Lin Xiuqing's hands were loose now, and when Ye Yaodong said he wanted to fry some small fish as a reward for the child laborers in the afternoon, she did as he said.
After all, there was quite a lot of goods in the full bucket they brought back. There was really everything from fish, shrimp, crab, shells to conch, a pile of all kinds of things. They didn't mind and picked up everything, big and small.
"You don't have to cook them, just steam them all in one pot. Just dig out the sea urchins and cook them with eggs."
"Got it. Then, we can just stir-fry the bamboo shoots we dug this morning and cook some porgy for soup."
Ye Yaodong nodded, and was very satisfied with the dishes for dinner. They were all delicacies from the mountains (bamboo shoots) and the sea (seafood) that they had obtained through their hard work today!
Ye Chenghu and Ye Chengyang also enjoyed their dinner very much. They each had a bowl of steamed egg with sea urchin, and some seafood that they had picked up through their own labor. How could they not enjoy eating the fruits of their own labor
Ye Yaodong got up at night before it was time to go out to sea, because after the rain stopped, A Zheng had to go to the city to buy fish to dry, and by the way, help him escort a truck of dried fish to the city.
It rained a few days ago, and luckily the amount that A Zheng collected the first time was not too much, so he put them all in the corridor, and hung them in an empty room at home and opened the window for ventilation. So they were barely saved and did not become smelly. I quickly took them out to dry today.
He thought that it would be sunny for a few days, so he wanted to take the opportunity to get some more sun. It happened that his daughter had a high fever yesterday due to the change of seasons, so Xiao Xiao was worried and wanted to stay at sea for another day and not go out to sea at night.
After Ye Yaodong loaded all the dried fish into the car and stacked them, he paid the fare on the spot. After seeing the people off, he went back into the house to prepare to go out to sea.
Fortunately, he doesn't go out to sea every day, and now A Zheng helps him with the supply of goods, otherwise he would be exhausted from running back and forth.
Before dark, he had already moved all the sticky nets that he was going to take to the sea onto a cart, and also stacked up more than 50 shrimp cages, and tied them to the cart with ropes to prevent them from falling and to avoid having to transport them back and forth twice. As soon as his father arrived, they set off.
However, he estimated that the sticky net would not last for many days because spring had arrived and the frog fish had returned.
Moreover, these fishing nets were badly damaged. Although they did not release them very often after the New Year, they were very careful when picking up the fish and folded them well when recycling.
However, they will easily break after being used for a long time. They are considered good ones and have never been replenished. His eldest brother and second brother have already replenished a batch. Most people cannot use them for so long.
But there are not many good ones left. Some are slightly damaged, while others are more severely damaged. The degree of damage is different, so you can still use them despite what you have.
He estimated that after the toadfish season was over, the fishing nets would be scrapped. In fact, they could be discarded now. It was just a matter of recycling.
One spring rain brings warmth, ten spring rains bring light clothes.
When going out to sea at night, he could clearly feel that the sea breeze was no longer as freezing cold, but it was still a little chilly. He thought it was just the temperature difference between morning and evening.
After they put down all the fishing nets and the sun was high in the sky, they no longer felt how cold it was. Instead, the sea breeze was a little warm, and they could clearly smell the scent of spring.
"Dad, there are only about thirty-four of these sticky nets left. Judging from the degree of damage, they will probably be unusable after one or two more uses."
"Well, there's no need to make up for it. It's spring now, so we can just trawle. We can also do longline fishing and make use of it."
"That's what I thought. Move the boat forward and I'll lower the shrimp cage down as well."
The technique of placing shrimp cages is similar to that of ground cages. The only difference between the two is the size of the mesh, and there is not much other difference.
Ye Yaodong had already used ropes to tie all the cages together with a distance of 4-10 meters between each one. Just like the ground cages, they were grouped in groups of ten. One end was tied with a stone and thrown into the sea, and the other end was tied with a buoy and placed in the water.
During this time, he also threw in some small fish that he had saved from the mouths of chickens and ducks during the day as bait.
There were only 50 shrimp cages, not a lot. With the cooperation of Ye's father, all the shrimps were released in less than an hour.
"Do you want to collect them when you go back in the evening, or do you want to come back tomorrow morning to collect them?" Ye Yaodong looked at his father. "Collect them once in the evening, and come out in the early morning to collect them again?"
Normally, shrimp cages are taken out in the evening and collected the next morning. If it is taken out in the early morning of the next day, the time interval would be a bit long.
"Let's see later if there's a lot in the trawl. If there is, we'll trawl one more net and don't have to collect it. We'll come back tomorrow to collect it. If there isn't much in the trawl, we'll collect it and return to make up the number."
