Chapter 1269: Leatherback Turtle

An international aquatic products city won't be possible until after the year 2000, but it's fine to establish a predecessor for one now.

Having an official trading market is better than the current chaos at the pier, with stalls set up everywhere.

If the official measures are firm enough and it can really be pulled off, establishing an international aquatic products city ahead of time now isn't impossible.

This port itself is known alongside Norway's Port of Bergen and Peru's Port of Callao as one of the world's three major fishing ports.

Of course, it would also need cold-chain technology to be able to sell nationwide to become even more popular.

Naturally, this kind of trading city would have to be spearheaded by the authorities; it has to be done officially.

The authorities surely want to clean up the chaotic pier as well; such chaos isn't good for their political achievements either.

Now, there are people managing the pier, overseeing the ships entering and exiting, and it's known that this is a result of official cleanup efforts, though it is still in the process of gradual improvement and exploration.

Ye Yaodong gave Zhang Rensu a few more suggestions. These were things he had seen in his past life, and by telling Zhang Rensu, letting him pass on the specific advice, he could also gain some benefits for himself.

Incidentally, it could also help the local government avoid some detours and clean up the pier ahead of schedule.

Shenjia Sect itself is located at the midpoint of our country's north-south coastline, at the confluence of the Yangtze River, Qiantang River, and Yong River, facing the vast East China Sea, possessing an excellent regional location and unique economic advantages.

Through continuous development, this port can become a comprehensive port integrating foreign trade transport, cargo throughput, fishing supplies, and maritime passenger transport.

This place is also the largest marine fishing base in the country.

Describing the future prosperity of the pier to Zhang Rensu in advance isn't "drawing a pie" or mere wishful thinking; this is something that will truly be realized.

However, Zhang Rensu surely takes it as wishful thinking, but regardless of whether what he says is fact or fantasy, it is a good direction.

Letting these local snakes contact the government to rectify the local area is also beneficial to them, and it avoids such chaos where one might get robbed just walking down the street.

And if the trading center is really built, Zhang Rensu will benefit, and naturally, he will have to remember his favor.

Since he can't go back now and wants to stay locally to earn this money, he must make more plans.

Public security and the international aquatic products city won't be sorted out in a short time, but guns must be obtained first.

This is the best guarantee for them staying here.

He hadn't failed to mention it to other fishing boats at the beginning, but everyone had tasted the sweetness right from the start; how could they bear to leave now?

They were all hoping to earn more money during the fishing season and then return home in glory.

To be honest, he had tasted the sweetness too.

Just the goods collected from the sea yesterday sold for more, earning three or four thousand more than the previous days.

Just taking a 30% cut, he had 5,000 yuan, not much less than the 40% cut he took before.

This is faster than robbing people.

Plus, the money from the Dongsheng sold is all his, and he holds a 30% stake in the other two ships, meaning that every time he goes out to sea to collect goods, his ships combined can earn 10,000 yuan.

Having only been here for 20 days, he had already earned about 30,000 yuan.

Deducting for weather reasons, earning 50,000 yuan a month is no problem for him.

Although it's because he has a fresh-fish collection ship in his hands that the money comes faster, the other ships haven't earned little either.

Like the Mancang, it belongs only to Zhou Da and his brothers; he didn't take a stake in theirs.

But they have earned about ten thousand since they came out, and it hasn't even been a month; isn't this more profitable than being at home?

A solid 10,000-plus a month, and the fishing boat will pay for itself in two months.

If they wait for the fishing season, the earnings might be even more than this.

Now if you tell them to go back, would they be willing?

Work for two months to break even; everything after that is pure profit.

There are still over four months left until the New Year.

If we go back before the New Year, there are still more than three months left to salvage; we can easily earn enough for two more large ships.

He had already calculated it before going to sleep last night: last month in Wenzhou, he had made a net profit just relying on the fresh-catch transport ships, and earning 50,000 this month would be no problem.

Calculating it out, he could earn 100,000 in two months of being out here.

Damn it, last night he just kept thinking about it, his heart pounding, feeling that his fresh-catch transport ship was truly a killer weapon—he really was too smart.

Thinking back to two days ago at sea, when Pei's father came to talk to him about splitting the profits, wasn't that just trying to leverage his transport ship to collect goods and make money?

Otherwise, without their goods, he would only be able to leave it idling at the dock.

He thought right then that after going back, he would order a few more large ships and form his own fleet; then would he still need to collect goods from other ships?

He shook the thought from his mind and looked again at Zhang Rensu, who had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Let me tell you, the local government agencies must have studied transportation—how to get goods from the dock to all parts of the country while they're still fresh. You guys should go and inquire; if you can spend a little money to take it over, you will definitely be the first to eat crab."

