Chapter 268 Going out to sea at night

Chapter 268 Going out to sea at night

Chapter 268 Going out to sea at night
Li Changle brought a group of children home, and Li Xiaoyang and his brother obediently took a bath under Li Dasao's lion roar.

When Li Changle came back from bathing in the ditch, she saw Zhou Ruonan had already packed her things for her mother's home. There were six sea ducks and a bamboo basket of duck eggs in the snakeskin bag.

Thinking about the flock of ducks on Chuiyuan Island that had been discovered by Lai Mao and his gang, they felt that the flock of sea ducks would be lost sooner or later, so they decided to move them to another island after the holiday.

In the backpack there are also their unique mint koji cake and brown sugar koji cake, as well as five-nut mooncakes made by that time-honored mooncake shop.

In her later life, Li Changle tried mooncakes with egg yolk, ham, ice skin... and many other fillings. She still felt that mooncakes with five nuts were the most delicious. No wonder her mother-in-law and Anan liked them.

He put the dried seahorses in brown paper, thinking that next time he would not sell the sea cucumbers he caught, but keep them for drying and send some to his mother-in-law.

"Ah Le, it's already past nine o'clock. You have to go to the dock at twelve o'clock. Why aren't you asleep yet?"

"It's okay, you'll fall asleep as soon as you lie down on the bed." Li Changle took the towel and wiped his eldest son's hair. "Anan, if we're not back tomorrow morning, ask Dad and Xiao to take you to the station."

"I know. I'm going to bring 200 kilograms of fat-eyed herring heads." Zhou Ruonan walked towards the bed while holding her little son who was sleeping even while taking a bath.

Li Xiaohai looked up at him and said, "Dad, aren't you going to grandma's house tomorrow?"

"It's the fifteenth day of the great tide. Dad has to stay home to earn money, so he won't go to Lucheng with you. Mom will take care of you all by herself, and she has to bring a lot of things. You have to take good care of your brother and don't be naughty, understand?"

"Yeah!" Li Xiaohai looked like he was about to praise me, "Dad, have you checked my homework?"

"I've seen it!" Li Changle said without hesitation, "Our future Doctor Li will definitely be the best! He will get A's in every subject."

He really forgot to watch it. Anyway, the little guy had never made him worry about his homework in his previous life. Unlike Li Xiaoyang and the others, they had to eat stir-fried pork with bamboo shoots every time they had a final exam.

"I thought you had never read my homework!" Li Xiaohai's eyes curved into beans, "We are electing class leaders, and the teacher asked me to be the study committee member."

"No matter how busy Dad is, he will check on our eldest son's homework." Li Changle patted him with a guilty conscience, "Okay, go to bed early, you have to get up early to catch the bus tomorrow."

"Oh!" The little guy lifted the mosquito net and crawled in quickly.

Zhou Ruonan put the clothes he was going to wear after getting up on the bedside table, "Ah Le, I'll show those beads to Boss Li first. You should tell him the price when you get there."

"That's fine!" Li Changle lay sideways on the bed and looked at her, "I'll pick you up the day after tomorrow afternoon."

"Yeah!" Zhou Ruonan tucked in the mosquito net and got on the bed. "I put the mooncakes in the cupboard. They are all five-nut ones."

Li Changle remembered that she felt uncomfortable every time she had her period. "Does your stomach still hurt? How about going to Lucheng this time and getting some Chinese medicine from the city hospital?"

"This month is much better." Zhou Ruonan smiled and turned off the light, "I have to get up in two hours."

Li Changle had been busy since he opened his eyes until now and was really tired. After turning off the lights, he fell asleep after a while.

In a daze, he heard Zhou Ruonan calling him, "Ah Le, it's half past eleven. Big brother and the others have packed up and are ready to go."

"Oh!" Li Changle turned over and sat up, put on his clothes, took his headlamp and shotgun, said hello to Zhou Ruonan and went out.

When the three brothers arrived at the dock, they saw two boats going out to sea one after another. When they got to the fishing boat, they saw Chen Yongwei carrying an oil barrel and refueling, and then he pushed a tricycle with Brother Li to go to Chen's to buy ice cubes.

When Lao Chen saw them coming, he quickly asked Ah San to pack the ice for the two men and said with a smile, "Brothers, you are so hardworking, it's hard not to make money."

Brother Li smiled and said, "Uncle Chen, we don't have any money to begin with. If we don't work hard, we will be poor."

Old Chen diligently helped them cover the wooden box and said, "If you get any good stuff today, share some with us. The price is negotiable."

A Dong sent the good goods he collected yesterday directly to several bosses to sell. Although he didn’t make much money, he persuaded two more bosses to place orders with him.

Li Changle nodded in agreement. The good stuff he sold to their family yesterday was sold for a few dollars less than at the restaurant, which was better than they expected.

Considering that this operation would take a long time, the two brothers bought several boxes of ice, brought them on board, and poured them into the cargo hold covered with cotton wool.

After sending several boxes of ice back and dumping them into the cargo hold, the two brothers carried the wooden boxes back to the fishing boat. Big Brother Li said to him, "Aan, Ale and his friends never drove a fishing boat at night. You go drive their boat."

"Brother, don't worry. If I fly this route every day, I can reach Chuiyuan Island even with my eyes closed."

"It's completely different at night than during the day. There's only one light on the bow, so if you deviate from the route or hit a reef, you won't know."

Brother Li took over the wooden box carried by Brother Li and said, "Stop talking nonsense and get going quickly."

