Upon arriving at the sea area where the fish traps were to be set, Wu An checked the time; it was almost 9 a.m.
Apart from the minor incident of avoiding the Chen family's trawlers, there were no delays along the way, and we arrived at this sea area almost twenty minutes faster than before.
"Let's get started."
Wu An moored the boat and lowered the anchor.
Nowadays, ships have been upgraded from muskets to cannons, and with automatic winches, people have to save a lot of effort.
Wu An hooked the float up, but instead of immediately securing it to the automatic winch, he tried pulling on it and found that the cage could rotate. After confirming that the cage was not snagged on the bottom, he then secured it to the automatic winch.
With a press of the "switch", the winch starts to rotate.
In no time, the cage was pulled up.
"The water has come out."
"Brother, I saw several blue crabs at first glance."
"Hehe, another great start."
Aqing danced with joy.
Wu Ping laughed and said, "No wonder you came all this way, the resources here are so good."
With an automatic winch, retrieving the cages is very fast; the first row of cages was pulled up very quickly.
"Splash!"
Ah Qing carried the fish trap and dumped all the catch onto the deck, piling it up into a small hill.
Mantis shrimp, blue crab, and sea snails are all relatively common seafood.
Ah Qing was happy, but not surprised.
Wu Ping, who was on his first voyage, was overjoyed to see the mountain of seafood piled up on his face.
Now I completely understand why Wu'an and Aqing were in such a hurry to go to sea. If it were him, he would be anxious too.
"Brother, stop standing there and get to work!" Wu An shouted, tossing over a small stool made of a few planks.
Wu Ping sat down and picked up a rubber band to tie it up.
Besides shrimp and crabs, there are several kinds of sea snails, including whelks, conchs, and yellow whelks, with prices varying from high to low.
There wasn't time to break them down so meticulously, so Aqing picked out all the snails and put them in a box. The box was full, and it must have weighed at least ten or twenty pounds.
The two men stood guard over the mountain of seafood, tying it up on either side of it.
Wu An then operated the automatic winch to begin raising the second row of ground cages.
The second cage was also good.
There weren't many shrimp and crabs, but there were plenty of sea snails.
Especially the conch shells, which, when poured out of the cage, slammed onto the deck with a crackling sound.
There were plenty of yellow snails, but not many flower snails.
Regardless of the type of snail, the sheer quantity of harvested snails brought smiles to everyone's faces that were impossible to hide.
Wu An glanced at the shrimp and crabs that were still mostly untied and said with a smile, "If every cage from now on were filled with conch shells, it would actually save us a lot of trouble."
Wu Ping nodded in deep agreement.
Tying up so many shrimp and crabs is tiring and boring, with absolutely no fun involved.
Aqing suddenly exclaimed, "Ouch!"
"Damn it, this blue crab actually came up behind me and pinched my butt."
As he said this, he jumped up, with a large blue crab dangling from his rear end.
Wu An quickly stepped in and helped pull the blue crab off.
Aqing rubbed her bottom and said with lingering fear, "Luckily, the skin wasn't broken."
Wu Ping was also in a flurry of activity, as the shrimp and crabs were running around and crawling everywhere.
"Ah An, let's haul up the third cage later. This batch has yielded such a huge catch." Wu Ping quickly gathered them up, laughing and complaining, "I feel like even a trawler might not have this much of a catch."
Wu An laughed along with him.
Although the harvest was pleasing, it wasn't actually much better than usual.
The main problem is that fishing boats have been equipped with advanced technology, which allows them to quickly raise the cages, thus highlighting the shortage of manpower.
But finding the right people is difficult.
It took quite a while to tie up the shrimp and crabs before they were finally secured. Then they were thrown into the net cage and placed in the live fish tank to be kept alive.
Although tying up the shrimp and crabs was quite strenuous, they did it with great enthusiasm.
Wu An continued to set up traps, and the third trap yielded a good harvest, including shrimp, crabs, and sea snails, similar to the first trap.
The smiles on everyone's faces deepened.
There's not much to say, so I squatted down and continued sorting and bundling.
I'm really tired.
But in this situation, I'd be willing to die from exhaustion.
Wu An continued setting up the trap.
The fourth basket had few conches, but lots of shrimp, which are the most common type of shrimp this season.
The price is actually quite reasonable.
Wu An isn't picky; as long as there's enough quantity and weight, he can make money even if the price isn't high.
The shrimp are actually easier to handle; he can simply move them into the net cages and keep them in the live fish tank by himself.
While he finished his work, Aqing and Wuping also finished sorting the third cage.
Next, basket after basket was brought up, each basket containing plenty of shrimp, crabs, and sea snails.
However, there wasn't a single baby green dragon in all those cages, which left Wu An somewhat disappointed.
It looks like the wool in this place is almost gone.
We need to move to a different location next.
It's not that he had some kind of luck boost, that he could just throw something into the sea and catch a lot of seafood.
It still depends on the location and the timing.
For example.
The same trap with added luck value will yield different profits depending on whether you catch a trap of small green dragons or a trap of stone crabs.
However, your luck points will also eventually run out.
Aqing and Wuping were very satisfied with today's harvest, their faces beaming with uncontrollable smiles.
Especially when the last basket they brought up was full of ordinary sea snails, they were overjoyed.
Sea snails only require a little picking and choosing, unlike shrimp and crabs which are much more tiring to prepare.
Therefore, conch is cheaper than shrimp and crab, but with so much seafood today, you can already make a fortune.
It's already noon. The main problem is that we received a lot of shrimp and crabs today, which took a while. Especially with crabs, if they're not tied up properly, there's no way to handle them.
Aqing took out a cigarette case from her pocket, but several times she couldn't bring herself to take out the cigarettes.
My hands were trembling.
Wu An couldn't bear to watch any longer and took out the cigarettes for him, but he couldn't light them no matter how many times he tried.
Aqing asked, "Brother, why are you swaying like that?"
Wu An's expression changed: "It's not me rocking, it's the fishing boat rocking, the wind has picked up."
Wu Ping said, "A'an, hurry up and start the boat."
"Let me light a cigarette for Aqing."
Wu An nodded, tossed aside his cigarette, and started the engine.
Aqing said, "Brother Ping, I can do it myself."
Wu Ping said, "Come on, you were the one who bound the most people when we logged off earlier, and now your hands look like you have Parkinson's. And now that the storm is brewing again, I'll take over..."
After a while, Ah Qing lit a cigarette and squatted on the ground, enjoying it immensely.
Wu Ping squatted down next to him, his expression somewhat serious: "Aqing, why are you so calm?"
Ah Qing, her nostrils flaring, said, "What's there to be so upset about? I've got my brother here."
After saying that, she even blew out a puff of smoke from her eyes, instantly exuding a relaxed vibe.
Wu Ping couldn't relax at all; the joy of the bumper harvest was directly blown away by the wind and waves into the sea.
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