Back to the small fishing village in 1982

Chapter 1096 Unexpected Discovery
This long silver-white "ribbon" made the two men's eyes widen in surprise.

Also because of the long strip of silvery-white light in the middle, the densely packed sea urchins growing on the steep cliffs on both sides of the trench are extremely clear, just like natural light.

The two men's eyes seemed not enough as they looked back and forth between the sea urchin and the light, but they could not communicate underwater. The shock in their eyes could not be expressed, and they had no suitable tools in their hands, so they could only hold it in.

Ye Yaodong was the first to react. He gestured to A Guang, and took out the large net bag he brought with him when he went into the water, as well as the iron claw tied around his waist, and signaled him to start working first.

Their original purpose of going into the water was to find the sea urchins growing on the cliffs on both sides of the trench. The silver-white ribbon in the middle was an unexpected discovery. They could talk about it after going up. Time was limited, so they had to do what they had to do first before going up again.

Ah Guang also immediately calmed down and followed his example by taking out all the tools tied around his waist. Then he followed his example, swinging his flippers, going down into the trench, and using his iron claws to hook the sea urchins on the cliff and put them into the net bag.

After all, it was the first time for Ah Guang to do this job, so he was not very agile. After a few moves, he would turn around to look at what Ye Yaodong was doing next to him. After seeing his agile speed, he also sped up and stopped hesitating.

After focusing all his attention on the densely packed sea urchins on the cliff, he forgot his fear and that he was now in the middle of a trench. There was a silvery-white light below, instead of a pitch-black hole.

And because of the bright lighting below, their vision is no longer obstructed and their efficiency is improved.

After the two net bags in his hands were full, Ye Yaodong threw them to the bottom of the sea first, swam to A Guang's side, and saw that his second net bag had just started to be filled, so he waited for a while.

By the way, I observed the "ribbon" underneath that was emitting a silvery-white glow.

These "ribbons" are cutlassfish. Densely packed with silvery-white long cutlassfish live deep in the trench. They sway and move, filling up the bottomless trench, freeing people from the tingling feeling on their scalps and the illusion that they are being sucked to the bottom.

They are constantly swaying, densely packed under the wide trench.

He was shocked when he saw it for the first time. Although he knew that there were many strange creatures growing in the trenches, the deeper the trenches, the more bizarre the creatures would be.

But he never expected that there would be cutlassfish in the sea trench.

Hairtails generally live in waters 60 to 200 meters deep. They can be found in the waters of the continental shelf, where food is abundant and suitable for their hunting.

For example, the hairtail in the East China Sea of ​​my country floats in the middle layer of the seawater (about 60 meters) during the day and sinks to the bottom of the sea (100 meters deep) at night. During the winter solstice, the water temperature drops and the hairtail swims to the deep water to avoid the cold.

There are other species of deep-sea hairtail fish that live in trenches 1000 meters deep all year round.

The depth he could see with his naked eyes was only a few dozen meters. These cutlassfish were not special species of deep-sea cutlassfish but looked like ordinary white cutlassfish.

Just as he was wondering, if there were so many cutlassfish below, blocking out the sun, what would happen to the jellyfish?
Jellyfish also emerge from the bottom of the ocean trench...

There were clearly jellyfish on the surface of the water just now, which means there are still jellyfish surfacing, so what about the hairtail fish below? Could it be that there are no jellyfish this year and hairtail fish instead?

Just as he was wondering, he saw a small area of ​​cutlass fish below moving violently, and then a large black hole appeared around it.

The cutlass fish that were originally there all moved to the side. A transparent bulk jellyfish emerged from the black hole and slowly rose up.

"Fuck..."

He cursed in his heart, could it be that the cuttlefish has taken over the magpie's nest?
When the jellyfish season arrives and a large number of jellyfish emerge, these hairtails should migrate and avoid them, right?

Fish and jellyfish are generally hostile to each other. Once a fish touches the tentacles of a jellyfish, these stinging cells will eject the stinging threads inside them and pierce into the fish or shrimp's body. The stinging threads also contain various types of venom that are used to paralyze the fish or shrimp.

