Chapter 497: Breaking the Record
Chapter 497: Breaking the Record
Time to haul in the nets!
Zhou Chenglei instructed Jiang Xia to take a seat.
"It's fine, I'll just stand here," Jiang Xia stood in a corner, out of their way, watching the crews of the two fishing boats working together, pulling and tugging in different directions.
Zhou Chenglei pulled on a rope to haul in the net while directing, "Yongguo, pull on your side, keep going, keep pulling... Good!"
"Kangping, you do the same on your side, pull, keep pulling..."
They weren't professional twin-boat encirclement net fishing vessels, and neither boat had specialized net-lifting machines or other equipment.
In fact, their encirclement net was simply a net placed in the sea, waiting for the school of fish to swim into it.
So they had to rely on human strength to pull it up together.
If not handled properly, the fish could easily escape from a corner.
They could have used a stinging current net to trap the fish on the net.
But that would have been too troublesome.
The school of Walu fish was larger than the previous one of golden pomfret.
Using a stinging current net would have taken a long time to release all the fish from the net.
Zhou Chenglei, wanting to avoid the hassle, decided to use the encirclement net method with the two boats working together.
- Although hauling the net was more challenging and troublesome, if done right, they could pull the fish onto the boat and directly dump them onto the deck, avoiding the need to untangle each fish from the net.
Humans may not have the strength of machines, but they have the advantage of flexibility. There's nothing they can't do if they put their minds to it. Jiang Xia watched as they worked for a while, finally managing to gradually gather the large net.
The Walu fish swarmed and jumped in the net scoop.
Jiang Xia said, "A single boat's crew might not be able to pull it up."
Zhou Chenglei replied, "First, let's scoop up some fish with the net scoop."
So, the crews of both boats used net scoops to catch fish.
Jiang Xia, unable to help, passed baskets to them to dump the caught fish into.
After half an hour, Zhou Fu's back was sore: "If I'd known we'd encounter a school of Walu fish, I'd have taken the larger boat."
Zhou Chenglei told him to take a break, but Zhou Fu didn't leave.
...
Two hours passed, and Jiang Xia even took a nap.
Seeing that they had caught about half the fish, Zhou Chenglei figured the remaining ones could be pulled up with enough strength, so he said, "That's enough, no more scooping. Let's pull them all up together."
Zhou Kangping asked, "How should we pull? Should we align the bows of the boats or bring them closer together?"
With two boats pulling on one net, how could they bring them together?
"No need," Zhou Chenglei said, taking a bamboo pole with a hook and extending it to the other boat. He told Zhou Yongguo, "First, tie that rope on the edge to the bamboo pole, and I'll pull it over."
Zhou Yongguo followed his instructions.
Once Zhou Chenglei had it tied, he pulled over one corner of the net.
The net was large enough, and with careful handling and good coordination, they didn't have to worry about fish escaping.
Slowly, with the help of a few people, Zhou Chenglei pulled the net from the other boat and gathered the fish into a large bundle.
Zhou Chenglei, Zhou Fu, and Zhou Kangping worked together to pull the bundle of fish onto the boat.
Zhou Yongguo steered his boat around to the other side of their boat and pulled alongside, and they jumped over to help.
Together, they finally managed to pull the large bundle of fish onto the boat.
After releasing the net, Zhou Fu sat down on the deck to rest.
It was too heavy!
The net-lifting machine was useless, and they had to rely entirely on human strength.
The others did the same, sitting down to rest.
Their hands were numb!
The palms of their hands were bruised purple-red from the net and ropes.
Zhou Chenglei, full of energy, wanted to untie the bundle of fish and dump them onto the deck.
Zhou Kangping and Zhou Yongguo stood up to help.
"No need, I can do it myself," Zhou Chenglei said.
With a strong pull, the fish spilled out of the net and jumped around on the deck.
Zhou Chenglei carefully gathered and organized the net.
There were more fish on the deck than Jiang Xia had ever seen before, and it felt like they had reached the deck's capacity. Any more, and they would spill into the sea.
Jiang Xia asked, "Is this net of Walu fish worth a hundred dan?"
This type of fish was more conveniently sold by the dan in baskets.
There was no need to divide the fish or weigh them slowly; selling by the dan was quicker and easier, and the price was similar.
Zhou Fu laughed, "It should be close."
