It did not really matter. It had been snagged on the bottom for so many days anyway, and when he shone the flashlight over it earlier, he could still see the buoy. It had only drifted out of position.
Once he had hauled up all the shrimp pots and emptied the fish and shrimp into baskets, Father Ye dragged the two baskets of shrimp aside so they would not get in the way when he lowered the pots again.
There were only three strings of shrimp pots left, yet they yielded two whole baskets, over a hundred jin of fish and shrimp. It was an excellent haul, partly because they had been left out for so many days.
While Ye Yaodong set the shrimp pots, Father Ye sorted the catch, picking out the fish first and checking their freshness as he separated them.
The shrimp were too small and took too long to sort, so he left them until later.
After Ye Yaodong lowered the shrimp pots again, he steered the boat farther out to sea. It was still very dark, and hauling in just three strings of shrimp pots had not taken much time.
Seeing that it was about time to cast the net, Father Ye went into the cabin to drag it out.
Come to think of it, when they worked here before, they would usually see a boat or two working nearby or passing through. Occasionally, boats would fish not far from them, but tonight they had not seen any lights nearby.
Perhaps the Border Defense Station really had scared them off. It was also possible that plenty of fishing boats had already been driven away during the days they spent watching the opera, which was why none were approaching this area.
Whatever the reason, having no