The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 149: The Fish with a Gift

Although Jiang Luoluo had landed a big fish, she was nearly spent, so she didn't continue fishing that night.
Just as she was about to head back to the cockpit to rest, Chu Mingcheng stopped her.
"Luoluo, wait a second. I have something to show you."
"What is it?"
Seeing Chu Mingcheng mysteriously open the fish box, she leaned over curiously.
"Huh, what's that around its neck?"
What she saw was a small croaker, but unlike its ordinary companions, this one was obviously well-off—it was wearing what looked like a jade bracelet around its neck.
That's right—a jade bracelet was stuck around the croaker's neck like some kind of fancy collar.
But whether the jade was real and what its quality was, they couldn't tell.
Having been stuck on the fish's neck for who knows how long, they wondered if it was badly worn or corroded by the seawater.
Chu Mingcheng didn't know much about jade, but he felt the bracelet probably wasn't worth much; it lacked that warm, lustrous quality he'd heard about.
They had to get the bracelet off, but both the fish's belly and head were a bit too big, and it was stuck tight.
So he had to get a knife and gut the fish.
Unfortunately, the swim bladder was too small to be worth much. Chu Mingcheng didn't particularly like croaker himself, so he decided to leave the meat for Mimi.
"I'll go wash this bracelet. You can keep fishing!"
Jiang Luoluo took the bracelet from Chu Mingcheng and went into the cockpit.
It wasn't until eight o'clock that Chu Mingcheng decided to reel in his lines and head back, even though the bite was still decent.
At this time, there were still twenty or thirty fishing boats on the sea. They were probably the ones with sleeping quarters, planning to stay overnight. The smaller fishing boats had already left.
He returned to the cockpit, started the fishing boat, and set it to autopilot.
"Luoluo, can you keep an eye on the boat? I'm going out to sort the fish."
"Okay. Oh, right, take a look at this bracelet first." Jiang Luoluo quickly took out the bracelet she had already cleaned.
Chu Mingcheng looked at the bright green, shiny bracelet in surprise. "It looks completely untouched by seawater. Is it glass?"
"Huh, glass?" Jiang Luoluo had been quite happy. She hadn't expected the bracelet to look so beautiful after being washed and had thought she'd found a real treasure.
But hearing the word "glass," she was momentarily stunned. She looked at the bracelet doubtfully. "It can't be, right? Who would wear glass jewelry?"
"I'm not sure either. Maybe we should get it appraised tomorrow."
"Yeah, I guess that's the only way."
Afterward, Jiang Luoluo sat in the driver's seat, and Chu Mingcheng went out to sort the fish.
He separated the golden pomfrets over five jin—only three of them. There were also only three sea bass over ten jin.
Besides the thirty-jin croaker Jiang Luoluo had caught, he himself had only caught two over ten jin, and unfortunately, neither exceeded fifteen jin.
When they returned to the pier, it was already past eleven, but the pier was still quite lively.
Chu Mingcheng moved all the fish to the shore, asked Jiang Luoluo to wait on the boat, and then called over a fishmonger to sell the fish.
The fishmonger's purchase price was quite low; golden pomfret was only twenty-five yuan per jin.
Chu Mingcheng didn't have many, only fourteen jin, which sold for three hundred and fifty.
The croaker price was also very low, also twenty-five yuan. But he had more than the golden pomfret—fifty-eight jin, which sold for one thousand four hundred and fifty.
The sea bass was the most plentiful. The price was thirty, and he had ninety-three jin, which sold for two thousand seven hundred and ninety.
The total came to four thousand five hundred and ninety yuan. There was also a small spotted scat, which was thrown in, and Chu Mingcheng got four thousand six hundred.
Today's fuel cost was about four thousand, and with miscellaneous expenses, it was around four thousand five hundred.
If they hadn't stayed for the night and encountered the croakers, his income would have been only three thousand one hundred.
Even with the three specially separated golden pomfrets and three sea bass, he probably would have made only a little over a thousand.
