The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 182 (1): The Little Cutie Tumbling in the Rainstorm
After catching the Pearl Gentian Grouper, Chu Mingcheng hunted two more groupers underwater. When he surfaced again, he noticed a massive wall of dark clouds rapidly approaching in the distance.
A sea storm was brewing, and he could clearly feel the wind picking up. Trouble was definitely coming.
He quickly swam back to the boat, tossed the fish into a foam box with ice, and shouted to Chen Yang in the cockpit, "Yang! Go wake up Wei! Storm's about to hit—we need to pull in the longline and traps first."
"A storm?" Chen Yang looked up at the sky. Seeing the dark cloud wall, he rushed into the bedroom and ripped the blanket off Zhang Wei. "Get your ass up and help! Storm's coming!"
Zhang Wei was still in a daze. With the blanket gone, his body instinctively curled up like a shrimp.
Chen Yang kicked him in his most resilient spot. "Stop sleeping! We're eating as soon as this longline's up."
That kick finally brought Zhang Wei fully online. Brain functioning now, he grasped the situation. Without another word, he quickly dressed and headed out to the deck.
Chu Mingcheng had already driven over to the shrimp and crab traps and hauled them up.
Unfortunately, they hadn't been down long, so the haul was modest.
Not a single crab, but they'd unexpectedly caught about a dozen large prawns, all nearly hand-sized.
Just those dozen prawns weighed over three jin and could sell for seven or eight hundred, maybe even a thousand yuan.
But it was rare to catch such high-quality wild prawns. Chu Mingcheng immediately set aside six for lunch, saving the rest for Jiang Luoluo to try.
Then he drove to the longline, pulled up the float, and called to Chen Yang and Zhang Wei, "You two pull the line, I'll unhook the fish. Go slow—current's strong right now. Pull too fast and the line might snap."
"Got it!"
Zhang Wei and Chen Yang, one in front of the other, began slowly hauling up the longline.
After a moment, the branch lines slowly emerged from the water. Chu Mingcheng grabbed one and gave it a test tug. The first hook was empty—no weight at all.
After pulling up the branch line, he saw the shrimp bait was completely gone. Clearly, there were fish down there. Chu Mingcheng felt a flicker of anticipation.
"Fish on! We got a fish!" Zhang Wei spotted a large silver fish on the second hook and immediately called out.
As the longline came up, Chu Mingcheng instantly identified their catch.
A large Fourfinger Threadfin, seventy or eighty centimeters long.
"Nice! It's a threadfin! I've heard they're incredible eating. Cheng, what's this one worth?" Chen Yang recognized the species and asked.
"Threadfins are farmed, but wild ones are still expensive as hell. Market price is usually sixty or seventy yuan per jin. Some places, it hits a hundred."
"One like this, around seven or eight jin, could easily sell for four or five thousand."
Threadfins have slender bodies. Though the one in Chu Mingcheng's hands was seventy or eighty centimeters long, it probably didn't hit ten jin.
He'd noticed this fish at market before and knew wild ones commanded premium prices.
He just had never encountered one himself—hadn't expected to nail one on his first longline attempt.
A single fish worth several thousand yuan. Chen Yang and Zhang Wei pulled with renewed enthusiasm.
As the longline came in bit by bit, threadfins of various sizes emerged one after another.
Chu Mingcheng was grinning ear to ear. He'd originally just wanted to catch some groupers but had stumbled into a threadfin school.
With fifty hooks, a dozen groupers would've been solid. But by the time the entire longline was up, he'd caught over thirty threadfins.
A threadfin school must have been attracted by the shrimp bait—otherwise the hook-up rate wouldn't have been this insane.
Just then, the dark cloud had reached them. The three quickly iced all the fish and retreated to the cockpit.
They watched as heavy rain approached from the distance, enveloping their boat.
The downpour was intense, drumming against the windows with a steady patter.
