were working for others, so just listening to the boss was fine.

It was just that the 5 people who went into the water were a little disappointed. After all, as long as they went into the water, they could get two yuan more than the others. Others got 4.5 yuan a day, while they could get 6.5 yuan a day. This was a high wage they had never had before.

At home, they wouldn't even dare to imagine that they could earn 6.5 yuan a day. If they went into the water for a month in a row, they could earn nearly 200 yuan. Even a ninth-grade worker couldn't earn that much.

"This is for everyone's safety."

"We know. Anyway, whatever you say, we'll do."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and Ye Yaodong was satisfied.

By the time they walked home, it was already dark. The first thing he did when he entered the house was ask, "Did anything happen at home today? Did those people come to make trouble?"

"Yeah, they came not long after we finished lunch. Everyone was still taking a nap there when we heard the courtyard gate being smashed with a loud clatter, and a large wave of scolding."

"When we got up to open the door, that family looked at us with suspicion like quails, but they were also very afraid. That expression looked ridiculous no matter how you looked at it."

"The neighbors kept saying it was true. They had all heard the news yesterday. How could they not know when they all live nearby?"

"Before we could even do anything, they asked us if those snakes, rats, and toads from yesterday were thrown by us. We shook our heads and denied it directly, saying we didn't even know where their house was and had been at home all day yesterday. They just casually threw out a harsh word and then left immediately."

"Adong, your method from yesterday was really useful. Spreading the word to the neighbors everywhere that you are an official can even bluff the common people. Who dares to fight against an official?"

"We were worried that they would follow suit and sneak attack us at night, so in the afternoon, we went out to buy realgar powder and insect repellent, and sprinkled it all over the courtyard and the corners of the house."

Ye Yaodong listened to them telling it one sentence at a time. After they finished telling the general idea and then told it in detail again, he felt relieved after hearing it clearly.

"They are all bullies who fear the strong. At first, they definitely thought we were outsiders with no relatives or friends, so wouldn't it be easy for them, the locals, to fix us? Now that they know they've kicked an iron plate, how would they dare to act recklessly? How much money did you spend on medicine today? I'll reimburse you later."

"Alright..."

"Watching them come aggressively and then leave dejectedly, we all felt a bit baffled."

"Alright, don't worry about them. As long as they don't come to the door to find trouble, just let them be. I guess it will spread everywhere in a couple of days. You guys take these sea urchins and clean them up. Knock them open and take the sea urchin roe to steam with eggs for an extra meal tonight. There's also a basket left to be sent to the Public Security Bureau for Director Zeng tomorrow. By the way, tell him I've gone out to sea to trawl and might be back in three to five days."

"Alright."

"Dongzi is really amazing, he can make connections wherever he goes..."

Ye Yaodong smiled and said, "People are mutual. If you treat people sincerely, they can feel it. There are always more good people in the world. There isn't so much groundless evil; most of it is driven by interests. Put yourself in others' shoes. Anyway, if you treat people a little better, it won't be a big loss for you."

"That sounds so reasonable! Although I didn't understand it, what you said so much must be right."

"Hahahaha..."

"Go, go, go, let's eat. There are many great truths in life, it's not my turn to say them. How old am I? Let's eat, let my dad tell you some great truths."

Ye Yaodong hooked his father's shoulder and walked inside, but Ye Fu impatiently shook his shoulder, shook his hand off, and said unhappily.

"Saying so much, I thought you were older than me."

"Wouldn't that mess up the seniority? You are my dad, so you will always be my dad. Even if I were older than you, you would still be my dad."

"Crazy, what kind of nonsense are you talking about..."

He entered the house first, collected the receipts and the money from the sale, and then spoke to his father who followed him in.

"Let's sleep until we wake up naturally tomorrow before heading out to sea. Let the original crew of the Dongsheng go out. Let the few people who went into the water today stay at home to watch the house, and give them time to rest. Otherwise, when they start harvesting sea urchins, I guess they won't have any rest."

"Alright, then make a phone call home to report safety before heading out to sea tomorrow. After all, we're going out for three to five days, so send a message back in advance."

"Yeah."

When eating, he also told everyone at the table. This could also be considered as taking advantage of the gaps to let everyone rest. It was just more concentrated, but getting paid without working was already very cool.

At night, everyone had nothing to do, so they went to sleep early. The next morning, they still drove the boat away from the shore only when the sun was high.

However, this time, refueling and adding ice took quite a bit of time.

When heading out to sea, he specifically took a turn toward the sea trench. It really didn't exceed his expectations; there were actually two or three boats parked there, not moving at all.

He didn't know if they had just arrived or had been staying for a long time; he didn't know if they had already gone into the water, or were taking turns going into the water; he didn't know how miserable their faces looked now, cursing and swearing.

After taking a few looks, he stepped on the gas and drove away. He hadn't intended to stay anyway, just slowed down to take a few more looks.

And when they drove away from the surroundings, his father also climbed onto the wheelhouse and came to the cockpit.

"Do you want me to take over? You're not familiar with the sea area ahead, and we can't run too far. We have to keep an eye on the compass."

"I'm watching. I can still identify directions and coordinates."

The sea area he had been to was much wider than his father's. His father had at most come here from home, which was the farthest. He still had basic judgment.