Seeing the worried elder brother, Li Changle had no choice but to agree, "Okay, second brother will take us once, and we will be able to do it in the future."

After the boat left the dock, Brother Li increased the horsepower and the fishing boat shot out like an arrow.

Li Changle looked at the time, it was exactly twelve o'clock, and the sea in the distance was pitch black. He yawned as he listened to Brother Li explaining to them what they needed to pay attention to when sailing at night. Chen Yongwei listened seriously, "Brother, those boats don't turn on their navigation lights at night, aren't they afraid of being hit by other fishing boats?"

In the old days, the lights on fishing boats were called rudder lights or ship lights. Rudder lights refer to lights installed above the rudder. They are used to illuminate the steering wheel and helmsman and guide the direction of the ship when sailing at night.

Ship lights refer to the lighting lamps installed in various places on the ship to illuminate the cabin and the waters around the hull to ensure safe navigation.

These lights were usually lit with fish oil lamps or candles. Now the lighting on ships has gradually been replaced by electric lights, but the rudder lights are still retained.

After the fishing boat sailed out of the Yantoushan waters, Li Changle discovered that there were still a few fishing boats operating sporadically near the coast. However, when he arrived at the Zhushan waters, it was difficult to see the lights of the fishing boats.

He looked into the pitch-black distance and saw Zhushan Island in front of him standing there like a monster.

It is said that a cargo ship was chased by an anti-smuggling ship and ran aground and sank when it arrived in this sea area. Logically, the boatmen here all know that when a ship sails to this sea area, as long as they point the bow towards Zhushan Island, they will be able to perfectly avoid the reefs.

How could the ship have hit a reef and sunk? Could it be that the person at the helm was a novice?

Was it the night of the 14th, the 15th, or the 16th that the cargo ship sank?
Li Changle shook his head and watched the fishing boat pass by Zhushan Island. He looked back and saw the endless sea without even a rudder light.

When their boat arrived at Chuiyuan Island, the wind was a little stronger than at the dock, but the waves were much bigger than at the dock, and the fishing boat rose and fell with the waves.

At this time, Brother Li also drove his fishing boat over and parked it side by side with the Rising Sun. He shouted at the top of his voice: "A Le, you even forgot to collect the cans yesterday."

He even forgot to collect the jars that were thrown into the sea. He had also learned a lot from A Le, and it was true that he would become like the kind of people he followed.

"Oh!" Li Changle slapped his head, "I completely forgot about this."

"I forgot too." Brother Li and Chen Yongwei responded honestly.

"Remember to collect it when it's daybreak." Brother Li dropped anchor and jumped onto the Rising Sun. "A new boat should have come just now."

"It's better to have two boats. Even if we are spotted by fishing boats with ulterior motives, they will think twice before approaching."

Li Changle said as he took out a battery lamp from the tool box. He then discovered that the batteries of several lamps were covered with net bags. "Hey, who is so diligent?"

"My sister-in-law was worried that it might get broken, so she asked my mother and Fang to weave a few net bags with fishing line." Brother Li picked up a lamp and went to the side of the boat.

"My sisters-in-law are really attentive." Li Changle picked up the battery lamp, tied the rope on the net bag to the masts on both sides of the boat, adjusted the lamp head, and the sea near the fishing boat instantly became bright.

Brother Li and Chen Yongwei took out the modified large scoop net, rubber bucket, plastic bucket, and fishing net, and started catching the fish as soon as they were caught.

What gave them a headache was that within a few moments, countless mosquitoes and moths were attracted by the bright light and flew around the induction lamp and the headlamps worn by the people.

"Pa~" Chen Yongwei slapped his arm, "Fuck, I should have worn long sleeves."

"It's so annoying. It's buzzing right in front of me." Li Changle simply turned off the headlamp. "I should have brought some mugwort or mosquito coils."

Brother Li rolled his eyes at him and said, "It's boundless. What's the point of lighting wormwood and mosquito coils?"

Li Changle felt that Brother Li was much cuter now and talked more than before, and she learned a lot of new terms from him.

Chen Yongwei looked at the sea surface illuminated by the light and asked, "Brother, besides the fat eyed herring, what other fish will follow the light?"

Li Changle thought for a moment, "Squid, saury, yellowtail, greentail, sardine, hairtail...many fish are phototactic."

He remembered seeing in a short video before that the reason why fishes such as bluefin mullet, trevally and hairtail are phototactic is because their prey are small creatures that are phototactic to weak light such as moonlight and lamplight.

"Fat-eyed herring and sardines are small and cheap. I'd rather come for bluefin bream than these two."

"If we like, I would also like to catch squid, hairtail, and saury!" Li Changle looked at the time. It was almost two o'clock. Why was there no movement from the direction of Zhushan Island?

The tide was rising higher and higher, and the fishing boat began to sway slightly on the sea as the tide rose.

"Here they come, here they come! Hahaha, there are so many of them, it's like they came here on purpose." Second Brother Li suddenly grabbed Li Changle and shouted excitedly, pointing at the sea under the lights.

From time to time, fish jumped up from the sea surface illuminated by the lights, including yellow mullet, sardines, and yellow, dark red and transparent squids, which swam towards this side happily with their slender tentacles stretched out. There were also green mullets and other miscellaneous fish mixed in the squid school.

Li Changle pointed at the sea and shouted excitedly, "Brother, look, there are so many squids."

Brother Li nodded, "I've seen so many of them at the fishing grounds."

(End of this chapter)