Chapter 739: Two Grouper Fish Fighting

All the way, as he alternated between joy and frowning, the fishing boat slowly slowed down and approached Bai Sha Village.

At this moment, the tide was at high tide; when he had returned earlier, the tide had only just risen fully.

Only when the tide is rising can the fishing boat dock; his boat could be pushed as far onto the beach as possible. If the tide recedes tomorrow, it would stay stranded for longer.

Ye Yaodong drove the boat onto the beach and stopped, dropping anchor only when it could go no further.

He was not in a hurry to get off immediately. After stopping the boat, he checked back and forth on board again. Only after finding nothing amiss did he carry the bicycle down.

To avoid getting wet and to let Ah Qing wash fewer clothes, he sat on the bicycle as he stepped off the boat.

However, riding a bicycle on the beach was still quite strenuous. With the water and waves occasionally splashing from behind, his hope was instantly dashed, yet he did not get off.

Only when he rode into the dry area did he climb down and push the bike toward his front door, glancing at his watch along the way.

It was 8:30...

Making money is truly hard!

Up earlier than chickens, asleep later than dogs.

In the courtyard, those women were still there, some gutting fish, others sorting shrimp.

Seeing him return again, Ye's mother hurriedly called out, "What are you going to do with those two sharks?"

"What else can be done? Cut off the fins and make shark fin soup yourself. As for the rest of the shark meat, you decide: either give some to the aunts to take home and pickle, or make dumplings—that works too."

Frying it to eat was out of the question; mentioning it would surely invite scolding. Still, his own family could keep some for frying and some for shark dumplings.

However, with the weather getting hotter now and no refrigerator, they couldn't make too many. Otherwise, with such a huge shark, they could make a huge pile of dumplings and eat them slowly over time.

Shark meat dumplings are no different from pork dumplings: minced meat with green onions, cooking wine, and seasonings—a unique flavor, that's all.

"You certainly know how to eat. You're tired of fried shark, so now you want shark dumplings?" Ye's mother, as always, loved to argue, rarely speaking softly.

"Just buy some flour and roll out the dumpling skins. It doesn't cost much. Using the shark we brought back ourselves saves money compared to buying minced pork."

"It's just one bite; how much can you eat? Look at how you're talking, Mother. I still have fifty years left to live in this life; shouldn't I eat something good? If I can't even afford a single bite and live miserably, what hope is there in life?"

Actually, it might be only twenty-odd years left...

You must eat what you want, or else you're gone, the money remains, and who knows who will be spending your money then?

The eldest aunt smiled and chimed in, "Shark dumplings are indeed delicious, just quite labor-intensive since you have to roll the dough. But now that life is better, we should occasionally treat ourselves to something good."

"That's true. When you go back later, take some more with you. After all, it's all our own stuff; we can't finish it all anyway," Lin Lin Xiuqing said, shaking the basket beside her with a smile. "These shrimp sorted out as not fresh can also be taken home to feed the chickens and ducks. We can't finish these two big baskets ourselves..."

"Ah, good, good..."

Watching Ye Yaodong step into the house, lifting his leg while taking off his clothes, Lin Lin Xiuqing also stood up and followed behind him.

"You must want a bath, right? I'll go get your clothes."

"Okay."

Having worked until now, he was actually quite tired. Shirtless, sitting there, he didn't want to move a muscle, thinking he'd sit and rest a while before fetching water.

Lin Lin Xiuqing had already prepared and brought out his shirt and pants. Seeing him still sitting there, she said nothing and continued pouring hot water for him.

She knew he had worked all day and was very tired.

"Are you very tired? You don't have to rush so much. Just leave it and wait until tomorrow when you return; then you can detour to the town and drive back with Father, one boat each."

"We were delayed by something today. Otherwise, we should have returned by sunset. If we return tomorrow, it will be around low tide, before the tide rises again, and the boat won't be able to enter the beach."

The low tide occurs about forty-five minutes later each day; tomorrow, the tide won't start rising until around seven o'clock.

The neap tide just passed; recently, the low tide has been getting lower and lower. We must drive back during the rising tide to get stranded.

"Oh." She held the hot water, scooping in cold water to mix it. "What delayed you today? You're back so late; others are home just as the sun sets."

"When we were preparing to return, we ran into a school of barracuda, so we stopped and cast a few more nets. Those two sharks happened to fall into the school and were conveniently caught by us."

"No wonder the sharks are pitted and scarred. Mother said earlier they were definitely bitten by the barracuda."

Lin Lin Xiuqing said this while bringing the water to him. "Wash up. Finish early and go to bed early; we have to go out to sea tonight."

"Mm."

"Then you'll drive the boat back tonight. Since you won't have time to handle it tomorrow, should we hire someone?"

She hadn't been in the room earlier and hadn't heard what he said to his father.

Ye Yaodong wrung out a towel, washed his face first, and said, "I originally planned to drive it back and hire people tomorrow to scrape off the barnacles and other growth from the hull, sun it, and repaint it. We need to do it early; otherwise, I'm afraid once the fishing season arrives in a few days, we won't have time."

