Chapter 985: Picked up one

Ye Yaodong looked at the boat workers on the Fengshou fishing boat on the side, all chatting there, as if discussing the scene just now.

He also felt a pity in his heart, didn't take a camera to take pictures of the group of devil fish flying to the sky, who could have thought there would be a group of devil fish?

Originally this fish couldn't fly for long in the sky, in fact, it was just flying leap, jumped into the water in a flash, he was also worried that if he ran to the boat cabin to find the camera again, it would be gone when he came out, so just watched there.

However, it was also fortunate that the camera wasn't taken out, otherwise, those waves hitting down one after another, maybe it would have been scrapped.

When he looked towards Fengshou, his father also shook the red flag towards the other side, and when they looked over, shouted to Uncle Pei: "We cast the net first."

Uncle Pei also put his hands to his mouth like a trumpet and shouted, "Good!"

Separated by distance, communication in the middle of the sea was inconvenient, could only shout briefly.

Then immediately the personnel on Fengshou also started to get busy. Ye Yaodong saw this and ran to the cockpit, drove the boat to the side, and pulled the distance between the two boats apart.

Their kind of trawling net had three or four hundred meters long, really close, if working together, the fishing net entangled together would be troublesome.

A few boat workers of Dongsheng went to the back deck together, lifted the fishing net together, and slowly threw it into the sea.

The cable ropes of the two dragging nets were 300 meters long, originally piled on the shipboard on both sides, the net entered the sea, the cable rope was pulled quickly, like a winding snake, and all entered the sea in a few minutes.

After the fishing net completely went down to the sea, the net mouth became bigger and bigger under the action of the wind and water board, it was a hungry giant dragon, opening its bloody mouth.

This was the first net cast by Dongsheng after officially going to sea. Father Ye kept watching, and only after finishing did he greet the boat workers to change clothes together, change the wet clothes on their bodies, and rinse them and hang them up.

After changing, Father Ye went to the cockpit.

"Change me, you go change clothes."

"Good, you pull the distance from Fengshou as far as possible, we run forward, as long as we can see each other, we are in front, Fengshou will also follow."

"I know, we just keep opening forward, old Pei and they are also casting nets there, will also keep moving forward."

Ye Yaodong handed the cockpit to his father, and went to the back of the boat cabin himself. The boat workers changed clothes and ran to the deck again, one by one full of spirit, full of excitement staring at the sea surface, wanting to see if they could still see devil fish and sharks fighting.

Everyone's beds were at the back of the boat cabin, a wooden board separated the space into beds and storage rooms. Because there was only a one-meter square hole, Ye Yaodong could only bow his head and bend his waist to drill in and out.

The bed was upper and lower layers, about one meter seven or eight long, half a meter wide, lying on it could only curl legs to sleep, the quilts were all new, not yet damp and fishy.

The storage room was piled with cooking utensils, rice, flour, big buckets of water, a few nails were nailed on the wall, hanging cooking utensils and miscellaneous things, the space was utilized as much as possible, everything seemed messy but orderly.

He opened his luggage box from the stern, just needed to change a cotton-padded jacket and pants, changed with a bent body, and then took the wet clothes and pants to the storage warehouse on the side.

A water bucket inside already had half a bucket of water, the ground on the side was wet, that was probably left by the boat workers when they washed just now, he also put the clothes in to soak for a while and then took them out to wring dry, then took them out to hang.

The water in the bucket decreased by more than half again, Ye Yaodong just left it like this, these water could still be used, couldn't waste, could wash hands at any time, could also come in to wash.

A few ropes were pulled outside the boat cabin, a pile of clothes just changed by the boat workers were already hung on it. Ye Yaodong also hung his clothes up to dry, and then called them to cook.

It was already twelve o'clock at noon, cook and eat, at least one o'clock, just take advantage of this leisure time, fishing nets were all down in the water, couldn't come up for two hours, take advantage of this time to hurry up and cook and eat.

Called people over, let them distribute and take turns cooking, he stood on the deck himself, narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance.

"Should buy a telescope..."

The sea surface was vast, scenery couldn't be seen clearly, they were far away from Fengshou, both sides kept distance after putting the net into the water.

Thinking like this, he also returned to the boat, first took out his sunglasses and wore them, at least wouldn't let the sun light be so dazzling, look at whether there was a telescope in two days when returning, buy one, equipment that should be prepared must be prepared completely.

The fishing boat had slowed its speed, and no waves were surging over the pointed bow. The sea surface looked calm and waveless, and it was unknown if there were undercurrents surging below.

