Chapter 184: Fishing Boat: Not Buddies, Then I

Wu An is here battling the fish hard, and A Qing, Lao Mai, and Mai Hangyu are also landing fish one after another.

A Qing's knees were pulled up against the side of the boat; under Lao Mai's guidance, he finally managed to steady himself, and Mai Hangyu's situation was similar.

A Qing, with an eager look, shouted, "What kind of fish school is down there, and why is the pull so strong?"

Lao Mai shook his head.

He couldn't say either; this isn't the coast, any fish could be caught here, but with such a strong pull, the fish must be sizable.

The four of them were pulling with considerable effort.

No one could help anyone else.

After a while, the fish was finally hauled up, about a meter long, still thrashing on the surface; Wu An couldn't tell what kind of fish it was and praised, "Even the fish that runs far away has a pretty big size."

Once on the surface, the fish's struggling weakened, and he easily pulled it up, not daring to handle it directly because its teeth were somewhat frightening.

Lao Mai, standing to his left, said after seeing it, "It's a Sea Wolf Fish."

Wu An looked at the fish, which resembled a stainless‑steel column, cylindrical in shape, with black vertical stripes on both sides, and thought it looked quite nice.

But a single rotten tooth ruined everything.

He recently learned that this fish's scientific name is swordfish; it's called Sea Wolf Fish because, first, its teeth are razor‑sharp, protruding like wolf fangs, and second, the species is ferocious and highly aggressive, appearing in packs; even when encountering sharks, the school doesn't shy away.

This is the sea's "wolf," hence the name Sea Wolf Fish.

Before long.

Lao Mai and the others also hauled up Sea Wolf Fish; needn't say, beneath the fishing boat was a Sea Wolf Fish School.

A Qing, looking at the large Sea Wolf Fish that took a while to pull up, asked, "This fish should be pretty valuable, right?"

Lao Mai laughed, "Then you're mistaken."

"This fish isn't worth much, not even as much as ordinary Sea Bass."

"Probably just around ten yuan per jin."

A Qing was instantly greatly disappointed.

That's really a letdown.

Wu An smiled and said, "The Sea Wolf Fish we hauled up aren't small; on average they're about twelve or thirteen jin."

"This one alone is worth one to two hundred yuan."

"That's not bad."

Mai Hangyu chuckled, "Pulling this fish feels great."

"It's really strong."

"I like it."

A Qing said nothing; to him, the strong pull was useless—he preferred catching valuable sea fish, so he could make money.

Re‑bait.

Lower the rod.

Quickly caught a fish.

Lao Mai smiled with satisfaction, another familiar Linked Rod Technique.

After exerting a bit of effort, he hauled up another Sea Wolf Fish.

Still about ten jin in size.

Wu An and the others were the same.

Half an hour later.

A Qing rubbed his arm and said, "Why is it all Sea Wolf Fish?"

By now, they had probably hauled up over a dozen Sea Wolf Fish, roughly one hundred sixty‑seven jin, altogether worth only about two thousand yuan.

It only fetched two hundred yuan!

Half an hour earned only two hundred yuan—too little, far too little!

A Qing wasn't very satisfied; if this idea reached the "vast working masses," they'd probably scold him, "Pretending to be cool will get you struck by lightning!"

Wu An also wasn't satisfied; he had heard that fishing here could yield deep‑sea fish, such as tiger grouper, eastern star grouper, and other prized Grouper species.

Not catching Grouper is one thing, but a Linked Rod Sea Wolf Fish is some kind of nonsense.

In fact, he guessed it might be because the fishing boat's Luck Value attracted the Sea Wolf Fish School to this spot, and the boat's Hard Control kept them here.

Other schools, sensing the presence of the Sea Wolf Fish School here, dared not approach and naturally kept their distance.

The fishing boat, if it knew Wu An's thoughts.

Isn't a buddy.

Then I'm leaving?

Nothing much to say.

