Back to the small fishing village in 1982

Chapter 1851 The Peculiar Fart
The giant squid moved its three tentacles, the suckers on them clinging tightly to the gunwale, and it moved little by little, making a "snap snap" sound as it sucked.

Immediately afterwards, the other tentacles also attached themselves to the ship's side, climbed up the ship's edge, and reached onto the deck.

Its body slowly moved from the water's surface onto the deck.

The workers huddled together in their rest huddle, peering out through the small windows.

Ye Yaodong, A Zheng, the captain's first mate, and the second mate were all looking down from the wheelhouse, their eyes wide open, afraid of missing anything.

"They actually made it up..."

"Putting it in the sea is no different from putting it on the deck; we'd just lose half the package."

Ye Yaodong was also a little regretful. He should have just put it on the deck. He only thought of putting it in the sea to take a gamble.

If you throw it into the sea, it will dive straight into the water and never look back.

Even if the net opening faces the sea, it cannot be too far from the ship's side. After all, the fish collection bag net opening needs to be manually untied by workers, and if the fish collection bag is too far from the sea, the workers will not be able to reach it.

When it lands on the water, it stays right next to the fishing boat. With such long tentacles, if it touches the boat even slightly, the suction cups on it will attach to the hull and it will climb straight up the pole.

Climbing onto the ship was inevitable; the only thing to do was to buy the workers more time to hide and avoid any injuries from a head-on collision.

"Dongzi, what if it climbs up to our building?"

"Pah, stop jinxing me. Go get me the camera. I have to keep an eye on things. I'm busy and can't leave."

"I don't want to leave either..."

Ye Yaodong glared at him.

"Okay, okay, I'll go get it for you."

At this moment, the entire giant squid had climbed onto the deck and was crawling and turning around on it, its sticky mucus covering the entire deck.

After getting the camera, he snapped two photos of the ferocious-looking creature, waiting to photograph the live one, since he could photograph the dead one anytime.

It was still quite lively, with its tentacles outstretched; this giant squid covered the entire deck.

Some boxes, tools, and other miscellaneous items were swept around by its tentacles, falling and rolling all over the boat.

A tentacle swept across a pile of empty fish baskets, and several plastic baskets shattered or deformed instantly under the pressure of the suction cup.

This mollusk is wreaking havoc on the deck, attacking indiscriminately.

Fortunately, no one remained on the deck.

"Dongzi, should we fire a few shots at it and see if we can kill it and keep it alive?"

"Can it be kept alive? It will definitely go mad before it dies, and it's easy for it to fall into the sea when it goes mad."

"So, all these big guys climbed up here, were they just going to watch the cooked duck fly away?"

Ye Yaodong stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Actually, I'm wondering, how did the other giant squid die?"

"How else could they have died? Either they died in the water or they died when they surfaced."

Hearing this, he began to think about it.

"Yes, they either die in the water and are accidentally pulled out, or they die on the surface. Isn't that the same behavior as deep-sea fish?"

Different water depths result in different air pressures. When deep-sea fish come ashore, the air pressure on the shore is much lower than the pressure in the deep water. The internal pressure of deep-sea fish is greater than the external air pressure, so they will die from ruptured swim bladders.

A good example is ribbonfish. You often see ribbonfish with ruptured bellies because of air pressure, which causes the swim bladder to burst. Of course, some ribbonfish are intact.

So after Ye Yaodong watched the giant squid climb onto the boat, he started thinking about how the other one died.

However, it cannot be ruled out that some large fish can still automatically adjust the air pressure after surfacing.

He looked at the giant squid slowly moving on the deck and said, "I'm thinking..."

Before he could finish speaking, he saw the giant squid's grayish-purple body slowly turning white.

Suddenly, the funnel tube located below its head contracted sharply, spraying out a large amount of blue-purple ink, which sprayed directly onto the bulkhead and deck.

Unlike ordinary squid, its ink doesn't spread in the water. Instead, it's viscous like paint, spreading across the deck and emitting a strong ammonia smell. The people on the deck were immediately made to tear up by the fumes.

"Holy crap, poison gas!"

"Damn, they didn't even warn us before releasing this poison. It stinks terribly, it's as bad as fish meal."

"Ugh, the smell is giving me a headache, where's my mask...?"

Ye Yaodong was wearing a sun hat, the kind that could cover his mouth, nose and neck, but even with his mouth and nose covered, he still felt a fishy stench.

After spraying out a large amount of ink, it lay motionless on the deck, its clawing tentacles quieting down, and its body turning grayish-white, remaining unchanged thereafter.

This scene left everyone dumbfounded.

