The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 129: Cause of Death

"Come on, let's practice finning first." Chu Mingcheng had Jiang Luoluo float on the water's surface to practice her kicks.
Whether she could swim or not, the fundamental skill of finning was essential for diving.
Once she mastered it, she could swim horizontally, and as she grew comfortable with that, her swimming technique would naturally improve.
Diving clubs required you to know how to swim before earning a freediving certificate because the training period was very short.
Someone who couldn't swim would struggle to grasp the basic skills quickly and would also slow down other students' progress.
Jiang Luoluo, however, had Chu Mingcheng to teach her whenever she wanted, and he was right there to protect her, so whether she learned to swim first didn't matter.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa..." The moment Chu Mingcheng let go, Jiang Luoluo immediately panicked.
Top-heavy, she nearly flipped into a handstand. Fortunately, the seawater's buoyancy was sufficient. With some frantic paddling, she broke the surface again.
"Don't rush. You need to learn to breathe through your mouth. The snorkel's opening is right above your head. As long as your head stays above water, you won't choke."
"But remember to blow out hard before breathing in to clear any seawater from the snorkel."
Watching her in the water, cheeks puffed out like a little hamster too scared to breathe, made Chu Mingcheng want to laugh even as he instructed her.
As a dancer, Jiang Luoluo had excellent body control.
After just a brief practice session with him, she could easily swim horizontally on the surface.
Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng took her hand under her slightly surprised gaze. "Come on, I'll show you the beauty of the underwater world."
Jiang Luoluo's face lit up with a smile. "Okay!"
"Take a breath first. Don't force it too much."
"Mm-hmm."
Once she was ready, Chu Mingcheng pulled her and began swimming down into the water.
Jiang Luoluo wasn't wearing a weight belt. With her beginner diving skills, fighting buoyancy would consume too much energy.
With Chu Mingcheng pulling her down, it was much easier.
But he was very careful not to dive deep immediately. He started from one or two meters, stopping at depths of five or six meters, then they swam horizontally at that level.
Unfortunately, the water here was quite deep. If they were near an isolated reef or small island, he could have taken her diving and foraging, looking for large sea snails or similar treasures.
They did this five or six times, each dive lasting about a minute.
Seeing she was getting tired, Chu Mingcheng suggested they return. "Let's call it a day for now. Next time we have a chance, we'll find a place with coral reefs, and you can experience the real fun of diving and foraging."
Jiang Luoluo nodded without objection. "Okay. What about you? Are you going to continue spearfishing?"
"Absolutely. There's still time. I'll spearfish for another hour." Teaching her to dive hadn't required much effort, and today's fish resources were excellent—a rare opportunity he couldn't miss.
"Alright then. I haven't caught anything fishing today either. I'll try for a while longer."
After taking Jiang Luoluo back to the boat and asking her to bring him his speargun, Chu Mingcheng set off again. This time, he was going to investigate the situation under the signal tower.
He first swam horizontally to the signal tower—just a small structure with a pillar standing on the seabed, covered in coral.
But that wasn't the main attraction. He dove down to observe the fish and found schools of seabream swimming around the pillar, even more abundant than under the bridge pier at Yanmen Island.
The schools were at depths exceeding twenty meters. He would need to dive to at least fifteen meters to hold his breath and spearfish effectively.
He sensed that spearfishing here would be more challenging than hunting Spanish mackerel earlier. Seabream weren't as large as mackerel, and while their speed might not match theirs, they were more agile, with movements that were harder to predict.
Chu Mingcheng returned to the surface, regulated his breathing, pulled back the rubber bands to load the speargun, and dove straight down vertically with the speargun leading.
This ensured a streamlined body position—vertical dives created less resistance.
He descended to about twelve meters before spotting fish.
But as he approached, the fish began fleeing downward.
Just then, he spotted an excellent striped beakfish about eight meters away. Because of the distance, it appeared quite small.
But in reality, it was significantly larger than the nearby fish. Based on his experience, this specimen was at least five jin.
