When Father Ye saw him going to drive the boat, he decided to count today's catch.
Looking at the stacked bamboo baskets, his face was full of smiles. If he could go out to sea every day and have so much harvest every day, why would he worry about not getting rich
Walking to the bamboo baskets, he silently calculated in his mind how much he could sell these goods for today.
Apart from the skinned fish and other fish that were damaged by the propeller, there were still quite a few left...
After counting the number, he had an idea of what he had harvested today.
Just as he brought a small stool and sat down to take a rest while the fishing boat was sailing, he saw the net bag placed in the corner of the cabin door.
Hmm? Why do you just throw your net bag around randomly without putting it away? You are so grown up, but you don’t know how to clean up. You just throw things around and then search everywhere when you need to find them…
Father Ye complained inwardly and planned to put the net bag into the bucket together with his tools. However, when he picked it up, he found that there was still something in the net bag
He picked it up and looked at it. "Jiang Yao? Yao Zhu?"
I feel a little surprised. When did you pick it up and why didn’t you tell me
Father Ye opened the net bag and took out a few Jiang Yaodong that Ye Yaodong had picked casually. There were five of them, some big and some small. He was pleasantly surprised and then walked towards Ye Yaodong.
"Dongzi, when did you pick up Jiang Yao? You didn't say anything and just threw it everywhere."
Ye Yaodong only remembered it when he saw the Jiang Yao in his father's hand, "Oh! I forgot about it because I was busy with squids the whole afternoon and forgot about it when I put it in the corner."
"I went into the water to look for traps at noon, and unexpectedly found a patch of barnacles on the seafloor not far away, like a monument. When I saw it, time was running out, so I just plucked a few and brought them up."
Father Ye was very happy to hear this. Jiang Yao also grew in groups on the seabed. "Then let's go into the water tomorrow and pull up more. They are not cheap. A big one costs 15 cents, and a small one costs 10 cents."
"I know."
He didn't have time to pick up more today, otherwise he would have filled his net bag and come up again.
However, the value is still not as good as that of sea cucumbers and abalone, but fortunately there is only that one piece, so we can pull them all back and continue digging abalone. There are still many abalone on the seabed reefs, so we can pull all the barnacles and then go back and continue digging slowly without delay. Those with small number and easy to deal with can be dealt with first.
"You are lucky. You always come across good things."
"It could also be that no one went down to the bottom of the sea, so there was a lot of cargo underneath, and I encountered it."
Father Ye was a little tempted. "Then can you buy your set of diving equipment? Or can you ask your eldest brother and second brother to get a set? Let them go to the bottom of the sea to look for it too?"
"Ah? Don't think too much. This thing is hard to buy and expensive. Forget it. Besides, going to the bottom of the sea is not for fun. It is dangerous. They should just stay at the Internet cafe and don't mess around."
"So you were still messing around at that time?"
"I'm different, I know that."
The underwater world is so wonderful and beautiful. Ever since he saw the sardine storm on the seabed, he has been aroused and eager to explore.
Father Ye had no choice but to give up the idea and not take the risk.
Ye Yaodong added: "Put the prawns in the bucket. There are only a few of them. Keep them for your family and take them home to steam in the evening."
"You're the only one who knows how to eat. You want to try everything."
Ye's father felt it was a pity, but it would be hard to sell with only a few of them, so he just threw them into the bucket.
Ye Yaodong smiled and said, "Pick out a few squids with rice, and discard the other stuff. Those baskets of cut and skinned fish are enough for drying."
When he sorted the fish, he had already reserved two kilograms of white shrimp, half for his children and the other half for stewing with wine to increase lactation. He didn't need the other fish, and just a little bit of the skinned fish he kept for himself was enough.
"Um."
With so many squids, Ye's father no longer felt bad about leaving a few for himself.
The fishing boat returned quickly. The night wind was warm and comfortable, but all my hair was blown back to the back of my head, standing up on end, revealing my broad forehead, which was a bit ugly.
But it doesn’t matter. My face is already pitch black, so who cares about my hair
By the time the fishing boat was about to reach the dock, it was dark. More and more fishing boats were returning on the sea, and headlights were flashing everywhere.
Everyone wanted to take advantage of the fact that there is plenty of goods and the weather is good recently, so they came back late.
When we meet people we are familiar with and have a good relationship with, we greet each other and ask about each other’s gains.
Only then did they realize that everyone had caught a lot of squid today, almost as much as the mackerel. At this time, the others realized that the squid fishing season had arrived.
Cuttlefish are more valuable than mackerel, and you can use tree branches to lure them to lay eggs, and then set up nets to catch them, which will bring you greater profits.
After the fishing boat docked, everyone at the dock started discussing. When they saw Ye Yaodong and his son with black faces, everyone was surprised, but fortunately they could recognize their facial features.
When they saw the cargo they had unloaded, everyone was even more surprised and asked, "Did you go out of your way to catch squid today? Why are your faces sprayed so black?"
