Chapter 173: Bribery

After autumn, the sky got dark earlier day by day. When he had just beaten A Guang, he could still see a faint light, but now it was pitch black, and he could almost not see his fingers when walking on the road.

Every household, in order to save some electricity, didn't want to turn on the lights if there was nothing to do, and everything looked pitch black, only occasionally a few households had lights on in the room.

The roads in the countryside were not very flat, and some places were only roads after many people walked, so Ye Yaodong tried to take the main road and slowed down the walking speed.

However, when he passed an intersection, he heard noisy voices from afar. He was a bit surprised. There were no happy events or funerals in the village today. In the middle of the night, where did it come from so noisy?

He walked curiously to the source of the sound, and then found that it was his uncle's house, which was no wonder.

His uncle had two sons and four daughters. After all the daughters were married, the rooms were enough to live in. The family separation meant that each family occupied two rooms and set up another stove, but they lived in the same land.

After approaching, he saw half of the villagers gathered at their door, men, women, old and young, all blocked there, eating melon seeds while discussing when the television could be watched? How long until the point...

It just so happened that he didn't come to watch the excitement yesterday. After passing by today, he also stood in the crowd leisurely, listening to everyone discussing how capable Ye Yaohong was, and how useless his own son was...

And their children sat happily in front of the television, waiting for the news broadcast later. The adults greeted the villagers there, listening to the compliments, Ye Yaodong saw that they were about to float to the sky.

He curled his lips. Originally, he was quite curious, but he stood for a long time, listening to it over and over again, and felt it was quite boring.

If he hadn't wanted to wait for the news broadcast, he would have turned and left long ago. At this time, current affairs and politics could only be understood through newspapers and news, but he didn't know characters. A pile of old newspapers in front of him, he couldn't turn out any reason, so he could only wait to listen to the news.

At this time, the news broadcast was also at seven o'clock, talking about stage central work, important strategic planning, major activities, etc.

After listening to the continuous strengthening of the crackdown on illegal smuggling crimes in coastal areas, Ye Yaodong kicked the melon seed shells on his shoes and left with satisfaction.

The villagers had to continue watching the television after that, and didn't leave.

He walked toward the beach in the dark, but saw another group of people walking over in the distance. He stopped, and it was Lin Jishang leading.

After Lin Jishang approached and saw him, he also flickered his eyes, then stopped and smiled and greeted him, "Still not going back so late?"

"There is the first television in the village, the whole village is shocked, it's still early at this time, everyone is watching television and watching the excitement."

"Oh? The first television? I haven't been home for two days, so I haven't heard of it." Lin Jishang was surprised.

Ye Yaodong saw that his expression didn't look like a fake, thinking that eldest cousin should have nothing to do with him.

"Are your boats coming in again tonight? Are you going to unload cargo again? It seems a bit frequent recently?"

Lin Jishang frowned. "How do you know?"

They generally arrive in the village at night and leave at dawn. They rarely stay in the village during the day. After all, strange faces are more eye-catching in the village. Although they can say they are boatmen, it is better to appear less.

"I live by the beach."

After Ye Yaodong reminded him, he left the tangled Lin Jishang and walked away directly.

If it wasn't for thinking that this person seemed to be a small leader of their smuggling line, and it would be more convenient to find him to bring things if he really needed anything in the future, he wouldn't remind him. He hoped they would restrain themselves a little. After all, some things in this life and the previous life were different.

Lin Jishang was a bit like a purchasing agent in his eyes? The kind left for backup.

Ye Yaodong walked lightly directly toward his home, temporarily throwing this matter behind his head, but didn't expect that early the next morning, when their family was still eating breakfast, Lin Jishang suddenly came to the door, which was completely unexpected to him.

He was confused, and they had no friendship, so he stood up, "Is there anything?"

"Eating breakfast, sorry to bother you."

"It's okay, what do you have to say."

