Back to the small fishing village in 1982

Chapter 1852 A letter from home is worth ten thousand dollars

The herring schools stretching for twenty or thirty kilometers should be enough for them to catch for two days, but the marine resources are abundant, so they don't need to put all their eggs in one basket.

Moreover, herring schools are not very valuable; after casting one net, they wait to detect a new school of fish and then chase after it.

Within the operating area, naturally, those with high value will be selected for capture.

The weather had been peaceful for several days, but Ye Yaodong couldn't relax. It was already early August, and he was quite worried about a typhoon. He had to listen to the weather forecast every morning and evening.

Fishing for one more day naturally means earning more money, and they certainly won't easily return unless there are special circumstances.

The calm continued until the middle of the month, during which time the sea remained calm and still, allowing the fish-collecting boats to make a round trip.

At the same time, I'll also bring you news from home.

Ye Yaodong received an extra letter from home, which surprised him. They actually wrote to him!

I hadn't received anything for the first two months, but now I've actually received a letter from him, and he even knew to send it by sea.

He looked on expectantly and asked who had written to him. When he heard it was Lin Xiuqing, he was overjoyed but also thought about his three heartless children who hadn't even bothered to write to him!
However, after thinking about it again, he realized that Ye Xiaoxi was at her hometown and it would be inconvenient for her to write letters and have them delivered to the sea. Ye Chengyang was out early and back late every day on the seafood collection boat in the near sea and probably didn't have the energy. Ye Chenghu was at work and dating every day and probably wouldn't think about his old father.

That's it, after thinking it over, my wife is the most reliable person.

After all, he's someone who's going to be with him for life, so it's good that someone remembers him.

Ah Zheng was envious when he saw that he had received a letter.

"Why do you have letters, but we don't?"

"My wife loves me and cares about me."

"Disgusting and cheesy. At your age, do you still have any love left?"

"Even when I become a decrepit old man, she will still remember me."

Ah Zheng walked away with a look of disgust on his face, feeling a pang of jealousy in his heart.

Ye Yaodong happily took the letter to the rest cabin and read it slowly by himself.

The letter began with some greetings written by A-Qing, followed by the words relayed by the three children, which greatly comforted him.

It turned out that he hadn't written any letters because A-Qing had written them all on his behalf. He was even happier when he realized that everyone had written to him; it felt so good to be remembered.

Ye Chenghu: Dad, I'm working hard at the factory and looking after it for you. Don't worry too much about me at sea. Just be careful and come back as soon as possible. I hope to see you back before school starts.

Ye Chengyang: Dad, I finally understand how hard it is to work at sea and how difficult it is to earn money. Studying is so wonderful. All I have to do is study and I don't have to worry about anything else. I will definitely study hard when the next semester starts.

Ye Yaodong was overjoyed; the two had finally grown up. He continued reading.

Ye Xiaoxi: Dad, I'm still playing in the village. Mom called and asked me if I had anything to say to you or if I missed you. She said she was going to write a letter to you by sea.

There are so many things I want to say to you. I think about you every day, and so does my great-grandmother. Sometimes she knows who I am, and sometimes she gets confused and asks me whose child I am.

I told her that I was Dongzi's child, and she immediately remembered and asked why I hadn't come back yet and when I would be back.
But after she asked, she forgot about it again that evening. When she was eating, she said, "Why didn't you come back for dinner again? Where did you go? You're starving outside all day."

Dad, Grandma looks so pitiful, so old. Why do people have to be born, grow old, get sick, and die...?

I told her on the phone that my mother was writing it down, and then she said I was being too long-winded. But I wasn't being long-winded; I was just expressing my feelings of missing her.

I told my mother she absolutely had to write that sentence down, and not to delete it! She absolutely had to write it down, and I had to make sure she wrote every single word I said. When you come back, bring the letter back and let me see if she wrote that sentence.

She told me to just say a few words, saying that what I said was all nonsense, and that the brothers only had a short paragraph each, and that I should focus on the important points.

I was clearly stating the important points!
Ye Yaodong was amused when he saw this and couldn't help but laugh.

He continued reading: "Dad, the village is so much fun! I had a wonderful summer vacation. It would be even better if you, Mom, and my brothers came back to play together."

School starts at the end of the month, and I'll be going to Shanghai. When are you coming back? Can you come back to pick me up? Can we take Grandma to Shanghai for medical treatment together?
I told my mother to write down everything I said, and to remember to bring the letter back for me to see.

