Chapter 326

Once the time came at night, Ye Yaodong got up on time. After taking a look, there wasn't much wind or rain, so he prepared to go out to sea as usual.

The wind and waves on the sea weren't big either, it was just that the pier didn't look as lively tonight. Many of the boats on the shore were still docked there. In the past, when they went out to sea at night, headlamps were flashing everywhere outside the pier, but tonight the number had clearly decreased a lot.

He guessed that everyone must have been resting and had all gone up the mountain to cut tree branches. After all, just resting for one day could bring huge returns.

When he rested and went up the mountain the day before yesterday, it happened to rain at night, and it only cleared up in the morning, so it wasn't a loss.

Heading toward that sea area as usual, he had discussed it with his father: they wouldn't go into the water today, and they wouldn't trawl for now either. They would just go to the beach to pick up squid, and then wait until the afternoon to cast nets. It didn't matter if the ground cages were collected in a day or two.

Otherwise, the squid stranded on the deserted island wouldn't be picked up by anyone and would all go to the seabirds, which would be too wasteful. The pen shells on the seabed wouldn't run away anyway; it would still be in time to go down and dig them up in half a month or a month.

The light was poor in the pitch-black night, but wearing a headlamp didn't affect picking up squid. It was just that it wasn't the high tide period, and although the tide was receding, it hadn't receded very low, so not much of the beach was exposed.

The squid around were all being washed up by the seawater and then immediately taken back down, repeating constantly. There were fewer stranded ones, and they were all rippling back and forth in the shallow water.

Ye Yaodong told his father to pick them up on that small patch of beach, while he went into the water to scoop them up. Anyway, he was wearing rain boots, and the handle of the hand-held net was long, so he wasn't afraid of it being hard to scoop. The efficiency could be even faster; it would probably just be hard on the waist.

The seabirds from the day must have all been full and had gone into the forest at night to sleep. When they were busy on the beach, no seabirds showed their heads.

Otherwise, even at night, there would be seagulls or gannets coming out to forage, and shearwaters would also appear on the sea surface at night; they often didn't distinguish between day and night.

Yesterday, they must have all been fed full.

Ye Yaodong held a sack in one hand and a small hand-held net in the other, slowly scooping in the water, dividing the work with Ye Fu.

Just scooping casually into the water yielded six or seven squid; it couldn't be more satisfying.

Just after scooping them up, the seawater would send more up when it moved, so he just stood still, and the area in front, behind, left, and right was enough for him to scoop for a while.

Feeling that there were fewer squid being washed up by the seawater nearby, he slowly moved his position.

Wherever the headlamp on his head turned, it shone, also attracting a small patch of phototactic fish to approach. Those silvery-white figures kept jumping under the halo of his headlamp, rolling like boiling water.

He scooped them up in surprise, and wasn't surprised when he saw they were anchovies.

Anchovies are also small phototactic fish, actually called *zi zhi* or *feng zhi*. They aren't valuable, and the fish are small with many bones, but they are especially fragrant when pan-fried or deep-fried.

It was just too extravagant. He had just fried sand worms a few days ago, and that was only because A-Yuan had just stayed at their house to play, so Ye Mu had reluctantly fried them once. If he asked her to fry them again now, there was no way.

These fish ran under the light by themselves and gathered around, densely jumping on the water surface. He couldn't help but want them, so he could only reluctantly catch them; he would just sell them directly when the time came.

He took another sack out of his pocket and packed them separately, saving the trouble of having to pick through them for a long time later.

He had just brought two sacks into the water, thinking that there should be fish and shrimp stranded when the tide receded. In case he could scoop up a few fish, or pick up some sea snails or shellfish, he would have a place to put them.

He scooped a net casually, and there were fish and squid. He picked out the squid and threw them into the sack, and only then poured the anchovies into the other sack.

After the interference of these small fish, his speed in catching squid slowed down, which made him a bit depressed. Squid were much more valuable than small fish, but there was no way around it; he still needed the light for illumination.

As the tide receded, he gradually moved forward. This also allowed him to catch two Spanish mackerel, and he also scooped up a large red octopus. He put them all into the anchovy sack.

By the time the sky was just beginning to brighten, he turned off the headlamp, and the anchovy school no longer gathered around him in a boiling state. The forest on the island also became lively. His ears were no longer filled only with the sound of waves; all kinds of insect chirps and bird calls were endless, and seabirds also gradually flew out of the forest to forage.

Just after the anchovy school was gone, seabirds came; it was really a headache.

With the interference of birds snatching food, he couldn't work properly again. From time to time, he had to wave his hand-held net to drive away the bold seabirds snatching food from his mouth.

And as the sky brightened, the seabirds had a trend of gradually increasing, which was unbearable.

Ye Yaodong waved away the seabirds trying to snatch the squid in front of him for the nth time, and cursed, "F*ck your mother, you just came back not long after the anchovies left. Sooner or later, I'll stew all of you."

"Dongzi, take a rest, eat something first!"

He responded casually. Seeing that the squid in the sack was also seven or eight parts full, he scooped two more times before dragging the sack toward the shore, incidentally dragging the half sack of anchovies he had just scooped along as well.

"How much have you picked up?" Ye Fu straightened his aching waist, twisting it constantly.

"Just seven or eight parts full, there should be eighty jin."

"Didn't you pack two bags?"

"Half a bag here is anchovies. It was dark earlier, and I was shining the headlamp, so these fish were attracted and ran over by themselves."

