Chapter 820: Needlefish

Ye Yaodong still felt a lingering fear when he recalled the scene underwater just now. It was fortunate that his head had twitched and he had dodged to the side at that moment; otherwise, he would have been finished.

Those were needlefish!

Needlefish mostly inhabit areas near river mouths or inner bays. Their bodies are long and cylindrical, about 20-45 centimeters in length, though the longest can reach up to a meter. Their bodies look very smooth, and they possess sharp beaks about three inches long. Moreover, these beaks are quite hard and can easily pierce through flesh and blood.

Furthermore, their swimming speed is around 60 kilometers per hour. At such a speed, once grazed or pierced by a needlefish, whether it is a human or a fish, there is a high probability of losing one's life.

Just now, while hiding in the crevices of the reef, he saw that among the continuous stream of needlefish passing by, several had two or three small fish skewered on their beaks, looking just like candied haws.

Moreover, needlefish are phototactic; if one carries anything that glows, it is even easier to incite them to charge excitedly toward the light point.

Sometimes, needlefish are even more terrifying than sharks.

In the minds of most people, besides thinking sharks are terrifying, other fish are generally just food for humans to kill or spare—weak, honest, and available for the taking.

However, in reality, this is just an illusion. Fish are even more likely to cause injury than land animals. The reason one rarely hears about injuries is probably because the proportion of people who come into direct contact with fish is not large.

In fact, there are some even larger fish with "needles," which are even more formidable, such as the sailfish, which can weigh hundreds of kilograms and reach speeds of over a hundred kilometers per hour. They can even punch a large hole through a boat and are known as living torpedoes.

Swordfish are the same; their beaks carry long "needles." He had previously seen with his own eyes one pierce through a boat's hull. It was terrifying.

Ye Fu also became nervous as he listened, his heart rising to his throat.

"Then what about you? How did you avoid them just now? A huge school swam past just now. When I was staring at the sea surface from the boat, I saw a dark mass coming from under the water, and it was moving very fast. I thought it must be a school of fish, so I hurriedly threw the cast net down."

"When I pulled up a net and saw they were needlefish, I was also given a huge fright. The needles on these fish's beaks are incredibly sharp. If a vital part were to be pierced, it would be game over."

Ye Yaodong also patted his chest. "Exactly. If you get pierced anywhere, you'd lose at least half your life. Fortunately, I have great fortune and a great life, and Goddess Mazu is protecting me. It seems those three days of carrying the sedan chair were not in vain."

"That's right. You are sincere, and Goddess Mazu is protecting you. After discovering that what I netted were needlefish, I was worried about whether you would run into trouble down there. I kept my heart in my mouth and had no mind to think of anything else. I filled both cast nets on the boat in turns and then threw them onto the deck."

"Catching as many as I could—anyway, having a great fortune and a great life already counts as being lucky."

"Don't go down anymore. It looks very dangerous down there. You don't know what you'll encounter after going down. That stonefish before was very dangerous, and now needlefish have appeared. Who knows what else you might encounter."

"I might still encounter good things!"

Ye Yaodong thought for a moment. Anyway, no matter what he brought up from the water, he couldn't hide it from his father.

"Just now, because I ran into the needlefish, I hid in a crevice of the reef, and it turned out I discovered wooden boxes at the bottom of the crevice..."

Ye Fu, who had been frowning, instantly raised both brows and widened his eyes in surprise. "W-wooden boxes? There can be wooden boxes at the bottom of a crevice?"

"Yes, I was also surprised when I accidentally turned my head and saw them. I originally wanted to go down and take a look, but there wasn't enough time, so I could only come up first."

"These wooden boxes... is that reef crevice large? Can you fit your whole body down? Can you walk inside?"

"I didn't walk down, so I'm not sure. It seems to be a bit narrower at the bottom than at the top, but I didn't go down to try, so it's hard to say. I can stand in the opening to hide. I'll rest for a while and then go down to try and explore. I only had time to take a few more looks earlier."

"Are there many boxes?"

"It seems like there are four or five. They are tangled with seaweed, so I can't see very clearly; I can only see a little bit. It's only because the sun is bright today and the light is good that it shines straight down, so the visibility is quite high. I can barely see a little, and my eyesight is good too."

"I just don't know if there are any stacked underneath. If there are boxes stacked underneath, then there must be more than that. I'll go take another look later and I'll know."

Ye Fu was both surprised and a little happy, associating this with the wooden box that Ye Yaodong had fished up while retrieving the large tripod previously...

If there were treasures in these wooden boxes, that would truly be incredible. But he was also worried about whether there might be any danger. His heart was somewhat complicated and conflicted.

Ye Yaodong, however, was only focused on being happy. He sat directly on the deck and speculated, "I don't know what's inside the wooden boxes. The boxes don't look very big, and I don't know how many years they've been piled up down there."

"The seawater is highly corrosive. Besides gold and silver, everything else should probably be ruined, right?"

"Who knows? If it's gold and silver, that would be great. I don't want anything else; it's useless to take it. If I really were to fish up something incredible, I'd have to hand it over. Wouldn't that be working for nothing?"

