1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 105: Big rocks floating on the sea, the same price as fish
"Dad, if I sail this boat a little further, there will be no problem. Don't worry, I won't sail too far, I'll be back in no time. I have to catch all the fish on the boat before dark!"

Liang Ziqiang said hello to his father. Liang's father estimated that his boat was fine, because Zhong Yongrui's boat of the same size would have sailed farther than other villagers.

So, the three boats began to move in opposite directions, and the distance between the sea and the sky became wider and wider.

The world seemed to have quieted down in an instant. The sea and the sky were both vast and boundless, but now he was the only one sailing alone in the boat. Apart from that, there were only seagulls flying up and down, their cries seemed to only serve to deepen the loneliness of the world.

Suddenly, two seagulls hovering in the air suddenly spread their wings as wide as possible, and then dived vertically down like arrows from the sky and plunged into the sea.

Instantly, a few white waves splashed on the blue sea surface, and then the two seagulls re-emerged from the water, each holding a fish in its mouth, and flew back into the air. As Liang Ziqiang and the others watched, they flew farther and farther away.

"There's a small school of fish in that area!"

Just at the moment when the seagull dived into the water, Liang Ziqiang discovered that some waves were stirred up by the seagull, while some waves were caused by the panic stirring of frightened fish.

Without hesitation, he adjusted the direction of the fishing boat and headed towards that area.

Sure enough, a group of fish were scattering. Liang Ziqiang made a decisive decision, so when he rushed over, he barely had time to catch the last tail and catch a wave.

There was no time to look closely, so he just threw the fishing net towards a place where they were relatively concentrated when they were fleeing.

When the fishing net continued to sink and completely covered the small group of fish, he began to pull the net in.

The catch was obviously not that many, so Liang Zifeng didn't even need any help. He slowly dragged the net onto the boat.

Looking through the mesh, Liang Ziqiang was delighted:
"This is Huang Jiaoli!"

The fish in the net all have oval bodies, with flattened bodies. The most striking thing is that the fins under the fish's abdomen are very different in color from the rest of the body, a bright yellow color, like two open yellow feet.

The scientific name of the yellow-legged snapper is yellowfin bream. It has delicious meat and excellent taste, and is known as the "chicken neck of the sea".

Sea bass, yellow croaker and the like usually sell for 40 cents, but small yellow croaker sells for 80 cents per pound, and larger ones can be sold for one dollar, which is on the same level as red croaker!

The seagulls must have picked up two relatively small ones and carried them away. At present, these are basically more than one or two kilograms each, so there is no problem selling them at the price of one yuan.

"It's a pity that we didn't discover it earlier. If the fish hadn't been scared away by the seagulls, we would have caught more than this!" Liang Zifeng said regretfully.

"Think about it the other way around. If it weren't for the seagulls, we wouldn't have discovered it. We picked up the seagulls' leftovers. The leftovers we picked up were quite a lot, about 40 to 50 kilograms in total!"

Forty or fifty kilograms means that I picked up about fifty dollars by following the seagulls!

Pour more than twenty yellowtail fish into the cabin, free up the fishing nets, be prepared to encounter schools of fish at any time, and then continue cruising on the sea.

At this time, a tiny black dot appeared on the sea surface. As the ship approached, the tiny black dot gradually became larger in sight.

It is an object floating on the water, and it looks like a compressed miniature island emerging from the water!
"Hey, what is this?" Liang Zifeng looked very curious.

It might not be strange to see rotten fish floating on the sea, but the thing in front of you is obviously not a fish, and it doesn't look like wood. Instead, it looks like a small rockery.

Liang Ziqiang also stared at the strange object. As the distance got closer, he could even see clearly that the irregular surface of the object was covered with countless tiny holes...

"What a big stone this is! A stone that can float on the water?!" Liang Zifeng also saw the appearance of the object clearly and muttered in surprise.

"Quickly get the net!" Liang Ziqiang said, and picked up the empty net from the ground.

"We need a net to catch this? Just because it can float on the water, it is valuable?" Liang Zifeng scratched his head.

They watched as the huge rock moved past their fishing boat like a miniature island in the vast ocean and was about to drift away.

Liang Ziqiang stood at the bow and quickly threw out the fishing net.

After the stone was caught in the fishing net, he began to tighten the net line, pulling the stone closer to the side of the boat little by little.

In order to prevent the fishing net from being torn, the two held the corners of the stone with their hands and moved it to the boat. After taking the big stone out of the net and putting it away, the two began to look carefully. They saw that the stone was dark gray, and almost every inch of its surface was covered with tiny holes.

The stone looks very big, but when you actually move it, it feels like it only weighs a few hundred pounds. If it were a normal stone, it would definitely not weigh only a few hundred pounds.

Obviously, although this stone looks hard, it is actually very loose, which is why it can float on the water.

"It is indeed a huge piece of pumice!" After taking a closer look, Liang Ziqiang was completely certain.

"Where do these strange-looking rocks come from in the sea?" Liang Zifeng still didn't quite understand.

"This is actually the bone of a kind of worm on the seabed. A large number of them gather together to become such a big piece! Don't underestimate it, it is medicine. I heard the price is okay and will not be lower than that of ordinary sea fish!" Liang Ziqiang explained simply.

Sea pumice, also known as sea stone flower, is actually the dried skeleton of ridged moss worms or tubercle moss worms, gathered into irregular blocks like coral. This thing mainly appears from time to time in the southern waters.

The so-called "stone sinking into the sea" was broken by this stone...

This kind of pumice is used as medicine to clear lung fire, resolve phlegm, and soften hard masses. Therefore, it often appears in prescriptions for treating phlegm-heat cough, old phlegm accumulation, sores, and eye opacities.

Li Shizhen once described this thing in his Compendium of Materia Medica, saying that there is "float in the sea, light and hollow." The name "sea pumice" is likely related to this origin.

Liang Ziqiang didn't know what the classics said behind it, but he knew that the value of this stone weighing over 100 kilograms was probably comparable to that of the small yellow-footed net.

Before setting off, I thought about what kind of fish I might encounter today. All kinds of strange and weird fish flashed through my mind, but I never expected that a stone would hit the door and add to today's catch!
"Second brother, are we going to continue forward?" Liang Zifeng asked.

"Let's go a little further and take a look before returning!" Liang Ziqiang thought about it and decided.

"Wait, there seemed to be a shadow just passing under our boat, it looks quite big!"

Before the boat moved forward too far, Liang Zifeng started shouting.

"I saw it too!"

Liang Ziqiang looked carefully and saw that the big fish passed through the bottom of their boat and was swimming away.

Fortunately, it looked leisurely and its swimming speed was not too fast.

Liang Ziqiang immediately adjusted his direction and chased after the big fish.

"Hey, where's the fish?"

When chasing after it, the big fish seemed to have mastered the art of escaping and disappeared without a trace.

"It must have sunk into the water. It's too deep to be seen. There's nothing I can do. I was still a step too slow!"

Liang Ziqiang shook his head in disappointment and said helplessly.

Although he didn't see it clearly, he had already guessed from the appearance of the fish that it was a very rare big fish. This guess instantly made his heart beat faster and he was very excited.

The disappointment at this moment can be imagined.

But there is no way. The sea is bottomless and the fish hide in the depths. How can we catch them?

After waiting for a while, he was about to sail away.

He turned around and when his eyes fell on the water not far from the bow, he was suddenly filled with surprise.

The big fish that had disappeared appeared silently right in front of them after they turned around!

This time, Liang Ziqiang decided not to miss the opportunity, so he stood at the bow, holding a net and went forward...

(End of this chapter)