The wind blew all night long and didn't stop even during the next day.
However, the weather remained unchanged for the time being, and it turned out to be another sunny day.
God is truly unpredictable.
However, going out to sea is out of the question; the waves are a bit too big.
It wasn't until another day later that the weather truly began to change, with light rain falling for two consecutive days.
Two more days passed before the waves subsided and it was time to go out to sea.
However, the good weather didn't last long; it only lasted five days before Mother Nature started acting up again.
This time it didn't rain, just cloudy, but strong winds picked up, so we still couldn't go out to sea.
That's how winter is: a few sunny days, a few cloudy days, and occasionally a few days of light rain.
But every change in weather is inevitably accompanied by howling winds.
Time slipped away quietly amidst the occasional voyages at sea.
Before we knew it, it was the 21st day of the twelfth lunar month.
Feng Ye set sail early in the morning.
Tomorrow is his housewarming party, and he needs to prepare some ingredients for the banquet.
Because of its coastal location, seafood makes up a large portion of the dishes at local banquets.
Upon reaching the work area and locating the buoy, he and Ah-chan began hauling in the net.
The goods in the 30 nets are all quite ordinary, common varieties.
The area is dominated by toadfish, which are abundant in winter, as well as mullet. Other fish, shrimp, and crabs are relatively rare.
After collecting the gillnets, they immediately went to collect the shrimp traps.
Ever since they caught a small lobster in their net, they bought fifty shrimp traps and put them down.
Although you can't always get a small green dragon, it's still pretty good, and there are occasional little surprises.
Besides, setting up shrimp traps is just a side task and doesn't take much time.
Shrimp traps are actually a type of ground trap.
However, its structure and function differ from those of a regular fish trap.
A fish trap typically consists of a square metal frame and a net. The net has a slit on the side between the two supports, and the tail end is a sac-like net to hold the catch.
They are generally quite long, ranging from a few meters to tens of meters.
Shrimp traps come in various shapes, including square, cylindrical, and umbrella-shaped, depending on personal preference.
Moreover, the opening size is carefully designed to both catch large lobsters and prevent small fish from accidentally getting inside.
Since it's called a shrimp trap, its main purpose is naturally to catch shrimp.
Because shrimp are quite sensitive, shrimp traps are designed with fine mesh to effectively trap them.
The shrimp traps they bought were square.
Collecting shrimp traps is just like collecting ground traps; there's no skill involved. You just pull them up little by little along the rope.
As the shrimp traps gradually emerged from the water, one could vaguely see fish, shrimp, and crabs frolicking inside.
Although they are shrimp traps, it is inevitable that fish and crabs will accidentally wander into them.
He pulled the shrimp traps onto the boat and poured all the shrimp inside into the prepared bamboo baskets.
They have all kinds of goods, and the quantities are quite considerable.
I estimate there's about a pound of mantis shrimp of various sizes, along with some red shrimp and sword shrimp, one blue crab, two stone crabs, and a few small fish...
It's a pity I didn't get to see the little green dragon; that's a bit of a disappointment.
He was also thinking that if there were enough baby lobsters, he could add a special seafood feast to the housewarming banquet, which would be very impressive.
Small green dragons are not cheap; they are very expensive, and most families wouldn't dare to use them for their banquets.
However, this is only the first shrimp trap; there's still a chance.
continue.
The second shrimp trap was similar, except that it contained more sword shrimp and two swimming crabs instead of blue crabs.
Then came the third, the fourth...
As shrimp traps were brought in one by one, the bamboo baskets became increasingly full of shrimp.
When Ah-Can untied the last two fish from the net and tidied up the basket, it was almost full.
"How many shrimp traps have you collected?"
Ah-Can then added with satisfaction, "There's quite a lot of stock. It looks like there are a lot of mantis shrimp and sword shrimp."
Shrimp are never cheap, no matter the time; they are much more expensive than many fish.
"We collected about 20, but unfortunately we didn't see a single small green dragon."
"That's fine too. It's okay if we don't have the small green dragon. It's not like we absolutely have to have that dish."
"I think it's more prestigious to play with a small green dragon in the upper part of the plate, isn't it?"
"That's true, there aren't many families in the village that are that willing to spend money."
Ah-Can nodded. "Aren't there still 30 shrimp traps left? Maybe the next one will be in it."
"I hope so."
Feng Ye smiled and continued pulling on the next shrimp trap.
Ah-chan wasn't in a hurry to sort through the basket of miscellaneous goods, and he didn't need to help with collecting the shrimp traps.
He calmly took out a cigarette and offered one to Feng Ye: "Brother Ye, have one."
Feng Ye took the cigarette, lit it, took a deep drag, and then continued working with it in his mouth.
Ah-Can lit one for himself, leaned against the side of the boat, and watched Feng Ye pull shrimp traps onto the boat while puffing out smoke.
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