Chapter 936: Sea Urchin Nest

In the short time he had just been fiddling with the sea urchin, he had already seen five or six jellyfish drift out from the trench; he had to go see what this trench actually looked like.

Anyway, there was plenty of time; it would still be in time to ascend after taking a look.

Ye Yaodong held the prickly sea urchin in one hand while drifting toward the trench.

A long, dark crack was visible, but its length was indeterminate; the seabed vision was blurry, and as far as the eye could see, there was no end, yet his visibility extended only a few meters front and back, so he neither had the time nor the means to check how long it was.

Carefully avoiding a large jellyfish that had just floated up, he peered down into the gap beside it; within the dark fissure, numerous transparent jellyfish drifted, packed tightly together, rising and sinking, some going up, some going down, which was particularly obvious.

His heart was at ease; it seemed he could slowly harvest by guarding this trench. As for the reason the surface was empty, it might be because their fishing boats had overfished, and the speed of ascent could not keep up with the speed of capture, so vast areas had visibly diminished.

If it were just his two boats, according to the supply, it should be sufficient.

Even if the quantity was not as high as the previous two days, it should still be better than searching everywhere on the sea surface.

He squatted in front of this trench, wanting to examine the number of jellyfish carefully, but instead discovered that the rock walls of this trench were covered in black spines!

Sea urchins???

They looked exactly like the black spines on a sea urchin; densely packed, he widened his eyes and lowered his head again.

They really were all sea urchin spines!

He looked across to the other side of the fissure; although it was hazy, the rocks on the opposite side were the same, all covered in sea urchin spines.

So many?

Visibly, the rocks on both sides of this trench were covered in black, densely packed spines; they were all sea urchins?!!

His face lit up with joy; he pulled on the tube, felt there was still some length, and moved forward a bit, sliding down along this fissure.

Although it was called a fissure, accommodating two or three people side by side was not a problem.

He did not know how it had formed, but this location actually had a natural trench; although the seabed of this nearshore area was somewhat shallow, this trench was indeed real.

Once he descended into the trench, reaching a height level with a person and the seabed, he dared not go any deeper.

At just this distance, he could clearly see that the rocks on both sides were truly densely covered with sea urchins, and each one was large, bigger and denser than those growing on the oddly shaped reefs just now.

He reached out and tried to pry one off, comparing it with the one in his net bag; the size difference was obvious.

The ones ahead could be said to be only slightly larger than a ping-pong ball, while those growing on these rocks now were estimated to be about the size of an adult's fist; one was estimated to weigh nearly seven or eight taels, not much different from deep-sea varieties.

Perhaps this trench extended all the way downward, and the rocks on both sides might also be densely covered with sea urchins; at least, what he could see with his naked eyes now showed black, long spines on both sides, and he did not know how many meters it extended downward.

Deep by an unknown number of meters, perhaps equivalent to deep-sea depths, so the sea urchins that grew there were also equivalent to deep-sea varieties.

Joy sparkled in his eyes.

Within the few meters visible to his naked eyes alone, there were tens of thousands on the rocks on both sides, and who knew how many more were further down.

Setting aside everything else, just prying down what he could see with his naked eyes would be enough for him to earn; even if he caught very few jellyfish from now on, just these sea urchins would probably be enough to rival the previous jellyfish harvest.

Collecting these sea urchins would not take much time; just hooking them with an iron hook would bring them down, much more convenient than prying abalone or conch.

After roughly figuring out the situation, he held the net bag in one hand and a large sea urchin in the other as he ascended.

Ye Father saw that he had not been down for long before coming up, so he was relieved, but he noticed Ye Yaodong holding both hands high.

"Sea urchins?"

Ye Yaodong handed the item in his hand to his father first, then climbed up, removing his mask and tube.

"Are there many sea urchins down there? How come one is so big? The ones in the net bag are small; such large ones are not common."

He noticed that not a single worker was on the boat; they had probably been driven by his father to the other boat, so he happily said with relief, "It's not deep down there; sea urchins are growing all over the messy reefs, just like the ones in the net bag, which are not very large."

"This one was pried off from that trench; the rocks on both sides inside that trench are also covered in sea urchins, all of this large size, densely packed in patches. My vision can only see a few meters, but everything I see is sea urchins, at least tens of thousands."

"In places I haven't seen, they must all be sea urchins too; the quantity cannot be estimated."

