The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 154: One Look, and I Found Love

Pain, bleeding, and the strength to struggle vanished.
A spear through flesh—another fish that had caught his attention, but this time the outcome was very different.
Chu Mingcheng hadn't expected to encounter such a large, oblivious fish just as he was about to head back.
Gripping the fishing line, he kicked his fins to ascend, preventing the red snapper from escaping to the bottom of the massive reef in its final moments.
Fortunately, the shot was well-placed, hitting the brain. The red snapper struggled briefly before going still.
Chu Mingcheng released some line, then surfaced first to avoid having to explain the extended dive time. He didn't know that Jiang Luoluo had already handled this issue for him.
As long as it wasn't much longer than five minutes, there'd be no problem.
"He's up, he's up!" Jiang Yuqi pointed at the water and called out, though everyone's attention was already focused there, so they spotted him simultaneously.
Sea King said with anticipation, "From the looks of it, Ah Cheng is pulling up a fish. To keep him underwater this long, it must be a big one, right?"
"I wonder what kind. Maybe it's a large grouper," Jiang Yuqi guessed.
"Could it be another massive tiger grouper?" Sea King was reminded and immediately thought of the tiger grouper he'd bought before.
He'd never known tiger groupers could grow so large. Filming that episode, he'd finally been able to claim "the biggest on the internet" again.
Today, he was eagerly hoping he could make that statement once more when cooking dinner.
Then he saw Chu Mingcheng lift a large red fish—one that nearly blocked his entire upper body.
"Holy crap, he really got a big one!" Sea King immediately grabbed the binoculars hanging around his neck. "Hey, it's a huge red snapper—amazing!"
But that wasn't the only surprise. When Chu Mingcheng swam to the boat's side, first handing over the red snapper, then lifting a string of painted sweetlips, Sea King was truly amazed.
"Sea King, Ah Qi, how about this red snapper for dinner?"
Chu Mingcheng handed the catch to Jiang Luoluo, then pointed at the large red snapper on deck with a smile.
"Boss is generous!" Jiang Yuqi gave a thumbs-up.
Yesterday they'd spent nearly four thousand. Today, this red snapper was probably over thirty jin, worth nearly as much as yesterday's haul.
"No, no, no—let's not be so extravagant today. Wait until you finish spearfishing this afternoon before we decide what to make!" Sea King waved his hands in refusal.
Taking advantage wasn't like this. Once yesterday was enough. If it happened again today, he'd be embarrassed.
If possible, he'd rather purchase it and film a separate episode.
Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng just smiled and didn't press the matter.
"Alright then, I'll head back down and see if there are any other good catches!"
From when he first entered the water until now, only half an hour had passed. His stamina and condition were still excellent, so he definitely had to continue.
He swam back to the same area, loaded his speargun, and had just entered the water when he spotted a three-spotted crab—also known as a red-spotted swimming crab.
It looked substantial, about seven or eight liang.
The crab's swimming style was quite amusing. Its two short hind legs moved up and down as it swam sideways, causing its body to sway in the same rhythm, looking particularly arrogant.
Chu Mingcheng chuckled and poked it with his speargun tip. Who knew this red-spotted swimming crab was a hothead? It actually opened its claws to pinch the speargun.
What was interesting was that even after he'd moved the speargun away, the crab deliberately swam over to continue pinching, as if harboring some deep grudge against it.
Chu Mingcheng found this entertaining and brought the speargun back slightly. The crab, still gripping the arrowhead, wouldn't let go and was easily caught by his left hand.
Why struggle?
So feisty—I'll arrange for you to be steamed tonight.
This crab was so accommodating. Chu Mingcheng didn't mind the trouble and swam back to the boat, tossing the crab onto the deck.
"This crab's a hothead. I barely touched it with my speargun, and it kept clinging to it. So I'm sending it back for you guys to deal with its attitude tonight."
"I'm perfect for this job. I'll give it a proper send-off later." Sea King approached with a smile and picked up the crab.
Then Chu Mingcheng went back underwater. This time, there were no more incidents.
Returning to his previous position, he found the large fish had all fled, though he could occasionally spot many fish in the distance. Those visible were basically all big fish.
Chu Mingcheng surveyed the massive reefs below, found a sloping boulder, and settled on it. This was an excellent ambush spot.
He used his speargun handle to tap the rock, creating a "bang, bang, bang" sound.
Fish curious about this noise would come investigate on their own. Chu Mingcheng had done this before when he couldn't use a boat, at the isolated reef bottom not far from shore.
The underwater commotion did indeed attract large fish, but the first arrival surprised him—a meter-long sea wolf appearing from behind.
No wonder the fish here had all fled. They'd encountered a sea wolf.
Sea wolves are generally social animals, though occasionally there are loners.
Chu Mingcheng scanned his surroundings and found no other sea wolves. This was a solitary one.
The sea wolf moved very quickly, but didn't leave and showed no fear of him. It even swam past him at two meters once.
This sea wolf was quite large, probably about one and a half meters. Chu Mingcheng immediately raised his speargun to aim.
The arrowhead tracked the sea wolf's movement. When he was certain of its trajectory, he pulled the trigger. Bang—the spear pierced its gills.
The sea wolf immediately began fleeing at high speed. Its movement pattern was quite similar to a Spanish mackerel.
But Chu Mingcheng was controlling the fishing line, so it just swam in two circles. Finally, due to its injuries, its stamina depleted faster, and it stopped because the gill damage prevented proper breathing.
Seeing this, he reeled in the line. When the sea wolf came close, he grabbed its tail.
