Chapter 356 - 235: Abrupt Weather Change, Sea Shrimp Appear

Chapter 356: Chapter 235: Abrupt Weather Change, Sea Shrimp Appear

With each autumn rain, it gets colder. Gu Nan, wearing only a short-sleeved shirt, stepped out of the cabin and was immediately hit by a shiver. Gusts of cold wind rushed at him, stripping the warmth from his body in seconds.

"Holy crap, it’s this cold?"

He quickly ducked his head back in and shut the door. Outside, the few men already wearing long sleeves saw this and burst into laughter.

When An Jun and the others had come out that morning, they too had been taken aback by the biting wind. Luckily, they were well-prepared; otherwise, a few of them would have surely caught colds.

Yi Chen came out of the kitchen with a bowl of rice soaked in vegetable soup. Seeing him with his head turtled, she couldn’t help but chuckle. "You’re going out like that? Didn’t you see how much the others are wearing outside!"

She had also changed into her autumn and winter clothes today. Unfortunately, for the sake of convenience while working and fishing on the boat, there would be no more sights of pretty legs in stockings.

"My bad, my bad. I just didn’t expect it to get this cold after one rain," Gu Nan said with an awkward smile as he took the chopsticks.

Truth be told, he didn’t have much experience with deep-sea fishing.

The few times he had come out this far were on carefully chosen days. It had always been smooth sailing; he’d basically never witnessed the sea’s fickle, ever-changing weather. Today was a first.

After eating the soup-soaked rice, he felt warm all over. Gu Nan then went to his bedroom to change into thicker clothes.

He put on a waterproof jacket and pants over his clothes, and even pulled on a pair of waterproof boots.

But when he walked out of the cabin in his new gear, the sky had stopped raining. Wasn’t fate just playing a trick on him?!

"Ah Nan, what’s the plan for this afternoon?" Ye Jing asked, fishing from the side of the boat as Gu Nan came out.

Before coming out onto the deck, Gu Nan had already checked the navigation and knew the fishing boat had arrived at its destination.

The resources in their current waters were average at best. It was clear everyone was waiting for him to make a decision.

"Anyone who didn’t get enough rest should go rest this afternoon. We won’t be fishing for tuna or anything else until tonight, so there’s no rush."

Just as the words left his mouth, he caught sight of a shadow on the sea’s surface out of the corner of his eye.

He turned and leaned over the railing to get a closer look. Well, damn. It was a school of sea shrimp. What incredible luck!

On this overcast day, the seawater was murky from the rain, so Gu Nan couldn’t tell exactly how many shrimp there were just by looking at the surface, but he estimated there had to be a lot.

"Huh, are those sea shrimp?" His strange behavior had drawn the attention of the others on deck. They looked toward the water and soon noticed the anomaly on the surface as well.

"Holy crap, that’s a huge school of shrimp!"

"Quick, quick, get the hand nets and scoop them up!"

"Don’t be ridiculous, how many could you get with a hand net..."

Without a second thought, Gu Nan snapped out of his daze and grabbed the cast net. An Jun quickly took hold of one of the lines to help.

The night before, the two of them had each used a cast net to catch small squid with exhilarating success. He hadn’t expected they’d get to do it again, this time trading small squid for the more valuable sea shrimp.

Ye Jing watched anxiously. "What about me? Where’s mine?"

How was he supposed to catch sea shrimp without any tools? If this opportunity passed, wouldn’t he be missing out on a fortune?

"You take the girls and prepare some bait for the shrimp pots and ground cages. We’ll drop the cages, and whatever we catch, the few of us will split it evenly," Gu Nan directed.

"Got it." Ye Jing nodded and quickly brought out the shrimp pots and ground cages.

The women didn’t even need his direction. They spontaneously mixed some previously chopped sardine chunks with some Antarctic shrimp, then filled the bait bags in the pots and cages.

Once they were done, they dropped the traps into the water along one side of the fishing boat.

On the other side, Gu Nan had already cast his net. Estimating that the net had closed at the bottom, he grabbed the long rope and began pulling it up, hand over hand.

This deep-sea trip was turning out to be more surprising than he’d expected. He hadn’t caught many fish, but he’d been using this cast net constantly.

As the net slowly rose to the surface, a "SPLASH"ing sound followed.

Compared to the thrashing of the fish last night, these sea shrimp truly showed them what boiling water looked like. It was like dropping cold water into a pan of hot oil.

As the cast net was hauled into the air, Gu Nan felt its weight and was extremely satisfied.

It was heavy. At least fifty or sixty jin.

Even after the water drained, there had to be at least forty jin of shrimp alone.

Gu Nan carried the net over to a plastic crate and slowly emptied the sea shrimp into it. Well, damn. The blue plastic crate, commonly used on fishing boats, was filled to the brim.

Everyone crowded around. Yi Chen picked up a large shrimp, estimated its length to be about fifteen centimeters, and remarked, "It’s not small at all."

"Ah Nan, what kind of shrimp are these?"

Gu Nan took a look but didn’t recognize them, so he used Appraisal.

Reading the description, he relayed it to the others. "Its scientific name is *Metapenaeus ensis*, but it’s also called sand shrimp."

"This shrimp’s meat is high quality, better than your average prawn. The meat has properties that... uh... strengthen the body and boost virility."

Er...

Only after he finished reading did Gu Nan belatedly realize what he’d just said. He glanced around at the group. Yi Chen was looking at him, annoyed and embarrassed, as if blaming him for just blurting everything out.

