The Legend of the Fishermen of Sicily

Natale had just kindly advised Aesop not to be angry.

Now Iso has to turn around and comfort Natale.

The fish that Leo brought sold for 15 lira, more than 2 more than Natale.

The diligent Natale was severely discouraged and suddenly lost the motivation to go to sea... He was no longer in a hurry to leave and smoked one cigarette after another while looking towards the sea.

"I used to be able to comfort myself by saying that even with bad luck, I was still better off than individual investors, but now I can't even say that anymore."

Leo was quite embarrassed and quickly explained:

"I'm not alone, I have Rosalia to help me."

Leo said this to comfort poor Natale.

But hearing it from others was even more shocking than learning that he had caught 15 worth of fish.

How could an out-of-towner actually hire a local helper?

Still that heavyweight?

......

Leo was only familiar with a very few local villagers, besides a few shop owners and Andrei.

The bosses are thinking about nothing but money, money, money, money.

Andrei's mind was only focused on which historical story to tell today.

They rarely talked to Leo about village gossip.

Therefore, Leo was unaware of what Rosalia meant in Malzamemi.

Leaving the fish market, he walked to the stone-paved road connecting the covered walkway to the center of the village.

When the three Salvatore brothers, who were setting up their stall, saw Leo approaching, they huddled together in fright, their faces ashen, like a nest of terrified white mice.

Facing his former 'enemy,' now his 'younger brother,' Leo sneered arrogantly:

"Strength truly matters. They're terrified of me after hearing how good I am at fishing. They'll have to work even harder today!"

......

Enzo heard that Leo had sold 15 fish that morning.

The big guy spent the whole day on tenterhooks, fearing that Sandro would call him to his house.

Upon returning to Marzamemi in the evening, the first thing he did was go to church for Mass.

"Lord, please bless that child named Leo—"

......

Nothing happened that night.

Enzo thought Leo had weathered the crisis.

However, he severely underestimated Aquaman's strength.

The next morning, he ran into a familiar merchant at the dock, who actually asked Enzo if he knew a fisherman named Leo.

Enzo thought 15 lira was the limit for Leo... but today the fish Leo brought sold for 18 lira.

The merchants were all alarmed.

They had never settled such high payments with small-scale fishermen before.

That night, everyone in Marzamemi went to sleep, but Enzo was still sitting in the church.

In the flickering, dim candlelight, one could faintly hear a devout voice:

"Lord, grant your blessing and keep that child named Leo away from danger—"

......

On the morning of the third day, Enzo, sporting dark circles under his eyes, received the 'bad news'.

Sandro asked him to come over, and I heard he also called a few other people over.

A heart that had been hanging in suspense finally died.

It's time to come!

Enzo didn't even need to ask; he immediately went to the fish market.

They happened to run into Leo himself, who was counting money with a big smile on his face.

Little did Leo know that Malzamemi had been secretly plotting something these past few days, and upon seeing Enzo, he immediately began showing off his "abilities":

"I sold 20 lira today."

After saying that, he put on an expectant look, as if waiting for Enzo to praise his abilities.

Enzo was genuinely happy for Leo when he saw that he had made so much money.

This shows that his earnest persuasion of Solberto to let Leo go to sea was absolutely the right thing to do.

"Why do you bring back more fish every day than the day before?" Enzo asked.

Three days ago, I was already quite surprised to see the fish scattered all over Rosalia's front door for the first time.

Leo can definitely be described as 'extraordinarily gifted'.

Could it be that he has mastered some secret technique for hunting fish underwater in just three days?

Leo seemed to be talking about something so ordinary it couldn't be more commonplace:

"Because I'm spending more time away from home now."

Remembering Enzo's earlier warning to "not get heatstroke," Leo quickly added:

"Under the premise of ensuring safety."

Safety first!

Enzo paused for a moment, then recalled something.

Aesop once said that Natale had also asked him to look after Leo's business.

Enzo wondered why Aesop should take care of Leo when Natale and Solberto didn't seem to have much in common.

Now he understood—

Leo is not only exceptionally talented, but also a hardworking and diligent young man.

Instead of becoming complacent with their remarkable achievements, they became even more motivated.

Horror!

"What's wrong?" Leo asked Enzo with a complicated expression.

The big guy smiled for the first time in three days, adding the praise Leo had been waiting for:

"That's great, Solberto will be so proud of you."

......

Marzamemi has only a few hundred people.

The appearance of a spearfishing expert, the strange news that an outsider had brought in a local helper, and the fact that the helper was Rosalia—these big news stories combined were enough to make Leo's name reach Sandro's ears again.

As long as things don't involve his rebellious son Angie, Sandro is very reasonable in everything he does.

Madame Rosa once commented that Leo was a kind boy. Although he was from out of town and had not been in Sicily for long, Sandro would not stop Leo from accepting the honor.

People who spend a lot of time with the sea tend to have strange tempers, and each of them adheres to their own rules.

Sandro's rule is that fishermen must obey the will of the sea, and the sea never cares who you are, but only what abilities and skills you have.

If Leo truly has this ability, Sandro would agree.

But when he asked a few fishermen last time, their opinions of Leo were all very calm and restrained.

There were no flowery words, no enthusiastic promotion, and certainly no passionate declaration like "Marzamemi has produced a master fisherman" that Sandro had hoped for.

This gave Sandro the feeling that "Leo might be good at fishing, but not that good," so he ruled out the name "Leo."

For the past three days, Sandro has been hearing new news about Rio every day.

He believed that Leo was ready to go to Messina, but this required the approval of other fishermen, hence the meeting.

Sandro gave a passionate opening speech, humorously recounting several major news stories he had heard in the past two days, and remarking that the docks in Malzamemi hadn't been this lively in a long time.

However, the room was completely silent; no one echoed the sentiment.

If you look closely, you'll see that the expressions on the faces of a few people are rather indescribable.

Today probably won't go so smoothly... Sandro had a bad feeling.

He first looked at Enzo, whose expression was the most "unspeakable".

Enzo insisted on sending Aurelio to Messina, wanting to promote other candidates, and Aurelio was the biggest obstacle.

Sandro walked over to Enzo and handed him a handkerchief to wipe his sweat; for some reason, Enzo had been sweating a lot lately.

Have you heard anything about Leo these past few days?

Enzo remained silent for a full three or four seconds before speaking:

"I heard you."

"So what do you think of Leo?" Sandro continued.

What followed was an even longer period of silence.

Sandro believes that Enzo has already expressed his attitude through his actions.

He moved on to the next person, wanting to hear other people's opinions, but Enzo, who was diagonally behind him, finally spoke up:

"Strong, extremely strong. I have never seen such a talented young man. Leo definitely has the ability to go to Messina."

He just added the praise that Leo was expecting.

At this moment, he added the truthful assessment that he should have given three days earlier.

Screw Solberto!

To hell with Mrs. Rosa!

Leave this to God!