Chapter 650

The bearded man looked at the idle crew and said, "Don't just stand on the Deck, aren't you feeling hot?"

All go back to rest.

Wait for the next net.

A crewman shouted, "Brother Shen, this net feels off!"

Shen Hai took a drag of his cigarette and asked, "What's wrong?"

That crewman pointed at the distant fishing boat and shouted, "Before this trawler came, we didn't say every net would burst, but at least it was okay."

But since this boat arrived, this net yields nothing but fat fish, seaweed, and trash.

It's definitely that ship causing trouble!

Others chimed in as well.

Exactly, before we operated in this sea area, our catches were fine.

Ever since that ship showed up, it's messed up our luck.

Why not drive them away?

Shen Hai gave a wry smile, waved his hand to get everyone to stop, and said, "Enough, enough, don't be so outrageous."

Catches always vary in amount.

This is normal.

Having said that, he sent everyone off to rest.

He glanced at the distant fishing boat; they were far apart, not interfering with each other, and if he went looking for trouble, he'd be in the wrong.

……

At noon.

The sun hung high in the sky; even with a sea breeze blowing, it didn't feel particularly cool.

Especially since everyone was still on the Deck sorting the catch, sweat hardly stopped, Fan Dali couldn't take it and worked bare-chested; seeing this, Wu An told him to put on his sun-protective clothing.

Under such sun, the skin can't take it.

Fortunately the catch wasn't too large; everyone busily worked for a little over an hour, finished sorting the catch, then together tidied the Deck simply, and hurriedly retreated to the rest room.

2:30 p. m.

After more than two hours of trawling, the Trawling Luck Value was basically depleted, Wu An called everyone to haul the net.

The net bag remained full.

A Qing went to open it.

The good news is this net's catch is relatively uniform, still Golden Pineapple, making sorting easier; the bad news is there's even more seaweed and trash.

Brother, why is there so much seaweed around here?

Who knows.

"When handling the seaweed, dig through it a bit more, don't let fish hide inside." Fu Yongning pulled out a few Shrimp Crab from the seaweed, saw A Qing tossing the seaweed into the sea, and quickly reminded him.

A Qing said "Oh," reached in and dug a bit, and indeed found a few Golden Thread Fish, showing off: "Brother, these fish are pretty."

Wu An took them, looked, and said, "These Golden Thread Fish are really beautiful."

In the sunlight.

The fins were crystal clear, the body bore golden stripes, sunlight striking the scales refracted into colorful light.

This fish isn't just beautiful.

It's also delicious and can be eaten fresh.

Fu Yongning's eyes lit up: "This fish is not bad."

Wu An asked, "How is it not bad?"

Fu Yongning chuckled: "Men can eat a bit more."

Wu An hearing that, said: "Fine, anyway there aren't many; later we'll cook them all, everyone don't snatch them from Brother Yongning."

Fu Yongning's mouth twitched: "A An, thank you."

Everyone laughed heartily.

Wu An came to the wheelhouse, told Lao Fu Tou to go north a bit more; with so much seaweed on the net, he also felt annoyed, since both nets were like this, he might as well go farther out before dropping the net.

Anyway, with the cheat on, dropping the net there makes no difference.

……

On the opposing fishing boat.

Shen Hai, plagued by headaches from the noisy crew, retreated to the wheelhouse for some quiet, and heard the helmsman say: "Captain, that fishing boat hasn't dropped its net again; it's heading north."

Shen Hai exclaimed in surprise: "How did it leave?"

The helmsman replied with a smirk: "Maybe, like us, they also didn't catch much."

Good that it left.

Perhaps once they're gone, our luck will return.

Shen Hai said "Don't talk nonsense," though he was secretly pleased; he then picked up the microphone, adjusted the radio frequency, and said: "Peaceful fishing vessel, this is Prosperous Abundance, requesting a call, please switch to channel 11."

He repeated the call several times.

Then he switched to the channel and waited.

……

Lao Fu Tou received the signal and immediately contacted Wu An.

Wu An came to the wheelhouse, learning that the other side had initiated contact, which was somewhat unexpected, and asked: "Lao Fu Tou, what do you think they want to do?"

Lao Fu Tou said: "Just a greeting, inquiring about the catch, or even driving us away……any of those are possible."

Wu An thought to himself that saying that was as good as saying nothing; regardless of what the other side meant, he also had no intention of staying in this sea area, so he picked up the microphone, set the radio to channel 11, and replied: "Prosperous Abundance, hello, this is Peaceful; if there's anything, do you need help?"

Hai Shen said: "Thank you, the Prosperous Abundance is all normal."

"Hello, I am Captain Hai Shen."

"No other meaning, just saying hello."

Wu An muttered in his heart, "I don't believe you, you ghost," and replied: "I am the fishing boat owner; hearing your voice, you should be older than me, so just call me A An."

After exchanging names, they said a few meaningless words; the other party reported his affiliation, being from the County Fishing Company; Wu An also didn't hide anything, saying he came from Fu Yuan Zhen.

Hai Shen quickly shifted the topic, asking: "Seeing you've worked twice, how's the catch?"

Wu An thought: "Average."

"One net yields only about a thousand catties of catch."

"So, I plan to leave here and head north for a bit."

"See you later."

"There's nothing to hide; just speak the truth."

Hai Shen instinctively wanted to echo a couple of words, "Yeah, yeah, the catch isn't great lately," but as the words reached his lips, he suddenly froze, wondering, "Wait, did I hear wrong? A net yields only about a thousand catties of catch?"

"With such a catch, you call it average?"

"And you still want to run away?"

"Who the hell are you kidding?"

"But the opposite fishing boat indeed had not lowered its nets; it was moving north at high speed, which cannot be faked."

"The other party genuinely considers a net yield of about a thousand catties to be average, so they want to go to other waters."

Hai Shen probed: "Are they all fat fish?"

Wu An quickly replied: "No, it's mostly Golden Pineapple and Golden Thread Fish, and there's nothing particularly valuable."

"……" Hai Shen wanted to slap his own mouth, asking for trouble, why ask that?

Asking made him withdraw into himself.

"You don't even like Golden Pineapple and Golden Thread Fish?"

"Is that reasonable?"

"What's the deal?"

"Your target fish is the Large yellow fish, right?"

Hai Shen was too exhausted to retort, didn't want to reply.

Wu An asked: "How's the catch on your side?"

Hai Shen held back for a while, then spat out two words: "Average."

The helmsman beside twitched at the corner of his mouth.

"Our 'average' and theirs seem different."

Wu An said: "This sea area isn't great."

"Meeting is fate."

"If you're willing, you can follow me."

Hai Shen refused without even thinking.

"What a joke."

As captain, his responsibility is huge; how could he possibly run around with someone unfamiliar, and if any loss occurred, he couldn't explain it to his boss when he returns.

Wu An wasn't surprised either.

Actually.

He was just being polite; it's like meeting someone at the door and asking, "Have you eaten? Want to come over for a bite?"