Chapter 141: Big Fish Eats Small Fish

Several anglers around had stopped fishing and walked over to look.

"No way, guys."

"How can you still catch fish using the linked rod technique?"

"Wow, this sea bass must be over two catties."

"I've been fishing here since yesterday, and I've seen about ten or so people get sent away; I thought you'd be sent away too, but I didn't expect you to hit such big luck."

Several anglers chatted nonstop beside them.

Wu An casually said: "Maybe they baited the spot, letting us pick up a big bargain."

The anglers exclaimed enviously: "Damn, your luck is really good."

"Lao Mai is right, we really don't have time to eat barbecue." Gao Qiangqi hooked a black bream, threw it into the fish box, picked up the skewers placed aside, grabbed a handful and handed them to the several anglers, saying: "Guys, help yourselves to eat."

Those several anglers instantly beamed with joy.

They felt much more relieved.

Wu An asked: "Qiang Ge, these people come over chatting nonsense, are you still giving them skewers to eat?"

Gao Qiangqi smiled and said: "If I don't give them something, how can I shut them up?"

"I'm afraid that if the fish run out later, I'll get angry and blame them."

"Then they're in trouble."

Wu An suddenly understood.

Lao Fang smiled and said: "Anyway, we don't have time to eat."

Lao Mai didn't even have time to speak; the fish kept getting bigger, he was old and lacked strength, so pulling up a fish required all his might.

Wu An cast his line and baited the hook.

Soon a fish bit.

But the pull wasn't strong, so he quickly reeled in the line.

When the fish was brought to the surface, it turned out to be a squid; just as he was about to fling the squid over, the light shone, and suddenly he saw a black shadow dart up from the water toward the surface.

"What the heck, what is it?"

That thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

The next moment.

Water splashed; before he could clearly see what kind of fish it was, he saw a huge mouth swallow the squid whole, then the fishing line jerked.

Immediately after, it sank into the water; the drag on this side of the reel was pulled, and the fishing line spun out rapidly.

Wu An was a bit dazed.

"How come, while trying to catch a fish, we've gotten into a mantis stalks cicada, oriole behind situation?"

Lao Mai stood nearby, just having thrown the fish into the keeper, heard the commotion, immediately shone the light over, and asked: "A An, what's wrong?"

Wu An said: "I hooked a squid, but then a fish rushed out and ate the squid."

Lao Mai stared: "There's still this?"

Gao Qiangqi laughed loudly: "Maybe A An hooked someone else's dinner, and they got angry."

Lao Fang also laughed.

Lao Mai asked: "What kind of fish is it?"

Wu An shook his head: "It happened too suddenly; I didn't get a clear look either."

He tried to reel in, found the pulling force strong, yet the hook didn't come off, and he shouted excitedly: "Couldn't pull it up!"

After tugging for five minutes, he finally managed to pull the fish up.

Lao Mai didn't bait the hook; instead, he grabbed a scoop net and scooped the fish up in one go. Seeing this, Wu An finally let out a long breath, having held his breath until then.

He feared that if he exhaled, the fish might also slip off the hook.

Fortunately, that didn't happen.

Otherwise, he'd probably dream about this all night.

"A An, it's a cat shark."

Lao Mai's voice sounded happy.

Wu An was also quite happy; he knew cat sharks aren't cheap, have ornamental value, and with the right buyer could fetch a good price.

"If we can catch this fish, A An's luck is truly invincible."

"Qin Zong would probably like this fish a lot."

"Later we can go ask Qin Zong whether he'll take it."

Gao Qiangqi said while quickly taking out the fish from his own fish box, putting them all together with Lao Mai's, and emptying the fish box for the cat shark.

Wu An glanced at his fishing rod; his luck value had only one point left.

He had thought he could still fish for another hour, but this time he immediately pulled up another cat shark, and his luck value dropped to zero instantly.

"Wow, another cat shark caught!"

"Not to mention others, even I'm jealous."

Lao Fang couldn't help but shout excitedly.

Their haul wasn't small either; besides the usual sea fish, they also caught two groupers, both decent-sized, making the surrounding anglers envious and jealous.

Wu An's fishing rod had no luck value left, so the bite rate dropped considerably; occasionally when he did get a bite, it was just low-value fish like tilapia.

He simply gave up.

After working hard all day, he was already worn out; this night of fishing was outside his plan, and after fishing so long, he felt utterly exhausted.

He sat down to drink some wine, eat some barbecue; sweat broke out on his body, the sea breeze blew cool, and it was quite pleasant.

Just that there were quite a few mosquitoes.

