Chapter 264 I’m Afraid of Being Poor
Chapter 264 I’m Afraid of Being Poor
Just as Chen Yongwei pulled the net bag up, he saw Li Changle's head suddenly popping out of the water about 20 to 30 meters away from the fishing boat.
Then, he was seen swimming towards us quickly, as if something was chasing him from behind.
He hurried to the bow and held out his hand to him, "Brother, what's wrong? Is there a shark on the seafloor?"
Li Changle ignored him, reached out and grabbed him, climbed onto the deck, took off the breathing tube, and lay motionless on the deck, thinking: Thank you Lord Hailong for your blessing! I finally escaped!
Chen Yongwei saw this and hurriedly helped him take off his flippers. Seeing that his legs were not injured, he looked up and found no signs of injury. He took off his goggles and looked at him worriedly, "Brother, are you okay?"
"It's okay, I'm just too tired." Li Changle felt as if his throat was dry and cracked, and said weakly, "Give me some water."
"Oh oh!" Chen Yongwei hurriedly took the kettle and poured him a bowl of water. He watched him gulp it down and said, "Brother, take off your clothes quickly. They are so tight and uncomfortable."
Li Changle drank a few sips of water and breathed a sigh of relief. He took off his diving suit and changed into his own clothes. Then he told Chen Yongwei about encountering the poisonous jellyfish.
Chen Yongwei was also terrified when he thought about it. He realized that the money on the seabed was much more dangerous than the money on the boat. "Fortunately, you ran fast, otherwise..."
"Yesterday I said I was going to the Lord's Temple to worship, but I didn't go. Today I encountered a poisonous jellyfish. I have to worship properly on the 15th."
"Yes, I said it yesterday, but I forgot it when I was busy. Go back and tell my grandma. She won't forget it."
When Chen Yongwei saw that he was fine, he pulled up the nets tied to the mast. He then saw that several of the nets were full of sea cucumbers. "Brother, how did you find so many sea cucumbers?"
"It's picked out from the seaweed. This creature likes to eat that."
Chen Yongwei looked at him with admiration, "It took me so long to hide in the seaweed. No wonder I couldn't find it after I caught a few."
"You have to be careful when you search. There are as many poisonous things on the seabed as on land. There are also many things that we have never even seen."
"There are still a few poisonous creatures on land that we don't even recognize!"
Li Changle stood up and put the diving equipment into the wooden box, then walked to the bow and looked in the direction where Brother Li and his team were collecting the trap nets. He saw that they were already setting the trap nets.
"Awei, start the fishing boat, we're going to reel in the longline."
After Brother Li and Brother Li II had put out the trap nets, they saw that they had already reached the waters for longline fishing, so they turned around and headed there.
With two boats working together, it took more than two hours to collect all five sets of longlines.
Today's longline fishing was better than trawling and ground traps. Their three groups caught more than 300 kilograms of fish, and Brother Li's two groups also caught more than 100 kilograms.
As soon as the two fishing boats approached, Chen Yongwei rushed to tell them that Li Changle was almost stung by a poisonous jellyfish.
"My grandfather once said that it's hard to make money in the sea. One foot is at the gate of hell and the other is in the world of the living. I must be very careful when I go into the water next time."
"I was very careful, but I didn't expect to find that thing until I floated up."
"I'm glad you're alright. Let's go back and pay our respects to the master's palace."
We left home late today and our diving was delayed for a while. When the boat arrived at the waters of Zhushan Island, we found that there were still many fishing boats operating.
When they arrived at the pier, there were only a few boats docked, and Li Changshui also steered the fishing boat towards the shore.
"A Shui is back so early too?"
"I don't dare to stay out too late alone." Li Changshui turned his head and smiled, "Brother, how was your catch today?"
"Not bad. What about you?"
"We caught dozens of kilograms of cuttlefish and some mullet. We set out a row of longlines and collected 60 to 70 kilograms of fish. They were all quite big."
"Keep the cuttlefish and send it to me."
"Okay!" Li Changshui responded readily and jumped towards the shore holding the rope.
Li Changle and Chen Yongwei moved the remaining catch to the shore, went back to pick out the sea urchins and put them in the bucket, and also scooped up a few smaller nine-segment shrimps and put them in the bucket, and caught a dozen abalones.
I turned around and saw those seahorses again. The ones on the seabed were much bigger than last time. It felt a pity to sell them at the gas station, so I took them back to dry and keep for later eating.
When Brother Li came onto the boat carrying the catch for the restaurant, he saw him putting the seahorse into the bucket. Then he looked further and saw shrimps, sea urchins, and several large abalone in the bucket.
The flesh on my cheeks twitched with heartache. I was about to say something to him, but then I remembered that he was almost stung by a jellyfish while trying to get these things, so I swallowed back the words.
Li Changle turned around and saw his eldest brother looking constipated. He said with a playful smile, "Brother, no matter how much money you make, it's not as good as having a good body."
The corners of Brother Li's mouth twitched twice, and he glared at him unhappily, "Grandpa Jiu ate coarse food every day, but he still lived to be over ninety."
"Then why don't you think about what Jiugong ate when he was young? The steamed eggs that others eat are all steamed with sea cucumber powder, and abalone, sea cucumber and tripe are even more common."
"He is the young master of the shipowner's family. Most of the people in the village are his boatmen. Naturally, he can eat whatever he wants."
