The dark night, the storm.
The turbulent waves of the sea crazily hit the reef, as if the entire land would be overturned in the next moment. The orange-red balloon more than ten meters above the ground has been blown extremely crookedly, which means that the typhoon is close at hand, and even the strong pole with the wind rope below it begins to creak, as if it will blow up in the next second. Break it apart.
For the remote port of Siqiao, although there are not many such bad weather, it happens three to five times a year. Therefore, the residents here are also used to it, retreating to their huts, lighting dim candles, drinking red star Erguotou with dried salted fish, and of course, by the way, they also put a basin of tarpaulin under the leaking part of the roof and anything that can filter out moisture. In this way, the quilt will always be in a moist state, as if a layer of wetness can be obtained by touching it.
In this atmosphere, a raging fire was burning in a dilapidated shack west of Siqiao Town. Discarded rubber tires were piled messily inside—for the poor boat people, this was a cheap and effective skin repair material—and around a dozen boat people with dark skin but excited expressions. Most of them are in their twenties and thirties, only the middle-aged man sitting in the middle has deep wrinkles on his face, as if cut by a knife and an axe, and the beard on his chin is also a little gray. There is kindness in the sorrow, and one can tell at a glance that he is the kind of person who accepts life and destiny.
"Ah, ah, if you want me to talk about today's incident, San Zai deserves credit, but Sen Yan's aim was on time!"
The speaker was a young man with a scar on his face, named Gao Qiang, who was drooling with exaggerated gestures. And his words were obviously approved by the companions around him. Many people nodded their heads and turned their appreciative gazes to a young man sitting on the right.
This young man has thick black eyebrows, bulging muscles on his arms, and a very strong physique. Although there is a flying look between his brows, he is still stable. At this moment, he was sitting casually on a dilapidated wooden stool, holding a porcelain bowl with a missing corner. Probably because the boiling water in the bowl is boiling hot, so you have to drink it while blowing. The young man named "Sen Yan" smiled slightly when he heard himself being mentioned, but he didn't make a sound, just smiled and nodded at his companion, and then continued to drink water.
"Of course there is nothing to say about Sen Yan's slash, but I got nine prongs, a total of nine prongs!" A middle-aged man with a big nose stood up and said loudly, and kept gesturing excitedly with his hands.
"Fuck me, that big bastard dragged us away for at least thirty miles! If we drag another ten miles, we will have to suffer from this wind."
A black and thin middle-aged man in the corner suddenly interjected with a smile:
"Brother Big Four, the balm scraped out this time is probably no less than 20 kilograms! Even if it is dried, it will weigh at least a dozen kilograms-this time is considered a big profit. Haven't you always wanted to repair Fuyuan once? Now there is more than enough money for overhauling ten times!"
The fourth brother was obviously that middle-aged man, he smiled honestly when he heard that, but his brows were clearly filled with joy. He was born by the sea since he was a child, and the salty taste of the sea has almost infiltrated into his bone marrow. He has almost used boats as his home in his life. Because he adopted two orphans very early, he has never found a wife, and after that he seemed I don't even plan to look for it. He used his life savings to buy the old boat of Fuyuan a few years ago. He didn't expect to be deceived by someone. He had a major repair just after getting the boat, so the debt he owed has not been paid off until now.
If kindness and honesty will definitely be favored by fate, then I believe that the fourth brother is already rich, but the fact is that no matter how hard the fourth brother works, he cannot escape the fate of being homeless and impoverished. But no matter how mean God is, there will always be occasional moments when Fuyuan opened his eyes. When Fuyuan was out at sea the day before yesterday, he met a fat-headed monster who was alone!
Fat head monster is a common name for it by fishermen in Guangdong/Guangxi/Hainan. Its scientific name is the famous sperm whale. If you describe it as a creature, a tadpole that has been magnified tens of millions of times can barely match the size. The huge head of a sperm whale can almost account for a quarter to a third of its body length. The entire head is like a big box. . Its nose is also very strange, only the left nostril is unblocked, and it is located at the upper left front, and the right nostril is blocked, so the mist column it breathes is sprayed to the left front at an angle of 45°. For experienced fishermen, the whales can be spotted from a distance in the water column ejected from them. After decades of hunting, the number of sperm whales has been reduced to only a few hundred in the world. In the past five years, there have been only three reports of fat-headed monsters being hunted in the entire South China Sea. Its rarity can be imagined Know.
At that time, it was discovered that the fat head who was alone was blamed on Ah Fa, the black and thin man who was on the same level as the eldest brother. The rest of the youngsters have to call the eldest brother "fourth uncle". To be honest, according to the configuration of Fuyuan's old fishing boat, it is impossible to attack this behemoth. Fortunately, the third son, an orphan adopted by the fourth uncle, was ingenious. A few days ago, he spotted a spear gun that was dismantled by others in the abandoned yard of the dock. use. However, its original intention was to shoot the sharks that infested the South China Sea to cut a few fish maws. How could it be expected that it would meet the almost extinct fat-headed monster
Then there is a persevering chase.
