At two o'clock in the morning, Ye Yaodong woke up on time. He was in excellent spirits and felt refreshed, without any fatigue from lack of sleep.
Lin Xiuqing also woke up and was about to get out of bed.
Ye Yaodong whispered, "Don't get up. I'll just boil an egg for you."
"How are you going to get enough to eat? You'll be gone all day."
"I'll ask Dad to bring the coal stove from the old house. I'll get some rice noodles and some dried goods. I'll also go to the backyard and chop a cabbage and cook it on the boat. That way, we can have something hot to eat even in the coldest weather."
"Yes, we can bring the coal stove from the old house to the boat. But we can't eat noodles all day. Anyway, I'm awake..."
"It's okay, just continue sleeping. You can eat occasionally for two days but not every day."
If she could get a coal stove to cook on the boat, it would save her some trouble. She wouldn't have to get up in the middle of the night to cook for him. After two months, his belly would get bigger and it would be even more inconvenient. This way she could kill two birds with one stone.
Seeing that he insisted, Lin Xiuqing lay down as well. She was feeling sleepy in such a cold day.
Ye Yaodong took a basket, put 4 slices of dried rice noodles in it, grabbed a handful of dried oysters, went to the backyard to chop a cabbage, picked a few leaves, washed them, and put them all in the basket. He just picked up the other side dishes from the sea.
He then quickly took the bowl with him, put some seasoning in it, washed the bucket, and filled it with water. When everything was ready, he pushed the cart towards the dock.
He didn't need to eat today. He was faster than his father. There weren't many people at the dock when they arrived. He went to drive the boat first. After all the things were loaded on the boat, Ye's father finally arrived.
"How come you're so fast?"
He glanced at his father, not knowing why he was asking the question.
Father Ye didn't expect him to answer. After carrying the coal stove onto the boat, he planned to cut the bait.
"Dad, go and drive the boat. I'll cook some noodles first."
"What? You haven't eaten yet?"
"No, I brought noodles with me and planned to cook them on the boat. It would be easier and save Qing from having to get up in the middle of the night to cook."
The people on the fishing boat next to him joked, "Haha~ I didn't realize that Adong loves his wife so much? Every wife gets up in the middle of the night to cook, and some of them have to go out to sea with their husbands..."
Ye Yaodong ignored what others said. He took out a match and lit a handful of straw, then put it in the coal stove to burn the coal. Then he filled a small pot with clean water and let it boil slowly while he went to cut the fish and put up the bait.
After saying a few words casually, Ye's father drove the boat towards the distant sea.
The food was cooking in the pot while Ye Yaodong was busy with his own things without wasting any time.
After the water boils, he just tears off two pieces of cabbage, puts in the dried rice noodles, a few dried oysters, a few shrimps, and a little more flavor. When it's cooked, it's ready to be served.
I haven’t cast the net today, so I can only put in a few small shrimps, but they are quite fresh.
"Dad, do you want some more?"
"You eat it, I've eaten it."
It felt like playing house, but it was also quite enjoyable. Ye Yaodong slurped the soup in big gulps and drank up all of it before going back to work.
As was his habit, Father Ye drove to a sea area he was familiar with and stopped to help. It was just past three o'clock and it was still very dark.
After Ye Yaodong handed the job of setting the bait to his father, he was about to put down the hooks. However, as soon as he turned around, he saw a figure jumping out of the sea out of the corner of his eye. Then, he saw a white light and heard the sound of winter.
He looked carefully at the sea, but only saw a white figure, which then sank into the water. The sea was empty again, with only the sparkling waves left.
"Did a fish jump out of the water just now?" Father Ye also heard the sound of winter, but when he turned around, he saw nothing.
"It seems so. Just now, it seemed like a fish caught a seabird? I didn't see it clearly."
He thought the white figure should be a seabird.
"If you pay attention, many fish are active at night. As the weather turns cold, there are fewer fish, and it's rare to see a big fish jumping out of the water."
"Well, Dad, you go drive the boat, and I'll take care of the rest."
He arranged the hand-cast net and put it beside him, ready to cast it at any time. Then he put the baited hook into the water, looked around and listened carefully to the water surface, but he didn't see any movement, which made him a little disappointed.
Is it because you are full
After releasing a whole string of hooks, he lowered the sinking line to prepare for fishing for low-lying fish. Just as he threw the float, a large fish with graceful lines suddenly broke through the calm sea surface with a whoosh, bit a low-flying seabird, and dragged it underwater.
"Dad, over there!"
Ye's father was keeping an eye on the sea while driving the boat and saw it. It was not far away, only about ten meters away. As soon as he turned the boat over, Ye Yaodong took the opportunity and threw the net, intending to give it a try.
However, when he was dragging it, he found that there was really some goods, so he quickly called his father to come and help.
This hand-throwing net is quite useful and is very suitable for adapting to changing circumstances.
The father and son were delighted when they felt the weight in their hands. When they dragged the fishing net to the side of the boat with great effort, they could see the cargo in the net clearly with the help of the headlights.
“Is this Niugang trevally?”
