Chapter 891: A Feast of Predation for Seabirds (Two chapters merged into one, 7400 words)

"Alright, then I'll go make the call now."

He said this, but his butt didn't move an inch. He was still perched on the edge of the stool, leaning there, his legs swinging, and his butt was also rocking the stool back and forth, one movement after another.

"Go on. Since it's almost mealtime, people should be at home and not running around. If you call now, you should be able to find them."

Just as he was about to stand up, *Bang! * A soccer ball was kicked in from outside, hit the earthen stove, and bounced under his butt.

*Clatter! * The solid wood stool beneath him tipped over directly. He pushed hard against the table with his hands, trying to steady his falling body, but he still landed on the ground on his butt.

He hadn't been sitting properly to begin with; two of the stool's four legs had been suspended in the air. If he didn't fall, who would?

"Damn it! Who did this? Who did this?"

The group of children who had just run into the house scrambled, hurriedly squeezing to run back out, shouting one after another, "It wasn't me, it wasn't me..."

Ye Yaodong was furious. He grabbed a whip and chased after them, "None of you are getting away."

Ye Fu, behind him, also frowned, "Serves you right. Why did you buy them a ball to kick? Kicking it here and there all day long, making all the children in the village run after it."

"You yourself don't sit or stand properly all day either. If you had been sitting properly, ten balls wouldn't have knocked the stool over... Serves you right..."

Ye Yaodong was truly angry this time. These children had no sense of propriety, and even kicked the ball into the house. They really deserved a beating.

"Close the door! Dogs, block them for me."

The dogs didn't know what was going on with the adults, but they could still understand commands. They all blocked the doorway, not letting those children out.

With the interception of a few dogs, only a few older children with fast legs managed to escape.

He stood at the doorway and scolded them sternly, "All of you, stand straight!"

That group of children—some from his own family, some from next door, some from the village—all stood together, looking at each other in fear. Those who had managed to run out earlier were also standing at the doorway, stretching their necks to look.

"Not my children, get out."

He pointed at the doorway. The group of children felt as if they had been granted amnesty and ran away as if fleeing. Ye Chenghai and the others also wanted to run.

Ye Yaodong struck their legs directly with the whip. In the middle of summer, everyone was wearing thin pants, and some were even wearing shorts. A hard strike left a red welt, instantly making them wince in pain.

"Third Uncle..."

"Third Uncle... don't hit, don't hit..."

"I told the others to get out, did I tell you to get out?" After speaking, he locked the courtyard gate on his way, so not one of them could escape.

"Didn't you say your own children could stay?" Ye Chenghe shouted, unafraid of death.

Ye Yaodong ran over and lashed him twice more, "Not my children? You don't share my surname, so you're not my nephew, right? I'll beat you to death, you idiot."

"Ah, Third Uncle, I was wrong, Third Uncle..."

Ye Chenghe jumped up and down in the courtyard, dodging. The others watched with schadenfreude and stood in the corner, afraid of being caught in the crossfire. It was rare to have an idiot step up; better him than me.

"Third Uncle, they... they... they were all laughing... they all ran just now, you can't just hit me..."

"Third Uncle, the ball was kicked by my big brother! It was my big brother who kicked it, that's why you fell..."

Hmm? Ye Yaodong stopped chasing and turned to look at the children. Ye Chenghai was glaring fiercely at Ye Chenghe.

"Third Uncle..."

"Stand in a row for me, and hold out your hands!"

Boys and girls, from oldest to youngest, spontaneously lined up and stood straight. Even Ye Xiaoxi, who didn't know where she had suddenly popped out from, followed them and stood in line at the very end.

Then she stretched her neck, looking around. Seeing them all instinctively stretch out their left hands, she also followed suit and opened her palm...

This silly child!

I'm trying to line them up to hit them, why are you joining in the fun?

"You, come out!"

Ye Yaodong speechlessly pulled her out, but she twisted her body and stood back in line.

"No!"

He looked at her with black lines on his forehead as she opened her palm again...

"Are you... sharing... candies?"

Everyone: We're getting whipped, little sister...