It only took a few minutes from start to finish.

"Dongzi..."

"boss……"

"What happened? Is he dead?"

Ye Yaodong also watched the bizarre scene on the deck. "Dead? Could he really be dead? Did he spit out ink and empty himself before he died?"

He had never encountered this situation before, nor had he ever heard of it being possible.

This giant squid is extremely rare, and no one knows the specifics of this creature. He was just thinking about it casually, and he really didn't dare to imagine that he could get another one.

Surprisingly, this creature shares the same habits as most deep-sea fish.

Deep-sea fish are accustomed to living in the deep sea, where the concentration of seawater is relatively high. To maintain the balance between their internal and external bodies, their cytoplasm concentration is higher than that on land.

If removed from the water, the osmotic pressure of the intracellular fluid becomes too high, causing the cells to absorb a large amount of water, swell, and die.

"This person must be really dead."

"The color has changed. It's exactly the same as the dead one we pulled up earlier. When it was alive, it was grayish-purple. It's definitely dead."

"What do you call this, getting something without any effort at all!"

"Hahaha, I originally thought that if we couldn't afford to live, we could only die, but I didn't expect that this one would also die."

"I went down and took a closer look; it's definitely not an act."

Everyone went down to the deck, pinching their noses tightly—it stank so badly.

The entire deck was a mess, covered in squid slime and a large splatter of ink, emitting a strange, pungent odor somewhere between rotting fish and ammonia.

As you get closer, the scent becomes even stronger.

"Why does it smell so bad? We need to tell them to wash the deck first."

Luckily, they were all wearing rain boots, otherwise there wouldn't have been anywhere to put their feet down.

"He really is dead beyond dead."

"They die pretty quickly, don't they? They just die without a sound."

The workers who had been hiding also came out to see them coming down to the deck; they couldn't hold back any longer.

They weren't sure when to come out, and even when they saw that the King Squid had already collapsed and was not moving, they didn't dare to run out.

"Holy crap, it stinks terribly..."

"How could this person suddenly die?"

"How could he die just from spitting out a mouthful of ink? He was perfectly fine before, crawling around everywhere."

"This is quite an easy win; I thought they were going to escape..."

Everyone gathered around, watching and whispering, all quite surprised. They had learned a lot today and had more to brag about.

Ye Yaodong had already taken two close-up photos and said, "It's getting dark. Luckily, we escaped unharmed. Let's measure this squid and record the data. Then we'll move it to the refrigerated hold and rinse the deck, otherwise the smell will be too unpleasant. There's still a whole net of fish waiting to be hoisted up."

As soon as he finished speaking, people started shouting to get to work, and everyone gathered around to watch the measurements.

Ye Yaodong added, "It should be said that this one is quite resilient. Didn't the other one die in the fishing net? This one is better off; it managed to climb onto the boat a few times before dying."

"They died at just the right time. I wonder how much I could sell two of them for?"

"Dongzi, you sold it for around 1000 yuan back then, didn't you?"

“That was more than ten years ago. Back then, the salary was only twenty or thirty yuan a month. Let’s take these two back first.”

"Then wouldn't one of these cost tens of thousands of yuan now?"

"One will be donated to the Institute of Oceanography, and the other will be auctioned off. Whichever institution bids the highest price will receive it."

Ye Yaodong had already figured out how to handle and arrange the two he could get his hands on.

One is used as a contribution, and the other is used to make money; anyway, I heard it doesn't taste good.

With a little publicity, their company's reputation can be further enhanced.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you're really willing to donate?"

"Is there anything you can't bear to part with?"

He doesn't really lack money now; what he wants now is fame and social status. He wants to make more contributions and gain more prestige.

"If it were me, I wouldn't be able to bear it."

"That's because you haven't accumulated enough wealth yet, so of course you'll feel bad about donating it. If I were penniless, who would donate to me? I'd definitely keep it to make money for myself."

"You've always been really lucky."

"That's right, I've always been very lucky."

He tells people every day that he's lucky, which is a kind of metaphysics.

People who constantly complain about their bad luck are definitely not going to have good luck.

People who constantly talk about good luck will not only become deeply immersed in this psychological suggestion themselves, but others will also believe it after hearing it a lot. Under the effect of the power of word of mouth, they will really have smooth sailing and rise steadily.

After the workers were assigned tasks, they worked according to their original shift schedules, with one person taking their turn to work. Some washed the deck, while others hung the nets, and the orderly process was restored.

They were also eating at mealtimes, but having been on edge the whole time, they didn't really care about eating.

There were still dozens more bags of fish left in the net. We had only caught three bags when we brought up those two big squid.