Ye Father was extremely surprised. "The rocks on both sides of the trench are all sea urchins? I heard trenches can go down several thousand meters; if they are all sea urchins, that would be something!"

"We can't go down several thousand meters anyway; here, the distance from the sea surface to the seabed is already ten meters. We can't go too deep in the trench. If we want to pry a bit more, we can only move along the fissure of that trench, and our fishing boats on the surface should move along with us to pry."

"Just you alone won't be able to dig up much, and you can't stay in the water forever."

"So we need to call those boat workers to take turns diving to dig; we don't need that many people. Just call a few cousins over; the others can still catch jellyfish on that boat."

"Will it be unsafe?"

"It's only ten-plus meters; it should be fine. Teach them how to use these things, let them take turns diving to try; just don't go too deep at first. When Ah Zheng first tried diving, wasn't it like this? It's just that Big Brother and Second Brother were a bit weak."

Ye Father hesitated. "Is it okay for others to know about your strange things?"

"It doesn't matter; it's just our own people. Even if it gets out, it's nothing; at most, they'll say I have a unique tool that allows me to dive ten-plus meters underwater. Some people can dive that deep without tools, they just can't stay long."

"There's nothing that can't be known; I haven't done anything illegal or criminal. I bought this myself. It was only during the official salvage of the sunken ship before that I thought not to expose it, to avoid being directly requisitioned, which would mean going there and never returning."

In the future, this thing will be very common; it's just a bit rare now, but it's not anything godly.

Back then, he was also afraid that after the official requisition, they would ask about the origin; how could he explain? Say it was smuggled?

"Alright then; if you think it's fine, then it's fine."

"Let's try; if you feel it's not suitable, don't force it. As for the people diving, raise their daily wage from three taels to five taels; add two taels as a subsidy. I believe they should be willing to adapt."

"That works too; shall we call them over now?"

"Wait a bit; I'll go get a large net bag. Let me go down one more time to see how much I can harvest in one trip."

As he spoke, he walked toward the cabin. "Didn't Mother make me a large net bag before? I need to use that one to pack; the one tied to my waist is too small; I can't pack much before I have to come up."

"Should I go diving again?"

"Forget it, Dad; you're of an age; don't bother yourself, and you have rheumatism."

Diving too much easily leads to corresponding diving illnesses, such as decompression sickness, ear stone syndrome, and so on.

Fortunately, he only went diving occasionally; he did not treat this as a sport; it was merely a means of livelihood and curiosity at play.

"Alright then; I'll just watch from the shore."

"Move the boat forward another two meters."

"Okay."

Ye Yaodong took out the large net bag, shook it, and tidied it up; holding a hundred-plus jin in this one was no problem.

Watching him adjust the fishing boat's position again today, he once more put on all his gear, and handed the long rope tied to the net bag to his father to hold, so it would be easy to pull it up later.

"I'm going down one more time. I was only under for a few minutes just now; this trip will be a bit longer."

"Then be careful."

Ye Yaodong dove into the water again. A dark crevice was very easy to spot underwater, so he headed straight for it.

Just like before, his head was level with the seabed, and he landed right in the crevice.

With the target clear, he got to work in the simplest, most direct way.

He took the hook tucked at his lower back, opened the net bag with his other hand toward the rock, and gently hooked a sea urchin off the stone wall — one big sea urchin dropped right into the net bag.

It took no effort at all, no trouble — only the resistance of the seawater slowed his movements a little, not as nimble as on land.

Swish, swish, swish — he slipped into work mode, transforming into a heartless robot, hooking one after another.

At this point he couldn't help thinking, if only he had two sets of equipment, and could call one more person down — two people for company, one person working in the sea just looks so lonely no matter how you look at it.

But who knows what next year will bring.

An entire wall of rock, densely packed, with a few gaps between them. He hooked every spot within reach of his eyes and hands first, leaving the lower part for later.

He had no idea how long this trench was, so he could only move along as he worked and keep an eye on it — he figured he probably wouldn't finish hooking everything even by the time he headed back.

His wandering thoughts didn't slow his hands at all. In just a few minutes, he felt the weight in his hands grow heavy.

As time passed, once he felt a bit uncomfortable, he didn't linger. He carried the net bag up to the seabed, casually set this haul down on the bottom, then went straight up first.

On the boat it was still just his father, watching eagerly for him to surface. "How did it go?"

"Pull the rope and haul that bag up — it's at least fifty or sixty jin."

