Father and son split up to work. Seeing that the fishing boat ahead had already gone a long way, Ye Yaodong quickly increased the throttle to catch up.
This time, there was no net trailing behind the stern, so he could go faster without worrying.
As soon as they caught up, Uncle Lin called over, "Why did you stop just now? There were still some fish you could scoop up."
"We went to retrieve the Trawl Net at the stern. We were halfway through trawling earlier and hadn't brought the net aboard yet. We couldn't just leave it."
"Oh, there aren't many fish left now. We could still see a few sea pigs earlier, but they're all gone now. They probably went deeper and swam away. These mullet are about to scatter too. Hurry up and scoop them up. Get as many as you can."
Father Ye was also eager to catch more. In the depths of winter, it was rare to get good weather and calm seas for a trip out. They had to catch enough to make it worthwhile.
Feeling that the wind and current were both favorable, Ye Yaodong simply let the boat move ahead at a steady speed. Rather than keep watching, he went to help his father and see how much they had caught.
The two boats worked in perfect harmony, planning to scoop up another netful or two and resume trawling if there was little left to catch.
But before long, there was a splash, and an unidentified creature suddenly shot straight up out of the sea between their boats, appearing out of nowhere.
It burst right out of the water, sending churning spray from midair onto both fishing boats.
The four men aboard the two boats were all busy, some hauling in nets