After Wu An finished processing all the fish, he collapsed on the ground, panting heavily.
From the moment he encountered the school of fish until now, he has been working at a high intensity for about two hours.
Killing so many stingrays on site, while having to be careful not to get stung, was really tiring.
After Ah Qing and Mai Hangyu finished their cigarettes, Wu An recovered a little and got up to start the fishing boat.
After hesitating for a moment, Aqing couldn't help but ask, "Brother, we should be able to pack up the longline fishing now, right? How about we go and pack it up before heading back?"
Wu An was slightly tempted, but after thinking about it, he shook his head and said, "No."
"It would be a headache if I caught too much with longline fishing."
"Let's go back and rest early, and then we can set sail early tomorrow."
Aqing nodded: "Brother, you've thought of everything. We'll have to bring more suitcases tomorrow."
Mai Hangyu's lips twitched.
Are you guys serious?
All he could say was... his worries were absolutely justified.
Wu An, now at the helm, said, "You two should take a break."
"We'll be busy when we get to the dock."
Mai Hangyu nodded.
Ah Qing lit a cigarette, and seeing how filthy the deck was, he couldn't stand it anymore, so he got up and went over to tidy it up.
Wu An chopped off the stingray's tail, some of which fell to the side of the boat. He didn't throw them directly into the sea, because it would be dangerous if he accidentally stepped on one.
He found them one by one, gathered them together, and threw them all into the sea.
Seeing that Ah Qing was extremely busy, Mai Hangyu went over to help and tidied up the boxes. The deck looked much cleaner, but there was still a lot of dirt.
Ah Qing pumped the seawater up, rinsed it with seawater first, and then rinsed it with fresh water when they got to the dock.
He is actually a very hardworking person.
He looks like a monkey, but he is actually very hardworking and resilient.
I used to mess around with Wu An, and I almost ruined my life.
Wu An watched silently as Ah Qing turned into a scoundrel, and he felt a great responsibility for it.
If I remember correctly.
In his previous life, after he left his hometown, he didn't know whether Aqing did well or not, but she did better than him.
After finishing their work, Mai Hangyu and A Qing returned to the boat shed. The latter took out his phone, looked at it, and shouted, "Brother, the phone has a signal!"
"Should we go to the village dock or the town dock?"
Wu An replied, "I'll make a call and ask."
I called Lao Fang first and learned that it was a manta ray, so he offered me a price of 16 jin (8 catties).
I called Lao Xie again, and he gave me 15 yuan per jin.
When Wu An heard the price, it was much lower than he had expected, and Lao Fang and Lao Xie both offered explanations.
The fishing season has begun.
With a wide variety of seafood readily available, prices have naturally come down. Stingrays are still in good condition, while the prices of some other fish have dropped by half.
Even so, fishermen can still make money.
If the price isn't enough, make up for it with quantity. As long as you return with a full load, and it's not seafood at an extremely low price, you can always make a profit.
The price offered by Lao Fang and Lao Xie was only one yuan for a round trip, so Wu An was too lazy to go to town. He greeted Lao Fang, but Lao Fang didn't say anything, showing little interest in the manta ray.
Tell Lao Xie to come and pick up the goods.
Old Xie readily agreed.
Wu An rushed back to the dock as fast as he could, and by then the sun was almost sinking into the sea. The sunset was brilliant, but the people busy at the dock had no time to appreciate it.
The docks were unusually lively on the first day of the fishing season.
Fishing boats kept returning, some unloading their cargo, others still unloading. Fishermen, vendors, laborers, and customers stood together, shouting and yelling all around.
Many gourmets eagerly await the first catch of seafood after the fishing season opens.
At this time of year, the seafood at the dock is cheap and fresh, and villagers from all around will come here to buy it. After a hard day's work, they will treat themselves and take it home to enjoy with their families, achieving seafood freedom.
The fishermen returned home with a full catch and made money.
Everyone got to eat fresh and inexpensive seafood.
Everyone benefits.
This is a feast for coastal people.
We arrived at the dock.
Wu An waited for a while before he was able to reach the shore. Before he could even disembark, Lao Xie jumped aboard first, followed by two helpers. They were all quite surprised to see the stingrays in the live fish tank.
"They're all still alive and kicking, not bad, not bad at all." Old Xie beamed and exclaimed, "I have no doubt about A'an's luck. It's perfectly normal for him to encounter a group of manta rays."
"But the fact that you were able to catch so many manta rays is truly beyond my expectations."
"That's impressive."
"Boss Xie is right. This small boat only has three people. I don't think it even has a trawl winch. It seems to only have a few casting nets."
"Can you catch so many manta rays with a net?" Another helper looked doubtful. "Manta rays swim very fast. Even if you're lucky enough to encounter one, it's hard to catch that many."
“Old Xie, you’ve really praised the wrong person.” Aqing chuckled, then glanced at the two helpers and continued, “You’re right, so many manta rays certainly weren’t caught by casting nets.”
"A net was also used."
"Most of them were caught by us using a net."
Upon hearing this...
The three of them, Lao Xie, were even more bewildered.
Mai Hangyu added, "Actually, there are a few more manta rays that jumped onto the fishing boat on their own. The biggest one is still swimming around happily, and it's incredibly strong."
The three men, including Lao Xie, were dumbfounded.
Do you want to hear what you're saying?
"Don't look so skeptical, let me explain."
“We encountered a pod of killer whales. When my brother saw them, his back trembled, and he shouted, ‘This tree is mine, this road is mine, if you want to pass, leave your toll!’”
Mai Hangyu added, "Ahem, it's a toll."
"Oh, right, now it's called a toll. Those orcas were so frightened by my brother that they offered up their dinner, which was a stingray."
"These manta rays are the toll paid by the orca pod."
Mai Hangyu said, "If you ask me, they're still not very sensible. They made us catch them ourselves. They should have just thrown the manta rays onto the boat."
Aqing nodded, indicating that it made sense.
These two had been holding back all the way, and now they were singing in unison, exaggerating their boasts to the heavens.
Wu An was both amused and exasperated.
Old Xie and his two helpers were stunned; they had never heard of such a thing before.
"Holy crap, are they asking orcas to pay them tolls?"
"Really?"
"That's incredible!"
The two helpers couldn't help but shout and yell. They instinctively didn't want to be careful, but seeing so many stingrays, they had to believe it.
Old Xie looked at Wu An.
Wu An met his questioning gaze and said, "At the time, the orca pod was driving away a group of devils, and we just happened to run into them."
"We were lucky; they managed to charter our fishing boat inside."
"We managed to catch so many manta rays while the orcas were feeding."
"This really is a toll," Old Xie clicked his tongue twice and said, "If you were a trawler, you'd make a fortune on this trip."
Aqing pouted and said, "What's the big deal? We can just make them pay a toll next time we encounter a pod of orcas."
Old Xie widened his eyes, then gave a thumbs up: "Damn, that makes sense!"
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