Both his brothers-in-law stared wide-eyed and cried out at the same time, "Holy shit, there really was one?"
"What a long snout. Is this really a Chinese sturgeon?"
Ye Yaodong beamed. "It should be, right? Let's haul it up and take a look first."
Every year between September and November, Chinese sturgeon swam upstream from the mouth of the Yangtze River to breed in the stretch extending to Pingshan.
Every autumn, when Chinese sturgeon migrated upriver to spawn, considerable numbers could be caught along the various stretches of the river.
Ye Yaodong felt it looked no different from the Chinese sturgeon he remembered seeing in news reports on his phone. It was also enormous, so he would take it for a Chinese sturgeon for now.
His two brothers-in-law were delighted. Whether it was a Chinese sturgeon or not, catching such a huge fish was something to celebrate.
What if it really was one? It ought to fetch a good price!
After dragging the net ashore, Ye Yaodong smiled and nudged the still-twitching fish with his foot. "Looks about a meter long, and it's pretty heavy too. There are plenty of river shrimp in here as well, and they're quite big."
"Yeah, there are plenty of shrimp in this river. We come over every few days to catch some for a better meal. Whatever we can't finish, we take to town to sell. That brings in a little money too." Lin Xianghui rubbed his palms together excitedly. "Dong, now that we've caught it, take a good look. Is it a Chinese sturgeon?"
Lin Xiangrong also looked at him expectantly.
Ye Yaodong gave two dry coughs and said a little sheepishly, "Well... actually, I've never seen this fish either. I've only heard of it. It just looks a lot like one!"
"Huh?"