Chapter 684: A Pleasant Surprise

Ye Yaodong truly felt it was time to grease it up—the seawater was corrosive, and after long use, the parts would rust and stop running smoothly, so it was perfectly normal for it to make creaking sounds.

His net hauler was still considered a good one; since buying it, it had never broken down, thanks largely to his father's careful maintenance—after every use, Hui would take a Mao Jin, wring it out with fresh water, wipe it down, and then cover it with a nylon bag, treating it with great care.

If it had been him, he reckoned it would have needed repairs countless times by now.

"Don't believe it? Just wait and see—once the catch is hauled up, you'll know."

Although resources were plentiful these days, a single bumper net would at most pull up one or two hundred jin, maybe two or three hundred. In the nearshore waters, dreaming of hauling up one or two thousand jin in a single net—don't even think about it.

Even putting that aside, in nearshore waters, pulling up a few dozen jin in one net would already be a blessing. To make the machine stutter, you'd need another whale shark like last time, or some equally hefty creature.

That's why, when his father said the net might be bursting again and the machine was making creaking noises, he flatly denied it, saying it just needed some lubricating oil.

If they were incredibly lucky and another whale shark came sneaking from behind to steal the catch, that would count as winning the lottery—and he'd just have to do another good deed.

Ye Fu shot him a sideways glance, then looked back at the sea. "Can't you think of something nice for once?"

"But it has to be realistic, right? Look—how easily the net hauler is winding up? That's purely a bit of rust. When we get back, remember to apply some lubricating oil."

Ye Fu fell silent too, because he too thought it was the rust causing the stuttering sound. Mentioning a bumper net earlier was just an offhand remark, said without thinking—after all, they hadn't gone out to sea for several days, and leaving the machine idle made it prone to breaking down.

The fishing net was drawn in bit by bit, emerging from the water, and a big bundle of catch was hauled onto the slide track. Father and son hurried forward to help drag it in.

But—huh?

Ye Yaodong's sharp eyes caught it. "There's a big fish! A huge fish!"

Ye Fu also saw the big fish head poking out—a proper big fish. He said happily, "Is it a mackerel? A really big one. Oh my, it's rare to see a mackerel this big…"

"Let's pull it up first and take a look…"

Both father and son were pleasantly surprised. Who doesn't love a big fish? Whether it's worth money aside, a big one just looks pleasing.

"This doesn't look like a mackerel—it's a yellowtail amberjack." Ye Yaodong examined the patterns showing on the fish's body as he untangled the net.

Ye Fu was a bit baffled. Yellowtail amberjack? The name has 'amberjack' in it, so isn't it still an amberjack? Mackerel is also called amberjack, after all.

The two look pretty similar anyway—aren't they both amberjacks? Forgive his ignorance and narrow knowledge.

Ye Yaodong glanced at his father. Finally, here was something he knew that his father didn't. What old fishermen knew was all passed down by word of mouth, and with information still being scarce these days, they really didn't necessarily know everything.

He didn't bother explaining. He first untied the net, dumped the catch out onto the deck—after all, they'd have to sort and categorize it all bit by bit later.

Ye Fu squatted there, looking over the dumped catch. Apart from a few decent spring fish, there was nothing particularly rare. He casually picked those out, then pulled the big fish out separately from the pile of mixed goods.

When this fish was hauled up, because of its huge size and the fact that the catch wasn't that much, it hadn't been crushed too badly—even its mouth could still twitch a couple of times.

"Oh my, this one must weigh several dozen jin—it's surprisingly heavy."

Ye Fu was grinning so wide his mouth couldn't close, his eyes narrowed into slits. He held the fish's head, trying to flip it over, but couldn't budge it.

He said with great certainty, "This is an amberjack, no doubt about it, can't be wrong—it's a big amberjack."

He spoke so assertively, as if refusing to accept any rebuttal from Ye Yaodong.

But would Ye Yaodong back down just because of his father's tone?