Just fish.

As long as we don't fish ourselves to death.

Then fish to the death.

We fished like this until noon; Wu An saw the time was about right, decisively hauled in the rod, and went into the boat's cabin to prepare a meal—there's no way to feast on the boat.

We can only make do.

First steam the rice.

Then caught a relatively small Sea Wolf Fish, still about seven or eight jin; decided on a three‑way preparation: fish bones for soup, half the meat pan‑fried with pepper‑salt, the other part braised.

Add a side of garlic‑sautéed water spinach, and the simple three dishes and a soup were ready.

Gu Anran also made two dishes—a braised pork and a spicy crab—both hearty, and the flavors were, of course, excellent.

A Qing ate with sauce dripping from his mouth and said, "Bro, can I keep coming over to your place to share meals?"

Wu An shook his head, refusing bluntly: "No."

A Qing: "..."

After eating, Lao Mai and Xiao Mai went fishing; maybe fishing talent is hereditary; Mai Hangyu also really likes fishing; they also quite like fishing Sea Wolf Fish.

This fish is strong; reeling it in is especially enjoyable.

The grandfather and grandson have been busy with the B&B lately, it's quite hard; Mai Hangyu at least has the future business as a big pie to lure him; Lao Mai is purely "working for the grandson."

As for payment, Lao Mai also doesn't want it.

Since they like fishing, Wu An simply lets them fish to their heart's content.

He keeps giving the fishing boat Luck Boost, hard‑controlling this school of fish near the boat.

A Qing asked: "Brother, aren't we going fishing?"

Wu An shook his head, looking at the uninhabited island not far away; he didn't know the island's name, Lao Mai also didn't know, so he simply named it "Panzi Island."

He said: "The tide will go out soon; let's go up onto the island to have a look."

"Just let the grandfather and grandson fish on the boat."

Today there's hardly any wind or waves; the sea surface is like a mirror; the deep blue seawater is nice to look at, but staring too long makes one feel queasy.

If one fell in, if they can't swim, it would take a long time to sink to the bottom.

Wu An didn't dare look too long; he had Lao Mai steer the fishing boat toward the island; they easily got onto the island; the island isn't big; only a few trees in the center; vegetation is sparse.

Such an island, besides fishing folks, basically no one comes up.

The tide just receded; the reefs are still a bit damp and cool, but the sun overhead is blazing hot; even wearing a straw hat feels hot.

A Qing found a large reef, climbed up, looked around, and shouted: "Brother, it seems there's nothing to do."

Wu An said: "Let's walk around first, then talk."

It's already 2 p. m.; Luck Value still has 58 points.

They plan to return no later than 5 p. m., i. e., they still have three hours; this amount of time, just fishing definitely won't suffice.

With so much Luck Value, we need to find a way to use it.

Now the fishing boat has hard‑controlled the Sea Wolf Fish; there's basically no room for other fish schools to approach.

Fishing is out of the question.

All we can do is see if we can gather seafood and pump water pits on the island.

A Qing wanted to move the water pump; Wu An stopped him, saying: "We're not sure if there are water pits on this island; don't haul it down only to find it unusable—that would be wasted effort."

A Qing nodded; he volunteered to walk along the shore, letting Wu An go to the island's center.

The island isn't big.

Wu An quickly walked around; the island mainly consists of reefs; on top there are plenty of sea snails, spicy snails, sea melon seeds, etc., but they're not worth much.

He doesn't have time to deal with these now.

He found A Qing; A Qing said: "There are a few small water pits, all very small; they don't need a water pump at all; I can manage with a bucket."

"However, I found some abalone."

As he spoke, A Qing took out several abalone from the bucket.

Wu An startled: "Where did you find them?"

A Qing pointed to a nearby flat reef surface and said: "Right here; I scooped them from the water; there are more in deeper places, but I didn't dare keep scooping."

Wu An thought: "Come on, take me to have a look."