"Finally finished."
A boatman stretched and let out a long sigh of relief.
Feng Ye glanced at the time; it was already past midnight.
It took them more than two hours to sort through the catch from this net.
My back aches from squatting for so long.
"Let's take a break first, and we can finish the rest of the work later."
Feng Ye took out cigarettes and handed one to each of the two boatmen, then leaned against the gunwale, enjoying the sea breeze while smoking.
The two boatmen, however, did not rest. They carried baskets of fish into the fish hold, cigarettes dangling from their lips.
Then, he picked up a shovel and shoveled all the unwanted goods into the sea.
Some of their favorite foods were also saved to cook as a late-night snack.
"It's such a waste to have these miscellaneous fish. If we could store them up and dry them into dried fish, they would be worth a lot of money."
"Who can argue with that? It's just not worth it!"
"Yes, not to mention taking up too much space, over the course of a few days, a lot of ice will be used to keep the fish fresh. The cost will probably be as high as the price of selling dried fish."
"That's true, and even the fish-collecting boats won't accept them. They won't even take them if you offer them to someone else; they can only throw them back into the sea to feed the fish..."
Two boatmen chatted as they swung their shovels.
When these various kinds of fish, shrimp, and crabs were shoveled and thrown into the sea, a splashing sound immediately echoed on the surface of the water.
Feng Ye turned his head and saw that many fish of different sizes were appearing and disappearing on the surface of the water, all fighting over the discarded small fish and shrimp.
The ship's lights were dim enough to illuminate the deck but not the sea.
But one could vaguely see the fish swimming happily, enjoying this unexpected feast.
Feng Ye had an idea. He ran to get a flashlight, turned it on, and shone it on the sea.
The Dong Sheng kept sailing forward, and the flashlight beam moved along with it, causing some fish to follow the beam.
This is due to the phototaxis of some marine fish.
He saw many squid swimming around quickly among them.
It's a pity there's no squid fishing on the boat, otherwise we could have caught some to add to our meal.
The net we hauled in earlier didn't have a single squid in it, but we did get about 20 or 30 pounds of baby squid.
He was sighing when he suddenly froze.
He remembered there were landing nets on the boat!
Although it's not as effortless and precise as squid fishing, it's still enough to catch a few for a treat.
He slapped his forehead: "How could I have done something so stupid? Damn it..."
Then he turned around and shouted, "Go and get the net."
"What's wrong? What's wrong?"
Two boat workers, each carrying a shovel, walked curiously to the side of the boat and peered inside.
"I thought something was wrong, but it turns out there are fish!"
"Ah Ye, isn't this normal? With so many fish and shrimp being dumped into the sea, it's bound to attract a lot of fish to come and feed."
Feng Ye pointed to the spot of light: "Take a closer look, there are squid in there. Take out a net and scoop some up to eat."
"It really is a squid!"
Where should we put the netting?
"It's in the corner of the cabin, leaning against the wall. You'll see it when you go in."
One of the boatmen put down his shovel, turned around and ran to the cabin, and soon came out with two long-handled scoop nets.
Then, the two boatmen each took a landing net, reached into the water and fished in the direction the Dong Sheng was traveling, and laboriously pulled it onto the boat.
Instantly, excited voices rang out.
"There really is squid."
"I caught two."
I have three here.
"Keep going, keep going..."
The fish caught included not only squid, but also anchovies, other small fish, and others.
These small fish are worthless; they only keep the squid and throw the rest back into the sea, then continue catching them.
This is the season when squid are at their fattest and most delicious.
The squid, freshly caught, was still alive, translucent pink with some dark brown spots, somewhat like a crystal-clear jelly.
After they die, their body color will gradually turn grayish-white.
This is also a common phenomenon after most fish die.
"What are you trying to fish out?"
Looking through the glass of the wheelhouse, Ah-Can saw them gathered by the boat, using hand nets to scoop things up from the sea, and asked them curiously.
"Squid! There's a squid attracted by the light."
Feng Ye also shouted loudly.
squid? ?
Ah-Can's eyes lit up, and he wanted to run down immediately.
But he can't leave now; he has to stay in the wheelhouse to drive the boat.
Visibility is poor at night, so someone must always be in the wheelhouse while the ship is sailing.
Unlike during the day, when you have an unobstructed view and can leave briefly.
Although I was incredibly tempted, I had to suppress my urge to peek at it every now and then to ensure navigational safety.
However, his thoughts had already drifted off.
Squid, that's a good thing.
It's delicious when grilled.
If we catch more, we can make squid rings for tomorrow morning.
Thinking of this, a trickle of saliva unconsciously appeared at the corner of his mouth.
On the deck, three people took turns shining flashlights while two others used landing nets to catch fish.
Each net catches only a few, usually two or three, with only occasionally four or five or more.
However, they couldn't stop the relentless fishing.
The number of squid thrown onto the deck was increasing at a visible rate.
Ah-Can watched from the driver's seat as they cast net after net into the sea to catch fish, and the more he watched, the more itchy he became.
Only when he saw that the three of them were swinging their arms as if they were tired did he shout loudly for Feng Ye to come up and start the boat.
This job definitely requires a lot of arm strength.
Even though we could take turns using flashlights, it was still a break.
But after only a few turns, all three of them felt their arms were sore.
Feng Ye then readily agreed to the exchange with A-Can, and went up to the wheelhouse to start the boat.
When Ah-chan went down, he was surprised to see squid scattered all over the deck.
"Wow! That's quite a lot. I didn't expect you guys to scoop up so many in one go."
"It's alright, but the boat is moving, and the resistance is too great when we're trying to retrieve it. We get exhausted after just a few tries."
"Yeah, if only the boat could stop, we could definitely catch more."
The two boatmen spoke, one sentence at a time.
"Stopping the boat just to catch some squid is like picking up a sesame seed and losing a watermelon."
Ah-chan said with a smile, but his eyes were full of longing for the squid.
"However, you've already done very well, managing to collect so much that you can't even finish eating it all."
"Wow, I never expected that the brightness of this flashlight could attract squid."
He picked up the net that Feng Ye had thrown down and reached into the sea to fish it out.
When I pulled it up, I saw two squid and a few small fish and shrimp inside.
"Two are not bad, these squid look quite plump."
He muttered happily to himself as he pulled the squid out of the net and threw them onto the deck, while casually dumping the small fish and shrimp back into the sea.
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