Ye Yaodong got up as usual at night to go out to sea. As long as there was no wind and no big waves, they would go out to sea on time. After all, there were few good weather days in winter, so they had to go out more often when the weather was good.
It was just that he couldn't cast the longline today, and he didn't collect the bait in advance. He forgot to tell his father or Ah Cai to stay, and he hurriedly carried the oarfish away.
The sticky nets cannot be put down either. They need to be cleaned and sorted, and then dried in the sun. But fortunately, he can still drag the nets.
He had every intention of trawling today, but as soon as the boat set out, he found that the wind and waves in the open sea were a bit strong. He thought of the legend of the earthquake fish, so he decisively gave up and turned the boat around to go back.
I originally thought that since they had never heard of an earthquake here in their previous life, there shouldn't be any big impact. I didn't expect that there would be a storm so soon in the night. Things at sea are really unpredictable and changeable.
The boat ride back and forth took more than an hour. After returning home, he explained everything to his wife and wrapped himself back in bed, intending to take another nap.
I didn't wake up until 9 o'clock. When I got up, I saw that the sky outside was clear. Although it was not a strong sun, there was faint sunlight, and there was no sign of the raging storm on the sea.
He thought about it, said something to Ah Qing, and went to take a look outside the dock. If the waves outside were not too big, he planned to collect a trap.
The small wooden boat could not withstand today's waves. If his iron boat had not gone to the open sea, it would have been no problem to collect a trap along the coast.
When we arrived at the dock, we found that there were quite a lot of people there, all discussing the big waves on the sea at night. Was there really going to be an earthquake
He listened for a while but didn't hear any useful information. Instead, someone pulled him aside and asked how much the oarfish was sold for yesterday.
He just laughed it off, talked about a bunch of random things, dealt with it directly, and then walked towards the coast, not paying attention to the people behind him who were whispering about him.
He who is not envied is a mediocre person. However, he has been in the limelight in recent months, getting rare and good goods one after another and changing fishing boats one after another. It is normal that some people are jealous of him.
Watching the waves rolling from time to time on the shore is just seeing the surface. Only when you are on the sea can you truly experience the ruthlessness of the waves.
After sailing away from the shore, the boat was constantly shaken by the impact of the waves, but his boat could still withstand it. The small wooden boat not far away was not so stable. As the waves rose and fell, the arc of the swing was quite large.
When his boat passed by, he took a look and saw that the man was taking the trap back home and was now rowing towards the shore, but the waves were big and the boat was moving a little slowly.
"It's Adong, why are you out too?"
"I came out to collect a trap. Why are you here collecting traps when the waves are so strong?"
"Aren't we afraid of an earthquake or tsunami? The waves are too big and the traps are washed away. We thought the weather was good today, so we hurried out to retrieve the traps. We don't know when a tsunami or earthquake will come."
"Oh ha ha, maybe not?"
"It's hard to say. The weather looks good today, and there's not much wind, but the waves on the sea are quite big, which is a bit abnormal!"
"Okay, then you be careful, I also need to go collect a trap." Ye Yaodong said a few words casually and drove to where he placed the trap.
Along the way, we didn’t see any buoys on the sea. I guess the villagers came out early in the morning to take all the nets and traps home.
He didn't plan to take the goods home. He collected the goods and threw the traps into the sea as usual. The strong winds and waves meant that there was a lot of goods. He didn't have any memory of it in his previous life and it didn't have any big impact on him, so he simply ignored it.
There are quite a lot of shrimps in the traps today. There are several taels of shrimps in each trap. Most of them are red shrimps, with occasionally some white shrimps.
The local name for red shrimp is oyster shrimp in some places and thick shrimp in others. In fact, its scientific name is eagle claw shrimp. It is most abundant in winter. It feels like I harvested more than 20 kilograms today.
There were quite a few stone crabs. He touched a few and found they were quite hard, perfect for eating with wine.
He poured all the goods collected by the traps into the bucket without sorting them.
Because there were waves at night, there are still a lot of goods in the traps today.
After getting ashore, he sorted out the food, leaving behind some snacks for the evening, and then kept two kilograms of red shrimp and two sea bass weighing about two kilograms.
I'm going to keep this and show it to Uncle Zhou, the tractor driver who was beaten yesterday. He implicated others and made them innocent victims, so he has to express his gratitude.
I'll deliver some fish over there later as a token of my appreciation, to see the man, and to pay the transportation fee.
Today's trap harvest was also good. In addition to the goods that were left over, the rest were sold for 20 yuan.
After he carried the goods back, he went to see Uncle Zhou again before dinner time and chatted with him for a while. After learning what happened last night, he learned that he was only beaten and kicked, nothing serious, and it would be fine after applying tea oil for a few days, so he left.
After a calm day, everyone found the next morning that the waves on the sea were rolling violently, one higher than the other. The waves that soared into the sky were sometimes higher than their houses. They stood at the doorstep and watched the spectacular scene, fortunately it didn't get close to them.
