Chapter 178: Who is the Air Force?

Five o'clock in the afternoon.

Zhang Yanping strolled across a patch of lush green grass, casually plucking a reed sprout that had already aged and bloomed into fluffy white fuzz. On the small scale in his hand, the golden sight was already a bit blurry, with only the scale weight spinning around.

By the pond.

A group of grown men were still sitting steadily. Just looking at their expressions, everyone seemed satisfied and triumphant, as if they had a bountiful harvest.

Then, looking at the buckets by their feet...

Zhang Yanping sheepishly retracted his neck: well, sometimes, even if you want to praise them, you just can't.

Look at this man, he arrived in a BMW this morning, the fishing rod in his hand must be at least five figures, wearing sneakers and a windbreaker—which one wasn't a famous brand? Early this morning, he was even sharing what kind of hooks and bait he used, and how unique they were.

But the fish in this pond didn't care about that!

Look!

In this collapsible bucket, there were a total of three loaches, five bitterlings, and two wheat fish.

Anything else... they hadn't even caught a single small river shrimp.

Zhang Yanping stammered for a long time, finally able to say only awkwardly: "Big brother, your luck is a bit poor today..."

Looking at the second person, good heavens! This was the uncle who held a four-figure fishing rod and ended up catching a small crucian carp about ten centimeters long.

Besides that, he could only scrape together a handful of bitterlings and wheat fish—good heavens, if they kept fishing like this, the pond wouldn't be afraid of anything else, but the bitterlings and wheat fish would be fished clean!

Seventh Cousin was right, this kind of fish was indeed greedy and stupid!

He walked around the pond one by one, feeling like his calves were about to give out, but finally had to stand awkwardly back in place, then tucked the small scale he had been carrying back into his waistband.

The weight hung heavily, just like his heavy heart.

What was there to weigh? What was there to weigh? The biggest harvest here was only catching one grass carp.

And it was the kind that hadn't grown very big.

"That, what..."

Even someone as socially adept as him was at a loss for words, taking a long time to organize his language: "Everyone, it's five o'clock, you all know the rules of fishing here."

"Given that you are all newcomers and your luck hasn't been great, we won't weigh them today, let's just look with our eyes."

"Today's winner is the brother who caught the grass carp—congratulations, Uncle Grass Carp! You will receive a cup of our exclusive green tea! The kind that costs ten thousand yuan a jin. Shall we brew it in your thermos, or use our own glass cup?"

Uncle Grass Carp was overjoyed, letting out a hearty laugh: "Hahaha, see, I told you my technique was good, hahaha!"

Looking at the small harvest in the big bucket now, he felt it was exceptionally pleasing to the eye, as if he hadn't caught a worthless grass carp, but a bluefin tuna worth a thousand gold per gram.

As for the green tea prize, he wasn't very interested.

Instead, he rubbed his belly, secretly pondering: although the two bowls of rice at noon hadn't been digested yet, he wondered if he could buy another dinner? If possible, packing a few more portions to take back would be fine too...

Zhang Yanping, on the other hand, had regained his composure.

"Also—"

He scanned the area and looked at the brother beside him, feeling quite embarrassed:

"This brother, look at your harvest today, only three loaches... I'm sorry, look at which day is convenient, let's set a time for you to come here and pull weeds for a day."

The face of the loach brother beside him turned green.

He had been fishing for so many years, it wasn't like he hadn't been an "air force" (caught nothing) before, but never like this! Others just threw a cage in and almost dragged him into the pond, and he had good bait and good hooks, so how come he hadn't caught a single proper fish?

Just three loaches, could they even be a dish when he went back?

He held his breath, his face looking ugly, but they were all people with status on the Tieba forum, so he couldn't do something like reneging on a debt.

He just looked at Zhang Yanping angrily:

"Brother, I'll definitely do the work for you, I'll come tomorrow. But can you think of a way to find me a place to stay in the village? I'm signing up for fishing the day after tomorrow."

He didn't believe it, in such a large fish pond, there was still something he couldn't catch!

This time, it was a battle of dignity!

Zhang Yanping had underestimated the persistence of an old fisherman and was stunned by his words.

But who was he?

He was Zhang Yanping, whose address book was full of connections!

Having been in the village for so many days, there wasn't a single household he didn't know, so he patted his chest and agreed: "Good, straightforward!"

But he still had to say what needed to be said: "Loach brother, we provide three meals a day for your work, but for tonight's dinner and a place to stay, I have to find a place for you. If you're willing, just pay some money."

In the village, it was no problem to let someone stay for a night, but this was his own business (which hadn't been negotiated yet), so it wasn't worth owing a favor for this.

Besides, everyone in the village was elderly and had no daily income; if there was an opportunity to help them earn a little, Zhang Yanping wanted to strive for it.

A farmhouse stay cost several hundred a night, so asking for fifty yuan, no problem, right?

Who knew that as soon as he said this, the loach brother couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, actually revealing a smile: "You mean... is dinner still the same price? Then I'll order three portions first!"

Zhang Yanping's heart skipped a beat.

Good heavens, this was a case of "the drunkard's heart is not in the cup."

He was indeed planning to earn some money from the lunch boxes, but apart from fishing reservations, this door couldn't be opened easily. Otherwise, for those few pennies, Seventh Cousin would have to cook for several more people every day, which really wasn't worth it.

He hadn't forgotten that the main purpose of attracting this group of old fishermen was to get money out of them and sell more honey, tea, and so on.

So he waved his hands repeatedly: "No, no, we won't provide dinner. I'll find you a place to stay, and you can just eat with them for dinner."

On the side, he explained nicely: "Loach brother, you've seen it, we country folk do heavy labor, and we eat hearty dishes for lunch and dinner. Ribs, braised meat, and that swamp eel, crucian carp."

"I told you today that my vegetables are twenty yuan a jin, that's not a lie, I've been selling them at the market for a month or so."

"You say, with this cost, forty yuan a bowl of rice, we wouldn't even break even, we'd be losing money, so let's forget it, it's too expensive."

"It's not worth it for you to eat, and it's not worth it for us to subsidize. I'll find you an authentic farmhouse meal."

The more he said this, the more interested the loach brother became.

Like them, driving cars north and south, where hadn't they eaten farmhouse meals? They had tried every price point.

But those meals costing hundreds or thousands, didn't they taste just like that! Originally, they thought they were okay, but now, compared to this, it was simply heaven and earth!

Having already eaten the "Pan Tao Banquet," who would still want to eat those cold buns?

The loach brother solemnly held his hand: "Brother, I'll just follow your food, how much for a meal, you name a price!" ===== CHAPTER 179 =====