In the early morning, black clouds obscured the sky and the muggy air shrouded the workers of the Qin family fish farm as they lifted their heads, looking out at the sky and lake as they drove the feeding boat.
"Looks like it's going to rain. Let's get this done quickly then head back."
"En. The boss says he wants to eat fish. Let's catch a big red drum and leave."
The workers operated the feed machine, casting fish food all around.
To their surprise, they had operated the machine for some minutes now, yet only a few fish came over to eat, and they were mostly all smaller fish less than one catty in size.
"What's happening? It's raining soon and the weather isn't or stuffy. Fish shouldn't be hiding at the bottom of the lake. Why're no fish coming out to eat?" asked one of the middle-aged men with a frown. "Old Song, let's go a bit further in."
"Okay."
They drove the boat towards the center of the farm where the fish were usually concentrated, but as they cast out the food, the fish coming to the surface weren't even half as much as usual.
"Old Song, do you know what's happening? How come there are no fish?" The middle aged man frowned.
Old Song stood by the front of the boat frowning too, looking in confusion at the tiny fish eating.
"Maybe all the fish are in some corner?" Old Song guessed, looking around. Everything seemed normal.
"Then let's go check it out," the middle-aged man said hesitantly. "I remember a couple days ago, there were less fish than normal too."
Old Song and the others thought back. Old Zhang had really mentioned a couple days ago that the fish seemed less than usual, but they hadn't paid any attention then.
"Let's go look elsewhere," Old Song said, turning the boat in another direction.
No matter where they went, after stopping at five or six different locations, only a couple fish came to the surface. As they headed to the last corner of the farm, Old Song and the others started panicking.
"Go and tell the boss quickly! Find out what happened! Why are all the fish gone?" Old Song said as they rushed the boat back to the bank and ran to the Qin house.
The Qin house was a townhouse beside the fish farms at Feng Tai. It was renowned for being luxurious in Hai Qing City, and it was worth at least tens of millions of RMB.
Old Song and others walked hurriedly into the house and yelled out in a panic: "Boss! Boss!"
"What's going on?" said a fat forty-year-old wearing a tiny muscle tank. Qin Dahai looked out at the panicked workers with a frown.
"Boss. A lot of the fish disappeared!" Old Song exclaimed, pointing in the direction of the farm.
"Disappeared? Impossible!" Qin Dahai said as he strode forward. "How could the fish disappear? Did someone steal them?"
"We don't know! We don't know! We just went out to feed the fish, but the fish that came up were much fewer than before. We checked the whole farm! Not even half as much as the usual amount!" Old Song and the others explained hurriedly.
"Show me!" Qin Dahai said with smoldering anger.
Judging by the stuffy air, it was about to rain, and usually at times like this, a lot of fish would come close to the surface even without the incentive of food. With so many fish in the farm, it was impossible that all of them refused to come to surface. The only possibility was that there weren't as many fish.
Old Song shrunk back from the angry Qin Dahai. These workers knew very well who Da Hai was. A couple years ago, some thief came over to steal fish in the middle of the night, and after Da Hai found him, he took a dozen people to go beat the guy half to death with iron sticks. If someone hadn't stopped him, he would've thrown the thief into the sea.
Honglong! A flash of lightning split the sky, and thunder filled the air for half a second.
Rain began to pour down heavily.
However, Dahai walked to the fish farm as if he didn't feel the rain.
"Go. Drive," he ordered. His face only became cloudier as he looked out at the small fish feeding.
His years of experience confirmed what the workers saw. There was no mistaking the situation, especially when compared to any of the fish farms nearby.
In all the other farms, fish dotted the surface, covering the water. It was only in his farm that the situation was different.
The boat split the water, moving towards the center of the farm. Dahai stood at the front of the boat ignoring the falling rain, looking out in silence.
"Get me diving gear!" Dahai said suddenly.
"Yes!" the workers replied immediately, with some surprise at Da Hai intending to enter the water himself.
With the gear on, Dahai jumped into the farm and checked the net.
After an hour, Da Hai came back up and said furiously, "They were stolen!"
"What?!" the workers exclaimed in astonishment. In this day and age, people still stole fish? And it wasn't easy to take fish from such a big fish farm, especially stealing some tens of tons of fish without leaving a clue.
Qin Dahai's face twitched. If they lost two thirds of the population, that was a couple million gone already. With the farm lease and the base costs, the expense would be even higher!
"Call the police. Get them to look for clues. I can't believe that more than ten tons of fish could be stolen without anyone noticing."
Dahai left the boat and returned home, fuming.
Qin Zhiyu just woke up, and he walked up in confusion when he saw his father coming in covered in water. "Dad, are you alright?"
Dahai remained silent, wiping himself with a towel. He lit a cigarette and puffed on it angrily.
"Dad? What happened?" Qin Zhiyu asked carefully. His father had not been this angry in a long time.
"Someone stole our fish!"
"Stole? How's that possible? How did they steal them?" Zhi Yu said in astonishment. Fish were living creatures. Even if someone caught the fish, it would take them three or four days just to transport them, yet someone actually managed to steal them?