Casting the net for the first time, there was nothing to do during this period. If it weren't for not eating yet, they also came out early this morning, everyone was not tired, otherwise this period should go back to bed to sleep and rest. After all, after the fish goods came up, sorting was also a big project, and it would be non-stop from then on.

Ye Yaodong kept strolling on the deck, looking at the surrounding sea surface, just when he wanted to turn his head to see if the meal was

Ye Yaodong was idling, strolling on the deck and looking at the surrounding sea. Just as he was about to turn his head to see if the meal was ready, he saw two behemoths surface on the sea ahead.

A large shark was biting a devil ray, struggling and twisting as it surfaced, with splashing water churning and rippling on the sea surface.

"Oh my, holy cow!! They're fighting here!"

He looked at the Harvest ship in the distance again, feeling that he should have sailed quite far from the previous position, but he didn't expect both species to have fought their way here.

Ye Yaodong hurriedly shouted for the other boat hands to come over and instructed someone to tell Ye Fu to slow the boat down even more, circle around the area, and not go far for now.

The remaining people stood on the deck, pointing and gesturing at the scene not far away.

"Oh my, it's so big... it's bigger than the large round table at home; it must be two or three meters wide, right?"

"That shark isn't small either; it should be three or four meters long. You can see its teeth exposed, biting that devil ray fiercely. It looks like that devil ray is about to die."

"No wonder the fish in the sea are so big after sailing out this far..."

The fishing boat maintained its distance and cruised around the vicinity, not sailing forward directly like before, so everyone could still see the surroundings. Moreover, the shark and the devil ray were constantly fighting, and their struggles were also causing them to move.

"C-can... can we... take the net... and... and go catch... catch it?"

"We're trawling, the boat is constantly moving, we can't stop to cast the nets. Let's just watch for now."

The tools on the boat were all complete. The tools and items they were used to on the trawler had all been moved over, and everything was prepared properly before heading out to sea.

Ye Yaodong told them to bring over the cast nets and the sharpened long bamboo poles first, and also to have them bring over all the bamboo poles with iron hooks attached as backups. Who knows, they might be able to pick up some scraps later?

The shark bared its sharp fangs, biting the devil ray tightly without letting go. The devil ray also flicked its tail from time to time, slapping the shark. The two large fish would dive to the bottom of the water one moment and surface the next.

The shark is one of the top predators in the ocean, and its sharp teeth are its best weapon, capable of tearing apart almost any prey.

The devil ray's tail is poisonous, and their toxins are concentrated in the stinger on the tail. This stinger is triangular, and when encountering danger, the devil ray will pierce this stinger into the enemy's body.

But unfortunately, this large shark was massive and thick-skinned; the stinger couldn't do anything to it at all, which is why the two fish kept entangling with each other.

The two fish were locked in an inseparable battle, and the fishing boat also circled around them at a distance, intending to observe the situation first.

In the heat of the battle, the devil ray was increasingly at a disadvantage. Just as its struggles were becoming weaker, a huge devil ray suddenly leaped from the high sky in the distance, like a parabola, and instantly slid back into the sea.

Because their fishing boat was at a distance, they weren't affected this time.

However, this large devil ray that had just slid down suddenly appeared around the two fish that were locked in battle not long after. As soon as it emerged from the water, it used its huge pectoral fin to slap the shark.

The devil ray's two wings are its pectoral fins, which are larger than a kite when spread out. Especially this one, which looked a whole lot larger than the one being bitten by the shark.

"Holy crap! This one is even bigger!"

"Another even bigger one has arrived!"

"The shark seems to have been slapped silly?"

"It's two-on-one in the sea now..."

Ye Yaodong also watched with wide eyes, his sunglasses already removed at some point.

He saw that large devil ray constantly slapping the shark with its pectoral fin, while the shark's mouth was biting the other devil ray, unable to free its sharp teeth and only able to keep taking slaps.

Perhaps slapped silly, the shark dragged the devil ray it was biting and sank directly into the water, disappearing without a trace in an instant.

"Is that it?"

"Gone?"

"Didn't we just watch for nothing for half a day?"

"They must be fighting under the water..."

"There are plenty of fights under the water. Didn't we see hundreds of them from two species earlier? They're probably all having a group fight down there."

Just as the Dongsheng was looking for a target and intending to continue forward, a shark surfaced again, biting the fin of a devil ray, and it was right next to their fishing boat.

Just as they were in an uproar and retreated in alarm, that huge devil ray emerged from the sea surface again. The shark had probably been slapped silly, and it immediately tore off a large chunk of meat before diving into the water.