"My bag is about the same. I didn't pick them up as fast as you scooped them. Now that so many seabirds have flown out, it won't be easy to pick them up from now on, and the tide will rise again in a while."

Ye Yaodong looked at the seabirds everywhere on the beach around him and also had a headache. "Pick up as much as we can. If the tide rises in a while and there's not much left to pick up, we can just sail out and trawl a net, and come back at noon. Anyway, we're in this area nearby."

"We'll see in a while! Let's get something to eat first. My legs are numb from squatting there, and my waist and back are aching to death. Let's rest for a while."

"Hmm, carry these to the boat and pour them into the baskets first."

Just as the father and son were each carrying a sack, wading through the water toward the fishing boat, they discovered that a fishing boat on the sea not far away was sailing in this direction.

The two of them watched the distance while walking, paying attention.

By the time they put the sacks on the boat, the fishing boat was getting closer and closer. Both father and son climbed onto the boat. Seeing that the boat wasn't much bigger than theirs, they didn't run away immediately, but watched from there.

After it got closer, Ye Yaodong also recognized it and breathed a sigh of relief, "It's Hearing Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng's boat."

That boat also recognized them and was slowing down to come over, then the two boats docked side by side.

"Dongzi, it's you. Why didn't you go trawling? I was wondering whose boat it was, why it was docked over here."

"I put tree branches around here, intending to catch squid, so I didn't go trawling. It just so happened that quite a few squid were stranded on the beach here, so I just picked them up here until dawn."

"Ah? Is that so?" Hearing Xiao Xiao said with some regret, "I wanted to say that I was going to scout the location in advance today, and I also intended to put tree branches to catch squid tomorrow. I remembered that the first time you brought us to the surrounding sea area to trawl, I remembered there was an island here, so after trawling a net just now, I came over to take a look when it got light."

"What a coincidence, I put down the tree branches yesterday, and I was catching them in this area yesterday afternoon."

"Then forget it, let's look for another one." A-Zheng said with some regret.

"It's alright, the sea area around this small island is so vast. You put yours, I put mine. I put mine on the east side of the island, you just put yours on the west side, it won't have much impact."

From now on, the squid will only increase day by day, and he couldn't possibly scoop up all the squid. Besides, the more tree branches thrown around, the more squid will be attracted to stay.

Hearing Xiao Xiao said happily, "That's fine, that saves us from looking everywhere. We also heard from my father that throwing tree branches around the island has a better effect, so I thought of this island I had noticed before, and came over early today to take a look and scout the location."

"Then what about your tree branches? Who is going to get them for you?"

"I'll let my father and mother go up the mountain to cut them. We'll go out to trawl as usual, it won't delay anything. Otherwise, not going out for a day is a day of losses."

"That's fine, our Yao-ge has also become very diligent and hardworking."

"What nonsense are you talking about? How was the harvest after picking up squid all night?"

"It's alright, about 100 jin or so. It's just that the seabirds around are too annoying, look for yourselves."

Hearing Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng both looked at the beach not far away, only to see flocks of seabirds walking and pecking there, and new seabirds flying over from the sea surface from time to time.

"So many seabirds, the stranded ones are going to be eaten up by them."

"Who says not? So picking up this much is about it. I was just preparing to rest for a while, cook some noodles, and continue working after eating. I've been busy for a few hours, and I'm exhausted to death."

"That's perfect, cook a bit more, we're hungry too." A-Zheng said laughingly.

"Damn, you're really not polite."

"It's rare to run into you at sea, of course I have to sponge a meal off you."

"Fine, then let you taste my father's craft; ordinary people can't eat it."

Ye Fu had just put the noodles in, and his hand, intending to put salt into the pot, shook. After thinking about it, he added another small bowl of water.

Then he put in the clams he had just picked up on the beach, as well as small shrimp.

"It's quite convenient to put a coal stove on the boat. When we go back, we'll get one too, saving us from eating cold dishes and cold rice every day."

"It's just that cooking is more troublesome. When it's hot, just muddle through a meal and it's over. It was only in autumn and winter that I wanted to get a coal stove to put on the boat. How has your harvest been recently?"

"It's alright, it's just that it rains and gets windy every three days, so the number of times we go out to sea is small, but we've also earned some. After this wave of squid fishing season ends, A-Cai will have calculated the money, and we'll be able to pay you back."

Ye Yaodong said indifferently, "It's alright, I'm not in a hurry to use the money. If you're tight on cash, just keep it for now, settle your family first. I was just asking out of concern."

"We've earned some intermittently over the past two months, and after dividing it up, it's enough for family expenses, and we've also saved a little, so we're not tight on cash."

A-Zheng also nodded, "Owing a debt makes me feel uncomfortable in my heart. We also want to pay it back as soon as possible if we can; being debt-free makes one feel light."

"From now on, catching squid will allow us to earn a good sum."

"That's what we were thinking too."

The three of them chatted idly, and the noodles in Ye Fu's pot were also cooked. "You guys crawl over and eat first. This pot is too small, I still have to cook another pot."

"Alright~"

Both of them didn't stand on ceremony and ran over to fill a bowl each first.

"Hmm~ delicious, Uncle's craft is not bad~"

"Hmm... very fresh, your family's equipment is quite complete..."

Ye Yaodong was a bit suspicious, how could it be delicious?

Seeing that there was still some left in the pot, he also scooped a portion for himself, incidentally emptying the pot so his father could cook another one.

After tasting it...

"Father, were you doing it on purpose before? Isn't this cooked quite well?"

Ye Fu rolled his eyes at him and said as a matter of course, "I tasted the flavor today and tried it..."