The fish collection bags were lowered one by one, and they were still not finished hanging up by night.

This is true for almost every net, since there's a lot of cargo and there's always a process involved in collecting and storing the goods.

It was his turn to be on duty tonight. As the bags of fish in the nets were hoisted up one by one and scattered on the sorting table, Ye Yaodong saw more than twenty yellowfin tuna, each over a meter long. This was a rare and valuable catch.

The resources in the high seas have allowed him to catch quite a few good catches over the past few months, with frequent sightings of yellowfin tuna and bluefin tuna.

After all the fishing nets were brought in, everyone quickly tidied up and waited to be directed to cast the nets again.

Every day I do the same things, follow the same processes, the only differences are the results and the occasional unexpected events.

Ye Yaodong was sitting in the cockpit, originally scanning for schools of fish, thinking of finding a large group and then accurately targeting them with his net, but he detected a group of strange echoes.

He frowned, staring at several screens as he pondered the source of the echo.

The sound didn't seem to come from a school of fish.

"Dongzi, there's a school of fish! Can we head southeast and then notify them to set the nets?"

"The detected echo is incorrect; it seems to be metallic noise."

"Metallic noise? What is that? Is there metal underwater? A submarine?" Ah Zheng was startled by his own guess.

After all, they are in international waters now. If they really encounter some kind of metal submarine, he thinks it's not so bad, but the thought is still quite frightening!

"Continue to observe and see. If you encounter any unclear situations, do not cast the net yet, so that you will not have time to deal with the situation after the net is cast."

"I understand, I've learned another lesson."

"That's why I made you pay tuition. See, everything I told you was useful."

"Keep an eye on things, Teacher Ye."

Ye Yaodong was very pleased and smiled as he looked at the screen again.

"Drive to the area where the sonar detected the abnormal echo, get closer, and see if there are any new discoveries."

"What if this were a submarine from another country?"

"It's just a submarine, what's the big deal? Let him dive, I'll hunt, as long as we don't get close to him. Besides, I haven't set up a net yet, and even if I did, they're not blind, they'll naturally avoid it."

Ye Yaodong only found it strange, but he wasn't too worried. After all, this was in international waters, so it was normal for submarines from other countries to appear here, since this area didn't belong to any particular country.

However, this place is still bound by international conventions; otherwise, any minor incident could easily escalate into a diplomatic incident.

"There seem to be quite a few strange and unexpected things happening in the high seas?"

“You’ve missed out on so much these past two months. Next time I go out to sea, you should stay there as long as you can. The longer you stay, the more knowledgeable you’ll become, and the better you’ll be able to handle anything that comes your way.”

"Sigh, I have to stay whether I want to or not, otherwise I'll be at sea for another six months when I set sail."

The fishing boat continued to move forward, and the boatswain on deck, who had been waiting for the order to cast the nets, was somewhat puzzled. He ran over and asked, "Boss, why haven't you cast the nets yet?"

"There's something unusual going on. Let's investigate first. There's no rush. You guys wait for further instructions on the deck. If you haven't received any instructions yet, help the others sort the cargo."

"alright, got it."

Ye Yaodong maneuvered the fishing boat, and the closer they got to the sonar detection range, the louder the echo became. He also saw that the red dot on the display screen had spread out for twenty or thirty kilometers, which was clearly a sign of encountering a large school of fish.

After getting closer and getting a clearer look, he slapped his thigh.

"Holy crap, it's a school of herrings!"

"That stinky herring from that canned stinky fish?"

"Yes, that's right. Holy crap, I thought it was some kind of metallic echo, but it turns out it's coming from a school of herring. There's a huge school of herring ahead, probably stretching for twenty or thirty kilometers."

It's quite a spectacle that hundreds of millions of fish can spread out for twenty or thirty kilometers. If this were near the coast, he would have jumped into the water and gone diving to take a look.

However, when he picked up his binoculars and looked out at the sea, he could still see the entire long river shimmering with silver light beneath the surface.

These are the silvery lights emitted by the herring school. The herring school is large enough that the silvery light emitted by the group together looks like the Milky Way reflected on the sea surface. It is particularly conspicuous in the dark night, sparkling and shining with silver light.

Ah Zheng was still puzzled, "How can a school of herrings produce a metallic echo? Is the detector wrong, or did you misidentify it?"

Do you know what an echo is?

Before he could respond, Ye Yaodong continued, "The echo is their farts. Hundreds of millions of fish gather together, spreading for twenty or thirty kilometers. Imagine how much impact they would have if they kept farting there? How big of an echo would that be?"

