Chapter 332: Admitting Defeat

At this moment.

It was already just past six in the morning.

From the start of the longline fishing operation until now, two or three hours have passed; during this long time, nobody has rested even a moment.

They stopped now.

Looking at the red sun already risen in the east, the sea under the sunlight classroom, rosy light in myriad rays, gorgeous and splendid, magnificently spectacular?

"Holy shit."

"This is too beautiful."

"No wonder rich people love to go out to sea by boat."

Mei Wu was somewhat shocked by this beautiful scene, and couldn't help but sigh.

Wu An curled his lips; those rich people who go out to sea in yachts aren't doing it to see the scenery.

Those who have no money but still want to go out and have fun are the ones who actually go to see the scenery.

Fortunately, the crab pot's catch wasn't big, so now everyone has leisure to admire the scenery.

Lao Fu Tou didn't agree.

It's indeed nice to look at, but after seeing it a lot it's just the same.

Wu An quickly heated up breakfast; the variety was quite rich, with fried clams, eggs, soy milk, and after boiling water he could also have a bowl of rice noodles.

The fried clams were made by his sister-in-law yesterday; there was a big pot left over, so he brought it.

The soy milk was from last night when he went to sell seafood and saw the boss still had some unsold, so he simply packed it up and brought it back.

This is probably what they mean by good deeds being rewarded.

He went out to sea in the early morning; if he hadn't bought it beforehand, he basically couldn't have bought it.

The free-range eggs and rice noodles were prepared by Li Juan; the rice noodles are homemade pure handmade, no additives, no pollution, an excellent green food.

Add some fish balls to it, then slurp; slurping one without making a sound is their local specialty rice noodle.

After eating well.

They returned again to Huo Ming Dao for the longline fishing.

Still Lao Fu Tou piloted the boat; Wu An, without hesitation, was the first to pick up the gaff.

A Qing asked: "Brother, how should we arrange things?"

Wu An thought for a moment and said: "You and A Wu Ge will handle the fish, and let the elder brother manage the longline."

Don't think the elder brother hasn't gone out to sea much, but this longline was made by him and his sister-in-law together; he definitely knows how to handle it.

Everyone nodded, having no objection to his decision.

On the boat.

It's fine for everyone to chat and laugh, but during the work, Wu An basically makes all the decisions.

Everyone also listens to him.

But it's not because of any rule; it's just that they feel Wu An is reliable on the boat.

Wu An quickly hauled up the float, checked the luck value, and indeed it had been cleared.

He had originally planned to keep adding luck points to the longline, but then he noticed the longline starting to tremble.

A Qing and Mei Wu standing nearby also noticed and shouted: "We've got a bite!"

"It hooked right away; the fish must be big."

Both were somewhat excited; a small fish normally wouldn't cause such a commotion.

"Pull it up."

"Wah-wah," he shouted, and hooked one end of the longline onto the winch.

The winch immediately started working.

With the winch operating on the fishing boat, at least half the labor is saved.

Soon, the first fish came out of the water.

Wu An initially saw it was a stone bream and was quite happy, but when he saw the fish's condition clearly, the smile on his face froze instantly.

This stone bream looked fairly large; just the head alone probably weighed one or two catties.

Why single out the fish head to mention?

Because only the fish head was hanging on the hook.

The fish body had vanished without a trace.

A Qing also saw it, eyes wide, leaned over to look: "Holy shit, where's the fish body?"

The fish head was alone, its eyes bulged, bloodshot red, looking quite unwilling to die.

A Qing took down the fish head and sighed: "Fish, tell me, who ate you? I'll avenge you, brother!"

As he spoke, he also gritted his teeth; obviously this wasn't just idle talk.

He truly wanted to avenge the fish.

This fish was worth at least a thousand or so dollars, but now only the head remains; fortunately the head is still fairly large, so later we can still stew a fish-head soup.

The winch kept working, continuously pulling up the longline.

Afterward, many more fish met a miserable end; A Qing was so angry he jumped up and down.

With so many fish heads, we can't possibly eat them all, really can't.

Wu An's expression also wasn't good, but there was nothing to be done.

He had also heard people say that fish caught on the longline often get snatched by other fish.

But being snatched on such a large scale today is still relatively rare.

Wu An guessed it was attracted by the luck value imbued in the longline.

Such a pity; luck has always been a double-edged sword—used well it can bring in a lot of sea goods, used poorly, once it exceeds the range it will cause considerable loss.

Previously, when fishing, luck was the helm of the fishing rod, and it would also set a limit on how many catties could not be exceeded.

If exceeded, the likely outcome is a broken rod and the fish getting away.

Now, the same principle applies to longline fishing.

No way.

We can only accept the loss.

Lao Fu Tou, upon learning of this, came over to have a look, and even picked up several fish heads to examine closely, saying, "It was swallowed whole, not torn apart."

"Look at these breaks; they are almost identical."

"The one that snatched them is a big fish."

"Or else it's a school of fish roughly the same size."

Wu An asked, "Lao Fu, can you tell what fish is causing this?"

Lao Fu Tou smiled and said, "Most likely it's a Dragon Fish."

A Qing's eyes lit up: "I know, I know, that thing is huge—I once saw someone catch one at the dock, bigger than my whole person."

"Its mouth is even bigger; it feels like it could bite my head off directly."

"Brother, can we catch him?"

"If we catch it, we'll cut it into eight pieces—no, we'll hack it to bits!"

"Slice it into fish fillets, eat it raw, eat it blanched!"

Lao Fu Tou laughed heartily: "If we catch it, we'd be reluctant to eat it—that thing is very valuable."

Wu An blinked: "Isn't it a protected animal?"

Lao Fu Tou shook his head: "No."

Wu An pondered, recalling that in the future Dragon Fish are protected animals.

Unfortunately, Dragon Fish are usually too big; with the equipment currently on their boat they can't even get one, and even if they did, it would be hard to haul it aboard.

This loss can only be swallowed.

Looking at the sea fish snatched from the longline, alas, there's nothing to be done.

The total catch of the longline, merely because of being snatched, at least a quarter of the fish have met a horrible end.

A Qing threw all the fish heads into a net cage: "These fish are too crafty, leaving only the heads uneaten."

Lao Fu Tou said: "This is also normal; some Dragon Fish are older than I am."

"Living that long, they've seen everything in the sea."

"Maybe the fish on the longline were driven by him to crash into it, and then he slowly enjoys this buffet."

A Qing imagined that scene and cursed: "Damn, it might actually have become a spirit."

"Too bad we can't catch it."

"Brother, think of a way."

Wu An ignored him.

If he had a way, he wouldn't be sitting here glaring.