Everyone crowded around Captain Chen in concern, and no one had time to blame or criticize Ye Yaodong. He breathed a sigh of relief, but felt even guiltier. If he had not thought of catching some bait to fish with, he would not have nearly suffocated the man.
But who could have imagined that the man would suddenly take an unusual route, change direction, and surface right beneath his fishing net, getting caught squarely in it? Fortunately, he had not struggled for too long, and they had pulled him out in time.
Still, if he had not been caught in the net, Ye Yaodong would not have spoken up. The four of them would not have been able to stop work early and rest, either. They would have kept being worked until their dizziness grew worse.
He said to Captain Chen, "Sorry about that. Bear with it. Your head will probably feel even dizzier on the boat ride back, and you might throw up."
Captain Chen nodded.
The fishing boats around them could not hear the conversation aboard their boat over the noise of the engines, but they could see the commotion that had just taken place. Everyone was guessing what had happened.
Only when they saw from a distance that someone had been hauled aboard in a net did they understand the cause of the commotion.
But before long, the fishing boat headed back, and everyone began speculating again. Had something serious happened? Had the person they netted stopped breathing, or did they need to rush back for emergency treatment?
Or perhaps what they had hauled up was simply a corpse, unrelated to the earlier commotion. Maybe they thought it was bad luck and planned to head back to bury it?
But that did not make sense. There was