Chapter 125: Release (Back Home, Extra Chapter)

But as he walked, Ye Yaodong felt more and more that something was off—hadn't the Gezhou Dam been built just a couple of years ago?

After the Gezhou Dam blocked the flow, the spawning migration route of the Chinese sturgeon was obstructed, and within three years the number of juveniles had plummeted, with the stock dropping by roughly ninety-seven percent.

It seemed that starting in '83, our country had fully banned commercial fishing of the Chinese sturgeon—probably next year?

He had truly been carried away by the sudden excitement just now, and had actually forgotten about that. He had assumed the Chinese sturgeon was overrunning the waters and had swum all the way here.

He hurriedly said to his two brothers-in-law, "I just remembered—we can't catch this fish. If we do, we might end up in jail. Let's release it, alright?"

It wasn't as if he had never caught big fish before, so when Ye Yaodong spoke of releasing it, he felt no heartache at all. Let it go, then—no need to do anything that skirted the line.

"Huh? That can't be right?" Lin Xiang Hui asked in surprise. "It's just one fish?"

Lin Xiangrong also frowned tightly and said, "Yeah, how could catching one fish land you in jail?"

Ye Yaodong scratched his head. He couldn't exactly tell them this was an endangered species that would be extinct within a few years and was about to be banned from fishing. After thinking it over, he could only rely on his own silver tongue.

"Fish and fish are not the same. Just by the shape, color, and lines of this one, you can tell it's not ordinary. I've heard the Chinese sturgeon is on the brink of extinction. If we take it to sell tomorrow, we might get caught and given a lecture. I definitely know more fish than you do. Listen to me—would I push away money that's already in my hands? This fish shouldn't be catchable anymore."

The two brothers exchanged glances, both a little reluctant. It hadn't been easy to land a valuable big fish.

Lin Xiangrong frowned. "Didn't you say you weren't even sure if this is a Chinese sturgeon?"

"Uh… I'm not sure, after all I've never seen one either. But what if it is? If we take it to sell and someone recognizes it, we'll still get caught. Saying you don't recognize it won't cut it. This one really does match the Chinese sturgeon as I know it. Better to believe it than not."

The two were still wavering, so Ye Yaodong could only keep trying to persuade them.

"Stop hesitating. Hand me the bucket. The sooner we release it, the sooner it's done. If we keep it and it dies, that'd be a sin. It's just one fish—think of it as earning merit. Next time I go to the seaside, I'll take you out to sea to fish. Way more fun than your fishing, and we can even go treasure-hunting on a deserted island."

Lin Xiangrong said, unwilling, "What if we release it and someone else catches it?"

"That's not something we can control. If someone else catches it and sells it, a fish this big would definitely become the talk of the whole neighborhood, and they'd surely get caught. Or, if you're feeling civic-minded, tomorrow you could go to the Haiyang Bureau and tell them you caught a Chinese sturgeon and released it, and let them go catch it and send it back to the Yangtze? It really is their spawning migration season right now."

"Um… um, is there a reward?"

Ye Yaodong shrugged. "No idea. Why don't you try?"

The policy came out in '83, and it's already the second half of '82. There must have been discussions, and high-level attention paid. The question is whether their local Haiyang Bureau Is it heavy on this, and whether they've received the relevant notice.

Lin Xiang Hui took one reluctant look at the bucket, sighed, and handed it to him. "Go ahead and release it. It's just one fish—think of it as doing a good deed."

"That's more like it. Anything that skirts the line, best not to do it."

Lin Xiangrong, however, wasn't willing. He intercepted the bucket halfway. "Don't release it, alright? Either we take it straight to a restaurant—if they want to buy, we sell. We didn't even know what kind of fish it was, just that it looked big. Ignorance is no crime."

"You want money more than life?" Ye Yaodong glared. At first he hadn't remembered, and had thought the fish was so plentiful it had even reached their area. Now that he recalled the Gezhou Dam business, better not catch it. This species would be extinct within a few years.

"Give it a try. What if we release it and someone else catches it? Why should someone else get the bargain?"

"And how do you know someone else will get the bargain? Take a look, broaden your horizons, and that'll be enough. It's not like you've never seen money before?"

Lin Xiang Hui also advised, "Forget it. It's just one fish—think of it as earning merit. This fish looks so big, it doesn't seem like something that should be in our waters. Put it back."

