I haven't been to the offshore reef for ten days. I only went there once after the plum rain. I really miss it.
The main reason is that I want to go into the water. I haven’t been in the water for a long time. The underwater scenery is really attractive, and diving can be addictive.
And today his eldest brother and second brother's boat are also going with him.
In the evening, he took the opportunity to talk to his elder and second brothers. He did not tell them that he had simple diving equipment, but only said that there was a way for them to go into the water to catch abalone, but it depended on whether they could adapt.
Some time ago, he really forgot whether he had emphasized the word abalone, but it was not a big problem, he could just ask again.
The two men thought about it and decided to go and give it a try, considering that abalone is so valuable. If it doesn't work, they can always drag a net around.
But, not everyone has the adventurous spirit.
After dragging the net at daybreak, Ye Yaodong put diving equipment on them and taught them how to use it underwater. He asked them to adapt themselves by diving a few meters underwater first. If they were not used to it, it was okay to float up later.
I don’t know if it was because the wind was too strong today and the waves were bigger, but when his eldest brother went into the water to get familiar with it, a surge of water hit him directly onto the reef, and he bumped around several times, grimacing in pain. After stabilizing his body, he floated up directly.
"Oh... There's no way this can be done, there's no way this can be done, it's too dangerous, the waves on the bottom of the sea directly hit me onto the reef, luckily my head is fine."
"No way? Why are you so unlucky?"
Father Ye frowned and quickly pulled him up, "Are you okay? Where are you hurt?"
Ye Yaopeng turned his back and saw that his clothes had been torn into several pieces by the reefs. Ye's father lifted up his clothes and saw several red bloodstains and several bruises, all of which were scratched by the reefs.
"So careless, Dongzi and his friends never act like this when they go into the water."
"Bad luck. There's no way I can do this. It's too dangerous. And it's so deep in the sea. I'm panicking. I can't do it. I can't do it. There's no way I can make this money. I'd better just go and troll the internet cafes."
This alone made Boss Ye back down. He just wanted to make money safely.
Ye Yaohua hadn't made the move yet, but after hearing what his elder brother said, he backed out. He might as well lose his life before making any money.
He glanced at Ye Yaodong and his father, and said hesitantly, "Forget it then? This money is not easy to earn. My brother and I should just go trawling. This underwater job is not suitable for us."
In this case, Ye Yaodong did not force them. Everyone has their own aspirations. They prefer to be safe, so it is better not to take risks.
Father Ye didn't say anything. Anyway, you can make money by trawling, so just do it yourself!
"Then Dad, Dongzi, we'll leave first. We'll just trawle the nets around here later. If you have any problems that you can't handle, just sail over and call us. We're just around the corner anyway."
"Got it. Go ahead."
Father Ye thought about it and gave another warning, "Also, don't tell anyone that there is such equipment on the Dongzi ship, and don't tell your wife either. Those who salvaged cultural relics now live in our village. If they find out, they might come to requisition them. Save yourself the trouble."
"We know."
As soon as their boat left, Xiaoxiao and Azheng couldn't wait to crawl over and were eager to go into the water. They had been waiting for a long time and could no longer wait.
Ye Yaodong took turns going into the water with the two of them. Whatever he caught belonged to him, and they had to give him 1/3 of what they caught.
There is usually an interval of about one hour between two dives. Ye Yaodong also controls the time, allowing them to rest more and drink more hot water on the boat to help excrete nitrogen. If there is too much residual nitrogen in the body, it is easy to get decompression sickness.
After one person went into the water three times, he told them to call it a day. "That's all for today. It's only 1 o'clock now, so there's still time to go and haul in another net."
Ah Zheng looked at the basket full of harvest, feeling a little unsatisfied, "I think we can rest for a while before going down."
"Don't mess around. This is very harmful to your health. You can't go into the water too many times a day. I see you have dug about 40 to 50 kilograms, which is enough. You can sell it for nearly 200 yuan. Give me a cut. Each of you can make 60 yuan today, which is also good. There are also goods from the trawl. I can haul another net later. It can also be worth some money if I sell it."
Xiao Xiao agreed and said, "Yes, yes, Dongzi is right. Steady success will last a long time. Before, we only made 50 or 60 yuan a day by hauling the nets. Even if we split it in half, it wouldn't be much."
"After doing the math, it seems like I've made quite a bit of money. I'm rich!"
Ye Yaodong calculated in his mind and said, "I estimate that we will only need a month or so to dig up the reef below. It should be enough. As for the corners and crevices that are out of reach, we can leave them for them to reproduce."
"It would be great if we could raise them. We could catch them all and raise them. The more we raise, the more we will have. That way, we will become rich."
“You can raise it!”
"Ah?" The two of them widened their eyes, gleaming with hope, "Really!"
"But I can't."
Ye Yaodong said as a matter of course and almost gave them a good beating.
"Then what the hell are you talking about?"
"But I know that Dongshan Island now has the technology to cultivate this kind of variegated abalone. In 1979, the General Administration of Fisheries built a large abalone breeding station on Dongshan Island. But I probably can't learn it now. I'll wait a few years and then I can go there to learn how to cultivate it."
