Chapter 81: Barracuda

"Hmph, pure luck!" Ah Guang pursed his lips. "Dongzi, you feel like there's cargo somewhere? Give me a hint?"

Ye Yaodong looked at him speechlessly. "Do you think I'm a fortune teller? That I can divine the future? If I could, would I tell you? I'd have cleaned the place out myself!"

"Oh, come on, just use your golden finger to point me in the right direction. Your luck is better than mine."

"Stop bothering me. I need to make money. Go find it yourself."

"Hurry up, give me a hint..." Ah Guang had found two large mud crabs after Ye Yaodong's guidance last time, so he was still a bit convinced of his luck.

"I don't know how..."

"Just point anywhere."

"Are you annoying or what... Go, go, go, just there, get lost over there..."

Annoyed to no end, Ye Yaodong pointed randomly at a spot further away, telling him to get lost quickly.

As it turned out, he didn't know if he was really that gifted, but Ah Guang ran over there happily and actually discovered a large fish stranded on the shore.

"Huh? Holy crap, Dongzi is really gifted! By the way, what kind of fish is this?"

Hearing him shout "holy crap," Ye Yaodong's heart skipped a beat. He ran over quickly, unable to stop himself from thinking: did I really point him to a treasure spot?

The other two heard the commotion and ran over as well.

"What fish is it?"

"Is there big cargo?"

Ye Yaodong ran closer and took a look, his eyes widening. "Barracuda?"

Its body was long and cylindrical, its mouth pointed, its chin broad, its head shuttle-shaped, and it had prominent canine-like teeth. The color around its eyes was a slightly reddish yellow. It was undoubtedly a barracuda.

"Ah? This is a barracuda? It's so big?"

"Damn, you recognize it? Ah Guang actually found a barracuda? This thing is over a meter long, right?"

Except for Ye Yaodong, the other three bumpkins had only heard the name but never seen the real fish. This time, they really had their eyes opened.

Ah Guang rubbed his hands happily. "This should be 1.1 meters long, right? It's a pity this fish is long and thin; it should only be about thirty jin."

"I heard this fish can grow up to 1.8 meters."

"Then this one is small..."

"Be content. At fifty cents a jin, it's worth ten yuan or so. This one is enough to break even today; it wasn't a wasted trip."

Ye Yaodong's guts turned green with regret. Why did his hands have to be so itchy, pointing him to this spot? Damn it, he would never do this again. Wouldn't it have been better to save it for himself to catch?

Xiao Xiao leaned over and nudged Ye Yaodong with his elbow. "Point me to a spot too, let me go look?"

"I want one too..."

"Get lost. Do you really think I'm a fortune teller? I need to find my own!"

Ah Guang happily shook his sack and put the barracuda, whose gills were still moving, inside. He said, "I heard barracudas are schooling fish and can trigger barracuda storms. Should we take advantage of the fact that the tide hasn't fully receded and take the boat out to cast a net and try?"

Otherwise, once the tide receded and the boat was stranded, it would be hard to push out, and they would have to wait for the tide to rise to leave.

Xiao Xiao and Ah Zheng's eyes lit up. "Good, good. Dongzi, let's go cast a net and try. If there's no cargo, we'll just come back to the island. Anyway, we have the whole day today."

Ye Yaodong was also tempted. "Fine, let's cast a net and try to see if there are any sea turtles, barracudas, or whatever."

"Right, right, right, maybe there are sea turtles!"

The four of them acted as soon as they spoke, going directly to untie the ropes and pushing the small boat together, as the tide was a bit shallow now.

After getting on the boat, Ye Yaodong began to row, steering the boat away from the shore and toward the middle of the sea.

After rowing to a position he felt was about right, he stopped and looked at Ah Zheng. "This should do. You cast the net."

"Alright, watch me!"

Ah Zheng had been waiting for this. Hearing Ye Yaodong say he could cast, he folded the rope back and forth, placed it in his left hand, and held the root of the net in his right hand, letting the net hang down.

Keeping the hand holding the rope still, he shortened the net with the other hand, placed it in the hand holding the rope, then leaned his body backward, with the arm holding the net in the back, his body in a side stance, one leg supporting in front, building up power.

The back arm exerted force forward suddenly, casting the net in his hand out. However, the end of the rope in his palm was always held tight. The net flew out with the rope, and following the rotation of his body, the net was cast into a large spread.

It was his own net; how could he not know how to use it? And this was the simplest hand-cast net.

Once this kind of net was cast, it could be retrieved. One only needed to pull the rope back to retrieve the net.

"Ah, so many white pomfret!"

"Hurry and help pull together!"

After the four of them were pleasantly surprised, they pulled the entire net of pomfret onto the boat together. They didn't expect an unexpected joy.

"We wanted to catch barracudas and sea turtles, but didn't expect to catch a net of pomfret. They aren't small either; they look like they're all over 5 liang. This must be several dozen jin, right?"

"Seventy or eighty jin, definitely."

"These white pomfret are good!"

"Hurry and pour them out. Let's cast another net and see. These fish are all in schools; let's see if there are any fish that slipped through the net."

"Right away."

All four were extremely excited. So many fish meant more money to split. Although there were many people, a few yuan was still a few yuan. They quickly poured all the pomfret from the fishing net onto the boat.

"You guys stand further away. I'll cast this net over here. I want to cast it better and catch more fish."

"Hurry up, don't dawdle. If you're too slow, the fish will swim away."

Just as Ah Zheng was planning to cast the net, Ye Yaodong stopped him. "Wait, wait, I think it's better to move the boat to a different position."

"What are you doing? I'm not casting in the same spot anyway!"

"Listen to Dongzi! He's been really gifted lately!"

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes. If they said his luck was good, then it was good. Why did they have to say he was "gifted"?

"Fine, here is fine."

"Are you sure? If you're sure, I'm casting."

Ah Guang urged impatiently, "Hurry up. If you keep nagging, I'll kick you off to be fish bait."

Ah Zheng felt a bit aggrieved. "You guys don't find it nagging when Dongzi talks, but you're counting on me to cast the net. You haven't even crossed the river yet, and you're already thinking of tearing down the bridge."

"Who doesn't know how to use a hand-cast net?"

"Hmph, hmph..."

Ah Zheng grumbled twice, then cast the net directly. After a while, he pulled it in. "Ah, come help, it's so heavy, there's cargo again!"

"Dongzi is god-like!"

"Isn't it because I cast it well?"

"Save your breath, hurry and pull it up with force, stop talking nonsense." Ye Yaodong's head was spinning. With so many people, there was too much talk, never-ending. Really.

"Ah, this net is barracuda! No wonder it's so heavy."

"There are other miscellaneous fish, hurry and pull it up!"

The four of them dragged this net of barracuda up with some difficulty.

"I feel like it's over two hundred jin. My hands are sore. If it were any more, we wouldn't be able to pull it up. It's still Ah Guang's aunt's boat that's convenient, it has a net hauler."

"Hurry and pour it out to continue, stop nagging."

"Continue, continue!"

"There's cargo, we have to pull it up even if we have to use all our strength."

Everyone seemed to have been injected with stimulants, all full of fighting spirit. ===== CHAPTER 82 =====