Chapter 403: Chase! Chase! Chase!

The fishing boat moved forward.

Wu An and his group arrived at the sea area where adhesive nets were set, and easily found the buoys.

The four divided the work.

This time Wu An was in charge of steering the boat; there was no way around it, handling the adhesive net was a bit troublesome, and he still wasn't fully confident.

A Qing was responsible for hauling the net, while Lao Fu Tou and Mei Wu were responsible for untangling and organizing the net.

Don't think it's simple.

There are many tricks inside; how to quickly and orderly untangle fish and net involves expertise—untangling fish without harming them and, as much as possible, restoring the adhesive net.

Mei Wu mainly studies.

He hauls the buoy up, hooks it onto the winch, and presses the switch.

Soon, the catch came out of the water.

A Qing leaned over the ship's side and asked, 'Old Fu, what kind of fish is this?'

Mullet.

Is it expensive?

Not expensive." Lao Fu Tou paused, then continued, "But this kind of fish usually appears in schools and pairs."

Just as his words fell,

Immediately, the adhesive net hauled up was covered with mullet, dense and thick, making A Qing's face wrinkle; he quickly stopped the winch.

Why?

Because there are too many fish, untangling them is too troublesome.

We can only run it a bit, then stop a bit; fortunately Lao Fu Tou is professional, his fish‑untangling speed is fast, so after a short pause we can let the winch continue working.

Mei Wu untangled one and said, 'This fish looks like a freshwater fish.'

It's quite similar to grass carp.

Lao Fu Tou, while working, said, 'Actually you're right—mullet live in river estuaries where they meet, and only as adults do they swim out to sea.'

After the winter solstice, heading south they pass through the strait; nowadays they're actually rarely seen.

I never expected our adhesive net would run into so many.

The first net took over half an hour to finish untangling, and the haul was quite good.

Just the mullet alone weighed over a hundred jin, plus some black bream and such; together they could fetch a decent amount of money.

The following nets were much the same.

While working, we didn't notice time passing; unconsciously, the sky grew bright.

Wu An glanced at the time—it was already 7:30 a. m. —and turned to ask, 'How much is left?'

Lao Fu Tou replied, 'We've finished half of this net; there's still one net left.'

Wu An answered, 'Got it.'

The speed of hauling the adhesive net was a bit slower than he imagined—not because Lao Fu Tou and the others were slow, but because the catch was more than expected.

Mullet isn't expensive, so it consumes little luck value; under the lure of luck value, many mullet hang on the adhesive net.

Actually, with so many mullet, it would be better to hang one or two large yellow fish or red spotted groupers—easy and profitable.

But the actual situation is not as one wishes.

More often, small fish clump together; even though they're on the adhesive net we can't skip collecting them, because later we aren't heading straight back—we have to go collect the crab pots first and then return.

If we don't promptly deal with the catch on the adhesive net, by the time we return to the dock it'll probably all be spoiled.

He glanced at the system.

He discovered that the last adhesive net not yet collected still had 2 points of luck value unused, thinking the catch wouldn't be much; the next second he heard A Qing shouting loudly, 'Brother, brother.'

'The adhesive net ran away!'

'Holy shit, it's a fish! Dammit, we've been robbed by fish again!'

Wu An saw the adhesive net's buoy bobbing on the sea surface, moving forward at extreme speed; he couldn't help but widen his eyes, 'Damn, never‑ending, right?!'

Mei Wu grabbed the binoculars and shouted excitedly, 'It's the fish that previously took the cast net—I can see the main line of the cast net.'

A Qing jumped up anxiously, 'What should we do about this?'

'If Hu Zi were here, that would be great.'

'Last time that dragon fish, it was Hu Zi who helped us.'

'Brother, let's go back to find Hu Zi and call him to help us get revenge.'

Wu An gritted his teeth and shouted, 'A Wu Ge, you're not mistaken, are you?'

Mei Wu ran over and handed him the binoculars: 'Absolutely not mistaken.'

'My eyesight is good.'

'I can see the bottom line of the eye chart clearly.'

Wu An didn't take the binoculars, pulled the throttle to maximum, the fishing boat chased after it, and said, 'Then you keep an eye on it for me!'

'No need to look for Hu Zi!'

'In broad daylight, with the adhesive net's buoy still on the sea surface, I don't believe we can't catch up!'

Lao Fu Tou walked over and said, 'Let me handle it.'

'We can't just brute‑force it.'

'You're about to press the throttle into the engine.'

Wu An quickly stepped aside.

Lao Fu Tou took the helm; only then did Wu An take the binoculars, stare at the buoy on the sea surface, and say, 'The speed doesn't seem that fast.'

'We should be able to keep up with it, more or less.'

Lao Fu, can we increase the speed a bit more?

Lao Fu Tou said, "Increasing speed definitely won't work, but I think this fish is about out of strength, yet with both the Cast Net and Adhesive Net it can still swim like this."

A An, if we can catch it, I estimate it's a big guy weighing several hundred catties!

Wu An got excited hearing that.

A Qing swung his fists left and right beside them, shouting, "Chase, chase him to death!"

Mei Wu also shouted, "Lao Fu, keep it up!"

Lao Fu Tou nodded, hesitated a moment, and said, "A An, chasing is definitely no problem, but if we keep this direction and speed, we'll soon reach the middle line."

A Qing and Mei Wu asked what the middle line was.

Wu An gave a brief explanation.

Mei Wu frowned, a bit hesitant, after all crossing the middle line with a fishing boat is quite sensitive—the other side sometimes reacts strongly; although he's never gone out to sea, he's heard plenty from the village fishermen.

Many people from Bay Bay have their roots in our area.

A Qing, being a reckless youth, said, "What's there to fear? We're all one family; if we catch a fish over there, what can they do?"

Besides, even if it's clearly divided, it depends on who's the big or little king—why would we fear them?

If the fish runs over there, it's still ours.

No matter what, we have to catch it back.

Wu An patted A Qing's shoulder and laughed, "What A Qing said is exactly what I wanted to say."

Now is not the past.

Damn the middle line, that's our family's inland sea!

Lao Fu Tou nodded and didn't say more; actually he thought the same.

Just rush, that's it.

But as an employee hired by Wu An at high salary, he has the responsibility and duty to warn Wu An of potential dangers and troubles.

Full speed ahead!

They were already near the middle line, following the big fish, and now they're running straight toward it.

A Qing cursed, "This big fish is definitely doing it on purpose."

"They think we don't dare to chase."

"Brother, we can't let it succeed."

Wu An nodded.

Mei Wu rubbed his palms and said, "No matter what fish we catch later, first give it two punches."

A Qing nodded, "Needed, needed."

Wu An kept the telescope locked on the big fish; perhaps because of the Cast Net and Adhesive Net floats, the big fish hasn't sunk to the bottom, and its speed seems slower than before.

He was thinking the fish couldn't escape when Lao Fu Tou's reminder came: "A An, we've crossed the middle line!"

Wu An nodded, lowered the telescope, and said, "Lao Fu, be careful—the sea conditions here are complex; near the uninhabited islands we don't know if there are hidden reefs, and... I also saw fishing boats."

He said while speaking.

He added Luck Value to the fishing boat; if there really were hidden reefs, with Luck Value present, it should be able to avoid running aground.

Lao Fu Tou's expression became noticeably more solemn.