The old lady stood at the doorway and laughed. She hurriedly went over to hold her hand, "This has nothing to do with you, didn't you see your father holding a whip?"

Ye Yaodong pointed with the whip, signaling Ye Chenghe to stand over there as well.

Ye Chenghe had no choice but to honestly stand in the spot where Ye Xiaoxi had been standing, learning from them and opening his palm.

Ye Yaodong struck each of them once with the whip, making them squint in pain. Their palms were covered in red welts, and as soon as they were hit, they immediately retracted their hands and hid them behind their backs.

He skipped the few girls and didn't hit them; it was these boys who were the most mischievous, while the girls were just joining in the fun.

Seeing that Third Uncle hadn't hit them, the three girls were pleasantly surprised to have escaped a disaster and immediately pulled their hands back.

Ye Chenghe still shouted, unconvinced, "Third Uncle, why didn't you hit them?"

They glared at him, "Don't you dare come over to jump rope with us later."

"Hmph, I have a ball to kick."

"Dream on. No one is allowed to kick a ball for the next two days. Get lost, all of you."

"Ah~ Third Uncle, we were wrong..."

"Third Uncle..."

"It's too late. You've all been a bit too full of yourselves lately because the whole village has been pampering you. Let me clear your heads. All of you, get out, and you're not allowed to come to my house to watch TV either."

Everyone walked out with slumped shoulders, sighing with regret. Ye Chenghe was so depressed that he even shouted at Ye Chenghai, "It's all your fault! You said you wanted to score a goal, so you kicked it right at the open courtyard gate."

Ye Chenghai's heart tightened. He stole a glance at Ye Yaodong and hurriedly hooked Ye Chenghe's neck to drag him out...

"What are you doing? Let go of me... I'm going to tell Mom that you're hitting me again... Ah... Mom... Big Brother is hitting me... dog thief... ah..."

Before long, across the courtyard wall, the sound of daily scolding of children rang out in the courtyard.

Ye Yaodong threw the whip into the corner. However, just after he threw it, Ye Xiaoxi ran over, picked it up, and swung it around, shouting.

"Hit hit hit~ not good~ hit hit hit~"

"Where are the ducks? Where are the ducks? Where are the chickens?"

She turned around the whole courtyard looking for them, flipped through the chicken and duck cages, but couldn't find them, then went to pull the old lady to ask...

Ye Yaodong didn't care about her and let her run around the courtyard. Anyway, there was a black grid-woven sunshade cloth tied overhead, so it wouldn't be that hot, and there was a breeze in the courtyard.

The soccer ball that had been kicked into the house had already been hung up again by Ye Fu in a mesh bag. That bag was originally for a basketball, but the basketball had been taken out by them in the morning, and he didn't know where it was. He would have to go out and confiscate it later.

After Ye Fu saw him walk into the house, he sat down again, crossed his legs, leaned against the wall, and looked puzzled, "Why aren't you going to make the call? Why are you still sitting here?"

Ye Yaodong had just pulled out a cigarette, then hurriedly put it back, "Oh, right, I forgot again. I was going to call Nian Ge."

"What a memory..."

He stood up again to push the bicycle.

Ye Fu couldn't help but nag again, "You have to ride a bicycle just to take a step. It's going to be broken in no time..."

Ye Yaodong acted as if he hadn't heard anything and went out, turning a deaf ear.

However, it wasn't long before Ye Fu had finished tidying up the ground in the courtyard—he had cut half a cartload of sweet potato vines and planned to push them back to the old house later to feed the pigs for his two daughters-in-law—and he was back.

"So fast?" Ye Fu put down the hoe and hurriedly walked over.

"How long does it take to just make a call?"

He had waited 5 minutes in front of the phone before calling again, otherwise it would have been even faster.

"What did he say?"

"He said he'd call to ask. If it's the fishing season, he'll call us. If not, he won't call for now, and he'll keep an eye on it."

"That works too."

"I told you it wouldn't be that fast, but you were all so anxious."

