Back to the small fishing village in 1982

Chapter 1102 Exposed

When Ye Yaodong went out to sea early the next morning, he found that there were a lot more ships at the dock that morning, especially trawlers, which were much more than in the previous few days, and there were also many people on the dock.

He was puzzled, but he just thought that no one went trawling tonight, so it seemed that there were more boats.

While they were moving the longline fishing gear onto the boat, Chen Jianian's group of people also set off in their boats one after another. After Chen Jianian brought them to the destination and helped them recognize the way, he probably didn't need to worry about anything else.

A group of people from their village also set out one after another. Everyone had the same destination. They were all looking forward to seeing more jellyfish and were afraid of missing out.

After such a large group of people got on the boat and left, most of the people on the shore were gone, and it was no longer as lively as before.

After Chen Jianian and his gang arrived, there were too many fishing boats. Ye Yaodong only recognized the fishing boats and people from his village. He didn't recognize many of the people from his side.

Moreover, fishing boats were sailing on the sea one after another, and no one could tell whether there were any additional fishing boats.

They couldn't spot an unfamiliar boat following them immediately like they did last year, because they couldn't tell which fishing boat it belonged to.

So, even though Ye Yaodong felt that there were an unusually large number of boats today, there was nothing he could do but let it go and let the boats behind catch up.

He probably also thought that there should be quite a few local ships heading in the same direction.

In the past two days, they have landed thousands of kilograms of hairtail, and they are all caught by fishing lines. They are sold for thousands of dollars each. The news has spread like wildfire, and the locals must be jealous. They will definitely want to go and see where the fish is caught, hoping to get a piece of the pie.

He thought that the secret base would probably be exposed today.

I was originally optimistic and thought that after they had been fishing for a few days, the locals would see how much they had and then react and track them down. But now it seems that it will be too late.

Plans can't keep up with changes.

They knew that there should be some local fishing boats mixed in with their team behind them, but they couldn't do anything about it.

It's impossible not to go. Even if he can not go, how can others not go?

Along the way, there were quite a few fishing boats in front and behind, all of which were trawlers. Only behind him there were still two small boats. It was not certain how many there were, and the other fishing boats did not bring any small boats, so the small wooden boats brought by their people were still docked at the dock as usual.

Ye Yaodong drove the boat following the track of the fishing boat in front and went straight to the trench. When he arrived, there were already many fishing boats docked on the sea around the trench.

It seemed that more than a dozen had arrived before him. Everyone was busy salvaging the jellyfish floating on the sea. The number was more than in the previous mornings. When he arrived, there were still quite a few jellyfish on the sea that had not been salvaged.

The boatmen on his boat had already prepared the tools in advance, and they started to salvage as soon as the boat stopped. No matter how small a mosquito leg is, it is still meat.

There were five or six other fish that arrived at the same time as him, and the fishing boats that followed closely behind also arrived one after another. However, the people who came a step later didn’t see anything, so I don’t know if it was a blessing in disguise.

Just when they had cleared all the jellyfish on the sea, fishing boats including Ye's father and A Guang also came over.

A Guang frowned and climbed onto his boat first.

"Dongzi, there are too many boats..."

"Let's wait and see. It's not a good time to go into the water right now. There are so many boats watching us. There are so many boats parked on the sea that they block the light."

He was also afraid that someone would cause trouble, as diving was a dangerous job.

Father Ye also crawled over and said, "There are too many ships on the sea today, right? They are all here."

“Local boats should also be mixed in.”

The two opened their mouths in surprise, but they immediately figured it out. Who wouldn't fish in troubled waters? They couldn't tell which boats belonged to the locals and which were brought by Chen Jianian.

"That's good. We've been exposed before the flood season comes."

"Let's see, we'll take it one step at a time. After all, the majority of our ships are from foreign countries."

He had no choice, but fortunately he had earned 1 yuan in these three days.

Ah Guang looked at the fishing boats on the sea and said to the jellyfish that kept floating up: "There are a lot more jellyfish this morning, one or two times more than yesterday morning."

Ye Yaodong nodded, "Not only has the number doubled, but the speed at which they appear has also increased."

During the time they arrived and stayed, although the sea surface was divided up, one or two fish would float up from time to time while they were talking. Of course, they were caught by the nearest fishing boats.

