He turned the rolling wheel and pulled the fishing net in, letting his father collect the fish at the back. The parrotfish was also pulled to Ye's father.
Father Ye said happily: "This fish looks quite big, more than three pounds."
"I just picked up a piece of red coral from its mouth. It's a little bigger than a fingernail."
"What are you doing with that? It's useless, just throw it back into the sea."
"Why throw it away? The bright red color looks so festive. Take it back and keep it. It might be valuable in the future."
"What's the value of this thing? People don't even want it if you give it to them..." Father Ye said nonchalantly, "Your eldest aunt took a basket of red, pink, white and black things a few years ago, but your mother threw them into the sea as garbage..."
"Fuck!"
Ye Yaodong was so shocked that he turned his head and looked at his father with his eyes wide open, and did not close the net, "Is it true? How come I don't know?"
Father Ye rolled his eyes at him and said, "Why are you reacting so strongly? Hurry up and get to shore after you finish collecting the fish. Go back before the sun sets. Don't you still need to go to town to sell the oarfish? What are you waiting for? Go back quickly after you finish collecting the little bit left."
"Ah... no, did my mother really throw a basket of corals?"
Seeing that he was a little puzzled, Father Ye thought it was just some worthless stuff, so he ignored his questions, drained the blood from the parrot fish, and then went forward to turn the rolling wheel.
The remaining sticky net is not very long. It was originally made into a 3-layer net with 100 meters of three fingers.
"No, Dad, did my mother really throw a basket of corals?"
If he doesn't ask clearly, he will feel uncomfortable! It's like being scratched by a cat!
Shit, shit, shit… Throwing a basket of corals into the sea? Is this really necessary to be so extravagant and corrupt
Although corals are not valuable now, they will be valuable in the future...
Uncomfortable...
It's so painful to hear, why should I tell him
Father Ye turned the wheel and saw another toadfish coming up two or three meters away. He urged him, "Hurry up and work. Why are you asking? If you really threw it away, your aunt and second aunt also threw it away at that time. What are you going to do with it?"
"Fuck..."
A thousand horses galloped through my heart, three baskets...
Even more uncomfortable...
"Why are you throwing it away? Where did the coral come from?" Seeing his father urging him again and again, he had to bear the heartache and took the ugly toadfish out of the net while speaking.
"Why keep them if you don't throw them away? The largest ones are only as big as a finger, and the smallest ones are only half the length of a finger. Some of them are even thinner than a twig. They are useless if you take them, and they just take up space."
"Who said it's useless? You can just look at it at home. Those red and pink ones look so beautiful. Why does that little thing take up so much space?"
Shit, Ye Yaodong really wanted to beat his chest and stamp his feet! He really wanted to curse!
"Where did it come from?"
He won't be satisfied until he gets the answer clearly.
"A few years ago, your eldest aunt brought a large basket over, and the old lady divided it among the three of them. But your mother and the others waited until your eldest aunt left before taking it away and dumping it out..."
Father Ye said nonchalantly as the sticky net was being rolled up by the wheels. The last few meters he caught only four toadfish weighing four or five kilograms.
Ye Yaodong took out all the frogfish from the sticky net and threw them into the bamboo basket beside him, while asking with a distressed look, "Where did Auntie get them from?"
"It is said that your great uncle has been running a big ship in recent years, and occasionally passes through the Japanese sea area. He often catches fish during his work. The big ones are kept by the captain of the ship, and they also pick up a lot of small ones. There are scattered fish everywhere at home, so he wanted to bring some to see if we want them?"
“And then they just threw it away? Shit… They already brought it here, why would they throw it away?” Ye Yaodong looked miserable, as if he was constipated.
Is there any more
"If it's useless, shouldn't we just throw it away?"
As Father Ye was talking, he did not stop his hands and put the fishing lines neatly into the frame. There were some messy seaweed and seaweed mixed on the sticky net, but they didn't care about it. Anyway, they had to wash it after taking it home, and then dry it in the sun, and then repair it before it could be put into use again.
"Why do you have that expression? You're going to sail home, why are you still standing there? Just throw it away, it's not worth much, why bother? If you want it, go back and ask the old lady, she must have a bunch of it."
The old lady must be reluctant to throw away anything, so she keeps all the useless things her daughter gives her.
Hmm? And? The unexpected turn of events made Ye Yaodong feel pleasantly surprised, but he became depressed again in an instant.
After the old lady passed away in his previous life, he didn’t see any corals. He guessed that they were either burned by his mother and others, or thrown back into the sea.
He was busy with the funeral arrangements at that time and paid no attention to the things she left behind. Before she died, the old lady only secretly gave him a few large pieces of unity wrapped in a handkerchief. She probably thought that the coral was worthless and useless to him, so she didn't tell him.
Thinking of this, he felt a little sad. Just throw it away and go back to ask the old lady. If she still has it, tell her to keep it. If she doesn't want it anymore, then let her keep it. Don't throw it away again.
"Dad, go back and tell mom, next time if there's any left, don't throw it away. If she doesn't want it, give it to me. If you see someone else throwing it away, tell her to pick it up or tell me and I'll pick it up. I want it."
Father Ye rolled his eyes at him and asked, "What are you going to do with it?"
"Save it. Just because it's not valuable now doesn't mean it won't be valuable in the future. What if it becomes valuable in the future? Anyway, if you don't want it, give it to me. I want it. In which year did you throw it away?"
"The first month of the year before last? Or was it the year before last? Do you know now that it will be valuable in the future?"