"Also, you can bring up the suggestion I just made. You can take our aquatic wholesale market back home and use it for comparison. Haven't you been there? Isn't that a ready-made benchmark?"

"It makes no sense that we can build an aquatic wholesale market there, yet you have such a large port here and don't even have a proper trading market—it's all just temporary camps or just right on the edge of the dock. How chaotic."

"Or I can teach you: buy that piece of land on Fish Market Street. I've looked at it; that location is absolutely prime. If you can buy it, you'll definitely be rolling in money when the time comes."

"At the very least, if you can buy a few more vacant lots on the streets here, just buy them. Even buying blindly will make you a fortune."

"You can figure it out with your eyes closed: your local government will definitely have to renovate the streets, manage public security, and then they will definitely build residential housing."

"With so many outsiders gathered here, isn't housing also a major issue? Buy the land in advance, and whatever happens later, you'll have the final say. Even if the government expropriates it, they'll have to pay compensation."

"You are the local power brokers, and you're overseas Chinese returning home to build; you'll definitely have plenty of welfare policies, and you certainly won't be afraid of people occupying it."

Zhang Rensu listened to him talk eloquently, his spit flying, and felt it made a lot of sense.

He himself had already been a bit hazy about this, but Ye Yaodong's words seemed to blow away the fog in front of his eyes.

It also let him know what he should do; he didn't necessarily have to consolidate supplies and run out every once in a while.

He smiled and said, "Why do I feel like you have a special fondness for buying land?"

"For sure, land is the foundation of the people. In ancient times, when people had money, they would all buy land and shops to become landlords."

"I can't buy it; how can you just buy and sell land like that? And that's Fish Market Street." Zhang Rensu shook his head. "If it were wasteland, we could talk about it."

"Then buy wasteland. Just look at these streets here, all one-story shacks—how many people can they accommodate? These migrant populations have a dozen or more people in one room just because there's nowhere to live. The streets will definitely be widened."

"That is true..."

"Right? Just by virtue of your overseas Chinese connections, buying a few pieces of land is a very simple matter. If you can't buy land, just buy the dilapidated houses in better locations from others."

"I've noted what you said. I'll ponder it. You've been egging me on this whole time—aren't you buying?"

"What would I buy in this place? If I buy it, can I hold onto it? I won't be staying here long-term; I'll go back to my hometown after the New Year. Whether I'll come next year is hard to say. Although it's good for making money, you have to have your life to enjoy it."

"Hmm, that's true. Alright then, the guns you want—come get them in three days."

Ye Yaodong smiled. "Refreshing. The more the better."

"I can't get too many, or they'll think I'm preparing to revolt."

"Fine, then you see to it. As much as possible, I'm afraid of dying."

"Got it."

After achieving his goal, Ye Yaodong went back first, intending to come again in a few days.

After returning, he saw that the others left behind to guard the house also knew about what they had encountered on the way back after selling the goods early in the morning, and everyone was scared for a moment.

This was the first real thing that had happened to their own people in so many days, and it was so close to death.

If they hadn't had guns in their hands, it's possible the money would have been gone and there would have been casualties.

Except for the first day they arrived, when everyone didn't know how to be patient and got into conflicts with people as soon as they arrived.

Later, everyone went out and came back together; at most, they had some verbal arguments with others, and by being patient, they lived in peace.

They had always been watching others' excitement and watching the chaos in other places, so their nerves had relaxed.

Now they were tense again.

This also served as a reminder to them that they still had to carry firearms when going out, and they couldn't have too many scruples—their lives were their own.

After he returned, seeing that everyone was more alert, he didn't say anything more.

At night, after the inshore fishing boats returned, everyone gathered together to discuss it.

Some left early and returned late, and had no idea what had happened to them in the early morning.

Some individual boat workers were also a bit scared and wanted to ask when they could go back, but the boat captains hadn't earned enough money yet, and it was the peak time for making money, so not a single one agreed.

Those working for others were also helpless and could only let the others have the final say; everyone was a bit worried.

"Adong, can you find a way to get a few more guns? That way everyone has something for self-defense and will be a bit safer..."

"Where am I supposed to get them? I'm not a firearms wholesaler. I want more myself, preferably one for everyone. I almost checked out this morning. If I could get them, I'd have to equip my own side first, but where can I get so many guns? You get a few for me?"

"Sigh, if I had known, I should have gotten a few more in the village..."

Ye Yaodong suggested, "When we go out later, go find a blacksmith shop and order a few long knives. If there are no guns, having knives is not bad either."

