Chapter 613: Heading Toward Tiger Mountain

In the heavy rain.

The fishing boat started up slowly.

A pod of dolphins swam around, guarding the area.

The boat's lights became the only source of light in this stretch of sea!

The clouds were low and thick, and the mood in the lounge was much the same.

Everyone sat apart, silent and speechless.

Wanting to save the dolphins meant we'd have to clash head‑on with Ma Weiqun and his crew — not easy, and if a fight broke out, it's hard to say what would happen.

Everyone was a bit nervous.

No one shrank back in fear.

Fan Xiao Zhu suddenly stood up, fetched two kitchen knives, and gave one to his brother.

A Qing shouted, "Brother Zhu, any more?"

Fan Xiao Zhu shook his head.

A Qing ran over, grabbed an iron pot, waved it twice, and said, "This should pack quite a punch."

Mei Wu and Fu Yongning also hurried to find suitable weapons.

Wu An walked over and reached out to feel it.

Hey.

It actually can boost luck value.

He quickly applied the luck boost to it.

Although he could boost luck value, if possible he still wanted to avoid direct confrontation as much as he could.

Not long after,

Old Fu Tou called him over.

Wu An got up and went to the wheelhouse; Old Fu Tou handed him the binoculars.

Wu An picked up the binoculars; the downpour hampered visibility, but he could still see a cast net hanging off the side of the boat, part of it in the water.

Wu An's face lit up: "It's a captured dolphin — Ma Weiqun didn't haul it onto the deck; it's still in the water."

That dolphin is probably still alive!

Thank goodness, thank goodness.

His voice was full of delight.

Old Fu Tou took a drag of his cigarette and said, "I doubt all the crew on those two boats are in league with Ma Weiqun."

That's why Ma Weiqun would deploy spy fish in this downpour, without hauling the dolphin straight onto the boat.

But don't get your hopes up too high.

After all, a dolphin is still a fish; its vitality is limited. If it's tangled in a cast net and left hanging at the boat's side, should it struggle hard, it's likely to be injured.

Once that happens, the dolphin's fate is easy to imagine.

He wasn't saying this to dash Wu An's hopes; he just didn't want them to face greater disappointment later if their hopes were too high.

Wu An nodded.

He had actually braced himself to retrieve the dolphin even if it were a corpse — after all, do what you can.

If it truly can't be done, he couldn't risk everyone's lives on a gamble.

Old Fu Tou asked, "Should we go straight over?"

Wu An nodded: "Straight over."

Old Fu Tou said nothing, kept the speed, and plowed straight toward the two trawlers.

Wu An kept the binoculars to his eyes; visibility was severely impaired, and he couldn't tell if he was mistaken, but the cast net hanging from the boat's side seemed to be moving.

Wu An sighed inwardly: "Too bad the big circle didn't go find Hu Zi."

If Hu Zi were here, our chances would be better.

But the big circle was worried about the captured dolphin, unwilling to leave its pod behind; Wu An saw him shake his head in refusal, so he didn't press further.

The big circle is quite different.

Under his leadership, his pod shows great unity.

Old Fu Tou shouted with a hint of urgency, "A An, the dolphin pod is accelerating toward those two fishing boats!"

……

Ma Weiqun swore at the few guys who had gotten up to pee, ordering them to hurry back to sleep and forbidding them from drinking too much late at night from now on.

Nobody dared speak out loud, but in their hearts they cursed Ma Weiqun roundly.

Each went back to sleep.

But none of them actually slept.

They began whispering among themselves.

"What are Ma Weiqun and Lin Bin busy with up on the deck?"

"Who knows."

"Working in this downpour? Surely they're up to no good."

"Is Brother Ma leading us into smuggling?"

"Smuggling my ass!"

"But that's what they're saying around the village…"

"You're an idiot — others spout nonsense, and we don't even know our own affairs."

"That's right."

However, Ma Ge is quite off; last time he wouldn't let us just go into the cold storage, sneaking about, and I don't know what he's hiding.

We were chatting happily when suddenly we felt the fishing boat shake.

The shaking wasn't severe.

Did the wind pick up?

Doesn't seem like it.

Hey, it shook again; feels like the fishing boat got hit by something.

What are you talking about? You think this is a road, where a car parked at the side gets rear-ended? We're out at sea—how could we get rear-ended?

Right after that, it shook a few more times.

Now nobody could stay calm; we're all old fishermen, and this kind of shaking is clearly off.

Everyone got up.

After putting on our raincoats we came up on deck and saw Ma Weiqun and Lin Bin still there; we hurriedly called out, "Ma Ge, A Bin, what are you doing?"

The fishing boat was just shaking wildly...

Ma Weiqun wiped sweat and rain from his face and shouted, "All right, good that you're all up—dolphins have gone crazy and actually rammed our fishing boat."

Hearing that, everyone was shocked and rushed to the rail to look down.

Sure enough.

A pod of dolphins had gathered together and kept ramming the fishing boat.

Everyone go get the fish spears and fish forks.

Grab the cast net!

Get them for me.

Ma Weiqun shouted fiercely.

Everyone hesitated.

Ma Ge, these are dolphins.

Attacking this is illegal.

I heard someone who caught protected wildlife got sentenced to several years.

Maybe these dolphins took the wrong medicine—why are they ramming our fishing boat for no reason?

Everyone started shouting at once.

Ma Weiqun got a headache from the noise, silently cursing that if it weren't for these idiots rushing out to pee, he and Lin Bin would have already hauled the dolphins aboard.

The dolphins are still in the water, so the other dolphins are going berserk and attacking the boat.

Now Ma Weiqun is torn.

If we haul up the cast net, the dolphin-catching will be out in the open for everyone to see; he could easily arrange his own men, but the people on the neighboring boats have also gotten up and are watching.

Ma Weiqun doesn't have confidence he can silence so many people.

If word gets out, he'll definitely have to go back inside.

Or just let it be.

But dolphins aren't people—what if they keep fighting to the death?

Lin Bin still had some quick thinking, and hurriedly said, "What are you scared of? We're out at sea, and nobody can see us."

Besides, nobody has a phone, and no one could secretly film.

Most importantly, the dolphins attacked us first; our counterattack is legitimate self-defense, legally speaking an emergency evasion.

Don't say we're just driving the dolphins away.

His words were still reasonable and well-founded.

Some were half-believing, half-doubting.

Lin Bin explained the meaning of emergency evasion, and gave an example: if we were stranded on a deserted island, starving for three days and three nights, and happened to catch a dolphin, roast and eat it, we wouldn't be in trouble—otherwise would we really starve ourselves to death?

Everyone thought his made sense, and they all went to get things.

Although the dolphins' impacts weren't strong, if they kept doing it and somehow damaged the boat, the trouble would be huge.

Wu An had been holding binoculars; seeing everyone grabbing fish forks and similar weapons, his expression changed: "Old Fu, turn on the lights—switch on all the lights."

Hurry up.

These bastards are going to attack the dolphins.

With so many people attacking at once and the dolphins so packed together, casualties are inevitable.