At this time, the fishing boats on the sea were gathered in groups of three or four, and those that knew each other were sitting close together, probably discussing something.

Father Pei also crawled over at this time, frowned and asked: "What should we do now? With so many boats, can we still launch them?"

"No, it will be dangerous."

Ye Yaodong explained the potential dangers of diving and also expressed his guess, "Maybe there are no cutlass fish underwater today."

"there is none left?"

"Why is there no more?"

"Didn't they say that there was a large group of them down there in the trench?"

He looked at Guang, "It's the jellyfish season. Large numbers of jellyfish are coming up from the trenches. Shouldn't the hairtail give way? Jellyfish can sting people, and of course they can sting fish and shrimps, too. They have neurotoxins that can paralyze fish and shrimps."

"If there are few jellyfish, it's fine. But if there are many, the fish will have to give way to them. Large fish will eat them, but hairtail is not a large fish."

"If there are a lot of jellyfish floating up today, the schools of hairtail fish below may have migrated away."

Everyone listened to what he said and felt it made sense.

Father Pei was a little upset, "That's why we added longline fishing."

"But you have made a lot of money in the past few days. What you have paid is nothing. No one can imagine the subsequent development. We have taken the lead. Some people went out early yesterday morning to buy materials and did some longline fishing. Today, they also came to share a piece of the pie. They are the ones who have nothing."

"Let's wait and see. If there aren't enough jellyfish floating up, and there aren't enough for so many fishing boats to share, most of these fishing boats might leave."

"It's hard to say," Ah Guang disagreed. "If you stop here, you might get lucky sometimes. If you see fish floating next to your fishing boat, you might be able to catch a few. If you leave, won't it just be given to others?"

"That's all I can do. If it were me, I wouldn't be able to leave even if I were asked to. If I leave, wouldn't that allow others to earn more? If I stay here, I can still see if there are more."

Father Ye also frowned, "Then we can only waste our time here."

"Take your time, or you can go out and trawle the net, and I'll just stay here and watch."

"Why are you hauling nets now? Everyone is watching here. All the fishing boats in our village are here. Who would still haul nets?"

"Then let's all try our luck here. If it floats next to us, then we are lucky and can catch some. You can also move your boat to the side later. Let's spread out our boats a little and see if we can be lucky enough to catch more. We can consider it as a subsidy."

Ah Guang asked again: "Dongzi, how many local ships do you think are here?"

"I don't know. There shouldn't be many. There must be only a small number who agreed to block us at the dock early in the morning. Most of them should be diligent and go out to sea at night."

"Fortunately, not many fish came up to the surface today. As soon as they came up, they were fished out. We didn't see any large numbers of them gathering together."

"But with so many of our foreign ships all staying here, they will definitely know that something is fishy. Since they didn't go out to sea at night and planned to spend a whole day blocking us, they will definitely not leave directly. They will definitely stay here to see what's going on. If we don't leave, they will definitely not leave either. After staying for a whole day, they will definitely figure out something is fishy."

"We can only wait and see. We can't go into the water, and we can't distinguish the locals." Pei's father said.

"Right. Just wait and see. If others don't leave, we won't leave either. We can afford to waste time."

"It's a pity that we didn't go into the water to check if there was any more..."

"Don't think about it. There's basically no hope of getting into the water today. Our foreign boats won't be willing to leave like this. One reason is that the jellyfish float up from time to time. Another reason is that they may be waiting there to see how we catch the cutlassfish and release their longline fishing line at the same time."

A Guang also thought about it. Yesterday afternoon, a bunch of fishing boats were there watching them loading goods, and he also knew that some people also went there to buy materials yesterday to follow the trend.

"Then there's no need to go down tomorrow. There will be more jellyfish tomorrow than today."

"Yes, if we can't catch hairtail today, we won't be able to catch it tomorrow either."

"That's fine. At least we earned 5000 yuan in two days."

At this time, Ye Yaodong raised his chin towards them, pointed to the sea ahead, and motioned them to look over there.

Some fishing boats were casting longlines, probably thinking that since everything had already been done, they might as well give it a try. Otherwise, the fish would just be left on the boats. With so many boats on the sea, the floating jellyfish might not be enough to share. Everyone was in a stalemate, waiting there.