Many villagers stood around the shore, all of them worried, discussing that today's waves were even stronger than those on typhoon days, wondering if there was a tsunami in the open sea, or an earthquake somewhere, causing the entire sea surface to roll.
The sea did not stop all day long, and they could hear the sound of the waves crashing even at home.
The second and first wives of Ye from next door both stood at the door and said that they should not have built the house here. Although the waves could not hit them, it was too scary to hear them.
It seems like it is just around the corner and could destroy the house at any time...
Ye Yaodong pretended not to hear anything. He had already built the house and occupied such a large vegetable field. Why is he regretting it now? This will be a villa area in the future.
The village was not very peaceful either. Everyone was talking about it all day, saying that an earthquake or tsunami was really coming.
In the evening, even the old lady came down worriedly and told them not to sleep too deeply at night and to put all the money in the house on them in advance so that they could run away with it if anything happened...
He was also asked to move back to his hometown and stay there for two days.
Ye Yaodong didn't know whether to laugh or cry. To comfort the old man, he could only nod in agreement. They decided not to move as it was too much trouble. The three brothers had already moved the beds from the old house and had given up their rooms. It was not comfortable to sleep there either.
He only said that he would be more alert at night and then send her back.
That night, the village was brightly lit, which was rare. Normally, in order to save electricity, the villagers were reluctant to turn on the lights and went to bed early at night.
Today's waves really scared everyone. Thinking of the legend of the oarfish, everyone was a little scared. They all believed that it was better to believe it than not to believe it. What if there was a sudden earthquake or tsunami in the middle of the night and the house was washed away, and they didn't have time to run
I heard that some people sat outside their doorsteps all night long...
I also heard that some people even packed their belongings on their backs and waited...
I also heard that some families hid in the mountains at night...
Although Ye Yaodong's family was not so exaggerated and did not keep the lights on until dawn, the couple did not sleep either.
In the previous life, the village was not so alert. Even if there was an earthquake or something, many people only realized it afterward.
The force of his butterfly wings flapping was so great that he brought back an oarfish. The whole village was on high alert. Otherwise, it was just that the waves were a little big and everyone just thought it was abnormal, but it was not unacceptable since it did not impact the village after all.
Everyone in the village was making all the necessary preparations, but the whole night passed until dawn and nothing happened. It was hard to tell what everyone felt, but they were all relieved.
Early in the morning, just after dawn, many people stood around the coast.
"Damn, I was so scared. My whole family didn't sleep the whole night. We thought there would be an earthquake or tsunami, but we didn't expect that we were just scaring ourselves..."
"Who said it wasn't? We sat there waiting late at night, but nothing happened when dawn came..."
"Don't mention it. We were all in the mountains all night in the northwest wind..."
"It's all because of that oarfish. If it weren't for that fish, no one would think so much about it."
"Is it possible that it hasn't happened yet, maybe today?"
"Fuck, you're such a bad mouth..."
"It shouldn't be that serious. The waves on the sea don't seem to be as big as yesterday."
"Hard to say… "
"Maybe the earthquake and tsunami happened somewhere else, so we weren't affected here, but the waves were just a little bigger?"
Ye Yaodong looked at the waves on the sea and felt that it should have passed, but he didn't know where the tsunami or earthquake had occurred.
The coast was crowded with people all day, all keeping an eye on the tide, but the waves kept rolling and didn't seem to be slowing down.
The villagers watched the sky getting dark with anxiety. They did not dare put the things they had packed up back but held them in their arms. They endured another night and finally felt relieved when nothing happened.
Then the whole village was cursing early in the morning, saying that they had stayed up two nights in vain. Some people even brought Ye Yaodong into their gossip, blaming him for bringing back an oarfish and making the whole village live in fear.
When Ye's mother heard this, she stood at the door and cursed, "If my son doesn't pick up the oarfish, will there be no waves? He is not God. Will there be an earthquake or a tsunami? Where will it come and when will it come? Who knows?"
"Maybe they have been here before, but luckily it didn't happen here, and the whole village wasn't affected, isn't that good? You all have nothing better to do, you're all afraid and you're all scolding, I don't believe you won't pick it up if you see it, you're all just jealous of my son..."
After Ye's mother started to curse, the discussion around them became a little quieter.
After hearing this, Ye Yaodong did not take it seriously. Whether an earthquake or tsunami came or not was none of his business. The oarfish was said to have a warning effect.
But just because he picked it up doesn't mean it will happen to them. Who knows if they will be affected? It's not wrong to be vigilant.
Can you blame him for picking it up? Who wouldn't pick it up if they saw it
He walked around the village and waited until after nine o'clock before going to the commune.
He wanted to read today's daily newspaper to see if there was any news. The sea had been restless for the past two days, so something must have happened.
Unfortunately, information was not circulated at that time, and the Internet was not as developed as it is today. If there was an earthquake or tsunami one second ago, the whole country would know about it the next second.