The light at night is not very good, Ye's father said uncertainly.
Ye Yaodong threw the fishing net onto the deck with a little effort. He shone the headlamp back and forth for a while before he said with a look of joy: "It's a Niugang trevally, a big one, with a tern in its mouth."
As he spoke, he quickly untied the fishing net and poured out the large catch. Under the pull of gravity and the pressure from the outside world, it was taking in more air than it was exhaling, but its gills were still moving.
Ye Yaodong shone the flashlight back and forth at the Niugang trevally. No wonder he could see the fish flying out of the water to catch the bird, it turned out to be this guy.
It is a magical little flying fish that can fly and eat birds. It loves to eat seabirds and has even learned to "fly" in order to hunt. It also has a resounding title called "the god of war who loves to eat seabirds."
This Niugang trevally, also known as the wanderer trevally, is a coastal migratory fish that mainly feeds at night. Its belly is silvery-white, its back is blue-green, and its lower jaw is relatively prominent. Its appearance gives people a very ferocious feeling.
He estimated that the fish was about 1.5 meters long and weighed about 70 to 80 kilograms.
Having caught such a big fish just after going out to sea, Father Ye was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth. He quickly took out the tern from his mouth.
They saw that the tern's body was already covered with a layer of membrane, and the Niugang trevally was caught before it could swallow it.
He simply threw the tern that he hadn't swallowed yet into the sea, but unexpectedly, a bullhead mackerel jumped out right after that.
Father Ye lowered his head and threw it away without even raising his head. He saw nothing, but Ye Yaodong saw a fish head emerging from the sea.
"And, Dad..."
As he spoke, he excitedly quickly picked up the hand-held throwing net at the side, simply tidied it up, and then threw it into the water.
The fishing net was thrown hastily, so it wasn't fully opened and got tangled in some places, which delayed me a bit and I didn't know if I could catch anything.
"Flying out of the water again?"
"When you threw the tern just now, a big fish head appeared on the sea surface."
As he spoke, he started to collect the fishing net again. Unexpectedly, this time the fish in the net pulled harder, and he felt a little weak in his arms.
Ye's father felt the same way.
"Damn, this net couldn't have caught quite a few, could it?" Ye Yaodong cursed as he tried.
The father and son worked hard back and forth, and when the fishing net was dragged to the surface of the water and was about to approach the side of the boat, they saw that there were two big fish and a lot of black mullets in the fishing net.
"No wonder it's so heavy, Dongzi, try harder..."
The fishing net was dragged from the sea surface to the side of the ship little by little, and then slowly pulled up.
At this moment, I don’t know whether the fishing net was not strong enough or the Niugang trevally inside was struggling too hard.
The fishing net had just been pulled over a third of the side of the boat and was about to fall onto the deck when a hole suddenly appeared at the tail. The net burst, and the fish at the bottom fell directly into the water...
At the same time, the fishing net was pulled onto the deck by them, and both the father and son were dumbfounded.
"Fuck..."
In just a moment, half of it fell off and half remained
"It's okay... The two bull trevally were relatively large and were pulled onto the boat before they could fall off."
Ye Yaodong looked at the two large bull trevally left in the fishing net, and a few scattered black mullets that had not been thrown away in time, and he couldn't help but feel fortunate.
Father Ye was also thankful that it was a hole at the bottom. Although a large part of the black mullet leaked out, it was good enough to be able to save the Niugang trevally.
Ye Yaodong threw away the hand-cast net in his hand and didn't care about the two trevally in the net, as they had already been pulled up.
He ran to the side of the boat to see what happened to the black mullet that fell into the sea. Unexpectedly, he saw that all the fish were floating on the water. He was overjoyed.
"Dad, hurry up and get the scoop net over here. These black mullets have been crushed to death by the bull trevally and are floating to the surface."
Father Ye didn't bother to look and hurriedly got two hand nets.
With two nets, the two men caught all the black mullet on the sea surface and brought them onto the boat.
It may not necessarily be crushed to death by the Niugang trevally. Marine fish live in seawater for a long time. The seawater has a high salt content and great pressure. When they are dragged ashore, the sudden change in external pressure may cause the fish's swim bladder to swell and burst, or the small blood vessels in the body to rupture, and the fish may die.
Although the net was broken, at least nothing was missed and all were caught.
Ye Yaodong threw away the hand net in his hand and said, "Damn, it almost went down the drain."
"It's good that everything has been fished out. We can take the fishing net back and repair it. It can still be used." Father Ye said happily as he untied the fishing net.
"When we get back, we'll ask someone to weave a new one for Zheng as compensation. We can mend this torn one and keep it for ourselves!"
At that time, I said I wanted to return it, but A Zheng said he didn't need it. It had been in his hands for a month or two, so I gave it to him and weaved a new one for him to return.
“Although this hand-cast net is a little more laborious, it is still very practical sometimes.”
"Well, then we should weave a new one and give it back to him, and we can keep this one for ourselves."
Ye Yaodong also stepped forward to help drag out the two Niugang trevally in the fishing net and placed them side by side with the one in front.