Chapter 152: Encountering the Devil Fish

Sea bass, not bad; if it doesn't sell well, I'll just eat it.

Sure, I still have some loose liquor; let's go to your place tonight to drink.

Sea bass—Ye Cheng's deepest impression of it is grilled fish.

Remembering grilled fish, at first it was real grilled fish, a kind of barbecue; later, after the Wanzhou grilled fish trend came over, it turned into an iron pan with grilled fish and seasonings, becoming a grilled fish hot pot.

But preparing the fish this way, with a bit of broth, is really good, especially as a drinking snack; plus, sea bass meat suits grilled fish, so Ye Cheng used to order this when eating grilled fish, of course also because it's cheap.

After chatting a bit, Xiao Hu took Chen Jinshui up; Ye Cheng also specifically told them they didn't need to come down to check on him for no reason—he knew what he was doing.

After saying that, Ye Cheng couldn't even be bothered to bite that broken pipe, and just went straight into the water.

This time Ye Cheng still went down along the reef; just now there were many small caves below, and since there was a small blue dragon, there must be more.

Sure enough, as soon as he went down, he saw something startled and retreat into a hole.

Without hesitation, he went in with the tongs and pulled out a small blue dragon.

The sand beneath him also got a bit lively with his arrival; Ye Cheng aimed at spots with movement and dropped the tongs, hitting the mark each time.

He managed to get five crabs and two small blue dragons from that little patch of sand.

That side was clear; Ye Cheng swam up a bit, poked his head out to glance at Chen Jinshui and Xiao Hu—neither noticed him.

He decided to swim farther out, but to be safe, he stayed along the coastline.

After swimming down over two meters, Ye Cheng stopped, sank to the seabed, and began searching the sand with his head down.

A large sea snail crawled leisurely across the seabed; Ye Cheng simply picked it up. Though it wasn't a conch or coconut snail, it was big enough that he believed the meat wouldn't be bad.

Ahead lay several large sea cucumbers, defenseless on the seabed, and Ye Cheng scooped them all up.

Here the seabed had more stones, and Ye Cheng saw few crabs.

But there was plenty on the reef; after moving over, Ye Cheng saw a patch of abalone.

Yes, it was a patch, the specimens not small, just stuck to the rock.

Since he hadn't brought a knife, Ye Cheng pried off two, straining a bit; after thinking, he decided to go back for a knife.

Just as he was about to swim back, he noticed some movement under the reef, revealing a fish tail.

Although he didn't know what kind of fish it was, it looked sizable, so grabbing it by hand was unlikely, but Ye Cheng had a net bag.

He took off the net bag, aimed its opening at the reef below, opened it as wide as possible to leave no escape for the fish.

Then he reached his hand in from the top of the net and felt around.

With a splash, Ye Cheng felt his hand struck by the fish's tail, and then a rush of muddy water welled up from inside.

Not knowing how deep it was, Ye Cheng reached further in and began stirring around.

Just after a few stirs, he felt something slick dart past his hand, plunge headfirst into the net, and thrash about inside.

Ye Cheng quickly tightened the net opening, looked, and chuckled: not bad, a red-spotted grouper; he guessed Xiao Hu and the others couldn't catch such a fine fish, and now he'd caught it barehanded.

It was also luck; if the hole were any deeper, Ye Cheng wouldn't have been able to reach in, and the fish wouldn't have needed to escape.

Having found the fish, Ye Cheng couldn't continue foraging below, or the grouper would get away and he'd lose out.

He first swam up to the surface, then headed toward Xiao Hu and the others.

"Brother, why did you go so far out?" Xiao Hu and the others, standing high and seeing far, spotted Ye Cheng at a glance.

"Come help quickly." Ye Cheng shouted, then swam back to shore with the net bag.

"Come, here's a red-spotted grouper." Ye Cheng rose from the water, soaking wet, and even a slight breeze made him feel chilly.

"Damn. No way—you caught a red-spotted grouper barehanded in the sea?" Chen Jinshui looked doubtful, peered into the net, and sure enough there was a red-spotted grouper inside.

"Barehanded my ass—I used a net."

"Xiao Hu, go back and get a small knife; there are some shells down below I can't pry open by hand."

"Oh, brother, I'll go get it."

After saying that, Xiao Hu got up and ran back, while Chen Jinshui helped Ye Cheng bring the contents of the net ashore.

Ye Cheng himself crouched in the water; this weather, it's still warmer in the water.

He lifted his head, and Uncle Jin passed him a cigarette to light; smoking while soaked in seawater really is a unique experience.

In that time, Xiao Hu and Chen Jinshui had also caught a few fish, but they were worthless trash fish, and together they weren't worth as much as the red-spotted grouper.

After several minutes, Xiao Hu came running back, panting, holding a small shovel—not a specialized one, just the kind used for mixing mud and water, about hand-sized, perfect to bring down.

"Alright, I'm heading over; you keep going."

Ye Cheng tied up the net bag, took the small shovel, and went down.

Chen Jinshui watched Ye Cheng's silhouette disappear into the water and curiously said to Xiao Hu, "How long can Lao Er stay submerged at once? Catching fish isn't something you can do in just a moment or two."

"Ah, uncle, never mind him; I'll take you fishing—come on, let's go up." Xiao Hu gave a perfunctory reply and dragged Chen Jinshui upward.

Ye Cheng dove under; the water felt really nice, warm waves wrapping around him, with occasional small sea fish swimming by, quite lovely.

He recalled that last time someone had bought a blue-clothed fish as an ornamental fish; with so many pretty fish down there, if they could be caught, selling them as ornamentals would also be good.

But these little fish are slippery, and there aren't any handy tools, so Ye Cheng doesn't plan to bother with them.

After swimming a stretch ahead, the reef where he'd found the abalone lay before him.

Just as he was about to speed up, he suddenly saw something ahead, hurriedly stopped, and regarded it warily.

It was a devil fish, not large—not the giant kind over two meters long, just half a meter; but with its long tail and broad body, it looked rather flashy.

In later times, the devil fish is most famous as a performer in ocean parks, which kids love to watch.

But actually its tail bears a poisonous spine; if encountered in the wild one should still be careful, as it carries neurotoxins—Ye Cheng didn't want to convulse all over and drown at sea.

This guy swims slowly, and Ye Cheng isn't in a hurry, so he just watched it leisurely glide by.

Fortunately, we keep to ourselves, but this also gave Ye Cheng a heads‑up: the seabed isn't the beach; the danger is greater.