Feng Ye crossed his legs, lit a cigarette, and puffed out smoke.
The enclosed driver's cab was filled with the smell of tobacco, and soon it was shrouded in smoke.
The weather was cold, and the sea breeze was biting, so the doors and windows of the cab were all tightly closed.
He could only open a crack from time to time to let in some air and ventilation before quickly closing it again.
While working down below, I didn't feel cold at all, but it was different when I came up here. I wouldn't say I was shivering all over, but at the very least, my hands and feet felt icy cold.
It's fine at midday with the sun shining, but the temperature drops quite a bit in the mornings and evenings, especially when the sea breeze blows, it's absolutely bone-chilling.
Compared to twenty or thirty years from now, the greenhouse effect is not very serious these days, the weather is much colder, and it gets cold much earlier.
Feng Ye was bored sitting alone in the wheelhouse. After eating the late-night snack that Lao Zhao had cooked, he asked his brother-in-law to go up and start the boat.
Ye Chenliang has practiced for so long, it's time to let him practice independently at night.
Feng Ye stayed up there for a while, and feeling reassured that there would be no problem, he went down to the deck.
The boatmen were working hard again, tirelessly catching bomb fish.
He didn't participate, but instead called over a boatman, and the two of them carried the bomb fish from the deck into the fish hold.
It won't be long before the nets are hauled in, and the deck needs to be cleared out.
The trawl net was set down just before 2 p.m., and now it's almost 4 p.m., two hours have passed.
In fact, the main force of the fish had already passed by; what was gathered around the boat now was just a small group of fish attracted by the lights.
If we hadn't thought it would be a waste not to fish, we would have already closed the net.
The two worked together seamlessly, methodically carrying the bomb fish one by one into the fish hold.
After all the bomb fish were in place, Feng Ye thought for a moment and decided to go to the back to collect the net.
Since he was free anyway and didn't want to bother catching bomb fish again, he simply pulled up the net to see how well it had turned out.
He led the boatmen to the aft deck and started the winch.
The winch slowly turned, and the towing line was gradually pulled back onto the ship, also gradually pulling the trawl net toward the side of the ship.
"Ah Ye, this net must have caught a lot of fish. Listen, the winch sounds different, it seems to be working very hard."
"The boatman standing to the side said excitedly, his eyes full of anticipation."
Feng Ye also noticed the slightly heavy sound of the winch, and a surge of excitement welled up in his heart.
"There are definitely a lot of them, but we don't know exactly how many. We've run into a huge school of fish."
"It must weigh at least 10,000 jin."
"There might be more; we'll find out once we collect them."
As the front of the tow line was retracted, a net-reeling machine was installed to load the fishing nets onto the boat.
However, even when less than two-thirds of the net was pulled up, the dense shadows of fish could be seen inside.
With a bluish-brown back and a silvery-white belly, its spindle-shaped body resembles a bomb. What else could it be but a bomb fish?
"Holy crap, we can already see the fish! How many fish must be in the net?"
The boatmen were amazed.
Feng Ye's eyes widened as he secretly estimated the haul from this net.
I still remember that net of pufferfish; the entire trawl net was full, weighing about 150,000 jin (75,000 kg).
So now there's still one-third of the net left to be retrieved, which means this net...
"I estimate it's at least forty or fifty thousand catties, right?"
His voice trembled with excitement.
The bomb fish swarm was so large; he had expected to catch quite a few, but he hadn't anticipated there would be so many.
With such a large weight, even if the bomb fish is cheap, it can still sell for a lot of money.
He quickly turned his head and shouted towards the foredeck, "Stop fishing, come and haul in the net!"
With the fish caught in the trawl net, the meager catch by hand seemed insignificant, and he no longer cared about it.
He and a boatman alone could not haul the net in.
At the same time, he also asked Ye Chenliang to stop the boat and get off to help.
With so many fish, it would take a long time just to hoist them onto the boat, so there's no need to waste diesel fuel.
Upon hearing the shouts, everyone immediately dropped their hand nets or hand-thrown nets and rushed to the aft deck.
Ye Chenliang also turned off the engine and rushed over.
Before he even arrived, his voice came first: "How many fish did Ah Ye (Brother Ye) haul in his net?"
"Many, a lot."
Feng Ye pointed to the fishing nets in the sea, "You can see for yourselves."
Everyone ran to the stern of the boat and stared in disbelief at the school of fish thrashing about in the net.
"This is too much! There's still a long section of the fishing net that we haven't brought in yet."
"Yes, this net has been a huge success."
"Wow, so many! I've never seen so many fish crammed into a single net in my entire life."
"Hehe, this is nothing, we've caught far more in one go."
Ah-chan rubbed his hands together and said with a smug look on his face.
More? How much?
This piqued the curiosity of the four new boatmen, who all pressed for more information.
"150,000 jin (75,000 kg), the entire net was filled; that scene was far more spectacular than this..."
"Stop talking nonsense and get to work."
Feng Ye interrupted A-Can's vivid narration.
Ah-chan laughed awkwardly, "Yes, let's get to work, let's get to work."
"Bring up a bag first, and see if they're all bomb fish."
There are too many fish in the net; it's impossible to catch them all at once.
The ship's crane doesn't have enough power, so it has to be lifted slowly in batches.
Everyone worked methodically, tying the fish collection bags with ropes before starting the crane.
"Get up, get up..."
"It really is mostly bomb fish, there are very few other fish, just a few small fish mixed in."
"As long as there are enough of them, even bomb fish will do..."
Hearing their excited shouts, Feng Ye laughed and said, "What's wrong? You're all so excited, aren't you tired?"
"I'm tired, but seeing so many fish really gets me going."
"Yes, we've never seen so many fish in one net before, of course we're excited."
"My goodness, tens of thousands of pounds..."
Feng Ye reminded them, "No matter how excited you are, you can't stay up all night. Once this package is hoisted up, you should all go to sleep. There's too much cargo in this net; we can't finish it all in a short time. We can't let it all sit here."
"good."
Ah-chan, Luo Zhiping, and the two boatmen who had persevered until now all nodded, but their eyes remained fixed on the slowly rising fish collection bag.
As the fish collection bag gradually emerged from the water, seawater continuously poured out from the mesh, making the densely packed bomb fish inside even more clearly visible.
They huddled together, struggling and jumping desperately.
Once the fish collection bags were hoisted onto the boat and onto the deck, the boatmen immediately went to untie the knots.
As the crane continued to operate, with a "whoosh," the catch inside cascaded down like a waterfall, piling up into a small mountain on the deck. The ship...
"Holy crap, a tuna!"
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