In the evening, watching the fishing boats return from fishing in twos and threes and sail down the river into the small pier, we have the idea and urge to go out to sea with them to fish. However, none of these fishermen would let us go on their boats and go fishing with them, and we were puzzled by the fact that they were petty, ungenerous, and unrealistic. Later, it was the old local teacher who told us what happened, fishing boats are the only livelihood that these fishermen have relied on for generations, and fishing is the only skill they rely on to survive, so there are many taboos on board, and those of us who are not fishermen will not be able to learn it anyway, let alone understand it. These taboos have been passed down from generation to generation, and have been deeply ingrained in their blood, in all their usual habits; The second reason is that their fishing boats are too small to accommodate us on board at the same time; The third reason is to go out to sea to fish, that is to beg for food from the god of death, which is very dangerous, and if you don't get it right, the boat will capsize and people will die, so none of them will easily agree to strangers to get on their fishing boat, let alone want to go fishing with them.

Yes, it's no wonder that when we first arrived, when we walked along the riverbank, we always met some familiar parents, whose fishing boats were unloading at the docks, and sometimes they were too busy to go home for dinner, so they would send their families to put the food in a bamboo hand-held basket and bring it to them. When we meet such familiar parents, we always greet them warmly: "Did you catch a lot of fish today?" If you are busy, you will bring them food to eat. ”

Seeing us greeting, most of the parents turned their backs on their faces with angry and bad expressions, and simply ignored our greetings; Only a small number of parents will nod their heads awkwardly and squeeze out a little smile on the corner of their mouths, and then they will leave in a hurry, never saying a word to us.

It turned out that we committed a taboo handed down by these fishermen for thousands of years! These fishermen call "shengfan" "loading rice", because the "sheng" of "shenghan" and the "sinking" of "sunken ship" are homophonic, which is their taboo; "Sending food" is called "taking rice", because for them, the word "sending food" is to "send" the dead; When one side of the fish is eaten by people, we are used to saying that we "turn over" the fish and then eat the other side of the fish, but these fishermen say that it is "one side off", because the "turn" of "turning" and the "turning" of "overturning" have the same sound and the same word。。。。。。 In addition to these dazzling language taboos, there are also many of their taboos on board, even if you accidentally stand in the wrong position on the ship, you may have committed their taboos, if you meet a hot-tempered captain, maybe it is really a penny to flatten you into the sea! As people who are not in this profession, we will not be able to learn these taboos that have been deeply rooted in their blood, and even if you have put a lot of effort into learning them, you may occasionally subconsciously commit their taboos.

It seems that the hope of following them on the boat to fish has been dashed. However, the east is not bright and the west is bright, and we still have the wish to go out and watch them fishing, and we still have it.

A parent of a student invited us to watch him fish, and he said that his fishing method is the most primitive way of fishing in the world, and he does not need to go out to sea by boat, so there are not so many taboos, as long as we are not afraid of hard work, we can still catch a lot of fresh fish.

At the time he had agreed, we didn't go home that Sunday, so we borrowed a few bicycles from the parents of the students nearby, and the two of us went to the beach with him to see how he fished. The distance was not far, not too close, and it took us about an hour or so to get to the beach that the parent was talking about.

We were all very excited, but when we followed the parent to the beach, we saw almost nothing but the endless sea and the yellow water.

Along the seashore is a long seawall, which is used to prevent the tide from backing up, which can flood the farmland or salt pans near the seashore. The parent had set up several huts along the slope with his back to the seawall, and two dogs, and when they saw us coming, the dogs barked incessantly, and the parent scolded his dogs while enthusiastically leading us into his huts.

The shack was very simple, there was not even a bed, just a dirty quilt pushed on a piece of oilcloth, not even a pillow, near the door outside the shack there was a simple stove, next to it there were some wood for cooking for the fire, in the middle of the shack there was a simple wooden table and a few simple wooden stools, and there was almost nothing. The parent of the student beckoned us in and started to light a fire and cook. We all felt embarrassed and a little incredible.

