By the time he had hurriedly borrowed a bicycle from A-Cai and found a tractor, the shore was already packed with layer upon layer of people.
"Make way, everyone, make way..."
He hardly needed to think to know that word of their oarfish catch must have spread. All these villagers were gathered along the shore waiting to see the spectacle.
Ye Yaodong was just about to squeeze through the crowd when Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng grabbed him.
"Holy shit... Dongzi, there you are! We were just about to look for you. Where did you catch that oarfish?"
"Yeah, where did you catch it? Fuck, it's so huge it nearly blinded me."
The villagers beside them saw him and crowded around with questions too. "How many meters long is that oarfish? It looks so long. Where did you catch it?"
"I just heard it's called an earthquake fish..."
"Does that mean we're going to have an earthquake here?"
"I heard it could mean a tsunami too..."
Everyone surrounded him, talking over one another and bombarding him with questions. This was when the fishing boats came ashore; apart from the early morning hours, this was the busiest time at the pier. People were everywhere.
Their overlapping questions made Ye Yaodong's ears buzz. He hurriedly raised both hands. "Wait, hold on. We'll talk in a minute. Let me get the fish ashore first. Help us out and make some room..."
"Oh... make way... make way... let Dong through first..."
"Those up front, make way... Dong's here..."
Ye Yaodong finally squeezed through the crowd and climbed aboard. Xiao Xiao and A-Zheng followed him onto the boat.
Several villagers his father knew were already aboard discussing it, along with a few of their relatives. A-Cai was there too, measuring its length up close.
That worked