"Right, go find a blacksmith shop and get a few larger knives; they can also scare people."

"We won't take the initiative to cause trouble, kill people, or set fires. Anyway, as long as no one sees us fighting, no one can catch us."

"Then we can only go to the blacksmith shop to order knives."

After everyone discussed it, several boat captains agreed to go to the blacksmith shop.

Ye Yaodong also followed; who knew how many guns Zhang Rensu could get?

If there weren't enough for everyone to have one, then having a few more knives was good too; anyway, it wouldn't cost much money.

And he had many ships, so putting a few more knives on the ships could also be a precaution, but they definitely couldn't be in the hands of the boat workers; they definitely had to be locked up in his cockpit.

When he went out to sea on the fresh-catch transport ship next time, Ye Fu also got a big fright when he heard about his encounter.

He kept pulling him and talking endlessly out of lingering fear, and then this time he let Ye Yaodong stay at sea, while he temporarily took over the job of selling goods on the transport ship.

"I'm old, whatever happens happens. If something happens to you, what will the family do? What will your wife and children at home do?"

Ye Yaodong said huffily, "What kind of talk is that? I'm blessed and lucky; I turn bad luck into good."

"That still needs to be swapped. I'll go sell the goods, and you just stay at sea. Anyway, I know which factory the goods need to be delivered to."

"And I have a good temper. If people scold me or use fake scales, it doesn't matter. I can smile and ask them to buy elsewhere. You young guys have hot tempers and it's too easy to get into conflicts with people..."

"Let me go to the shore to sell goods. I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice. It doesn't matter if people scold me a few times; I won't lose a piece of meat."

"When you're away from home, you have to restrain your temper. We should smile when we should, and say nice things when we should. As long as we can earn money properly, that's fine."

"You just stay at sea. Your sea transport is good, and you can definitely catch more goods. I'll go to the shore, got it? Did you hear what I said?"

"I'm talking to you, and you're just busy with nothing there... are you listening?"

Ye Fu kept nagging endlessly, while Ye Yaodong just focused on checking the full cargo hold, letting it go in one ear and out the other, just perfunctorily brushing him off.

"Heard it, heard it, but I asked Zhang Rensu to get a few guns, and we agreed to go get them tomorrow. It just so happens that this batch of goods will be delivered to the factory to be sold, so I'll go find him to get them by the way..."

"I'll go, you just give me the instructions, I'll go. Did you mention the price? How many? Get more guns; it's safer to have them on you for self-defense."

"Yes, it's better for others to die than for oneself to die. Anyway, it's legitimate self-defense. He didn't mention the price, nor did he say how many he could get. We'll take as many as he gives us; we can't force him to give them to us. We'll tell him how much money, it shouldn't be an exorbitant price."

"Are you sure he won't overcharge?"

"He won't."

He had already said so much the day before yesterday, so he shouldn't be ripping him off.

If he really earned a lot of money relying on the information he provided, he would still owe him a favor.

"Alright then, I'll drive this boatload of goods back myself."

Ye Yaodong looked up at his father. "Are you sure? You're going back to sell the goods? Can you handle it?"

"It's not like I haven't sold them before, and the workers on the boat have experience."

"Alright then, you be careful. I've checked everything, just drive it straight back."

"Hmm."

After the father and son agreed, Ye Yaodong climbed onto the Dongsheng.

The goods all over the deck were still piled up there being sorted, gold and silver...

Everyone saw the father and son had swapped again and said with a smile, "Swapped again this time?"

"Yeah, he's worried and thinks the sea is safer than the shore."

"It's fine for the two of you to rotate; you can also get some rest."

"A father still knows how to care for his son. We really only need to focus on fishing at sea. As long as the weather is good and the wind and waves are small, it's safer than being on the shore."

"Right, the people here are much worse than back home..."

They started discussing it one after another.

Ye Yaodong said, "Get ready to cast the net."

"Alright, coming..."

They hurried to organize the fishing nets, and Ye Yaodong also went up to the cockpit to restart the fishing boat.

After the boat workers below were ready and started casting the nets, he drove the fishing boat and continued to do the circular motion over and over again.

It was almost evening, the sun was slanting west, reflecting a faint golden light on the sea surface, and the sea surface was rippling with the sea breeze.

Except for their four boats working far apart, one could also see three or four faint boats at the end of the horizon.

Each boat was tacitly keeping a long distance and doing circular motions.

Ye Yaodong also saw them when he went to collect goods from other fishing boats, patrolling from boat to boat and closing the distance, and then he counted them silently.

