"Hiss~ Damn it, I got bit..."
Ye Yaodong listened to the familiar swear words, looked up at Lin Guangyuan, and was speechless. He had to follow him, otherwise if Ah Qing was there, he would definitely curse. The half-grown boy likes to imitate adults and swear.
"Be careful, don't get your hands caught."
"I was pinched just now. Luckily the crab was not big, so it only hurt a little."
Ye Chenghai looked at him with disdain, "You are so useless. You caught crabs and still got bitten?"
“I’m not from the seaside.”
"Catch them quickly, they are all running away..."
Ye Yaodong kept bending over, picking up everything in front of him, regardless of size, and put it into a bucket or sack.
"Talking doesn't interfere with work!"
The two boys carried the buckets, and as long as they were half full, they would pour them into the sacks. They never complained of being tired from going back and forth, but just kept chatting non-stop.
"Damn, there are so many of them coming at once, can't they go ashore in batches?"
"Do you think they are queuing up for food? That's wishful thinking. You want them to queue up before they can die?" Ye Yaodong replied to Lin Guangyuan while grabbing them.
"Why do they come ashore at night?"
"Because at night, the environment on the shore is relatively quiet, and there is less oxygen in the water at night, so crabs will crawl onto the shore in large numbers to move around or look for food. You guys kept talking incessantly, so they were scared away."
"Ah? Like that? Then shut up and stop talking!"
"Stupid, aren't they already crawling into the sea?"
These crabs only stayed on the shore for a while, then turned around and crawled back into the sea. The three of them wished they had three heads and six arms at this time. It would be a shame if they ran away, as this was all money.
Fortunately, the sea water was receding, which prolonged their way back to the sea and allowed them to catch the fish a little longer.
But I only caught about 20 crabs in total, and then all the crabs on the shore ran away into the water.
The three of them picked up their buckets and continued to go into the water to catch the fish. They could still stay in the water for a while before the fish swam too far.
They went ashore only when both buckets were half full and there were no more crabs in the shallow water around.
"It's a pity that there are no nets in the shallows, otherwise we could have caught them all."
“We’ve caught a lot.”
"Yes, we have already grabbed half a bag, it must be about 20 to 30 kilograms."
Ye Yaodong poured all the crabs in the bucket into the sack, reached out to lift his own bag, and said with satisfaction: "It should be about 20 kilograms, mainly because each one is quite big. Your bag should have more."
"I'm rich~" Ye Chenghai said happily.
"It's just a small fortune. I'll give you some pocket money after I sell it tomorrow."
Lin Guangyuan said happily: "The tide has just receded. Let's look around. There must be more. We were just busy catching crabs."
"Yes, yes, look again, there must be others."
Ye Yaodong looked at his watch. Only an hour had passed and the tide had just receded to the bottom. It was not rising so quickly. Now that everyone had come out, he decided to go shopping for a while longer.
"Let's go to that reef area and throw these two bags here first, so we don't have to carry them back and forth. It's the middle of the night and no one is out. You guys are the only ones who ate too much."
"Uncle San, you are the same, you are also too full!"
"Well, I did eat too much. I was bored and stayed up late at night to go fishing with you guys. I won't be so leisurely in a few days. Let's go, hurry up and go home to sleep after we're done."
As a result, before he walked far, Ye Yaodong felt like he was stepping on shit under his feet. The flashlight then shone on the surface of the beach and suddenly a lot of sandworms appeared.
"Ah? Uncle, there are sandworms again..."
Ye Yaodong stepped on the ground and took a look. He saw that many of the rivers under his feet had been half-flattened by him, and the other half was still in the sand, having not had time to come out.
"They come out on full-moon nights to mate and reproduce. Catch them quickly, and catch as many as you can."
Without him saying anything, the two boys excitedly stepped forward, squatted down and scooped the fish into the bucket.
Hearing the familiar sound of shaking sacks, Ye Chenghai raised his head in surprise, "Uncle San, how many sacks do you have on you? How come you can find them at any time?"
"What do you care about me? Get to work and stop talking nonsense."
He still has some on him, just in case. Haixing learned his lesson from not bringing the sack that time.
"We should wake everyone up. It's such a pity that there are only three of us. How can we catch them all?"
"Catch as many as you can, uncle. Can you fry another one for lunch tomorrow?"
"You are not the one who should be scolded, so you don't care? Don't think about it, I will stir-fry leeks for dinner tomorrow."
…
With a sound of dripping, they grabbed another half bag. By this time, all three of them were so tired that their necks and waists were sore.
"Oh, there are so many small seafoods. It's so frustrating that I can't pick them all..."
"Yes, there are more sandworms at night than during the day. We can't catch them all. We catch so many during the day, but there are still more at night."
"Tired? If you are tired, just go back to sleep. That's enough."
Although it’s a pity that we didn’t catch them all, it would be troublesome to clean up if we caught too many, so we should keep them for sustainable development.
"No, I'm not sleepy!"