He could catch a thousand dan of these fish with the larger boat, but with their small boat, catching a hundred dan was already impressive!
One dan was approximately a hundred catties, so this boat had about ten thousand catties of fish.
No one from the fishing village had ever attempted to fish at their wharf before!
If there were records for fishing in the village, this would have undoubtedly broken them!
Zhou Chenglei said, "Dad, let's head back and sell the fish. We can go out again tonight."
"Alright, let's go back." The boats couldn't hold any more, and if they kept dragging the nets, there was a risk of overloading the boats beyond their capacity.
They didn't bother checking the net boxes, as the heavier the boats were, the more fuel they consumed. It wasn't worth transporting so many fish around in the sea.
Since the city wharf was nearby and offered higher prices than the village wharf, Zhou Chenglei decided to take the fish directly to the city wharf to sell.
The combined catch from the two fishing boats amounted to 111 dan of fish, with each dan priced at 13.3 yuan.
Not a single fish was missed, and they caught a total of 1,476.3 yuan.
Everyone had worked hard that day, and Jiang Xia gave Zhou Kangping and his team an additional 10 yuan.
The reason was that it was truly challenging to haul in over ten thousand catties of fish!
By the time they finished selling the fish, it was almost noon, and Zhou Chenglei treated everyone to a meal at Fulmanlou before heading home.
When Zhou Kangping returned home, Ershubo was surprised to see him back so early and exclaimed, "Why are you back so soon? Have you eaten?"
Zhou Kangping washed his hands and face, "Yes, Brother A Lei's boat encountered a school of Walu fish shortly after setting out, and we caught over a hundred dan. That's why we returned early."
Ershubo: "Over a hundred dan? Did you go out on a large boat?"
"No, just the usual two boats."
"What incredible luck!"
Zhou Kangping dried his hands and wiped the water off his clothes before taking out a red envelope, "This is a bonus from my fourth sister-in-law."
Ershubo opened it and saw twenty yuan! She smiled, "A Lei's wife is so generous. You just focus on working hard and don't slack off."
"Hm."
"With your high salary now, many people have come to introduce potential partners to you. I'll look into their character and find you a good, hardworking one, and then you can meet them."
Zhou Kangping wasn't too concerned, as he had a physical disability, and he was content as long as his partner didn't mind, "I'm going to take a nap. We'll go out again tonight."
"Okay, then go and rest! I'll keep this money for you. You can use it to get married and build a house later."
Ershubo took the twenty yuan her son gave her and placed it in a rusty tin can.
Inside, she had already saved up over 1,700 yuan, all earned by Zhou Kangping over the years.
More than half of this amount was earned by helping Zhou Chenglei and his wife with their fishing trips.
Her son had post-polio syndrome, which affected his mobility, making it challenging to find work. When he wasn't working, he relied on weaving fishing nets.
It took him several years to save up 700 yuan, but after working for A Lei and his wife for a few months, he managed to save over 1,000 yuan, and it wasn't even from working every day.
The couple was generous, and after the Chinese New Year, they increased everyone's wages. They promised to raise their wages annually as long as they worked diligently.
Previously, they earned 10 yuan per day at sea, but now they receive 360 yuan per month, even on days they don't go out to sea.
Starting from the Chinese New Year, they didn't go out to sea much in February but still received a monthly wage of 360 yuan.
For the Chinese New Year, they also received a 20 yuan bonus.
Adding it all up, it totaled 380 yuan, which had a nice ring to it. Moreover, they received an additional 5 yuan subsidy for night squid fishing trips compared to daytime trips.
Now, everyone in the village envied her two sons for working for A Lei and A Sen.
Ershubo and her daughter also worked at Jiang Xia's small workshop, earning 80 yuan per month, with overtime pay calculated separately.
The 80 yuan wage was for an eight-hour workday, and any hours beyond that were considered overtime, with triple the regular wage.
They also had four days off each month, and they could choose which days to take off as long as they didn't all take the same day.
With overtime pay, Ershubo could earn over 100 yuan per month, and she also had holidays, earning more than she did as a teacher!
After working for a year, they would also receive a wage increase.
With this, their family could earn around 1,000 yuan per month, enough to build a house in a year!
Ershubo wished she could work all the time to save money for her son's house and future marriage.
Her eldest son was already thirty and still unmarried due to his disability and poverty. Now, everyone wanted to introduce him to potential partners!
(End of Chapter)
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