"Then I'll watch here too." Ye Fu was really worried.

Ye Yaodong let him be.

It was just that not long after his father also sat in the cockpit, he felt that two people were too stuffy. Their arms were touching, their body temperature rose too fast, and it was too hot.

The key was that his father was sweating and had body odor. Being so close, it was too uncomfortable to smell.

So not long after, he didn't want to work with his father either, so he simply threw the boat to his father to drive, and ran to the deck to hold binoculars to look at the scenery, and by the way, blow the wind to cool down.

It was just that as soon as he picked up the binoculars and looked into the distance, he saw a place in the southwest direction where quite a few seabirds were gathering, and those seabirds were flying toward that side from all directions.

Abnormal events must have a reason. In their cognition, where there is a large gathering of seabirds, there must be a school of fish.

Worried that he had seen wrong, he took down the binoculars, put them back on, and zoomed in to take a closer look.

After confirming what he saw, he hurriedly called his father.

"Dad, there's a gathering of seabirds in the southwest direction ahead. Drive in that direction and take a look. Is there a school of fish?"

"A gathering of seabirds? Why don't I see it? There's nothing there at all?"

Ye Yaodong threw the binoculars in his hand to his father. "Take them and go to the deck to take a look. I'll drive here."

"Oh, then be careful, don't run off course."

"Got it."

Ye Fu was fiddling back and forth with the binoculars, this fresh gadget in his hand. He had only looked at it freshly once or twice when Ye Yaodong first got it, and later he wouldn't let him look, afraid it would be broken.

At this moment, he really wanted to use this to take a look, to see if it was really that novel, and if he could see the scenery on the distant sea surface. Before, he had only used it to look at the distant mountain scenery.

As soon as he took it and put it on, he let out an "ouch," and then, like Dongzi, doubted what he saw. He took off the binoculars, squinted his eyes for two seconds, and after seeing nothing, put them back on.

"Ah, Dongzi, there really is. So many seabirds, there must be a school of fish. This is for sure."

"Let's see first. Don't be so decisive."

Although he was also more inclined to believe there was a school of fish, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. Before confirming, it was better to put away the messy thoughts first.

As the fishing boat drove toward that direction bit by bit, the distance on the sea surface also shortened. In a while, they could see with the naked eye the various seabirds foraging on the sea surface ahead.

"Ah... so many birds, there's a school of fish..."

"Is there a school of fish?"

The boat workers on the deck were also exclaiming there.

Ye Fu said, "If it weren't for those birds on the sea surface moving there, I would have thought it was a small island, densely packed in a patch."

"A bird island, we'll be close soon."

After speaking, he increased the speed again. Seeing that it was right before his eyes, he hurriedly rushed over to take a look, so as not to let the school of fish run away. They wouldn't stay in place waiting.

And when his fishing boat rushed forward, all those seabirds that made up the bird island were flying forward.

When he accelerated to the side and rushed over, he slowed down a bit, poked his head out and asked his father, "Is there? Is there anything under the water?"

Ye Fu stared at the water surface with binoculars and asked with a face full of doubt, "No, it seems like there's nothing at all..."

"Nothing?"

Ye Yaodong didn't quite believe it. He climbed out of the cockpit directly, snatched the binoculars from his father's hand, and looked at the sea surface.

"Really nothing? Damn, did I judge wrong?"

Ye Fu watched the fishing boat moving forward continuously, while those seabirds flew to the side. There was no intention of following the fishing boat at all. He hurriedly ran into the cockpit to turn the direction of the fishing boat, intending to follow behind those seabirds.

Under normal circumstances, seabirds generally circle around fishing boats because when a fishing boat pulls up a net of goods, there will always be more than half of the goods that are not wanted and have to be poured back into the sea. Those seabirds following around the fishing boat can easily forage, pick up cheap goods, and accept the feeding of fishermen.

And they don't need to fly everywhere on the sea surface to find fish bitterly, which can save a lot of effort.

Today's situation was a bit abnormal. They clearly saw their fishing boat but flew to the side, and didn't linger around their fishing boat.

Ye Yaodong also squeezed to the side of the cockpit and directed his father, "Follow them and take a look. I don't believe there's no school of fish. So many seabirds don't even look at us. There must be a greater temptation ahead."

"Let's see first."

Their fishing boat followed behind this group of seabirds that were like a sea island. After about ten minutes, that group of seabirds didn't move forward, but their fishing boat was still moving forward. In less than two minutes, they caught up with that group of seabirds.

"There really is!"

"Found it!"

Without radar to monitor, these seabirds were their radar.

"Hurry up and see what kind of school of fish it is..."

Ye Fu was also very curious. After slowly stopping the boat, he let it drift at will, and also ran out to take a look, while the boat workers on the deck had long since shouted.

"Ah, they are circling, it's a storm..."

Ye Yaodong saw it more clearly with binoculars. A cylindrical shape had formed under the water surface on the front left. He didn't know how deep it was, and all around were schools of fish circling, which had already formed a storm.

Ye Fu could only see the surface layer of the water and was already full of surprise. He pulled Ye Yaodong's hand, "Give me the binoculars to see, see what kind of fish it is..."