Back to the small fishing village in 1982

Chapter 1850 The King Squid
The next morning, the sky had returned to its clear blue, with the fiery red sun on the horizon reflecting on the sea as if it were plated with gold.

It's as if yesterday's torrential rain was just a dream, with the two days before and after being at opposite extremes.

The regrouped fleet resumed normal fishing operations.

Catching fish for one more day means earning one more day.

As is customary, Ye Yaodong would offer incense to Mazu early in the morning and then look around from the deck.

"The weather is calm today."

"That means I'm not particularly unlucky."

“If you’re like Ah Guang before, I can’t let you on the ship.”

Ah Zheng laughed heartily without any regard for his image, "Hahahaha...that makes sense. If he's still like he was more than ten years ago, with his luck always just a little bit off, I can't partner with him."

With someone to vent to, the two instantly became harmonious.

Aside from encountering Xiao Maozi and Xiao Rizi's boat when he first arrived in the East China Sea, Ye Yaodong hadn't met any other fishing boats since. It's indeed quite difficult to find a boat on the vast ocean.

However, that same night, they detected another fishing boat. They didn't try to identify which country it belonged to, as the lighting conditions were poor at night, and only radar could detect it from a distance.

Everyone immediately became alert, and the captain used the high-frequency radio to call out: "Chinese fishing boats are operating, please keep your distance!"

They kept repeating this phrase over and over again. After more than ten minutes, the fishing boat slowly drifted away and eventually disappeared from the radar's detection range.

Ye Yaodong was surprised. "This time, the ship is quite sensible; it didn't pretend to be deaf and dumb."

"Yeah, it's unbelievable that they just left like that. I thought they would stubbornly stay."

"This shows that there are still fishing boats that know what to fear; after all, we have more boats and the upper hand."

“Under normal circumstances, most people wouldn’t approach if they detected so many foreign fishing boats here, unlike that group of crazy people we encountered last time.”

"It's good that they've left. Let's go catch our own."

It wasn't their turn to take over yet, so he was on the deck, looking around and inspecting everything, from the engine room to the refrigeration tanks and the fishmeal processing line on the lower deck.

He's afraid there might be something overlooked or not done properly, so every now and then, whenever he has a spare moment, he has to go and take a look around.

By the time he finished his rounds, it was almost noon, so he went to the restaurant to see what delicious food was available for lunch.

"Brother Dong, at the four o'clock position, there is an abnormal accumulation at the edge of the cold water mass, and the thickness is... more than one hundred meters."

The screen of the fish finder glowed green in the dim light, displaying a huge spot of light that stretched from 180 meters to 260 meters below the sea surface. The spot was irregularly shaped and had tiny, tentacle-like extensions along its edges.

"The echoes transmitted by the sonar are large single-cell signals, which may be from a large fish."

"What is the water temperature gradient?" Ye Yaodong asked.

"The surface temperature is 25.8℃, but it drops sharply to 16.2℃ at a depth of 80 meters, a temperature difference of nearly 10 degrees. I wonder if the confluence of warm and cold water brought up large organisms from the deep layers."

"Catch it! Lower the net a little and get closer to the target. Now that we've detected it, there's no reason not to catch it. Since it's moving, it must be alive, and that's enough."

If it's not moving, it might be a shipwreck, metal scrap, or large building material waste.

"alright, got it."

The fishing boats are operating in an orderly manner, but hauling in the nets won't be quick; it will be afternoon, and by the time all the catch is hoisted up, it will be at least evening.

The captain adjusted the direction of the net opening, slowly moving it towards the echo from the sonar, while maintaining normal fishing operations. He kept his eyes on the surrounding screens, ready to respond to any unexpected situations.

Ye Yaodong, bored, looked around with his binoculars. The monotonous months had made him restless; he hadn't been to sea for too long and was feeling a bit out of sorts.

It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality.

He'd been living a comfortable life for too long, and now he couldn't handle hardship anymore.

Fortunately, he expects to be able to return by this month at the latest. There are no exceptions in any year when there are no typhoons in August, September and October; the only difference is the strength of the wind.

However, any typhoon will have an impact, as the wind and waves at sea are unpredictable and natural disasters are often unavoidable.

Just as the sun was about to set in the afternoon, the sonar monitoring personnel suddenly ran over and shouted, "Captain, boss, there's a large creature struggling violently in the net!"

