Chapter 1155: Another Idea

The few who had originally been viewing houses back in their hometown had come out to help shortly after they docked, for many hands make light work.

Meanwhile, more fishing boats were docking nearby, their decks piled high with fish, which had already attracted a huge crowd; every boat that came ashore had to look over at them and ask a few questions.

Ye Yaodong replied with a smile to all inquiries, explaining that he had encountered a red tide in the open sea, and that the entire deck's catch consisted of fish that had suffocated from lack of oxygen due to the red tide, then drifted together with the currents, where he happened upon them, so he spent the whole day hauling them back.

"There was a red tide? We haven't seen one in the nearshore waters..."

"If it hasn't affected the nearshore waters, that's good..."

"It probably hasn't spread to the nearshore yet..."

"What kind of fish is that on the boat? Why is it wrapped up in the fishing net like that? Did you just pick it up?"

"Oh, I've wanted to ask this for ages; I've been watching for a while, and I haven't seen them untie the net, nor has anyone answered. Just cutting it open with scissors would have been fine, so much effort..."

"This fish is way too big, looks so strange, what is that thing growing on its mouth..."

The murmurs around them never ceased; once the boatmen finished sorting the fish on the deck, they immediately began untangling the nets. Three nets, some thick and some thin, had wrapped the sawfish tightly, making them somewhat difficult to undo.

If they only wanted to release the fish, cutting it out with scissors would have been very convenient, but Ye Yaodong needed to preserve the large net, as he still had to rely on this big net to make a living.

This large net was several hundred meters long; the cost of making it aside, it also required a great deal of time. Two people could not weave such a net, over 300 meters long, in less than a month.

Although this large net had been cut and damaged quite a bit by the sawfish's serrated teeth while catching that fish, it could still be patched up, which would save time, labor, and money compared to weaving a new net from scratch.

Moreover, this sawfish might not sell for much money, probably not even worth as much as this fishing net, so it wasn't worth it; save where you can. The cast net, however, didn't matter.

Sawfish are edible, though their flesh is rather coarse, with economic value similar to that of sharks; their fins can be made into shark fin, their skin into leather and scabbards, and their livers into cod liver oil. Truly speaking, the whole creature is valuable; it just depends on whether people nowadays recognize its worth.

While the others were untangling the nets, Ye Yaodong turned his head and started chatting with a few people; these were the buyers at the dock.

As soon as their fishing boat docked, they had come running over one after another to ask about buying the cargo on his boat, but since the goods hadn't been sorted yet, he had only told them to wait, to sort out the cargo first and see how much there was before discussing anything.

By the time sorting was nearly finished, these people had ignored the scattered loose goods at their stalls and all rushed over to wait for him, wanting to buy his entire shipload of bulk cargo, since more goods naturally meant more profit all at once, far better than those scattered items; after all, this was at least a prefecture-level city, with strong consumption capacity.

Ye Yaodong asked a few of them to quote prices for the twenty-plus main types of goods, not requesting quotes for items that weren't in large quantities or weren't valuable.

Since those people were all present at the same time, of course their quotes were all the same; after all, they all made a living at the dock, and no one wanted to quote higher than another. When someone quoted a price, the others wouldn't speak up to object, raise, or lower it.

They were all acquaintances, so they discussed and quoted him the day's harvest prices for all the goods, letting him choose whom to sell to or whether to sell them separately.

Roughly how much was each type of goods worth? Ye Yaodong basically had a good idea in his mind; price fluctuations for fish catches in different seasons were certain.

Whether they, as outsiders, would have a conscience or collectively suppress prices was hard to say, but if the price difference wasn't too large, he could accept it.

If he didn't sell to them, he would have to drive out again to another dock and ask for prices; who knew if the prices at another dock would be higher than here in the city?

Going round and round in a big circle, if the prices turned out lower than here, he would have to search again? By then it would be dark; who would he sell the goods to? Delaying one night, he would have to find someone to buy them the next day.

When traveling away from home, one can only aim for roughly reasonable prices.

That is why, after the big brother of mobile phones came out, while bosses hadn't been equipped with them, many boat captains had already gotten them first.

However, he also had his own way of asking questions; he could chat with anyone, never considered himself an outsider, and while the boatmen were still sorting the goods, he chatted with them for a while, ingratiated himself, and appeared very slick.

When asking for prices, he said his boat was so large with plenty of goods, and if the prices were fair, he would dock at this pier every day; otherwise, he would switch to another dock.