"That's fine too."
Originally, these shrimp cages were just to make up the numbers. He is too lazy to put out the ground cages now. There are too many kinds of fish nets. If he put out all of them, he would not be able to handle them all. He will have to choose when to discard some, and now he can only keep them as backup.
For example, when the weather gets a little warmer, he plans to take the trap to the Oarfish Island to release sea cucumbers and small blue dragonfish. These good things should not be missed.
The weather is still too cold now. If we go into the water, we won’t be able to bear it.
As Ye Yaodong spoke, he dragged a large fishing net out of the cabin, and Ye's father also came forward to help organize the net.
"It just rained heavily, and I don't know if there will be more good things."
"It's hard to say, it depends on luck."
The two cables for dragging the net were originally piled on the side boards of the ship. As soon as the net entered the sea, the cables were pulled quickly, like winding snakes, and all of them entered the sea in just a few minutes.
After the fishing net sank into the sea, Ye's father started to drive the boat at a constant speed. Ye Yaodong also began to have nothing to do, so he simply lay down on the edge of the boat and took a nap.
He got up too early at night, and when the sun shone, he felt sleepy because of the warmth. It was just right that he could take a nap while the fishing boats were operating before getting up. Otherwise, he would have to work the whole day.
And when he was a sailor in his previous life, he had already mastered the ability to fall asleep anytime and anywhere.
He just slept on the edge of the boat, feeling a little uneasy. It was normal for a fishing boat to shake when operating, but it was the waves caused by the operation that woke him up.
When the waves hit the hull, a small part of the water would spray out and fall on his cheeks.
At first it was just a small wave, dripping a few times, but he didn't pay any attention to it. He turned his head and went to the other side and continued to sleep.
But then a wave of rain came from the sky, and a large amount of water dripped from his head. The wet feeling made him think it was raining heavily in his sleep, and he woke up immediately.
"It's raining!?"
Coming back to his senses, he looked at the sunny sky, wiped the water droplets off his face, and touched his moisture-covered hair.
"It's the waves. I thought it was raining... Damn, these waves are so strong that it's hard to row a boat without oars."
He touched the corner of his mouth again, but couldn't tell whether it was saliva or seawater. He just dreamed that he was on a speedboat and opened a bottle of champagne. It was a wonderful dream...
Spoiler…
Looking at the rolling waves on the sea, he thought it would be better to sit and lean against the edge of the cabin. He could sleep whether he was sitting, lying down, standing or leaning against the edge.
However, before he left, he saw a strange fish on the sea. It was golden in color and only slightly bigger than a palm. "It looks like a pufferfish? But why is it golden?"
Because the fishing boat was working, it was not moving very fast, and the fish was drifting on the side. Ye Yaodong saw a scoop net on the deck beside the ship, so he picked it up and stretched out his hand to try. Although it was some distance away, he was able to pull the fish up.
Father Ye watched his actions from a distance and asked curiously, "What are you fishing for?"
"I saw a strange golden fish." He pulled the net back and took a look. "Oh, it really is a pufferfish, a golden pufferfish..."
He reached out and grabbed it, holding it in his palm, but he didn't expect it to keep spitting at him, as if it was despising him
Despise him
Or are you spitting on him
She actually kept spitting at him!
Damn it!
I've eaten countless of your brothers and sisters, but I've never eaten a golden one.
It was only the size of a palm, and no one knew how it grew into golden color. He simply fetched a bucket of sea water and threw it in to raise it first, to avoid killing it by holding it in his hands.
However, before he could figure out why it was golden and whether it could be eaten, his father saw it when he went to collect the net, and it turned around and fell back into the sea. It was too late for him to stop it.
"I put all the ones I caught in the bucket. Why did you dump them without asking me?"
"What are you going to do with it? Do you want to dry the puffer fish and eat it again? People have died from eating it before."
"I just looked at it, I didn't eat it. I saw it was golden and I was a little curious because I had never seen it before."
"Gold is gold, so why do you care what it looks like? You can't eat it anyway. Just dump it. You can't possibly know everything in the sea. Come over and help collect the nets. This will free up the bucket for other things."
Because of the different values, the "treatment" of fish is naturally different. The useless things can only return to dust, earth, and sea, and only the useful ones are worthy of being taken back.
"With so many baskets, are you afraid that there won't be anything to put them in? How many tons of fish do you want to put in?" Ye Yaodong was dissatisfied. He should at least ask him, but he didn't even ask a single question. He was just curious.
Father Ye didn't care about his complaints. "Come and help quickly. The net might burst. The net lifting machine is creaking."
"That means it's time to apply lube!"
“Nonsense~”