After another half hour of fishing, the three men's luck values were exhausted one after another, they got no bites, and the speed of catching fish with the lower rod technique kept dropping.

Lao Mai stopped first: "No more fishing; night fishing is really tiring."

Gao Qiangqi and Lao Fang saw that and also reeled in their lines.

Checking the time, it was almost midnight; Gao Qiangqi's phone buzzed, he pulled it out and saw it was a message from Qin Zong, who laughed: "Qin Zong hasn't slept yet; he's asking how our haul is."

"Let's tidy up, take some photos and video, and send them over for him to see."

Lao Fang nodded: "We need to; if he doesn't come, he'll regret it and slap his thigh."

Everyone piled the tackle box and fish net together, snapped a bunch of photos with click-click-click sounds, and Gao Qiangqi didn't send them separately to Qin Zong but posted them directly in the group.

For a moment, the group chat exploded.

Someone also doubted: "How could you catch so many fish in just two or three hours?"

You must have bought them at the market.

Someone also pointed out Gao Qiangqi's identity, saying he's a seafood boss and doesn't need to buy—they already have them at home.

Gao Qiangqi then took more photos of the cat sharks, after which nobody doubted anymore.

Another angler who had previously eaten skewers stepped forward to testify, proving that Gao Qiangqi and company had caught fish using the linked rod technique, and only then did the group calm down.

As for that "Downhill Mountain Tiger" guy, he never spoke from start to finish, but Wu An guessed he was lurking and must have felt terrible after seeing this.

Qin Zong's message came, saying he regretted not coming along and specifically demanded two cat sharks.

They hurriedly packed up and left.

First they dropped off Gao Qiangqi and Lao Fang at the market, then Lao Mai and Wu An went to a restaurant.

Qin Zong waited at the entrance, looking forward.

Seeing the two cat sharks, he was overjoyed and said: "Wild cat sharks—so rare! We shouldn't charge by weight; I'll keep them for display, a thousand each—what do you think?"

Wu An naturally had no objection.

Lao Fang also mentioned the cat sharks' price—about two hundred per catty—and though market prices fluctuate, Qin Zong charging per piece is definitely a markup.

Leaving the restaurant, Wu An didn't go home but followed Lao Mai back to his house.

Tomorrow he has to take an exam in the county; returning to Xixi Village at this hour would be too much of a hassle, so after learning this Lao Mai said that if he's going to take the test, there's no point fishing with them, and hurriedly brought him home.

Arriving at Lao Mai's house, Wu An nodded repeatedly; though the outside looks a bit run-down, the interior is very well decorated and the furniture has taste.

Just as they entered the living room, Mai Hangyu came out of his room, and Wu An said: "Sorry, did I wake you?"

Mai Hangyu, full of energy, replied: "Brother, I wasn't woken—I haven't slept yet."

Wu An glanced at the clock on the wall—it was already 1 a. m. and he still hadn't slept; indeed, he's quite a youngster.

Lao Mai gave a couple of admonitions.

Wu An also had no inclination to chat; he was utterly exhausted, Lao Mai brought a clean towel, he quickly rinsed off, then went back to his room to rest.

The next morning.

He and Lao Mai got up early, shouted at both sides to wake Mai Hangyu but he wouldn't wake; Lao Mai didn't mind, thinking his grandson is just like that at home, and it's fine to relax a bit.

After eating, Wu An boarded the passenger vehicle to the county.

Min Ge sent a message telling him to relax and steady himself.

Arriving at the exam hall, no wonder Min Ge spoke so confidently—it was practically an open-book test; although he had said that earlier and Wu An was half‑believing, upon seeing the scene he realized Min Ge's estimate was conservative, as some unlucky soul even went straight to ask the invigilator for the answers.

The invigilator actually answered.

If even this doesn't pass, he might as well kill himself by smashing a block of tofu.

Wu An thought the same: although things have started to tighten, there's still a loophole to exploit.

Min Ge hadn't done nothing either; that morning after finishing the theory exam, they ate together, and since the afternoon practical test was coming, they didn't drink much—each had just a few bottles of beer.

Wu An normally doesn't drink, but Min Ge said, "Small test, small drink; big test, big drink."

Wu An couldn't refute that twisted logic.

Besides, since he plans to work at sea in the future, he'll inevitably have to deal with Min Ge, so it's even worse not to give him face.

Having eaten and drunk their fill.

Full of confidence, he went to take the exam, but when he arrived they wouldn't let him actually operate anything, fearing he'd crash the boat; for safety they just had him go around once and counted that as passing.

Wu An was also happy to take it easy, chatting on his phone—not with Gu Anran, but with Lin Hu.