He hadn't even gone to ask about the homemade guns yet. There were too many people out in broad daylight, otherwise he would have asked Secretary Chen when he ran into him earlier.

When it was evening, he would take a basket of shrimp meat over.

Anyway, the ones previously equipped by the militia had all been confiscated and were useless sitting there. Giving him two or three to keep for self-defense would make it safer when traveling abroad.

"Asking early allows people to pay attention early."

Ye Yaodong crossed his arms over his chest, looking composed, "Dad, can you still remember how you all excitedly opposed me when I said I wanted to go to Zhejiang Province to sell jellyfish last year? None of you were optimistic."

Well, the result was that everyone got slapped in the face.

When he came back last year, a bunch of people asked. This year, before the time had even come, a bunch of people were asking again. Now his father was even urging him to call early, for fear of missing out.

Ye Fu suddenly felt it was meaningless; saying this was clearly mocking him.

He glanced at his dog of a son, picked up the hoe, and continued to turn the soil, "Who could have thought of that without trying? Who would dare to take the risk? You just have good luck."

If he could go this year and come back with a full load of money again, Dongzi would have opened up another path to wealth for the villagers. In the coming years, there would only be more fishing boats following him.

Just like in Shenjia Sect, they said that as soon as autumn arrived, fishing boats from everywhere would flock there to catch shrimp skins.

This child's luck was truly good, no doubt about it. Whatever he did, it worked.

Ye Yaodong didn't keep harping on his father about this, but instead changed the subject, "The typhoon is about to pass. Is Ah Guang's 'Bountiful Harvest' boat preparing to go out to sea again in these two days? Is he going this time, or is Uncle Pei going? Do you need to follow?"

"It should be the in-law going. He's also rested for more than half a month, so there's no need for me to follow."

"Ah Guang is having the time of his life."

"What time of his life? He only has one son, shouldn't he protect him? It's really nonsense, not letting people have more children now."

Later, when people beg to have children, no one will want to have them.

"Then I'll tell Ah Cai to arrange for me to keep a bit more miscellaneous fish to dry in these two days, so it will just connect when those shrimp from the 'Bountiful Harvest' return."

"Recently, because of the typhoon, I don't know when it will rain, so I don't dare to dry too much."

"There are no fishing boats going out from the nearby port and wharf, so Ah Cai doesn't have any fish to arrange. It was only that day when I went to the city that I brought back a cart of round scad."

"The typhoon has passed, so it's just right to arrange it. Since I'm at home, I'll arrange to dry a bit more, otherwise, I don't know if Aqing will be at a loss when I'm not at home."

"Also, if those wooden barrels you ordered are delivered, remember to move them all to the corner of the workshop and stack them there. When the time comes, I'll tell Mom to ferment them there."

Fermenting under direct sunlight can be faster, and the time can be shortened by more than half. Anyway, when the time comes, I'll just let Wang Guangliang and the others guard it day and night.

"It's fine to put the fish sauce there to ferment, I'm just worried about the rain. Such a large barrel definitely can't be moved, and these are wooden barrels, not large vats. I'm worried that the wooden barrels will rot after being exposed to wind, sun, and rain for a long time."

"Go buy a few more rolls of nylon bags later. When the wooden barrels arrive, measure and cut them. Once the fish is pickled, let my mom seal them up, and open them to dry when the weather is good. When the sun is not strong in the evening, we will also take the nylon bags from home and stretch them over the top of the workshop."

In that case, even if it suddenly rains during the day or night, we won't be afraid, anyway, there will be nylon bags stretched above.

"That works too."

"Let's do it this way this year. Keep it simple. After all, we don't know how the market is. If this batch is sold out next year, we'll build another fish sauce workshop and make it bigger."

Having large wooden barrels for fermenting fish sauce lined up on the ground, with dried fish and dried shrimp drying above, won't affect anything.

At the beginning, we can only do it as simply, as easily, and as cheaply as possible.

There's a long way to go, let's test the waters first.

I called Zhou Laoban earlier to ask, and Zhou Laoban only said to wait until it comes out, and move a few vats over to try first. No one dares to guarantee anything without trying.

