Father Ye frowned as he watched him hurried down the mountain. He looked behind him in confusion, "What are you doing? Why did you take so long? I called you for so long but you didn't respond?"
Ye Yaodong touched his pocket and thought that it would be better not to tell his father. He was old and there was no need to let him worry about this.
If there really is a gold mine here, it is not something they can get their hands on. It is useless to talk about it. Besides, the mountain is not small, and the two of them cannot search for it.
It was also luck that we were able to accidentally dig up two pieces. It might have been washed away by rain, so the first piece of lion dog-shaped gold nuggets emerged from the soil surface.
He felt that this was a blessing, so he should not be too greedy, as greed can easily reduce his blessings. Besides, gold nuggets are not something that can be found everywhere, so going to the mountains to look for them would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
"I fell down and it hurt a little, so I sat down to relax."
Father Ye also saw that he was covered in dirt on his hands and body, and believed it, "Be careful, you are such an adult, but you still fall down when you walk. Go to the boat and eat rice cakes. Fortunately, it is rice cakes, not lakes."
He nodded and washed his hands with sea water before getting on the boat.
The two gold nuggets were heavy and substantial, luckily he had big enough pockets.
After a simple breakfast, they saw that the reef in the distance had not changed much, still about 1 meter above the water surface, and they felt a little disappointed.
"Let's go and take a look. If there's nothing to gain, forget it."
"Um."
Ye Yaodong nodded and slowly drove the boat over. The reef still retained the same appearance as when they hooked abalone before, neither floating up nor sinking.
"That should be it, right?"
"What a pity! There should be a lot of abalone and small blue dragons in the reef below."
Ye Yaodong shrugged. "It's a pity that it's useless. Now is not suitable for diving. Come back when it gets hot. I will dive and try it then."
He bought his diving equipment a long time ago, but it was too cold to use it. This reef is a treasure trove, and he can come here to try the water again when the weather gets warmer.
"Then let's go. We can still drag a few more nets. Let's not waste any more time here."
He nodded and steered the boat away from the reef. After they were some distance away, Father Ye slowly lowered the prepared fishing net.
With the help of the water current, the sea quickly "sucked" the trawl in.
Fishing boats work in this area all day long, and from time to time you can see other fishing boats working there, but they do not interfere with each other.
But just as they were about to cast the last net and prepare to return, they saw a large ship of more than 20 cm coming at a constant speed in the distance, with a slightly smaller boat towing behind it.
He looked up and saw that there was only one person still standing on the boat steering it, while the other three were lying huddled on the deck.
He wondered if they had made enemies, so the people on the boat were beaten? The boat was towed? The boat looked familiar
There were quite a few people on the big boat, with four or five young men standing there. It seemed that they were not from the surrounding villages.
He was wondering whose boat it was and didn't pay attention for a moment. His trawl had "intimate contact" with the trawls of the two fishing boats one after another. By the time he reacted, it was too late.
"Oh shit, my network is ruined. I'm in trouble now."
Father Ye had just been keeping an eye on the big ships. The law of the jungle also applies to the sea, and it is common for big ships to bully small ones, so when they encounter fishing boats larger than themselves, they will usually stay away from them.
It was because of the large ship towing the small boat that they did not move and watched for a few more seconds.
"How could you be so careless... We are in trouble now..." Father Ye trotted along the boat, hurriedly preparing to collect the net.
"I was looking to see which village they were from. That boat looked familiar, but I didn't know where it was being towed."
"I didn't see their faces, but the small boat belonged to Lan Zhengping, and the big boat was from Luzhou Island. The people of Luzhou Island are fierce and aggressive. They like to bully small boats and steal fishing nets and machinery. Last year, boats from Dongqiao Village and our village were towed away."
Father Ye didn't see the people clearly when the two boats passed by, but he recognized the boats because there were marks on the hulls with paint.
Luzhou Island is at the very edge of the town, surrounded by water on three sides and another side. There is a small path that leads to the island.
“The family that built the house next to mine?”
"Yes, we'll just go back and inform their family to go to Luzhou Island to look for them."
"They are so unlucky."
"It's inevitable to encounter them if you're out at sea for a long time. Pull up the fishing net first."
The father and son worked together to slowly drag the parts of the trawl out of the water one by one. If there were any tangled parts, he would just cut them off with a kitchen knife and let his father hold the tow rope while he tied up the trawl.
Without the help of machines, they all rely on manual labor to collect and organize the fishing nets piece by piece. The whole process is long and arduous.
This little oversight caused them to work non-stop for more than an hour in vain, and the last catch was in vain.
After all the fishing nets were collected, he handed them over to his father and he went to drive the boat back.
Counting today, I only caught 3 fish, and the last one was wasted as the net was broken, but the harvest was still pretty good.
There were 3 baskets of crabs, 2 baskets of shrimps, and 4 baskets of fish of various sizes.
When he came ashore, he saw Lan Zhengping's wife also waiting on the shore for the fishing boat to dock. He quickly reminded her, "Aunt Lan, it seems that my boat has been towed away by the people from Luzhou Island?"