And the huge devil ray that had surfaced also dived into the water together with it.

Only a devil ray missing a large part of its pectoral fin remained on the sea surface. The blood had only just begun to spread on the sea surface before it was diluted without a trace.

The devil ray missing half a pectoral fin seemed to have lost its balance, swaying unsteadily on the sea surface with the other pectoral fin, as if it were about to sink into the water at any moment, yet it struggled, wanting to float up.

"Did that big one go to chase the shark?"

"This one is going to die!"

"Should we fish it up before it sinks?"

It was also because of its massive size that its vitality was relatively tenacious. Having lost a small part of its pectoral fin, it could still flap and hadn't immediately sunk into the water.

But looking at it, it probably wouldn't be long before it would also sink to the bottom of the water to become food for other fish.

"Fish it up, we definitely have to fish it up. Good thing it surfaced right by the boat this time. Although the boat is moving, it's also moving on the side, and it's not far from us."

With the current wind direction, the fishing boat was sailing forward with the wind and current, and this devil ray was also immediately maintaining the same direction as them as it surged with the waves.

Ye Yaodong held a long bamboo pole with a hook tied to it, "You guys take one each too, help try to fish it up. This one is probably about to kick the bucket soon."

"Okay, okay..."

"The waves are pushing it over right now..."

"Will that big devil ray suddenly appear and slap us?"

"N-no way, right?"

"Thinking too much. This one is about to die, that devil ray must be fighting the shark."

Everyone watched the devil ray drifting over as it struggled with the waves, and they all stretched their bamboo poles to hook this large fish.

This time, having lost part of its pectoral fin, it couldn't maintain balance, but it could still struggle and swim slowly a few times; its vitality hadn't disappeared yet.

When they reached out with their hooks to poke it, it could still use its pectoral fin to slap the waves and struggle. Everyone got a face full of water, but they didn't care to wipe it off and could only continue to use the hooks to catch it.

Ye Yaodong looked at the fish being pushed closer and closer by the wind and current, thinking that the fins were hard to hook and too slippery, and the whole body was yellowish-brown, so he hooked toward the underside of its belly.

He tried hooking it several times with great effort, but didn't succeed. He hooked it several times, only for it to struggle free.

"You guys hook the underside of its belly, see if you can hook its mouth. The pectoral fins can't be hooked, you can also hook its nose..."

Some people hooked its nose, some hooked its mouth, but they were all struggled away by its remaining vitality.

Until his arms were sore and he wanted to give up, the long hook in his hand seemed to have caught its mouth, causing it to struggle and flip violently, and the bamboo pole in his hand almost slipped away.

"I caught it, I caught it, it can't struggle free, hurry up and help pull..."

"You caught it? Hurry, hurry..."

Everyone excitedly helped with all their might, pulling the bamboo pole together, which caused that devil ray to struggle violently. The pulling force of several hundred jin almost dragged them all into the water. Fortunately, everyone gritted their teeth and didn't let the bamboo pole slip away.

When the devil ray was pulled to the side of the fishing boat, Chen Shi also used a hook to catch the devil ray's nose.

As the fishing boat was sailing, the devil ray was dragged along with the boat. Its remaining vitality was still supporting it as it struggled desperately. For a while, they couldn't pull it up and couldn't do anything to it, so they could only hook it and sail, maintaining a tug-of-war for now.

As time passed bit by bit, the devil ray's struggle became weaker and weaker, and only then did everyone try to pull and lift it onto the boat with force.

The bold old boat hands, when the devil ray was against the hull, all leaned down, and five people worked together, each using two hands to hook its nostrils, pulling this two-hundred-jin-plus devil ray up bit by bit.

And the devil ray still had a bit of vitality left, weakly struggling and slapping the hull with its pectoral fins.

"Put your back into it... use force... it's almost up..."

"One, two... three..."

"One, two... three..."

"Almost there... one, two... three..."

The veins on everyone's foreheads bulged, their faces twisted as they pulled with all their might.

Finally, they pulled part of its head onto the boat's edge, followed by a "slap" sound, and the hull also swayed. As everyone dodged to the side, some were shaken by the swaying hull and didn't stand steady, while others leaned against the gunwale to stabilize themselves.

Seeing its tail, which was longer than a whip, still swaying there, and its pectoral fins occasionally flapping twice, everyone immediately dodged to the side as soon as they stabilized their bodies, to avoid being caught by its tail.

Something this big must be very poisonous. Out here in the middle of the sea, where help is nowhere to be found, that would mean death.

"Isn't this too big?"

"This one is still considered small. The one that came later was even bigger and more exaggerated; it slapped the shark silly."