Although he is quite confident, he still has to see the results before he can scale it up. Anyway, it already has a prototype.

He calculated that if the capacity is one or two thousand jin, there will be at most thirty or forty barrels in a year. Under bad weather conditions, it's impossible to go out to sea.

Maybe it won't even take a year, and these barrels can be cleared out and recycled.

Ye Fu held the hoe, bent over, turned his head, and rolled his eyes at him, "Make it bigger? You should sell what you have on hand first. Stop thinking about all these random things. The cost of ordering those wooden barrels is not small. You should think about breaking even first."

"I call this looking three steps ahead. We have to have a long-term vision."

Although he doesn't know how to do business and lived a muddled life in his previous life, he also knows that it's easy to make money in this era, and his mother's craftsmanship is also on point. The probability of success after tossing and turning is very high.

Trying it out won't be wrong. If you don't try, you might regret it later.

Ye Fu swung the hoe back and forth, ignoring his self-talk.

It was also because he had seen him do everything in a decent way in the past two years, and the family foundation was solid, otherwise he and his mother would definitely not watch him spend a lot of money to engage in this fish sauce. They would have had a bunch of objections like before, and would not have helped him so hard.

"Don't talk so far away. Go and pick all those eggplants. Anyway, they are all ripe, don't let them get too old. Just clear the place, I'll turn the soil, and plant some cabbage together in the evening."

"Oh, then Dad, you can fertilize it together in the evening."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not doing anything, you're good at these jobs."

"When I'm still here, I can still help you do it. When I'm old and can't do it, you'll still have to carry the manure yourself."

No need to worry about that. When you're old, there will be flush toilets.

Ye Yaodong thought beautifully in his heart. When it's time to be a parasite, you still have to be a parasite.

The two typhoons that had lasted for more than half a month finally passed. They had been working continuously for half a month before, but they had been resting continuously for this half a month. The villagers were complaining there.

However, during this period of rest, the villagers were not idle. Those who needed to mend nets mended nets, those who needed to dry things dried things, and those who needed to turn the soil turned the soil. Anyway, there was always endless work to do.

Ye Yaodong was the same. Although he had rested for half a month, he felt as if he hadn't rested at all.

After he ordered a large boat with his brothers, the Lan brothers next door also found a few cousins to partner with.

And in the neighboring Xishan Village, it was said that a few people also ran to the shipyard to see, and then decided to combine for a boat. It had spread throughout the village recently.

It wasn't until the typhoon passed that the tide of buying boats gradually passed. Everyone was preparing to go out to sea, and the discussions were a bit less.

The nearby open space, which was for the families who were going to move down from the mountain, also started construction again after the typhoon passed.

It was just that there were no other people in the village who wanted to build houses recently, otherwise, they would probably have chosen nearby at the first opportunity.

The theory of Feng Shui is mysterious and cannot be ignored.

Before going out to sea, Ye Yaodong went to refuel the two boats in advance, and went to worship at the Mazu Temple on the way, and then went out on time with his father at night.

He also secretly, without his wife noticing, brought his camera. It had been so long, she should have forgotten about it.

Bring it secretly, just in case.

Big Cousin and Brother Brother Asheng had been operating a boat together for a while, and they were somewhat used to it. Ye Yaodong was too lazy to separate them again. It was better for him and his father to have one boat.

Habit is the most terrible thing. After the two of them operated a boat together for a long time, they would feel that it was quite good. Anyway, they didn't have to worry. They hadn't worked for half a month, and at the end of the month, the wages were calculated as usual, which was stable.

After meeting at the wharf, they also drove the boat behind Ye Yaodong's boat.

As soon as Ye Fu and Ye Yaodong got on the boat, they took turns to offer incense to Mazu in the cabin first.

Ye Yaodong even specially put a few tomatoes as offerings today.

"After the wind and waves, good things happen, everything goes as you wish. Tomatoes are also persimmons, great luck!"

The sea surface didn't calm down so quickly after the typhoon. There were still some wind and waves today, but it didn't have much impact.

Recently, with sufficient sleep, the father and son were full of energy at night, standing on the bow of the boat blowing the wind together.