"Alas~"
Who would stay at home during the Chinese New Year? No wonder he didn't know.
Father Ye thought he was a bit weird. He treated these scraps that no one wanted as treasures. Would they be valuable in the future? Could he predict the future now
"Go, go, go, I'll drive the boat, don't get in the way." Why don't you know? He kept asking for a long time.
The job of driving the boat was taken over by his father, so Ye Yaodong had to sit back on the small stool and sigh, what a waste.
He felt his pocket again, took out the small coral and looked at it carefully. The color of this red coral was quite uniform, bright red without any pink or white mixed in, and there was a little pattern on the surface. It looked very beautiful and eye-catching. It would definitely look great if it was set in a ring or embellished on a bracelet.
He played with it in his hand for a while, then put it back in his pocket, intending to save it when he got home.
After gathering his clothes together, he rolled up his sleeves and planned to take advantage of his free time to sort out the baskets of frogfish in advance. The prices of big and small frogfish were different.
This time he planned to keep the small ones back to dry in the sun, and the weather happened to be nice these few days.
Finally, the sticky net had a pretty good harvest today. It caught a fish weighing over 20 kilograms and three fish weighing seven or eight kilograms. However, the number of fishing nets was too small, so we needed to put out many nets to harvest together, so that the catch would be large.
But at the beginning Ye Yaodong just thought that the trawling net did not catch much, so he made a sticky net to test the waters and make up for it. After all, this net was very troublesome and had to be washed and dried every time, unlike the trawl net which only needed to be repaired every few days.
Now that we have this rolling wheel, we can put a few more nets on it to catch frogfish and flounder. A large amount can satisfy our hunger and save effort, so the number of trawling may be reduced appropriately.
Ye Yaodong has already figured it out in his mind. After all, bottom fish are easier to catch in autumn and winter with a sticky net.
On the way back, there were many returning ships on the sea. Some of the fishing boats operating here go out and come back on the same day, while others go out for three to five days. There are the most fishing boats on the sea in the evening every day.
Although they finally collected an extra sticky net, which wasted some time, they had intended to collect the nets earlier. The weather was clear today, the sea was calm, and the sailing was relatively smooth. The sun was just setting when the fishing boat docked.
He sorted several baskets of frogfish almost equally, and also sorted two baskets of black mullets. The prices of male and female black mullets are different.
The ovaries of female fish are called mullet roe, which is a precious food and one of Taiwan’s specialties.
There are still a few baskets left that have not been sorted out. I will hand them over to his parents for sorting after we get ashore.
As the fishing boats approached the shore, the familiar boats around them started talking to each other and asked each other how much they had caught that day.
The huge, white oarfish was resting on the side of the boat, and next to it were a pile of stacked bamboo baskets, blocking its view. So the fishing boats nearby didn't see the oarfish either, they only saw the piles of bamboo baskets, and they all smiled and complimented Ye's father.
Father Ye was also very happy when he saw the harvest on the boat. "They are all toadfish and black mullet. I was just lucky and caught a few bull trevally. I saw that your boat is also full of baskets. The harvest is also very good."
"It's all about the same. Recently, the trawl has been full of frogfish and black mullet, and there are also quite a few flatfish..."
"We are about the same, so we can save two small baskets to dry in the sun..."
Father Ye didn't specifically mention the oarfish. He would see it when he got it off the shore. He looked directly at Ye Yaodong and asked, "Dongzi, are you going to town as soon as you get off the boat?"
"Well, while it's still daylight, I'll go get a tractor to take me directly to the town dock."
While the fish are still freshly caught, they will be sent to the town's dock, where the port is bustling with fishing boats entering.
At this time, Ye's mother also saw her own fishing boat and came down from the shore. As soon as the fishing boat docked, she happily climbed up.
"We had a good harvest today. The baskets are full on the boat... Ah! What is this? What is it? Hairtail? Why is it so long?"
As soon as Ye's mother climbed onto the boat, before she could finish her words, she saw the oarfish lying close to the side of the boat. She was completely stunned.
She had never seen such a long fish in her life.
“This is an oarfish.”
"What oarfish?"
"Oarfish?" The man on the fishing boat next to him also heard it and repeated in surprise, "Did you catch an oarfish?"
He moved closer to the side of the boat and stretched his head to look, but his view was blocked by the bamboo basket. He could only see a little bit of the fish head and the red tassels on it.
The woman next to him hurriedly asked the man what oarfish was, and whether it was the same as cutlassfish.
Ye's mother also asked excitedly: "Is this the emperor among the cutlassfish? That's why it grows so big, and that's why it's called the oarfish?"
Father Ye's face was full of black lines, "It's not the same species, it just looks similar. This is also called earthquake fish. You should be more careful in the next few days."
"Ah? Earthquake fish? Will an earthquake occur if we catch this fish?" Mother Ye felt like her brain was not enough.
“It’s not that it will happen if it is caught. The appearance of this fish means there might be an earthquake or tsunami. Otherwise, it wouldn’t come up from the deep sea to seek refuge.” Ye Yaodong explained quickly.
The couple on the fishing boat beside them also heard the explanation. The woman suddenly understood, while the man was a little curious. "Lift up the oarfish and take a look at what it looks like. I've heard about it from the elderly before, but I've never seen one."
"You'll see it soon."
Ye Yaodong said hello to his parents and asked them to wait on the boat before getting off. He wanted to go and call a tractor first, so as not to delay any longer and it would get dark.