After telling his father to stand farther back and not get too close, Ye Yaodong went to steer the boat toward the buoy marking the longline hooks.
Between using the Trawl Net and scooping up fish, almost five hours had passed since they had set the longline.
He hauled in the buoy, then tugged at the stone. But after several attempts, he still could not pull it up. He frowned. He had set a bottom longline once before, but he had never had trouble hauling up the stone.
Seeing him standing there pulling on the rope without bringing up any fish for so long, Father Ye walked over to take a look.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't pull the stone up. I reckon it might be caught on a reef down below."
Father Ye frowned. "What do we do, then? You didn't put any floats on today."
"I'll go down and take a look."
"Don't go too deep. Come up if you feel uncomfortable."
Ye Yaodong nodded, then stripped off his shirt, trousers, and arm sleeves. After a quick warm-up, he took a breath and jumped into the water.
It was already late autumn, and the seawater felt icy when he first jumped in. He did not rush to dive, moving around on the surface for a bit instead. Once he had adjusted, it felt all right, and only then did he dive.
He had not gone very deep, and visibility was still quite good.
The sea had not yet been polluted in those days, so the water looked very clear beneath the surface, and there were no undercurrents that day.
Letting his body weight carry him, he sank straight down little by little. At a depth of about three meters, he spotted a small school of prawns swimming around. His