“How come you guys lost track of time after going down there? You haven’t come back for so long, it made your mother and me want to go down and check on you.”
Upon seeing Fu Wan and the others return, Jiang Chunlan began to talk about it.
The two elderly women cleaned the deck, then rinsed the squid and cuttlefish. After finishing their work, they realized that the person who had gone out had not yet returned.
"Auntie, we forgot about it while we were catching coconut crabs."
Fu Wan answered with a smile, and Jiang Chunlan's attention was immediately diverted. She went forward to look at the coconut crabs that Fu Ming and Fu Liang had thrown onto the deck.
"My goodness, it really is a coconut crab! Tell me, how can a crab that grows up eating coconut meat grow so big... Oh my god!"
Where did this snake come from!
Jiang Chunlan was so frightened by the dead snake on the harpoon in Fu Liang's hand that she kept backing away. Seeing this, Fu Liang quickly moved the snake aside.
"Mother, he's dead, don't be afraid!"
Ye Xiaocui was also startled. Only after hearing that it was a dead snake did she step forward.
"How come you hit a snake? Did it hurt you?"
Faced with her mother's concern, Fu Wan and Fu Ming quickly shook their heads, "No, how big is this snake? There are five of us, how could we not handle a snake?"
"Mother, do you recognize what kind of snake this is?"
Ye Xiaocui picked up the harpoon and examined the snake closely, then shook her head.
"I don't know either, but someone at the dock will definitely know."
No sooner had he finished speaking than Boss Fu's shout came from the side of the boat.
"Someone come and lend a hand, let's take all these things back!"
Fu Wan exclaimed in surprise, "We were so busy chatting that we forgot to put away the octopus trap!"
"We didn't wait for you to clean it up; your aunt and I just collected it all. The octopus is still in the bucket!"
Ye Xiaocui quickly called out to Fu Wan to stop working. Seeing this, Fu Wan walked to the bucket, lifted the fish basket covering it, and saw two buckets full of octopuses.
There are long-legged and short-legged octopuses here, but there's no water at all; they're all raw octopuses.
Although it looked sticky and dark, Fu Wan was overjoyed at the thought of blanched or steamed octopus. "Super delicious octopus! This is how a netizen blanched it; mine isn't even that good yet!" she exclaimed. "Mom, did you catch so many octopuses today?"
Usually it's about one bucket each time, but today it's doubled.
When this is mentioned, Ye Xiaocui's eyebrows dance with excitement.
"That's right. Your aunt and I just took turns digging them out, and basically every bamboo tube had something in it. There were even two or three octopuses in quite a few of them."
It seems like there have been quite a few more octopuses in this area since I last came a week ago.
"Come and see, my crab traps and crab cages have yielded a particularly good harvest!"
Fu Laoda picked up the conversation. Fu Wan hadn't seen his bucket of fish earlier, but now that she looked at it, it was also full of fish.
Besides sea bream and giant grouper, there were even a few moray eels that opened their mouths and seemed to be trying to attack people from time to time.
Looking at Ye Lin's bucket, it was filled with red-armored crabs and small stone crabs, which were swinging their pincers and making a constant squeaking sound.
Of course, there were also quite a few sea snails.
"Wow, that's great! I'll go get the fish basket and put these crabs in, so they don't suffocate later."
Upon seeing this, Fu Liang picked up the bucket of crabs and hurried off to find the fish basket.
Seeing that Boss Fu had already put the anchor rope away, Fu Ming went to find the crank handle and started the diesel engine again.
"Father, you all rest, I'll go start the boat."
It was almost four o'clock. If we went back now, we would arrive at the pier around five or six o'clock.
"Alright, then go ahead!"
Boss Fu naturally had no objection. He and Fu Liang had been driving for quite some time, and it was time for Fu Ming to take his turn.
However, after everyone had put away all the spoils on the deck, Fu Wan suddenly felt a few drops of water fall on her face.
"Strange, where did this water come from?"
She subconsciously touched her face; it was indeed water.
"Oh no, the weather is changing, a storm is coming."
Boss Fu had casually glanced at the sky, but the next moment he immediately stood up with a serious expression.
"It looks like it's going to rain. I'll go and relieve Amin; he can't drive this boat."
After saying that, he ran towards the cockpit.
Upon hearing this, Fu Wan looked up at the sky. She didn't know when it had started, but the sky was completely covered by dark clouds, and the moon and stars had long since disappeared.
That's strange. Could there be something wrong with the weather forecast?
There was no time to dwell on these things. The wind and waves at sea were getting bigger and bigger, and the fishing boat, which had been sailing steadily, was now rocking back and forth.
At the same time, the rain falling on the deck suddenly intensified, and for a while everyone huddled under the partition next to the cabin, and no one spoke for a long time.
"What kind of weather forecast is this? It said the weather would be fine, but now it's windy and rainy!"
Fu Ming couldn't help but curse under his breath, but everyone knew that the weather at sea was constantly changing, and sometimes the weather forecast wasn't accurate.
Moreover, at that time, the country's satellite system was still under development, so being able to update weather forecasts in a timely manner was already quite good.
"It's alright, don't panic, everything will be fine once the storm passes."
Fu Wan comforted him in a low voice, saying that Boss Fu was also working hard and sweating profusely in the cockpit.
Because of the strong winds and high waves, it was impossible for the ship to sail against the wind and waves towards the dock. The only thing he could do now was to steer the ship and try his best to keep it balanced in the surging waves so that it wouldn't capsize.
The only saving grace is that both children were sent to school today and didn't go out to sea with us; otherwise, such big waves would have definitely frightened them.
"Look, what's that!"
Ye Lin suddenly pointed into the distance and shouted, and Fu Wan and the others looked in that direction.
"Holy crap, a waterspout!"
"Oh my god, a waterspout has appeared?!"
Ye Xiaocui and Jiang Chunlan immediately put their hands together and began to pray incessantly for the Goddess Mazu to bless them to return safely.
Waterspouts are a normal natural phenomenon. They are formed by a tornado that appears over water due to a strong updraft in the atmosphere.
A waterspout typically appears as a waterfall where one end connects to a thundercloud in the sky, while the lower end extends directly into the sea, making it look as if something is drinking water from the heavens. While spectacular, it's best to run if you encounter a waterspout. These air currents rotate extremely fast, and if you're accidentally pulled in, not only could your ship be instantly torn to pieces, but you could also be in mortal danger.
So even though Fu Wan kept reassuring everyone that the waterspout was still far from their ship, she was actually praying in her heart that the storm would end soon.
Boss Fu in the cockpit also saw the situation in the distance. He frowned and tried his best to stabilize the ship. Then his brain was working hard to figure out how to sail the ship as far away from the waterspout as possible.
"Wait, hasn't the wind gotten a bit less?"
This continued for five or six minutes, and then Fu Wan suddenly felt that the boat was rocking less, and when she looked at the sea, the waves were not as high as before.
"Yes, the wind and waves have subsided. Look, that waterspout is only half gone!"
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