In this way, no matter how agile the fish or shrimp are, they can hardly escape the "clutches" of the jellyfish, so fish and jellyfish are in an enemy relationship.

Ye Yaodong's eyes were fixed on the jellyfish that had just floated out of the school of cutlassfish. He wondered if as the number of jellyfish increased day by day, these schools of cutlassfish would disappear and move to another place?
So he needs to hurry up?
After Ah Guang's net bag was full, he stopped and turned to look for Ye Yaodong, only to find that he was not far behind him.

At the same time, the school of cuttlefish around them became restless again, and two black holes appeared. After a while, two jellyfish rose from the bottom of the black holes.

"what?"

A Guang was very surprised.

When the two of them were concentrating on using iron claws to hook sea urchins, several jellyfish appeared from the bottom of the trench in the same way.

It's just that the two of them didn't notice it until they finished their work.

Ye Yaodong looked at the jellyfish that emerged in the same way and roughly understood what was going on.

He patted A Guang and signaled that he could go up.

The two of them then swam upwards at the same time, swinging their flippers and pulling the rope of the net bag containing the sea urchins in their hands.

As soon as he came out of the water, A Guang couldn't wait to take off the mask and trachea on his face.

"Fuck, there are not only shoals of sea urchins, but also shoals of hairtails. Damn, they almost blinded my eyes. I've been wanting to speak for a long time, but I'm dying of holding it in."

"Let's get on the boat first."

"There are so many of them, I can't see the end at a glance, they are so densely packed."

"Are you talking about sea urchin or hairtail?"

Ah Guang quickly followed and swam along, saying, "We have everything. There are dense sea urchins and hairtails as well. I just don't know how long and deep the trench is. Anyway, the light down there is not good, and it looks like it's all there."

"Damn, so this is what the seabed is like. There's all kinds of things underneath..."

"Just now a fish swam right past me. I poked the fish with my iron claws, and it was so scared that it blew out several bubbles and ran away with its tail wagging."

"If I had known what they were saying last year, I would have come out to join in the fun..."

"Dongzi, what should we do with those hairtail fish? There are so many of them, but we can't put the net down there..."

Ah Guang followed him to the side of the boat, chattering non-stop. The scene under the sea just now really shocked him. If he could speak, he would not have been holding it in until now.

Ye Yaodong climbed up first, and then said, "We have to fish with it. Fishing nets won't work. We have to use longlines. When we go back in the afternoon, we'll quickly buy nylon ropes and hooks and ask the locals to make them overnight. We have to make them tonight so as not to delay fishing tomorrow."

After saying that, he slapped his thigh again and said, "Who knows if this thing can be used again, otherwise I would have brought it here myself."

"Who would have thought that longline fishing takes up so much space? We only bring it out when we are too full. Then let's go back early in the afternoon and buy ropes for fishing lines."

"What are you talking about?"

Father Ye stood beside the two men and listened to their chattering. He didn't understand a word they said. He only understood that they regretted not bringing longline fishing lines.

"What is longline fishing? Where do the cutlass fish come from? Can there be cutlass fish here? We should go to farther seas and deeper waters to find them, right?"

Without waiting for Ye Yaodong to say anything, A Guang excitedly chattered about what they saw and heard under the sea. He even gestured as he spoke, with a beaming look on his face.

Even the boatman nearby was surprised when he heard it.

"Ah, there are still hairtails at the bottom of that trench? I didn't see any last year."

"There are so many of them, and they glow."

"Hairtail fish glow at night, and they also glow when they come out of water."

"Is it because there are too many hairtail fish blocking the sea, so the jellyfish can't come up, and the sea surface is so sparse today?"

"It took me a while to see a few of them pop up..."

"No, it's simply not the peak season yet. We have to wait a few more days, but we can catch some hairtails during this period. I estimate that after the jellyfish appear, the hairtails will disappear and move away."