Ye Yaodong was all smiles after reading the letters from the three children.

The next one was written by Lin Xiuqing.

The gist of it is that she has been at sea for several months and has been unable to contact anyone. When she asks others to pass on messages, they can only convey a few words. That's why she thought of writing a letter, writing down everything she wanted to say, and then having the seafood collection ship bring it over.

Writing letters is also convenient; the children can write down whatever they want to say, making it convenient and taking care of everyone.

She also briefly talked about the progress of the work, as well as the renovation progress of the building in Xuhui. There are too many houses, so the renovation will definitely not be that fast, but she will drive over to check the progress almost every other day and then have the person in charge of the renovation and the supervisor report back.

After saying all that, he asked a few more questions out of concern, telling him to write a reply if it was convenient for him, and not to write if it wasn't. He told him to come back soon, be careful, and that whether he made money or not was a small matter; he just needed to come back safely.

He looked at the two short pieces of paper over and over again, spending half an hour on them before carefully folding and putting them into his luggage.

He took out paper and pen and wrote a simple reply. Since he didn't have an envelope at sea, he used the one Lin Xiuqing had brought.

After writing his reply, while the fishing boat was still handling the fish and supplies, he gave the reply to the captain of the next cargo ship that was about to return.

Everyone was incredibly envious of him; he was the only one who received the letter.

Other family members generally don't write letters, knowing that they are at sea and may only return once every few months. They usually only send a message if there is an emergency, and they won't even send a message if there is nothing important.

Lin Xiuqing thought that it would be too much for each of the children to write a message, so that she could write it down in a letter and save others from having to write down what needs to be conveyed.

With so many days to go on the voyage, even if you take notes on the spot, you might forget them as soon as you turn around. After all, what the kids said was mostly nonsense, especially Ye Xiaoxi, who talked at length. How could anyone else possibly repeat what she said?

After Ye Yaodong finished writing the letter, his eyes and brows were full of smiles, and he looked smug wherever he went.

"That's enough, it's just a letter, why are you so happy? It's like you've found a treasure."

"Of course it's like finding a treasure! This is a letter from home. Have you ever heard the saying, 'A letter from home is worth a thousand pieces of gold'?"

"Tch, you're only at a second-grade level, and you think a letter from home is worth a fortune?"

"You're just being sarcastic."

"What am I being so sour about? What's there to be so sour about? Who cares? Do you think everyone has a wife? We're an old married couple, we don't even want to sleep together anymore, what's the point of writing letters? Even your kids haven't thought to write to you."

Ye Yaodong said proudly, "Who said my children didn't write to me? All three of them wrote, and it was all put together in one letter. They dictated it, and Aqing wrote it down for them. It's clear that I'm very important to them!"

Ah Zheng felt even more jealous, wondering why he had asked such a question.
"Okay, okay, you're important, you're amazing. I'm going to eat, are you coming or not?"

"Aren't you going to ask them what they wrote?"

"None of my business."

Ye Yaodong's good mood lasted all day.

During the day, while the fresh ships were being resupplyed, they would also smuggle the cargo over, operating on two fronts simultaneously. Once they had finished smuggling the cargo back to normal fishing, they would resume fishing as usual.

He wasn't on duty today, so he went to bed early. Before going to sleep, he looked at the calendar and was surprised to find that the Ghost Festival had already passed, and none of the people on the boat knew about it.

We didn't care about holidays; every day was just about setting and hauling in the nets and collecting the fish. Everyone was exhausted, so we didn't care about the days.

Working at sea is high-intensity, not only physically demanding but also mentally exhausting, a double whammy of physical and magical attacks.

Ye Yaodong's good mood only lasted for one day. When he woke up the next day, he forced himself to take over the shift with a muddled mind.

"Another tiring day has begun..."

Ah Zheng had only stretched halfway when he heard him say this, and he couldn't continue.

"That makes me feel like I have such a miserable life."

"What's the matter?"

“I don’t know how many more years I’ll be at sea. I’m really afraid I’ll end up like my dad, still working in my 60s. I never even considered working the sea with my dad.”

“My son wrote in his letter yesterday that after a summer at sea, he finally understands how wonderful it is to study, and he also understands how hard I work to earn money. He now cares about me and wants to study hard when school starts again. You see, the more hardship you endure now, the less hardship your son will have to endure later…”

"Damn, let's save it for him to eat."

"..."

