Chapter 310: Meet the Ocean Street Drifter Again

The four of them sorted the fish on the deck. Li Changle went back to the cab to take a look. Seeing nothing unusual, he returned to the deck, turned on the battery light again, and waited for the fish to swim towards them.

The sea breeze was blowing, and the deck was much more comfortable than inside the cabin.

Wang Xincheng looked at the battery lamp that was swaying in the wind and said, "Uncle, the wind seems to be much stronger than during the day. Is it going to blow?"

"A cool breeze is good. This kind of wind and waves is the most stable. If the sea is calm without even a single wind or wave, there's no guarantee that God and the Sea Dragon will use their ultimate power one day!"

"It's been sunny for more than half a month, and the windy days are coming soon. I may have to rest at home every few days in the future!" Li Changle said, picking up the landing net, "The fish are coming!"

"Work, work!" Brother Li and Wang Xincheng also picked up the nets and started working.

The four of them did not rest this time and worked for more than two hours in one go.

At around eleven o'clock, Father Li and Brother Li got up and saw that they had already caught more than ten baskets of hairtail, five or six baskets of squid, more than ten baskets of bluefin mullet, sardines and fat-eye herring, and there were still many on the deck.

Father Li looked at the fish in surprise and asked, "Why are there so many?"

Li Changle pointed at the bamboo baskets with a proud look on his face, "The fish are biting well today, especially the hairtail."

"You are smart enough to come up with such a simple idea." Father Li happily put on gloves and began to sort the fish. "You guys go to bed quickly. Sleep for two hours and then get up to set the net."

"Okay!" After a simple wash, Li Changle and the other three returned to the cabin and fell asleep.

Brother Li and Father Li stayed behind to sort the fish on the deck. "Oh, we even caught two cuttlefish."

"Aping, how much can you sell cuttlefish for per kilogram these days?" Father Li also grabbed a plump cuttlefish and put it into the bamboo basket happily.

"Those above two catties cost four cents a catty, and those below two or three cents. We keep all of them for drying in the sun."

"When the cuttlefish season arrives in winter, the price will drop further. You can buy more than two kilograms of cuttlefish for two or three yuan. Then we can collect more dried fish heads for drying."

"Prepare more by then. The restaurant will deliver four times a month, and the squid jerky we have at home is only enough to send to the restaurant and school."

Father Li pointed to an island in the distance and said, "When the cuttlefish spawning season arrives, I see there are a lot of aquatic plants growing beside that island. Then we can go to the island and cut some branches and weave them into bamboo rafts to trap the cuttlefish."

Cuttlefish like to prey on hair shrimps and eagle claw shrimps. In early December every year, they migrate from the offshore bay to the deep sea for overwintering. In April of the following year, they leave the overwintering waters and enter the spawning and migration period from south to north.

When the southeast wind begins to prevail on the sea, it is the spawning season for cuttlefish. Their eggs are laid on reefs in the water or in places where there are floating plants.

Schools of cuttlefish move towards islands or reefs in search of spawning places. In addition, cuttlefish have poor swimming ability and seem to be swimming towards the mountainside with the current. This is the best time to catch cuttlefish.

Fishermen have even made a fishing proverb out of this phenomenon: "Southeast winds blow for days after the beginning of summer, and cuttlefish rush into the mountains."

Brother Li was delighted when he thought of the upcoming fishing season. "If I work hard for two more fishing seasons at the end of the year, I might be able to earn back the money I spent on the boat!"

Father Li smiled and nodded. "Last year, how many hairtail did you and the fishing boats from the south bank catch in Zhoushan Fishery in one day?"

"I pull two nets during the day and two nets at night. On the most days, we can catch tens of thousands of kilograms of hairtail. When the fishing nets are pulled up, even the meshes are full of hairtail. One net can hold two to three hundred dan."

"Big boats still catch more fish. When we went there to work before, we saw densely packed fishing boats on the ocean surface, with the nets so crowded that the fish underwater couldn't breathe."

"I remember one year when you went to the fishing grounds with the fishing team, the returning fishing boat said that you had encountered the bandits from the village. Grandma and mother were so worried that they couldn't sleep all night and waited at the dock every day."

"We went to help the boats that were robbed. Those guys on the south bank didn't help us when we encountered them."

"In recent years, the bandits in the village have become even more serious. Some of them are engaged in smuggling, and some of them drift on the sea in groups of three or two, dragging nets and attacking lone fishing boats."

"Master Hailong is watching! These useless people will get their comeuppance sooner or later."

Father Li said, thinking of Chen Amao whom he met during the day, "I think Boss Chen is a generous man. If you want to go on ocean operations in the future, you can ask him to go with you."

"He seems to be quite generous. We have only met a few times, but we are not very familiar with each other."

"The big ship will be back next year, so don't sell this one. You brothers can hire a dozen boatmen. Then we can have two big ships go out to sea together, and we will feel more at ease at home."

"Don't worry. Ah Le is lucky. He is willing to spend money. We also bought a rifle this time. Even if we encounter..."

"Puh, puh, puh!" Father Li spat a few times in a hurry, "Master Hailong, a child's words cannot be trusted."

"Dad!" Brother Li looked at him with amusement, "I'm already in my thirties..."

