Chapter 1265: Accident

Ye Yaodong briefly explained that he would remit the money back as soon as he hung up the phone, and told Ah Qing to keep an eye out for a remittance slip in the next couple of days so she could go pick up the money.

After he finished speaking, he let the other boatmen take turns making calls, while he went over to a counter nearby.

After finishing all the procedures, he went to pay the phone bill.

The next day, he carefully hugged the money and went to remit it again, only leaving a few thousand yuan on him before he felt at ease.

Yesterday he had paid out the wages one after another; only the people on the Harvest who hadn't returned were unpaid yet. The cash on hand wasn't much left now, and he was waiting for it to keep accumulating.

If it weren't so chaotic here, with the houses all broken and battered, no property rights, and land hard to buy, and he couldn't stay here long-term anyway, with no one to show him houses and no official connections, he would have just bought a house and land outright with cash and felt even better about it.

Sigh, the time hasn't come yet—it's still '86. He'll just have to keep accumulating for now.

He stood at the entrance of the post and telecommunications office, looked out at the street, and saw that it had started raining at some point; the ground was all wet.

Seeing the rain wasn't heavy, he hurried home on the run.

Pedestrians on the road hurried along, all running here and there to take shelter from the rain.

The rain gradually grew heavier, shifting from a drizzle to a downpour. By the time he ran home, he was soaked from head to toe, and his liberation shoes were dripping wet.

The sky had also darkened; though it was clearly morning, it looked almost like nightfall.

"Suddenly the rain got this heavy…"

"Yeah, there was even a bit of sun this morning, and then all of a sudden the sky went dark."

"Oh my, there's lightning too…"

Ye Yaodong stripped off his wet clothes right at the doorway, watched a flash of lightning streak across the horizon, and said, "Looks like their fishing boats will have to turn back as soon as they head out."

He had been planning to take the fresh-fish collection boat out tomorrow, but now he didn't know if it would be affected. If a few of the boats didn't return tomorrow, he'd still have to go out and pick up a load of cargo.

The other fishing boats also returned as the rain grew heavier around noon.

The next morning, not waiting for the Dongsheng to return, he set out by boat to look for them. This time he had to go quite far out before he could get in touch with them.

Once contact was made, he learned that Father Ye and the others had been working their way eastward toward the East Sea over the past day or two, only stopping when the heavy rain came.

The rain on the sea was about the same as on land, but the wind wasn't strong.

Apart from typhoons and the cold northwest winds that howl in winter, under normal circumstances, even if the wind is strong on land, it isn't necessarily strong at sea—sometimes the farther out you go, the lighter the wind.

Inshore fishing boats sometimes can't handle the wind and waves, so when returning to port, the larger boats are often still able to keep working out on the open sea.

With the heavy rain now, although the few boats could handle it, just to be safe they were still working their way back as they fished, not daring to go too far, but also with no immediate plans to come ashore.

As Ye Yaodong sailed along, he could also see plenty of larger boats still working on the sea as usual, with workers on deck—some wearing straw rain capes, some in nylon raincoats or waterproof gear—busy with their tasks.

He thought to himself that there really were a lot of fishing boats around here; they looked densely packed on the sea, and he could spot fishing boats on and off all along the way.

After he collected the catch from the several boats and resupplied them with ice, diesel, and fresh water, he told them to be careful, not to go too far, and to stay in the stretch of sea they'd been working in the past couple of days where it was safer, before heading back himself.

The cargo manifests and the money from selling the catch from the past few days were still in his hands; he'd settle everything together once they returned.

Just as they were on their way back, however, they spotted a fishing boat out on the sea waving a red flag nonstop.

Ye Yaodong hadn't paid it much attention at first, only thinking that with the heavy rain, he should hurry back.

But after a few more glances, he noticed several people seemed to be standing on the deck, each holding a flag of a different color, all waving at them.

At that moment, Chen Guodong came over and knocked on his window.

"Dong-ge, that boat looks a bit off, doesn't it? They're waving flags at us—could something be wrong?"

Ye Yaodong slowed down a bit, picked up his binoculars and took a look, only to see them all standing there shouting with their mouths open, but they were too far away to hear a thing.

"That boat is probably calling for help. Let's get a little closer and see."

"Then shouldn't they have a radio they could use to call for help?"

"Don't know. Something might have gone wrong. Let's go over and check."

He turned the boat around and headed toward the fishing boat drifting with the waves out on the sea.

Once the distance closed, he could see the people on the other boat waving joyfully.

Something really must have gone wrong, so they had indeed been calling out earlier.