"I'm not sleepy either!"
"Okay, I won't be getting up tomorrow anyway, so I won't be the one getting beaten. You guys just stay here and catch them slowly. I'll go take a look around."
I was a little tired, so I went to walk around the nearby reefs to see if there was anything else I could catch, but I didn't come back to continue.
"I want to go too… "
"Just catch them here. Who knows if there's anything ahead? Don't delay."
The two boys could only crane their necks to watch him slide away while talking.
"Why do I feel like my uncle is being lazy and making us do the hard labor here?"
"Don't think that he is just using us as laborers. I see through him."
"Damn it! When you're under someone's roof, you have to bow your head!"
…
Listening to the two boys mumbling behind him, Ye Yaodong twisted his neck and rubbed his waist as he walked. He looked at the darkness in the distance and thought to himself that it was a good thing he didn't come with his bad friends, otherwise, you scare me and I scare you, and we would have nothing to do.
From time to time he shone his headlamp on the ground and on the nearby reefs. As he walked he also dug out several cat's-eye snails that were buried in the sand with only their breathing holes exposed.
I didn’t want to pick it at first, but since he saw the hole, I felt a little itchy if I didn’t pick it…
I feel relieved only when I touch my heart. The soft flesh above is also very relaxing to touch, and it can even produce water, which gives me a special sense of accomplishment.
When he got closer, he saw the densely packed small barnacles and small water spinach on the reef, but he simply ignored them because some of them were not even as big as his booger.
He lowered his head and looked carefully at the gaps between the reefs and the areas around them, and he actually picked up two mantis crabs.
At this moment, he heard the sound of water splashing beside his ears. Curious, he shone his headlamp towards the surrounding sea. Even with the shaking of the headlamp, the sea was extremely calm.
He was a little puzzled, and just as he was about to turn around, a slender silver figure emerged from the light of the headlamp and jumped out of the water.
"Huh?"
He stopped moving his head and looked carefully. Just as he was about to take a closer look at what kind of fish it was, he discovered that in the halo of light, more and more white figures were gathering, and they were jumping one after another, splashing white water everywhere.
Was that the sound made by these fishes jumping around just now
He continued to move his head curiously, letting the headlamp shine to the side, and saw that this small group of fish followed one after another and surrounded in the circle of light.
Phototaxis!
Many fish are attracted to light!
That’s why there is a method of fishing with light.
He walked towards the school of fish and turned his head around. Unexpectedly, he saw a group of silvery-white fish with blue backs near the shallow reef. Under the bright light, they jumped more actively, and splashes of water kept swishing around.
"Fuck, so many? No wonder there was so much noise!"
"What? Uncle San? What did you say?" Ye Chenghai shouted loudly when he heard him talking to himself but couldn't make out what he was saying.
"Bring me the hand-scooped net next to you!" Ye Yaodong also shouted at them, then continued walking forward.
Wherever his headlamp pointed, the fish would follow the light.
When he got closer he saw that they were anchovies.
The silvery white color is the color of its abdomen, which is more obvious at night.
Anchovies are small fish that are very attracted to light, so he didn't notice them when he first shone his headlamp on the sea surface. He only saw them after waiting for a while when the anchovies were attracted and swam over. And as he shone the light for a longer time, he saw more and more of them.
When Ye Chenghai heard his third uncle asking him to bring the scoop net over, he immediately ran over excitedly with Lin Guangyuan.
"What are you doing with the hand-held net, Uncle San?"
“Catch the fish!”
"Ah, there are fish! So many!" Ye Chenghai also saw it after running over.
Lin Guangyuan also used his flashlight to shine on the sea surface, his eyes shining as he said, "Wow~ Uncle, what kind of fish are these? Why are there so many? Catch them quickly~"
As he said that, he handed the flashlight to Ye Chenghai and rushed forward...
Ye Yaodong grabbed his collar and pulled him back, "What do you want? Wait here!"
Then he snatched the hand-held net from Ye Chenghai and said, "Wait here. Use the flashlight to help me fish it out. I'll go get it."
"I don't have a flashlight, I'll go help fish it out."
Ye Yaodong pulled him back from his forward movement, "It's just a hand net, what are you using to fish it out? Are you going to take off your clothes to fish it out?"
"It's not impossible..."
Ye Yaodong glared at him and said, "Behave yourself!"
Lin Guangyuan wrinkled his face and looked at Ye Yaodong complainingly, "You said you were coming out, why didn't you bring one more?"
"How should I know there would be fish? I just brought them randomly. There's only one at home, and the others are on the boat. Wait here."
He walked forward to the shallow water, and when the light shone on it, he saw anchovies scrambling to the shore. He scooped them up with a scoop net and filled the net with them.
Immediately afterwards, the fish nearby squeezed in to fill the gap.
"What kind of fish is this, uncle? You haven't even told me yet. This fish is so small, only as long as my palm, and so thin."
"This is anchovy, which we also call sea anchovy. It can be used to make fish sauce."