Fortunately, the wind wasn't too brutal yet, so Chu Mingcheng didn't feel the need to flee the area immediately.
The storm would muddy the seawater, ruling out afternoon spearfishing.
But sea storms don't always last long. Maybe after the rain stopped, they could fish a bit longer.
So he went to shower, changed back into regular clothes, and started making lunch.
"Yang, how about we cook your star-spotted snapper tonight? Let's do threadfin for lunch!"
It would be criminal not to let his girlfriend try such premium fish. Chu Mingcheng looked at the snapper Chen Yang had already cleaned, wrapped it in plastic, and refrigerated it.
"Sure, you're the boss!" Chen Yang said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He'd already wrapped it up—what was the point of asking?
"Wait, a star-spotted snapper?" Zhang Wei finally caught on. "You guys are actually willing to eat that?"
"You eating or not?"
"Of course!"
"Then quit complaining!"
"Can't I just be amazed?"
Zhang Wei felt wronged. He suddenly regretted working so hard last night, leaving him drained this morning.
He'd planned to spearfish this afternoon, but now sudden rain meant he'd just been dead weight today, contributing almost nothing.
The other two ignored him. Since afternoon spearfishing was out, Chen Yang headed to the bathroom for a shower.
Chu Mingcheng, meanwhile, selected a threadfin around three jin—the smallest of the bunch.
Threadfin was supposedly even more delicious than premium croaker and mackerel, especially pan-fried or deep-fried.
Usually when encountering unfamiliar fish, his first choice was always steaming to understand its natural flavor.
But since they said threadfin was better pan-fried, he decided to try both methods for lunch.
He started by cleaning the fish. Coming to the cockpit door, one scrape of the scaler removed a large patch of threadfin scales.
The scales came off surprisingly easily and weren't very hard.
Once scaled, he didn't even need to rinse it—the rain washed it clean.
Then he used scissors to gut the fish, pulling out all the innards, and made another surprising discovery.
Its swim bladder was exceptionally thick, almost comparable to a grouper's.
Just that this threadfin was small, so the bladder wasn't large. He could only regretfully discard it all. If he'd caught a bigger one, he could've kept it to eat.
The threadfin was long but had a very short belly section.
Chu Mingcheng first removed the head, then used the belly as a boundary to chop the fish into two sections.
The belly section got halved from the back for steaming. The remaining portion was cut into pieces for pan-frying.
After finishing the fish, Chu Mingcheng intended to continue with the prawns, but Chen Yang stopped him, saying they should save them to eat together that evening.
Since that was the case, they'd keep lunch simple!
The three sat on the sofa with rice bowls, listening to the rain's steady patter as they ate.
Chu Mingcheng first tried the pan-fried version. The fish was crispy outside, tender inside, exceptionally fresh and fragrant. It really did taste better than mackerel.
Then he sampled the steamed version and finally understood why they recommended pan-frying or deep-frying.
The steamed threadfin was also good, with hints of fresh sweetness in the meat, but the texture was much inferior—slightly dry, not as good as pan-fried.
You could tell the difference from Zhang Wei and Chen Yang's clear preference for the pan-fried version.
After eating and cleaning up, the rain showed no signs of stopping.
Chu Mingcheng decided to wait until two o'clock. If rain was still this heavy after two, he'd head back early.
However, at one in the afternoon, things didn't go as hoped.
Not only did the rain persist, but the previously manageable wind also strengthened.
The boat rocked continuously with the waves, making Chen Yang feel queasy. He retreated to the bedroom to lie down.
Chu Mingcheng opened the cockpit door for a look. A gust of sea breeze hit him, making him shiver. The temperature felt like it had dropped significantly.
Wasn't it supposed to cool down in two days? Seemed like it was starting today.
Now there was really no way to fish. Chu Mingcheng had no choice but to pull anchor and head back.
.
!
Chapter 182 (1): The Little Cutie Tumbling in the Rainstorm
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