The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 249: The Local Crabbers Take Notice

The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 249: The Local Crabbers Take Notice

A slip of the tongue that night nearly got Chu Mingcheng kicked out to sleep on the sofa. Fortunately, they were at a friend's house, so Jiang Luoluo ultimately decided to spare him some face. Besides, she didn't have the energy to kick him out.
They didn't go out to sea the next day. Noah's seafood wasn't selling that quickly, so there was no rush.
After enjoying a leisurely day together, Chu Mingcheng took Jiang Luoluo to the airport the following day, and they said goodbye with a long embrace.
With his girlfriend gone for the foreseeable future, he felt a bit lonely.
But it wasn't without its upsides. At least now, Chu Mingcheng could let loose and do something a little more thrilling.
Before any of that, however, he had to fill his Giant Tasmanian King Crab quota.
When he got back to Noah's place, Noah saw he was a bit quiet and assumed he was in a bad mood. He laughed, slinging an arm over his shoulder. "Cheng, I know you're feeling down, but don't worry. I'll take you somewhere fun tonight—I guarantee you'll have a great time."
"Uh... Noah, I'm planning to head out to sea this afternoon. I probably can't join you in finding fun things to do tonight," Chu Mingcheng said with a wry smile, politely declining.
The "fun place" Noah was talking about was undoubtedly a nightclub, followed by finding a woman for some sweaty exercise, but he genuinely had no interest in that sort of thing.
He was a taken man, after all. He couldn't just mess around.
As for Noah, Chu Mingcheng didn't feel it was his place to judge. Back in China, he'd seen Noah's family-man side, and he and his wife seemed very much in love.
But when Noah was on his own, the guy was just like Zhang Wei, showing a keen interest in sampling other people's donuts. As long as a woman wasn't too ugly and was curvy in all the right places, he was basically open to anyone.
"Oh, no, Cheng. You should learn to let yourself go. Giving up the whole forest for a single tree just isn't worth it."
"Noah, we're friends, and I don't have a problem with you tasting all kinds of donuts. But I'm a picky eater—I only like one kind. So I have to pass on your kind offer!"
"Alright, I respect your decision."
Noah threw up his hands and didn't press him further. He'd meant well.
He was also a man with high emotional intelligence; he wouldn't think Chu Mingcheng was a fool for refusing, nor would he get angry about it.
Having lived in China for several years, he understood that most people there were very responsible when it came to their families.
Even though Chu Mingcheng had been mentally prepared for Jiang Luoluo's departure, he still felt a bit hollow inside.
That was why he planned to head out to sea that afternoon—to find something to do and distract himself.
He drove to the pier and moved all his new purchases onto the fishing yacht. Although the boat still had over thirty hours of range, he filled the fuel tank to the top anyway.
The shrimp pots he'd asked Noah to buy were already on board. They were shaped like wine urns.
The bodies of the pots were quite large and could hold plenty of lobsters, but the openings were relatively small, only about fifteen centimeters in diameter.
Furthermore, there were no small doors or lids with switches—they were just left open.
According to Noah, the shrimp pots had to be placed with the entrance facing up.
Lobsters would be attracted by the bait and crawl into the pot. Once inside, they wouldn't leave, feeling safe in the hiding spot, and more would gradually gather.
This principle likely took advantage of the lobsters' tendency to congregate.
Because the shrimp pots weren't made of wire mesh like crab cages, but were woven from bamboo, the enclosed sides gave the lobsters a greater sense of security.
The refrigerated hold was for fish, and the live well was for the Giant Tasmanian King Crabs. So Chu Mingcheng had bought a batch of foam boxes to place in the cabin for the lobsters and had also purchased two fairly large aerators.
After preparing his food, he started the fishing yacht and set off.
At the same time, a video of Chu Mingcheng catching Giant Tasmanian King Crabs and trading them with Noah at the pier had caught the attention of a group of old-timers.
Because a civil servant had been present, they knew his crabbing was legal, which made everyone in the room furious.
One of the rougher-looking men slammed his fist on the table and cursed, "Shit, are the people at the Fisheries Authority full of dog crap? Why would they give the crabbing quota to a yellow-skinned monkey?"
A slightly thinner man beside him said, "Maybe the Australian local got the quota and hired this guy to crab for him?"
Another man chimed in, "It doesn't matter who it is. These quotas were supposed to be divided among our companies. The Fisheries Authority shouldn't be giving our share to someone else. They're robbing us blind."
"We need to investigate how much quota he got. If we can get our hands on his share, we might make an extra few hundred thousand this year."
Everyone present nodded in agreement. And what they didn't know was that other crabbing crews had the same idea.
The Giant Tasmanian King Crab quota had always been divided among just a few fishing companies; it had been that way for years.
Now, someone new had suddenly obtained a quota. To the crabbers from these fishing companies, it felt like it had been snatched from their hands, which would result in smaller quotas for them this year.
It also broke the monopoly held by the few fishing companies, making them worry that more people might come to take a piece of the pie in the future.
This kind of thing had happened before, but they'd always been driven out by the combined efforts of the crabbers and their companies.
The workers had their methods, and the companies had their own clout. By joining forces for their common interests, they'd managed to keep a firm grip on the Giant Tasmanian King Crab quota for decades.
The fishing companies had already reacted to this matter and had sent someone to the Fisheries Authority to inquire.