If not for the buoyancy of the seawater, he wouldn't have been able to lift it with one hand just now.

Ye Fu hurried to do as told. He hung the rope on the roller and let the roller slowly winch the load up.

He was quite the one for cutting corners too — whatever saved effort, that's what he did. Otherwise, as they say, human laziness drives the progress of technology.

It's all for convenience.

After Ye Yaodong climbed onto the boat, he sat straight down on the deck to catch his breath, waiting for the haul to come up, and took the chance to check how far the other boat had moved.

Luckily, those people, with nothing to do, were just leaning there chatting. They hadn't pulled out a deck of cards to play — maybe they hadn't brought any.

Later he'd call a group of them over to get in the water, so they wouldn't be standing around idle, watching with nothing to do — not even a mosquito to swat.

As the roller turned, a big bundle of dark stuff was pulled up to the boat's edge. Ye Fu quickly reached out, took it, dragged it in, and tossed it onto the deck.

"There's way more than fifty or sixty jin in here — should be sixty or seventy."

Ye Yaodong walked over. "I was judging the weight in the water, so it wasn't that precise. I'll go get a basket to put them in."

"I wonder how much these sea urchins go for per jin around here?"

"These are big ones — they might be a bit pricier than usual."

"I'm just afraid they'll take advantage of us, think we're outsiders, and the buyers will lowball us."

Ye Fu frowned. "Nothing we can do about that. We'll just ask around at a few places when we dock."

"Mm, pour them out first, free up the net bag. Later I'll call the others to climb over, and I'll teach them how to get in the water."

Father and son worked together to lift the net bag, untied the opening, and poured it into a big bamboo basket until it was brimming full.

"I'll go get another basket — don't let it pile over the top, or they'll fall out everywhere."

After pouring out a basket and a half, Ye Yaodong had a feel and figured it really should be around seventy jin.

Once done, he waved to the other fishing boat not far off, telling them to row over first.

Bored with nothing to do, they had been keeping an eye on their surroundings. Seeing Ye Yaodong wave, they immediately called out to the others, then rowed the boat over.

"You young ones, and the cousins — climb over here first. The uncles stay on that boat and scoop up the jellyfish that float up."

"Oh, okay, okay…"

"Dongzi, what was that haul you just pulled up… huh? Sea urchins?" Ye Ye Yaosheng asked the moment he climbed over, unable to hold back.

"So many sea urchins?"

"We were just saying — what was that bag you pulled up?"

"Did you dive down and pick them earlier? How did you manage to pick this many?"

"These are really big ones…"

A crowd gathered around the two baskets of sea urchins, chattering away. When the haul had just come up, they were too far away to see clearly, but they had all spotted the dark bundle in the net bag.

Ye Yaodong briefly told them about the situation down below, and asked if they were willing to go down and pry off sea urchins. If they went, on top of their daily wage, he'd give them an extra two yuan as a subsidy.

He also said he had diving equipment that would let them go into the water worry-free — they just needed to come up as soon as they felt any discomfort, and he'd teach them until they got it.

If they felt uncomfortable, they didn't have to go down — they could try it first.

After hearing this, the group exchanged glances, looking at each other uncertainly.

"We don't know if the Nengbuneng Sect can teach us — we're pretty slow, heh. How about we give it a try?"

"Give it a try. If you feel uncomfortable, don't go down."

"It's only ten-something meters, should be fine, right?"

"Let's try and see. I'm actually pretty curious what this trench Dongzi mentioned looks like."

Ye Yaodong brought over all his diving gear, introduced each piece to them one by one, and first fitted it on Brother Brother Asheng, teaching them how to use it.

He also went over the precautions once.

"You go down and try it out. I'll go down with you. Don't go too deep at first — just around three or four, four or five meters. Swim around a bit and try it. If you feel uncomfortable or scared, don't force yourself."

At that depth, he could free-dive down himself to keep an eye on things.

"Then I'll go down and try it first."

Ye Yaodong went into the water with him.

At first, when Ye Ye Yaosheng went into the water, he was clumsy and unaccustomed to it. But after swimming around for a while, it felt okay — his breathing was smooth, and he didn't feel any discomfort anywhere.

He swam over to Ye Yaodong, poked him with his finger, and pointed downward with his index finger to indicate he was going down.

Ye Yaodong slowly nodded; after watching him slowly dive toward the water's depths, he held his own breath, and as soon as it reached its limit, he quickly surfaced.