Lin Jishang smiled and took out a small box like jewelry from his arms, put it on the table, and pushed it to him.

"Our boats have been arriving at night recently, and moving fish cargo seems to be a bit loud, disturbing you, so I came to apologize."

"Ah?" Ye Ya

There was even this unexpected surprise?

Lin Ji then said with a smile, "We will try to be quieter in the future, or arrange to dock during the day, so as not to disturb or bother everyone."

Tsk tsk tsk, he seemed to be one of the only two junior high graduates in the village; educated people really speak with a certain level of sophistication. No wonder he could take the lead. If one didn't know the situation, one could barely understand his insinuations, but to anyone else, it would sound completely confusing.

For example, his wife was listening with a completely blank expression right now, not daring to interrupt and ask.

"We're all from the same village, no need to be so polite. If you keep the noise down, you won't disturb anyone. I just happened to see you a few times when I came out to use the latrine at night."

"As long as it doesn't bother everyone, that's good. Then I won't disturb your breakfast."

"Haha, alright, walk slowly."

Lin Xiuqing was completely bewildered. Once the person left, she immediately asked, "What did he come here for? Why couldn't I understand? What noise is there at night? Aside from the sound of the waves, where is there any other sound? Even if the noise of moving cargo at the pier is loud, how could it reach us here?"

Ye Yaodong picked up the small box on the table and opened it to take a look.

"A watch?" Lin Xiuqing exclaimed directly.

"Shh~ keep your voice down."

Ye Yaodong hadn't expected him to be so generous; this mechanical watch must cost one or two hundred, right?

Lin Xiuqing was completely confused. What kind of riddle were they playing? Why did he give their family a watch for no reason?

"I found out about something, he's trying to keep me quiet, that's why he sent a watch."

"Did something happen at the pier at night?"

Ye Yaodong was stunned for a moment. His wife was this sharp? Her reaction was this fast?

"Shh, don't ask. Anyway, we're just ordinary fishermen, we don't know anything. It's just a watch, we'll take it since he gave it."

It just so happens that when he's out at sea, he can check the time; otherwise, he often doesn't know what time it is and can only look at where the sun is setting.

"So we just stayed at home and picked up a watch for nothing?"

Ye Yaodong said with a chuckle, "You could say that."

This person has probably been raking in money for a long time, just keeping a low profile without advertising it. It's just a watch; it doesn't mean much to him.

Seeing that he was indifferent and carefree, Lin Xiuqing thought about how the man didn't seem to ask them to do anything, just said a few vague words and left. So, why not take it if it's free?

"Eat first, don't overthink it, it has nothing to do with us."

"Then are you going to wear this watch directly? Or put it away first?"

"Wear it, it's just right for checking the time at sea."

After putting the watch on, Ye Yaodong turned his wrist, then pulled his sleeve down to cover it, so as not to be too conspicuous.

Lin Xiuqing still felt very puzzled and didn't know what it was about, but since he didn't intend to say, she had no choice but not to ask. With a pile of housework to do at home, she turned her head and put it out of her mind.

After eating, Ye Yaodong went to get the longline hooks he had someone make. He had made three baskets in one day; the lines were coiled neatly in the baskets, and the hooks were hung neatly around the edges of the bamboo baskets, just waiting for bait.

He was very satisfied; it saved him a lot of trouble. In a while, he would go to sea to collect the catch from the ground cages and use the ready-made bait to set them.

Hearing Xiao Xiao and Azheng were the same, but they had fewer ground cages, so they finished collecting faster than him. Once finished, they took the lead in rowing their boat further away to find a fishing area.

Working as a pair, their speed was much faster than one person; one steered the boat, and the other hung the bait there.

When Ye Yaodong passed near them after finishing his ground cages, he saw that they had already finished baiting and were preparing to drop the hooks. He felt a little depressed and hurried up his speed.

