Chapter 342: Suicidal Shrimp

They arrived at the spot.

He lifted the float.

Wu An checked his Luck Value; it was depleted.

Actually, there's no hurry to haul the crab pots, because whatever gets in is usually shelled seafood that can stay inside for two or three days fine.

He puts them out one day and pulls them in the next, mainly because his Luck Value is exhausted; leaving them in the sea would be pointless.

To maximize profit, he adopted this high-frequency method of collecting the crab pots.

Normally, when there are fewer, everyone can keep up and it's not too tiring.

Now the system is too generous; keeping this high frequency would leave the crew short-handed.

Either we add more people, or we lower the frequency.

If we can't find extra hands right away, we can only reduce the frequency of collecting the crab pots.

Collecting them once every two days after deployment should be manageable.

If that still doesn't work, then every three days.

Then another problem arises: if the crab pots sit in the sea for three days, how do we use up the Luck Value?

Then we can only add more operations on the boat.

Ideally, something that consumes a lot of Luck Value and is simple and convenient to operate.

If the trawler could be delivered now, he wouldn't have to worry at all.

Trawling can be done continuously; adding crab pots, longline fishing, and adhesive nets, no matter how much Luck Value the system gives, it can all be used up.

It seems the Luck Value is too much, becoming a big hassle.

It's mainly his problem.

It's not that the system gives too much.

It's that he hasn't kept up with the system's pace; he should have expanded earlier and secured the trawler.

In the future, the system's Luck Value will keep increasing; by then, not only will we need the trawler, but we'll also have to form a fleet.

Wu An couldn't help but let his imagination run wild.

With the winch operation, the first row of crab pots came up smoothly.

A Qing lay at the front, watching, and shouted excitedly, "Brother, there are so many shrimp!"

"Goodness, this shrimp doesn't look like a lobster; why is it so big?"

"Has the mantis shrimp mutated?"

Wu An came to his senses, having just looked over, when A Qing cried out again, "Why do these shrimp keep spitting stuff out, like they're drunk?"

"Take a look; it's actually pretty fun to watch."

Everyone gathered around to look.

Amazed by the shrimp's size, Mei Wu, through the net, gestured with his hand; one of them actually turned out longer than his palm.

They were over twenty centimeters long.

The small ones…

At a glance, I didn't see a single small one.

Lao Fu Tou ran over, somewhat excitedly shouting, "Don't just stand there gawking!"

"Hurry up and open the pots!"

"These shrimp are committing suicide; hurry up and rescue them!"

Everyone let out an "ah".

"???"

"Suicide?"

"Are they that hot-tempered?"

"Would they rather die than submit?"

"It's useless."

"People don't disdain it; the motto is \"you die yours, I eat mine\"."

"These valuable shrimp, once on the table, nobody will waste."

"Of course."

"Dead shrimp and live shrimp definitely have different prices."

Wu An hurriedly opened the crab pot and dumped the shrimp onto the deck.

Lao Fu Tou had Mei Wu and A Qing fetch buckets of seawater. Then he and Wu Ping sat down to sort; seeing that many shrimp had already "committed suicide," he couldn't help but sigh.

"These are nine-section shrimp; you've seen them—basically they die as soon as they're out of the water." Lao Fu Tou said while sorting, "If we don't sort them quickly, the others will die too."

Wu An took sole charge of the crab pots, occasionally turning his head to look.

A Qing and Mei Wu brought over the seawater and also hurried to join the sorting.

The live shrimp were hurriedly rescued and thrown into the water buckets; the dead shrimp also needed to be quickly cleared and put into storage.

They all died just after being pulled up, so their freshness is very high.

A Qing discovered an especially large one and hurriedly handed it over to Wu An to look at.

The big shrimp was already completely dead.

Wu An hefted it in his hand, estimating it weighed a little over one catty.

"Old Fu, this is expensive, right?"

Lao Fu Tou nodded vigorously; upon hearing the price, he couldn't help but grin, showing a mouthful of big yellow teeth: "Expensive, very expensive."

"It's even more expensive than ordinary-sized lobsters."

Wu An was not surprised.

Shrimp this large are extremely rare; even lobsters of this size are quite valuable.

Actually, for the same size, the meat yield of nine-section shrimp definitely beats that of lobster.

Moreover, the texture of nine-section shrimp can leave lobster in the dust.

Wu An examined it closely and had to admit, the nine-section shrimp is quite beautiful.

He knew about nine-section shrimp.

This thing is considered a top-tier shrimp, highly popular in their area.

Calling it the king of shrimp is not an exaggeration; other shrimp simply can't compare.

Its deliciousness is one aspect; it's also because it's nutritionally rich.

Without even mentioning its many other benefits, just its effects of nourishing the kidneys, strengthening yang, and delaying aging are enough to make people flock to it.

In short, it's delicious, eat more, if you have money buy it; if you can't afford it, you'll lose out, if you can't afford it, you'll be duped.

However, Wu An has never eaten it.

No other reason, just one word: poor!

Going to the market to buy it, he'd surely be reluctant to spend; even taking an extra look feels like a sin.

Their family had never had anyone go out to sea to fish; even if there were fishermen in the family who went out to sea, they generally wouldn't want to eat it either.

Unless it couldn't be sold, they'd keep some at home to try.

Hearing Lao Fu Tou say the price of nine-section shrimp was especially high, everyone sped up their sorting a lot.

Although everyone was a bit tired at first, once they got into the work, they didn't feel tired or sleepy, feeling full of energy.

Everyone sorted quickly with gloves, fast and steady, naturally thanks to Wu An's Luck Value boost.

As A Qing would say, the hands move faster than the mind; before they even react, the hands already start sorting instinctively.

Looking again, not a single mistake was found.

Wu An smiled without saying a word.

Compared to A Qing and the others, he actually ended up being the most leisurely.

With a winch, the crab pots don't need to be pulled by hand; he just needs to watch for any pots getting stuck.

With the Luck Value boost, this problem basically won't occur.

The second row of crab pots came up.

At a glance, they were all nine-section shrimp.

Too many.

The fully loaded Luck Value indeed worked well; this was the first time they'd gotten nine-section shrimp.

Lao Fu Tou wasn't surprised at all; this season is supposed to be the nine-section shrimp's peak season.

However.

A pot full of nine-section shrimp, a row of pots yielding over a hundred jin, is still quite rare.

But this happened to Wu An.

Reasonable.

Wu An dumped the nine-section shrimp from the second row of pots out, which made Lao Fu Tou and the others sorting them panic.

They couldn't keep up.

They simply couldn't keep up.

Wu An simply paused pulling up the pots and squatted down to help.

With a few people working together, they still sorted the nine-section shrimp very quickly.

Two rows of pots yielded over a hundred jin of nine-section shrimp.

Most were dead, leaving only a couple of buckets of live shrimp, which were extremely precious; Wu Ping watched them eagerly, immediately sorting out any that seemed off.

Whether the nine-section shrimp were alive or dead, they were still nine-section shrimp; Lao Fu Tou, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, laughed as the ash shook: "We've really struck it rich."

"I remember there are still seventeen rows of pots behind."

"If they all yield like these two rows, today's income will definitely be more than yesterday's."

Everyone looked in unison at the third row of pots about to come up, their eyes full of anticipation.

The rear pots did not disappoint everyone.