Chapter 360: Being Towed by a Fish

The thing Lao Fu Tou worried about most didn't happen.

Nowadays, the fishermen who go out to sea are basically honest, seeking wealth, and the saying "kill and set fire for a gold belt, build roads and leave no corpses" is no longer popular.

They came over shouting angrily, also because Wu An had led them around on the sea for half a day, wasting time and burning a lot of fuel, which made them furious.

They just wanted to vent, but ended up being scolded badly by A Qing.

But it was just mutual swearing.

Although following Wu An to look for a nest was underhanded, they didn't do anything more extreme.

Wu An saw the last yacht stop and start work, laughing as he took the loudspeaker from A Qing's hand and said, "Alright, we're far enough now; shouting at them won't be heard anyway."

Arriving at Shuangzi Dao, the sky had fully brightened, already close to 9 o'clock.

If they hadn't been playing around on the sea, they could have arrived before eight to start work, but the time wasn't wasted— not letting anyone catch up was their biggest gain.

Anyway, they could afford to lose some fuel money.

Wu An said he would go drive the boat, but Lao Fu Tou and A Qing both had him collect the adhesive net instead.

They said he had good luck.

Wu An struggled a bit, saying everyone's the same, the luck‑boosted adhesive net doesn't play favorites, but A Qing wouldn't listen and brought up past incidents.

Seeing there was no way to slack off, Wu An had to go collect the net.

He hooked the adhesive net up and hung it on the winch.

He pressed the start button.

The winch began to work with a creaking sound.

"Brother, it's out of the water… huh… what is this?" A Qing had been happy, but seeing only sardines hanging on the adhesive net, he couldn't smile anymore.

This isn't worth much.

Sardine schools are extremely dense, so they are usually caught in large numbers by offshore fishing vessels, and only in hot summer seasons can they be caught near shore.

But A Qing despised it.

Because now that the sea is open, this is the most common economic fish, so its price is naturally cheap; to put it bluntly, sardines aren't even worth the tail of a yellow‑foot croaker, let alone the fact that yesterday they caught many large yellow fish with the adhesive net.

The higher A Qing's expectations, the greater his disappointment now.

Lao Fu Tou smiled and said, "As long as there's a catch, it's not a loss."

When dropping the adhesive net, you must prepare to either not haul it up or haul up nothing; this sardine school's density in the ocean's migration is comparable to a storm.

As expected.

As he spoke, the adhesive net hauled up was covered with sardines.

Thick and dense.

Fortunately they were close, and the sardines on the net were fairly large, so it didn't look bad; but if viewed from afar, even someone with trypophobia would feel uneasy.

Wu An pulled out one, held it in his hand, and said, "Lao Fu, a sardine this big isn't common, is it?"

Lao Fu Tou nodded.

Sardines are small, silver, slender fish, about 15 to 30 centimeters long.

But the one in Wu An's hand is about forty centimeters, roughly a catty, making it a giant among sardines, and such sized sardines are not rare on the adhesive net.

It should fetch a good price.

Usually they sell for about fourteen yuan per catty; now maybe seventeen or eighteen?

Not bad.

Wu An thought it was fine; as long as the quantity came in, they could make a decent sum.

Wu An saw A Qing absentmindedly gutting fish, kicked him, and said, "Work properly, stop muttering."

A Qing grunted twice, and his movements became much more nimble.

Lao Fu Tou laughed, "A Qing, don't be discouraged; sardine schools are at the bottom of the ocean food chain and usually attract many big fish."

"If we're lucky, the adhesive net might snag a few big fish."

A Qing's eyes lit up: "Large yellow fish?"

Lao Fu Tou didn't respond.

He thought to himself that he too hoped to encounter a large yellow fish school this time, but such luck doesn't come often; once the school passes, it's basically gone.

Large yellow fish aren't encountered just like that; he estimated there wouldn't be any this trip.

When he spoke, his words might be unpleasant, so he just kept quiet and worked.

Wu An also stayed silent; gutting fish is a skill, and since the boat lacks many work tools, he planned to stock up properly when he got back.

As long as there's space on the boat, he'd get as much as he could.

Then, they'd lower the nets one day and haul them up the next; they wouldn't process the catch themselves but go straight to the dock to hire help for that.

Anyway, their reputation is already out there.

No more hiding it.

Putting it that way, no more pretenses— laying all cards on the table.

I'm just lucky.

You say it's infuriating, right?

Perhaps because of the sardine school's impact, besides sardines, the adhesive net shows hardly any other fish, and even shrimp and crab are rare.

This also lowered their work difficulty; they only needed to remove the sardines from the adhesive net, toss them into the fish basket, and finally send them to the storehouse.

One hundred meters.

Two hundred meters.

Three hundred meters.

Then the float disappeared.

"Damn it, could someone have stolen our adhesive net again?" A Qing couldn't find the float, and immediately got anxious.

Wu An frowned, scanning the sea surface, but also didn't see anything.

Lao Fu Tou then climbed to the highest point, took out the telescope to look, and after a moment said: "I think I saw something, but I'm not sure; it's about a nautical mile away from us."

Wu An immediately said: "Never mind whether it is or not, let's sail over and take a look."

The fishing boat started up.

As they got closer, without the telescope Wu An could see the floating ball with the naked eye; it was very conspicuous. A bit closer, A Qing shouted excitedly: "Brother, it's our floating ball."

"Damn, who did this, how did they throw our adhesive net over here?"

"Could it be..."

Wu An shook his head: "Don't speculate wildly; it might have been hit by a school of fish, or dragged over by an undercurrent."

Let's haul it up and take a look.

Haul the floating ball up.

Winch operation.

The adhesive net came out of the water, making Wu An's expression change, because it was tangled in a mess; although some sardines were hanging on it, compared to a normal adhesive net before, the quantity was obviously much less.

Lao Fu Tou keenly sensed: "Something's wrong, the winch is under heavy load, maybe there's a big catch."

The winch was still very powerful.

The adhesive net kept coming out of the water, a big creature surfaced and was dragged onto the deck; Lao Fu Tou smiled and said: "It's a bigeye, just like the one we previously caught with the cast net."

Wu An nodded with a smile; that wasn't bad either. The bigeye tuna fetches 120 dollars per catty; though the price seems about that, a single bigeye tuna weighs at least over a hundred catties, so one fish is worth at least five figures.

This fish alone is worth more than the sardines caught on a hundred meters of adhesive net combined; moreover, they hauled up two bigeye tuna at once.

A Qing walked around the two bigeye tuna, saying: "These two bigeye tuna are no small fry; standing next to them, I'm just a little brother."

Wu An smiled, had him take out his mobile phone, crouched down, and took a selfie together.

Lao Fu Tou quickly found the last hundred meters of adhesive net as well; it looks like the lost adhesive net was carried off by a bigeye tuna that was hunting sardines.