"I also thought, new boat, new look. That thick layer of barnacles and young mussels clinging underneath consumes a lot of fuel."

"Moreover, a few days ago when we painted, we only hastily applied one coat. After soaking for several days, the paint around the waterline has started to blur. I also wanted to patch it up early to prevent the color from fading even more and revealing our previous markings."

He lowered his voice for this last sentence.

However, the group of women at the doorway were chattering like thousands of ducks; they couldn't hear what was being said inside their room anyway.

"But just now, while eating with Father, we chatted a bit. Father isn't comfortable letting others do it and plans to do it himself when he has time. I was thinking we could take a rest day the day after tomorrow."

Lin Lin Xiuqing agreed. "Our boat really should be handled by ourselves. If we paint it well, we can feel more at ease. Otherwise, once the fishing season starts, we'll be out at sea for so many days again, and the paint might peel badly, exposing everything."

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"If the villagers see us early tomorrow and ask, I'll say that when you and Father docked at dusk, you conveniently drove the boat back. We just didn't pick an auspicious day, so we didn't inform relatives and friends."

"Mm."

"That way, with it right under our noses, we can feel a bit more secure."

"Take a rest day the day after tomorrow. First, haul the boat up, scrape the hull clean, let it dry, then every night when we return, take time to apply one coat of paint. During the day, let it sun. Two or three coats will be enough."

"As long as you have your own plan, that's fine."

Ye Yaodong had already thought it all through carefully.

This couldn't be left to others; they had to do it themselves. There was no other way, so they had to squeeze in time and rush. Fortunately, the weather looked good these past few days, and with him and his father, two or three days of hard work would do.

Anyway, they could rest the day after tomorrow; all things considered, it wasn't bad.

That night, father and son went out to sea to fish as usual.

After arriving near that Ribbonfish Island, they scooped up a ladle of water. Finding no shimmering points in the seawater, they immediately cast their nets. The shrimp traps were left to be retrieved later in the afternoon when preparing for the return trip.

Who knows if it'll get stuck on the bottom again?

It's the middle of the night now, pitch black out there — even if it did get stuck, he couldn't possibly go into the water.

Better to haul it in now than wait until after dawn, when they're heading back, and go into the water then — that way it's a bit more efficient.

Father and son busied themselves, hauling in one net after another. Just as they were about to set the third net, they actually did spot three boats from the border defense brigade heading their way.

But they kept firmly in mind not to get close, staying far away from the island and working right out in the middle of the sea. The three fishing boats didn't steer toward their direction either, still heading straight for the island.

Everyone kept to their own turf, and the whole day passed quite peacefully.

Until evening, when the sun was about to set, Ye Yaodong noticed the three fishing boats had knocked off and left earlier today than yesterday.

Once they clocked out and left, things were even easier for him. After hauling in the last net of the day's work, he headed straight for the reef without a second thought, grumbling to his dad along the way.

"Probably didn't catch anything, so they packed up and left early today."

"Could be. Might not even come tomorrow — they've been searching for days now. With that many people, they could've combed the whole hilltop by now."

"Who knows? We're not coming tomorrow either. Taking a day off."

"Leaving early is fine too. You go down into the water earlier and take a look — see if there's anything worth catching. If there is, grab a few. Leave the shrimp pots on the surface for me to haul in."

"Mm."

Once father and son had hashed it out, they split up and got to work as soon as they reached the spot.

After they hauled the shrimp pots up yesterday, they dropped them back in the same spot. But by the time they sank to the seabed, the current may have shifted them a bit.

And after a night of waves washing over them, the buoys may have drifted a little too.

After Ye Yaodong went into the water, he spent several minutes searching and still couldn't find where yesterday's reef crevice was.

All the underwater reefs look the same, standing there in rows. Yesterday the light was dim and the water was hard to see through clearly, so he really couldn't tell which spot it was.

That left him feeling thoroughly frustrated — he'd taken it for granted again, assuming he could find it just by going back to the same spot.

But it was still early, so he patiently searched around the reef. Though he didn't find any soft silk, he got lucky and caught two small green lobsters.

Just as he was about to shift position and swim forward to keep looking, he spotted a school of small fish swarming in the seaweed patch to his front-left.

And the seaweed in a ring around the small fish was shaking violently — nothing like the seaweed beside it swaying with the waves. Just looking at it, something felt off.

He curiously changed direction and swam toward the seaweed patch on his front-left.

The sun was still setting at this point, and it was still bright. It had been a big sunny day today, so the underwater world was still pretty clearly visible — unlike yesterday when he went down late and everything was foggy.

But before he could get close, he spotted what was going on.

A grouper with round spots flashed out from the seaweed — and before a second had passed, another grouper appeared from the patch, tail swishing and jaws wide, charging at its opponent!

Two groupers!

Oh wow, two groupers fighting over territory!

A whole crew of little underlings had gathered around them too!