After getting closer, he stopped the boat, and the workers on deck were already shouting back and forth with the other side from a distance.

"Dong-ge, they say their radio is broken—they don't know if it got fried by the thunderstorm. They had planned to head straight back, but when they were only halfway there, it was like they entered a Bagua Formation and couldn't move, so they could only drift with the waves."

"Boss, what's a Bagua Formation? Is there something wrong with the feng shui here?"

"Could we have entered one too…"

Ye Yaodong twitched the corner of his mouth. "Heard too many ghost stories? If they're already drifting around, then they definitely couldn't move from the start right where they are now."

The things they were asking—didn't any of them ask something sensible?

"But they're shouting 'Bagua Formation' over there, and at this distance, we can't make ourselves clear when we talk, and we can't hear them clearly either."

"And it's still raining, and they don't even speak the same language…"

"Right, they don't speak the same language. It's a struggle for us to talk, and a struggle to hear. Should we get a little closer?"

"Use a bamboo pole to hook them and pull the distance closer, then ask."

"We're worried it might be a scam. The docks here are too chaotic—who knows if that fishing boat is a bunch of con artists trying to lure us in?"

Ye Yaodong thought it over and figured they had a point; he hadn't expected them to have grown a brain.

"Let me ask."

He shouted over to the other side, "Comrade, what's the problem?"

"The radio's broken…"

"The propeller… a fishing net snagged underneath…"

"The propeller… can't move…"

With the heavy rain pattering down in his ears and the sound of waves and wind never ceasing, Ye Yaodong pricked up his ears and listened carefully for quite a while, sorting it out before he roughly understood that these people really did seem to have a problem with their boat.

And while they were shouting back and forth, the other boat was also swaying with the wind and waves, gradually drifting farther away from them.

Watching the other boat being pushed farther away by the wind and waves, he had no choice but to start the engine again, close the distance once more, and then have someone hook the other boat with a pole. Only then did the two boats slowly come alongside each other.

But he still wasn't at ease, so without getting too close he asked again.

He also looked at the fishing nets scattered on the other party's deck, the various fishing tools and machinery, and the unsold fish cargo still on the boat, before believing them and moving a little closer.

"Old comrade, what's the Eight Trigrams formation you were just talking about?"

"It's a fishing net formation. The propeller got snagged by the net and can't move, we can't get back."

Ye Yaodong strained to listen before he understood, and couldn't help grumbling to himself—every place speaks so differently, and old folks speaking Mandarin still mix in their dialect, making him listen forever.

"So basically the propeller got tangled in the fishing net, lost power, couldn't sail, and your radio was broken too, so you just drifted and couldn't get back, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes, that's exactly it. Please help tow us back, I'll definitely be grateful, truly grateful."

"How long have you been drifting?"

"Yesterday morning the thunder and lightning broke it, then we headed back, but halfway there, almost arriving, we got snagged by the net, and we've just been drifting until now."

"Can't you drop anchor? Why keep drifting with the wind and waves?"

"The anchor slips, can't grip the seabed, so we can only drift."

This explanation was reasonable enough, and most of his doubts were dispelled.

If the seabed is sloped, or soft mud, or sandy, then when the anchor is dropped, the grip isn't enough, can't provide sufficient friction to keep the boat steady on the surface.

Ye Yaodong glanced again at the size of their fishing boat, feeling that just his own boat towing it would be a stretch—the other boat was twenty-seven or twenty-eight meters, with a load-bearing capacity of probably a hundred tons.

"Hold on, your boat is so big, I probably can't tow it. Let me find a rescue boat for you."

"Alright, alright… sorry for the trouble…"

He told his men to stay here watching, keep the hooking action, and also keep their distance, while he went to the wheelhouse to contact rescue.

Luckily they had already returned most of the way, with only a little over an hour's voyage to shore.

After contacting the rescue boat, they also stayed at sea together to wait.

Without them watching here, that boat would probably get knocked off course by the waves again, and then no one would know where to look for it.

As the sky gradually darkened, the rain slowly eased up.

"Dong-ge, we've already waited two hours, it's dark, why haven't they come yet?"

"So hard waiting, should we head back first?"

"What's the rush? Since we ran into them and agreed to help, let's just wait. It's dark now, and with just their one boat drifting around with the wind and waves, it'll be very dangerous—who knows when the wind and waves will pick up."

Everyone was calmed down again by his words.

Ye Yaodong checked his watch—it wasn't even 7 o'clock yet, just that because of the rain the sky had been overcast, so it got dark quickly.

While bored with nothing to do, he kept chatting with the boat captain on the other side.