Ye Yaodong listened to what they were talking about and joined in the conversation, but his hands were not idle either. The two net bags of sea urchins that he had just dug were still at the bottom and had not been collected yet, so he called two people over to help collect them.

Father Ye exclaimed in amazement, "This trench is so magical, isn't it? Not only are there a large number of jellyfish emerging, but there are also densely packed sea urchins on the rock walls on both sides. Now that the jellyfish are not yet in season, there are even schools of hairtails in it. It's amazing."

"Nature is so amazing. Don't think too much. Who will go down? The old one will lead the new one. Hurry up and put on your equipment. I'll collect it here soon."

The two bags of sea urchins together weighed about 70 to 80 kilograms, and the two bags of A Guang on the other side weighed about the same amount.

Each one was shiny black, with sharp spines like a hedgehog. Probably because no one had ever gone into the water, these sea urchins had never been collected, so they were densely packed underneath. Each one was big and fat, weighing about three or four taels each.

They first carried a few net bags to the side of the basket, and then poured them into the basket to free up the net bags so that the second wave of people could go in.

Someone was picking up a sea urchin that had fallen on the deck and was accidentally pricked by a spine. He started bleeding, but he didn't panic. He just stood aside and urinated on his hand.

Because some of the spines on sea urchins contain neurotoxins. It’s okay if the condition is not serious, but it’s best to flush it out with urine so that it will heal immediately.

Ye Yaodong also gave them some advice when they went into the water, "The newcomers should get used to it first. Those of you who went into the water last year, please keep an eye on them and lead them slowly. With one or two experiences, they will be fine later."

"know."

"Warm up first. If you feel uncomfortable physically or mentally, come up immediately. Don't force it."

"Ok."

During their activities, he said a few more words, mainly for the newcomers. Now he said it all at once and there is no need to repeat it later.

After the second wave of people entered the water, he asked the others, "Were there many jellyfish that came up just now?"

"About six or seven, scattered around. Our ship didn't dare to move. The Harvest accidentally fished out two, and the others were salvaged by small boats."

"Ah... there's another one popping up over there..."

"When I came here before, there were only a few dozen of them on the sea surface. It looks like they will appear faster and faster in the future."

Father Ye said, "We'll go buy materials as soon as we get to the shore this afternoon. Fortunately, this is a seaside town, so it's easy to buy these materials."

"I don't know how much of an opportunity we can seize this time. Is this the first time these hairtail fish have appeared here, or have they always been like this before? They just migrated away after the flood season arrived and the place was occupied by jellyfish, and will come back next year?"

"Who cares? As long as we can catch fish, that's fine. Tomorrow we'll make the longline, and then we'll pull the line into the water ourselves, and then aim the hook at the trench and drop it. That'll give us a higher accuracy rate."

"That's right. Putting them in a school of fish will increase the chance of catching more fish. These hairtail fish are also very easy to catch. I heard they are very greedy. I'll prepare some more bait tomorrow."

"It's just right. They all went out to trawling just now, and there are a lot of groceries. I can just take what they don't want and use it as bait at night."

While they were waiting on the boat, they were also discussing countermeasures and thinking about how to catch as many hairtails as possible from the trench within the next two or three days.

Fortunately, they have many boats each, so they can move the boats tomorrow and extend the fishing distance of longline fishing.

The crack in that trench was so long that they could sail down into the water, find the exact location, and then lower the longline into the trench.

The second wave of people who went down came up after a while. Everyone gathered around the side of the boat, and the two people under the water also smiled.

After pulling the people up, the two of them kept chattering about what they saw and heard underwater. Their stories were not much different from what Ye Yaodong and A Guang had said before, except that their descriptions were more exaggerated, making the other people who had not yet entered the water eager to get in early.

The sea urchins they collected weighed about 70 to 80 kilograms per person, which was no less than what Ye Yaodong and his team collected. When they were poured into the baskets, they filled two large baskets.