So many herrings gathered together, one might think there's some semblance of decorum, but in reality, it's not. For the herring community as a whole, only those who can fart together stay together.

A good friend is one you can fart with!

When night falls, herrings desperately need another way to compensate for their lack of vision. So they fart at a rate of ten times per second to notify their companions to find them by sound.

So he detected the strange metallic echo from afar and wondered what it was. Turns out it was just a fart, no, hundreds of millions of farts.

Most fish have a swim bladder, which is like a balloon placed inside the body. It can be inflated and deflated by control, helping fish control the amount of buoyancy and maintain a certain depth in the water. When dried, it is called fish glue.

Herring's swim bladder has a very rare second function: storing air for farting.

It's an amazing feature; they can even understand each other instantly and join together.

Ah Zheng's eyes widened in disbelief. "This fish can fart? No wonder it's that infamous canned herring."

"The fish can even make 'ribbit' sounds."

"I know, I've heard yellow croakers croak all the time, that's nothing special, but farting is quite a surprise."

"We're about to take it offline. I'll drag a net up in a bit and show you how it farts."

"Ah! It really can be brought up, and then let it fart?"

"of course."

"Holy crap, Dongzi, how do you know everything? You can do everything? Even such niche things?"

"Pshaw, what's the big deal? I'm very knowledgeable, you're just ignorant."

"Then let's try it later. Once you have some live ones, you can demonstrate for me."

"The net probably won't be up until tomorrow morning."

Ah Zheng's anticipation had been piqued, and he picked up his binoculars and stared intently at the shimmering silver sea ahead.

Now that it had been confirmed that it was a school of herring, Ye Yaodong pressed the broadcast button on the ship.

"Attention on deck, prepare to cast the net at a depth of 100 meters. Ahead lies a school of herring stretching for twenty to thirty kilometers."

"receive."

The fishing net slowly flowed into the water along the slide and sank into the sea.

Tonight they'll be fishing around this one school of herring, but they still need to be extra vigilant. After all, there are two people on duty, and if one gets sleepy, the other can take a nap.

Seeing that he was in high spirits, Ye Yaodong sat half asleep in the chair.

He only came to his senses when the nets were being pulled in at dawn, and then issued the order to haul them in.

Without a doubt, 80% of the fish in the net were herring. When they were pulled up, everyone heard a fart sound that was comparable to that in a war movie.

The crew was stunned when they heard this, as the ship was still in the water and hadn't been hoisted up yet.

"what sound?"

"Did these fish emit this?"

"Why does it sound like thunder when they're all mixed together?"

"That's the sound of the fish farting. When fish gather together, it sounds like thunder."

"When we first started hauling in the nets, we heard a sound that kept getting louder and louder. Some of them, who are hard of hearing, even said I was hard of hearing. Turns out it was the sound of the fish spitting out their farts..."

"It really is the farting sound coming from these fish, how amazing."

Ah Zheng clicked his tongue as he looked at the fish floating on the sea surface; they were densely packed with silvery herring.

It was time for the shift change, and everyone looked on in amazement. During the shift change, they even chatted for a few words.

After the two finished their shift, they went down to the deck to watch the workers hoist the cargo.

Ye Yaodong said he would demonstrate, so he grabbed a still-lively herring.

"Watch closely and I'll demonstrate for you."

He quickly moved the fish toward Ah Zheng's face and pressed it on the swim bladder.

That's incredible! The series of farts was fast, powerful, and loud, heading straight for the front door.

"Ha ha ha ha……"

"Holy crap, what are you doing...?"

"Aren't you curious and want to know? I'll give you a firsthand experience, you'll just hear the sound anyway."

"I already know..."

"This kind of comparison will make a deep impression on you."

"Get out of here, uncle."

The two were laughing and joking around energetically early in the morning, showing no signs of having stayed up all night.

When Ye Yaodong pressed down, it was like the herring was in danger, so it squeezed out a series of high-frequency farts.

Ten farts a second, hahaha, that's pretty productive, and it keeps going until death.

This isn't because the herring was scared out of its wits, but rather it's a unique escape technique. They can release a fast and powerful fart and dart away a long distance with a "whoosh," and the series of bubbles can also confuse their enemies.

By using the special ability of "nitrogen" to accelerate, herrings can successfully escape the predators.

Unfortunately, it's not in the water now; it's on the shore and Ye Yaodong has its life in his grasp, so it can only keep farting.

Ye Yaodong tossed the fish in his hand onto the sorting table, clapped his hands, and said, "Let's go eat, then go to sleep."

"I'll eat your head."

"Not eating anymore? Haha, got full from the herring's farts?"

"roll."

(End of this chapter)