After autumn began, the sky got darker earlier every day. When I had just beaten up Ah Guang, I could still see a faint light in the sky. But now it was completely dark and I could hardly see my fingers when I walked on the road.
In order to save electricity bills, every household was reluctant to turn on the lights unless there was anything going on. It looked pitch dark everywhere, with only a few households lighting up their houses occasionally.
The roads in the countryside were not very smooth, and some places only became roads because there were too many people walking on them. Ye Yaodong tried to take the main roads and slowed down his pace.
However, when he passed an intersection, he heard noisy voices in the distance. He was a little surprised. There didn't seem to be any weddings or funerals in the village today. Why was there so much noise so late at night
He walked towards the source of the sound out of curiosity, and then found out that it was his uncle's house, no wonder.
His uncle's family had two sons and four daughters. After all the daughters were married, there were enough rooms for them to live in. When the family split up, each family would occupy two rooms and start a new life, but they would still live on the same plot of land.
When I got closer, I saw that half of the villagers had gathered in front of their house, including men, women, young and old, all gathered there, eating melon seeds and discussing when they could watch TV? How long would it take for the TV to start
It just so happened that he didn't come to watch the fun yesterday, so today when he passed by, he also stood in the crowd leisurely, listening to everyone talking about how capable Ye Yaohong was and how useless his own son was...
Their children were sitting in front of the TV happily, waiting for the news broadcast later in the evening, while the adults were greeting fellow villagers and listening to the compliments. Ye Yaodong felt like they were floating on air seeing them.
He pursed his lips. He was originally quite curious, but after standing there for a long time, he heard the same words over and over again and found it quite boring.
If he hadn't wanted to wait and watch the news broadcast, he would have turned around and left long ago. At that time, he could only learn about current political affairs through newspapers and news, but he couldn't read, and there was a pile of old newspapers in front of him, but he couldn't make sense of it. He could only wait to listen to the news.
At this time, the News Broadcast is also at 7 o'clock, and it talks about the central work of the stage, important strategic plans, major events, etc.
After hearing about the continuous efforts to crack down on illegal smuggling crimes in coastal areas, Ye Yaodong kicked the melon seed shells on his shoes and left with satisfaction.
However, the villagers continued to watch TV and did not leave.
He walked towards the beach in the dark, but saw another group of people coming towards him in the distance. He stopped and saw that it was Lin Jishang who was leading the group.
When Lin Jishang saw him when he approached, his eyes flickered for a second, then he stopped and greeted him with a smile, "Why haven't you gone home yet so late?"
"The village had its first television set, and the whole village was in an uproar. It was still relatively early, and everyone was watching TV to see the excitement."
"Oh? The first TV? I haven't been home for two days and haven't heard about it." Lin Ji Shang was surprised.
Ye Yaodong saw that he didn't look fake and thought that his eldest cousin should have nothing to do with him.
"Do you have another ship coming in tonight? Are you unloading cargo again? It seems to be happening quite frequently lately?"
Lin Jishang frowned, "How do you know?"
They usually enter the village after dark and leave in the early morning. They rarely stay in the village during the day. After all, unfamiliar faces are more eye-catching in the village. Although they can be said to be boatmen, it is better to appear less often.
“I live by the beach.”
After Ye Yaodong gave a reminder, he left Lin Jishang, who had a conflicted look on his face, and walked away.
If it weren't for the fact that this man seemed to be the smuggling leader of their line, it would be more convenient to ask him to bring him if he really needed anything in the future. That's why I reminded him and hoped that they would be more restrained. After all, some things in this life are different from the last.
In his eyes, Linji is a bit like purchasing on behalf of others? The kind that is kept as a backup.
Ye Yaodong walked briskly home, putting the matter behind him for the time being. However, he did not expect that the next morning, when they were still having breakfast, Lin Jishang suddenly came to their house. This was beyond his expectations.
He was completely confused, and since they were not friends, he stood up and asked, "What's the matter?"