Father Ye: “They really put longlines there…”

A Guang: "If they just throw it randomly on the sea and don't place it accurately, they probably won't catch anything."

Ye Yaodong: "But there is nothing I can do. I have nothing to do anyway. I can only try my luck."

He looked around the sea again and didn't see a single fishing boat gone. He was afraid that if he left, others would take advantage of the opportunity.

Thinking that it would be a waste of time to stay here today, he simply moved a small stool over, sat against the side of the boat, and rested his hands on the edge.

At this time, some fishing boats, unwilling to miss the opportunity, came to ask them why they didn't cast longlines and go into the water today?

Ye Yaodong told the truth that there were too many fishing boats and it was not convenient to go down. Moreover, there were too many jellyfish and the hairtail fish might have run away. He could do nothing here today and could only wait to catch jellyfish.

When a fishing boat approached them, other fishing boats followed suit and ran over to ask them about the situation.

After all, they didn't go into the water today, nor did they cast longlines or anything. It did seem a little unusual to everyone. They made so much money yesterday and the day before yesterday, so it made no sense that they wouldn't make the same amount of money today.

There must be something wrong when something is out of the ordinary. Seeing someone coming over to inquire, others also came over.

One after another, a large number of fishing boats came and left in turn, and their side seemed particularly lively.

Ye Yaodong and the others’ mouths were dry from explaining so much.

After the fishing boats learned the reason why they no longer used longline fishing, they all moved to the side with some regret, but no boat was willing to leave.

A Guang and Pei's father also returned to their own boat. They couldn't do anything, so they could only wait on their own boat.

If they were asked to trawle the nets at this time, they might as well just wait here and see what happens. After all, all the ships are waiting here, and they cannot fall behind others.

Dozens of fishing boats were all spent in this sea area. It is surprising and hard to believe when people tell others about it, but the fact is that so many boats really spent a whole day here, from morning to dusk, and not a single boat left.

Although the cut jellyfish have to be sent to the shore as soon as possible, the quantity is too small, only a few dozen or a few hundred kilograms. The money from selling them may not be enough to cover the fuel cost for a round trip, so no one leaves.

If you have the ingredients with you, just divide them up, pickle them and leave them there, and then sell them when you get back. If you don't have alum and salt for pickling, and they turn into water, there's nothing you can do about it.

All the fishing boats caught some jellyfish today, with the largest catch being 600 to 700 kilograms and the smallest being several dozen kilograms.

After all, a jellyfish can weigh a dozen or twenty pounds at a small one, or seventy or eighty pounds at a large one. It all depends on luck to catch a big one.

After most of the day, the newcomers who had not been here last year have been stuck here for so long today that they have finally realized that there are indeed more jellyfish floating up here than in other sea areas.

In other seas, we have to search everywhere, because the targets are particularly scattered and few, but here they are particularly concentrated. With so many ships, there is basically no empty ship.

If there weren't so many fishing boats, just 1/4 or 1/5, the day's catch would still be quite considerable.

As the sun was setting, the fishing boat that had thrown the longline down early in the morning also pulled it up. The farmhand on his boat even called out to him and asked him to stretch his neck to look.

After all, they were still collecting there yesterday, and the fishing lines were full of cutlass fish. Today, it was someone else's turn to release the fish, but they didn't. Everyone was curious to see whether those who released the fish today had any catches.

"Ah, it's empty..."

"Nothing?"

"Really not, I've collected a lot of them... Don't say it's the same as us, I didn't even see one or two."

"Were they not accurately deployed, or did they all run away?"

"That's hard to say. None of us have gone down to the bottom today, so there's no way for us to see if there's anything else in the trench."

"They did it for nothing..."

Ye Yaodong watched as they all pulled up empty hooks, and only rarely caught one or two fish.

"It seems that I can't do it anymore. I can't go into the water anymore."

The boatmen also had regretful looks on their faces; they had thought they could earn extra wages by going into the water, but they didn't expect their hopes to be dashed after just three days.

"Don't be discouraged. If we can't do it now, once all the jellyfish here are gone, they will naturally leave here and go to the sea to look for them. Then we should be able to go down and salvage some sea urchins."

"Maybe it will be like today, everyone is stuck here, no one wants to leave, there are really a lot of ships coming today."

"Let's see later. It's hard to say."

