Chapter 167: No, it's a Green Wrasse

"No, this isn't a Humphead Wrasse!"

"Ah?"

"How could this not be a Humphead Wrasse?"

The other two looked on in amazement.

This fish was on the larger side. Azheng had only pulled the rope once, and the fish was still in the water, but they could clearly see that its skin was greenish, and its head was shimmering with blue light. The colors were bright and beautiful, and it really looked quite like a Humphead Wrasse.

The Humphead Wrasse's body is also yellowish-green, its head is dark green, and its whole body is colorful, while the juvenile fish are dark blue.

This fish looked quite like the "king of fish," the Humphead Wrasse, but it wasn't.

Ye Yaodong rowed the boat closer, stretched his head out to identify it carefully, and then said with certainty, "This one isn't a Humphead Wrasse. It's a Green Wrasse."

"Green Wrasse? No way? The difference between the two is huge! This fish is so big, aren't Green Wrasses usually very small?" Azheng couldn't believe that such a beautiful fish wasn't a Humphead Wrasse, but actually a Green Wrasse.

Hearing Xiao Xiao identified it carefully and also said hesitantly, "It seems it really is a Green Wrasse. Hurry up and pull hard, pull it up and let's see its mouth."

"I was already pulling very hard just now. I don't know how many jin it is. There are probably still a lot of fish under this row of hooks. This rope isn't thick enough, it's not easy to pull, it's a hassle."

"I'll help you together..."

"Green Wrasses can be big too. This one looks like it should be twenty or thirty jin. Pull it up a bit more, and you'll know when you see its mouth. This one is a Green Wrasse, not a Humphead Wrasse."

Ye Yaodong was very certain.

Their appearances were very similar; both were long and oval-shaped, and their heads were round and convex, and both had beautiful patterns.

But the Humphead Wrasse's mouth is one of its major features. Its entire body is yellowish-brown to greenish, and it grows a protruding mouth.

Moreover, the bulge between the Humphead Wrasse's eyes is extremely obvious, like a fish wearing a Napoleon hat, while the Green Wrasse doesn't have this feature.

Their fishing boat had once netted both types of fish at the same time and put them together for comparison. The bright colors of these two fish made his memory fresh.

It took a lot of effort for the two of them to pull the fish out of the water bit by bit, and only then did they clearly see its appearance.

The fish body was light green, the head was shimmering with a hint of blue, and the most eye-catching thing was its long teeth growing outward, looking just like buckteeth.

"It really is a Green Wrasse? Just now when I pulled it up a little, I thought it was a Humphead Wrasse." Azheng had a look of slight disappointment.

"It's also awesome. First Humphead Wrasse, second Green Wrasse, third Grouper."

"Unless it's a juvenile Humphead Wrasse, adult Humphead Wrasses are generally 2.5 meters long. This isn't something we can catch."

"Dongzi is right. At first, when it just showed a little bit above the water, I didn't see it clearly and thought it was a Humphead Wrasse." Hearing Xiao Xiao patted him on the shoulder. "Alright, unhook the fish and put it in the bucket. This fish can also be sold for a very good price."

"How much is it worth?" Ye Yaodong was a bit curious. He really didn't know how much these precious fish were worth at this time.

"Three or four yuan per jin, I guess. Humphead Wrasse is valuable; it's four or five times the price of a Green Wrasse."

Ye Yaodong understood. It was a hundred times different from a few decades later.

"The harvest is very good. This fish is 20 jin, right? It can be sold for a good price."

Azheng instantly came back to life, as if he had been injected with chicken blood. "Continue, continue, there are 200 hooks, right?"

"The time out today is too short. Otherwise, you could collect fish while baiting. If there are many hooks, after collecting from head to tail, you can collect from head to tail again."

Seeing this, he was also a bit envious. He felt that the troublesome work in the early stages seemed acceptable. At worst, he could spend a few cents to hire someone to organize the fishing lines and hooks.

This longline fishing was quite simple to do.

