Chapter 518: Hidden True Value

A Qing and Mei Wu clean up the catch, and sometimes they even have to snatch it from the Sea Turtle's mouth.

Fan Dali notices Wu An looking at the hole in the trawling net and says, "Boss, don't worry about it too much."

"We're bottom trawlers, the net gets damaged easily."

"This broken spot is easy to fix; later I can patch it myself."

Wu An smiles and nods, saying, "Alright, then I'll hand it over to you this month."

Wu An looks at Fu Yongning, who is cleaning the Sea Turtle's barnacles, and says, "Be careful."

"When handling it, don't injure the Sea Turtle."

"Otherwise, when these Sea Turtles return to the sea, they can easily die from infection."

Fu Yongning nods.

Wait for Wu An to leave.

He turns his head to glance at Fan Xiao Zhu, who is bent over carefully cleaning the Sea Turtle's barnacles, with no chance for any eye contact.

This also means Fu Yongning can't find anyone to agree when he wants to vent.

He comes onto the boat.

He sees everyone's unprofessionalism, sees Wu An's neglect of duties, and actually lets him and Fan Xiao Zhu clean the Sea Turtle's barnacles.

This thankless, labor‑intensive task, what's the point of doing it?

It's just a pointless hassle.

He now feels his heart pounding; busy on this fishing boat, does it really have a future?

He turns his head and looks.

Wu An seems to be chatting with a Sea Turtle?

Fu Yongning shakes his head; with so many issues, he doesn't know how to vent.

Now that the contract is signed, he can only leave it to fate; no matter what, he thinks Lao Fu Tou won't cheat him.

Wu An notices a Sea Turtle that crosses most of the Deck, crawls up to him, and realizes this Sea Turtle is the Gui Ge who previously helped locate Ambergris.

He picks up a small octopus from beside him, feeds it to Gui Ge, and says, "Gui Ge."

"You're the one who called your brothers and sisters, right?"

Gui Ge bites the octopus in one mouthful, and under Wu An's gaze, shows a personified smiling face.

Wu An taps Gui Ge on the head and says irritably, "Don't do that next time; it's too dangerous and can easily hurt you."

"If you want my help, just come to me directly."

Gui Ge eats the octopus, seems to understand Wu An's words, and nods vigorously.

After Gui Ge finishes eating, Wu An calls Wang Jingli, and together they throw Gui Ge back into the sea.

Wang Jingli compliments, "A An, I admire you."

"It's said that good deeds bring good rewards; by helping these Sea Turtles, you'll surely have good luck at sea."

Wu An smiles, "Then I'll take your auspicious words."

He chats a bit and gets busy.

Don't even mention it.

Cleaning the Sea Turtle's barnacles is quite stress‑relieving.

After more than half an hour of work, all the Sea Turtles are released back into the sea; the Luck Value is good, no turtle is injured.

Each Sea Turtle leaves with a small octopus or small squid in its mouth.

After the turtle‑shell SPA, when they leave they also get some small snacks; Wang Jingli, seeing this, praises Wu An's service as spot‑on.

Finally, A Qing and Mei Wu tally all the catch; they're just small miscellaneous fish, not valuable, totaling only a little over a hundred jin.

Although this trial voyage lost money, Wu An is still happy.

Lao Fu Tou sets the fishing boat in motion and returns.

The original plan was to go out a few more times, but after only the first net, the trawling net was torn a big hole by the gloomy wood.

The boat also lacks spare trawling nets and repair tools, so they have to return.

A Qing and the others feel a bit depressed.

Wu An says, "It's just a trial run."

"Anyway, we still have about a hundred‑plus jin of catch."

"Those who see get a share, ha."

"When we disembark, everyone takes four or five jin."

The Workers are pleased; the catch is worth a hundred‑plus yuan, and without spending money they can take it home and at least make a solid dish.