"Dad, I have a premonition that the harvest will be very good today."

"Nonsense, after the typhoon, it will always be better than usual."

"I think there will definitely be big fish."

Ye Fu felt that what he said was nonsense. Couldn't this be predicted?

"Then why don't you hurry up and tidy up the fishing net? We're almost there, get ready to cast the net."

"Got it."

However, after two consecutive nets came up, they didn't see any traces of big fish. The fish cargo was only twice as much as before the typhoon. Both father and son were a little disappointed. They had thought too well at the beginning.

Just after Ye Yaodong poured out the net of goods he had dragged up, he stretched his foot to poke it, found nothing rare, and said regretfully, "Do you feel like the posture of worshiping Mazu was wrong today? Otherwise, I'll go worship again later."

"Stop talking nonsense, let's change a position to fish."

"Put the net down first, then you drive the boat to change a position, I'll go cook noodles, it's past 8 o'clock."

It's normal for luck to be good or bad. The harvest of these two nets today is considered quite good.

Ye Fu drove the boat forward at a constant speed, and the father and son took the opportunity to take turns eating breakfast.

They didn't run far. At the end of their line of sight, they could still see the boat of Big Cousin and Brother Brother Asheng, looming.

However, when they pulled up this net, they found that the goods in this net were exceptionally large. After dragging it to the deck, the father and son also found that it was full of herring, a large amount of herring.

"Damn, so many herring! Damn it, it's all this garbage."

There were also some fish, shrimp, and crabs mixed in, but the quantity of these was mostly less than a hundred jin, while the quantity of herring was more than three or four times that of these fish, shrimp, and crabs.

A full large bag of fish cargo was untied and scattered on the deck, attracting a few seabirds nearby to dive down.

Ye Fu hurriedly waved to drive them away, while Ye Yaodong looked at the sea surface after saying this.

"It's a pity to have so many fish, they can only be used to feed chickens, ducks, and pigs."

Encountering a school of fish is a good thing, but this herring is too garbage, even worse than some small miscellaneous fish like anchovies, phoenix-tail fish, and sardines.

Herring is famous for its stench!

It is also pickled with salt, but herring cans are known as the smelliest cans. Smelling it once can make you vomit for three days. Out of 10 people who have tasted it, 9 will vomit, and the remaining one is a Swede.

However, such notorious fish cans are still produced later, and there are still people buying them, mostly out of curiosity, wanting to see how smelly it is.

It's just that in the present, it's generally only fit to feed livestock, or if it takes up space, it's poured directly back into the sea.

"Dad, I guess the nearby seabed should be full of herring. Shall we try our luck here again? There should be fish attracted by this school of herring."

Even if it's this kind of fish with no value, as long as there is a school of fish, it's easy to encounter the upper end of their food chain.

Ye Yaodong's goal is not these herring, but other fish species chasing and preying on the school of fish. I don't know if there are any, I can only try my luck.

"It's useless, right? This net came up and didn't see any good fish, it was mostly herring. There's nothing good to pick from the other goods. Don't drag it for a few hours later and it's all herring, that would be a waste of time."

He thought about it and felt it made sense. There were no good goods in the net just now. If they wasted time dragging two more nets here, the sun would set, and it would be time to return, which would be a loss.

"Otherwise, I'll go into the water to take a look. Anyway, there's no net down now, the fishing boat can stop for a few minutes."

"That works too, then be careful, don't go too deep."

"Well, I couldn't go too deep anyway."

When Ye Yaodong was about to go into the water, he saw a few seabirds diving straight down to a sea surface, skimming the water surface, and then skimming lightly. In just an instant, they caught herring one by one, not returning empty-handed.

"Dad, drive the boat in that direction, I'll go into the water from there."

Ye Fu looked up, didn't say much, responded, and went to drive the boat.

When the fishing boat approached, both father and son found that the surrounding sea area seemed to attract more and more seabirds.

Where there are seabirds gathering, there must be schools of fish.

Conversely, schools of fish can attract a bunch of seabirds, and can also attract fish in the upper layer of its food chain.

