Chapter 381: The True Face of Mount Lu

Father and son exchanged a look.

"What's going on? Why can't we haul the net up? Is the net hauler broken?"

Ye Yaodong also frowned tightly. "That can't be, right? Isn't it still running? Did it snag on the bottom? Should we shut it off and pull it up by hand to check?"

Letting it keep running like that, tugging at the net without being able to haul it in—no matter how thick the trawl line was, the net would tear if they didn't shut it off.

Ye Fu nodded. "Then shut it off and pull it up by hand to check."

Ye Yaodong switched off the net hauler. "Slow the boat down too."

He reached out to haul the net, gave it a tug, but it felt heavy—as if some object weighing a thousand jin was caught on the net, making it impossible for him to drag it.

"It's not the net hauler's problem, Dad. The boat just suddenly slowed down, and it's not the engine either—it's the net. Can't budge it."

After Ye Fu reduced speed to the lowest, he hurried over and also tried tugging it, only to find he couldn't pull it at all. "It really is the net's problem. How did it suddenly get like this? Did it really snag on the bottom?"

"Probably. I'll go down and take a look."

Luckily there was diving gear on the boat, so he could go down to the seabed to check, but if it was too deep that wouldn't work either. Regardless, he still had to go down first to look. Fortunately, it wasn't completely dark yet.

"Then be careful, don't go down too deep. If something feels off, come right back up."

"I know, it's not my first time going under. Don't worry."

Ye Yaodong stripped off his clothes and pants, took off his watch, put on his gear, and under Ye Fu's thousand exhortations and warnings, jumped into the water.

The light at the seabed was a bit dim, but he could still barely make things out. Diving down ten or twenty meters was no problem for Ye Yaodong.

It also happened that this was coastal waters, with a small island not far off. The seabed here wasn't very deep, and as soon as he dove down, he saw the net stretched taut below, with fish and shrimp still swimming and leaping inside.

Swimming down a bit further, he spotted a submerged reef on the seabed, and at once understood in his heart—it really had snagged on the bottom.

When he swam around the reef where the net was caught, he also startled the shrimp soldiers and crab generals around the reef, which instantly scattered in all directions. Ye Yaodong paid them no mind as he prepared to look for the part of the net that was snagged, but just then, he sensed something was off.

How could there be a dull, round thing inside the net?

The sky had grown dark, and visibility at the seabed was no longer clear, but it looked to him a bit like a washbasin. He swam over and reached through the net to touch it—it felt icy cold, like metal, and had patterns on its surface.

His heart skipped a beat at once. A metal vessel with patterns? Could they have hauled up some treasure?

Too bad he didn't have a waterproof flashlight on him, otherwise he could have shone it to take a look.

He walked a few steps around the net and noticed that about a kick's distance away, there were some scattered fragments. It was too dark to tell what they were, he could only make out their rough shapes.

He swam over and casually picked one up, only to discover once it was in his hand that it was a three-cornered object. He rubbed it in his palm and felt that its surface was also covered in patterns. With some guesses in his heart, he casually tossed it into his net pouch, then continued to wander around the area.

As a result, in a clump of seagrass he spotted a black case wrapped in seaweed. Full of suspicion, he went over and tried to lift it, only to find it was very heavy, with a lock on it as well.

"Damn it, who the hell locks this thing?"

After cursing inwardly, he thought he still needed to find where the net was snagged. This thing was too heavy and inconvenient to carry, so he left it and continued searching around the net.

After going around once, he finally found the snagged spot—the top of a low submerged reef, covered by the net. No wonder it couldn't be hauled up.

After Ye Yaodong freed the net, there was no time left, so he went straight up. On the surface, the sky had already gone dark, with only a bit of light, and the boat had switched on its lights.

"How is it, Dongzi? Did it snag on the bottom?"

He wiped the seawater from his face and said: "Pretty much. There's a submerged reef down there, I've already freed it. Try starting up the net hauler and pulling again to see."

"Come up first."

"Mm, I might have to go down again later." He said as he scrambled up hand over hand.

"What for, going down again?" Ye Fu's eyes lit up at once. "Is there cargo on the seabed? It's already dark, you can't see the bottom. Let's come back tomorrow."

Ye Yaodong said nothing. Once ashore, he immediately untied the net pouch at his waist and took out the three-legged object he had just picked up from the seabed. Though he had his guesses, he was still stunned when he actually got a clear look.

Ye Fu saw the vessel in his hand at that moment and was instantly taken aback.

"What is that, a wine cup? What do you want with that?"

Though Ye Fu was just an uneducated fisherman, he had seen this kind of wine cup in movies shown by the traveling film projection teams when they came to the countryside.

Its shape had a pointed front and upturned back, an outward-flaring rim, a round base, a pair of umbrella-shaped posts between the mouth and the spout, a straight belly with decorative patterns, and three blade-shaped pointed legs.

It looked yellowish-green, and the patterns on its belly were caked with seabed mud and sand, so the designs couldn't be made out. Ye Yaodong was a layman too and didn't know what shape they were, only that they looked crooked and twisted.

"What do you want with it? 'In prosperous times, antiques; in troubled times, gold'—heard of that? This should be a bronze wine cup."

"Is it worth money? Where did it come from? Did you just fish it up from the bottom?"

Ye Fu didn't understand what 'prosperous times antiques, troubled times gold' meant, he just felt this thing looked useless.

Ye Yaodong nodded, somewhat excitedly held the wine cup under the orange-yellow lamplight again, and said: "Just found it at the bottom of the sea. The light was bad, couldn't see clearly, so I grabbed one and brought it up to take a look. This is an antique, worth a lot—but not right now."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it'll be worth more later."