Wu An hands the question note written by Li Shu to Wang Jingli, glances at it, then leaves the Control Room to find a technician.

After Wang Jingli leaves, Lao Fu Tou tells Wu An to close the Gate, saying, "A An, I just lied."

"I guessed those two pieces of gloomy wood should be quite valuable."

"At that time I thought, with so many people like Wang Jingli on the boat, keeping those two pieces of gloomy wood would probably cause trouble."

Wu An is unsurprised.

"Why?"

Lao Fu Tou only suspected those two pieces of gloomy wood were valuable, maybe not dead wood, and he had already, through the trawling net tool, instantly zeroed the Luck Value, knowing those two pieces were pricey.

The reason for cooperating with Lao Fu Tou is also considering that keeping the gloomy wood would bring endless trouble.

This area belongs to near‑shore waters.

Gloomy wood, once salvaged, belongs to the state; individuals cannot claim it.

Unless it's secretly salvaged and has a reliable sales channel.

Otherwise, if we dredge it up and any step goes wrong, if it's serious we'll spend the rest of our lives just operating a sewing machine.

This is no joke.

Lao Fu Tou lowered his voice and said: "I've already recorded the coordinates where we discarded the sunk wood."

Wu An nodded: "You did well."

Lao Fu Tou asked: "Should we tell A Qing and the others about this?"

"They're all drooping their heads, listless, like they've lost a battle."

"If they knew this, they'd definitely be happy enough to jump for joy."

Setting aside the catch and sea turtles, the conservative estimate of the value of those two pieces of sunk wood already exceeds the income from any previous big-fish haul they've had at sea.

Actually, this trial voyage was a great success.

Lao Fu Tou couldn't help thinking: looking at how this first trial voyage went, in future sea operations they might not only get catches but also be able to salvage treasures from the sea.

Wu An shook his head and said: "Don't tell a third person about this."

Lao Fu Tou nodded.

Wu An currently has no particular plans for the sunk wood, unless he's urgently in need of money.

He is slightly worried.

It's not that he's worried about Lao Fu Tou; he's worried about himself—if A Qing finds out, he'll surely drag him along to salvage.

A few words of persuasion might sway him.

Lao Fu Tou saw Wu An idling bored and said: "On the way back we still have nearly three hours of sailing; idling is idling, so why not try some free-flow fishing?"

Wu An blinked: "We don't even have fishing gear."

Lao Fu Tou smiled faintly: "I brought it."

Wu An's face lit up: "Old Fu, as expected of you."

Lao Fu Tou said: "Although I know this trial voyage was very successful, I have to admit I'm not used to hauling in only a few hundred catties of catch."

Wu An nodded: "To be honest, I'm also a bit unhappy about it."

"Alright, since trawling won't work, let's try fishing."

Having said that,

He eagerly walked out of the Control Room, calling A Qing and Mei Wu to get the fishing gear.

Fu Yongning also received a fishing rod and asked: "Free-flow fishing?"

Wu An infused each person's fishing rod with Luck Boost, nearly depleting the Luck Value and also helping to raise its limit; bluntly put, those who took the rods are just tools, he said with a smile: "Yes."

"It's just a trial voyage, we're just playing around."

"So any catch we fish up belongs to the individual."

Upon hearing that, A Qing and the others all became excited.

"Brother, are you serious?"

"You're not joking?"

"We really took it to heart."

"Xiao Zhu, put in some effort, catch a few big ones, so you don't come home and get looked down on by your dad."

Fan Dali and Fan Xiao Zhu, the brothers, being the most pragmatic, had already secured good fishing spots; A Qing and Mei Wu also hurried to grab advantageous positions at the stern.

The catch previously hauled in by trawling was also put to use; Wu An distributed it to everyone as bait.

Fu Yongning looked around, puzzled as to why these youngsters were so excited; at this speed, free-flow fishing is about as useful as a hammer.

It'd be weird if we could actually catch any fish.