The father and son hurriedly climbed up onto the reef. This time they did not dig from the top down, but from the bottom up, to avoid sinking and becoming difficult to dig.
"Dad, pick the abalone first! Leave the conch for now."
"I know."
Before he had dug a few pieces, Ye's father stopped again and said, "I'll go get your mother and sister to come over. We should go faster with more people, otherwise it will sink too quickly and we won't be able to dig it out in time. Just soak in the water for a while, and go back early to take a bath and soak your feet after you're done."
"Okay then, carry them to a higher place later and try to keep them in as little water as possible."
Things have their priorities. I thought that the two grown men would just dig slowly. Anyway, there was no rush. Who knew that it would sink? Then I had to ask my mother and sister to help, so as not to miss it.
Father Ye hurriedly climbed back onto the boat to pick up Mother Ye and Ye Huimei.
While digging, Ye Yaodong looked for two easy stepping spots. When they came, he and his father each carried one over.
"Just dig here. The ground here is higher and easier to step on. Be careful and don't slip."
Mother Ye muttered, "It's okay to just soak in the water. It's okay if it's cold. Go back and soak your feet. It will be fine after a few days of rest. It's important to dig quickly. Huimei, don't soak in the water too much. If I had known earlier, I would have come down with you guys to dig in the morning. It would have been faster."
"Who knew this would sink? I thought my dad and I could just dig it slowly."
"Dig faster, dig faster, it's a good thing you called me, how much can you two dig?"
…
Four people each carried a bucket. Since iron hooks were not enough, they used flat screwdrivers to dig.
Fortunately, it is ebbing and the water level is dropping. Although the reef is sinking there, it has not come up much. As one recedes and the other sinks, they are barely level.
When Ye Huimei's bucket was half full, Ye Yaodong went over to help pour it onto the boat, otherwise a little girl like her wouldn't have enough arm strength to lift the water, which was too heavy. He also changed her digging position. He felt really sorry for his sister.
Around 12 o'clock, when the tide receded, the entire reef dropped by almost one meter, and there were two more full sacks on the boat.
At this time, they had all climbed to higher places to dig, and those at the bottom that could not be dug in time could only be allowed to sink. Who couldn't stand being soaked in water for a long time in such a cold weather
For most of the day, Ye Yaodong felt that the soles of his feet were swollen, and the area below his knees was wet and numb from the cold.
When the tide receded to the bottom and then rose again, everyone clearly discovered that the speed at which the sea water flooded over the reef was extremely fast, more than twice as fast as during low tide.
After all, one was sinking in the morning and the water level was receding at the same time. Except for the lower height of the reef, the water level did not change.
In the afternoon, as the water level was sinking, it rose again, and the speed of flooding doubled.
The family of four did not even bother to get on the boat to get something to eat. They just planned to dig for a while longer and dig as much as they could.
By 1:30, because the tide was rising so quickly, the highest point of the entire reef was only about one meter high and was still exposed, making it difficult for people to stand around this high point.
They had no choice but to give up struggling, first carried the two women onto the boat, and then climbed up themselves. At this time, both he and Ye's father were almost wet.
Normally going out to sea wouldn’t get you soaking wet, so no one thought of bringing an extra set of clothes.
After taking off their rain boots and pouring out the full sea water, the father and son threw them into a corner.
Ye's mother and Ye Huimei's shoes had already gotten wet, so they took them off and walked barefoot.
Everyone leaned against the side of the boat and watched the reef sinking at a speed visible to the naked eye. They all felt a little regretful as there was still a lot that had not been dug up.
"What a pity! It will sink into the sea like this? We can't dig it out anymore?" Mother Ye frowned and said with concern.
Ye Huimei stretched her head and felt distressed, "Will it be pushed up again someday?"
“Who knows this?”
He didn't know how deep it would sink. If it wasn't that deep, he could dive down and catch it when the weather got warmer.
"How many bags have you dug?" Father Ye said as he walked towards the sacks in the corner, holding the sacks and shaking them.
Two and a half bags of large abalone, and one bag of abalone mixed with conch.
Originally, before breakfast, the father and son had dug up half a bag of abalone mixed with conchs. When the tide rose in the afternoon, they no longer cared about digging just abalone. They just dug up whatever was at hand, so they dug up half a bag and poured the mixture into the bag, filling up the whole bag.
"It's okay, it's okay. We dug up a lot. The remaining should be just over 1/3. It sank without digging. That's good enough."
"Yeah, Third Brother is right. We have picked up so much for free. We have become rich." Ye Huimei nodded happily, her eyes curved with smile.
"Dad, you and Third Brother quickly take off your pants and wring out the water. I'll take them to the stove to warm them up for you."
"Um."
"Let's collect the longlines and sticky nets later, and then we'll go straight back."
It was so uncomfortable to be wet all over, and his feet were so frozen that he had no feeling. It was so hard to make money.
Father Ye nodded and said, "Go back early."
Mother Ye quickly added, "There's still a large bag of shelled fish on the island next to us that hasn't been loaded onto the boat yet. Let's go over there and load them onto the boat first."
