Father Ye grew anxious too. "Why was there nothing before, and now they're all biting at once? Hurry up and reel that one in, then get the ones over there..."
Ye Yaodong was anxious too. He had only sounded so relaxed earlier because nothing had bitten. Now he was terrified the hooked fish would escape, and he hauled in the line as fast as he could.
When he saw that it was a Baogong Fish weighing two or three jin, he had no time to celebrate. He unhooked it and tossed it into the bucket behind him, immediately dropped the line in his hands, and grabbed the one beside it that was being pulled taut at a forty-five-degree angle.
But the moment he started pulling, the line snapped...
"Fuck!"
With a curse, he flung away the broken line and grabbed another one stretched at a forty-five-degree angle. Afraid this one would snap too, he quickly gave it some slack and began playing the fish.
Two other lines were shaking violently too, but his hands were full. He couldn't attend to everything at once. One look told him this line had hooked a big fish, so of course he had to pull it in first.
He could only leave the other two to his father and hope those fish had swallowed the hooks deep enough that they wouldn't break free and escape.
The soldiers fishing along the opposite gunwale were also exclaiming one after another. By the looks of it, none of them had a hand free to help either.
Father Ye was sweating with anxiety too. After finally hauling in the fiercely struggling fish on his line, he took just one look, saw it was a Foolish Fish, and tossed it into the bucket before hurrying to the next line.