Afterward, he returned to the boat, locked the cockpit, and moved the fish box and the foam box with the large croaker. He and Jiang Luoluo returned to the car together.
Agong was probably asleep this late, so in the end, the two decided not to disturb him.
As the car passed the seafood restaurant, they saw it was still open, so they sold the remaining fish.
One of the golden pomfrets was over ten jin, but it could only be sold for sixty yuan per jin. This one sold for six hundred and thirty.
The remaining two were sold at forty yuan per jin, for four hundred and eighty.
The three sea bass added up to forty-one jin. Because they weren't meter-long, the price was seventy yuan per jin, selling for two thousand eight hundred and seventy yuan.
It was about what Chu Mingcheng had expected. Without the croakers, he really wouldn't have made much.
The two smaller croakers were fifty yuan per jin. They weighed twenty-two jin and sold for one thousand one hundred yuan.
Finally, since all the other fish were sold, he decided to sell the large croaker as well.
Mainly, Chu Mingcheng thought that he didn't have a freezer at home, and storing the fish in a foam box wasn't ideal. He could only apologize to Agong.
Next time… next time for sure.
This thirty-jin fish was sold at one hundred yuan per jin, for three thousand eight hundred.
Mainly because it was line-caught and fresh. If it were net-caught, the price would only be eighty yuan per jin.
Back home, Chu Mingcheng wanted to split the money.
In the end, Jiang Luoluo only took the three thousand eight hundred from her croaker. The rest she considered the boat fee, which left Chu Mingcheng not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Although she hadn't caught much else, she had caught a few croakers at night, plus the golden pomfret in the morning, which were worth a few hundred yuan in total, so it worked out as a reasonable boat fee.
Excluding costs, he had made a little over four thousand today. This should be the harvest of a normal angler who goes out on a boat and encounters a school of fish.
If luck were a bit worse, a day might only yield a few hundred or a thousand.
And this didn't count the times he lost money or had to stay home due to the weather. It seemed this line of work wasn't as easy as it looked.
…..
The next day, it was still raining, but Chu Mingcheng got up very early. He had wanted to go out to sea early to intercept the fish swimming south.
Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance.
Early in the morning, Jiang Luoluo found him: "Ah Cheng, let's go buy two freezers! We can clean up that small room of yours, and they'll fit perfectly. I'll put one at my place too, so we'll have somewhere to store the fish when we have too many."
"This afternoon, let's go get that jade bracelet appraised."
Chu Mingcheng nodded, so off they went.
They were still at the mall looking at freezers when a call came from Sea King, saying he would arrive in Xiamen this afternoon and would go out to sea with him tomorrow to film an episode.
Oh, and Jiang Yuqi was coming along to join the fun.
That girl who liked to show her nostrils—Chu Mingcheng had almost forgotten about her.
"What's wrong? Someone's coming this afternoon?" Jiang Luoluo, who was beside him, couldn't hear clearly. When he hung up, she asked.
"Yeah, Sea King is coming. He's going to film an episode with me tomorrow. But since he's coming this afternoon, I was thinking of getting some good catches later, maybe film two episodes and get more content out of it."
Chu Mingcheng thought about it and felt his plan was feasible. It seemed he would have to go spearfishing this afternoon.
Jiang Luoluo nodded. "Mmm! Then we really need to prepare well. I'll go with you this afternoon and drive the boat for you."
"How about this? I'm not sure when I'll be back from the sea. Why don't you stay at home this afternoon and help me entertain them when they arrive?"
Chu Mingcheng thought for a moment and felt it was better to send her away.
He was afraid he would catch a cold from frequently surfacing while spearfishing on a rainy day. Today's water temperature wasn't very high.
When Jiang Luoluo heard this, she felt a flutter of something significant. Letting her entertain his guests—wasn't that something only the closest people were suitable for?
But she looked at Chu Mingcheng's serious face and couldn't read anything from it, so she held back her racing heart and nodded silently.
After they had decided, they had the store deliver the freezers immediately. After they were both moved to the right places, Chu Mingcheng hurried to the pier to go out to sea.