“I haven’t enjoyed any happiness myself, and you think you can give it all to him? I’ve suffered all the hardships myself. You wish! I didn’t give birth to him so he could enjoy life. Who gives birth to a son so he can enjoy life? We give birth to sons so that there’s someone in the family who can help support us.”

It seems to make sense.

"Stop rambling and get to work."

"Another miserable day has begun."

"Don't say things like that, it'll affect your luck!"

After taking a sip of strong tea to refresh himself, Ye Yaodong began to keep an eye on the fishing boats at work.

The nets were set at night and haven't been taken in yet. During the handover, they said it was fine to take them in now, but he could decide for himself and needed to observe for a while first.

"Dongzi, the fish finder seems to be almost saturated. The fish signal is stable, and the density has dropped sharply from high."

"Yeah. I know."

Ye Yaodong pressed the ship's public address system to notify the entire ship, "Prepare to haul in the nets."

"Want to be the captain for me later and give orders?"

"Okay, I'll do it all for you." Ye Yaodong was eager for someone to help him with the work. He picked up his thermos and offered his seat to Ye Yaodong.

Ah Zheng crossed his legs and handed him the thermos, saying, "Please fill a cup with hot water and make me some tea."

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes and went to make him some tea.

As the fishing nets were being hauled in and hoisted, they heard the workers on deck exclaim in surprise.

They looked up and saw a huge fish partially visible in the fishing net, and the workers were untying the rope at the net's opening.

A large number of fish fell onto the sorting table with a splash, and one huge fish fell onto the deck with a thud. The sorting table was not big enough to hold them all.

"Ouch..."

"What kind of fish is this big? Dongzi, send you to take a look."

Even if he didn't say it, he would still go down and see.

The fish looked taller than an adult man, even taller than him. It was a giant fish, and more importantly, it wasn't a whale or shark, which made him quite curious.

The workers are also discussing
"Why does it look a bit like a sea bass?"

"I think so too. It's much bigger than a regular sea bass. A normal sea bass weighing 10 jin (5 catties) is already considered very big, but this one must weigh at least 200-300 jin (100-150 kg)."

"It can't be a sea bass, can it? Sea bass don't grow that big."

"Yes, I don't know what kind of fish it is. It's the first time I've caught one."

"Take it away and get it treated first, then ask the boss..."

"The boss is here!"

Ye Yaodong took a closer look with his camera and immediately realized that it was a sea bass, but a giant sea bass, a giant sea bass that lives in the Pacific Ocean.

The fish has a greenish-brown body, a large head and mouth, and looks somewhat like a giant grouper, but also very similar to a sea bass, except that it is huge.

It's estimated to be over two meters long and weighs over 300 kilograms; it's truly a giant bass.

Ye Yaodong told them to scatter, snapped a couple of photos, and then said, "It's a sea bass, a giant sea bass, only found in the Pacific Ocean. Take it away and bleed it."

This giant sea bass has delicious flesh, so it was overfished by foreigners and was on the verge of extinction around the 1980s and 1990s. After the millennium, it became very rare, and catching one was a matter of great luck.

However, it is not yet a protected animal, and there is no explicit ban on fishing for it. The official list of this fish as a protected animal was only made in 2021.

"A giant bass? I didn't know bass could grow to over 300 pounds?"

"You idiot, they're not the same species. They're both bass, but they must be different species, otherwise how could they grow so big?"

"Right."

"It's a pity there's only one; I've never seen one before..."

Ye Yaodong said, "There used to be a lot of them because the meat was tender. Now they've been caught almost all of them, so you can't see them anymore. Today is a stroke of luck. These fish are extremely rare and valuable."

"It's just a stroke of good luck, otherwise how could they have caught them? They were almost hunted to extinction."

Everyone fell silent after hearing this, unable to feel happy. They were all veterans with a strong sense of collective and national honor.

They've almost all been caught; it's definitely not their own country's fishing boats that caught them. I don't know who benefited; it's possible that various countries got a share.

Our country has really fallen behind by decades; its marine resources have been almost completely plundered by other countries.

Others have fished the fish to near extinction, while they've only just entered this area of ​​water. It's infuriating to think about how many fish have already been caught to extinction.

"Take care of it, move it to freeze. We'll strike back later. By then, our naval military power will definitely be stronger and stronger. We'll be able to build aircraft carriers one after another. At that time, the whole world will have to be wary of us."

"Alright, go do what you need to do. Hong Kong Island will be returned to China in two years."

Everyone's attention was immediately diverted.

"real or fake?"

"Of course, everything around here will return in the future."

(End of this chapter)