"I'm having breakfast. Sorry to bother you."
"It's okay, just tell me what you want to say."
Lin Jishang smiled and took out a small box similar to that for jewelry from his arms, put it on the table, and pushed it in front of him.
"Recently our boats have been arriving at night, and the noise from moving the fish seems to be a bit loud. I'm sorry that I disturbed you, so I came to your house to apologize."
"Ah?" Ye Yaodong was stunned for a moment, then he understood what he meant. Was he trying to shut him up, bribe him? To stop him from reporting
And this unexpected surprise
Lin Jishang smiled and said, "We should try to be quieter in the future, or arrange to dock during the day to avoid disturbing others."
Tsk tsk tsk, he seems to be one of the only two junior high school graduates in the village. Educated people have good speaking skills, no wonder he can take the lead. If you don’t know the situation, you can barely understand what he means. Anyone else would be confused.
For example, his wife was confused at the moment and didn't dare to interrupt and ask.
"We are all from the same village, you are too polite. You make little noise and won't disturb others. I have only seen you a few times when I went to the toilet at night."
"It's good that it won't disturb everyone. Then I won't disturb you from having breakfast."
"Haha, okay, walk slowly."
Lin Xiuqing was confused. As soon as the others left, she asked, "What is he doing here? Why don't I understand? What noise is there at night? Apart from the sound of the waves, what other sound is there? Even if the noise from moving goods at the dock is loud, how could it be heard here?"
Ye Yaodong picked up the small box on the table and opened it to take a look.
"Watch?" Lin Xiuqing exclaimed.
"Shh~ Keep your voice down."
Ye Yaodong didn't expect him to be so generous. This mechanical watch would cost about one or two hundred yuan, right
Lin Xiuqing was completely confused. She didn't know what they were talking about. Why did they send a watch to their family for no reason
"I know something. He wanted to silence me, so he sent me a watch."
"Did something happen at the dock at night?"
Ye Yaodong was stunned. How could his wife be so perceptive? How could she react so quickly
"Shh, don't ask. We are just ordinary fishermen and don't know anything. It's just a watch. Just accept it."
It just so happens that when he is at sea, he can check the time. Otherwise, he often doesn't know what time it is and can only look at where the sun sets.
"So we just stay at home and get a watch for free?"
Ye Yaodong said with a smile: "You can say that."
This guy must have made a lot of money a long time ago, but he is low-key and doesn't advertise it. A watch is nothing to him.
Seeing that he didn't care and looked carefree, Lin Xiuqing thought that the other party didn't seem to ask them to do anything, but just said a few ambiguous words and left. So why not refuse it
"Eat first, don't think about it, it has nothing to do with us."
"So are you going to put this watch on right away? Or should you put it away first?"
"Take it with you. It will be a good help in checking the time when you are at sea."
After putting the watch on, Ye Yaodong turned his wrist and then pulled down his sleeve to cover it to avoid attracting attention.
Lin Xiuqing still felt very puzzled and didn't know what it was, but since he didn't intend to tell her, she had no choice but to stop asking. There was a pile of housework to do at home, so she put the matter out of her mind.
After finishing his meal, Ye Yaodong went to get the hooks that he had hired someone to make. He made three baskets in one day. The lines were all neatly coiled inside the baskets, and the hooks were neatly hung on the edges of the bamboo baskets, just waiting to be baited.
He was very satisfied, and it saved him a lot of trouble. He would go to the sea to collect the goods in the traps and directly release the ready-made bait.
The same was true for Xiaoxiao and Azheng, but they had fewer traps and collected them faster than him. After collecting them, they rowed the boat to a distant place and found a sea area.
It is much faster if two people do it than if one person does it alone, one drives the boat while the other hangs the bait.
When Ye Yaodong passed by them after collecting the traps, he saw that they had all put on the bait and were ready to cast the hooks. He felt a little depressed and hurried up.