He rubbed his hands together, his mouth almost watering. Thinking of the box of gold cakes at home, he held extremely high expectations in his heart.

Even if he just melted that box of gold cakes, he shouldn't have to worry for the rest of his life. But who would complain about having too much money? Surely the more, the better.

"How about waiting a few days? There's no need to rush to go down and fish them up now. Anyway, they won't run away. Needlefish just appeared; what if there are still some down there?"

Ye Fu was also worried about his safety. No matter how important money is, it's not as important as life. Moreover, he didn't know what was in the boxes. Those needlefish he saw swimming past just now were very fast, and combined with the long, sharp blades on their beaks, he felt that getting pierced by one would be terrible.

Ye Yaodong thought that was reasonable. What if there were leftovers?

There would always be a few fish that slipped through the net, right?

With such a large school of fish swimming past, what if one or two idiots fell behind and were wandering around nearby? It would be safer to go into the water a few days later. Who knows if he would have that same good luck if he ran into the remnants?

Anyway, his family's fishing boat is the only one that has been trawling here in the vicinity. Other fishing boats might pass through this area at most while working, and there shouldn't be anyone going into the water here for no reason. Coming back a few days later won't have any impact.

"Then let's forget it for now. Anyway, they won't run away. I'll come back in two days to go into the water and explore."

"Mm, then let's go trawling now."

"Alright."

After hearing him respond, Ye Fu immediately went to steer the boat.

Ye Fu himself hadn't actually noticed that he was increasingly taking Ye Yaodong as the backbone, discussing everything with him, and no longer refuting or scolding him the moment he opened his mouth.

And Ye Yaodong, after sitting for a while, also stood up to pour those needlefish out of the fishing nets. It had to be said, these needlefish were all quite large; there were no small ones, and most were half a meter long.

He didn't know if it was because there was too little ocean fishing now, but they had all grown very large, and some individual ones looked nearly a meter long.

This net had at least two hundred jin, and it was only because this boat had a rolling wheel that it was convenient to pull them up.

After Ye Yaodong poured out both fishing nets, he first organized the nets, folded them up, and put them aside, and only then did he squat down to sort these needlefish out by size.

He only needed to pick out the large ones. Except for a few individual ones that were nearly a meter long, the others were very uniform in size, all around forty to fifty centimeters long.

After he picked out the large ones, he discovered that two types looked a bit different; they should be two different varieties. The large ones nearly a meter long were long and cylindrical, and by comparison, they were slightly flatter. There should have been a few different ones mixed in while fishing in muddy waters.

They should be cousins.

He flicked the sharp beak at the front twice more; it really was like a steel needle. No wonder they were called needlefish.

In his previous life, he had scrolled through news and seen someone whose temple above the right eye was pierced by a needlefish, which stabbed deeply into the brain and got stuck there, resulting in death on the spot.

He shuddered and threw the fish directly into the basket.

After these bamboo baskets were all filled one by one, he dragged them to the corner to stack them up. He didn't know how much this fish was worth, but counting it up, there were four or five hundred jin; it could sell for a little bit at least.

During the process of his sorting, Ye Fu had also steered the boat back to the middle of the sea to prepare to cast the nets. Taking advantage of the fact that not much time had been wasted just now, if they cast the fishing nets to trawl now, they could still trawl two nets before dark.

At this time, there was more than just his other boat working there on the sea surface. In the distance, on the horizon, the silhouettes of two more fishing boats appeared; they should also be working back and forth.

Generally, when everyone is working on the sea, they do not interfere with each other.

After Ye Yaodong helped his father cast the fishing nets together, he rested his chin on his hand and thought on the side. His heart was still preoccupied with that reef crevice, and he was itching with impatience; he really wanted to go down right now.

Seeing him staring blankly at the sea surface, Ye Fu knew without thinking that he was still pondering those boxes underwater.

"Don't think about it. Wait until the day after tomorrow to go into the water and take a look. Let's buffer for another day tomorrow; there's no need to rush."

"Mm."

With nothing to do, he simply went into the boat cabin to pay respects to Goddess Mazu again.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. His mother had looked up a good time and let them go to the Tianhou Palace with his father to invite the small statue of Goddess Mazu onto the boat to be worshipped. At this moment, there were still seasonal cherries, peaches, and plums offered in front of the small statue.

When they got off the boat in the evening, they would light three sticks of incense, and it would be about time to take these offerings down.

The children at home would also have a treat. When they were bought back early yesterday morning, it happened to be the weekend, and they kept stealing bites while watching TV at home.

In the past at this time, once it was the weekend, they would definitely run to the mountains to steal and pick them. Before summer even arrived, they would be tanned pitch-black, just like wild monkeys. Now that they had a TV, they were well-behaved and didn't go anywhere.

But they couldn't be called to do anything either. Whether it was to fetch soy sauce or a bottle of vinegar, not a single butt could move an inch.

He didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The father and son finished trawling two nets just as the sky turned dark. The boat with the eldest cousin and Brother Asheng finished work earlier than them and stayed on the sea surface, first sorting the catch for a while, and incidentally waiting for them. ===== CHAPTER 821 =====