Unsatisfied with the soft rod and its thin line and small hook, Eva took out a rod that required assembly from her backpack, put a bigger hook and live bait on it, and continued finishing.
Zheng Yang was baffled. "Just how many rods did you bring with you?"
"My mom and I brought two rods each."
"Alright, have it your way," he thought.
Zheng Yang looked at the second-hand rod in his hand and thought it looked really shabby. He made up his mind to get a unit or two of all kinds of angling gear to take onto his boat once he made more money.
This time around, they had to wait a long time for anything to bite. The bigeye tuna struggled every now and then, and every time it did, Eva giggled in that songbird voice of hers. Zheng Yang wondered just what she was giggling at, but her smile and laughter were still infections, and both he and Emily grinned whenever she giggled.
For quite a while, no big fish took the bait, but Zheng Yang actually caught several herring and codfish, as well as a squid and a salmon with that soft rod, all of which he dumped into the fish hold at the bow.
About half an hour later, they sighted another angling boat nearby. There were 10 people on board with fishing rods in their hands. The group consisted mostly of middle-aged and young men, and from the looks of it, they were also out to have fun on this Sunday.
When the angling boat was within ten meters of Zheng Yang's, the people on board waved at them and said hello.
"How's your catch today, ladies? Any big ones?"
Emily waved and said nothing.
At that moment, the bigeye tuna was struggling for a bit, looking like it was about to die of asphyxiation.
On the other boat, someone with a keen eye spotted the tuna in the net tied at the stern, and a commotion erupted right away. All of them asked the captain to get closer to the sailboat so they could take pictures of the fish.
Some even asked to buy that bigeye tuna, offering 20000 pounds for it, which was actually a fair price.
Zheng Yang asked what both Eva and Emily thought about the offer. Considering that the fish was suffocating to death, there weren't any cold storage facilities onboard, and they were still going to stay around for quite a bit, they decided to just sell the fish in order to save themselves the trouble when they got to port.
There was a crane on the angling boat. After the buyer paid through his satellite phone, he lowered a rope to haul the tuna onboard with the crane, and the gang crowded around the big fish to take pictures.
Someone still remembered to give Zheng Yang back his net.
The angling boat went quite a distance away, about a nautical mile from where the sailboat was, before the group on board started fishing. They figured that since a sailboat had been able to catch something big around these parts, they also had a good chance of catching something big.
"Eva, give me your account number and I'll wire you the money. Or would you like your mom to look after it for you instead?" Zheng Yang said to Eva when the angling boat was far away.
She actually had her own bank account, and she gleefully gave him her account information. "Well, Zheng Yang, you let us on your boat and brought us out here to fish, so let's split the money evenly."
Zheng Yang thought this over for a bit before saying, "I'll just take 10 percent. Your mom helped too. If she hadn't, we wouldn't have been able to catch the fish. Split the remaining balance with your mother, eh?"
"Sure."
Both Eva and Emily seemed indifferent about the arrangement. They were probably thinking that Zheng Yang didn't actually lack money.
When moving funds from one account to another, taxes were automatically deducted. Zheng Yang split the money amongst the three of them, depositing a little over 1800 pounds into his account.
He attached the soft rod to the rail, managing to catch several fish of the usual type, as well as a rather huge grouper. Emily caught two huge flatfish and a huge codfish, and the tiny fish hold at the bow was nearly filled to the brim.
Then, as Zheng Yang started wondering if he should head back to the bow and cut up more fish for bait, Eva suddenly yelled.
Both Zheng Yang and Emily turned around and saw that Eva's rod was significantly bent yet again, with the reel spinning in a frenzy as the line was pulled away.
Eva immediately cradled her rod and squatted. Seeing that the rod was about to snap in two, due to part of the rod sitting on the rail, acting as a fulcrum, with two forces acting on either side of it, Zheng Yang took over for her.
"This thing weighs at least 65 kilograms."
Zheng Yang was thoroughly shocked when he realized how large the fish was.
"Man, do you like own this region of the ocean, Eva? How come the big ones only snap at your line?" he thought.
"Eva, help me reel my line in. I need to have this thing swim around for a bit."
Zheng Yang was very pumped. "This rod is a hard one, and I've done this twice before, so now just sit and watch!" he thought.
He wrestled with the fish for over 40 minutes before he finally succeeded in bringing the big fish within the spirit vessel's perception range. When he saw what kind of fish it was, he shuddered and almost dropped the rod.
"A bluefin!
I finally caught a 65-kilogram big bluefin tuna!
Just what kind of luck do you have, Eva?"
He was so shaken that his lips trembled for quite a bit. It wasn't until he pulled the fish out of the water that he began to chuckle to his heart's content, his laughter as loud as pig squeals.
"A bluefin this heavy is gonna fetch at least 600 thousand pounds!" he thought.
Zheng Yang dragged the bluefin tuna up and yelled excitedly, "Eva, snap a picture of me!"
"I was the one that hooked it, you know," Eva reminded Zheng Yang as she snapped the picture.
Zheng Yang was still excited all the same and added, "Sure, sure. Come here and take the rod too. Have your mom take a picture of you."
After they took turns getting their picture taken with the bluefin tuna, Zheng Yang took his net out again.
"Let's head home now. We need to drag it along to keep it from choking to death."
That big fish was more than enough for him to call it a day. Furthermore, it was already past noon, and it was time for them to get something to eat.
Both Emily and Eva agreed, and they headed back to the cabin to rest, feeling very, very pleased with themselves.
The winds got to number three Beaufort Scale, and because the solar panels had been exposed to the sun for several hours, the batteries were charged to 30 percent, just enough for the return trip.
Zheng Yang set sail and started the motors, having the boat travel at 12 knots. In this way, they were able to reach port in less than two hours.
Eva took out the drinks she'd brought and said, "A toast to our catch. Cheers!"
"Cheers… Eva, do you know that the bluefin tuna you caught could sell for at least 600 thousand pounds?"
Eva was shocked. "It's worth that much?"
"It might actually be worth more. I'll call a friend and ask if he's interested in buying it."
Emily then said, "Where's your stove? Let's cook something."
Zheng Yang flipped open a board in the corridor and brought out his microwave oven, induction stove, rice cooker, and so on.
Entes was over the moon when Zheng Yang told him that he'd caught a bluefin tuna that weighed around 65 kilograms. He immediately told him, "That's great news, Zheng! You've been a great help, you know that? You just keep hearing about that blasted bluefin tuna when you don't need it, and when you do happen to need one, you can't find one anywhere! Man, we were about to give up looking.
"You're a lucky fellow, you know. Bluefin tunas are becoming harder and harder to come by, and you actually managed to catch one! I'll get someone… no, I'll head to the English Harbor and take it back myself!"
Zheng Yang felt rather awkward and corrected Entes, "Truth to be told, Entes, I wasn't the one who caught the bluefin; a friend of mine who went fishing on my boat did. How much will you pay for it? I'll be reaching port in about an hour and a half. The fish will probably have chocked to death by then, and I don't have a freezer on my boat."
"God*amn it, Zheng. Just rent a freezer, have a professional drain the blood, and flash-freeze the fish. All those fees are on me. As for the fish, 700 thousand pounds. A very fair price. What do you think?"
"Deal."