"Wow, another one! Another one!" As another small tuna was pulled up, Darlene exclaimed excitedly. Hearing her, the girls around her all laughed warmly.
"Good job!" A girl sitting next to Darlene, who came with Kevin, complimented her in slightly stiff English. Darlene chuckled in response.
They had been fishing for over half an hour by now. Fishing for these smaller fish didn't require constant checking of the bait. The silk thread wouldn't come off, so they just needed to pull it occasionally to check the tension. If it was right, they'd reel it in, and nine times out of ten, there'd be a fish.
In the half-hour they'd been at it, they had already caught quite a few fish, most of which were small tunas. The boat's speed wasn't fast, but it wasn't slow either, and most fish couldn't keep up with it. However, tuna, being the fastest swimmers in the ocean, had no trouble doing so.
As a result, almost all of the fish caught were small tuna. There was also a small octopus, which likely got snagged by the hook while being pulled in.
As time passed, Kevin and her friends quickly bonded with Darlene and Marian. They shared stories about their lives, and Darlene and Marian explained that they weren't Jiang Hai's romantic interests but rather his adopted daughters. They lived in Boston, though they didn't attend school. Meanwhile, Kevin and her friends, who hailed from small towns, shared their own stories. The other three girls, though, didn't speak much because their English was more like textbook English, making conversation slower and sometimes harder to understand.
Kevin's English was excellent because her cousin had immigrated to the U.S. and had helped her practice speaking. She was quite well-known in her hometown for her proficiency. It was partly because of this skill that Kevin had easily found a job in Puerto Rico. She and her friends were currently high school students, set to graduate soon. Afterward, they would need to find work, though they didn't plan to attend college due to the lack of good universities in Puerto Rico—unless Puerto Rico somehow joined the U.S. next year, though they all knew that was unlikely.
"Wow, it's hard to imagine that guy is your father," Kevin commented, her tone a bit awkward. "I'm going to say something that might make you misunderstand... I really thought he found you... Haha, you know, but how could he adopt you? You're not much different in age, and he's still a young man. Aren't you afraid of being taken advantage of living with him?"
"I've seen some cartoons and movies before. They always say that single men or women who adopt kids might have ulterior motives," added another girl.
"Ulterior motives? Haha, I know what you're thinking, but Jiang Hai is not that kind of person," Darlene laughed, dismissing the concern. "If he wanted something from us, he would've asked by now. We don't mind. If he needed anything, we would've given it to him a long time ago."
Kevin and her companions looked at each other, slightly taken aback by Darlene's words. However, Kevin quickly changed the subject. "Why don't you go to school? You know, you can make a lot of friends there," she said, sensing that Darlene and Marian weren't keen on discussing their situation further.
After an hour, the boat reached the location Kevin had marked on the map. Jiang Hai pulled up the map on his phone, confirming the location of the shipwrecks nearby. This tuna spot was only about five nautical miles away from the wreck, so it wasn't far. Jiang Hai was planning to come back at night to investigate the shipwrecks, but for now, they focused on fishing.
When the boat stopped, everyone moved to the floating platform, and Jiang Hai took note of the girls' haul. They had caught quite a few small tuna—over a hundred, nearly filling the tank.
The other girls, though not as experienced as Kevin, had grown up in a coastal town and knew how to handle fish. They each pulled out knives and began the process of killing the fish, removing their heads, gutting them, and slicing them into pieces for bait.
It took over an hour to finish processing all the fish. Then they began cutting the pieces into the right sizes for different types of fish.
"The size of the bait varies depending on the fish you're targeting. For pike, which have big mouths, the pieces need to be square. For dolphin, which have flat faces, the pieces should be thinner. For black tuna (bluefin tuna), you'll need larger pieces. I know there are black tuna nearby, but whether we catch them depends on the bait," Kevin explained as she worked. "The innards and minced meat are essential for attracting the big fish."
Jiang Hai, still a little confused about the specifics, just smiled and acknowledged Kevin's expertise. "I really don't understand this. This is why I hired you," he said with a laugh.
Kevin grinned and continued tossing fish guts and pieces into the sea, which helped attract more fish. The bait, especially the bloody parts, was irresistible to ocean creatures. Before long, a swarm of small fish began gathering, particularly anchovies and shad—small fish that were the primary food for larger predators like tuna.
Seeing the fish gathering, the girls began stringing the bait onto their fishing lines. Jiang Hai also set up the six fishing rods, placing the largest pieces of fish on them, and prepared to wait for the tuna.
"Tuna won't take the bait so quickly. Are you sure you don't want to catch some barracudas first?" Kevin asked, noticing Jiang Hai's focus on tuna.
But Jiang Hai didn't want to catch anything else. He had come for tuna, and that's what he intended to fish for. However, after five minutes, he reconsidered, as the girls started pulling in fish.
"Wow!" one of the girls exclaimed, and with a sharp tug, a long, knife-shaped fish was pulled out of the water. It was about 80 centimeters long, with a head resembling a hairtail and sharp teeth, though it had a thicker body.
Darlene and Marian immediately rushed over to help, but Kevin stopped them. She picked up a knife and struck the fish to kill it. After it stopped wriggling, she removed the hook.
"This is a barracuda, also known as a sea wolf," Kevin explained. "It's very aggressive, and they travel in packs. Even sharks steer clear of them. If you're bitten, it's bad news, and it's really painful."
Darlene and the others nodded in understanding. Jiang Hai, slightly embarrassed, admitted he didn't know much about barracudas either, but he wasn't going to let it show.
He continued preparing for the tuna, but they were elusive. While waiting, the girls pulled in three more barracudas... (To be continued.)