There were many fishing boats in this sea area, so of course, the distribution would be denser.

The work of operating at sea is boring; except for retrieving and casting the nets, the rest of the time is spent doing the same work over and over again.

Bored, he looked around for a long while before remembering he had pumpkin seeds in his pocket, which the landlady had dried and stir-fried herself.

He was a landlady killer; he was good-looking, occasionally went to the old lady's side, helped with some work when he was free, said nice things, sent fish over every day, and chatted with her.

The old lady liked him so much—he was much more youthful and energetic than the old man, and he spoke nicely.

As long as he was at home, the old lady would send him a melon or a handful of vegetables every day. These past two days, she had been sending them winter melons and pumpkins.

They were all large, couldn't be finished, and could be stored.

If he weren't there, the others wouldn't have such good treatment.

These vegetables could be sold for money to outsiders, and the thing the locals lacked the least was outsiders coming to fish.

When he came out this morning, the old lady happened to be sitting under the big tree at the door enjoying the cool. As soon as he greeted her, she immediately grabbed a handful of pumpkin seeds from her pocket, smiled, and put them in his palm, letting him eat them for fun.

Ye Yaodong just felt it was intimate. Although they spoke different languages, the old woman's heart was good. Chatting with her, she would think you were good, just like his own old lady at home.

With pumpkin seeds to crack in his mouth, Ye Yaodong wasn't bored anymore. The faint pumpkin seeds, without any seasoning, stir-fried in an iron pot, only had the original fragrance of pumpkin seeds.

When night fell and the sky was pitch black, he estimated that the tide was full, so he called people to retrieve the nets. It was just right to retrieve them and rest for a while, and have a meal.

Then retrieve another net at night, and they could take turns to rest.

Ye Yaodong stopped the circular motion and kept the fishing boat stable, while the radar net also stopped rotating.

If this were a trawler, the fishing boat absolutely couldn't stop; if it stopped, it would get snagged on the bottom, so it had to move forward slowly and slowly use the winch to retrieve the net.

Only after it was retrieved could the fishing boat stop.

But the radar net was to stop the boat first, keep the fishing boat stable, and then adjust the position of the net gear before slowly retrieving the net.

A heavy, large bag was hoisted up. Everyone had seen it a lot recently, so they watched it calmly and then untied the net mouth.

It was just dark, and the hairtail fish probably hadn't come out to be active yet. The hairtail fish retrieved in this net weren't many and could only be considered very ordinary. Of course, small yellow croaker and white pomfret made up the majority.

In the dark night, the colors of the two kinds of fish formed a sharp contrast, and the color contrast was more intense than in the daytime.

However, just as everyone squatted down and intended to pick and sort, suddenly, from the pile of fish cargo like a small mountain, a pitch-black thing suddenly emerged from the yellow and white.

"Ouch, my mother, what is that?"

"What, don't scare me, in the middle of the night..."

Ye Yaodong had just retrieved the fishing net and came down to eat, and he was a bit curious hearing their startled voices.

After the boat stopped, there was no roaring of the machine, only the sound of the wind and the sea, and everyone's speaking voices sounded particularly clear.

"What are you guys doing?"

"No, that black thing is moving... Lin Mu... it turns out to be a turtle, no, a sea turtle."

"It's a sea turtle... I see its head..."

Ye Yaodong listened to everyone's discussion and also leaned forward, and he also saw a pitch-black, huge sea turtle head emerging from the pile of fish cargo!

"Turtle head? What sea turtle is so black? What's there to be startled about?"

"Hehe, didn't see clearly. Just reached out and saw a big black thing. Usually, where would you see claws as black and shiny as a fan?"

"I'll go, this foot is so big!!!"

"How come this foot looks like a paddle for rowing a boat?"

Ye Yaodong's spirits lifted. He thought it was just an ordinary sea turtle, but he didn't expect that just one foot crawling out of the fish cargo would be so big. Then how big must the whole sea turtle be?

Before he squatted down, he watched another front claw crawl out of the fish cargo.

Following that, the two front claws of this sea turtle kept moving, and its turtle head was also swaying there, trying to let its body crawl out of the pile of fish cargo.

Ye Yaodong watched it waving its front claws so arduously and hurried to poke at the pile of cargo pressing on the sea turtle, so that it could crawl out, and he could also see how big it was.

"Help a bit, it can't even crawl out, and I don't know how big it is..."

"How come we even caught such a big sea turtle? It was pressed inside by the cargo, and we couldn't see it at all..."

"Yeah, we didn't see it when we poured it out, there was too much cargo..."