Ye Fu stopped the boat at a certain distance. The large bag of fish cargo scattered on the deck had not yet been sorted and packed into baskets. At this moment, it also attracted a large bunch of seabirds to dive down.

He took a fishing net to cover it temporarily, so as not to be eaten up by these seabirds.

As Ye Yaodong slowly went down to the water surface, Ye Fu also brought two hand-throwing nets, intending to try his luck to see if he could catch some fish.

And Ye Yaodong was stunned as soon as he went into the water.

Unexpectedly, in the short time the fishing boat approached, there were so many gannets under the water, and the swimming speed of these gannets was not slow at all, even faster than the school of fish.

They tried to surround and catch the school of fish at the bottom of the water. Those schools of fish didn't expect that they were really surrounded by gannets and could only group together, and they were also panicked and scrambled to swim to the middle of the school of fish.

A large group of schools of fish formed a cocoon-like shape right under his eyelids, and the herring swimming from afar were still constantly filling into the middle, like moths to a flame, constantly expanding a cocoon in the middle.

The weather was good today, the sky was clear, and he saw it clearly under the water. The distance was not far, the key was that the constantly moving herring school was stopped by the gannets and could only huddle together, which was more convenient. He watched the battle situation under the water.

These herring formed cocoons in the process of constantly expanding, and had no ability to resist, and could only be slaughtered by seabirds.

Ye Yaodong couldn't see the scene on the sea surface, otherwise he would have seen a new feast of fishing. More and more seabirds gathered on the sea surface, all scrambling to participate in this feast.

He could also see some sharp beaks diving down and bird feet wading in the water under the water, but seagulls only step on the water and cannot dive into the water like gannets.

Those seagulls stretched their necks and tried their best to catch downwards, but the cocoon wrapped by the herring school, although constantly expanding, was also nearly 1 meter away from the water surface.

At this distance, it is not something that seabirds like seagulls that can only step on the water can reach.

And at this time, the gannets made an amazing move. They collectively dived to the bottom of the herring and drove the school of fish from bottom to top.

So that huge herring school cocoon had to move up little by little, coming to a position close to the sea surface.

During the period, he also saw the fishing net his father threw down, but what was disappointing was that he clearly saw that the fishing net only covered herring, not even gannets.

They were very flexible in the water and only moved around the cocoon. The fishing net was not thrown into the middle position.

There were seabirds on the water surface and under the water surface. That huge cocoon composed of herring was sandwiched between the two groups of seabirds and could only be slaughtered at will.

A predation frenzy was staged instantly. This was a feast of predation where seabirds worked together.

If he hadn't run to the bottom of the water, he wouldn't have known that these seabirds would cooperate to drive these herring into everyone's food.

Ye Yaodong's eyes were straight when he saw it under the water.

Those gannets would float up after staying under the water for a while, and then other seabirds that could dive would come down.

He felt that these seabirds were also from a village, and they could be so united?

Seabirds constantly dived down on the sea surface, as if boiling, and none of them returned empty-handed. Herring from afar were constantly replenished in the water.

Ye Fu didn't dare to drive the boat close. After all, Ye Yaodong was still at the bottom, and the tube he was carrying was still connected to the boat. He threw two nets and only caught herring, so he didn't continue to throw them, intending to wait for Dongzi to come up and see the situation at the bottom before talking.

Ye Yaodong stayed for a while, and after feeling that there would be no other situation, he planned to float up, go up to observe first, and discuss with his father.

There were no other fish at the bottom, only herring and seabirds, and among those seabirds, some were beneficial birds like seagulls, and only gannets were more valuable, but there was no way to catch them specifically.

Can only go up to observe first, as long as the herring is not wiped out so quickly, there should be other fish attracted to prey later.

It's just that I don't know if it's worth it, if it's worth waiting there.

After all, with this time, they can have a lot of harvest if they drag one or two nets.

Just when he was swinging his fins and planning to go up after wandering around, he saw a group of long-shaped fish rushing like arrows in the distance. ===== CHAPTER 892 =====