An Jun, still pulling up his own cast net, turned to give him a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows. Ye Jing chuckled sheepishly, looking a bit embarrassed himself. Xu Zhina shot him an exasperated glare.

As for Jin Enfei, her eyes were practically sparkling as she stared at the sea shrimp.

’Something’s off with this girl. Why is she making that face?’

"Ahem..." Gu Nan coughed twice to dispel the awkwardness, pretending to forget what he’d just said as he continued his explanation.

This time, he skipped over many details and got to the point. "We’re really lucky. These shrimp usually only come out to feed at dusk and at night."

"But when the wind and waves are strong, or maybe when the temperature is low and the water is murky, they’ll come out to feed even during the day. Today’s weather gave them the perfect opportunity for some daytime activity."

"In some coastal cities in South Guangdong, these shrimp aren’t that expensive. If you have the right channels, you can get them for around seventy yuan a jin. But at Yangjiang Port, the price is a bit higher. You can sell a jin for about ninety to a hundred yuan."

Seafood prices were tied to location, so no one was surprised to hear they sold for more at Yangjiang Port.

"Even at ninety yuan a jin, doesn’t that mean your one haul is worth over three thousand six hundred yuan?" Because of Ye Jing’s career change, Xu Zhina had become very sensitive to seafood prices lately. After estimating the value of the crate, she clicked her tongue in amazement.

"It’s not that much. The small shrimp aren’t worth much," Gu Nan said with a smile and a shake of his head, readying his cast net for another go.

Just then, An Jun also hauled up a netful. After pouring them into a crate and catching his breath, he said to Ye Jing, "You can use this net in a bit. What we get from the shrimp pots later should be enough to give away for a taste."

Ye Jing didn’t refuse; he needed the money more.

Before he could even get the net untangled, Gu Nan had already thrown his second cast.

The density of the sand shrimp was high, and the area he had just cleared was already filled in again.

Gu Nan’s cast landed right on top of another large patch.

However, the startled sand shrimp nearby scattered frantically. Don’t be fooled by their cute, silly appearance; these sea shrimp could swim incredibly fast.

At top speed, they could dart a meter or two in an instant, almost too fast for the human eye to track.

The area around the cast net was visibly emptier of sand shrimp.

But that didn’t matter. Those weren’t the ones the net was catching.

As the net slowly sank, some of the sand shrimp in the water, still unaware of the danger, were unknowingly enveloped.

By the time the net closed around them, it was too late to react.

Gu Nan tightened his grip on the rope, and the water’s surface began to boil again.

But this time, the haul was smaller than the last, by at least ten or so jin.

This was normal. For one, the shrimp density was lower than before, and second, some of the shrimp now considered this spot a danger zone and wouldn’t return.

So, after this haul, Gu Nan moved to a different spot. The others had set the shrimp pots and ground cages on the other side of the boat, so they didn’t interfere with his casting.

Unfortunately, the school of shrimp must have just been passing through. This golden opportunity only lasted a short while. Gu Nan managed only seven casts before it was over.

Ye Jing, a little unwilling to give up, threw the net twice more, but only came up with two or three unlucky shrimp inside, so he had to quit.

As for Yi Chen and the others, they were now a bit overwhelmed.

The shrimp had to be roughly sorted by size. Even though Gu Nan had only cast seven times, he had still brought in around two hundred jin.

The large ones averaged about twenty-five to a jin. For two hundred jin, the sheer number of shrimp was immense.

Luckily, An Jun and Jin Enfei helped out. Gu Nan also joined in after he finished casting. It took them over an hour to sort all the shrimp he and Ye Jing had netted.

They simply sorted them into three grades: large, medium, and small.

Gu Nan’s side had over one hundred and twenty jin of large ones. All in all, this was a good school of shrimp.

The medium ones, about forty to a jin, came to around fifty jin, with the remaining thirty-plus jin being small ones.

Ye Jing’s haul was smaller, but he still had over one hundred and twenty jin in total.

Xu Zhina poured the small shrimp into Gu Nan’s pile and said, "These small ones probably won’t sell. Should we just use them as bait?"

Yi Chen looked at the small shrimp and suddenly suggested, "Why don’t we make fried shrimp cakes tonight?"

Xu Zhina’s eyes lit up. "Great idea! Let’s go, let’s go, we’ll start now. We can fry some up first as a snack."

As for Jin Enfei, she was dazedly pulled into the kitchen by the other two women, still having no idea what these "shrimp cakes" they were talking about even were!

Gu Nan wanted to say something but hesitated. He had wanted to remind them that the shrimp pots and ground cages by the boat still needed to be pulled up; the shrimp-sorting wasn’t over yet.

But seeing how excited they were, he could only turn to his two brothers with a helpless look. "Well, looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us. The shrimp school is gone, so let’s pull up the pots and cages first. We should have a decent harvest."

An Jun shrugged. "I’ve got nothing else to do this afternoon. Let’s do it!"

Ye Jing had even fewer objections. That was all money they were talking about!

The three of them then began pulling up the shrimp pots. The yield from the five pots was fairly consistent; each cage was about half-full of sea shrimp, which they estimated to be about one hundred and fifty jin in total.

There were also five ground cages. But ground cages are very long, so of course, they wouldn’t be half-full like the pots.

If they were half-full, that would be insane. Half the space in five ground cages could add up to over a thousand jin.

In reality, after they pulled them all up, the total was just over two hundred jin.

The three men sorted and divided. In the end, each person was allocated seventy-three jin of large shrimp and thirty jin of medium shrimp. As for the small shrimp, they were all piled together and left undivided.