The sea wolf struggled again, even opening its mouth to display sharp teeth threateningly.
Chu Mingcheng's agility underwater remained undiminished. He casually swatted the sea wolf's head away.
But this struggle seemed to exhaust the sea wolf's last reserves. After its head was deflected, it stopped thrashing.
Chu Mingcheng didn't remove the spear but simply brought the fish back.
Sea wolves are too long to carry around conveniently.
Having seen so many large fish, Sea King and Jiang Yuqi were getting used to them. But seeing this sea wolf, Sea King recalled the video where he'd spent over a thousand yuan and ended up with a cooking disaster.
He'd always suspected that the sea wolf had been iced too long, making the meat no longer fresh, and it had almost no fat.
Now that Chu Mingcheng had caught such a large sea wolf that looked quite plump, the fat content must be rich.
Perhaps cooking this sea wolf tonight would be excellent.
But he didn't voice this directly. After all, Chu Mingcheng's spearfishing hadn't ended. What if he encountered a fish that inspired another filming opportunity?
Time gradually passed, and the tide began rising.
The three on the boat who hadn't caught a single fish finally saw some action on their rods after the tide rose, but only small bream, and not a continuous catch.
This situation didn't give Jiang Luoluo much experience. She let Sea King and Jiang Yuqi do as they pleased and returned to the cockpit to take out her laptop and review the background of her chosen new song.
Her dances weren't just visually appealing—they were perfectly suited to each scene and could express the story behind the music. This was one of her secrets to success.
After a while, Jiang Yuqi also came in. She seemed tired from fishing and was resting. She approached with questions.
Jiang Luoluo wasn't impatient. At this moment, she was like a gentle big sister.
Only Sea King and the two cameramen remained on deck.
Sea King had no intention of coming inside. He hadn't caught many fish, but every so often he'd help Chu Mingcheng collect his catches, sort them, and put them on ice—and he was happy to do it.
Perhaps a man's pleasure is that simple.
Time crawled by. Chu Mingcheng floated on the surface and checked his watch. It was already three-thirty in the afternoon, and today's harvest was already excellent.
Just the painted sweetlips and red snapper alone could sell for ten thousand yuan.
Besides the sea wolf, other catches weren't few. Though his luck wasn't as good as the initial encounter with premium fish, he was winning through quantity.
Half an hour remained until four o'clock. He could manage one last batch.
Then return, shower, change clothes, and head to the beach to cook dinner. The timing should work perfectly.
He'd been spearfishing almost all afternoon. Each time he caught several fish, the school would scatter, requiring him to constantly search for suitable fishing spots.
He'd been searching to the left before. Now, Chu Mingcheng was somewhat tired, so he decided to explore the right side.
The terrain on the right wasn't as favorable as the left, with fewer fish-hiding spots.
But Chu Mingcheng found several palm-sized scallops, so he collected them all in his mesh bag.
He also discovered many sea urchins on various rocks. This was good.
He'd gathered some when Chen Yang and Zhang Wei visited last time, and they'd tasted quite good.
He swam in a large circle. He didn't find suitable fish, but collected half a mesh bag of scallops and sea urchins.
He even found numerous oysters, but needed tools to pry them, so he had to give up.
There were still more scallops and sea urchins, but Chu Mingcheng felt he had enough and didn't collect more.
The current seabed terrain was ascending—an upward slope.
Since there were no suitable fish, he'd planned to return.
But curiosity about what lay beyond this slope made him swim over for a look.
Who knew this one glance would win him the jackpot.
After crossing the slope, Chu Mingcheng didn't notice immediately, because beyond the slope was a fault, and the surprise was tucked in the corner at the fault's bottom.
He couldn't see it from the upper water layer—that corner was a blind spot.
Chu Mingcheng had thought there might be a fish school gathered at this fault's bottom, so he dove down to observe.
Who knew that with one look, he would find love.
A massive fish was quietly hiding in the corner. He estimated its length at one and a half meters. From the outline, it was a giant grouper.
But Chu Mingcheng remained calm and wasn't overly excited yet.
Giant groupers don't swim fast, so he wouldn't let it escape, but the challenge was how to take it down.
Secondly, super-large groupers appearing in shallow water had a high probability of being protected wild giant groupers, also known as Queensland groupers.
But as Chu Mingcheng moved closer, he found this grouper's fins were golden, and its body bore patches of floral patterns. It was a dragon grouper.
Protected wild giant groupers have round spots on their bodies, which are easy to identify.
The dragon grouper is the largest of all groupers. Someone once caught a dragon grouper that was two meters seventy centimeters long and weighed four hundred forty kilograms.
This type of grouper is actually also called a giant grouper.
But unlike the protected giant grouper, dragon groupers can be legally bought and sold.
Though its unit price isn't high, it's massive!
However, after the excitement came the problem. How could he get such a large grouper back?
He couldn't drag it, couldn't carry it, and if it turned aggressive, Chu Mingcheng himself might get injured.
He looked at the speargun in his hand and felt uncertain about hitting it. This was challenging.
If it were a wooden speargun specially designed for bluewater spearfishing, the power should be sufficient to drive the spear into this grouper's head.
It seemed that after returning this time, he needed to prepare a more powerful speargun. For now, he had to proceed even if conditions weren't ideal.
This grouper seemed to sense danger and began moving away from its original position.
Dragon groupers are territorial groupers. They attack various invading animals and even kill and eat smaller sharks.
Seeing it charging toward him, Chu Mingcheng quickly retreated.