Chapter 570: Tiger Cub Is Coming

When the sixth net was hauled in, it was already half past ten at night.

The weather wasn't very good.

It was drizzling.

But it wasn't a big problem; just wearing a raincoat made work a bit inconvenient.

The catch from these few nets was average, mainly crabs.

Flower crabs, stone crabs, meat crabs, and hermit crabs are locally called sea monsters; they're still good to eat, and in the north they're called shrimp monsters.

In the past, they were so abundant no one bothered to pick them up; now the price is decent—about twenty to thirty yuan per jin.

The front half of a hermit crab resembles a small lobster, while the rear half looks strange, almost deformed, but it's actually the tastiest part.

Wu An quite liked eating them; he'd steam them straight in a pot, pull out the intestinal vein, and the whole belly was edible—one bite gave a rich, slightly bitter taste, like fatty, delicious viscera.

It was like eating crab roe, but with more volume, and it was incredibly satisfying to eat.

After sorting for a while, there weren't many hermit crabs—only a dozen or so—so there was no need to sell them; he tossed them into the fish basket to save for tomorrow's breakfast.

Crabs dominated the catch, making sorting laborious—not only did they need to be classified, some also had to be tied up; A Qing's fingers cramped, and he yelled in pain.

This truly was a case of "counting money until your hands cramp."

Wu An checked his Luck Value; after working ten hours, he'd consumed over a thousand points, and just the trawling alone had used up nearly eight hundred.

The rest was just the fishing boat and the tools everyone used.

Wu An called out, "Let's drop another net, then we'll rest."

When he spoke, nobody talked back.

Fu Yongning was convinced; before, he'd worked on Chen Lao Da's fishing boat in this sea area countless times, but he'd never had such a good haul.

If Chen Lao Da knew that Wu An, fresh to the area, had hauled in this much catch from his claimed "home turf," he'd probably be furious.

By 11:30, the seventh net was hauled in smoothly.

With the Luck Value boost, trawling basically wouldn't encounter major problems; snagging the bottom was unlikely, but the net could burst from too much catch.

"This net looks good."

"It's bulging—surely not bad."

"This trip might even earn more than the last one."

"Surely."

Everyone chatted cheerfully.

The last trip was three days out at sea, then they rested for several days, adding up to a week; if they could go out four times a month, even Fu Yongning and the Fan family brothers would make at least 100,000 a month!

After subtracting a few months for the fishing moratorium, their annual income would be several hundred thousand; if their Luck Value was good, they might even break into the million‑per‑year bracket!

Just thinking about it made their heads feel a bit light‑headed.

Back then, they wouldn't even dare dream of a shipworker earning a million a year.

Crazy?

Now they dare to imagine it, and it's not just random, baseless speculation.

The premise is good weather, allowing them to go out to sea steadily for a few more days.

Mei Wu went up to untie the net.

As the rope was pulled open, it was like a squid rain—more accurately, a black rain, because the trawling net sprayed out ink that fell on the deck, causing a sudden rush of black water.

Everyone froze.

"There are lots of rocket squid and airplane‑head squid, huh, and also some small tubes—quite a few; the octopuses aren't small either, I spotted several at a glance."

Late at night.

The lights gathered.

These mollusks piled up layer upon layer, looking like a twisted mound of meat.

Wu An thought, thank goodness the "Love‑Diving Squid" hasn't written "Best Friend's Master" yet; otherwise, seeing this mess, everyone would definitely feel grossed out.

It was exactly like the indescribable monster from the Cthulhu mythos.

Now nobody knows what "indescribable" means; seeing all these squid and cuttlefish, they all grinned from ear to ear.

"Let's get to work."

"Finish early, rest early."

Everyone squatted down to begin sorting.

Although everyone wore raincoats, they were basically useless—you still got wet, the night rain and wind were still cold, but the big guys kept working, moving constantly and sweating all over.

A Qing shouted excitedly, "Brother, there's a Qingyi (Blue-clad fish) (Blue-clad fish) fish!"

Wu An showed it to Fu Yongning, who nodded and said, "Not the parrot brother—it's definitely a Qingyi (Blue-clad fish) (Blue-clad fish)."

"Too bad it's dead."

"Otherwise it could be sold as an ornamental fish."

At that moment.

Mei Wu and Fan Dali also shouted, having spotted Qingyi (Blue-clad fish) (Blue-clad fish) fish as well.

Wu An was a little surprised: "So many Qingyi (Blue-clad fish) (Blue-clad fish)?"

Fu Yongning said, "These small‑tube squid and such are all in the Qingyi (Blue-clad fish) (Blue-clad fish)'s diet, but catching this many in one net is still… quite difficult."

He put it tactfully, never directly saying that Qingyi (Blue-clad fish) (Blue-clad fish) are solitary and usually don't school.

If that's the case, how should we explain catching so many Qingyi (Blue-clad fish) (Blue-clad fish) right now?

Since that normally doesn't happen, this is now a "second‑type" situation,

This net's catch isn't complicated; there really are a lot of Qingyi (Blue-clad fish) (Blue-clad fish), and Fu Yongning saw some in good condition, so he quickly sent them to the live‑fish hold.

After sorting the catch, Fu Yongning habitually reported: "The squid amount to about two and a half tons, and there are 42 Qingyi (Blue-clad fish) (Blue-clad fish) in total."

I think it's because a large gathering of squid attracted the Qingyi (Blue-clad fish) (Blue-clad fish) fish, which is why we managed to catch them all in one net.

Before, I never realized this little sea trench could have such a huge catch.

He finally couldn't help but sigh.

A Qing said smugly: "Before you followed Chen Lao Da; that guy isn't a good person, so Goddess Mazu wouldn't bless him, but my older brother is different."

"Goddess Mazu's most beloved child, do you understand?"

"He's here, that's why these catches have come along."

Fu Yongning smiled and nodded, indicating that made sense, then looked at Wu An, rubbing his hands and said: "A An, anyway nobody intends to sleep, how about we cast another net?"

Wu An shook his head: "The rain hasn't stopped, and with night work, the debuffs are practically maxed out."

"Let's rest."

"Before everyone goes to sleep later, each person will drink a cup of 999."

On the boat, catching a cold or fever would be quite troublesome; we've been working in the rain for so long, so we ought to prevent it, and we must prevent it.

Wu An returned to the resting quarters.

It was already 1:30 a. m.

The Luck Value has been refreshed.

Check.

That low?

Wu An didn't know why, but he secretly let out a sigh of relief; don't think that just because he'd been on the road half the day, and only started netting work at noon, actually it had kept everyone busy to no small degree.

If it's still this busy tomorrow, he really worries everyone won't be able to endure.

Why?

The catch on his net amounts to what ten people would sort and process, but their boat only has seven people at most, so the workload is far over the limit.

One or two days is fine, but if this overload continues, people definitely won't be able to take it.

Better yet, do it like this.

One day busy, one day leisurely, giving everyone time to recover.

Pretty good.

He figured the system is just like that, so it gave him only a little Luck Value.

Fu Yongning didn't say more, he led the people to clean and rinse the deck, finished, then went into the resting quarters, where various snores were already rising and falling.

He didn't sleep.

Instead, he brewed a cup of strong tea, went to let Lao Fu Tou take a rest.

Wu An and them stopped.

But the night sea was lively.

Various fish were eating each other nonstop, everywhere big fish ate small fish, small fish ate shrimp, while a killer whale, after receiving the dolphin's message, quietly left the whale pod.