"I did see something black, and I thought it was a black croaker, but I didn't expect it to be a sea turtle. How come this is black?"

Everyone spoke while poking at the upper layer of fish cargo. After clearing the fish cargo on top, everyone was surprised.

"Wow, so big!"

"Damn, such a big one? What kind of sea turtle is this?"

"Damn it, can this even be used as a table? How come it's so big? What kind of sea turtle is this?"

Ye Yaodong touched its back. The touch felt very similar to leather, and he said with a smile, "This is a leatherback turtle."

This leatherback turtle was very large. He estimated that the body length should have reached 1.7 meters, which was larger than any sea turtle he had caught when he was catching jellyfish.

When he was catching jellyfish, the sea turtles he accidentally caught, no matter how big they were, couldn't compare to this one.

Even for him, this was the largest sea turtle he had ever seen so far. The leatherback turtle really lived up to its reputation.

It is said to be the largest existing sea turtle in the world and also one of the largest existing reptiles. The largest individual body length can reach 2.4 meters, and the weight is even more exaggerated, reaching 916 kilograms!

This one definitely didn't reach that, but it was also a size that no one had ever seen before.

Everyone looked at the complete appearance of the sea turtle emerging from the pile of fish cargo, their mouths were all open, and they kept exclaiming in surprise.

"This shell doesn't seem hard when touched..."

"It really looks different from a normal sea turtle..."

"Its back looks like the long, diamond-shaped loofah we grow in our hometown..."

"Hahaha, it seems so..."

This leatherback turtle has a large head and a short neck, with complex and irregular scales arranged, four limbs shaped like paddles, no claws, long front limbs and short hind limbs, and a short tail.

Its body back is pitch black or dark brown, scattered with white spots. The back is a thin and tough ossified skin, like a shield, and sometimes there are some pink and white spots dotted on it.

There are 7 longitudinal ridges arranged on the carapace, and the ridges are slightly concave like grooves. The plastron is not completely ossified, and there are 5 longitudinal ridges. Its texture is very similar to leather, and this is also the origin of the name "leatherback turtle."

"Hey hey hey, don't touch its head..."

Ye Yaodong saw a young boat worker reaching out to touch its sea turtle head and hurriedly shouted.

"Its head is very sharp, and there are flesh thorns pointing backward in its throat, which can make it difficult for prey to escape. Be careful, don't get bitten, you can't just touch it randomly."

"Ah, like that... seeing you all touching it there, I touched it too."

"That didn't mean you should touch the turtle head!"

The young man's face turned red instantly. "Boss..."

"Hahaha..."

Everyone was really making dirty jokes, one after another, and talking about yellow things instantly made the atmosphere enthusiastic.

"Stop joking, help lift it and see if we can lift it?"

"Alright, lift it and see. Such a big one, it must weigh several hundred jin..."

"Ptooey ptooey..."

After everyone stood in their positions, they all spat saliva into their palms, rubbed them, and then started.

"Heile sai..."

Everyone shouted slogans together and exerted force.

"One, two, three, try again..."

They used all their strength, their eyes bulging, the veins on their foreheads bulging, and the biceps on their arms also bulging high.

"It won't work... can't lift it..."

"My back molars are about to be bitten off, can't lift it..."

"Can't do it, can't do it, can't lift it up..."

Ye Yaodong himself also used all his strength, but he couldn't lift it either.

"I fuck, how many hundred jin is this? Six people can't lift it."

"Is it because everyone hasn't eaten, isn't full, and has no strength?"

"Haha, I think it's you who are hungry..."

"It's really hungry... otherwise, let everyone eat first, and try again after eating?"

Ye Yaodong nodded. "Alright, let everyone go eat first. It's really late, everyone is hungry. After eating and having strength, try again and see. This big guy must weigh four or five hundred jin, so many people can't lift it."

"Such a big one, can it be sold for a good price?"

"The living orca a while ago could be sold for 4,000 yuan after reaching the shore."

"Right, right, this sea turtle is also alive. I've never seen such a big one in my life, it must be able to be sold for a price!"

"Got rich, sure enough, Adong's sea transport is strong. If your father drove the boat, we wouldn't have seen any big fish."

"Right, before I followed the boss, I heard that the whole village was saying the boss's sea transport is strong..."

"Stop flattering, hurry up and eat. My sea transport is strong, isn't that something everyone in the world knows?"

Ye Yaodong thought that if it couldn't be lifted, he could only take it back first. He originally wanted to release it back into the sea if it could be lifted.

Fortunately, they had been out for many days, and it was time to go back next time. Such a big one wouldn't die if it was occasionally splashed with seawater.