It turned out they were locals born and raised, not outsiders, and the boat captain's surname was Xu.

According to these locals, currently 90% of the fishing boats at the dock were outsiders, or from surrounding towns.

Even though the surrounding towns all had docks, many fishing boats would still dock at their Shenjia Sect fishing port to sell their catch—the foot traffic there couldn't be compared to other places.

They chatted about this and that for a while. Perhaps because of his help and his staying with them the whole time, the other party was especially friendly and polite, constantly thanking him in their words, saying once they reached shore safely, they would invite him to their home as a guest.

He returned a few polite words.

After waiting almost another hour or so, he finally saw the rescue boat arrive, along with a large fishing boat.

The rescue boat also came over to understand the situation first, then formulated a plan: let the large fishing boat that came along do the towing, while his boat also had to help tow.

Before towing, he also took the chance to learn that the fishing boat, bigger than his, was nearly 40 meters long, and had been intercepted by the rescue boat on its way back and press-ganged into helping.

Because it was dark, at night compared to daytime the wind was stronger and the waves more urgent.

At this point, besides letting the fishing boat tow it back, there was no better way to rescue a fishing boat with its propeller tangled in nets in the dark.

By the time the two large fishing boats towed that boat to shore, it was already 9 PM, far exceeding his expectations.

Fortunately, this time wouldn't delay him from selling his catch.

After towing the fishing boat back to the dock, he first unloaded his cargo nearby, and under Captain Xu's strong insistence, he left the address of his rented room.

However, his selling spot wasn't far either, just at the shore. Just as he was halfway through selling, a commotion broke out around him.

Out of curiosity, he had the worker beside him go find out.

"Dong-ge, Dong-ge, the fishing boat we just towed back, in the fishing net tangled around its propeller there's a super huge whale—they say it's a killer whale."

"Super, super huge, everyone says it's ten meters…"

Ye Yaodong was surprised. "A killer whale? Is it still alive? It got tangled in the net?"

"Still alive, still in the water, hasn't been hauled up yet. There's a circle of people on the shore watching."

"Someone's already there taking turns bidding to buy it…"

"They just went down into the water to try to get the net out from under the propeller, and found that net was several hundred meters long, and while untying it they found a big fish underneath…"

"Such a huge fish, gave them a fright, then they realized it was a killer whale…"

Ye Yaodong listened to his excited, saliva-spraying account and roughly understood.

It was that killer whale trapped in the net, so when it bumped into the fishing boat it swam over seeking help, but the net was too long and got pulled into the propeller, and then the propeller couldn't move either.

And that killer whale could only be trapped by the net, in the net beneath the propeller, unable to struggle free, only occasionally coming up for air to keep from dying.

It was also lucky the propeller got tangled in the net, otherwise this killer whale would probably have been chopped into flower-cut pieces and dead as a doornail.

"It got sold?"

"Don't know, when I came over they were still bidding. Let me go take a look."

"You stay here and watch, I'll go take a look."

He was also very curious.

When he walked over, he heard people nearby say that killer whale had already been sold—for 4,000 yuan!!!

Ye Yaodong was so shocked his eyes went wide—4,000 yuan!

"What? That killer whale sold for 4,000 yuan?"

The crowd was also excited. "Yeah, bought by that boss. That boss has already sent people to arrange a vehicle."

"Ah, this is my first time seeing such a big, live killer whale…"

"It's still alive — how are they going to transport it?"

"Who cares, if they can buy it, they must have a way. It's rare to catch one alive…"

"What a stroke of luck! This boat…"

"I heard this fishing boat needed rescuing because its propeller got tangled in a fishing net, so this was a happy accident."

"What a pleasant surprise, what luck — one fish sold for four thousand yuan, that's way too easy to make money, isn't it?"

"The key is it's alive! You think a dead one could sell for this much!"

"Tsk tsk tsk, what a windfall…"

Ye Yaodong listened to everyone around him chattering away and felt envious too. His fresh-fish boat hauling a whole boatload of cargo could only earn that much.

Their one live killer whale could sell for that much money.

It wasn't that he had never encountered killer whales before, but he hadn't expected them to be so valuable. Still, he didn't have the ability to catch one — he could only watch and broaden his horizons.

Captain Xu really had good luck.

He stood in the crowd watching. All around him were the beams of flashlights, all aimed at the killer whale in the net. The killer whale in the water was still struggling constantly.

Captain Xu on the boat had his weathered old face split into a grin, his mouth almost crooked from smiling.

At this moment, many people were still soaking in the water, none daring to get too close to that killer whale.