The fish seemed somewhat panicked. As Chu Mingcheng raised his speargun to aim, it performed an aerial flip and shot to his opposite side at the same depth—now only five meters away.
There was no time to waste. Chu Mingcheng raised his speargun, aimed, and quickly pulled the trigger.
The spear instantly pierced the striped beakfish's body. A perfect headshot.
Scientific name: Striped Beakfish.
Cause of death: Aerial flip.
Blood stained the water. The fish was still struggling and swimming, but Chu Mingcheng easily pulled it to the surface.
He hauled up the fish—its size matched his prediction, around five or six jin.
He held up the fish and waved at Jiang Luoluo in the distance, signaling that there were fish here and he would be hunting in this area, keeping her informed of his movements.
Jiang Luoluo waved back, indicating she understood.
Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng secured the fish with a live fish stringer, reloaded the spear, pulled back the rubber bands, and flipped back into the water to continue diving.
He maintained a diving speed of one meter per second. With so many fish present, he had to catch as many as possible quickly.
Although he moved easily in the water, he wasn't an aquatic creature after all. Plus, he had expended considerable energy hunting Spanish mackerel earlier, and a brief rest wasn't enough to fully recover.
This time, he reached seventeen meters before finding another suitable target—still a striped beakfish.
But it was too distant; he had to continue descending.
As depth increased, after passing twenty meters, negative buoyancy began taking effect. Chu Mingcheng didn't even need to kick his fins to descend straight down.
The fish seemed to realize it couldn't shake him off by swimming into deeper water, so it began dodging horizontally.
Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng flipped from an inverted position to upright, then gently kicked his fins to maintain neutral buoyancy, staying at this twenty-six-meter depth.
His descent had been rapid, so only thirty-three seconds had passed.
But he didn't waste time. He raised his speargun, aimed at the striped beakfish to his right, and fired. Unfortunately, he didn't anticipate the fish's movement well this time—it happened to turn and dodge the shot.
Chu Mingcheng regretfully reeled in the line. His accuracy with the Spanish mackerel had been exceptional; only one had escaped.
That was because mackerel movements were highly predictable—they basically wouldn't suddenly change direction over short periods.
But these seabream were different. Their movements were fleeting, lasting only seconds. Whether he could seize the opportunity depended on how quickly he could prepare his aim.
From the current situation, his proficiency still needs improvement. He had to reduce aiming time, familiarize himself with various fish movements, and his accuracy would improve dramatically.
He reeled in the line and pulled back the rubber bands again. Rather than return to the surface, he continued searching for fish.
If it were a normal person, even if they could stay underwater longer, they would need to surface for air.
Spearfishing required leaving room for error—to handle various risks and the time needed to fight a fish.
But Chu Mingcheng had already established with Jiang Luoluo that he could stay underwater for five minutes, and he had just signaled her, so there was no need to surface again this time.
He swam around the pillar and was surprised to find the striped beakfish he'd missed was still there.
It didn't flee and even dared to show off in front of him?
He decisively aimed and fired. This time, he successfully predicted the fish's movement, and the spear pierced its body without surprise.
Scientific name: Striped Beakfish.
Cause of death: Repeatedly showing off.
He reeled in the fish and secured it. Chu Mingcheng checked the time—only three minutes had passed; he could get another one.
There were plenty of fish below him. After diving several more meters, he encountered fish even more valuable than striped beakfish—spotted beakfish, and there were several of them.
Chu Mingcheng scanned back and forth, locking onto the largest specimen.
He dove down slightly, reaching the same depth as the fish.
The other spotted beakfish all fled far away, but this largest one seemed completely oblivious to danger. Was it fearless because of its size?
It swam slowly in front of him, about six or seven meters away. Well, Chu Mingcheng wouldn't be polite then.
Scientific name: Spotted Beakfish.
Cause of death: Too bold.
Time was nearly up. Chu Mingcheng didn't reel it in first but simply held the line and swam toward the surface.
Normally, when ascending from roughly thirty meters, speed shouldn't be excessive—the body and eardrums needed time to adapt to changing water pressure.