"What a joke! I thought you really knew how to do it. I don't even know where Dongshan is. The farthest place I've been to in my life is our county."
"What's the big deal? You have an idea, but you're worried about not being able to find a place? If you have an idea, you can really go and learn it in a few years. I support you. Abalone is so expensive."
"Don't get too far off topic. I haven't even caught enough fish yet. I have to make back the money for the boat first."
"That's true..."
"The trawling nets are going..."
Seeing them leave, Ye Yaodong also went to drive the boat, but Ye's father asked him curiously, "Can Dongshan Island really raise abalone? Did you read it in the newspaper?"
"Of course, you can learn about the world by reading newspapers! You can't read, but you can buy a radio and listen to the news."
"I'm too full. I already have one at home. Why buy one?"
"That belongs to the old lady, not you. When the house is built in a few days, she will move in and you won't have any say. Spend money when it's time to spend it. Don't be reluctant. You can't take it with you when you die. The three of us brothers can all earn money, and we don't rely on your little money for a coffin. Mom even eats government food."
Father Ye glared at him fiercely but didn't argue with him.
Continuing the trawling and diving pattern they fished for three consecutive days before encountering thunder and lightning on the afternoon of the fourth day.
In fact, there were already signs in the sea. The fish in the sea were particularly active. When they went out to sea at night, they dragged one net and caught up with the two nets they usually dragged. The wind was still blowing after daybreak.
They didn't dare to go into the water. The wind meant big waves and the sea would be even more dangerous, so they hurried back.
There were also ships heading back along the way.
By the evening, the wind had grown stronger, and there were lightning and thunder.
It was clearly three or four in the afternoon, but it felt like seven or eight.
Ye Yaodong stood at the doorstep looking at the rolling waves. There were many people nearby holding umbrellas. In addition to the villagers from their village, there were also the salvage team and the people from the museum.
When I came back these few days, I heard that they had fished up a lot of things at the dock. Many people saw it and said that they were carrying it down in baskets, and many baskets were carried down every day.
I heard that there were a lot of wooden boxes, porcelain, and various bronze artifacts. The news spread throughout the village. Everyone said that they had picked up a great bargain and were discussing how to get them to spend more money to repair the temple.
In fact, the villagers have no sense of value for those things and are not very interested in them. Everyone's attention has always been on when the money can be approved to repair the Mazu Temple.
The more they caught, the more they wanted to know, for they were afraid that they would run away after catching all the fish, especially the elderly in the village who had worshipped Mazu all their lives.
After the rain lasted for a day and a night and the sky cleared up, the old people in the village spontaneously organized to go to the village committee to ask, and it turned out that it was because of the thunderstorm that the Mazu Temple leaked badly and half of the tiles were blown away by the wind.
In the past, every time there was a storm or rain, we had to do some repairs. This time, everyone was thinking about getting money from the higher-ups so that they could solve the problem once and for all.
The village committee was also helpless with the elderly people in the village, mainly because it didn't know how much money the higher authorities would approve. So the cadres took them all to the educated youth site and asked them to ask the people at the museum directly.
It happened that a thunderstorm had just passed and everyone in the village was idle. After hearing the news, everyone rushed to the educated youth site, and Ye Yaodong also went to watch the fun.
Except for going to the beach to pick up bargains, the villagers rarely gather together in such an orderly manner.
"Everyone, rest assured, the promised rewards will be given. We have already applied for them. It will take time to go through the process..."
"Then you don't need to salvage it. You can salvage it when the approval comes."
"Yes, yes, yes. We will let you salvage the fish as soon as we get approval."
"Your thinking is wrong. These belong to the country, not to individuals or groups. You should cooperate..."
"Bullshit, if you guys just walk away after fishing, who are we going to turn to?"
They are just a bunch of uneducated, country fishermen. Who can reason with them? Who can talk about belonging
"that is!"
"You officials are only good at playing tricks on others. If you really fish out all the money, just leave..."
"We have already fished out all the baskets. If you give us some money, we will have no choice. No, you have already fished out so many baskets. You must give us money. Otherwise, we will not let you fish."
"Yes, there are always people at our dock anyway, so we just block them and don't let them get on the boat and go out to sea..."
"If they run away after fishing, we will be helpless and our efforts will be in vain..."
Those people's foreheads were sweating as they listened, and they didn't know whether it was because of the anxiety or the heat.
"We'll write a letter to urge them later. Let's go home now. There will definitely be a reply."
"How much money can you approve? Tell us first."
"We are only responsible for applying for criticism and struggle. The higher-ups have the final say. Please be patient and wait. There should be a result in a few days..."
"You guys are too slow, aren't you? People come so fast, but you're taking so long to approve the money. No, we'll let you get the money after we approve it."
"Yes, folks, let's go to the pier first. I'll fence off the road and don't let them pass... Just let the people from our village pass..."
"Yes, yes, let's go, let's surround it first..."