"knew."
Ye Yaodong looked at the little green dragons crawling around in the basket next to him, grabbed a few of them and looked at their heads.
Their shells are olive-colored, look very hard, and are colorful, but they have large heads and small bellies.
Some were small, just like his mother said, weighing only two or three taels, and some were larger, weighing five or six taels, or six or seven taels. Only a dozen or so were left, and there weren't many left.
What a pity, the little green dragon runs very fast. It was scared and ran around when the hand net caught it, and ran back into the sea. Otherwise, we could have caught more.
"We saw quite a lot of them at the time, but as soon as we scooped them up, they all ran away." Ye Huimei said with some regret nearby.
"That's fine. This little blue dragon is not easy to catch. I'll have a treat tonight."
After Ye Yaodong finished speaking, he put Xiao Qinglong down and went to start the boat. He first went to the island to carry the large bag of shells for his mother, and then he started the boat to collect the sticky nets.
They just put a sticky net in place, with rolling wheels to help it turn, so it was very easy. Mother Ye and Ye Huimei took over the job directly and started working on it. He and Father Ye sat by the stove to warm themselves up by the fire first.
After a while, he heard his sister's screams.
"Ah... so big... so ugly..."
"Why are there so many toadfish?"
"Hey~ What is this? It looks like a pomfret, but it has colorful stripes..."
Ye Yaodong answered casually, "It's a coral reef fish, I don't know what it's called, it's too small, put it back in the sea to grow! There's a needle in the tool basket next to it, poke it from the side of the fish's belly, puncture the fish bladder, and then throw it back."
"Oh, why bother?" Ye Huimei asked, but still did it, and then threw the fish back into the sea, and it disappeared in an instant.
Fortunately, the sticky net had not been in the sea for very long, and the fish that were just pulled up were still very active. After being thrown back into the sea, they dived down again alive and kicking.
"If you don't puncture its swim bladder and release it, it will still die. It looks pretty good, it would be a pity to see it die."
Well-educated old fishermen will generally release live small fish when they encounter them. Fishermen in later generations also know about the sustainable development of the ocean. They catch big fish and release small fish, unless the fish are already dead when they are caught, such as with trawling.
"why?"
"Because the air pressure at the bottom of the sea is different from the air pressure on the surface of the sea, it can't adapt and its stomach will explode. If you release it directly, it will still die."
"oh."
"Hurry up and work, you have to ask everything!"
"I'm just curious. I've never been to sea before."
Ye Yaodong and his father put all four feet on the coal stove. All four feet were badly wrinkled from being soaked. It took a long time for them to regain some feeling after being roasted on the coal stove.
"Dad, go back and boil some ginger water to soak your feet. It will feel better after a few days."
"Well, we won't be able to go out to sea for a few days. Fortunately, we dug up a lot of abalone today..."
"Ah, little blue dragon! So big..."
When the father and son heard the screams from the other side, they turned around and saw Ye Huimei fiddling with the fishing net, trying to untie the little green dragon that was entangled in it.
The little green dragon caught in mid-air had its long whiskers moving around constantly, and its tail kept curling up and releasing. This one was obviously much larger than the ones in the frame.
"This one is really big, look!"
"It's about one pound, right? Not bad! You can catch a little green dragon today."
Ye Huimei was so happy that she couldn't close her mouth.
"Hurry up and work, stop playing. There are still two toadfish in there that haven't been taken out yet, and the remaining fishing net is not long enough. Pull it up quickly, we have to collect the longline later." Ye's mother urged.
“Oh, here it comes.”
She put the small blue dragon into the basket and excitedly ran to help collect the sticky net. However, when she saw the toadfish covered in slime, she felt disgusted when she reached out to grab it.
"It's so ugly, my hands are all sticky..."
Even though she was disgusted, it didn't stop her from grabbing it swiftly.
When she saw the flat body of the flounder and its two eyes on the same side, she muttered again: "The fish on the bottom of the sea look really strange."
Although she grew up by the sea, she had never been out to sea. In the past, her family didn't have a boat, so she only helped weave nets at home, or went to the beach or the dock with her family to fish for seafood during high tide. Today was her first time to go fishing, and she was a little excited.
When she saw a manta ray weighing five or six pounds also stuck, she continued to grumble: "Are all the fish on the seabed so flat? I heard that the tail spine of this fish seems to be poisonous. Should we cut it off first?"
The whole boat was filled with her chattering, which made it seem lively and not boring at all.
"Wait a minute, can you collect that longline for me too?" She was in high spirits and felt like she hadn't had enough. It felt so much fun to collect fish.
Ye Yaodong smiled and shouted at her, "Aren't you tired or sleepy? You've been working all day since last night."
"It's okay. I think it's fun."
"If I tell you to go out to sea with your man in the future, you will feel tired and won't want to do it."
Ye Huimei's defense was instantly broken by a casual remark from Ye's mother.
"What are you talking about, mom? Hurry up and collect your net!"