More and more people gathered around. Ye Yaodong suddenly felt as if several hands were pawing at his body.

"……"

What the heck?

Three hands?

So brazen.

Luckily, even while watching the excitement, he kept one hand tightly gripping the money pouch inside his clothes.

Seeing the thieves around him being so brazen, he quickly grabbed a hand that was feeling around in his arms. He turned his head and saw a stranger, then immediately shouted: "There's a thief, there's a thief…"

The people around immediately stepped back, then checked the money on their bodies. Some people's faces instantly changed drastically. They rushed straight up, punching and kicking the person he had caught, then cursing as they searched him.

Ye Yaodong also quickly retreated. It was too chaotic — many people standing on the shore even fell into the sea.

Some others also discovered thieves beside them, shouting and yelling as they grabbed and beat the thieves.

"Oh my god…"

He quickly retreated further, but as he stepped back, his foot seemed to step on something hard. He looked down and was surprised again.

"Car keys? A Santana?"

It was too chaotic around him right now, so he could only quickly pick them up and first get further from the center of the chaos, back to his own stall.

"Dong-ge, why are they fighting over there? What happened? Are they fighting over the fish?"

"No, there were thieves, it was too chaotic…"

The people around nodded solemnly — it really was too chaotic.

Many people knew to protect themselves, but those caught in the middle were inevitably caught in the crossfire, making it especially chaotic.

"Has that killer whale been taken away yet?"

"No, it's still in the water. It's a mess right now. They'll probably have to wait until things calm down and the big truck drives over before they can take the fish away."

"Those thieves should be beaten to death."

Someone nearby chimed in, "They deserve it."

Ye Yaodong neither agreed nor disagreed, and said nothing.

He fiddled with the metal key in his hand, not knowing whose it was. Over there it was just a mess right now.

After quite a while, the dock management staff finally came over, and the crowd also calmed down. They kept their distance, unable to see clearly what was happening in the middle surrounded by the crowd.

They only heard people beside them say it seemed someone had been beaten to death.

At the same time, they also saw two people being dragged away by the management like dead dogs.

The people around were still cursing that they deserved it…

Ye Yaodong's impression of the chaos here deepened another layer, and he became more vigilant in his heart. He'd have to go back and tell everyone, to warn them…

The two thieves being beaten to death didn't cause a single ripple at the dock. The crowd gathered again and continued watching the excitement.

After quite a while, a large truck finally drove over, followed by a water pump he also saw.

There was also a container on the truck. The water pump continuously pumped water into the container, and then a crane came over and directly lifted the killer whale together with the fishing net.

Seawater gushed from the net back into the sea, and the crowd let out sounds of "wow."

"Wow… so big…"

"So that's how they get it up…"

"They really do want it alive…"

"I wonder where they're taking it alive…"

The crowd kept exclaiming in amazement — their eyes had been opened.

Big fish were common, but such a massive operation was not.

"Damn… they're lifting the fish up together with the net. I was just wondering how they'd get a fish this big ashore!"

"Amazing. The boss who can buy this fish is also amazing."

Ye Yaodong was also marveling inwardly — truly amazing. He squeezed the key in his hand, not knowing if it belonged to the other party.

It was pitch black right now, and he didn't know who it was. He hadn't seen anyone just now either.

Seeing the buzz of discussion around him and that it wasn't so chaotic anymore, he told his people to keep watching the stall while he went over to look again himself.

This car key is useless left with him; better to return it to its rightful owner.

But when he went back to look, he didn't hear anyone looking for a key either.

He had no choice but to go ask Captain Xu.

He didn't know if it was the boss who bought the killer whale who dropped it, but he also didn't know if there were other bosses among the crowd, so he could only ask around.

Captain Xu thought he had come to ask for a reward because he knew the killer whale sold for 4,000 yuan, and didn't really mind—after all, he'd just made a big haul and was in a great mood.

He said with a smile, "Hold on, I haven't sold the fish cargo on my boat yet, and I don't have any cash on me, so I can't properly thank you."

"The boss who just bought the killer whale is a local overseas Chinese; he didn't pay cash on the spot, only gave me a delivery note. I can only go to the factory tomorrow to collect the money."

Ye Yaodong quickly shook his head. "No, it's because I picked up this Santana car key and didn't know who dropped it. I was wondering if it might be one of the bosses around here who dropped it, so I came to ask. If you happen to know them, that'd be best—ask around, and if it's theirs, tell them to come get it later."

"A car key? Then I don't know. I'll ask when I go collect the money tomorrow. There are cars on the streets around here, but I don't know whose."

