Chapter 22

The next day, Ye Yuan got up and stood on the deck, gazing out at the sea.

The sky was a deep blue, the clouds were white, and by the fishing boat, flocks of seagulls followed along.

Ye Yuan used the second level ability of the Water Control Technique to check the situation below the fishing boat.

A small school of fish swam past the fishing boat, and Ye Yuan really wanted to cast a net, but seeing the size of the school, he decided against it.

The first catch of his life had to be a good start, so the fishing boat continued on its way.

Although he saw many fish chasing the fishing boat, Ye Yuan was still unsatisfied. The fish in the sea were not dense enough, making it difficult to catch them.

"Are you not going to cast the net? I think the catch here is pretty good," Ye Zhang asked beside him.

Ye Yuan just shook his head. After more than twenty minutes, Ye Yuan finally ordered the net to be cast.

This modified fishing boat was fully automated, so even though there were only a few people, much of the work was done by machines.

After half an hour, Ye Yuan ordered the net to be hauled in. The winch turned, slowly lifting the fishing net, the whirring sound indicating that the steel cable was under great strain, and the stern of the fishing boat was clearly sinking.

"This should be a big harvest," Ye Zhang said excitedly, while Ding Er looked at the sea with a blank expression, and Ding Yi continued to drive the fishing boat.

The fishing net was slowly lifted by the crane, and a large bundle of fish appeared before them. This catch was no less than ten thousand pounds.

In the net, there were many mackerels.

Mackerels have a slender body, cylindrical in the front and flattened on the sides, with a short and wide head, a flat back, and a blunt snout. They like to jump and often swim upstream in groups, feeding on organic matter in the mud at the bottom. The largest mackerels can grow up to 1.8 meters long.

Mackerels are not considered high-end seafood and are usually priced at 15-20 yuan per pound in the market. The best time to eat mackerels is in spring, and it was already early summer, so they were slightly out of season.

By this time, the net had been placed on the deck, and as the bottom rope was loosened, the previously motionless mackerels became fiercely active, trying to jump back into the sea. Especially the larger ones, which were over a meter long, seemed to be trying to fly out.

Ye Yuan and the others hurriedly went forward, moving the larger mackerels to the cold storage. As the one-meter-long mackerels were placed in the cold storage, only smaller fish remained on the deck. Many of the smaller, not yet fully grown fish were thrown back into the sea, following the fishermen's rules.

After more than three hours of work, all the fish were roughly sorted.

There were over a hundred mackerels over one meter long, and two hundred between half a meter and one meter, totaling more than 8,000 pounds of fish.

Ye Yuan really wanted to convert these fish into points immediately, but since Ye Zhang was still on the boat, he restrained his desire.

The fishing boat continued on its way. Ye Yuan asked Ye Zhang to go back and rest and instructed Ding Er to prepare lunch.

Ye Yuan spent another three days at sea.

During these three days, he cast the net several times, and each time the catch was good. The best catch was 14,000 pounds, and now the boat had nearly 20 tons of fish.

Ye Yuan took out the map and found that he was very close to international waters. The depth of the sea here should exceed 1,000 meters. He ordered Ding Yi to stop the boat, and Ye Zhang was assigned to sort the fish in the hold. The last catch was good but very mixed, with various types of fish. Ye Zhang and Ding Er would need some time to sort them, and during this time, Ye Yuan planned to dive into the sea to take a look.

Ye Yuan entered the sea, and the images of the surrounding waters all appeared in his mind, with various creatures flashing through his thoughts.

He came to a sea area with lush seaweed, where there were many herbivorous creatures. He glanced around, saw nothing special, and continued swimming farther.

By this time, Ye Yuan had already reached a depth of over 500 meters, feeling no discomfort at all. At this depth, there were large and small coral reefs, including a deep red coral. That should be the red coral.

Red coral typically has a diameter of 0.5mm to 2cm, with each individual having eight feather-like tentacles. There are eight unpaired septa, with the septal muscles growing towards the abdomen, and the septal filaments are single-leafed. There is only one oral groove, located on the abdomen. The skeleton is mostly inside the body or extends from inside to the surface. It has a calcareous central axis, which is tree-like branched but not on the same plane, and the skeleton is light pink to deep red. In addition to the central axis, calcareous spicules are distributed in the mesoglea, often living with reef-building corals. The skeleton is dense and brightly colored, often used as a gemstone or carving material. In ancient China, the emperor's court beads were made from red coral; it can also be used as medicine, with the effects of calming and improving eyesight. Due to over-exploitation, the number has drastically decreased, and it is listed as a first-class protected animal.

Ye Yuan did not collect the coral and continued to swim deeper. He swam for a long time, and in this area, there were many tall seaweeds and some green, ribbon-like plants, some reaching several dozen meters in length, taller than most trees on land.

Suddenly, several lights appeared not far away, colorful and dazzling. Ye Yuan immediately swam over and found a kind of glittering crystal.

"Are these crystals?" Ye Yuan thought.

Crystals are not valuable items; many small crafts are made from them.

"These shiny things, Niu Niu will definitely like them,"

Since he had been underwater for a long time, he should return. He picked up a few of the most beautiful ones to give to the little girl.

He took a few of the most beautiful ones and returned to the fishing boat.

When he got back on the boat, Ding Yi handed him a towel and looked at the few "crystals" in Ye Yuan's hand.

"Boss, where did you find the tourmaline? This is a good thing."

Ding Yi and the others were very human-like, and sometimes Ye Yuan couldn't tell if they were robots or real humans.

When he heard that what he had was tourmaline, Ye Yuan also recalled some information about it.

Tourmaline is one of the most colorful gemstones. Since tourmaline is a complex borosilicate mineral, the iron, magnesium, lithium, manganese, and aluminum ions can substitute for each other, and the different content of these ions directly affects the color and type of tourmaline.

Iron-containing tourmaline is black or green;

Magnesium-containing tourmaline is yellow or brown;

Lithium, manganese, and cesium-containing tourmaline is rose red, pink, red, or blue;

Chromium-containing tourmaline is deep green.

Among them, the most valuable are the deep blue and bright rose red tourmalines.

Sometimes, due to the uneven distribution of components in the same tourmaline crystal, it can lead to color changes, resulting in bicolored, multicolored, or watermelon tourmaline, which is red inside and green outside.

Thinking about this, Ye Yuan looked at the few tourmalines in his hand, one of which was deep blue, one black, and one pink.

"I wonder how much these tourmalines can sell for. I'll ask the boss when we get back to the inland sea and have cell phone signal," Ye Yuan said softly.

Seeing Ye Zhang come out, Ye Yuan handed the tourmalines to Ding Yi and asked him to put them away.

"Captain, the sorting is done."

After Ye Zhang got on the boat, he called Ye Yuan "Captain," which Ye Yuan found very satisfying.

"Let's cast a net in the international waters. Since we're already here, it would be a shame not to try," Ding Yi started the boat, and the fishing boat sailed steadily towards the international waters.

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