After a simple lunch, Ye Yaodong took his newly made Fishing Pots and a few buckets for the catch down to the pier.
He had left the traps unchecked for two days. The sea had been calm lately, and no one dared steal his nets, so he reckoned there would be a good haul this time.
When he reached the pier, Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng were already aboard. He immediately spotted the two bamboo baskets on their little boat.
Countless coils of fishing line lay inside the baskets, with nearly a hundred hooks packed along the rims. Who knew how much work that had taken?
"Those hooks and lines must take hours to set up, right?" Seeing how complicated it was, Ye Yaodong immediately abandoned the idea he had been entertaining. Pot trap nets were much less trouble.
"About two hours. It's not too bad."
Two hours counted as not too bad? Forget it.
"What a hassle."
Xiao Xiao agreed. "It is. Next time, we could hire some women or elderly people nearby to do it before we head out. Save ourselves some work."
"Come on, let's go. I need to haul in my Fishing Pots first. Wait for me before you set the Longline Hooks!"
"Sure. We need to haul ours in too, and put down the few Fishing Pots we have aboard. We'll set the Longline Hooks once you're done."
The two boats left shore one after the other, each rowing toward their own trap sites first.
Ye Yaodong hauled in all his rows of pot trap nets, one after another. He had been full of enthusiasm at first, but now that he did the same thing every few days, bringing up a catch no longer felt like opening a mystery box, unless something rare suddenly appeared. But