Chapter 224: As for All This, I Take Responsibility

At first, everyone was just praising Wu An in various ways; Mei Yueqin listened, grinning ear to ear, and she was overjoyed.

Now something feels off.

All sorts of things are being said.

「Wu An is incredible, he must be full of tricks all over, right? 」

「Scary, scary. 」

「After all, he's been to college, so he's different. 」

「I'm not afraid of good people turning bad, I'm afraid of bad people turning good; now that he's turned good, his methods are even dirtier. 」

「Since it's Wu An's scheming, can the Shen and Mao families settle it? 」

「If it's not settled, what can they do? Do they dare cause trouble for Wu An? 」

「That's right. 」

Everyone shrank their necks in unison; although they had only said a few bad words, they felt a chill down their backs and dared not speak further.

What if Wu An bears a grudge against them?

「Sister-in-law Yueqin, want something to drink? How about a North Ice Ocean? 」

「Not thirsty, not thirsty, hey, what are you doing? Buying one bottle is enough, why did you bring out a whole case? 」

「This… when Wu An was misbehaving before, I scolded him and even threw bricks at him; he can't hold a grudge against me, can he? 」

「This… probably not. 」

「When he returns from sea, help me say a few good words; otherwise, when he comes back, I'll go apologize to him. 」

「No need; back when he was misbehaving, not to mention you, I've scolded him many times and even beaten him. 」

「Sister-in-law, you also help me say a few good words. 」

「……」

Mei Yueqin really didn't dare stay any longer; this person buys drinks, that person buys food and drink, she might not even be able to pull her tricycle home.

Moreover, she didn't dare accept them.

Those who fear Wu An settling scores are indeed quite many.

That's also normal.

Before, Wu An stole chickens and dogs in the village, bullying whoever was honest; he offended many, and now everyone fears his retaliation.

After Lao Jiang's promotion, plus Shen Fang, Mao Wang, and Chen Long's 'appearing to explain', Wu An can walk sideways in the village.

……

「Ah-choo, ah-choo……」

Wu An stood at the bow, couldn't last more than three seconds; because the weather was bad, the sea wind was a bit cold, he shrank his head and went back under the canopy.

A Qing asked: «Brother, are you alright? 」

Wu An shook his head; catching a cold is definitely impossible, his body after over a month of tempering feels strong enough to plow a field all night.

He rubbed his neck, guessing someone was badmouthing him.

Calculating the time, Mao Wang returning to the village must have already caused an uproar.

Shen Fang didn't fully listen to him; returning to the village she said nothing, but since the matter could blow up, relying entirely on villagers' word of mouth, he simply added fuel to the fire, burning himself.

Pulling a tiger's skin, raising a big flag.

I guess now the whole village probably knows that all this is his scheming.

He had Lao Jiang handle this; there shouldn't be a big problem.

Lao Jiang handles things, still steady.

This also thanks to Chen Long; his words opened up a new line of thought for him.

Yeah.

Anyway, there will always be people suspecting that all this is his doing; rather than being wrongly accused and painstakingly explaining to prove his innocence, it's better to simply admit it—if you say I schemed, then so be it; what can you do, what dare you do?

Although it's a bad reputation, overall the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

Nothing else to say.

From now on in the village, who would dare provoke him?

Before causing him trouble, first weigh whether you're up to it.

As long as he's bad enough, if he says he's a good person, who would dare say 'no'?

「If Lao Jiang helps him gain fame, others not speaking, Lin Hu would probably be scared half to death, hehehe. 」 Wu An thought, and couldn't help but let out a wicked laugh twice.

Chen Long not compensating, see what his end will be.

You Lin Hu not compensating either, just ask if you're panicked, whether you can sleep soundly at night.

Wu An crossed his hands behind his head, pillowed his head, leaned back, crossed his legs, mulling over these messy matters in his mind, when he heard A Qing shout: «Brother, we've arrived at the crab pot spot. »

Wu An quickly got up.

Crab pots are good, except they might snag the bottom, and they might also be stolen.

Actually, longline fishing also has this trouble, but fortunately longline fishing doesn't need to stay overnight, so the risk is relatively low.

Crab pots are different; once thrown into the sea, no one watches, after a day and night, if someone passing by sees it and has ill intent, they'll just steal it.

There's basically no way to find out who stole it.

After all, seafood has no markings; as for the crab pot, if someone steals it and tosses it into the sea, there's no clue or evidence to be found.

Wu An and A Qing examined carefully, muttering as they counted.

They didn't find any problems.

After the fishing season opened, fishing boats basically don't come near this sea island; during this period, no other fishing boats have been seen approaching the island to gather seafood.

He was just over-worrying.

Lao Mai saw that Wu An had set a crab pot here, and clicked his tongue in amazement: "I didn't expect the resources here to be not bad."

Is the longline fishing also set here?

Wu An braced his hand on the boat's side, noticed that the luck value on the fishing boat was still there, and said: "Let's keep going forward."

Lao Mai nodded and continued steering forward.

The weather was poor, the wind and waves were a bit stronger, and the fishing boat pitched rather violently.

On the sea, islands were scattered densely.

Having sailed here, the islands seen were basically uninhabited; most islands could be seen at a glance to be very barren.

The islands varied in size, with jagged rocks, and some vegetation on the islands, but not much.

"Brother, this island isn't small, but it's hard to land on—it's all big reefs, like cliffs." A Qing shouted, pointing at a large island not far away.

Wu An nodded: "Such a big island, with mountains and water on it—if we could go ashore, setting up camp would be pretty nice."

A Qing pursed his lips: "Camping? That's just sleeping in the wilderness—what's good about that? Nothing beats sleeping in your own bed."

Mai Hangyu shook his head and said: "A Qing, you got that wrong—camping is actually very comfortable."

A Qing still didn't believe it: "I think you're just looking for trouble."

Wu An laughed heartily.

What A Qing said was also not wrong.

Camping, basically, is enduring hardship for no reason—claimed as escaping the steel-and-concrete jungle to enjoy nature, but if it's genuine camping, most people end up clueless, bustling about miserably, unable to eat or sleep well, just for the sake of the word 'play'.

Lao Mai asked: "Should we turn around and look for a place to land on the island?"

Wu An shook his head: "No."

"This spot looks good; I'll set the longline fishing right here."

"After setting the longline, we'll find another spot to fish."

They naturally didn't have the leisure; after a call to set the longline, the three got busy, with previous experience and Wu An's help this time, they deployed the longline in an orderly fashion.

After setting the longline, Wu An added one point of luck value to the fishing boat; at a spot a bit farther from the longline, he saw the boat's luck value instantly depleted, so he had Lao Mai stop the boat to fish.

When it was time to fish, Lao Mai moved with surprising agility for an old man, the first to finish preparing his tackle, lower his rod, and start fishing.