"How is it?" everyone asked in unison.

"He's adapting quite well; he's already down there. Let's wait ten or twenty minutes, and he should be back up."

"Then let's wait and see."

While waiting, Ye Yaodong explained the source of his diving gear to them, saving them from guessing one by one.

He also detailed his observations from when he previously went underwater, so that these novices, who hadn't yet dived, wouldn't be too amazed by what they saw and needed a heads-up in advance.

"You're truly amazing; you managed to get ahold of this thing."

"Now I understand why you kept digging up so many abalones for a while last year; it was because you had this thing..."

"It's not just abalones; there are sea cucumbers and Jiang Yao too; all of these are from the seabed."

"And the little green dragons..."

"Right, and the little green dragons; there are too many treasures on the seabed. These are all valuable goods; ordinary people can't dive too deep; only specialized divers can go down."

"Now we know; it turns out you had this thing..."

Ye Yaodong smiled. "This thing isn't that overpowered; it can only go down about twenty meters at most; deeper than that won't work, and our human bodies can't handle it either. We're all ordinary people without professional training."

"Yes, yes; you can't go too deep. Before, when I dove four or five meters underwater, my ears couldn't take it."

"Then I previously dove down five or six meters..."

"Ten or twenty meters is already great; the seabed in the near seas is quite shallow in places; ten or twenty meters is enough to reach the bottom."

"There are just more good things on the seabed..."

"Yes, yes, yes..."

"If we emptied all those sea urchins, we should be able to make a lot of money."

Ye Yaodong shook his head. "Hard to say; who knows the price here? If the quantity is too large, will they lower the price? We'll have to wait until we dock and ask back home."

"Oh, right; out of province, people will probably take advantage of us as outsiders."

The others nodded along.

"In a bit, you take turns diving down to collect; just gather as much cargo as you can bring up."

"Okay, okay..."

Everyone waited patiently, chatting idly while they waited.

Ye Yaodong also took off his wet clothes, even his pants, wearing only his boxers.

Compared to the others with bare chests, his skin was so white it seemed to glow.

Fortunately, they had only been out for at most two months; some of these people had already found their usual spots to relieve themselves.

He was still the boat captain; otherwise, he really feared that after such a long time, a delicate, fair-skinned pretty boy like him might risk being sodomized!

"Dongzi, how come you've been out to sea so long but are still so white?"

"Your face is only a bit darker than your body; our butts aren't as white as your face..."

"That's because I wear long sleeves and long pants every day, and I cover my face on the sea too; unlike you guys, who are bare-chested every day."

"Hehehe... isn't everyone like that?"

While they were talking, a sudden splash sound erupted from the water surface.

"He's up..."

"Brother Brother Asheng is up..."

Everyone gathered by the ship's rail without hesitation and helped pull him up.

"How is it?"

"How's the harvest? Is the person okay?"

Ye Ye Yaosheng smiled and said, "It's pretty good; I don't feel uncomfortable anywhere. It was just foggy down there, looking a bit gloomy, but it was fine; I didn't stay long before coming up."

"What does that sea trench look like?"

"Just a black trench; you can't see how deep it is. You'll know once you go down. Third Uncle can reel the rope back up now; it's probably about thirty or forty jin, only half of what's here. I wasn't familiar at first, and my movements were quite slow..."

Ye Yaodong quickly said, "That's good enough; going down once to get familiar is all that's needed. How much you harvest isn't important; it's enough that the person returns safely."

"Yes, yes; after all, it's the first dive; thirty or forty jin is already impressive."

"You can all go down and take a look later; the seabed looks quite peculiar."

"Then I'll go down second..."

While they were talking, Ye's father also hauled up Ye Ye Yaosheng's net bag of goods, dumping them into a basket with a clatter; it was already more than half full, almost full.

Anyway, there were plenty of baskets on their boat; one basket per person per trip meant there was no fear of not having enough space.

Once the net bag was freed, the eldest cousin, with Ye Yaodong's help, put all the gear on properly, making sure everything was secure.

Ye Yaodong accompanied him underwater as usual to get familiar, then let him dive down on his own.

One by one, they took turns in a cycle; he took each of them down, but two people had a fear, perhaps of heights or something else; after not being down for long, they shook their heads and came up.

He didn't force them; if they weren't adapted, then they shouldn't go down, to avoid any incidents.

