Chapter 203: The Feast of Opening the Sea

After Wu An finished handling all the fish, he collapsed limp on the ground, gasping heavily.

From encountering the fish school to now, he has been doing continuous high-intensity work for about two hours.

Killing so many devil fish on the spot while having to guard against being stung is truly exhausting.

After A Qing and Mai Hangyu finished smoking a cigarette, Wu An slightly recovered his strength before getting up to start the fishing boat.

A Qing hesitated a moment, then couldn't help asking: "Brother, should we pull in the longline now? Or should we haul it in and then head back?"

Wu An felt a little tempted, thought it over, but still shook his head and said: "No."

If the longline haul turns out too big, it'll also be a headache.

It's better to head back early to rest, then we can go out to sea early tomorrow.

A Qing nodded: "Brother, you've thought of everything; we'll need to bring more boxes tomorrow."

Mai Hangyu's mouth twitched.

Are you guys serious about that?

He just wanted to say... that worry is totally reasonable.

Wu An took the helm, saying: "You two take a break."

There'll still be work to do when we get to the dock later.

Mai Hangyu nodded.

A Qing lit a cigarette, saw the deck was filthy, couldn't stand it, got up and went over to start cleaning.

Wu An chopped off the devil fish's tails; some fell to the boat's edge, and he didn't just toss them into the sea, in case one day he'd be careless and step on one, which would be quite dangerous.

He found each one, gathered them together, and dumped them all into the seawater.

Mai Hangyu saw A Qing busy to no end, went over to help, also sorted the boxes; the deck looked much cleaner, though there was still a lot of grime.

A Qing drew up seawater, first rinsed with it, then at the dock a rinse with fresh water would suffice.

He is actually quite diligent.

He looks like a monkey, but in fact he endures hardship and labor well.

Before, following Wu An around aimlessly, he was almost ruined.

Wu An watched silently; A Qing had become a good-for-nothing, and he bore great responsibility.

If I remember correctly.

In his previous life, after he left his hometown, I don't know how A Qing fared, but at least he did better than him.

After finishing up, Mai Hangyu and A Qing returned to the boat shed; the latter took out his phone, looked, and shouted: "Brother, we have a signal!"

Should we go to the village dock or the town dock?

Wu An replied: "I'll make a phone call to ask."

First he called Lao Fang, learned it was devil fish, and was offered a price of sixteen catties.

Then he called Lao Xie, who offered fifteen per catty.

Upon hearing the price, Wu An found it much lower than he expected; Lao Fang and Lao Xie also gave explanations.

The sea has opened.

All kinds of seafood are plentiful, so prices naturally dropped. Devil fish remain good, but some fish have seen their prices slashed in half.

Even so, fishermen can still make money.

If the price isn't enough, make up for it with volume; as long as you return with a full load, any seafood that isn't terribly priced can still turn a profit.

The prices offered by Lao Fang and Lao Xie differed by only about a dollar, so Wu An couldn't be bothered to go to the town; he greeted Lao Fang, who said nothing, showing little interest in devil fish.

He told Lao Xie to come and pick up the goods.

Lao Xie naturally agreed happily.

Wu An, rushing back and forth, when he returned to the dock the sun was just about to sink into the sea, the horizon ablaze with sunset, but the busy people at the dock had no leisure to admire it.

On the first day of the sea opening, the dock was unusually lively.

There were fishing boats constantly returning, unloading or not yet unloading; fishermen, vendors, helpers, and customers stood together, with all kinds of shouts never ceasing.

Also, many foodies eager to taste the fresh catch were waiting anxiously to sample the seafood from the first haul after the sea opened.

At this time the dock's seafood was both cheap and fresh; villagers from miles around would come here to buy, to reward themselves after a hard day's work, then take it home to feast with family and enjoy seafood to their heart's content.

The fishermen returned with full holds and had earned money.

Everyone also got to eat fresh, cheap seafood.

Everyone benefited.

This is a feast belonging to the coastal people.

They arrived at the dock.

Wu An waited a while before finally berthing; before he even disembarked, Lao Xie leapt aboard, followed by two helpers, and upon seeing the devil fish in the live fish hold, they were all quite surprised.

"They're still lively and jumping—great, great!" Lao Xie beamed with joy and praised: 'I have no doubt about A An's luck; running into a devil fish school is completely normal.'

But that you could catch so many devil fish is truly beyond my expectation.

Impressive.

Boss Xie is right—such a small boat with only three people, I don't even see a trawling winch, just a few cast nets.

Can cast nets catch that many devil fish?" another helper doubted: 'Devil fish swim fast; even if you're lucky enough to encounter them, it's hard to catch that many.'

Lao Xie, you're really overpraising them." A Qing chuckled, glanced at the two helpers, and continued: 'What you said is correct—those many devil fish certainly weren't caught by cast nets.'

They also used scoop nets.

Most of them we hauled up with scoop nets.

Upon hearing this.

Lao Xie and the three of them became even more bewildered.

Mai Hangyu also said, "Actually a few devil fish jumped onto the fishing boat themselves; the biggest one is still swimming happily now, its strength is terrifying."

Lao Xie and the three people were dumbfounded.

Do you want to hear what you're saying?

"Don't wear a face of disbelief; I'll tell you, I'll tell you."

"At that time we encountered an Orca Pod, my brother saw it, his tiger‑like waist trembled, and he shouted, 'This tree I planted, this Road I opened; if you want to pass, leave the toll.'"

Mai Hangyu added, "Ahem, it's a toll."

"Oh, right, now it's called a toll; those Killer Whales were quite frightened by my brother, and they even offered their dinner—the devil fish—as a gift."

"These devil fish are the toll the Orca Pod gave."

Mai Hangyu said, "If you ask me, they still aren't sensible enough; they want us to personally catch them. They should just throw the devil fish onto the boat directly."

A Qing nodded, indicating it made sense.

The two of them held back all the way, and now they sang in unison, blowing their bragging to a deafening roar.

Wu An listened, both amused and exasperated.

Lao Xie and the two helpers listened, stunned; this was truly unheard of.

"Damn, collecting tolls from Killer Whales?"

"Is it real?"

"That's just too awesome."

The two helpers couldn't help shouting and squealing; instinctively they didn't want to be cautious, but seeing so many devil fish, they had to believe.

Lao Xie looked at Wu An.

Wu An met his puzzled, questioning gaze and said, "At that time the Orca Pod was driving away a group of devil fish, and we happened to run into them."

"It was also luck; they happened to enclose our fishing boat inside."

"We took advantage of the Orca Pod's feeding time to seize so many devil fish."

"That really is a toll," Lao Xie clicked his tongue twice and said, "If you were a Trawler, this trip would have been a windfall."

A Qing pursed his lips and said, "What's the big deal? Next time we meet an Orca Pod, just let them pay the toll again."

Lao Xie widened his eyes, raised his thumb: "Damn, that makes sense!"