But Chu Mingcheng was virtually unaffected and swam directly back to the surface quickly.
The spotted beakfish below didn't even have a chance to resist and was pulled up helplessly. It was about three or four jin—not bad.
The spotted beakfish was also premium sashimi material, so he bled it directly in the sea.
After four more dives, Chu Mingcheng successfully speared twelve fish. He missed twice during this period, and his catches were exclusively striped beakfish and spotted beakfish.
These were the only two high-value species below, and there were no particularly large, aggressive specimens.
With forty or fifty jin of fish secured on him and the live fish stringer full, he decided to return first and have Jiang Luoluo store the fish.
But before he even reached the boat, he was stunned to discover a school of cobia had arrived underwater, and Jiang Luoluo on the boat had already hooked one.
Cobia were powerful fighters. Even with the fishing rod secured in the holder, she was still pulling with a flushed face.
Then he got a closer look and understood. There were many pieces of chopped squid floating in the water as chum. The school of cobia must have been nearby and was attracted by the bait.
In that case, was Jiang Luoluo something of a lucky charm?
Chu Mingcheng quickly loaded his speargun. With so many cobia present, he had to get one first.
He selected a target fish and soon found a cobia with a scar on its side—about a meter long.
He aimed the speargun and fired. The spear successfully pierced the cobia's spine, also scaring away its nearby companions who were competing for food.
After fighting the fish briefly, because it was hit in the spine, the fish struggled to swim, so resistance was minimal.
Chu Mingcheng saw that the fish Jiang Luoluo had hooked had already lost most of its strength but would still struggle occasionally.
He'd wanted to give it a finishing shot, but after consideration, he swam to the surface first and called out to her nearby.
"Luoluo, do you want me to help finish off your fish in the water?"
"No, I want to pull it up myself."
It was as he'd thought. Jiang Luoluo didn't want interference. The joy of fishing lay in this—a big fish not pulled up by oneself would always carry some regret.
But Chu Mingcheng didn't return to the boat first. After pulling his cobia over, he threaded it onto the live fish stringer's line.
Then he loaded his speargun and kept an eye on the cobia Jiang Luoluo had hooked.
After another five or six minutes, this cobia looked exhausted. It couldn't even maintain balance, occasionally swimming sideways, and when it stopped, it was pulled bit by bit toward the boat.
Chu Mingcheng was grateful his earlier line setup had been correct. If he'd chosen thin line and a small hook, this fish would probably have escaped.
He followed it to the boat's side. Jiang Luoluo locked the drag and handed down the landing net.
Chu Mingcheng directly grabbed the fish and pressed it into the net. As a result, the fish struggled again, splashing him with water.
Annoyed, he held the fish's head with one hand and punched it twice with the other, directly stunning it.
Even with the fishing rod in the holder, Jiang Luoluo was exhausted after catching this fish.
Now, seeing his violent side, she couldn't help but smile, and her fatigue seemed to ease slightly. "This fish was unlucky to meet you. It had to take a beating before dying."
"Who told it to be disobedient? It would've been fine if it had just gone into the net quietly." Chu Mingcheng placed the fish in the net and let her lift it up.
A twenty-something-jin fish—she could still manage that.
Then Chu Mingcheng swam to the rear deck and handed her the cobia he'd speared and the various dead seabream on the live fish stringer.
"Luoluo, save some squid on our boat as bait, and cut the rest into pieces. Throw some chum occasionally to keep the school here. I'm going down to spear more."
Jiang Luoluo understood immediately. "Hey, why didn't I think of that! Chumming to attract fish works for both fishing and spearfishing!"
"Absolutely. And spearfishing is much faster than fishing. We've struck gold today."
This was the main reason Chu Mingcheng hadn't considered getting on the boat to fish together after encountering the school, choosing spearfishing instead.
To catch a thirty-jin cobia, even if the line held, it would take ten or twenty minutes to haul it up by brute force—physically demanding work.
But with spearfishing, Chu Mingcheng could get at least two or three in the same time. The efficiency was off the charts.