The next day, Xiang Yang got up very early.
The fishing boat was quietly parked on the sea. The rising sun cast a layer of golden glow on the fishing boat. On the deck, Chen Qingsheng and a young crew member were patrolling.
"captain."
"captain."
Xiang Yang is not only the captain of this fishing boat, but also the owner of this fishing boat. The two crew members greeted Xiang Yang warmly when they saw him.
"Thank you for your hard work." Xiang Yang smiled. Fishing boats parked on the sea at night must be patrolled, both to prevent accidents and to keep an eye on passing fishing boats.
"The duty is rotated, but it's not hard at all." Chen Qingsheng said with a smile: "Captain, when do we cast the net today?"
Xiang Yang took out a few colorful fish from a bucket and threw them into the water tank where the two humphead wrasses were kept. After watching the humphead wrasses finish eating, he said, "We won't be fishing today. I'll give you a day off to do whatever you want."
"However, the designated personnel on duty on the deck must continue to guard the deck."
Holiday? Chen Qingsheng's eyes lit up, "Then can we play cards today?"
It is very boring on the ship, especially when you reach the open sea and the high seas where there is no cell phone signal. Old sailors who have stayed in such a boring environment for a long time will become gamblers and want to play a few cards whenever they have free time. This is true for Chen Qingsheng, Chen Fusheng, Zhou Wang, Xu Fang, and even Uncle Xiang.
However, Xiang Yang usually controls entertainment activities such as playing cards very strictly and keeps a close eye on them.
Looking at Chen Qingsheng's expectant eyes, Xiang Yang hesitated for a while before saying, "You can play today, but no matter how you play, you can't lose more than ten yuan per hand."
"No problem." Chen Qingsheng was overjoyed when he heard that. He liked to play Golden Flower, which had no upper limit on the number of people. The maximum loss for a hand of cards was ten yuan, but the winnings could be more than ten yuan.
Soon, the crew members got up one after another.
Chen Qingsheng pulled He Mingde, Xu Fang, Zhou Wang and others to sit down on the deck and start drawing cards.
Xiang Yang put on his diving suit and prepared to go into the water to take a look.
The cold current passed through the sea area where the fish migrated, and the ferocious marine predators also followed the fish and left the sea area, but there were many slow-moving shrimps and crabs on the seabed. This was the best time to dive and fish. Xiang Yang wanted to go to the sea to see if he could get any valuable seafood. If not, it would be nice to get some crabs.
Seeing Xiang Yang about to go into the water, Xiang Chen, who didn't like playing cards, quickly called Xiang Yang, "Brother Yang, can you lend me a diving suit? I want to go into the sea and try it, too."
"Of course, no problem." It was a rare day off for Mid-Autumn Festival, and Xiang Yang was not such a stingy person. He said generously: "Anyone who wants to dive can go and get a diving suit. All the fish caught today will be yours."
Suddenly many crew members were eager to try.
Xiang Yang went down to the bottom of the sea again, and suddenly a vast underwater world spread out in front of his eyes. He felt that his vision at the bottom of the sea was better than before. If Xiang Yang had a six-fold scope when he first got the jade shell, now he had an eight-fold scope.
Xiang Yang took a quick look around and immediately saw the abundant schools of swimming crabs below, as densely packed as an army.
Xiang Yang specifically picks swimming crabs that are larger than 4 taels. These swimming crabs are fat, have lots of meat and taste great, and their market price is higher than that of swimming crabs weighing 2 taels.
Xiang Yang walked and stopped on the seabed and soon filled the entire net bag with swimming crabs.
Suddenly, Xiang Yang stopped and stared at a strangely shaped rock in the distance.
It was a very beautiful rock with a milky white surface like teeth and a spiral cone shape.
"This, this, is this a snail?" Xiang Yang was shocked by his own guess. The rock looked too much like a snail shell, but the problem was that it was too big. A snail shell over ten meters long completely overturned the normal people's understanding of snails.
But are there snails in the ocean that are longer than ten meters
The answer is yes, but that was a long, long time ago. It was an era when invertebrates and insects dominated the earth. Dragonflies could grow as big as helicopters and snails could be as big as submarines.
Xiang Yang flashed to the side of the strangely shaped rock and looked at it carefully.
Xiang Yang quickly confirmed that this was indeed a snail, and it was a long-extinct species of the four famous snails, the Nautilus - the straight-shelled Nautilus.
The Nautilus is now endangered, but during the Archean period it was found all over the world.
The earliest nautilus on Earth was born hundreds of millions of years ago. Although the nautilus seems very weak now, its ancestor was the top predator on Earth - the straight-shelled nautilus.
The straight-shelled nautilus is one of the Earth's overlords, standing at the top of the food chain. It lived from the late Ordovician period to the Cambrian explosion.
In the heyday of the straight-shelled nautilus, their body length could reach up to 11 meters. Once the prey was targeted by the straight-shelled nautilus, it was almost impossible to escape.
It is worth mentioning that the shell of Nautilus is composed of many chambers. The outer shell of the chamber is located inside the shell, and the chambers are separated by diaphragms so that they do not interfere with each other. Scientists invented submarines based on this characteristic of Nautilus. The world's earliest submarine was named Nautilus.
The submarine in which the protagonist of the ocean-related literary masterpiece "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" is also named Nautilus.
This straight-shelled nautilus has been dead for a long time. Xiang Yang touched the shell it left behind with his hand and it felt cold.
"Such a treasure should not be buried deep in the sea. It should show its unparalleled grace and elegance in the past to the world." Xiang Yang walked around the straight-shelled Nautilus, as if he saw the glorious days in the past.
This straight-shelled Nautilus is very well preserved. After billions of years, time has taken away its life and also left traces of the years on its body, but its body has not been damaged at all.
Xiang Yang lifted the tail of the giant snail with force, trying to test its weight.
However, Xiang Yang was almost scared to death because the shell of the straight-shelled nautilus suddenly moved and two thick and powerful tentacles emerged from the shell.
"Shit! It's not dead yet?" Xiang Yang was so scared that he retreated quickly. The life of a warrior who dared to face such a ferocious beast would probably be very bleak. Anyway, Xiang Yang was not willing to face it.
Xiang Yang soon realized that he was overthinking.
This straight-shelled nautilus is indeed dead, but its shell has been taken over by someone.
It was a giant squid with a head thicker than a bucket and tentacles that were two or three meters long when spread out.
The giant squid seemed very angry that Xiang Yang had touched its "house", but was afraid of Xiang Yang's size. After crawling out of the straight-shelled nautilus shell, the giant squid bared its fangs and claws at Xiang Yang on the seabed, trying to scare him but did not dare to chase him.