That sentence again.
"The joy of fishing lies in waiting and adventure."
Yu Xunge ran her fingers over the words on the photograph. After looking at it for a while longer, she put it back.
For twenty-four hours, she wandered alone through the city at sunset.
She dug through old newspapers in the ruined storerooms of shops, gazed at Port City from a lighthouse out at sea, and read biographies of fishing enthusiasts in bookstores.
When time resumed, Yu Xunge was already standing at the final fishing spot—the place where Blue-Spotted Grouper had been seen 11,367 times.
She stood by the wooden bridge, Sunset and Tsunami in hand, with the setting sun directly before her.
A fishing enthusiast stood nearby as well—the Fishing Master who had recorded this fishing spot. He watched the sea, waiting for something.
Apprentices lingered on every wooden bridge, chatting in small groups. Like Yu Xunge, most of them still held fishing rods.
Maple Sugar had changed her bait formula over a hundred times. Frowning, she added a new mixture to her hook. She had heard this bait recipe had been passed down for centuries and was Blue-Spotted Grouper's favorite.
Fog Blade sat some distance away, a fishing rod in her hands as well.
This was the epic-grade fishing rod the owner of a tackle shop had finally allowed her to touch after she spent 200,000 fish bones there.
The most expensive fishing rod in all of Port City—she had only gotten to touch it two hours ago, and copied it the moment she did.
Fat Goose had already given up. With both hands behind his head, he lay in the middle of the wooden bridge. Orange-White had just stepped on him, and he still had not caught his breath.
He turned onto his side and