"Whoa! It got back into the sea again. What a shame. No wonder it looked so red." After a moment of regret, Ye Yaopeng put it out of his mind and lowered his head to pick up his own catch.
If that fish wasn't meant to be his, so be it. The catch in front of him mattered more. He would take care of what was right there first.
"Wait and see if the waves push it back up later. Don't go any farther out, or when a wave rolls in and the typhoon blows, you won't make it back to shore."
At Ye Yaodong's warning, the two of them looked around again, then hurriedly backed up a few steps. Without realizing it, they had edged forward again as they gathered the catch.
He felt the rope around his waist and felt a little more reassured. He wouldn't get carried away and follow a fish farther out.
"My bucket's almost full. I'm taking it inside to empty it."
Ye Yaodong tossed a large silver pomfret in front of him into his bucket. It felt seventy or eighty percent full already, heavy in his hand. He shone his flashlight around again, and when he saw no fish, he carried the bucket into the yard, found a basket, set it beneath the veranda, and emptied the bucket into it.
Hearing him say his bucket was almost full, the two brothers were both envious and newly energized. Ignoring the wind and rain beating against them, they kept their heads down and continued searching around them.
The typhoon howled mercilessly, and torrential rain poured down, sweeping over them in bursts, but the two brothers were still brimming with enthusiasm.
Perhaps the three men had shone their flashlights around their doorways so much that the