This is also possible. After all, there were fewer ships last year, and the ships that brought in goods would give him face and politely give way. When there were not many goods left, they would go to the seaside to look for them and give this area to him to catch sea urchins.

All the boats continued to stay there until the sun was about to set, then everyone finished work one after another, headed towards familiar fishing boats, and made an appointment to go back together.

Their boat was also waiting for Ye's father and the other two small boats to come over.

"We also caught three or four hundred kilograms of jellyfish today. With the jellyfish blood, it should be able to sell for more than ten yuan, right?"

"There are other boats. We can move them all here and see the number. We can at least earn a living."

I can’t earn any salary today, so I can only earn enough to buy food.

A Guang, his friend, and his elder and second brothers also came over to ask about their gains and to exchange ideas.

As far as they knew, everyone's harvest was quite dismal, there were too many ships, the harvest was divided too much, and it all depended on luck.

Some will get more, some will get less, and some either don’t prepare alum and salt, and then they all turn into water, and you get nothing.

Fortunately, the number is small today and there is no competition now.

"Dongzi, there seem to be quite a lot of fish floating up today. You were here all day yesterday, but you only sold 70 or 80 yuan in total. Today there are just more fishing boats, so the fish are scattered on each boat, making the number seem small..."

"There will be more tomorrow, and the number will probably increase day by day from now on."

Except for Ye Yaodong and A Guang, everyone else looked happy, hoping that they could make more money by increasing the quantity.

"It would be good if there are more people. We have been here for so many days, and it's only today that we see a little more people."

"Finally I can start making money by catching jellyfish, but there are too many boats..."

Ye Yaodong thought, there might be more boats tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, it will be difficult to deal with...

Fortunately, he can still earn some agency fees this year, and it is worth it for him to lend the equipment to A Guang to go longline fishing these two days.

While they were talking, Ye's father and two other small boats brought up several buckets of jellyfish that they had caught and cut up throughout the day.

"Ah... I forgot you had so many boats. Even with all these together, you still got the most. I heard that several people didn't prepare anything, and after a long time, everything turned into water."

"It's better to be prepared. Anyway, my boat is big, so it doesn't take up much space to prepare some. Well, let's go back. They are all heading back."

After communicating, some fishing boats started to go home because the sun was about to set.

Everyone watched the fishing boats leave one after another, said goodbye, and left with them.

Ye Yaodong and others tied the small boats at the back, and he and his father each drove a boat to follow the main force back.

After a while, the sea that was originally full of fishing boats was suddenly empty, and all the fishing boats went back in one direction.

When we reached the shore, a large number of fishing boats all returned to the dock together. Some small boats were surprised to see so many boats docking in such an orderly manner.
People standing on the shore also found it spectacular. The town had never seen so many ships before, let alone docking together.

The most conspicuous among them is the largest one, the Dongsheng, which can be recognized from a distance. Given that this boat has caught a large number of cuttlefish for two consecutive days, people on the shore are waiting there curiously, wanting to see how many cuttlefish this boat can bring back today and how much it can be sold for.

Before their ship even docked, discussions had already begun on the dock.

Everyone has been wondering since yesterday why all the fishing boats from other places go out and come back together, but only two boats can catch a large number of hairtail while the other boats cannot.

But today they were destined to be disappointed. Only jellyfish were lifted up from the Dongsheng, and the total weight of the cut jellyfish heads and jellyfish skins was only about 1000 kilograms, which was not as much as yesterday.

Other fishing boats returning from the shore also had some jellyfish, and each one could be sold for a few dollars.

The local fishermen also breathed a sigh of relief when they saw this. They felt relieved that they no longer had to catch so many hairtails and earn so much money.

Everyone also started discussing the increase in the number of jellyfish today. They did not look at the number on the sea, but at the catch brought back by the fishing boats.

Because the quantity was not large, and A Guang went out to sea today and had no contact with people on shore, they sold them all to the purchasing point at the dock as soon as they came back.

After everyone had sold their goods, they were all piled up on the open space at the purchasing point. At a glance, the quantity was indeed quite large, about ten thousand kilograms, so the locals shifted their attention and started talking about it.

"Is the flood season coming soon? They can bring back so much in one day."

"Maybe soon... There weren't as many jellyfish as there were at the dock yesterday..."

"I tell you, they all fished in the same sea area..."

