When Feng Ye stepped into his home, it was not yet midnight.
Xiao Chunxiu, Ye Qingling, and Du Guilan were busy preparing lunch in the kitchen.
The three little ones were nowhere to be seen; I wonder where they went to play.
They were all very surprised to see Feng Ye return so early.
Ye Qingling even went out of the kitchen to look at the distant sea and asked in confusion, "There are no waves at sea, why are you back so early?"
"You and Ah-Can haven't run into those bandits from Longtail Island again, have you?"
Thinking about what had happened a few days ago, Xiao Chunxiu couldn't help but feel worried.
"No, how could I be so unlucky as to run into them every day?" Feng Ye shook his head with a smile: "It's because I had some good luck today, so I finished work early."
Xiao Chunxiu was relieved and turned back to continue wielding the spatula: "That's good. I was really worried that you would run into some trouble again."
"It's good that you came back early. You didn't get enough sleep last night and didn't want to get up. Go take a shower first, have dinner, and then catch up on your sleep."
As Ye Qingling spoke, she walked back to the kitchen and continued to help with the fire.
"Ah Ye, what good thing happened that made you come back so early? Did you get your hands on some really valuable stuff?"
Du Guilan, who was chopping vegetables nearby, stopped what she was doing and looked up at Feng Ye hopefully.
"Money, money, money, all you ever think about is money."
Xiao Chunxiu glared at her eldest daughter-in-law with annoyance.
Although Du Guilan was somewhat resentful, feeling that she was earning money for the family, she didn't argue with her mother-in-law.
He just used a little more force, making the cutting board thud loudly, as if it were silently protesting.
"Mom, please stop talking about my sister-in-law. Isn't the point of life to earn more money and make our family's life better?"
Feng Ye smiled to ease the tension, then continued, "However, although the goods we got this time weren't worth much, we did make a lot of money selling them."
All three of them were confused by his seemingly contradictory statements.
"Here it is."
Feng Ye brought the small yellow croakers, which had been placed outside the door and were waiting to be slaughtered, into the kitchen.
"Small yellow croaker?"
All three of them were somewhat stunned.
This fish is so common that everyone who lives by the sea is very familiar with it.
They also understood the meaning of the first half of Feng Ye's sentence; this kind of fish really wasn't worth much.
"Ah Ye, does that mean you caught a lot of small yellow croakers?"
A hint of doubt flickered in Ye Qingling's eyes. Although she had already guessed the general situation, she still hoped to get a definite answer from Feng Ye.
“Yes,” Feng Ye nodded with a smile, “a total of over four thousand jin.”
Du Guilan's eyes lit up, and she was about to ask how much they sold for when Xiao Chunxiu said, "You came back so early and only hauled in one or two nets, how come there are so many? Did you encounter a school of fish?"
"It wasn't dragged up; it was picked up for free."
"Found it for free? How is that possible!"
The three of them spoke in unison, their faces filled with disbelief.
Although small yellow croakers are common fish, they are not something you can just pick up casually, let alone more than 4,000 kilograms of them.
"It's like this..."
Feng Ye gave a brief account of what had happened at sea that morning.
The two sisters-in-law were stunned, their faces filled with disbelief.
Everything Feng Ye described was beyond their comprehension.
Xiao Chunxiu, however, seemed thoughtful: "You didn't encounter a red tide, did you?"
"Mother, you even know about red tides?"
Feng Ye looked at Xiao Chunxiu with some surprise.
After all, red tides are not a widely recognized natural phenomenon in this era.
Xiao Chunxiu nodded slightly: "When I was eighteen, a large-scale red tide occurred here. I only learned that it was a red tide from the older generation."
"How come I've never heard of it?"
"So much time has passed, many people have long forgotten, and there are so many things that happen at sea. When people chat, there are so many topics, so no one talks about what happened back then."
What exactly happened at that time?
Feng Ye's curiosity was piqued, and she continued to press for answers.
It wasn't that he hadn't seen the red tide before, but he had always seen it on a ship, and after discovering it, he would avoid it as soon as possible, without ever getting a close look.
He had only ever seen red tides, especially those occurring in coastal areas, online.
After Feng Ye asked the question, Ye Qingling and Du Guilan both pricked up their ears, eager to hear Xiao Chunxiu recount that bygone era.
As Xiao Chunxiu cooked, she was lost in her memories:
"I remember that morning, I got up to go fishing. As soon as I got to the beach, I saw a bright red patch on the sea, like it had been stained with blood. It was really scary."
"During that period, many fish, shrimp, crabs and shellfish died. Some floated on the sea surface, rising and falling with the waves; others were pushed to the shore by the waves and stranded on the beach."
"The entire island was terrified. No one dared to go out to sea to fish, and they were even afraid to get close to the sea."
“Some superstitious old people spread rumors that this disaster was brought down by the anger of the sea god.”
"Some knowledgeable elderly people have pointed out that this is actually a phenomenon caused by a red tide outbreak."
"According to the knowledgeable elders, the cause of red tides is the toxins released by various toxic algae, which turn the seawater red."
"And those seafood such as fish, shrimp, crabs and shellfish that unfortunately died were poisoned by these toxins."
"Even those fish that are still alive contain some toxins and cannot be eaten."
"That's why for about a month, people didn't dare to eat seafood and only dared to eat vegetables grown in the fields or dried goods that had been dried in the sun before."
Feng Ye noticed that Xiao Chunxiu's words contained many errors, but he did not point them out.
One of them is the cause of red tides.
Red tide is a complex ecological anomaly, and its causes are also quite complex, with no definitive conclusion yet.
However, it is generally believed to be the result of a combination of factors such as stagnant water, eutrophication, increased solar radiation, and rising water temperature.
Secondly, not all algae that cause red tides are poisonous; only some are.
For example, there is a red tide phenomenon called blue tears, which is caused by an algae called Noctiluca scintillans, and Noctiluca scintillans itself is non-toxic.
Blue tears are relatively common in Pingtan, Fujian. There is also a type of sea firefly with blue tears that can be seen in many places.
Moreover, the color of the seawater is not caused by poison, but by the color of algae.
Thirdly, the deaths of marine life have several causes:
First, large amounts of algae accumulate in the gills of fish, causing them to suffocate and die due to lack of oxygen.
Secondly, after algae die, the decomposition process consumes a large amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, causing fish and other marine life to die due to lack of oxygen.
Third, algae themselves may be toxic and, if ingested by fish, may secrete toxins that cause the fish to die.
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