Anyway, he was an outsider, so docking anywhere made no difference to him; wherever the prices were higher, that was where he would dock and sell his goods.

He used both soft and hard tactics, not letting them look down on his image as a young upstart, and specifically pointed out that the boat was his, not his father's.

At his age, being able to afford such a huge boat immediately made people feel he was extraordinary, not someone easily fooled.

After hearing their quotes, Ye Yaodong only nodded, without immediately saying whom he would sell to; he just thought for a moment, intending to let them wait a bit, not appearing too eager, nor overjoyed.

They actually got a bit anxious; no large ships had docked today, and they had no bulk goods to buy, so they could only linger here.

Plus, the Dongsheng Hao had returned early, and the entire shipload of goods had been noticed by the dock long ago; everyone was watching, otherwise, if they returned at this hour, they would be busy buying goods and wouldn't have time to care who he sold his cargo to.

"Our prices are very fair; these are today's buying prices; these fish are worth exactly this..."

He had just sold sea urchins in the city a few days ago, so he knew the fish prices in the city, but he still didn't agree immediately.

Ye Yaodong pointed again at the sawfish on the deck whose net hadn't been untied yet and asked, "Will you buy that big fellow?"

"This thing is wrapped up tightly; although it's big, we don't know what it looks like; seeing its mouth is already very strange..."

"I've never seen it, so I don't want it; I'm afraid it'll get stuck in my hands."

"Although it looks big, it also looks very strange; I've never seen it, so it's hard to deal with..."

The few who spoke shook their heads as they talked.

"If we don't know what it looks like, at least untie the net and show it so we can take a look before saying anything."

He said, "This is a sawfish; visually, it's over three meters. Let's measure it specifically. Do you know this fish?"

Everyone looked at each other, faces full of confusion.

"Forget it, let's talk after the net is untied. First, let's carry these goods up to be weighed."

Wrapped up like a zongzi, with only a small part of its head and snout exposed, no other part was visible, all hidden tightly by the fishing net; wanting these people to identify it just like that and discuss prices was difficult.

"Then these goods of yours..."

"These goods will go to the boss who bought sea urchins the day before; first time is strange, second time is familiar. If you think there's too much and can't handle it, then you figure it out and find someone else to split it with."

"Okay, okay, okay... then let's carry them to my place first..."

He shouted, calling a few boatmen to carry the goods ashore first, leaving only two people to continue studying how to free that sawfish from the net.

After basket after basket of goods was carried ashore, the crowd originally surrounding their fishing boat on the shore also shifted positions, walking toward the buying point to continue watching so much cargo.

It wasn't that everyone had never seen a large ship dock or so much cargo, but rather that his goods were all suffocated by the red tide, so he had picked them up cheaply, catching so much in just one day.

Thus, a touch of magic was added, and having something to talk about made it attract attention; as for that sawfish still wrapped in the net like a zongzi, its true face hadn't been revealed yet, so everyone only felt it was strange, not particularly shocked.

Ye Yaodong stood in the open space in front of the buying point, directing people to stack the goods basket by basket, then called someone to stand in front of a pile of goods to watch, while he took two others to carry the goods in basket by basket to be weighed.

By the time the mountain-like pile of goods was all sold, more than an hour had passed; the sawfish on the deck still hadn't been fully untangled, with only half its body exposed, but even this half re-attracted onlookers, who whispered among themselves, all discussing what kind of fish could be so big.

The bold ones even pulled him and asked, "Boss, what kind of big fish is that on your boat? How is it so big? Before, it was pressed underneath a pile of fish, and we didn't see it."

"I thought it was some miscellaneous item on the boat; they were squatting there repairing it..."

Ye Yaodong said, "It's a sawfish; it looks a bit like a shark, but it's a type of manta ray. The long thing on its mouth is its snout, like a saw, so it's called a sawfish."

After saying this, he returned to the deck, watching the two left behind still sweating profusely as they searched for patterns to untangle the net.

"You should have just used scissors to cut it; a net this big tangled together can't be untangled without a single scratch. As long as you don't cut it all off, it can still be repaired."

"We were just trying to do our best; otherwise, hiring someone to repair it would take too long and affect our trawling at sea."

"It doesn't matter. Just rest for two days. Once the rest is over, we'll head back to the trench to salvage. By then, the locals will have given up, so there's no need to trawl anyway. It's almost dark now; hurry up and don't wait until it's completely dark before getting it out."