He squatted down too. "Look here—see? From around its eyes to its tail there's a golden-yellow longitudinal stripe, and its anal and pectoral fins are yellowish-brown. That's why it's called the yellowtail amberjack."

The yellowtail amberjack, scientific name Seriola, belongs to the order Perciformes, a nearshore warm-water pelagic fish.

As he spoke, he reached into the pile of fish just dumped out beside them, picked out a slightly larger mackerel, placed it next to the big fish, and compared them for his father to see.

"See? The amberjack's body is spindle-shaped, pointed at both ends. Its back is blue-black, covered in blue spots; its belly is silver-gray; and around its tail are separate small fins."

The amberjack, scientific name Scomberomorus niphonius, belongs to the family Scombridae, genus Scomberomorus. It's a mid-to-upper-layer medium-sized marine economic fish, agile in movement, fierce by nature, and likes to hunt small fish in schools. In China, it's mainly distributed in the South China Sea and the outer waters of the East China Sea.

To distinguish the yellowtail amberjack from the amberjack by appearance, the most obvious difference is the fin area: the yellowtail amberjack has a continuous dorsal fin, while the amberjack has a row of separate small fins both above and below its tail.

He pointed out the fin area to his father and explained, leaving Ye Fu stunned and unable to come up with a rebuttal.

"How do you know all this? Read it in the newspaper again? Do newspapers even write about fish?"

"There's a golden house in books, there's in books…" he recited, then trailed off, unable to remember the rest. What came after that? How did it go?

He quickly shut his mouth.

"Books have everything, so you should read more and read the newspaper more! If you don't understand something in the future, just ask."

That tone made Ye Fu want to hit someone—who's the Laozi here, after all?

Looking at the two, although there were some differences, they were both amberjacks with similar names—was there really any big distinction?

But the one who'd read a few days' worth of books and knew a few characters spoke as if it all made perfect sense, and the differences really were different, leaving no room for rebuttal.

"Whatever it's called, they're all called amberjacks anyway, no big difference." Ye Fu quickly changed the subject. "This one must be over a meter long—try picking it up and see how heavy it is?"

Ye Yaodong didn't argue with his father, leaving him some face—after all, he'd already shed his illiterate label long ago!

In these times, anyone who could read was a cultured person, and people would naturally trust whatever you said a bit more.

He tried to lift that huge yellowtail amberjack off the ground, but found it a bit of a struggle.

"I'd estimate fifty or sixty jin—not small. It's not common around here to see a mackerel grow this big."

Ye Fu reached out and took a turn holding it too, nearly dropping it. The two of them held it together, and his face beamed with a smile.

"It is heavy enough—we can sell it for a good price."

"This one's cheaper than mackerel though."

"But it's so big!"

"Fair point."

Ye Yaodong nodded. A big one would always fetch more than a small one, no matter what. Still, this fish couldn't be eaten cooked—raw was friendlier; sashimi was said to be quite delicious.

Ye Fu tossed the big fish into a basket nearby, then rummaged through the pile of catch and noticed there were quite a lot of mackerel today.

"These fish usually travel in schools, right? The number we caught today doesn't look like much." He said as he sorted them out one by one and tossed them into the basket.

"Maybe we missed the school?"

Perhaps these were all stragglers, Ye Yaodong figured. He grabbed a knife, came over, and started bleeding the big fish, chatting as he went.

Ye Fu responded with a sound, then clapped his hands and began tidying up the fishing net.

"Then let's keep trawling in this area—the catch looks decent."

"Mm."

Once father and son had finished processing the fish and tidied up the net, they began casting again and continued working.

Today, because they had set sticky nets and shrimp traps, time was tight, so they only hauled in three nets before they had to call it a day.

When the last net of catch came up, there were quite a lot of sea bass, mostly around one or two catties each, nothing especially big, but the haul was still pleasing.

Ye Fu rummaged through it once, didn't spot anything particularly valuable, so he wiped his hands on a ragged rag and stood up.

"Plenty of sea bass in this one, this net's fine too—it's just the second net that was a bit lacking."