"No wonder that bite from the shark earlier only tore off part of the fin. If it were a smaller shark, who knows who would have eaten whom."

"Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp, shrimp eat seaweed; it's normal, survival of the fittest."

"It's still alive, it's not done yet..."

"We should wait until it stops moving before going up."

Ye Yaodong also called out, "Wait until it stops moving before going up. That tail is poisonous; if it accidentally whips someone, it'll be a disaster."

"Then let's eat first?"

"Yes, yes, eat first, we haven't eaten yet."

"Almost forgot about the fish soup in the pot..."

"Good thing we were cooking fish soup, otherwise all the dishes would have been burnt..."

"Then let's go finish cooking the dishes first. After eating, we'll come back to see if this fish is still alive. Once it stops moving, we'll go cut off its tail."

Ye Fu was at the helm in the cockpit, controlling the fishing boat's operation, constantly stretching his neck to look at the large devil ray on the deck, itching to get closer to see it, but unable to get away.

"Dongzi, Dongzi~"

He called for a long time before Ye Yaodong reacted and looked over, then went to take over steering the boat from his father.

"Are you deaf? I called you and you didn't even react. You scared me to death. Such a large devil ray was actually brought up by you guys. Hurry, here you go, I'm going to take a look..."

Ye Fu didn't wait for him to speak and ran off as if his feet were greased to go watch that devil ray.

"What's the rush? The fish is already up, it's not going to run away."

Ye Yaodong didn't know the situation on the fishing boat behind him; he just looked at the calm and waveless sea ahead and maintained his forward state, continuing toward deeper waters, while secretly looking forward to whether the first net could be a bumper catch.

From casting the net to dragging up that devil ray missing part of its pectoral fin, over an hour had passed. He looked at his watch; it would probably be time to haul the net in about an hour.

And Ye Fu also came to the cockpit after seeing the devil ray.

"Tsk tsk tsk, this devil ray is really big, it must be one or two hundred jin for sure. These spread-out wings are half the width of the fishing boat; it looks really scary. It's been so long and the wings can still move twice."

"Seen enough?"

"It's too rare. I don't know how much it can sell for. It's a pity about the part of the pectoral fin bitten off on its body; otherwise, it would be even more valuable. Now that it's missing a part, I don't know if it can still fetch a good price."

"Otherwise, keep it to eat ourselves? I haven't even eaten a devil ray this big."

"Are you kidding?"

Ye Fu immediately put away his full-faced smile and glared at him sternly, "This one or two hundred jin fish, no matter how worthless or devalued it is, someone will want it, and it's better than trash fish that nobody wants. Even if sold to a collection boat, it should be worth a few cents a jin, right? What a waste to eat it. Floating out here on the sea, are you afraid of having no fish to eat?"

"I'm not worried about fish, I just haven't eaten one this big. Anyway, a large chunk of meat has already been bitten off by a shark, it's not that valuable anymore, might as well let everyone have a taste. Hmm... a few cents a jin..."

"If calculated at half the price of the collection boat compared to the shore, plus the fact that a piece is missing from this fish, at most it's worth six or seven cents. One hundred jin is six or seven yuan, two hundred jin is twelve or thirteen yuan. What's there to be reluctant about?"

Ye Fu calculated it for him, and he was stunned for a moment. Thinking about it, it made sense. Although this fish looked big, it was missing half, so devaluation was certain. Plus, the collection boat's purchase price was already discounted by half to seventy percent compared to the shore, making it even less valuable.

"That's true... if collected by the collection boat, it's indeed too cheap..."

"Right? Selling such a big fish for ten yuan is a waste; might as well keep it to eat for a few meals and satisfy our cravings. It might not even sell for ten yuan; if someone is ruthless and presses the price, it's probably only worth a few yuan. At least we'll be people who have tasted a several-hundred-jin devil ray. When we return to the village, it'll be something to talk about."

"It's just that I feel like eating such a big fish directly, I can't bring myself to do it..."

"Then don't eat it, I'll eat it."

Ye Fu said huffily, "That mouth of yours, you eat everything, want to eat everything; there's nothing you can't eat."

"In this life, eating, drinking, and shitting—eating comes first. Anyway, it's already been bitten by a shark; if the fish can be eaten, there's no reason why people can't eat it."

"Leave it there for now and watch it. We'll talk after it stops moving, and after you haul this net up, see if we can catch one or two in the fishing net?"

"After hauling the net, we'll see. It's hard to say if we can catch any. If we can catch one or two devil rays this big, that would be worth quite a bit of money."