"Mm, then you go ahead with your work. I need to sell my cargo too."

"Alright, alright, thanks so much for today. Without your help, the boat couldn't have docked. It might've been delayed until tomorrow, and the whale would've died and couldn't have sold for a high price."

Ye Yaodong didn't think there was anything wrong with him selling the whale—fishermen all need to earn money to eat and support their families.

Now killer whales aren't protected animals either; catching one by accident and being able to sell it for a high price—who would refuse?

"It was nothing. Since we ran into each other at sea, if I can help, I should."

"Thanks so much. It's a bit late today—I'll come by tomorrow at noon to thank you in person…"

Ye Yaodong thought about it—tomorrow at noon he'd probably still be asleep? He had no idea how long it would take to sell all this cargo.

Still, he didn't say anything, just nodded.

"We'll talk about it tomorrow. Let me sell the cargo first—I might be selling until dawn. No rush; I'll be home all day tomorrow anyway."

"Alright, alright."

A deckhand ran over to call him, saying someone wanted to buy fish. Ye Yaodong waved and hurried off.

By the time he finished selling his cargo, sure enough it was past midnight, and he went back utterly exhausted.

Too tired to bother counting the money, he just thought back over the night's events and felt that home was still the best.

A golden nest or a silver nest is not as good as one's own dog nest. Compared to the risks out there, staying at home just feels more at ease.

No wonder they say home is the harbor of the soul. He'd only been here a short while, and though his body didn't feel especially tired, his heart felt utterly drained.

Even more tiring than catching jellyfish—things there were so much better than here.

On the way back from selling cargo at night, he could even see people fighting in groups.

Money comes fast here, but it leaves the heart uneasy. After all, he'd spent a long time in a peaceful, law-abiding society and couldn't stand people casually killing each other.

Those are human lives, no matter what. Even if a thief is wrong, they should still be punished by the law.

But they'd only just arrived a few days ago, and everyone had just tasted the sweetness—probably none of them were willing to go back.

After thinking it over, he could only hold himself back for now and tell everyone to be extra careful when going out, to endure when they could, and not get into conflicts with people.

In a few days, once the radar net was ready, they'd go out to sea to fish and see how things stood.

Making money had to have safety as a prerequisite.

After steadying his mind, he took out the money he'd earned today, and his mood immediately lifted again.

Big bills and small bills, paper notes and coins, covered the bed. At night his hand didn't dare leave his money pouch, or else he'd have nowhere to cry.

Another big haul of earnings—the corners of his mouth couldn't help but split into a grin again.

Sure enough, there's no one who doesn't like money.

He quickly pulled out a rubber band and set it on the bed, then started counting.

Today's haul was even bigger—maybe because they'd gone farther out, or maybe because they'd kept fishing continuously, having hauled in two extra nets.

In total, he sold 【amount】 tonight. With so much cargo now, the fishmongers and buyers were buying in bulk by weight, and most of the time he rounded down, not bothering with the jiao and fen.

But it was hard to guarantee no money was lost; in any case, the amount he counted out at night was a whole number.

Ye Yaodong first calculated how much he could take home for himself, then took out the cargo notes for the other boats to cross-check and divided up the money.

"5,221 yuan and 2 mao… tsk tsk tsk, what easy money…"

Today's fish cargo included quite a few valuable items like grouper, red snapper, and large prawns, all of which sold for a good price.

He took out his account book, recorded today's sales and the money divided up, and then saw that the cargo sold over the two trips combined actually came to 10,000 yuan!

His mouth fell open in surprise—compared to yesterday, he'd earned about 500 more!

Ye Yaodong was stunned, his eyes vacant as he tried to figure out how much of that was net profit, and how much he'd spent on fuel and ice today.

After sitting in a daze for a while, he finally remembered how much he'd spent on fuel and ice today, and recorded that too.

The cargo notes for the fishing boats also listed how much fuel and ice each had taken on. He passed these on at cost, without making a profit—free delivery.

He just deducted them directly on the cargo notes.

To figure out the net profit, he couldn't really calculate—there were surpluses and losses, and the fresh-fish boats coming and going were also burning fuel.

He could only keep a record of how much he spent on fuel and ice each time.

"Forget it, as long as there's profit, that's good. I'll know the total when I settle the accounts later."

After happily putting away the money and account book, he was about to take off his clothes and pants to wash up and sleep, when he felt the Santana car key in his pocket again.

So ugly!

Even with money now, he still wouldn't buy it—a tractor would be more practical.

The fishing boats at his dock were already enough for him to show off; he didn't need to buy a car to show off.

He was a practical man.