"How do you know it'll be worth more later? Who'd bother with this thing for no reason?"

"You don't understand!"

Ye Fu watched him fiddling with it back and forth, and wanted to scold him a few times, but then thought—this son of his seemed to have more sense than him.

"Are there more down there?"

"There are. Inside the net there seems to be something like a washbasin. We'll haul the net up later—right now there are too many fishing boats, keep it quiet."

This was bronze ware—an antique! In ancient times, bronze meant politics and power! Who would have thought there were treasures like this on the seabed around the coast?

It was its fate not to be hauled up—who would trawl around the coast? There was little catch near the shore, fishing boats only headed out to the nearshore waters to trawl.

By now, quite a few fishing boats had returned to the area. Everyone was greedy, wanting to take advantage of today's big haul to drag one more net, so one by one they weren't willing to head back until it was dark.

Once they reached the coastal waters, everyone hurried to dock early. When they saw Ye Yaodong's boat stalled and not moving, they all thought his boat had some problem, and curiously came over to greet him and ask if he needed a hand.

They were all from the same village—everyone recognized each family's boat markings. Fellow villagers from the same countryside, if someone had trouble, as long as it was within their ability, they'd lend a hand.

Ye Yaodong smiled and greeted each one in turn, politely declining, only saying the boat was fine, they were hauling a net and also planned to dock.

But on the water, at this hour fishing boats kept coming in to dock one after another, which made him a bit impatient waiting. And every boat that came back, as long as they knew him, would come over and ask him a few questions.

Everyone meant well, so he could only greet them with a smiling face.

When he saw there were no more fishing boats with lights in the distance, Ye Yaodong quickly started up the net hauler to haul the net.

The net-winch's hauling speed depends on the weight of the catch on the seabed—usually around ten-odd to twenty minutes—but this net took over twenty minutes, and two more fishing boats with lights on had appeared in the distance.

This made him a little anxious; he just wanted to sneak it up and take a look at what that round thing was. If he could keep it, he would definitely keep it first; if he couldn't, he could only hand it over—after all, it was a bronze artifact.

Father and son, one full of anticipation, the other indifferent, stood on the deck watching the sea surface. When the net was almost pulled onto the slide, the two reached out to help haul it, but they couldn't budge the net at all.

In the past, even with a load of one or two hundred jin, they could pull it up the slide bit by bit; this net, even with all their strength, was hard to haul.

"Damn it, what the hell is so heavy?" Ye Yaodong cursed, then let go, planning to wait until the winch pulled it up a bit more, then hold the bottom and drag it onto the slide.

But just as the net touched the hull of the boat, it made a dull thud, and at the same time father and son saw clearly what was inside the net.

"A ding?"

"A big ding?"

"Huh? A ding?"

The two nearly had their jaws drop, exclaiming again and again.

Ye's father, no matter how uneducated, knew a "ding" was no ordinary thing. He had no concept of other artifacts, but a ding—every temple had one sitting in the main hall for incense offerings.

"It's a ding? Not a washbasin???"

Ye Yaodong was dumbfounded too. Underwater it had looked like a washbasin shape to him—he hadn't seen any legs.

Those damned fish and catch must have been blocked by the shrimp soldiers and crab generals; he'd only seen the round opening.

A ding was no ordinary object. Originally just a cooking vessel, also used for sacrifices, it was later regarded by posterity as the bronze artifact most capable of representing supreme authority—for example, the idiom "casting eyes on the supreme treasure."

"Help lift it up first." Ye's father didn't waste words at this moment, saying it eagerly.

Father and son struggled to haul the net onto the deck. The ding inside the net was tilted and lying on its side; the fish and shrimp beside it had all been crushed to death and flattened by it, and seawater kept pouring out from the round opening of the big ding, from which a green grouper suddenly swam out.

Normally they would have been thrilled, but now with pearls and jade before them, this green grouper couldn't pique their interest in the slightest.

Ye's father stood to one side, muttering: "What do we do? Such a big thing, and we still have to haul it back—can't hide it."

"Hide? Bronze artifacts are graded, and this 'ding' can be said to be the top grade. I'm a person with conscience—of course this thing has to be handed over. Otherwise, put it at the door as an incense burner? My place isn't some grand temple."

Once this thing is pulled ashore, people will see it. Within two days, it'll be spread all over the county as a sensation, and people from the county cultural center will come knocking. This isn't the era of Destroy the Four Olds anymore—and even back then, there were people who knew the value of such things.

He'd heard that as long as it's a bronze artifact, no matter what period it's from or when it was unearthed, it belongs to cultural relics, and trading and private collecting are both prohibited.

But at this time the requisition of cultural relics probably wasn't that strict. Still, no matter how uneducated he was, under the popular science of short videos he also knew that among bronze artifacts, the "ding" was national-treasure level.

National-treasure level ones must be handed over; keeping it at home would be a root of disaster. Common folk can't collect it—better to hand it over for peace of mind, to avoid inviting trouble. At least he could get an honor or a commendation.

He touched the wine cup in his pocket—this thing couldn't be kept either.

Ye's father nodded. "It does have to be handed over. This thing, at one glance, is no ordinary object."

"First untie the net, stand it upright. The fish and shrimp underneath have all been flattened by it."

Father and son worked together to stand the ding upright and set it straight.

The ding, from its exterior to its bottom, was covered in red spots and green patina; at one glance you could tell it had some years to it. From inside to out it exuded an air of ancient simplicity and vicissitudes, yet it was remarkably well preserved.