Five minutes passed before Wei Donglai lifted his rod and put a fresh shrimp on the hook.
Another five minutes passed, and there was still no action.
Wei Donglai changed the shrimp again.
One minute, two minutes...
Was he really not going to catch that last fish today?
Wei Donglai muttered to himself.
With the sun overhead growing hotter and hotter, he wasn't about to tough it out.
If he couldn't catch that last fish, so be it.
Figuring it had been about five minutes, Wei Donglai prepared to pack up his rod and leave.
But then the rod suddenly dipped. A powerful force came through its tip, and the line snapped taut in an instant.
Fuck, this one's a fighter.
Wei Donglai immediately jerked the rod upward, bending it almost into a semicircle.
The line in the water whined as the big fish below pulled on it. Wei Donglai was genuinely afraid the rod would suddenly snap.
The fish underwater was at its fiercest now, darting wildly from side to side against the pull of the line.
Wei Donglai clung tightly to the rod, his legs spread in a horse stance and his weight leaning back as he kept the rod raised.
He knew full well that if the rod was pulled down any farther, it probably wouldn't be far from breaking.
Even so, seeing how much it was bent right now, his heart stayed in his throat.
He held on like that for seven or eight minutes, the rod constantly dipping and rising, always looking as though it might snap at any moment.
After another two minutes, Wei Donglai finally felt the fish's surges beneath the sea begin to weaken, and his heart eased a little.
He immediately began pulling in earnest, drawing the fish out of the water bit by bit.
Throughout the process, he remained extremely careful, on guard in case the fish underwater put up another fight.
But that worry seemed unnecessary. Even after the whole fish had been pulled out of the sea, it still hadn't fought back again.
It seemed he really had worn it out.
Looking at the big, bright-red fish above the sea, Wei Donglai felt a flicker of pride.
Being able to land it with a bamboo pole showed his technique was pretty good.
He pulled the big fish over to the rocks bit by bit, then found a low spot and grabbed it out of the water.
It was a redfin snapper, commonly known as a red fish.
Wei Donglai estimated it weighed four and a half jin, nearly five, making it a fairly large specimen.
It was a good thing it was only that big. Any bigger, and his rod probably would have broken.
At that moment, Wei Donglai felt he had no regrets about the day's last fish.
Though the red fish wasn't a particularly valuable species, fighting it with a bamboo pole had been a tremendous pleasure.
Landing it under such precarious conditions in particular gave him an unparalleled sense of accomplishment.
After tossing the red fish into the bucket, Wei Donglai called it a day and went home.
After washing his hands, Wei Donglai sorted through the fish in the bucket. He planned to make the red fish into dried fish and keep it for himself.
With Li Changfeng and He Dongliang coming over that evening, Wei Donglai planned to make a few dishes.
He hadn't eaten the meat he'd bought yesterday. He could boil it and make twice-cooked pork.
He would cook a conger eel that evening, keep a black porgy too, make soup with a few rockfish, and count the gobies as another dish.
There were also the mussels and spicy snails he'd been keeping for two days. That was about enough; he could pick some greens from the garden when the time came.
He didn't feel like selling the rest, so he planned to take it straight over to his mother's place.
Although the morning's catch had been good, it had also been truly hot.
He took off his shirt, filled a bucket with cool water, and wiped down his upper body. Only then did he feel much more comfortable.
Wei Donglai made do with a quick lunch; he had work to do that evening.
A nap was a must.
In this scorching weather, Wei Donglai finally felt the benefits of an earthen house. It wasn't exactly cool, but at least it wasn't stuffy.
Perhaps because he hadn't planned to go out at all that afternoon, Wei Donglai slept straight through until four.
He was still a little dazed when he got up and sat there for quite a while before coming to his senses.
Li Changfeng and He Dongliang hadn't said what time they were coming, but he still needed to start preparing the ingredients ahead of time.
With plenty of time, he was in no rush.
He first cleaned the red fish, splitting it open along the backbone and through the head, then rubbing it with salt.
After marinating overnight, it could be hung out to dry tomorrow.
Next came the conger eel, the black porgy, then the rockfish and gobies.
Wei Donglai worked methodically and with great care.
By the time he had finished preparing most of the ingredients at home, the sun had begun its slow descent.
Wei Donglai sorted out the fish he was taking to his mother's, closed the courtyard gate, and carried the bucket over.
His second sister-in-law had gone to pick up the children, his eldest sister-in-law was busy in the kitchen, and his mother was carrying inside the dried fish, oysters, and other things she had put out in the sun during the day.
"Mom, I saved these for you."
Li Yue'e looked at what was in the bucket: a conger eel, a black porgy, and then rockfish and gobies.
The rockfish weren't big, but there were five or six of them, weighing about a jin altogether.
"You're really willing to eat all this?"
The contents of the bucket could probably sell for several yuan, and Li Yue'e began to feel reluctant again.
"It didn't cost anything anyway, so why wouldn't I eat it? I kept half at my place too. A Feng and A Liang said they were coming over to get together tonight."
"Oh, so Moon Bay's Three Scourges are getting together again."
"What three scourges? Your son is a real money-making whiz now."
Li Yue'e scoffed, but she didn't argue. This little bastard's luck really had been almost too good lately.
"Anyway, I've done my duty as a son. Whether you can bring yourself to eat it is up to you."
"The moment you get a little money, you spend it recklessly. You can't hold on to a penny. I'm telling you, if you don't save while you can, don't even think about me paying for your wife when the time comes."
She might have been reluctant to spend and prone to nagging.
But her son had thought of her when he had something good, and that was worth being happy about after all.
"Not just a wife. I'll pay to build a house myself too."
"All right, I'll be waiting."
Li Yue'e felt her son had gotten a little too carried away these past few days and wondered whether she should have Wei Guoqing give him a whipping that night to clear his head.
If Wei Donglai had known his esteemed mother was thinking that, he would surely have toned it down considerably.
He put the bucket in the kitchen, greeted his eldest sister-in-law, and turned back outside.
"Mom, what vegetables are in the garden? Help me pick some so I can make a couple more dishes for the guests tonight."
"Pick them yourself. Can't you see I'm busy?"
"I have to go buy a bottle of liquor at the village entrance. Just help me pick some, won't you?"
"Cucumbers, yardlong beans, peppers, and eggplants. What do you want?"
"Then get me some cucumbers and eggplants. If there's any garlic at home, give me some of that too."
With that, Wei Donglai left and headed for the little shop at the village entrance.
Old friends were getting together that evening, so naturally they had to raise a glass and make merry.
Wei Donglai looked around the shop for quite a while before finally picking out two bottles of Jiujiang Double Distilled.
They cost four yuan.
It was a fermented-black-bean-aroma baijiu, a regional specialty just like Yubingshao.
Yubingshao was much more expensive, though.