A light rain began falling again that night, and the wind picked up too. He had thought that even with the fishing net damaged, he could still go longline fishing without losing any time. Now he could not go at all.
Spring was rainy too, so he reckoned he probably would not get out to sea many times over the next two months.
That suited Ye Yaodong just fine.
Early the next morning, he had just stepped outside when he saw Aunt Lan carrying a large piece of nylon sheeting over to the neighboring housing plot to cover the sand, so the rain would not wash it all away.
He greeted her and asked curiously, "Aunt Lan, did you find Uncle yesterday?"
"We found him. Those damned pirates just dumped the boat at the pier. They beat him black and blue until he couldn't get up, and he still can't get out of bed today." Aunt Lan cursed as she spoke, seething with resentment.
"Next time, steer clear as soon as you see a big boat. We know everyone from the surrounding villages, so they're all right. People from other villages aren't so reasonable."
"It's all because our boat's small. If we had a big boat, who'd be afraid of them? We could beat them to death instead of letting them bully us every day."
Ye Yaodong shrugged. Everywhere, the biggest fist had the final say.
"Ah, enough about that. I need to go back and look after him."
He had thought it had nothing to do with him and was just a bit of news to listen to. But only a few days later, the tables turned, and he ran into the same thing out at sea.
It was the same familiar stretch of sea, but he could not