Fuyuan was determined to seize the opportunity that was rewarded by heaven, and ignored the typhoon warning and bit the ten-meter-long sperm whale firmly in the wind and waves! However, no one on board this boat had any experience in whaling except for the fourth uncle, and the fixed-line speargun installed on the boat was in a semi-abandoned state. Being able to hit it, on the contrary, it made this huge monster vigilant, and it seemed that it was about to dive into the bottom of the sea.
At this moment, Fang Sheyan, another orphan adopted by the senior uncle, snatched up one step. His body bumped up and down like fallen leaves in the swaying waves, but his hands were as firm as if welded to a spear gun. Ten seconds, and then a shot was fired when everyone was almost desperate!
This shot pierced through the vitals of the sperm whale!
Under the pain of the dying monster, it dragged Fuyuan to swim for a full thirty nautical miles, and the sea water along the way was reddened by it. But in the end, he became a trophy of human beings helplessly. The old Fuyuan, who returned with a full load, also miraculously succeeded in returning to Yotsubashi Port before the typhoon made landfall. For sperm whales, although their meat/oil/bones are expensive, the most valuable thing is the "balm" in their intestines. This thing is commonly known by local fishermen, and after drying it becomes the famous "ambergris."
The main food of the sperm whale is squid/octopus. After it eats it, it cannot digest its sharp mouth shell and inner round bone. At this time, the end of the large intestine or the beginning of the rectum of the sperm whale is stimulated to cause lesions, resulting in a gray or slightly black secretion, which gradually forms a viscous dark substance in the small intestine, which is stored in the colon and rectum Inside, the smell is unpleasant when it is just taken out, and it will gradually become fragrant after being stored for a period of time. This is the so-called ambergris.
Ambergris contains 25% ambergris, which is the raw material of precious spices and the best substance to keep the fragrance of the perfume. It is used as a perfume fixative. It is also a valuable traditional Chinese medicine. The sperm whale that the fourth uncle hunted was only more than ten meters long, and it was considered to be of the middle-to-lower size among its kind. If so, the ambergris he harvested could also be sold for a huge sum of money!
The people on this boat gathered together, talking and laughing, and it was already late at night. They had been fishing at sea for half a month, not to mention rushing into Siqiaogang before the typhoon came, and it was a lot of hard work. When the excitement of hunting a big guy passed, fatigue immediately hit. It was raining heavily outside, and the typhoon would not stop until tomorrow afternoon at least. The fourth uncle logically left people in his hut to live on the floor. These boat people were used to being on the boat and didn't think much of it. On the contrary, Sanzai and Senyan have already separated, and they each built a shack next to Mazu Temple Street in the north of Siqiao Town, which can be regarded as having their own private space. It doesn't take much time to walk from one part of the town to the other with tarpaulin.
The two of them pushed open the old door with several wooden planks nailed in all directions, and a gust of cold wind drove in a large amount of rainwater, which immediately made people shiver. Even the boat people who were already lying down around the fire grunted a few times in dissatisfaction. Fang Sheyan and Sanzai put their heads on the tarpaulin and put their heads on the top of the door, but the fourth uncle came up and put an umbrella in. The two of them used the dim light in the crack of the door to distinguish the direction, and then they stepped forward. He walked back on his way home.
Fourth Bridge is a small town, which is not marked on the map at all.
Its specific location is a small bay in the south of the border city of Fangchenggang, Guangxi. Even when the weather is clear, you can see the land of Vietnam to the west with the naked eye. In terms of administrative location division, it also happens to belong to the zone of "three no matter". Therefore, a deformed port integrating smuggling, trade, and smuggling has been formed invisibly. Most of the people in it are engaged in gray industries that wander on the edge of the law.
The reason why the honest senior uncle chooses to stay here is because the old ship Fuyuan was also stolen, and the senior uncle can't afford the heavy taxes at all. A long fee bill, which involves a variety of departments, including finance, taxation, industry and commerce, public security and border defense, health, township governments, fishery committees or village committees, fishing boat management companies, etc., and here only a sum of protection Just hand over the fee to the local "big boss" Hua Shanfei on time.
Precisely because they don’t know when they will be “mopped up” by the higher authorities, most of the buildings on the Fourth Bridge are temporarily built with relatively cheap plywood, tires, fiberglass tiles, etc. architecture. Fang Senyan is nearly 19 years old this year, a few months older than Sanzai, but since he was 14 years old, his senior uncle has entrusted his acquaintances to work on the ship. Because he is calm and down-to-earth, he is well received by his employers and has been appointed many times. With trust, I have been in various ports in the world at a young age, and I am second to none in terms of knowledge and personality.