The sonar operator's voice carried a hint of tension, "It's not the collective movement of a school of fish, it's... the rolling of a single, enormous object!"

Ye Yaodong, leaning against the railing on the wheelhouse, was the first to hear it. He calmly asked, "Is that a large fish?"

“It doesn’t look like it,” he ran up to report. “The big fish we caught before didn’t make this much noise, and the big fish we caught before were all in schools. This one is a single huge object rolling around inside, and it looks like it’s about to break through the fishing net.”

"Oh? Then let the captain haul in the nets; it should be ready to be pulled up soon."

"Okay, then I'll continue with the testing."

Only after hearing this did the captain order the nets to be pulled in, and all the workers on deck sprang into action.

However, during the process of hauling in the net, the steel fishing boat was dragged slightly to starboard by a huge single object underwater.

As the fishing nets were gradually pulled up and slowly floated to the surface, everyone stared wide-eyed as a huge shadow rolled inside the net.

They had set up searchlights beforehand, the beams of light piercing through the seawater and vaguely illuminating several brachiated shadows beneath the surface, each thicker than an adult's waist, writhing like giant pythons in the net.

Ye Yaodong's eyes widened as he looked down and clearly saw that it was a giant squid!

The first thing to emerge from the water wasn't a fish, but a grayish-purple squid tentacles that were 6 meters long and covered with large suckers. If you included its tentacles, it would be over ten meters long.

It suddenly leaped out of the water, baring its teeth and claws, and waved helplessly in the air, making a wet, sticky "plop" sound as its suckers opened and closed.

The long squid tentacles squeezed out of the fishing net and stretched out onto the sea surface, striking the water without any restraint.

The crew members on deck were stunned. They had never seen such a large squid before, and they exclaimed in amazement.

"Holy crap, what kind of monster is this...? It's so big..."

"Look at those flying tentacles, it should be a squid, but is this squid really that big? These tentacles are thicker than me."

"My goodness, it really looks like a squid! Are there really squid this big in the world?"

"My goodness, I've learned something new. I'm not even as long as a small piece of its squid tentacles."

"This thing is still alive. If we fish it up, its whiskers could easily wrap around us and strangle us to death!"

"We probably can't kill such a big one; squid are incredibly resilient. But if we don't hoist it up, it's impossible for it to stay in the net forever..."

"My goodness, it really is a squid, its eyes are bigger than light bulbs."

As the view became clearer, everyone grew increasingly shocked and excited.

Ah Zheng excitedly shouted, "Dongzi, didn't you pick up one like this before? You sold it to Hong Wenle later."

"Yes, but the one I found back then was dead. The one in the fishing net is alive. You can't keep a live one. It's so big, how could you kill it?"

After Ye Yaodong finished speaking, he shouted over the ship's loudspeaker, "Don't be surprised. Do what needs to be done. Hoist it up first. We can't subdue or kill it alive. If it wants to run away, let it run."

"No, I need to go down and take a look."

It's so big, it's scary to look at. Those tentacles could easily wrap around a person and throw them into the sea.

The dead can still be kept, but the living are truly unbearable.

After receiving the notification, the workers quickly and efficiently got to work, feeling as if they had regained their energy.

Immediately afterwards, the entire net bag was lifted off the water.

As it spun five meters above the deck, the crew's screams were ripped apart by the sea breeze, and inside the net bag, there was even a dead giant squid.

The one that was still alive was still thrashing about in the sea, while the one that was pulled up filled most of the fishing net and remained motionless.

"Damn, there are two of them."

Ye Yaodong was also shocked. "Two of them, one dead and one alive, awesome."

The captain was surprised and delighted. "That means if we let one live one run back into the sea, we can still bring back a dead one?"

"That's right."

"No wonder the sonar operator just ran over to report that there was a large creature struggling violently inside the net. It was probably a large, solitary individual. I was right, there really was only one large squid, not a school of fish."

"What incredible luck! I was just thinking about how we'd already caught one, such a huge giant squid, but then a dead one just delivered itself to our doorstep." Ah Zheng's eyes were full of envy; he was practically sick of saying how envious he was.

Ye Yaodong said with some pride, "Tsk tsk tsk, I've always been very lucky."