He didn't use all the shrimps as bait. He used fish meat for a small part and also took three small tubes as bait to try. But he didn't know what he could catch. The size of the small tubes was not small compared to the shrimps, and they couldn't swallow a fish weighing two or three pounds.
It doesn't hurt to give it a try and see if you can catch a big fish.
It is not as convenient for one person to set the hook as it is for two people, because it needs to be opened and lowered at the same time. Ye Yaodong was busy opening and lowering the hook by himself.
After putting down the first basket of dry line, connect the tail end of this basket of dry line with the head end of the second basket of dry line and the buoy rope and sinker rope and throw them into the water. Then put in the second basket of dry line, and then the third basket.
He breathed a sigh of relief only after he had finished throwing all the balls, sweating profusely.
But he was slow at every step, and by the time he had finished fishing, Zheng and Xiao Xiao had already fished for a few days, and now he could see from afar that they were preparing to pull out the hooks.
He was depressed again. After changing to the iron boat, he had to hire people. One less person would really delay things.
Watching them catching big fish in the distance, Ye Yaodong also pulled the rope like Ah Zheng did yesterday to get the bait moving.
After waiting for a long time, more than two hours had passed. Ye Yaodong looked at his watch and felt that the time was about up, so he started moving.
I rowed the boat to the very end and started to pull up the anchor. When I was about to reel in the line, I saw the sea surface suddenly churning and a big fish was swimming rapidly on the water.
"Dolphin? No, it's a sea pig."
The sea pig looks very similar to a dolphin, except that it has no dorsal fin and its entire body is light blue.
He was surprised for a moment, but then he saw it suddenly stop on the water surface, and its body swayed from side to side, as if it had lost its balance.
"Donzi? Did you pull the string?"
He turned his head to look at them who were coming towards him, and threw the anchor back into the sea, preparing to reel it in later.
"No, there's a strange sea pig on my side of the sea. Do you have a hand-cast net?"
As the fishing boat got closer, they also saw the strange sea pig swimming rapidly and rolling on the sea surface.
Ah Zheng said regretfully, "I didn't bring it. I thought it would be too inefficient to cast the net. Since I already have a row of hooks for longline fishing, it would be useless to bring it with me. So I didn't bring it today."
"Ah?" Ye Yaodong looked regretful. There was no way to catch them without a fishing net.
The three of them could only watch it rolling over and swimming rapidly from time to time, and occasionally making sounds. They couldn't tell which ones sounded like sheep bleating and birds singing.
"What is it doing? Why is it so strange?"
"I don't know. Is he playing there?"
"It's the only one there. What is it playing with? It doesn't look like it."
"I used to bring a net with me every day, but today I didn't. What a shame! If I had known, I would have put it on the boat as a backup. This one looks about 1.5 meters tall and is an adult."
"Take a look first."
The three of them stared at it in bewilderment for a long time, and Ah Zheng inadvertently said, "Is it giving birth?"
"Huh? It's possible!"
"It seems so. Look at its belly, it seems quite big!" Ye Yaodong's eyes lit up. No wonder it was struggling on the sea like this. It turned out that it was giving birth.
"It looks like it hurts?"
"It felt more painful than when my wife gave birth to a child. It was so painful, she was floundering from one side to the other."
"It's the first time I've seen a sea pig give birth."
After a while, the flapping of the sea surface became more violent, and suddenly it stopped. A cub actually swam hard towards the surface of the sea, while the sea pig lay on its belly facing up.
"Ah? Born?"
"It's born, it's born..."
"Why are you so excited? It's not your cub."
"What are you talking about? I'm happy for you. You have someone to take over your legacy!"
"Fuck you..."
Ye Yaodong listened to the two people laughing and joking, and saw that the large sea pig not far away was swimming in the opposite direction of the cub, as if trying to cut the umbilical cord.
Sure enough, the moment the umbilical cord broke, the cub rushed out of the water and breathed air.