Normally, after so many years of cooperation, there were many unspoken understandings and intertwined interests between the Fisheries Authority and these companies. They wouldn't just issue a quota for no reason.
Therefore, the fishing companies were indeed just asking for information; it wasn't yet time to apply pressure.
The result, however, surprised everyone.
The person they sent didn't find out anything, and their attitude suddenly changed, feeling that it was all perfectly reasonable.
This sentiment even influenced the upper management of the companies, who felt the crabbers were making a fuss over nothing. In the end, the matter was dropped.
The companies' attitude left the crabbers feeling very uneasy, and a dark cloud settled over their hearts.
Actually, for the fishing companies, the Giant Tasmanian King Crab quota was important only because the creature was unique to Australia. As local enterprises, they naturally wouldn't let outsiders get a piece of the action.
But in reality, the annual yield of Giant Tasmanian King Crabs was not large, and the profits generated were far less than those from some more abundant fish species.
Therefore, under the influence of Chu Mingcheng's ability, after the upper management of these fishing companies came into contact with people affected by it, they were influenced as well.
This left the crabbers, who were particularly concerned about the matter, extremely frustrated. With the companies not taking action, it would undoubtedly be much more difficult for them to drive out the "invader."
However, they hadn't been in contact with anyone influenced and wouldn't give up so easily.
So they had their crab-catching workers stake out the pier to first confirm which boat it was before making any further plans.
Chu Mingcheng had already arrived at the waters where he'd last caught crabs. Since it was already dark, he needed to eat dinner first.
Putting on his diving goggles, he took out an onion and started chopping.
It was quite amusing—he didn't need the goggles for diving, but they were perfect for chopping onions.
After chopping the onion, he took off the goggles and pulled out a clean strip of pork belly. Pork belly stir-fried with onions was an incredibly satisfying dish that went perfectly with rice.
Then he made a steamed egg with shredded pork and a sour and spicy cabbage dish.
After so much expensive seafood, today's meal was refreshingly down-to-earth.
With three dishes and a small pot of rice in his belly, Chu Mingcheng patted his stomach in satisfaction.
After resting for a while to digest, the feeling of weakness from hunger vanished, and he was back in peak condition.
Only then did he start the fishing yacht, find a spot where the water was one hundred and fifty meters deep, and drop the crab cages one by one along this area.
Having caught Giant Tasmanian King Crabs once before, Chu Mingcheng didn't plan to check the cages tonight. He'd just go down and take a look tomorrow morning.
He had other things to do now. He first changed into his wetsuit, grabbed two shrimp pots, and placed his powerful new speargun inside one to take it underwater.
This speargun, like the wooden one he had back in Xiamen, used three rubber bands and was capable of hunting large fish.
Of course, it could also be used for smaller fish by simply using fewer rubber bands when loading, which would naturally reduce its power.
However, the material was carbon fiber, so it didn't have the same comfortable feel as the wooden gun.
Chu Mingcheng carried the two shrimp pots and swam through the water. He wore a headlamp, which allowed him to see the situation on the seabed clearly.
However, the water resistance from the shrimp pots was significant, and with two buoys attached to them, his swimming speed wasn't fast.
After a short while, he arrived at the coral reef area.
But when he reached the spot where he'd previously found lobsters, he felt a bit frustrated.
The lobsters seemed to have moved. There wasn't a single one under the coral. It seemed he'd have to search for them again.
As Chu Mingcheng was looking for lobsters, he unexpectedly spotted an orange crustacean crawling on the bottom of the coral reef.
Its appearance was very peculiar. It looked a bit like a slipper lobster, but it had a pair of pincers.
It wasn't large, only about the size of a palm.
Chu Mingcheng put down the shrimp pots and picked up the strange-looking creature.
He was surprised to find that after he picked it up, its pincers were unexpectedly long and flat, though they didn't look very threatening.
Its head was particularly large, but its body was very small, as if it didn't have much meat.
But soon, Chu Mingcheng searched his memory and found information about this creature.
This was a type of crab commonly found in Southeast Asia and along the Australian coast. It was also distributed in the East China Sea and South China Sea back home, though the yield wasn't as large.
The price for a spanner crab in China seemed to be around one hundred and thirty yuan, but he wasn't sure about the price here in Melbourne. It should be much cheaper.
Plus, selling it to Noah would be at cost, probably only about ten Australian dollars per jin.
This price was far less than that of an Australian rock lobster. Chu Mingcheng wasn't particularly interested and directly released the spanner crab.
But as he picked up the shrimp pots and continued his search for Australian rock lobsters, he discovered that this entire coral reef was teeming with spanner crabs. There were quite a few of them, some even larger than his palm.
If there were only a few, he really wouldn't be interested, but with so many, leaving a shrimp pot might not be a bad idea. He just didn't know if this type of pot, designed specifically for lobsters, would work.
Chu Mingcheng looked at the shrimp pot and decided to try it out first.
Then he found a relatively flat patch of sand, placed the shrimp pot down, and added a few rocks to weigh it and prevent it from drifting away.
With this shrimp pot set, Chu Mingcheng continued his search for Australian rock lobsters.
At night, the range of his light was limited. He searched for quite a while and finally found the spot where the Australian rock lobsters had gathered.
He set down the shrimp pot, placed a few rocks to weigh it down as before, and then left with his speargun.

Chapter 249: The Local Crabbers Take Notice