I saw that the parent had made a fire, put a pot on the shelf, and then went straight to the shack next to him and brought a large basket of fish, and he said: "Don't dislike it, this is the fish that was just caught yesterday, and I knew that you were coming today, so I deliberately left some of it, there is nothing delicious on the seaside, but there are many fish." ”

We couldn't help but ask curiously how these fish were caught, how they got to the beach and didn't see anything. The parent said: "You are all cultural people, I am a big boss, and I can't say anything, and when you have drunk and eaten, I guess I can take you to the sea to fish." ”

I saw that the parent didn't wash the fish, and the scales were not scraped, but he quickly grabbed the heads of the fish with his hands, tore off the fish heads and fish viscera, and then threw them into the pot one by one, and the pot had been filled with water, green onions and ginger, and there was no other seasoning. Seeing our puzzled and slightly disgusted expressions, the parent said: "Don't dislike the fish I burn like this, this is the way that our fishermen have eaten fish for generations, the fish is grown in the sea, and it is very clean, because the sea water is salty, which has the effect of sterilization and freshness." I don't know how many times cleaner fish are on land than fish on land. ”

We will be suspicious, this is the first time I have seen this kind of fish, the fish is cooked, a big pot is full, there are several varieties of fish, large or small, we can't tell what kind of fish these fish belong to or what name, two bowls per person, one bowl full of fish, one bowl full of wine, a few colleagues without a stool squatting to drink and eat fish, really, this is the most delicious fish I have ever eaten! The most original fish! The way to cook this delicious fish is so simple, without using a drop of oil, a piece of salt, or a grain of MSG, just water and green onion and ginger. Yes, it is often the simplest that is the most beautiful.

Eating fish and drinking wine, he kept asking this fisherman this and that。。。。。。 We all started to get a little drunk, and then we saw the student's parent walk out of the shack, and then walk back and say to us, "Please drink all the wine in the bowl, and those who can't drink it should find someone else to bring it, but don't waste it." When you finish drinking, you go fishing with me. ”

We were so excited that we drank almost all the wine in our bowls, and then we hurriedly followed the parent up to the seawall.

When we came just now, it was still an endless sea with yellow and yellow water, almost at our feet, just a meal, the sea water had receded, receded far away, and the sea tide had ebbed. I saw a long green curtain at the junction of the sea and the shore in the distance, which turned out to be one of the oldest fishing methods in the world: purse seine fishing.

Can you catch fish? We asked curiously. "Of course you can!" While preparing the basket for us, the student's parent said: "Before the sea is not at high tide, we insert a long bamboo in the sea in the distance in advance, and then enclose the fishing net, when the sea tide is high, some fish, shrimp and crabs will follow with the high tide of the sea, but when the sea tide is low, these crabs, fish and shrimp are cut off from the back road, and they are all stopped by the fishing net, so we go to the sea to pick them up one by one." ”

It's the easiest and most effective way to fish in the world. We took off our shoes, rolled up our trousers, and carried a basket to follow the student's parent into the sea to fish, and the parent led the team in front and warned us to pay attention to the beach, not the mudflat, because walking in the mud pool will sink in, and sometimes even life-threatening.

We excitedly echoed, excitedly walking cautiously towards the curtain, and soon arrived at the curtains connected by those bamboo poles. Really, there are fish! The fish were blocked by the curtains, some of them were lying there dying, some of them were jumping around with sand, and they seemed to be resisting, but the hateful thing was that the crabs, when they saw us coming, actually climbed up the curtains and tried to escape from prison。。。。。。 We searched all the way along the curtains, one by one tired and panting, and we had to carry baskets in our hands, although they were not too heavy, but when you carried these baskets up for hundreds of meters, you would definitely be tired and out of breath.

Today's harvest is really a lot, I estimate that there should be at least more than 100 catties of fish, shrimp and crabs. There are all kinds of fish, big and small, as well as a few crabs, a dozen shrimp mothers-in-law, several conch 。。。。。。 We were all excited and enjoying the capture.

On the way back, we all said enviously: "Why don't you go back and quit your job and fish in purse seine nets at the beach, and the money you earn must be higher than our salary." ”

But this parent's words immediately dispelled this childish idea. He said that purse seine fishing may seem simple, but it is actually very hard, so many fishermen buy boats to go out to sea to fish, rather than go to the sea to fish. He specially chose a day when the tide began to ebb at one or two o'clock in the afternoon to take us to play today. The low tide time of the sea water is not static, it is constantly cyclic and converted according to a certain law, the low tide time is different every day, the most difficult and dangerous is the low tide of the sea at night, the beach at that time is pitch black, you can't see the five fingers, there is the roar of the waves in the distance, there is the sound of the sea water in the near distance, and you have to calculate the time, when you arrive at the curtain, the sea water should just recede to the curtain, if you go early, the sea has not yet exited beyond the curtain, you can only wait there. When it's windy, rainy, and cold, and you walk alone on the dark beach, I promise you'll want to die at that time. Sometimes you can't see the road at night, and if you stumble into the mudflats, you may lose your life. It's pitch black, and no one hears you even if you scream through your throat。。。。。。

The fisherman's words made us look at each other, and since then none of us have mentioned the resignation of the resign to go fishing in the purse seine nets.