"Yes, we deliberately did not go out to sea at night. We got up early in the morning and waited on the shore. Then we followed them. We wanted to see where they caught the cutlass fish, but we didn't find any cutlass fish. Instead, we saw them rushing straight to the same sea area. All of these were caught in the same sea..."

The crowd around was in an uproar.

"They caught all of them in one place??? Is that true?"

"That's impossible... How can they be so focused..."

"Don't disbelieve me. We were there the whole day without moving. We just watched jellyfish keep appearing in that sea area. But there were too many boats. As soon as a jellyfish appeared, the nearby boats immediately scooped it up. I only caught a dozen by luck..."

"There are really a lot of jellyfish popping up there all the time..."

"It's true. Several of our boats were following behind this morning, and there were jellyfish constantly popping up in that area..."

"Where is it? Tell us. We'll go there tomorrow too. We can't let these outsiders get away with it..."

"Your small boats can't go there. It takes an hour to sail. If you want to go there, it will probably take a whole day. Only our trawling boats can keep up and go there."

"Damn it, wouldn't that just give all the benefits to those outsiders? They have so many boats, wouldn't they all be taken away by them?"

"I see. No wonder they caught so much last year. They must have fished from the same place..."

"Yes, yes, yes. Last year, this group of people caught a lot of jellyfish. They were carrying guns, and everyone was afraid and didn't dare to follow them..."

"They made a lot of money last year, so more ships came this year... I was wondering why there were more ships this year than last year..."

"We locals don't have enough to fish. Fishermen in the whole town rely on this flood season. A small boat can earn a few dozen yuan a day. They rely on this flood season all year round. If they take all the fish, what else can we fish for?"

Some people hesitated and said, "But they went quite far away. Even if they didn't catch it, we can't catch it either..."

"You are stupid. We can salvage it with our local big ships. They have so many ships, so they are just robbing ours..."

A lot of discussion broke out in the crowd.

They had less cargo today, so they just weighed it casually and settled the bill quickly. It was just that because there were so many fishing boats and everyone was queuing up to get their cargo weighed, it seemed a little slow. Then all the conversations of the locals were heard by everyone.

The locals thought they couldn't understand, but in fact, their local dialect had some of the same tones. Everyone heard about 50 to 60 percent of what was being said, guessed what was being said, and started whispering to each other.

"I was wondering why there were so many ships on the sea today? It turns out that the locals were secretly following us..."

"Fuck, these people are so shameless, they actually followed us..."

"What should we do? That location has been exposed and they know it all..."

"What are you afraid of? We have more than a dozen boats and nearly a hundred people here. If you add the people who came later, there are more than 20 boats, and they also have nearly a hundred people. If the locals appear on the sea, they are still less numerous than us. It's fine if we don't bully them, but how dare they bully us?"

"That's right... On the sea, they wouldn't dare to do that."

"But on the shore..."

"We are not afraid of them on the shore. We still have 200 people. Do the locals dare to mess with us? We go out to sea during the day and come back at night. Isn't the Public Security Bureau near where we rent? As long as we don't cause trouble, the Public Security Bureau can't drive us away just because we are outsiders. We haven't broken any law."

"Yes, we are not afraid of them. What if they know the place?"

"That's right, don't worry about them, we should stay here and salvage to make money. If there were only one or two boats, we would really worry about being killed by them at sea. With dozens of us going in and out together, who would be afraid of them?"

……

Ye Yaodong had already sold all the goods, but he was not in a hurry to leave immediately. Some people on his side had not finished selling yet, so he simply stayed where he was and listened to the two parties talking.

Father Ye also said: "You are right. There are locals following us today."

"Ah."

"They all think we've come here to steal their resources..."

"Um……"

"Will something go wrong by then?"

Ye Yaodong sighed, "It's hard to say, who knows how it will develop? At the beginning, we thought that the worst case scenario would be that we could only fish for two or three days, and then there would be a lot of fish, and they would come in and out together, and then they would be discovered by the locals. But now, we haven't even started to fish in large quantities, and people have already found out."

“It’s getting harder and harder to make money.”

"Let's go back and talk about it. We can understand 50% to 60% of what they say, and the locals can understand half of what we say."

"Your eldest brother and his friends have also sold out, let's talk about it when we get back."

(End of this chapter)