The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 23: A Large Yellow Croaker?

There weren't many people at the pier around noon, just fishermen preparing to head out and a small group of tourists looking to charter a boat.
Chu Mingcheng's family had moved to the town proper so many years ago that he didn't actually know any fishermen among his neighbors or friends. With no connections, he had no choice but to go boat by boat and ask.
Fishing boats were moored along the shore, but the pier itself wasn't very large, with only a few vessels tied up directly against it. The rest were rafted together, so you could hop from the first boat to get to the others further out.
Chu Mingcheng asked Jiang Luoluo and the others to wait on the pier while he boarded the boats to find a suitable captain.
He made a point of avoiding the older uncles. As the saying goes, with age comes cunning; they were often wily and full of tricks. If they happened to have a big haul, he didn't want the hassle of arguing with a captain who might try to go back on their deal. It would just ruin the mood. Of course, there were honest old fishermen too, but he saw no need to take the risk.
After passing a few boats, he spotted a bald man cleaning his vessel, and his eyes lit up.
"Hey, Brother Zhao Jun, what a coincidence!"
The man called Zhao Jun heard his name and turned around. Seeing Chu Mingcheng, his face broke into a grin of surprise. "A'Cheng! What are you doing here?"
"I brought some friends here for fun, thought we'd charter a boat for the afternoon. I didn't expect to run into you. Weren't you out of town? What brings you back?"
Chu Mingcheng was just as surprised to see Zhao Jun. They had played together often as kids, and even though Zhao Jun had been working elsewhere for years, they'd maintained a good relationship, catching up for drinks at the end of every year.
"Business out of town is tough!" Zhao Jun sighed, clearly not wanting to dwell on it. He changed the subject. "You said you brought friends and want to charter a boat? No need to charter anything. I'll take you all out. If we net anything good, you just take it."
"No way, I have to pay you the charter fee. Besides, my friends will have more fun knowing the boat is officially chartered." Business was business.
Seeing that Zhao Jun had come back to take up fishing, Chu Mingcheng guessed that times were probably tough for him. He was definitely going to pay the man; it wasn't like he was short two thousand yuan.
After paying, Chu Mingcheng went to get the other three from the pier.
When Zhao Jun saw how beautiful Jiang Luoluo and Zhou Jiayi were, a look of understanding dawned on his face. He secretly pulled Chu Mingcheng aside and whispered, "You're something else. Both these girls are gorgeous. Which one is your girlfriend?"
"I just met them two days ago. They treated me to a big dinner last night, so I have to return the favor, right?"
"She even treated you to dinner? Hah, I'd say it's only a matter of time!"
Though he didn't get any juicy gossip, Zhao Jun didn't mind. He figured he'd be able to tell what was what soon enough.
Noticing the girls, he went to his storage hold to grab a sunshade. "A'Cheng, give me a hand. Let's get this canopy up to block the sun."
"You got it!" Chu Mingcheng called back, grabbing Zhang Wei to help.
Zhao Jun's boat was a small motorized fishing boat with a little shelter over the engine, so the person steering in the back was protected from the sun. But pulling in the nets required being on the foredeck. The summer sun was vicious, and even seasoned fishermen couldn't stand it for long without their skin peeling. Because of this, most local fishermen had rigged up sunshades.
They stretched the fabric from the shelter to the bow, covering the entire foredeck.
Once the sunshade was up, Zhao Jun started the engine and the boat chugged away from the pier, heading for the spot where he'd laid his nets.
Chu Mingcheng noticed the boat looked brand new and, since he was thinking of getting one for his fishing, he asked about the price.
"Brother Zhao Jun, this boat is new? How much did it set you back?"
"The all-in price to get this boat in the water was one hundred and twenty thousand," Zhao Jun said with a sigh. "It's thirteen meters long. Not cheap." He remembered his shock when he first learned the price; he never thought a small wooden fishing boat could be so expensive.
"What the..." Chu Mingcheng was surprised. He had assumed a wooden boat like this would be relatively cheap, but the price wasn't much different from a ten-meter recreational fishing boat.
Since it was that expensive, he decided he might as well take his time, save up, and buy a proper Class II fishing vessel directly.
"What, you thinking of buying a boat to fish?" Zhao Jun asked.
"Nah, not really. The fish resources around here are too poor. There's not much point in coastal fishing."
"Eh, it's enough to get by," Zhao Jun sighed. "It'll feed the family."
The reason he'd come back to fish after his business failed was that, no matter how bad the fishing was, he could still make over a hundred thousand a year. It was hard work, but when it came to providing for your family, what was a little hardship?
Hearing how expensive the boat was, Chu Mingcheng was already running through other options in his head. He decided to first exhaust all the resources he could get from the shore. Then, he'd spend some time every day sea fishing to level up his skills for the East China Sea fish species before considering renting a spot on a boat to fish offshore. He didn't need to level them up too high—Level 5 would be enough. Although the significant effects started at Level 10, a 5% attribute boost would still have some effect. As long as he wasn't losing money, it would be worth it.
Zhao Jun cut the engine, pulling Chu Mingcheng from his thoughts.
"We're here. It's not quite time yet, we should wait a bit longer."
"Brother Zhao Jun, how long have your nets been down?"
"Almost four hours. Why, you want to pull them up now?"
"Yeah, let's pull them. I need to prep for a big dinner this afternoon, and that'll take a lot of time."
"Alright then. You chartered the boat, you're the boss."
They weren't that far off schedule anyway, so Zhao Jun had no objections. There were six nets in total, and pulling them all would take a while. By the time they got back and processed the catch, it would probably be three in the afternoon, so Chu Mingcheng didn't want to wait any longer.
"Luoluo, you and Jiayi stand back a bit. We're about to pull in the nets."
"Do you need help?"
"Nope. Just be ready to pick out the crabs and big fish from the catch."
"Okay, got it!" Jiang Luoluo quickly pulled Zhou Jiayi toward the pilothouse, clearing the foredeck.
Zhao Jun maneuvered the boat next to the foam buoy marking the first net. Chu Mingcheng, wearing gloves, leaned over and hauled the buoy aboard, then found the net's main rope and passed it to Zhao Jun.
Zhao Jun took the rope, secured it to the winch, and switched it on.
As the winch whirred to life, the submerged net was slowly pulled from the water.
Once the net was fully raised, Zhao Jun grabbed its opening, gave it a mighty heave, and laid it on the gunwale. Seeing him struggle, Chu Mingcheng had Zhang Wei put on gloves, and the two of them went to help.
The type of net Zhao Jun used spread out wide in the water. As the main rope was pulled, the entire net cinched closed, trapping the fish in the cod end at the very bottom. The mesh was thick, and they had to pull the entire net onto the deck to empty the catch, unlike with a gillnet. It was more work to retrieve, but it didn't tangle as easily and could be put right back in the water after being emptied.
As the net rose, they could see it was covered in dead Bombay ducks. Most of them were small and wouldn't be collected; they were left on the net to attract other predators.
Jiang Luoluo and Zhou Jiayi stood at the back of the boat, their eyes glued to the net in the water. As the tail end of the net finally broke the surface, Jiang Luoluo suddenly let out a shriek of joyous disbelief.
"It's yellow! There's a large yellow croaker!"