Brother Li thought what he said made sense, but he was too poor to be afraid of it. When he saw something good, the first thing he thought of was to sell it for money, instead of keeping some for himself. "That was because he took good care of his body when he was young, so he lived to be over 90." Li Changle patted him on the shoulder, "Brother, health is the capital of revolution."
Brother Li glared at him in reproach, "I can't argue with you!"
Li Changle laughed, "Brother, I promised Ah Dong last night that I would get him some good stuff. What do you think we should do with these good stuff?"
"I often trouble others, so I send some to them as a favor."
Li Changle thought for a while, then grabbed five or six nine-segment shrimps, several pounds of four- and five-headed abalone, and eight sea cucumbers as big as his palms from the bucket and put them in the bucket.
Brother Li hurriedly scooped up half a bucket of sea water and poured it into the bucket, fearing that the shrimps would die and become worthless.
"Brother, when you deliver it, tell him that I'm delivering the goods to Uncle Kun." Li Changle said as he caught some more mantis shrimps and put them on the bucket to cover the large goods in the bucket.
"He'll know even without you telling him." Brother Li struggled to carry the bucket ashore and walked towards Chen's.
When he got there, Li Changshui and two villagers were still queuing up to sell goods. When they saw him coming, they pointed to the bamboo basket behind them and said, "Brother, put the goods here. I'm going to collect them."
Brother Li nodded and put the bucket at his feet.
The person in the queue in front of him turned his head and took a look. "A Ping, what big goods did you get to sell to the restaurant today?"
Brother Li smiled naively, "It's not anything big, just some fresh and live goods."
"People who go to restaurants are all rich people, and they always pay attention to the freshness of any seafood they eat."
"If you're poor and showing off, starve him for three days, he'll still be able to eat two bowls of dead fish and rotten shrimp."
Brother Li ignored those who were saying sour words. He waited until they left before he walked forward with a bucket, picked out the mantis shrimps and put them into the bamboo basket, revealing the big stuff underneath.
Li Changshui's eyes widened, "Brother, where did you get it? Did you go to the sea?"
These big guys are usually on the seabed. When a typhoon hits, they are sometimes washed up on the beach and people will pick some up.
You will never encounter this kind of stuff on the islands or reefs unless you go out to sea.
"Wow, these nine-segmented shrimps are up to my wrists. Oh my god, there are also large sea cucumbers. Oh my god, there are also large abalones." Chen Dong was amazed and shouted to Ah San, "What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and fetch a bucket."
Brother Li said with a smile: "I will not care about the goods anymore after I hand them over to you. Even if they die, I will charge you the price of fresh goods!"
"Thanks to what I said to Brother Ale last night, otherwise I wouldn't have any of the good stuff!" Chen Dong looked at the large goods in the barrel happily, but then he thought to himself what a pity it was when he thought most of them must have been sold to restaurants!
"I just happened to meet you, and I thought of what I promised you, so I split it into two and sent it to you." Brother Li said, "We delivered the goods in good faith, so please don't let us down too much in terms of the price!"
"Don't worry, don't worry!" Chen Dong put the nine-segment shrimps into a net bag and weighed them. After removing the skin, six nine-segment shrimps weighed 5 jin, and they were all about the same size. "Brother, for nine-segment shrimps that are more than 2 liang each, I'll charge you two yuan per jin."
"Okay!" Brother Li responded readily, but what he was thinking in his heart was that he would go back and compare the price with that of Ale. If the price he gave was too unprofitable, he would never send good goods to his house next time.
It’s not like he has a grudge against money. He worked so hard that Ah Le almost got stung by a poisonous jellyfish.
Chen Dong picked up a large sea cucumber that was about the size of a sweet potato. "Kill it, this one is bigger than my palm, at least two kilograms."
Li Changshui also picked up a large sea cucumber and said, "Brother, how many years does it take to grow this big?"
"I don't know about that either." Brother Li looked at Chen Dong, "You sell this thing, have you ever heard of it?"
Chen Dong nodded, "I asked someone who works in the aquatic industry before, and he said that sea cucumbers are like humans, some are born small, some are born big, and they mature after 4 or 5 years.
Mature sea cucumbers will also grow, but very slowly. Those over 10 years old will generally dissolve on their own and return to where they came from.”
"It's better to pick them up and sell them for money." Brother Li smiled and picked up all the sea cucumbers and put them into the net bag. There were eight sea cucumbers weighing 13 jin, almost two jin each.
"Brother, sea cucumbers are ten yuan per pound."
Chen Dong thought that such good stuff was hard to come by once a year, so he added one dollar and fifty cents to the purchase price he gave to others. Although it was not as high as the price in the restaurant, it was not much cheaper either.
Seeing that the amount was about the same as he estimated, Brother Li nodded and said, "You can do whatever you want." Then he took out another abalone and asked, "How much is this per pound?"
Chen Dong sorted out the abalones with three heads and four heads. The abalones with four heads weighed 3 jins, and the abalones with three heads weighed 9 jins. "Four-head abalones are 4 yuan per jin, and three-head abalones are 4 yuan."
Nine-segment shrimps are 10 yuan, sea cucumbers are 4 yuan, abalone is 136 yuan, and other fish, the total cost is 21 yuan.
Brother Li took the money and thought of the seahorse that Li Changle picked up. "Adong, how much is a seahorse?"
"The big ones are 2.50 yuan each, and the small ones are 1.50 yuan each." Chen Dong looked at Brother Li happily, "Do you have seahorses?"
Brother Li hesitated for a moment and said, "No, I'll just ask."
(End of this chapter)