The price of fish varies by season, and the collection price for the same fish fluctuates in different seasons. I don't know how much the collection boat will pay.

Even if it's four or five mao on the shore, the collection boat discounts it by half, that's still two or three mao. For two hundred jin, one devil ray is forty or fifty yuan.

Compared to the price on the shore, it's indeed a big loss, but there's no other way. The fishing boat can't go directly to the pier to sell fish; the time wasted would be enough for him to trawl several more nets.

Ye Fu nodded, "Can only pray to the Bodhisattva, pray to Goddess Mazu to bless us to drag up two more in one net, then we'll break even."

"How far did Uncle Pei usually sail before casting the nets?"

Ye Fu thought for a while, "I went out to sea with Ah Guang before, and it was about the same as today. We sailed for three or four hours before starting to cast the nets, then trawled while sailing further away. Anyway, we didn't run out of the province even in the furthest range. Two days before returning to shore, we would trawl while sailing back."

"Oh... then let's continue following the Harvest ship. Anyway, we don't interfere with each other; he trawls his, I trawl mine..."

"If you don't follow the Harvest ship, do you want to sail out and run around blindly yourself? Your wings aren't even hardened yet, you should slow down for now. Follow your in-laws first, follow them for a year or two and see. It's best to follow them in one place..."

Ye Yaodong shrugged, indifferent.

Two boats working together, having someone to look out for each other is certainly good. He was just saying that.

Nowadays, trawlers as big as theirs are also very rare; there are only a few in the town. In such vast waters, those few boats entering the sea are like rice thrown into the sea.

What's more, the profits from smuggling are so high now that many fishing boats have gone on strike to go to the high seas to pick up goods. You can't even see boats in the further waters on the sea surface.

Fishermen like him who are honest, simple, and work diligently are also fewer.

"I'm certainly happy to follow, reducing risks and not being afraid..."

"Time to eat~ time to eat~"

Ye Fu listened carefully to the outside, "They're calling to eat, you go eat first, I'll watch here."

"Okay."

With his own father, there's no need to be polite. After spending so much effort to pull that devil ray up just now, his stomach was actually growling with hunger.

Although the old lady cooked him rice cakes in the morning, symbolizing that each year is higher than the last, a strong man like him doing physical labor gets hungry in no time.

Everyone set up a small table on the boat, and the table was already filled with two dishes and two soups: a bowl of potato and pickled vegetable soup, a bowl of sea bass soup, a bowl of blanched shrimp, and a bowl of dried salted fish, all in large portions in small basins.

Although the first net hadn't been hauled up yet, they still prepared a little fish and shrimp in the morning. For people by the sea, a table without seafood isn't called a meal.

Eating on a boat, you eat the fish head first, symbolizing "smooth sailing from the start."

Everyone was waiting for him to come over before picking up their chopsticks.

As soon as Ye Yaodong went over, he picked up his rice bowl and went to pick the sea bass head first, then greeted everyone to eat.

The fishing boat was swaying as it sailed, the table was swaying, and their bodies were swaying as they ate.

"That fish is still moving..."

"Such a big fish, it's not easy to... pfft... almost said the wrong thing..."

"Should say such a big fish has tenacious vitality."

Today is the first day out at sea, and it's the first time this boat has gone out to sea. It's very taboo to say the word "die" on the boat, so they had been saying the devil ray stopped moving and then they would go cut off its tail; nobody would mention the word "die."

"Hahaha, we're all uncultured, our speech is a bit rough."

"The more you say, the more you err. Good thing it wasn't said out loud, haha, better to talk less and do more."

"Better use your mouth for eating; if you can't speak well, say less."

"After we finish eating, it should be about time to haul the net, right, Ah Dong?"

"Check the time after we finish eating."

As everyone ate, their eyes would occasionally look at the devil ray on the deck, and they would discuss it while pointing at the fish with their chopsticks.

"Don't know how much such a big one can sell for. It's a pity it was bitten by a shark."

"If it hadn't been bitten by a shark, we wouldn't have been able to catch it; who knows where it would have swum to."

Ye Yaodong said with a smile, "If we can catch one or two in the fishing net later, we'll keep this one that had a chunk of meat bitten off by a shark to eat tonight. If we can't finish it, we can continue eating it tomorrow."

"Eat it? Not sell it? It should be worth a few yuan, wouldn't it be a pity to eat it?"

"Haven't we all never eaten one this big? Let's try it. It's only worth a few yuan; one net of ours is worth more than a few yuan."

"Don't know if a kitchen knife can cut through something this big..."

"If we go back to the village, we'll have something to brag about..."