"What?" She slapped her thigh and screamed, "Is everyone okay? Oh, those damn Luzhou Island people are dying, and they towed our boat away. They are all pirates, wicked people. Not only did they steal things and move machines, but they also towed our boat away..."
Ye Yaodong interrupted Aunt Lan's screaming and cursing, "Someone was beaten up. We don't know the details. We just saw him passing by us. Go back and call for help. Let's go to Luzhou Island to look for him together."
"Yes, hurry up and call more people, and ask a tractor to deliver it, it's almost dark..."
"That group of people are not human, if there are more people, they can shout a little more..."
"The people of Luzhou Island used to be pirates, and they were very bad..."
"Why didn't those pirates die out? Why are they still harming people every day? Bastards, their whole family is a bunch of dogs..." She walked back hurriedly while cursing, singing and composing well.
The villagers on the shore were also discussing this. In the past, whenever they encountered a boat from Luzhou Island, as long as the boat was smaller than theirs, they would be bullied. Not only would their fish and cargo machines be taken away, but the people would also be beaten, and their boats and people would be deliberately dragged away.
It would be good if someone saw it, and they could immediately go and find the person and the boat. If no one saw it, it would take a day or two for me to get back.
Mother Ye asked with concern: "Are you okay after the encounter?"
"We were trawling and they messed up our nets when we passed by. We'll have to take them back and fix them when we get back."
"That's not bad, it's just that the fishing net is broken. Bring it back and fix it for me later. Next time you encounter a big boat, just avoid it to save yourself the trouble."
"Do I need you to tell me that? Hurry up and help sort it out. We only played 3 games today..." Ye's father muttered.
"Ah? How come there's still half a basket of abalone?" Mother Ye took a quick look and was surprised to see the abalone. Then she said happily, "Where did they dig from that reef? Has it risen again?"
They had only dug up abalone there, so she couldn't help but think about it.
"Only about 1 meter was exposed. It might be because it was low tide and the water level was low. These fish weigh less than 20 kilograms. It can be regarded as compensation for the loss of the last net."
He dug up two nuggets of gold and left. Afterwards he realized that it might not be the reef that had risen again, but rather the rising and falling tide.
When they met in the morning, it was low tide. After the tide has receded to the bottom, it will last for a while before rising again.
That's why the reef is exposed a little bit. Otherwise, if it had been exposed there all the time, the abalone would have been sun-dried to death and would not have waited for them to dig.
"Then I'll go take a look next time I pass by, maybe I can pick up some."
"talk later… "
As they were talking, they carried the sorted goods off the boat. At this time, fishing boats were coming in one after another and needed to line up to be weighed.
While waiting, everyone was talking about today's gains, and the encounter between Lan Zhengping and his sons with the people from Luzhou Island. They also kept asking Ye Yaodong and Ye's father about it.
Ye Yaodong was eager to go home and was in no mood to talk. It was his father who was talking to everyone.
After selling the goods, he hurried home. Before he reached the door, he heard two children running home happily, shouting, "Mom, Dad is back~"
He smiled and walked faster and faster...
When he entered the house, Lin Xiuqing was serving dishes from the pot one bowl at a time. When she saw him come in, she turned around and said with a sweet smile, "Go wash your hands and eat."
"good."
He agreed but went into the house first.
Lin Xiuqing followed him in puzzled, only to see him take out two large golden stones from his pocket.
"What is this? How come you always bring back some weird things?"
"Shh, put it away first."
Lin Xiuqing took it in her hand curiously and weighed it. "It's quite heavy. What kind of stone is this? Why is it as golden as gold?"
"This is nugget gold, a kind of ore."
"Why did you pick it up? Can you sell it for money?"
"Yes, it's very valuable. You can keep it first and sell it when you are short of money."
Lin Xiuqing's eyes lit up when she heard this. "Really? Is it gold? Such a big piece must be worth a lot of money. Where did you dig it? Or did you fish it out of the sea?"
“It’s not gold, but where it appears there may be gold mines.”
Lin Xiuqing's hand holding the nugget trembled and she almost dropped it. She was so surprised that she couldn't speak. "Gold... gold mine? Then... what should we do... should we hand it over?"
"There are two. You can sell one when you need it and keep the other. As for handing it in later, it's not safe now."
The baby in her belly has not been born yet, and handing it over may not save her life. They are not under the same system, and if they are discovered, it may even kill her. It is not worth it.
Just keep it in hand first, and it won’t be too late to hand it over later depending on the situation. It’s never too late to hand over this kind of thing.
"Is it okay to sell it?"
"It's okay. If I pick it up, it's mine. We don't touch the gold mine, and we don't have the ability to do that."
Then she can rest assured, they are just ordinary people and they can't do anything illegal.
"Put it away first. This gold nugget has a good meaning. Keep it if you can."
She smiled and said, "Okay, take it as a family heirloom."
"Not bad."