"Alright, then we'll just cut a bit more."

Ye Yaodong let them handle it as they saw fit, thought for a moment, then went to the purchasing station and called over the two men who had just bought his goods.

The fish was already half-exposed, so it should be recognizable. He called them over to see if they wanted it; if not, he still needed them to help measure its length, otherwise, if it really got dark and they closed up shop, what would he do?

However, when the two men arrived, they both shook their heads, refusing it, stating they didn't recognize the fish, couldn't bid without knowing what it was, and feared being stuck with it.

"None of you recognize it?"

He thought to himself that their wholesale market must have a fixed organization that attracted people and a steady sales channel, making it easy to digest fresh items.

"The body looks a bit like a shark, but that long mouth doesn't seem like one."

"To me, it looks a bit like a manta ray? Like a combination of the two, except that mouth... that saw-like thing is very strange. Why don't you ask someone else?"

"Forget it."

Originally, he had thought this fish might not fetch much of a price; after all, it was ugly and uncommon, and might not even cover the cost of the fishing net. Now, well.

But it was within his expectations, anyway.

Such strange things definitely wouldn't circulate well in the market unless some fool took it, like the Hong Young Master who had returned from studying abroad in our town with his open-minded views; otherwise, who would buy such a thing?

However, even though he knew beforehand this fish wouldn't sell and no one wanted it, he would still have salvaged it; after all, it was rare, and not everyone could encounter and haul up such a large fish.

This was a rich stroke of color and experience in his fisherman's life; making money wasn't important, and he wasn't short on cash, but he had salvaged it, and that was awesome, something to photograph and brag about.

He was now just waiting to completely untangle this fish from the net, then take a perfect photo and keep it.

Suddenly, another idea occurred to him.

This idea might be better than selling the goods directly; it might even let him become famous for decades.

Thinking of this, the corners of Ye Yaodong's mouth couldn't help but split open, his eyes sparkling with some anticipation.

He anxiously checked his watch, found it was already 6:30, and instantly felt a bit disappointed again; work was over, he had no address in hand, only the office phone number, so there was no way to find anyone.

In a moment, he could only have them carry the fish into the fish hold, preserve it with ice, and deal with it tomorrow.

Too much work, finished too late; there was no way around it. Originally, they had returned quite early; it was just that the sawfish had been pressed to the bottom by those small fish.

Seeing them still busy there, he couldn't help but urge them again, "Hurry up, or just cut the whole thing open; it's almost dark."

Ye Father said, "Just now, when you asked those two bosses, did they say how much they would pay for this fish?"

"They didn't want it, said they didn't recognize the fish, feared being stuck with it, and also didn't know the fish's value or if it was useful."

Ye Father's eyebrows furrowed. "Then wasn't the catch in vain? Catching such a big fish took a huge effort just now, and we used up several bullets."

"It won't be in vain; once you take a photo for me later, it will just break even."

Ye Father's entire face turned black, and he glared fiercely at him. "All day long it's 'take a photo, take a photo.' You bought the camera just to photograph fish? Did you haul this fish up just to take a photo?"

"No problem; if you bought the camera to photograph fish, then naturally, when you catch the fish, you have to take a photo."

"You'll eventually anger me to death, talking like this every day."

"How am I talking? I originally thought of selling it for money, but who could sell it? But speaking of which, we aren't losing out; at least we took a photo, and bringing it out later will be a glorious history."

"Blowing smoke."

"Blowing smoke is always just blowing smoke."

"Then after you finish taking the photo, are you going to throw it back into the sea?"

"Crazy! Did I have a brain spasm or am I sick? We caught it, and you want to throw it back into the sea? At the very least, we could chop it up to feed the pigs, but such a big fish definitely can't just be fed to pigs like that. It can definitely be eaten, but I've already discovered another economic value for it."

"What?" Ye Father perked up his ears curiously and looked at him.

"I won't tell you yet. First, untangle the fishing net and take a photo for me."

Ye Father suddenly felt it was pointless, glared fiercely at him once more, then turned his head down to watch everyone untangle the net, even putting aside his original intention to ask him how much the goods sold for.

Seeing the net was almost untangled, Ye Yaodong returned to the boat to take out his camera and fiddle with it.

Everyone laughed and said, "In Ah Dong's eyes, people aren't even worth photographing as much as fish; seeing any strange, weird big fish, he just wants to take a picture."

He said nothing; the fact was just that.

