The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 235: Luoluo the Trainer

The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 235: Luoluo the Trainer

The little sea lion polished off the entire twenty-something-jin Greenspotted Grouper, then flopped back onto the deck with a satisfied sigh.
To him, this fishing boat was his true home—the small island was just his hunting ground.
But while he was stuffed, the other two sea lions were still hungry.
Because Chu Mingcheng had fed them, they'd grown a bit bolder and climbed onto the boat together. They headed straight for the foam cooler. The smell of dead fish was strong enough that they didn't need to sniff around to know their favorite food was inside.
Chu Mingcheng immediately grabbed the landing net to shoo them away. It was one thing to give them fish out of kindness, but letting these two help themselves to his catch? That crossed a line.
Fortunately, the pair were timid. One shoo from him and they backed off, too scared to get any closer.
Chu Mingcheng walked over and nudged the little sea lion with his foot, pointing away from the boat. "Go on, take your buddies hunting. And if you dare touch my fish, I'll give you a real beating."
The little sea lion did an abrupt sit-up. Seeing it was Chu Mingcheng who'd kicked him, he flopped right back down with a thump.
Jiang Luoluo covered her mouth, trying to stifle a laugh. "How's he supposed to understand what you're saying?"
Chu Mingcheng felt helpless. If only the little sea lion could understand him—training him to help hunt or find schools of fish would be so much easier.
It was possible to train him through long-term contact and building rapport. Just like a pet dog: spend enough time together, and it naturally starts to understand certain things. But that all took sustained training and cultivation.
That had been Chu Mingcheng's original plan. But now two more sea lions had shown up, and they weren't nearly as close to him as the little one.
If they were just visiting temporarily, fine.
But if they planned to stick with the little sea lion from now on, he was in for a period of trouble. He'd need to build a good relationship with these newcomers to get them as comfortable with him.
Chu Mingcheng personally hated hassle. When something was too much trouble, as long as it wasn't a major loss, he'd opt for the simpler solution.
But looking at the two sea lions huddled together, he thought for a moment and decided it was best to make a good impression today.
"Luoluo, I'm going to catch a few cheaper fish to feed these two. Get them full so they'll stop eyeing the cooler."
"Keep watch for me. I'll be right back."
"Okay, go. I'll watch them," Jiang Luoluo nodded, taking the landing net he handed her.
Without wasting time, Chu Mingcheng dove into the water to find suitable prey.
If he had three sea lions helping him find schools of fish in the future, he could save a lot on fuel.
Besides, the fish finder had its limits—it could only show conditions in the immediate vicinity of the boat. Anything farther away was invisible.
Sea lions were different. They were natural hunters, certainly better at finding fish than any fish finder.
In ten minutes, he'd speared four fish.
All four were the same species: short-snouted unicornfish, each weighing four or five jin.
Their skin resembled a filefish's—no scales, just thick hide.
Chu Mingcheng took out his diving knife and cleaned the heads and guts right there in the sea.
This type of fish had a chance of carrying tropical toxins, which tended to accumulate in the internal organs and head. Those parts were inedible.
After cleaning all four, Chu Mingcheng swam back to the boat and tossed them to the two newcomers.
Fortunately, winter unicornfish were fat, their meat tasty. The two sea lions ate with relish.
Unicornfish in summer weren't suitable for eating—their seaweed diet made their flesh unbearably smelly.
Afterward, Chu Mingcheng returned to the coral reef and activated his Fish Gathering ability, luring out premium fish to hunt.
By the time he had twelve fish strung on his stringer, the sun had already dipped to the horizon.
Back on the boat, he was rendered speechless by the sight before him: three sea lions lying flat in a neat row.
After storing the fish, he went to retrieve his buoys. This time every buoy had a fish on it.
However, five were rockfish, which made the overall haul pretty mediocre.
Normally, rockfish shouldn't be able to eat squid, but seeing how chewed up the squid were, it wasn't surprising they'd gotten hooked.
Chu Mingcheng felt this spot wasn't ideal, so he moved the boat to deeper water, dropped his buoys, and continued fishing.
Then he headed to the spot with the nine-section shrimp. He cut up some small squid, placed the pieces in the shrimp traps as bait, and tossed them into the water.
He could collect the traps in the morning—no need to worry about them overnight.
With everything taken care of, Chu Mingcheng went to shower.
The coral reef would probably be lively tonight, but he wasn't planning on getting back in the water.
He'd already harvested nearly six hundred jin of relatively valuable premium fish today. He could take it easy—no need to push so hard.
He glanced at the experience points for his Aquatic Codex and saw he only needed nineteen more species to level up.
There were still many creatures in the Taiwan Strait he hadn't encountered yet. Getting the Aquatic Codex to level 3 before the fishing ban didn't seem too difficult.
When he emerged from the shower, Chu Mingcheng had expected to find Jiang Luoluo cooking, but instead she was skewering meat on bamboo sticks.
"Are you... planning a barbecue tonight?"