The boat could still run for about four hours. His destination was the place where he had encountered the humphead wrasse last time, so there was no need to refuel now.
When he arrived, he immediately changed into his wetsuit. This time, he didn't have the luxury of filming.
He prepared the bait and fishing line. He would try to catch them alive if he could.
He had spent a lot of time buying the freezer in the morning. It was already ten-thirty when he arrived at the coral reef.
Chu Mingcheng prepared the fishing line, took out the remaining squid, and thawed them.
Then he made some food for himself and had a simple lunch.
Today, his main goal was to get a big catch. He wouldn't bother with the small squid.
After resting for a while, Chu Mingcheng put on his fish spear, hung the mesh bag with the squid on his body, along with his diving knife. Then he took the fishing line and entered the water.
At noon, many fish were hiding, and only some ornamental fish or small fish were swimming outside.
Not long after entering the water, Chu Mingcheng found a lionfish with its spines flared. This fish's fins were venomous, but its meat was delicious and could sell for over a hundred yuan per jin.
The lionfish in front of him was a decent size for its species, probably seven or eight liang, maybe even a full jin.
But Chu Mingcheng hesitated for a moment and chose to let it go for now. It was still a bit small, and catching it carried some risk.
Afterward, he left this area and continued to slowly search for other prey.
Finding fish at this time was somewhat time-consuming. He had to check every possible hiding place, such as under corals or in rock crevices.
It wasn't like that night when the fish all came out on their own, making them very easy to spot.
Just as Chu Mingcheng found a hidden spot and moved a small rock that was blocking the entrance, a black shadow suddenly shot out from a cave and snapped at his hand.
He instinctively pulled his hand back, dodging the attack, and with a kick of his feet, he immediately pulled away and swam up two meters.
Chu Mingcheng broke out in a cold sweat; he had almost been bitten.
He looked down and found it was a very fierce-looking moray eel.
Thank god it wasn't a sea snake. If he had been accidentally bitten by a sea snake, this book could have ended right there.
But since it was a moray eel, the roles of hunter and prey were about to be reversed.
The moray eel that had just attacked him now became Chu Mingcheng's target.
From its exposed head, this moray eel was not small.
Because of the rainy weather and insufficient light, the water was murky. Chu Mingcheng couldn't tell the specific species of the moray eel and could only wait until he had caught it.
Although he had a fish spear, he would try not to kill it if he could catch it alive.
He took out a small squid from the mesh bag and baited the hook.
He was still using the thickest Dyneema line from his boat. Although it was difficult to pull a moray eel out of its cave, this Dyneema line wouldn't break from being pulled hard. He just had to be careful not to let it scrape against the coral rocks at the cave entrance.
The moray eel had already hidden in the cave. Chu Mingcheng placed the squid at the cave entrance and waited patiently.
This moray eel, despite being fierce enough to attack him just now, was actually also frightened. It was slow to come out, and the squid at the cave entrance couldn't lure it immediately.
Chu Mingcheng wasn't in a hurry. He just waited quietly in the moray eel's blind spot above the cave entrance.
After another five or six minutes, there was finally movement in the cave.
This moray eel couldn't resist the temptation of food after all, or perhaps it no longer sensed Chu Mingcheng's presence. It slowly came to the cave entrance and opened its mouth to bite the squid fiercely.
But Chu Mingcheng didn't immediately pull the line when he saw this. He waited until the moray eel made a second swallowing motion and was successfully hooked before he yanked the line hard upwards.
The moray eel, in pain from being hooked during its second swallow, had wanted to retreat into the cave. But a huge force suddenly came from above, not only making the foreign object in its mouth pierce deeper, but also pulling it partway out, caught off guard.
But the moray eel's strength was not to be underestimated. After it recovered, Chu Mingcheng couldn't hold the line and was pulled along as it retreated into the cave.
This was a pure contest of strength. It was clear that he, without any support in the water, was no match for the moray eel in a direct tug-of-war.