Fu Laoda, Ye Xiaocui, and Jiang Chunlan knew how hard the three children had worked, so they stood on the deck at the stern of the boat and took the net ropes from their hands.
Then they pulled the net onto the boat, and then took out the geoduck clams one by one.
Fu Wan and the other two swam back and forth three times, finally managing to bring all the geoduck clams piled up on the seabed onto the boat.
The three of them, no longer caring about their image, collapsed onto the deck, panting heavily as they looked at the stars in the sky.
They were exhausted!
Ye Xiaocui and Jiang Chunlan quickly took out the boiled water that they had prepared earlier from the cabin and poured a bowl for each of them.
The three of them were so tired that they collapsed on the deck and rested for a while before sitting up to drink water.
"Why is it so sweet, Mom? Did you put sugar in it again?"
Fu Wan took a big gulp of water from the bowl, and the sweet taste flowed through her mouth. Only then did she realize that there was actually white sugar in the water.
Ye Xiaocui gave her a reproachful look, "I added some sugar because I saw you were tired."
Jiang Chunlan hadn't expected this; the water in the kettle was boiled during the day by her family.
"Then I'll remember to add white sugar next time too."
Fu Ming and Fu Liang didn't like drinking sweet soup, so they gulped down the plain water in their bowls.
"No need, no need, this is fine for us."
Fu Wan also felt that the sugar water was not as thirst-quenching as the plain water, so she poured herself another half bowl of plain water to suppress the sweetness in her mouth.
"Mom, you don't need to give me sugar water next time. I'm not a little kid anymore."
Ye Xiaocui busied herself putting the geoduck in her hand into the fish basket, and now whatever she said went.
"Alright, alright, at least it saves me some candy."
Seeing that it was almost time, Boss Fu glanced at the silk thread that had been stretched taut.
"That's about it for longline fishing, time to reel it in!"
This is also physically demanding work, because the threads that are released are numerous and fine; if you don't wear gloves, you can cut your hands.
But this is similar to opening a blind box in modern times; everyone is extremely excited to see what's on the hook in longline fishing.
Fu Laoda and Ye Xiaocui put on their gloves and started reeling in the longline fishing, while Fu Ming, Fu Liang, and Jiang Chunlan were also wearing gloves and reeling in their lines.
The gloves for the Fu family were all sewn by Ye Xiaocui on Fu Wan's advice, using sturdy scraps of cloth. Although they couldn't compare to the work gloves of later generations, they could reduce the sharpness of the threads.
Fu Liang and Jiang Chunlan's gloves were the ones Jiang Chunlan learned from Ye Xiaocui, so although these people's gloves were a bit strange, no one paid any attention to it.
This time, both sides used traditional fish bait from the village and a small amount of small octopus pieces.
Fish bait is fish paste made from small fish and shrimp. Some people are reluctant to use it, so they use sandworms and earthworms directly.
Fu Laoda got his inspiration from Fu Wan's octopus bait last time, and even went to the dock to buy a few cents worth of sardines, cut them up and used them as bait.
Of course, the results are obvious.
"I caught a yellowfin seabream!"
The first fish that Fu Liang pulled up was a yellowfin seabream the size of a palm.
Unfortunately, it probably weighed less than half a pound; it was just a small sea bream.
Fu Liang untied the small sea bream; the fish was still jumping around.
"Go home and let your parents come!"
Jiang Chunlan was amused by her son's words, and the silk thread she had been pulling at the end suddenly snapped straight.
"This fish is really strong! Ah Ming, come help your auntie pull it out!"
Jiang Chunlan wasn't good at handling fish, and since Fu Ming was sitting on her other side, she immediately asked for help.
Fu Ming saw the straight silk thread in Jiang Chunlan's hand and quickly took it from her.
I knew it all along: the fish's strength meant it was big!
He carefully twirled the fish in his hand while gleefully checking on Boss Fu's situation.
Fu Wan went into the cabin to check on Fu Ling's condition. Seeing that she was sleeping soundly, she went back out and joined Boss Fu's line-collecting team.
Fu Laoda's harvest was actually quite good; he caught two sea bream weighing over a pound each and a tiger grouper weighing two pounds.
Some fish were eaten down to the hook, but the bait was worth it for the few fish in the bucket.
Fu Wan then looked at Fu Ming's side. The fish was obviously tired. While others couldn't see the situation on the seabed, Fu Wan saw the fish's true form at a glance.
That's a little manta ray!
No, that's a ray!
Many people can't tell the difference between manta rays and rays, since they look somewhat similar, with their head fins resembling wings.
However, there are significant differences between manta rays and rays. In terms of size, the largest manta rays can reach eight meters in length, while the longest rays are only a little over two meters.
Rays have a tail fin and a dorsal fin, but manta rays do not.
However, they have one thing in common: the stingray's tail spines contain potent toxins, as do the tail spines of some rays.
"Brother, be careful, that's a ray!"
Upon hearing Fu Wan's shout, Fu Liang quickly grabbed a large hook from the side.
Fu Ming saw the ray in front of him that looked somewhat like a manta ray, and his calves were still aching slightly.
Fu Liang's fishing skills were quite good; he hooked the struggling ray with a large hook in one go. Jiang Chunlan quickly stepped aside and ran into the cabin to get a kitchen knife.
Once the ray was hooked onto the deck, she grabbed a kitchen knife and chopped off its tail barb, then threw it back into the sea.
"This ray is quite good; it must weigh at least five or six pounds!"
Fu Ming and Fu Liang quickly threw the ray into the cargo hold, and then began to gather the other threads.
With that ray first, the one or two-pound sea bream we received later weren't such a big surprise.
As night deepened, everyone quickened their pace, retrieving all the longlines they had cast.
When Fu Wan finally saw her catch, she found that most of the fish were sea bream and parrotfish, and a few groupers, mostly tiger groupers and red groupers. There were no rare fish like rat groupers or red groupers.
Ye Xiaocui and Jiang Chunlan finished tidying up the silk threads. By this time, the two boats had already docked together. Fu Wan was also on the deck helping to pack things up. Their octopus trap buckets hadn't been thrown in yet.
Fu Wan was about to discuss this matter with Boss Fu when she suddenly heard the sound of a large fish falling into the water with a "splash".
Fu Wan looked up and was surprised by the scene before her.
A group of dolphins were chasing and playing on the sea in front of her. Unlike the dolphins that Fu Wan had seen in her previous life, most of these dolphins were a rare pink color!
Because it was late at night, it was only when the flashlight shone on it that you could barely make out that it was pink. At first glance, you might have thought it was just white.
This is an Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin!
The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin has long been known as the "giant panda of the water." Due to its scarcity, it was listed as an endangered species in 2008.
In her previous life, Fu Wan had only seen Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins in the news. She never expected that she would see such a group of lively dolphins on the sea on this ordinary night.
These are Class I protected animals in China, so Fu Wan even held her breath, afraid of disturbing the group of white dolphins.
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