Ye Yaodong deliberately left ten people on the boat, two in a group. Each wave of catch was 2 kilograms. If everyone took turns, they would catch about to kilograms. It only took about hours, and it took more than two hours to drag a net.

However, the harvest from a single haul is not that great.

Maybe it’s because there are now two of us going into the water together. With companionship, we can overcome each other’s fear. Once we become familiar with each other, our efficiency will be greatly improved. The trench is now filled with cutlassfish, and we can’t see the deep black holes, so the harvest of each trip is higher than last year.

I still remember that when we went into the water last year, everyone's harvest was about 500 to kilograms, and after two rounds, we only harvested kilograms. Only when he went into the water would we harvest a little more. Now we can harvest about to kilograms in one round.

Going down to the bottom of the sea and into the deep trench alone is really stressful. Fortunately, he was smart and did it again this year.

If the price of those sea urchins is still the same as last year, about 1 cents per catty, then 2 catties would cost 1000 yuan.

It's only 9 o'clock now. If we don't go back for lunch, we can still do three or four more waves. 10 people can take turns and there will be enough time to rest.

If you go back at around four or five in the afternoon, you will have carried nearly 4000 kilograms, which means you will earn about 800 yuan a day!

The workers' daily wage is 4 yuan, and there are 5 people there. Not counting his father, who must have given him extra, even if he doesn't work for a day, the workers' wages are 28 yuan.

The 10 people who go into the water have to be subsidized an additional two yuan, which is equivalent to an extra 20 yuan, so the labor cost is 146 yuan.

This is equivalent to a net profit of about 650 yuan, which makes me rich.

It doesn’t matter whether there are jellyfish or not, the sea urchins are enough for him to make money.

However, we can't really let people work on the sea without food or water.

After Ye Yaodong mentally calculated the number of jellyfish he could get today, he turned to his father and said, "There aren't many jellyfish on the sea anyway. Those small boats are wasting time paddling around on the sea. We don't know if they have found any jellyfish yet, and they don't have any hand-cast nets or anything like that. Why don't you go find those boats and take the people back first?"

"Take it back? Don't let them look for it on the sea?"

"Yes, it's too inefficient, and there's no need to waste manpower. If you go back early, you can buy the nylon line for longline fishing. If it's hard to find local people to make it, you can let these boatmen sit at home and do it. A dozen or twenty people can make one or two fishing lines in most of the day."

"That's right. Longline fishing requires preparations in advance. So I'll go get those boats now, and then we'll go back together?"

"No, we won't go back. We've made quite a lot of gains this time. We'll just stay here and not leave today. We'll just stay here and fish for sea urchins. Please bring us some food at noon."

"That's fine too. We can call the boat back later or leave it here with you. You can tow it back together in the evening."

"Ah."

After hearing this, A Guang also started to think about it.

"There's no point in the Harvest staying here. I might as well help you tow those boats back, and then I'll go back to prepare the materials for longline fishing. My father is out trawling the nets, so I can't ask him to help."

"That's fine. Then you drive your boat and the people on your boat back to prepare. Anyway, the people on your boat are just sitting here doing nothing and can't catch many jellyfish. I have enough people here to go into the water. I originally left 10 people."

He and A Guang were not counted as the leaders. A Guang just came here temporarily to join in the fun.

"it is good."

These two families have the most people with them. If they are not open for a day, the expenses are dozens or hundreds of dollars. They have to increase revenue and reduce expenditure as much as possible. Fortunately, in addition to sea urchins, they also have schools of cutlassfish, which can provide some subsidies.

Other fishing boats can now earn some subsidies by going out to sea and trawling.

Father Ye drove Dongsheng 002 out for a ride and brought back a bunch of small boats and people.

After all, they had only been out rowing for a short time, so no one had much catch. Some caught a few fish, and some caught one or two jellyfish.

Although one ship didn't get much, but when the goods from 10 ships were gathered together, it looked quite impressive. Ye's father also moved all of them onto the ship, and he could take them back to add to his meal or sell them for a few dollars.