The people worth him photographing were all at home; even his father wasn't worth him photographing every day.

If he didn't even want to photograph himself, how could he photograph his father?

Taking one photo a year at most was already quite enough; for ordinary people, that was already luxurious. Who could take a photo every year?

Fish were the same; only if they were rare and hard to come by would he take two photos as a souvenir.

No wonder people say photography is a money-burning hobby; looking at it now, it really is quite expensive.

"Make way; while it's not dark yet, take a photo for me first. I don't know if I can get it done; tomorrow morning after dawn, we'll carry it out and take a proper photo."

"Tomorrow morning after dawn? Carry it out again?"

"What do you mean?"

"Aren't you selling it? What do you mean 'carry it out again'?"

After taking the photo, Ye Yaodong explained, "No one at the dock wants this fish; they don't recognize it and think it's too ugly, fearing they'll be stuck with it. You guys carry it to the fish hold first, spread the remaining ice on top to preserve it. The two of you on night duty, stay alert, keep a close watch, and don't sleep like pigs or you won't know if the fish gets stolen. This fish has great use for me; if it's gone, you'll bring your heads to me."

"Heh, that won't happen; we'll definitely keep a good watch."

"What do you plan to do with this fish? You can't just keep it preserved in the ship's hold forever, right?" Ye Father asked.

"I have an idea. Carry it to the fish hold first; we'll talk when we get home. It's almost dark, my stomach is already flat from hunger, and I'm tired and sleepy. Let's talk about whatever it is when we get back."

Ye Father asked several times but got no answer, feeling it was just deliberately teasing people; he got angry too and stopped talking to him.

The workers got moving, tidying up the miscellaneous items on the boat and storing them in the cabin to lock them up.

After everything was organized, two people were left to guard the fishing boat for the night, while the others carried a basket of fish to keep and walked together toward the shore.

By now, it was getting somewhat dark; half the people on the shore were gone, and those seen were carrying loads with their backs turned as they finished work and returned, though there were still some greedy for the night, selling goods at the dock.

"I'm exhausted, my feet feel like they're floating."

"Brother Dongdong... you... you are... weak, right?"

"Get lost, do you even know what 'weak' means?"

"Hehe, I... don't know, I have... endless... cow-like strength."

"Damn it, being a virgin is impressive, being an 18-year-old virgin is even more impressive."

"Hahahaha..." Everyone laughed.

Instantly, dirty jokes followed one after another, teasing Chen Shi.

Chen Shi was used to it; his face didn't flush, nor was he embarrassed, he just chuckled straight on.

Today was a huge harvest, returning fully loaded; they had only been out for a day before coming back, and they could rest for at least two or three days next, so everyone was in a good mood.

Getting paid without working is just so cool!

Everyone chatted and laughed all the way back home; Ye Yaodong didn't sit down immediately, but instead told the others to eat first, while he carried two fresh fish kept for return to find nearby neighbors.

He had to ask the neighbors to find out if there were any women nearby who could mend nets; he needed to hire two people to go onto the boat and repair the fishing nets.

The fishing net over 300 meters long had not only shuttles but also lead sinkers; it was very heavy, even hard for many people to carry, let alone since the place they lived wasn't far from the dock.

If they borrowed a cart, they would still have to carry the net back; moving it back and forth was too troublesome, so it was better to just hire people to repair it on the fishing boat, saving trouble.

Neighbor Auntie Xu, seeing him bring two fresh fish just to ask about this, was very happy; she spoke without holding anything back, and with great enthusiasm immediately pulled him to find someone, calling up the people to mend the nets for him.

When he was about to leave, she even picked a few tomatoes and a few cucumbers from the yard, stuffing them into his arms to take back.

"Hearing the noise next door, you just came back from sea, right? Other vegetables need stir-frying, but these two can be eaten raw, or even mixed with white sugar, and they go well with rice."

"Thanks, Auntie is so enthusiastic, so full of human warmth."

"Oh, why be so polite? We are neighbors; you just asked about something and were so polite to bring two fish, so I'm just giving you back a few worthless vegetables, it's only right."

"I am the one who should be polite; I just arrived here, and in the future I'll need the neighbors to look out for me; yesterday everyone helped persuade that troublemaking family to leave, and today I was in a rush to go to sea, so I haven't properly thanked everyone yet; I'm just a fisherman, I have nothing else but lots of fish, hehe."

"No need to be polite, we are neighbors; they were just too immoral, coming to cause trouble every three days and two days, it's annoying. You are an official, how can you be an ordinary fisherman? You are a fish boss."