"What's wrong with being over thirty?" Father Li gave him a sidelong glance. "You're still my son even if you're a hundred years old."

"Yes, yes!" Brother Li smiled and picked up the bamboo basket. "I'm going to go down and stack the goods. The waves are a bit big. Be careful when you walk."

"What's a small wave to a big ship? When a small ship encounters big waves, the ship is just like a leaf on the sea." Brother Li looked at his old father who was getting more and more energetic and grinned, "I know you are an old fisherman, you are not afraid of a small wave!"

Father Li was very happy when he saw his honest eldest son. "Hurry up and work. After you finish, go back to the cab and take a nap. Then you will have to get up and drag the net."

"okay!"

The father and son took the bamboo baskets to the cabin for refrigeration, fetched water to clean the deck, and went to the cab to sit and rest.

At three o'clock in the morning, Father Li woke up the few people who were still sleeping, "Wake up! Get ready to go online!"

Li Changle and a few others were awakened from their sleep, and hurriedly got out of bed, put on their shoes and ran outside. Father Li had already checked the knot at the bottom of the net bag, and seeing that everything was done, he asked Brother Li in the cab to start the machine.

Li Changle pushed the net bag into the sea. Brother Li and his companions occasionally shook out the tangled trawl nets and watched the current carry the fishing nets into the water, drifting farther and farther away.

When the trawling line is completely straightened and the buoy falls into the sea, the trawling net is done. Brother Li drives the fishing boat forward at a constant speed, and Li Changle and others go back to sleep.

Brother Li was driving the fishing boat and trawling around several islands and reefs as agreed last night.

He drove the boat around several islands and reefs for two hours, and thinking about how several people had worked so late last night, he drove for another half an hour.

When the boat reached an open ocean, Brother Li slowed down and shouted into the loudspeaker: "Raise the net!"

"Raise the net!" Li Changle and his companions responded loudly. After two sleeps of nearly six hours, they woke up feeling refreshed.

At this time, the sky was already bright and the sun had jumped out of the sea. Wang Xincheng suddenly exclaimed, "Look, what is that?"

Li Changle and the others raised their heads and looked in the direction he pointed, only to see two manta rays, with bodies as big as flying carpets flapping their wings, somersaulting several times in the air and falling rapidly into the sea.

"Fuck! These two blanket stingrays are probably five or six meters wide!"

Before Brother Li finished speaking, Li Changle saw several big round heads on the sea, as if they were waiting for them to land.

"This big guy is in trouble today! There are a few street urchins waiting for him down there!"

The carpet ray that fell to the sea was hit by the killer whale's beautiful dragon tail swing. It immediately somersaulted several times like a kite with a broken string and fell towards the sea.

Before it landed on the sea, another big tail lashed towards it. The carpet ray flew up again, turned 360 degrees, fell down again, and then was whipped up again.

Every time the blanket ray falls, it will be picked up by a killer whale and whipped, and then it will spin and fly again...

In his previous life, Li Changle had only seen street urchins playing with manta rays in short videos, but he never expected to witness with his own eyes a street urchin using its tail to fly a large kite.

The people standing on the deck, as well as Brother Li in the cab, all stared in unison, their mouths opened wide enough to fit an egg, and they were so focused that they even forgot to raise the net.

Wang Xincheng blinked as he watched the two carpet stingrays fly up again. "Uncle A-Le, they are not competing to see whose tail is stronger? Who can whip the carpet stingray up to fly higher?"

"It's entirely possible! These guys are at the age of having their second-year syndrome, so it's not surprising that they would do something even more bizarre than this!"

"You are so good that you know everything about the earth and half of the things in heaven!" Father Li was the first to react. He clapped his hands and said, "Okay, we have seen enough of the strange things, let's get the net up!"

"Brother!" Chen Yongwei reacted immediately and grabbed Li Changle excitedly, "It's Brother Huzi! Hurry up and pull up the net and let them eat the fish."

Brother Li laughed and said, "There are so many groups of killer whales, but they are the only ones who recognize us, and we can't tell whether they are the group we know."

Li Changle also hoped that it was the group of killer whales that knew them. "Pull up the net first, and when they have had enough fun, call them out."

Father Li glanced at him and said, "Don't look for trouble. See? There are several sea beasts here. What if one of them is not one you know and thinks our boat is interesting and whips it with its tail? That would be fun."

Li Changle was also afraid that they would get too excited and do another dragon-like swing of the tail, pulling a manta ray onto their boat. If they couldn't avoid the wide fish in time, the probability of an accident would be very high.

What if the aim is not good and it hits the cab... Never mind, it's too troublesome to think about it. "Work, work, wait for them to come to us."

"Brother, you must be afraid that they will fly fish at us."

"You kid!" Li Changle slapped him, "Go to work!"

"Okay!" Chen Yongwei happily started the winch and began to pull up the net.

The machine started up, and Li Changle and others took their positions. After a busy period, the net bag was lifted above the deck by the crane, and Li's father stepped forward to untie the knot of the net bag.

"Come on, come on, there are so many red snappers..." Father Li's surprised voice sounded again and again.

"What the hell! So many red snappers?"

(End of this chapter)

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