He didn't use small shrimp for all the bait; a small portion used fish meat, and he also took three small squids as bait to try out. He just didn't know what he could catch; the size of the small squid was not small compared to the small shrimp, and fish of two or three jin couldn't swallow them.

Anyway, it wouldn't hurt to try and see if he could catch big fish.

Setting longline hooks alone is not as convenient as with two people because it requires setting while steering. Ye Yaodong was flustered, steering and setting at the same time.

After finishing the first basket of main line, he connected the tail end of this basket to the head of the second basket, along with the buoy rope and sinker rope, and threw them into the water. Then he threw the second basket, and after that, the third.

Only after he was drenched in sweat and finished throwing them all did he breathe a sigh of relief.

But being slow in one step means being slow in every step. By the time he finished, Azheng and Hearing Xiao Xiao had already been idle and caught several fish, and now he could see them from afar preparing to pull the longlines.

He felt depressed again. After switching to the iron-hulled boat, he must hire someone. Being one person short really delays things too much.

Watching them continuously catching big fish in the distance, Ye Yaodong also learned from Azheng's method yesterday and pulled the rope to make the bait move.

After waiting for a long time, seeing that more than two hours had passed, Ye Yaodong checked his watch and felt the time was about right, so he started moving.

He rowed the boat to the very end to start pulling up the anchor, but as he prepared to retrieve the line, he saw the sea surface suddenly churning, and a big guy was swimming rapidly on the water.

"A dolphin? No, it's a porpoise."

Porpoises look very similar to dolphins, but they lack a dorsal fin and their whole body is a pale blue color.

He was pleasantly surprised, but then saw it suddenly stop on the water surface, its body swaying left and right, as if it had lost its balance.

"Dongzi? Have you pulled the line yet?"

He turned his head to look at them as they were coming toward him, and incidentally threw the anchor back into the sea, preparing to retrieve the line later.

"No, there's a strange porpoise on the sea surface here. Do you have a cast net?"

As the fishing boat gradually approached, they also saw the strange porpoise swimming rapidly and rolling on the sea surface.

Azheng said regretfully, "We didn't bring one. We thought cast nets were too inefficient, and since we already have longline hooks for longline fishing, bringing one was useless, so we didn't bring it today."

"Ah?" Ye Yaodong looked regretful; there was no way to catch it without a fishing net.

The three of them could only watch helplessly as it rolled from time to time, swam rapidly from time to time, and occasionally made sounds. They couldn't distinguish them; it felt like some sounded like sheep bleating, and others like bird chirping.

"What is it doing? Why is it so strange?"

"I don't know. Is it playing there?"

"It's all alone, what's it playing? It doesn't look like it either."

"We bring nets every day, but today we didn't bring one. What a pity. If I had known, I would have left one on the boat as a backup. This one looks like it's 1.5 meters long, it's an adult."

"Let's watch first."

The three of them watched in confusion for a good while, until Azheng inadvertently said, "Could it be giving birth?"

"Hey? That's possible!"

"It seems so, look at its belly, it looks quite big!" Ye Yaodong's eyes lit up. No wonder it was struggling on the sea surface like this; it was actually giving birth.

"It looks like it's in a lot of pain?"

"It feels more painful than my wife giving birth, and it can still struggle; it even flopped all the way from over there to here."

"This is my first time seeing a porpoise give birth."

Before long, the flopping on the sea surface became even more intense, then suddenly stopped in an instant. A calf was actually swimming vigorously toward the sea surface, while the porpoise was belly-up.

"Ah? It's born?"

"It's born, it's born..."

"What are you so excited about? It's not your calf."

"What kind of talk is that? I'm happy for you, your legacy continues!"

"Go to hell..."

Ye Yaodong listened to the two of them joking around, and saw the large porpoise not far away swimming in the opposite direction of the calf, as if trying to break the umbilical cord.

Sure enough, the moment the umbilical cord broke, the calf took the opportunity to rush out of the water to breathe air.