Lin Xiangrong frowned tightly, still very unwilling. Ye Yaodong simply snatched the bucket from his hands. "Next time I get the chance, I'll take you out to sea to catch an even bigger one. Just a few days ago I caught a giant grouper—way bigger than this fish."

Both agreed to release it. Lin Xiangrong could only watch helplessly as the fish went back into the water, heart aching to death—the money that had been in his hands had gone down the drain.

Ye Yaodong saw that, although he was sulking, he didn't rush forward to snatch it back, and felt a little relieved. He walked to the riverbank and carefully poured the fish—whether it was a Chinese sturgeon or not—back into the river.

This one had probably strayed from the main group and gotten lost, ending up here. If it could adapt and spawn here, that would be even better—no need to swim all the way back to the Yangtze, and it could survive and thrive, instead of teetering on the brink of extinction.

"Take care, big brother. Wishing you a safe journey and a house full of descendants~"

Yang Yang Dajiu heard this and was instantly covered in black lines.

The moment the fish hit the water, it swam happily. Its tail slapped the river surface, splashing water all over Ye Yaodong's face.

"Holy crap, is this your revenge? I just gave you the open seas, and you're being petty. You're the one who swam into my trap in the first place."

Ye Yaodong wiped his face, watched it swim away, and only then stood up with relief. "Alright, let's call it a night and head home. Just a little while this evening and we've already had a good haul—that's good enough. Fish and shrimp both."

Lin Xiang Hui took one regretful look at the water's surface, reluctantly pulled his gaze back, and said as they walked, "Yeah, there are quite a lot of river shrimp. We can keep half and sell half. Are you coming with us to town tomorrow?"

"I'm not going. It's only a few jin of shrimp. You two sell them and split the money yourselves. I just came to scrounge a meal."

There were no big catches anyway—what was there for him to take a share of?

Lin Xiangrong was already unhappy about the release. If he then took a share of their meager shrimp money, the guy's face would probably stretch a mile, wouldn't it? It wasn't as if he had never seen money before.

Lin Xiang Hui smiled. "Even if you don't come, there'll still be a meal for you."

"If I don't come, I can't broaden my horizons either, can I?"

To lay eyes on, and even catch, a Chinese sturgeon on the brink of extinction, and then release it—that was a special experience in itself.

"Hope it doesn't get caught by someone else!"

Ye Yaodong gave Lin Xiangrong a curious look. "Suddenly so enlightened?"

Just now he hadn't even been willing to release it!

"We just released it, and if someone else catches it and secretly sells it for big money, we'll be furious."

Well, he was overthinking it. He didn't want to release a fish only for someone else to catch it either. Better to pray it swam away quickly.

"Do many people from your village come to this river to fish?"

Lin Xiang Hui, seeing his brother still sulking, answered, "A few, I guess. They just dabble—fishing with a rod, occasionally dipping a hand net in the water, but it's hard to catch during the day. The only ones who properly set traps are us. We always come at night when it's dark, so we don't stand out."

"This was a few years ago, when Ah Qing got married. We came with the bride to your village and saw it, and figured if you could set them in the sea, you could set them in the river too. We watched carefully how someone made them there, came back, and made one ourselves. Later we found it worked really well, so we just made a few more."

"We drop shrimp nets in the river every day, and it helps with meals. A few years ago we didn't dare sell them, only ate them ourselves. It's only in the last few years we've made a bit of money to help out at home. We're just afraid that if we catch too much, too often, there'll be nothing left to catch later. We're also afraid that if we set too many nets, we won't be able to sell them all, so we never dare set many at once."

Pretty clever—they even knew about sustainable development.

"Exactly. Catch too much at once and it affects breeding."

Lin Xiang Hui smiled. "Honestly, we just don't have the time. These past few years the family has been reclaiming land and planting trees. We're busy all day, and when we get home we just collapse and sleep. Most of the time we don't have the energy to go out and catch fish or shrimp."

"That's great. During the day I saw the hillsides all planted with fruit trees—pomelos and oranges the most. Once they're ripe, that'll be another nice sum of money."

The moment fruit trees came up, it struck a chord with them. Those trees were the result of several years of hard work—they'd all been planted from saplings, not something that would bear fruit in just a year or two.

Lin Xiang Hui's swarthy face creased with a deeper smile. "We're counting on those fruit trees and tea trees up the mountain. Luckily the typhoon didn't do much damage this year, so we should get a good harvest."

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He chatted casually with Yang Yang Dajiu. The two of them had never talked this much before.