"You tidy up the net, no rush sorting the catch. While we still have a bit of time, I'll steer the boat over to where the shrimp traps are and haul them in too—see if there's much in them?"

"Sure works. It's only three o'clock now, casting another net won't be enough, and the sun won't have set by the time we head back. While there's time, hauling in the shrimp traps is fine too."

Hearing his father agree, Ye Yaodong headed for the bow, started the boat, and steered toward the stretch of shrimp traps he had set the night before.

The buoys on the sea surface swayed with the waves; if the wind and waves weren't too strong, they wouldn't get swamped and lost. The worry was when the wind and waves out here got rough—if the wind picked up, you wouldn't even be able to come out to pull the nets back in.

Otherwise, they could just bring the cage traps out here to set, instead of always keeping them along the shore.

Ye Yaodong hauled in the shrimp traps the same way he would cage traps—no skill to speak of, just pull them up bit by bit along the rope.

The green shrimp-trap net gradually floated up to the surface, and through it one could faintly see fish and shrimp leaping about inside—looking like a decent number.

After hauling in one net, he dumped everything from the shrimp-trap bag into a bamboo basket nearby. All sorts of catch—fish, shrimp, crab—and they were all still leaping about lively as they poured out.

Ye Yaodong looked at the quantity inside: he estimated there were small sword shrimp about half a catty each, some red shrimp, two stone crabs, a few small fish—roughly two catties in all…

"So-so, not bad I guess…"

That was only the first net opening—there were fifty shrimp traps in all—so he kept hauling.

One shrimp trap after another came up, and all the catch was dumped into the bamboo basket. As more and more traps were hauled in, the catch in the basket visibly grew at a pace the eye could follow.

Once Ye Fu had tidied up the net and dragged it into the cabin, he came over. Seeing the basket already half full, he was thoroughly satisfied.

"How many have you hauled in? Feels like there's quite a lot, and plenty of sword shrimp too."

These days, among seafood, apart from fish, shrimp was the most expensive and the easiest to sell.

"Hauled in three rows, two more to go."

"That's fine too, already several dozen catties—good enough to make the numbers."

"There's fish and crabs in there too, sword shrimp big and small, and some red shrimp. Once you sort them out, the quantity isn't that much."

"That's fine, isn't there still two rows left?"

"Mm, still hauling."

Ye Fu figured that since Ye Yaodong was hauling in the nets now and wouldn't need him for a while, there was no rush to sort the trawl-net catch on deck either. Once all the shrimp traps were hauled up, they could sort it into baskets on the way back—that would be in time.

He simply walked to a corner, took out the water pipe he carried with him, and, finding a spare moment, planned to take a couple of puffs first.

Spending a whole day drifting out at sea without bringing a water pipe—how could anyone stand it?

But he didn't really smoke, only after meals would he go glug glug, taking two puffs to satisfy the craving.

He held the water pipe, with a round brown tin of tobacco in his palm, and as he walked he unscrewed the lid, pinched out a small handful of tobacco, and stuffed it into the bowl of the water pipe.

He walked over beside Ye Yaodong, leaned against the gunwale, watched him haul the shrimp traps up bit by bit, and pulled out the matchbox from his pocket to light up.

The glug-glug sound rang in his ears. Ye Yaodong laughed and said, "You sure know how to grab a chance—anytime you catch a break, you take a couple of puffs."

The match flame could only burn for a moment. Ye Fu wanted to take advantage of it to get a few more puffs in, so he kept going glug glug without stopping, ignoring him.

Ye Yaodong didn't expect his father to say anything. Once he finished speaking, he went back to hauling his shrimp traps—only he hadn't expected this one trap to bring him a pleasant surprise!

"Eh? A green lobster."

He had only hauled the shrimp trap halfway up when he spotted a wavy lobster clinging to the netting!

A green lobster!

So big, a little greenish on its body, with some patterns too—if it wasn't a green lobster, what was it?

"Cough cough cough—" Ye Fu, halfway through his water pipe, choked the moment he heard a green lobster had been caught, and broke into a coughing fit.