"So many, how many hundreds of kilograms?"
"That's a lot. There must be about ten baskets. Did you lure them with branches?"
"Did you just start catching them today? There didn't seem to be so many yesterday. Is it the beginning of the flood season?"
"There are also quite a few mackerel and striper fish. Did you catch a lot today?"
Father Ye smiled and said, "It's not bad, it's not bad, the squid fishing season has arrived, and you have a good catch today."
"Not as much as you guys caught. These squids must weigh about 500 to 600 kilograms, right?"
"Hey, your eldest and second son are back too." The people nearby saw someone carrying baskets of goods down from behind, and there were quite a few squids.
Father Ye looked at the goods that Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua were carrying, and walked over to help watch over them.
When all the baskets of squid and fish were placed on the open space, he was satisfied. His two sons had caught a lot, so he felt relieved.
"Your family reacted really quickly. You were one step ahead of others. Did both boats catch a lot of fish?"
“Everyone made a good profit…”
"Did you throw branches into the sea? We have to start trapping tomorrow. We haven't been out to sea much in the first half of the year, so we're hoping to make some extra money during the fishing season."
"Yes, yes, yes. Let's go up the mountain and cut more branches tomorrow..."
"This will delay another day. If I miss this day, it will be another day's loss..."
"No other way. We can catch more by using branches to trap them."
"If I had known this a day earlier, I could have saved time by going up the mountain to chop wood instead of staying at home yesterday..."
"We can catch more after we have done the preparations. It doesn't matter if we take one or two days. The squid fishing season will not end so quickly."
"You and your son got there first again. You are so lucky..."
Listening to the discussions around them, the Ye family father and sons would occasionally chat with each other. The atmosphere was quite lively. After everyone knew that the squid fishing season had arrived, they were all in high spirits and couldn't wait to go out to sea again.
Amid everyone's envious words, they weighed the goods and sold them, then hurried back.
There were a lot of skinned fish piled on Ye Yaodong's cart, with four bamboo baskets and several buckets also filled with scattered goods. It would take a long time to push these back.
The four of them, father and son, all walked back together with a look of Bao Gong on their faces, their dark faces unable to conceal their joy.
Both families had similar harvests today, a bumper crop, and sold for more than two hundred yuan each. Even Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua caught a little more squid than Ye Yaodong.
Father Ye smiled and asked Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua, "There is an island next to the sea where we put the branches. There are many squids stranded on the beach. If there is no wind, rain or waves at night, let your wives go out to sea with us to pick them up. Don't waste them. It's good to make more money."
Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua smiled at each other and said, "What a coincidence! We also discussed on the boat today that we would take them with us tonight, and leave the children with our mother to take care of them..."
Ye Yaohua added: "We also specially found a small island today and placed branches around it."
"There were many seabirds staying around the island, so we went there out of curiosity. Who knew we would find a lot of squids stranded on the beach?"
"Then we dropped branches around the island and went to the island to pick up squids. Unfortunately, there were too many seabirds around and a lot of the stranded squids were eaten."
The two brothers added one sentence each.
Ye Yaodong finally understood why they didn't have many fish, but they had much more squids than him.
Father Ye nodded. "That's fine. I'll go out to sea with you guys and pick up more squids. I can't make much money weaving nets at home."
"That's what I was thinking. I'll ask mom to help look after the kids when I get home."
Mother Ye had no objection. She just wanted to look after the grandchildren and cook some more meals. It was a pity because she also wanted to go out to sea with them.
I don’t know if the squid season will be over by the time Aqing finishes her confinement.
As she pickled the squid eggs, she thought to herself that since she would be out of confinement in about half a month, she should be able to catch the end of the flood season.
Pickled squid eggs are very delicious with rice. They usually eat them pickled, but they can also be dried. However, Ye Yaodong brought back a small amount today, so Ye's mother pickled them.
After pickling the squid eggs, Ye's mother then started to skin the fish, and Ye's eldest and second sisters-in-law also came along to help.
They were very happy to hear that they would go out to sea together to pick up squids at night. After all, there was a good harvest of squids today, and the more they could pick up, the better. They had not yet made back the huge sum of money they had lost after being cheated last year, and they were eager to make more money.
Most of these skinned fish are in pieces, so you don't need to deal with the pieces, just peel the skin.
Only a few had only slight cuts on the surface. They tore off the skin and head from the tail, took out the internal organs, cleaned them, marinated them with salt for half an hour, and then spread them on long bamboo flats to dry.
In fact, autumn and winter are the best time to dry fish. First, the flies are gone, and second, the north wind blows, and fish dried naturally by the northwest wind is best.
But they were not that particular. Since they had fish that needed to be dried, they just dried them directly.
There are no refrigerators now, so if you want to preserve fish and eat it slowly, you can only pickle it or dry it. Drying it can preserve it for a longer time.