"Yep. Didn't I bring beef and mutton this morning? I've been planning to have a barbecue tonight. Hurry up and help me." Jiang Luoluo put down what she was doing and pulled out leeks, corn, and dried tofu.
She'd prepared a good amount of everything—enough to feed three people.
In reality, Chu Mingcheng alone could polish off three-quarters of it.
Since his physical fitness had improved, his appetite had grown enormously. He needed to eat far more each day than before.
The two of them skewered all the ingredients together. Chu Mingcheng brought out the grill, charcoal, and a folding table.
Jiang Luoluo carried the evening's ingredients to the table one by one, then went back inside to prepare drinks.
Having a barbecue on the open sea under the setting sun—it was quite enjoyable.
As he placed the charcoal in the grill and glanced at the plump little sea lion, Chu Mingcheng couldn't help but wonder if its meat would also be delicious.
The flat-lying little sea lion suddenly shuddered—like when a person's half-asleep and their brain, thinking the body's about to die, sends out a sudden emergency response.
It lifted its head and looked around, its round eyes clearly filled with confusion.
Chu Mingcheng was taken aback, then chuckled.
It was just a fleeting thought, one he'd never act on. He hadn't expected the little sea lion to react like that. Must've been a coincidence.
Putting aside thoughts of sea lion meat, Chu Mingcheng used a blowtorch to light the charcoal and started grilling.
Since he was hungry, he started with the lamb skewers.
In no time, the roasted aroma of lamb filled the entire fishing boat.
Swish, swish, swish...
All three sea lions lifted their heads in unison, eyes fixed on the skewers in Chu Mingcheng's hand.
Just then, Jiang Luoluo came out with the evening's drinks: pomegranate sparkling water.
She'd simply squeezed the juice from a pomegranate and poured in chilled sparkling water. At this time of year, there was no need for ice.
She came out just in time to see the sea lions' reaction and burst out laughing. "These three are hilarious. Can't believe they're attracted by barbecue."
"If they had the means, I bet most creatures would prefer cooked food," Chu Mingcheng said. Seeing the three sea lions gathering around, he took a skewer that was about half-cooked with just a little salt on it.
He pulled the meat off and tossed it to the sea lions.
The three of them ate one piece each—like Zhu Bajie eating a ginseng fruit, swallowing it so fast they couldn't have tasted anything.
[TN: Like Zhu Bajie eating a ginseng fruit — An idiom from the classic novel
Journey to the West
.]
But the little sea lion let out a few barks, as if asking for more.
"That's enough, that's enough. Just a taste. I haven't even eaten yet!" After feeding them one skewer, Chu Mingcheng tried to shoo them away.
Seeing this, Jiang Luoluo teased, "You're really being cruel, aren't you? Giving them a taste of something delicious, then chasing them off the next second."
As she spoke, she also took a half-cooked skewer and held it out to tease the sea lions.
"Xiao Hei, sit!"
"..." Chu Mingcheng was suddenly dumbfounded. His wife wasn't stupid, so why was she acting silly right now?
Besides, it had only been a few days since their relationship breakthrough—there was no way she could be pregnant!
[TN: In many cultures, there's a common belief that pregnant women sometimes act strangely or have "pregnancy brain" due to hormonal changes.]
"Luoluo, is it possible these three sea lions... were already sitting?"
"Uh..." Jiang Luoluo glanced at the sea lions' sitting posture and felt embarrassed.
"Um, Xiao Hei, stand up!"
The little sea lion kept its eyes on the grilled meat in Jiang Luoluo's hand, stretching its head forward to sniff, showing no other reaction.
"So dumb!"
Jiang Luoluo moved her hand away in disgust and started training the yellowish-white sea lion next to him. She first gave it a piece of grilled meat, then held out another piece to attract it.
"Xiao Bai, stand up."
The meat drew the yellowish-white sea lion. Since she was holding her hand high, it had to straighten its body.
It really did look like standing. Jiang Luoluo was so pleased that she gave it another piece of meat. "Good boy—way smarter than Xiao Hei."
Chu Mingcheng shook his head with a wry smile, feeling Xiao Hei had been unfairly targeted.
But now he knew Jiang Luoluo had given all three sea lions names.
The little sea lion had dark fur, so he was Xiao Hei (Little Black). The other two were also named based on their fur color: Xiao Huang (Little Yellow) and Xiao Bai (Little White).
Xiao Huang's fur wasn't really that yellow—just a tiny bit more yellowish than Xiao Bai's.
But now that they had names, training the three in the future would be easier.
However, after a short while, Chu Mingcheng's relaxed expression turned to astonishment.
Jiang Luoluo had taken quite a few skewers from him, and just like training a dog, she'd actually managed to teach the three sea lions the commands for "sit" and "stand."
After feeding them the last piece of grilled meat in her hand, she came back excitedly to show off. "Haha, I actually have talent as an animal trainer! What do you think? Impressive, right?"
"Impressive. Very impressive. Trainer Luoluo, these three sea lions are in your hands from now on." Chu Mingcheng joked.
Of course, if she was really interested in training sea lions, he'd let her do it.
"Sure. From now on, when I come out to sea with you, I'll spend time training them," Jiang Luoluo agreed in a heartbeat.
She couldn't help with fishing or spearfishing, but if she could help Chu Mingcheng in other ways, she was more than willing to put in the effort.

Chapter 235: Luoluo the Trainer