Pull! It's time to pull! The old man said to the navy.

The navy gained a foothold on the side of the ship and pulled the net upwards with all its might.

The old man put down the bloody steel fork and came to help collect the net, and soon the net was pulled into the boat, and a large eel was caught in the net, and its tail and fins were sometimes jerking, making the net tremble.

The navy was overjoyed when he saw this fish for the first time, and he used his feet to provoke the slippery body of the big eel, and found that its belly was big and swollen, so he asked his grandfather, is there any eggs in the belly of this big eel? Grandpa said yes, the navy was going to release it, and there was quite a reason to say that if you put it back into the sea, it would scatter its eggs and grow more eels.

Grandpa smiled coldly, the wrinkles on his face pulled up the edges and corners, he said silly boy, the sea is vast and boundless, let it go, even if the scattered eggs give birth to eels, how can it be your turn to fish? So saying, he bowed down and took the live eel out of the net and put it into a bucket with half a bucket of water. Grandpa also gave a reason for it to spit out the dirt in its stomach in a bucket, and then cook it hygienic and delicious.

The big eel foamed at the mouth, and it felt more comfortable when it was placed in a bucket with water, but the bucket was too small for its tail to stretch out, so it could only half-bend and swing with difficulty. It had the fear of being imprisoned, and after a few bounces in the bucket, it instinctively jumped out and fell on the sampan that was only a little wet but without water, which made it even more uncomfortable, and it jumped harder.

The Navy yelled to grab it and put it in the barrel, but it was a little sleepy and no longer throbbing.

As the sun set, it was not early, and the old man slowly bent the fishing boat into the western harbor, docked and anchored. The navy lifted the barrels of the ship, full of big and small fish, and laboriously laid them on the shore, panting for breath, still looking with interest at the big eel, which was lying on its swollen white belly, and its mouth was still moving.

The old man took down the fishing net, put a long lock on his shoulder, and walked straight to the fishing village. The fishing village is on the west side of the sea, where there are brick and wood tiled houses, like Rubik's cubes, stacked in a patchwork of pieces.

The old man and his grandson walked around a row of earth-colored bungalows, turned a corner, and in front of them was another bungalow, and on the north side of the bungalows was a sloping house, on which a square chimney protruded, and wisps of gray smoke came out. This is their home.

The navy brought a bucket of fish to the door, put it down to rest for a while, and was about to carry it into the hall, when his grandfather told him to put it down, and separate the small fish and the big fish to make a pile. Only the big eel did not take it out, and the space in the bucket was naturally larger, and it no longer had to squeeze it, but adjusted its belly-turned body to a slightly suitable state, its tail swayed from time to time, and its cyan back was also turbulent, looking like a column of rolling mountains that had been condensed.

Divide the big and small fish, and who will sell them at the market tomorrow? The navy asked, but it invisibly stabbed the old man's sore spot.

Thirteen years ago, his son, the father of the Navy, went out early in the morning to sell fish and did not return home until late at night. The next day, the family couldn't find it everywhere, and thousands of bills printed out by computers were posted in thousands of villages and alleys, thousands of streets, and thousands of stores, but they still had not been found. The police station that reported the case, because there were no clues, the police who accepted the disappearance case were helpless. When his son disappeared, the Navy was only 7 years old, and his mother suffered from tuberculosis and could not bear the weight for many years, so she had no means of living, so she relied on him as a father and grandfather to go to sea to fish and sell for money to take care of their mother and son. Now the Navy is a 20-year-old young man. In a flash, remembering this bitter past, the old man's face changed suddenly and he secretly wept.

Seeing the sad look on his grandfather's face, the navy didn't ask any more questions, and divided the big and small fish into two piles. Grandpa said slowly: I'll sell. The Navy said: Then I will go out to sea alone to fish. Grandpa was worried that it would not be safe for his grandson to go to sea alone to fish, so he smiled and said: "The navy listens to me, tomorrow we will go to the market together to sell the fish, and then go out to sea to fish together, wouldn't it be better?"

It was already dark, and the lights in the room were getting brighter and brighter. An old woman with a girdle came out, looked at the two piles of sea fish, and said Old man, today's harvest is not small.

Then she saw the big eel in the barrel by the light, and shook it with joy, and the big eel jumped straight in the middle of it, and almost jumped out, and the salty and muddy water splashed on the old woman's clothes.

The Navy shouted: Grandma, don't touch it. Grandma went around to the side, and Grandpa asked her teasingly: Look, how much can this big eel sell for? Grandma replied firmly: no matter how much money it can sell, it will not be sold. This fish is very nutritious, so it is left for the Navy to eat. The Navy is at home for the summer holidays and will be at school next month. Grandpa said: If you don't sell it, you won't sell it, depending on your cooking skills, if you make this eel not delicious, the navy will blame you.

The crouched Navy stood up and said that no matter how grandma made it, I would not blame her, I believe that grandma has first-class cooking skills.

The Navy is a student at a national university, and because of his poor family, he went out to sea with his grandfather to fish during the summer vacation and became a helper. With the navy by his side, his grandfather has more energy to cast nets and fish.

Grandma looked at the barrel again and said to herself: the water in it is too muddy, you need to change it to clean water, or the big eel will choke to death. She dusted off Mercury, which had splashed on the hem of her clothes, and then picked up the bucket and went into the house to change the water.

The big eel was choking uncomfortably in the barrel, when suddenly an old mother decanted the water in the barrel, and it felt that the water was getting less and less, and it became more and more nervous, and its body and fins jumped straight up. As the saying goes: fish can't do without water, and flowers can't do without seedlings. The big eel that is leaving the water now is really uncomfortable, and its mouth keeps moving, but what good is that? It felt like its life was coming to an end, not just its own, but the eggs in its belly—the fate of countless of its descendants. It jumped in panic, and the bucket ran out of water, and the old mother held down its slippery body with her hand to prevent it from moving, but it struggled to die, and its head and tail were cocked and lowered with difficulty, over and over again.

Suddenly, there was a turning point, and my mother's other hand took a scoop of water, and the clear water poured straight into the wooden bucket, and gradually it was filled. The mother had already let go of the hand that was holding the eel, and the eel happily dived into the water, thinking that there was hope of escape. But it didn't understand why my mother did this, and it also felt that the water quality was much stronger now, not as choking as the muddy water at the beginning.

What still frightened the eel was that the round walls of the barrel could not be opened, and if they did, there must be a larger body of water outside, and there was no shelter on the surface of the sea that could be allowed to swim.

It rested in the bucket for a long time, the sky changed from thick darkness to a faint light, it seemed that a night had passed, it was already early in the morning, the navy and grandfather got up in the morning to sell fish, only the old mother in the house, her shadow solemnly put into the barrel, gloomy the body of the big eel, the big eel knew that there was a man who walked to the barrel to look at it, it flicked vigilantly, the water splashed out of the bucket, turned into Mercury and fell on the back of the mother's hand.