The sight of the small green lobsters gave Ye Yaodong a shot of adrenaline, bringing him right back to life. After a whole day of toil, he had been exhausted in body and mind, but now he felt energized again.
He sped up, hauling in the remaining half of the net in one go.
"Ah! Three! Three all at once..."
Father Ye caught his breath and, enduring the discomfort in his throat, pointed at the shrimp pot with his index finger. "These are good, these are good..."
Of course they were.
Ye Yaodong untied the rope securing the fish-collecting bag underneath and emptied the entire netful of catch into a basket. As the little blue-green lobsters tumbled out, they flipped over and began crawling energetically all over the place. They were a delightful sight.
He picked one up and watched its tail curl repeatedly. "Not bad. Pretty big, too. This one weighs a jin. The other two are a little smaller, probably seven or eight liang."
"I didn't expect there to be lobsters to catch here, too." Father Ye picked one up as well and examined it.
Ye Yaodong hadn't expected it either. They had already hauled up so many shrimp pots without seeing any small green lobsters, yet this one pot actually held three.
"Who knows if there are any in the rest? Let's keep hauling and see."
"Yes, yes, hurry up and haul them in. I'll get a separate bucket for these."
Father Ye went to the corner and put his treasured water pipe away, then fetched an empty bucket. After a moment's thought, he filled it with seawater before putting all the small green lobsters inside.
Only then did he lean against the gunwale, watching eagerly as Ye Yaodong lowered that row of shrimp pots back into