The giant squid that died in the fishing net had a dull brick-red body, which is the color of the pigment cells after death when they lose their activity.

It was clearly a different color from the one that was still baring its teeth and claws as it poked its head out of the fishing net.

As soon as the workers quickly untied the fish collection bags, the giant squid fell directly from the sorting table onto the deck with a splash.

Its size is so enormous that the sorting table simply cannot accommodate it.

The workers all gasped in surprise.

"This is too big..."

"What's this squid called?"

"This could probably be called a sea monster. I've never seen anything like it in my life."

Ye Yaodong pressed the broadcast button and shouted, "This is called a giant squid. It's a rare catch that can only be found at the bottom of the deep sea. You might never catch one in your lifetime. Everyone here is very lucky."

"Now, take a measuring tape, measure the length and width, and record the body measurements and weight that we just added."

"Don't hang the rest of the fishing net yet. First, process this squid and move it to the freezer, then continue."

The boatswain shouted, "Roger!"

The giant squid has two enormous eyes, each the size of a basketball, which remain a deep black even in its dead state, as if reflecting the starlight of the deep sea.

Bathed in the afterglow of the sun, the details of this deep-sea behemoth amazed everyone, and we all learned something new today.

Before long, the boatswain measured the giant squid and found that its body tube was 4.8 meters long, its tentacles were 5 meters long, and it weighed 158 kilograms. It was truly a giant squid.

It can certainly be considered a sea monster, especially the one still alive on the surface of the sea.

He could hardly imagine what it would look like if it were hoisted up and placed on the deck.

But not hanging it is impossible, unless he doesn't want the remaining catch in the net, nor the net itself.

That's impossible. Such a large fishing net costs tens of thousands of yuan each now. Even if you can afford the loss, you shouldn't do it like that.

"Boss, the initial measurements are complete. Should we move it directly to the cold storage now?"

"Yes, carry it in, then we can reduce the number of people on deck and hoist the rest of the cargo. It would be dangerous if we accidentally hoisted up another live giant squid in one go. Let's evacuate the people first and not have so many people standing on the deck for now."

"receive."

"Those not on duty should quickly return to their rest cabins or the dining hall. Those on duty can carry sticks as weapons, just in case."

"receive."

The crew members sprang into action, some hiding, others searching for weapons. They were all excited, yet also a little scared; it was quite thrilling.

Ah Zheng quickly returned from the deck to the wheelhouse. "Damn, it's huge up close. My heart is pounding. What if they bring it up alive?"

"He's quite afraid of dying; he ran up immediately."

"Definitely. When it's hoisted up and landed on the deck, those tentacles are all bared and clawing. I hope they don't get tangled up in them. Oh my god, just thinking about it is so exciting, so thrilling."

While they were speaking up there, the workers below were both nervous and excited.

When they pulled up another net and saw that there were no giant squid inside, they were relieved for a moment.

After casting one net, they continued to hoist the fish.

The third net finally caught another live giant squid. Its tentacles, like those of a python, were already protruding from the hole in the net and flying in mid-air.

Ye Yaodong suddenly said, "Hang the net on the sea surface, untie the net, and let it fall directly into the sea to reduce the risk."

Since it's all the same anyway, it'll just climb out of the boat and into the sea, so might as well just let it fall into the sea.

It seems that this giant squid, because it was moving around so much, took up a large area, filling half of the net. So losing half a net of fish isn't a big deal.

The fear is that if they fall into the sea, they might get tangled up and climb back onto the fishing boat. One person was hoisted onto the boat, while the other fell into the sea without getting on the boat. The outcome might be the same, just different paths leading to the same end.

The workers on deck checked again to make sure it was placed directly into the sea. They then positioned the net opening towards the sea, untied the drawstring, and loosened the net opening.

"Snapped!"

A net full of fish, big and small, including giant squid, was thrown directly onto the sea surface, creating a wave that splashed onto the faces of the crew members leaning against the edge of the boat.

Meanwhile, the giant squid's tentacles also climbed onto the fishing boat!
"Ah! We made it up!"

Everyone was so shocked that they backed away.

Ye Yaodong quickly shouted, "Quickly go back to the rest cabin and hide!"

The crew reacted quickly and took cover while the giant squid was still climbing onto the ship.

Fortunately, there was still time to react.

(End of this chapter)