The boat sailed into that stretch of black sea. Four naked backs shone under the sun's rays. Fish plucked from the net also shone on the deck. They flopped about, struggling for all they were worth, their razor sharp fins cutting into the feet of the fishermen. The fish here were huge and had amazing strength, especially if they had just swum into the net. Then, pulling them out of the net was a life and death struggle. Old Uncle Seven clenched his teeth around his empty pipe. In front of him were those thick, dark legs of Cao Mang. The mesh of the net, drenched with water, constantly tightened around those legs, but the legs never budged. They were truly like a pair of steel pillars. Cao Mang could haul up twelve sections of net in no time, without even straightening his back. The great fish would slap his face with their tails as he took their gills firmly between his thumb and forefinger and pressed them to the deck. The fish gnashed their chisel-like teeth but could never bite Cao Mang's fingers. As they fell to the deck they would bite hard into the belly of another great fish. Cao Mang often just kicked the fish into the hold as the two brothers sighed in amazement.

The deck was covered with fish blood, scales and sticky slime. Once Old Uncle Seven's younger son slipped and fell, knocking out one of his teeth on the gunwale. At some point Old Uncle Seven's pipe had been flung into the sea. ..

They kept fishing all the way up to Mid-Autumn festival, but they hadn't had to take the net up very often.

After Mid-Autumn festival the wind chilled and the waves got bigger,so the number of times they had to take up the net and seek cover from the wind gradually increased. The four of them were so tired that their backs felt like they would break, and they were all obviously thinner. Old Uncle Seven had seriously considered taking the seine net out for a bit of a break, but as soon as the winds went down they would take the net and secure it to the roots again.

Just like so many fishermen, they were waiting for a catch of even more big fish, but their waiting led them to disaster.

That day there had been no report of a change in the weather. Old Uncle Seven was leaning against the asphalt siding outside the shop, smoking. As he knocked out the bowl of his pipe he glanced at the sky and discovered a strange cloud formation. He immediately bounded inside and called to Cao Mang and his two sons to go out to sea to take out the seine net.

The net was soon almost all out and it still wasn't dark. but the sky to the northwest had grown so purple. As Old Uncle Seven looked at it his hands trembled slightly. Of course the last section of net couldn't be hauled out --- somehow the undertow had managed to shift the position of the well-secured roots and the foot of the net had caught on the jagged reefs! When Old Uncle Seven figured all of this out a cold sweat immediately broke over his face. He hesitated for awhile, then wiped the beads of sweat from his face and said: "Cut the net..."

To throw away half a length of net just didn't feel right! Cao Mang shook his head.

The dusk was beginning to fall. The two brothers said; "Mang, if we don't go now we'll run into the wind."

Cao Mang bit his lip as he fixed his stare on that stretch sea which had turned black. With a grim expression he said: "So let's run into it."

Old Uncle Seven leapt up furiously; "You blackguard, cut the net and let's get out of here!"

Cao Mang held his grim expression.

Old Uncle Seven shot a look to his two boys and they immediately grabbed Cao Mang by the waist and held him. Cao Mang gave an angry cry and spread open his legs, instantly casting the boys onto the deck. Then he turned and jumped into the water. After a long time his head appeared out of the water and he shouted: "My father died out here, right here on these jagged reefs!" When he was finished speaking his jet black hair flashed in the water and he disappeared.

Old Uncle Seven's to sons started to cry. Uncle Seven shouted: "Shut up!"

Afterwards Cao Mang showed his head above the water twice but he didn't get back aboard the boat. When he dove down under the water again a trail of blood appeared on the surface of the water. When Old Uncle Seven saw that he quickly jumped into the water.

The two brothers began shouting, their voices filled with utter terror.

After staying down for a time, Cao Mang floated back to the surface. His body was covered with cuts and the water around him immediately turned red. Old Uncle Seven also floated to the surface and grabbed hold of Cao Mang to pull him over to the boat. The two brothers and their father placed Cao Mang on the deck of the boat. There were so many cuts on his body they couldn't count them all. Some were deep and some more superficial, and they were still oozing blood. The brothers stretched out his bloodied legs and could see that one of his toes had been bitten off by something and on the soul of his foot was a deep, black hole.

Old Uncle Seven wept.

With a hoarse voice he shouted: "Cut the net! Let's get out of here!"

Cao Mang still wanted to clamber up. But he as he reached out his hand to try to take the knife from the two brothers he passed out.

The net was cut. The boat started back. Old Uncle Seven told his two sons: "The net as really was caught on the reef. The cuts on Cao Mang's body were opened up by the barnacles on the reef. He may have run into a shark as well..."

The dusk had come. Great swells appeared, one closely following the other.

Old Uncle Seven never stopped shouting at his sons, but the roar of the ocean drown out the sound of his voice. Suddenly it was as if the hull of the boat had fallen into a narrow alleyway. The walls were made of water; soft, terrifying walls which could collapse at any time. Their boat was struggling. They could hear the groaning sounds of its bones. After awhile they had no choice but to trail one of the drift nets out into the sea to stabilize the pitching boat...

On the shore, people lit a huge fire for them, and they could see the shadows moving about by the fire. The two brothers fought with the rudder. Old Uncle Seven shouted; "Keep your eyes up. Don't let the boat turn sideways and broach!:"

The big fire was only about half a mile away from them. The two brothers joyfully started crying out. But Old Uncle Seven lay motionless on the deck listening. When he heard a sound like; "Woo --- Boo!" he said in despair: "The onshore waves are 'hard chime breakers.' It's no good, we won't be able to get close to the shore!"...