Azheng said with a smile, "My father-in-law told me to set this longline and stop messing with hand-casting nets. I just said I hadn't set it before, so let's try two baskets first. When we go back later, we'll definitely increase it. We'll set a few more baskets tomorrow and get 500 hooks. This is much less trouble than casting the net yourself. Just keep the hand-casting net on the boat as a backup, unless you encounter a school of fish."

"It wouldn't be too many even if you got 1000."

Next, Azheng kept pulling the fishing line, and Hearing Xiao Xiao cooperated by unhooking. The fish caught were all at least one jin or more; there were no small fish.

It truly achieved the goal of keeping the big and releasing the small, developing in a positive way. It was a relatively restrained fishing method.

Besides this Green Wrasse, they also caught two Tiger Groupers in succession. Tiger Groupers were considered the most common groupers. There were also Spanish mackerel, leatherjacket fish, black sea bream, eel, croaker, etc.

But what surprised everyone was that on the last hook, they actually caught a small gray dolphin as a bonus!

Azheng was a bit stunned as soon as he pulled it up. He scratched his head. "Are dolphins this greedy too? Should we let it go?"

"Let it go. This is a dolphin cub."

This wasn't an ordinary dolphin; it was a Chinese white dolphin. Ye Yaodong recognized it at a glance. Its body length was no more than one meter, probably about twenty or thirty jin. Its body was still gray; adult white dolphins have pink bodies.

Except for research institutes, fishermen are prohibited from catching dolphins.

Their country isn't like Japan. In Japan, hunting dolphins has become a custom. In their country, celebrating a bumper harvest usually involves killing chickens, ducks, and geese, while Japanese villagers kill dolphins every year to celebrate a bumper harvest.

Azheng patted its head and took the hook out of its mouth. "Go, don't be so greedy next time."

That little dolphin seemed to have spirituality. After being released into the sea, it poked its little head out again and watched for a long while before swimming toward the seabed.

But not long after, it actually came back and even jumped on the water surface.

All three of them were a bit puzzled by its strange behavior.

"Hey, there's a big one underneath!"

Ye Yaodong looked at the sea surface with bright eyes. He saw a huge Chinese white dolphin emerge from the sea, then extend its dorsal fin to slap the water surface repeatedly, making a "yi~ wu~ yi~ wu" sound.

After the big dolphin finished calling, the little dolphin also learned its movements, slapping the water surface while calling. The sound felt particularly cute.

After they finished calling, they both did a somersault on the water surface at the same time before diving to the seabed.

All three grown men watched in a daze.

Ye Yaodong was surprised for a while before coming back to his senses and touching his chin. "This white dolphin is a bit cute?"

"Indeed."

"The colors of these two are a bit different. They don't seem to be the same breed as what we've seen in the past."

Of course, this is a Chinese white dolphin.

"Did they just come over to say goodbye to us, or to thank us?"

"Maybe both?"

"Why do you say the Japanese are so cruel? I heard they hunt many dolphins every year. They even have a dolphin hunting festival. From mid-September every year until March of the following year, more than 20,000 dolphins and small whales are slaughtered."

"Damn..." Hearing Xiao Xiao cursed a few times and said to Ye Yaodong, "How do you know that?"

"Read it in the newspaper. Work's done, bumper harvest, let's go home."

Hearing Xiao Xiao was a bit confused. "You can read?"

"Guessed it. Hurry up and look at your fish cargo."

Damn, believe him, he could guess this too?

He was about to retort, but was pulled by Azheng. "Never mind if he can read or not. Your fishing lines are a mess, I can't handle it."

"Doesn't matter, just throw it there. I'll ask someone to organize it before going out to sea tomorrow."

He passed over the two baskets of lines and hooks on the boat, looked at the two buckets on the boat that were almost full, and some fish cargo could only be thrown onto the deck. His mouth was almost split to the back of his ears with joy.

The most numerous among them were croakers, each weighing two or three jin. He estimated there were twenty or thirty of them.

Just these croakers filled a large bucket, and there were other fish cargo, all big fish.

Ye Yaodong also didn't expect that with just two baskets of longlines, he would catch so much fish cargo. This wasn't worse than trawling. If he set a few more hooks, couldn't he catch more?