Originally, six people came; only four could dive, while the other two were scared. In a bit, let them return to the other boat to continue catching jellyfish; that boat still had three people, who were of the same generation as his father.

This time, besides him and his father, they hired ten people in total; one person stayed home. There was no fixed person assigned to stay, but basically, a few familiar cousins took turns watching the house.

This worked out perfectly; the numbers for catching jellyfish and harvesting sea urchins were split evenly.

The cargo brought up by the four who dived was about the same, all around thirty or forty jin, with the bamboo baskets nearly full.

However, when they went down for the second round, everyone improved; they could all bring up over fifty jin, enough to nearly fill the baskets, while he, as usual, brought up around seventy jin.

After just two rounds of diving, the boat was piled high with black sea urchins; nearly five hundred jin had been harvested, and Ye Yaodong was extremely satisfied.

"Alright, everyone take a break; you've dived twice, and the physical exertion is great."

Ye Ye Yaosheng said cheerfully, "It's alright. With so many people taking turns, I've already rested plenty. I'm not tired."

"You're not tired, but when it's time to head back, we have to deliver that whole boat of jellyfish."

He saw the Harvest not far off, steering toward them. He had to send back his jellyfish together with Uncle Pei's jellyfish.

Everyone's timing worked out perfectly. Just as the last person came aboard, Uncle Pei's boat also appeared in the distance.

"So we're taking this boat back?"

"Right. I also want to bring the sea urchins back and ask around about the price—check a few places to compare. Lately, because we've been catching jellyfish, we haven't really seen any other seafood along the shore. I don't know if the price will be any good."

"Then I'll go on the other boat," Ye Fu said.

Ye Yaodong nodded. When they came out to catch jellyfish, he and his father had always each captained one boat—one person going back, one person staying to watch.

Usually it was his father who delivered the goods back. If those thugs came looking for trouble and things seemed off, then it was him who went back.

Today, to sell the goods, he had to go ask around himself. Letting his father stay here and keep watch was fine.

"Uncle Pei's boat is almost here. Let's also head over to the other boat. Everyone, bear with it a bit—let's move the cargo over together."

"Alright, alright, what's there to bear or not? This is what we're supposed to do."

Father Pei's boat, while they were hauling cargo, slowly drew alongside. Seeing the boatful of dark, dense sea urchins, he was utterly astonished.

"Where did these come from? Did you go down into the water?"

"Yeah…"

Ye Yaodong gave him the whole story from start to finish.

He hadn't planned to hide it anyway. It couldn't be hidden—once they reached shore, everyone would see his boatful of sea urchins.

Telling them was no big deal. They couldn't dive that deep anyway, so all they could do was watch him harvest and stare.

Father Pei was indeed full of regret. "A sea urchin nest! Then this thing of yours really is pretty good. Being able to dive that deep—it really helps to have connections…"

"Heh heh…"

"You win some, you lose some. What's found on the sea surface gets shared with everyone, but what's at the seabed you can keep for yourself. Even if people know, there's nothing they can do about it."

"Still don't know how much money it'll fetch. Have to wait until we reach shore and ask around. If the people here are too black-hearted and it's not worth much, then it's no use. When that happens, I won't go diving anymore."

"True enough. This isn't our village after all."

"Let's move the jellyfish over first. We'll clear some space too—pick up the pace."

The crew on both boats had already started bustling back and forth, hauling cargo. The people on their boat were also helping receive the goods.

They didn't mix the cargo up either—everyone's bamboo baskets had markings on them.

Ye Yaodong couldn't bring himself to do something like dumping the other's goods into his own basket. He hadn't earned any less to begin with; he wasn't about to pull such a tasteless stunt.

With so many people on the boat all from the same village, there are no walls without cracks in this world. Say one word carelessly back home and his reputation would be ruined.

Once all the cargo had been hauled over and stacked, he set off first.

There were two or three other boats on the nearby sea, all heading toward the town. Most likely they were their people too.

After everyone finished their own catches, when it came to delivering goods they had to go back on their own—no more taking turns. Except for him, who stayed in the sea trench, Father Pei had turned back earlier to find a convenient spot, so as usual they still had him do the transporting.

He figured that by evening, one by one, the cooperative arrangements would fall apart, and everyone would settle accounts on their own.

It was fine though. Apart from taking turns transporting, they hadn't mixed in any other expenses, so they didn't have to wait until the fishing season ended.