Ye Yaodong's mouth twitched; he thanked her again with a smile, then went home carrying an armful of tomatoes and cucumbers.

"You traded fish for vegetables? No wonder you left so many fish behind; when we first arrived, we still had vegetables..."

"No..."

He explained.

"There's still a basket of worthless fish left; after dinner I'll give them to the nearby neighbors, dividing them all up; anyway, they're worthless, so using them to build relationships is perfect."

"I thought you were going to keep them to make salted fish and eat them for a while."

Ye Yaodong said impatiently, "Haven't I eaten enough dried fish? Do you want salted fish again? Is that basket meant to be eaten as a meal?"

"Hehe... come eat quickly, we've all finished; Auntie next door is too enthusiastic, isn't she?"

"Tomorrow I'll sleep until I wake up naturally, don't wake me; two women will come tomorrow morning, you just lead them to the boat to let them mend the nets."

Ye Father asked for the third time, "Then what about that big fish?"

Ye Yaodong finally showed mercy to his father, "Wait until I wake up naturally tomorrow, I'll go find Director Zeng and talk to him about that fish..."

"He's from the Coast Guard Bureau, why are you talking to him about that fish?"

"Don't interrupt; these public institutions are all interconnected; big shots know each other, don't they? I know him, who else should I talk to? That fish won't sell, so I plan to tell him to contribute it to the Haiyang Bureau, have him tell the Haiyang Bureau to make it into a specimen and put it in the aquarium."

"Aquarium?"

"Or the Marine Life Museum?" Ye Yaodong was an old relic; in his past life he had nowhere to go and didn't really know what it was called.

"Since there's a zoo, there should be an aquarium or a marine life museum, right? Making it into a specimen and bringing it to that place, wouldn't that be a surefire eye-catching sign? It's a pity it's dead; otherwise, we could raise it, that would be awesome, but making it into a specimen can still become the museum's crown jewel; that thing is Grade One."

Ye Father looked completely confused, "What is a specimen? What is Grade One? Does this fish, like workers, get divided into several grades?"

"I knew you wouldn't understand."

"You know so much."

"Just a little bit more than you..."

Ye Yaodong thought that since it was already 1985, they should have this technology, right? Anyway, he would mention it tomorrow first; he didn't understand the technology, so as long as he conveyed the meaning, he would just see how they arranged it.

If this could be made into a specimen, with such a huge size, it would be a surefire crown jewel of the museum; this is already rare now, and even rarer in the future, plus it's a Grade One protected animal.

By then, it could be recorded in the records that he caught it and contributed it to the government to be made into a specimen.

In the future, everyone seeing this fish would think of him as the one who caught it; his name could be recorded in the aquarium's history, and every person visiting the aquarium would know him...

Damn, just thinking about it is glorious...

His name could be recorded in the aquarium's history forever, hahahaha...

Ye Yaodong let out a long roar in his heart, and nearly choked a mouthful of rice into his windpipe.

"Then that means we caught that fish for free, and we still have to give it away?"

"Isn't it because no one wants it? How is that catching it for free? I've already taken photos; when it's made into a specimen, the origin and such will definitely keep my name, so won't I be famous? And famous for a long time."

Plus, he took photos, having evidence in hand, this is solid proof.

Ye Father couldn't quite understand what he was talking about, so he didn't dwell on this topic; anyway, he would let him handle it.

"How much money did those goods sell for today?"

Ye Yaodong said quietly, "Over 【number missing】 jin, sold for over 3000 yuan; then the six-banded scad was over 3200 jin, sold for over 500; this fish was 0.16 yuan per jin, totaling under 4000 yuan."

Ye Father's mouth hung open; he looked left and right; luckily, everyone else had finished eating and left the table early.

"So much?"

"Mainly because those over 30,000 jin of fish were quite valuable; unlike our trawling, where half of what comes up on a haul is unwanted, and half of the remaining half is still worthless; the valuable part is just that tiny bit."

Ye Father sighed, "Then it really was good luck; floating up were mostly valuable fish, we made a profit."

"Mm."

"You said that six-banded scad was the one you saw underwater? It's called that? Will this price get us ripped off? You said two or three mao during the day."

"It's seasonal, and we have so many. Besides, we don't know the market for this fish anyway; let's just sell it while it's about right."

"True. We were only out for a day, yet we made such good profits, catching wave after wave."