Chapter 226: The Fisherman

"Eat what?"

An Sheng, just back from a stroll, plopped down on Yu Xueqing's lap—but the words she spoke next left him stunned.

"How about I figure out a way to sneak some Qi-grain serum from their Anquan Bureau? I feel your software needs an update."

Seeing Yu Xueqing's hand nearly shoving itself into his mouth, An Sheng couldn't help but complain, lifting his hind leg to brace against her arm.

The more An Sheng resisted, the more Yu Xueqing became convinced that little An truly couldn't refuse such generous hospitality.

Yu Xueqing glanced at Bai, who had followed little An back, and asked: "Did you two really not steal anything while you were out?"

"Wang?"

As Yu Xueqing spoke to Bai, a strange image suddenly flashed in her mind: herself and Fuli Brother entering the mountains, then spotting a dog gorging itself—its face beaming as it politely invited her and Fuli Brother to join the feast.

Bai's eyes widened in horror; he frantically shook his head at Yu Xueqing's question.

For the first time, Bai the dog was so terrified by the forced image intrusion into his mind that he froze solid.

"Good, good—no problem."

Yu Xueqing looked at little An and exhaled in relief, patting the fox's belly.

"But what did you two get up to? You reek of firecrackers and fireworks—so nasty."

As she stroked the returning fox, scratching its increasingly plump chin, Yu Xueqing asked with a cheerful grin.

"Ying ying."

An Sheng waved his paw, signaling that Yu Xueqing didn't need to worry about the fox—he was perfectly fine.

"Forget about us—did the fishermen catch any fish yet?"

An Sheng turned over, lying on Yu Xueqing's lap, watching the newly started afternoon livestream.

Inside the livestream, as free gifts and likes piled up, viewership surged rapidly.

Especially after the host returned, the chat exploded with questions asking if the host had eaten.

The double meaning made An Sheng's face turn black.

"Fish? No fish caught! Everyone in the stream came to watch fights. This morning alone, over twenty rods exploded—four Shimano, two with English-brand names, and over ten rods from some 'Tang' brand monsters."

Seeing little An ask about fish to eat, Yu Xueqing sighed and explained.

Today, the river made no sense at all.

Normally, the fish here just ate bait—but today, for some reason, they started eating carbon-fiber rods.

From 9: 0 a. ., right after An Sheng left, until noon, in less than five hours, over twenty rods exploded.

Though Yu Xueqing didn't know rod prices well, she guessed Shimano and those English-brand rods must've been expensive—when they blew, the fishermen immediately flew into a rage and jumped into the river to fight the fish.

In less than five hours.

Four major human-fish battles had already broken out, three ending in human defeat.

The only victory? A fitness-obsessed fisherman carried off a fifty-plus-pound black carp—on foot.

Literally walked.

He'd arrived in an SUV, but after hooking the fish, he hired a driver and carried the fish home himself.

Later fishermen claimed the victor went straight to the market.

He said nothing.

Just slung the giant black carp on his back, walking through the crowd like a lone, peerless swordmaster.

His SUV trailed behind him.

"Is this really happening?" An Sheng blurted, stunned.

"So your livestream's nearly thirty thousand real-time viewers—they didn't come to watch fishing. They came to watch rods explode and fishermen brawl with fish, right?"

"This is insane—people fighting fish?"

What happened on the Changle River would shake An Sheng for a whole year.

"Aaaah! My 13, 00-yuan DA!"

Before An Sheng could recover from the human-fish brawl, a thunderous explosion ripped from the riverbank—a carbon-fiber rod over six meters long shattered into dust.

The fisherman, stunned, his sun-baked face already dark, flushed crimson.

He lunged, leaping onto the stone railing and delivering a brutal elbow strike straight at the fish still bubbling on the water's surface after snapping his rod.

"Splash—"

A flood of virtual gifts flooded Yu Xueqing's livestream, viewers screaming for her to zoom in—they wanted to see blood flowing.

Yu Xueqing's content was so fresh, nearly all viewers had never seen anything like it.

"Ooooh!"

Seeing another man jump into the river, Yu Xueqing rushed her phone to the bank and shouted:

"Don't go too far! The village chief just said at lunch—he'll drain the whole river if someone gets hurt, and treat everyone to sour cabbage fish."

The village chief Yu Xueqing mentioned was Chen Zhi's father, the current strongest hunter of the Changping Mountain Chen clan.

"Pop pop pop—"

A goby over two meters long, weighing well over 130 jin, slammed the fisherman down with a dragon-leap maneuver, gulped down two mouthfuls of river water, then turned to Yu Xueqing and nodded gently.

They wouldn't hurt people.

Their grandmaster, Taigong, had ordered them to play with the fishermen here.

"Your mom!"

The fisherman, still red-faced and furious, had no time to strike again—when a hooked pole from the dock yanked him back onto land.

"Take a break! That's a bull-sized goby!"

The young man Chen Zhi had stationed at the dock grinned at the enraged fisherman:

"Relax—it's just a 13, 00-yuan DA. You're not alone; you've already blown two rods this morning."

"Wuuuuh…" The fisherman was crying.

Rods aren't disposable—fishermen buy expensive, high-quality ones for durability and resale value.

Even if you patch them after explosion, their resale value plummets to zero.

"Ying ying."

An Sheng, nestled in Yu Xueqing's arms, stared blankly at the human-fish battle, then at the livestream flooding with gifts and donations.

"Yu Xueqing—buy me two bottles of cola, and I'll help you summon more giant fish to humiliate these fishermen."

"Even if gifts are cheap, a dime or a penny is still love, right? Viewers love this—I'll go find two two-hundred-jin monsters to walk around for them!"

An Sheng wasn't sure if two-hundred-jin fish even existed in the river.

But if not, he could always ask the orca family for help.

If he remembered right, orcas could survive in freshwater for a while.

Then—

Let Yu Xueqing reel in a whale, and the livestream's spectacle would be beyond anything An Sheng could imagine.

(End of chapter)