When he came back, he did not put all the small boats behind the Harvest, but left three behind for himself.

Because there were only three or four small boats brought out by other families, the trawlers originally planned to wait until they returned and then take the small boats back.

But now when those small boats saw that their big ship was going back, they all begged A Guang to pull some cargo back as well. Since they really had no cargo, they were just drifting there anyway.

A Guang was helpless as they were all from the same village and fellow villagers should help each other. It was hard to refuse something that was within his ability and it was just a matter of adding three or four more things.

Then the two boats towed a bunch of small boats and returned first.

There were also people on duty at Ye Yaodong's house. After all, there were a lot of supplies there and someone had to watch them. The people on duty during the day would sleep on the boat at night, so it was just a reward for them to rest at home during the day.

This is equivalent to each person working two days a month and having two days of rest during the day.

He only took A Guang into the water on the first trip, and he did not go into the water again afterwards. He just watched from the sea that others took turns going into the water to work for him. He also said that those who went into the water to work alone would be paid extra.

Everyone is very happy. Although it happened last year and will definitely happen this year, we are of course happier to hear about the salary increase.

The daily salary is already 4 yuan, and if I add two more yuan, it will be 5 yuan. If I work 6 days a month, that would be 5 yuan, which is higher than any other job salary.

After everyone did the math themselves, they worked even harder.

And after one cycle, when they go into the water again, everyone is more efficient. Sometimes each person can catch more than 100 kilograms, and the income is even higher than he expected.

Ye Yaodong was just like a rich landlord. After changing into clean clothes, he sat there with his legs crossed to enjoy the cool air, watching everyone take turns to jump into the water and earn money for him. He was just short of grabbing a handful of melon seeds, but of course he couldn't go that far.

Now, theirs was the only boat floating in the trench. While everyone was collecting sea urchins, many jellyfish also floated up one after another, dozens of them large and small. Because their fishing boat was stationary, no one went to salvage those jellyfish.

It was not until Ye's father finished his work and drove out in the boat to deliver the meal that he hurriedly caught all the jellyfish that had floated up on the sea beside him in the past few hours with a net.

Then he came over and called the people on the boat who had just finished their meal to come over and help divide it up, and he also climbed over to take a look at what they had reaped from most of the day.

"so much!"

Father Ye was surprised, looking at the deck filled with baskets of sea urchins, more than twenty baskets in total. He stretched out his index finger and counted them one by one.

"It's only been half a day, why are there so many?"

"It's more efficient when two people go into the water together. One person's harvest is almost catching up with last year's harvest of two people."

"Are there 2000 kilograms here?"

"About the same, maybe a little more."

Ye Yaodong looked at his watch. It was just past 12 o'clock, not even one o'clock yet. It was probably not much different from what he expected. He should be able to catch about 4000 kilograms today.

You have to go into the water when there are no jellyfish and catch as much as you can. There are no outsiders around, and you have the right time, place, and people.

"Then we should catch four or five thousand kilograms of sea urchins today?" Father Ye's face was full of surprise and smile, "We've made a fortune."

"I think so. Did you ask about the price when you came ashore?"

"Yes, they say that those over 8 taels are cents, those under taels are only cents, and those over taels are only cents."

“It’s such a big difference.”

"We eat seafood based on its size. Smaller ones have less meat. I also asked about hairtail fish. Which hairtail fish is more valuable? As long as the meat is thicker and the size is bigger, I will buy it for more than 3 cents."

Ye Yaodong smiled widely, "This is great. We can sell it for more money. Have you bought all the longline fishing lines?"

"I bought it and let the boatmen do it directly, so I don't have to hire anyone. Their daily wages are high anyway, and it's not good for more than 10 or 20 people to just sit there and play without work. They don't have anything to do when they go back, so it's just right to let them do it."

"Ah."

　It's 2 o'clock now, I'll post it first, and add another chapter before 12 o'clock tomorrow night. I'm so sleepy, I was so sleepy at 11 o'clock

　　
　
(End of this chapter)