He was also very tempted. Maybe he could try it too.

Fishing with a rod, one by one, wasn't as good as using longlines with the longline fishing method. The cargo came faster. Anyway, ground cage nets were less trouble; just check them every other day.

The sea at this time hadn't been overfished, and marine resources were very rich. Many species that became rare in later generations were still very abundant at this time, and it wasn't illegal.

On the way back, he pondered while rowing. Making this kind of longline wasn't troublesome, it was just that there were too many branch lines, but it was still less trouble than making a ground cage net.

After taking the cargo to the collection point and hearing that the Green Wrasse had actually sold for 86 yuan, he made up his mind. When he went back, he would ask someone to make longlines. Anyway, it didn't conflict with ground cage nets.

After saying goodbye to the two happy people, he carried the remaining worthless fish cargo toward his home, but unexpectedly saw his uncle and two cousins in his eldest brother's house at the door, and even his second brother, who had just returned from the sea, was there.

He didn't know what they were talking about, but his two brothers' expressions looked a bit hesitant.

At this moment, Ye Yaopeng happened to see Ye Yaodong returning at the door and hurriedly ran to the door to call him in.

Ye Yaodong didn't know why, and was called into the house with a confused face.

"What's the matter?"

The eldest cousin, Ye Yaohong, patted his shoulder with a bright smile. "Dongzi, I heard you've been working very actively lately? You even got a small boat, and your daily harvest is very good. It must be very hard, right?"

"Just so-so. Since we've separated the family, I can't let my wife and children starve to death."

In his memory, this cousin's eyes had always been on the top of his head. Was he taking the wrong medicine today to be so amiable and condescending?

And he was actually dressed so brightly today, actually wearing a suit and leather shoes, and his hair was combed shiny and smooth. Had he already made a fortune?

"That's what you say, how could it be that bad? We're all relatives. Just say the word when you're in trouble."

"Eldest cousin, that's generous. I heard you went out to do business. It's been a few months, right? You've made a fortune, haven't you? Otherwise, why don't you lend your brother one or two thousand? It just so happens that I also want to change to a bigger boat to earn more money to subsidize the family." Ye Yaodong deliberately pretended that his eyes lit up, looking surprised.

Ye Yaohong's mouth twitched immediately. He hadn't said anything yet, and he had already opened his mouth to borrow money.

Uncle Ye glared at him at this time. "Dongzi, have you gone crazy thinking about money? You open your mouth to borrow one or two thousand. Are you treating your eldest cousin like a pig to be slaughtered?"

"How could that be? Isn't this what cousin said, we're all relatives, just say the word when you're in trouble. Uncle didn't treat our family as outsiders a few months ago, right? It's just that my dad is a bit short on cash and wants to build us a house. Otherwise, since we're brothers, he would definitely be willing to take money to lend to you and the second uncle. We're all relatives, Uncle, you wouldn't be unwilling, would you?"

"My dad's boat looks quite broken too. Although it's repaired, who can predict the risks at sea? Eldest cousin, can you lend a little bit so my dad can renovate the boat and add a few more coats of paint?"

Uncle Ye's face turned black immediately, and he didn't know how to answer for a moment.

It was just that he had said the wrong thing a few months ago, and this kid had actually been petty enough to remember it for so long!

Ye Yaodong snorted coldly in his heart. Cursing my whole family.

There was nothing good about coming to the door today. In his previous life, he didn't know what this eldest cousin was doing. After making a fortune, he moved directly to the county town to live, and didn't associate with their poor relatives. Occasionally, when he returned to the countryside, he had a look of disdain and contempt for their poor relatives.

If you look down on us, you don't have to come back, but you love to come back to show off and find a sense of superiority. Later, I heard that he also got addicted to gambling, lost all the family fortune he had accumulated, and beat his wife to vent his anger every few days.

If there's nothing to do, he won't go to the temple. I don't know what he's doing here today?

Does their family have anything worth him thinking about? Looking at his eldest brother and second brother's expressions, they seem quite embarrassed?