Tools

He did not know how it worked; he could simply sense, faintly, that there were fish in the sea.

For instance, two or three barracuda were circling near the hook right now.

A barracuda tentatively swallowed the shrimp, and the float trembled slightly.

"We've got a fish!" Hu Xingjin saw the float twitch and sprang to his feet excitedly. "God Lu, we've got one!"

Lu Ao gave a grunt and began slowly reeling in.

Chen Shengrong came over as well. "God Lu, need the landing net?"

"Yes." Lu Ao let out some line to ease the tension, then slowly guided the fish toward the boat.

The fish soon broke the surface.

Hu Xingjin leaned against the railing and shouted, "It's a barracuda!"

Barracuda, also called mullet, were not expensive where they lived. Wild mullet currently sold for only twenty or thirty yuan per jin.

The barracuda Lu Ao had caught was large, probably seven or eight jin. Earning over a hundred yuan from it was not bad.

Hu Xingjin was thrilled. "A victorious first catch!"

Lu Ao grunted and reminded him, "Watch its teeth."

"Got it, got it." Hu Xingjin quickly put on gloves, removed the hook, held the barracuda with both hands, and took a photo with it for the camera before sending it into the fish hold.

Lu Ao baited the hook with another shrimp and cast it out again.

Tian Mingzhi focused on filming him. He did not dare film Lu Ao's face, but he secretly took several shots of those slender fingers, as white as mutton-fat jade.

Lu Ao did not pay attention.

Less than five minutes after he cast his hook, it moved again.

Another barracuda, this one slightly larger and over ten jin.

Over the next two hours, Lu Ao's catches kept coming: barracuda, black seabream, white waxfish, Stonefish...

None of these were particularly valuable sea fish, but Lu Ao caught too many of them.

Hu Xingjin counted the fish in the hold and said gloomily to the camera, "Every time I watch God Lu fish, it looks ridiculously easy. In reality, I squatted here for two hours before catching this—"

As he spoke, he scooped a six- or seven-liang black seabream from the hold and held it up for the camera. "This black seabream is barely eight liang at most. Wild black seabream goes for around sixty or seventy yuan here now, so this one would sell for less than fifty."

"Old Chen had slightly better luck. He caught a red grouper and a black seabream, maybe three jin altogether. They could probably sell for around two hundred sixty or two hundred seventy."

"Now that you've seen what we caught, let's look at God Lu's—" Hu Xingjin lifted them out one by one, muttering as he counted. "Barracuda, three, at least twenty-five jin altogether. Black seabream, seven, twelve or thirteen jin altogether. White waxfish, two, around four jin. Stonefish, six, a little over one jin altogether. And now for the impressive one: God Lu also caught a stone grouper—"

Tian Mingzhi hurriedly gave the stone grouper Lu Ao had caught a close-up shot.

Hu Xingjin held the fish before his chest with both hands and continued, "Stone grouper, its scientific name seems to be the spotted snapper. It's also called yellow-winged snapper. Wild stone grouper is pretty rare these days, so it fetches a high price. It's hard to sell around here, but in New Luzhou, it should go for over eleven hundred yuan per jin."

"This stone grouper God Lu caught weighs at least four jin. An easy four thousand yuan in hand."

Chen Shengrong also moved in front of the camera, looking aggrieved. "Everyone can see it. The fish A-Xing and I caught look downright pitiful beside God Lu's. It's like they weren't even caught in the same place."

Hu Xingjin pretended to wipe away tears. "But that is not the case! The three of us were all on this fishing boat. Even if we cast in different directions at first, later on we put God Lu right in the middle. Our hooks were practically less than a meter apart!"

"But the fish just won't bite our hooks. They only bite God Lu's!"

Chen Shengrong spread his hands and sighed. "Can't be helped. I guess that's what it means to have bad luck."

Tools

Lu Ao went sea fishing with Tian Mingzhi and the others for about a week.

He took to sea fishing with remarkable ease.

During that time, he also tried net fishing with Tian Mingzhi and the others, and even went diving himself to spear fish. The results were all good.

During this period, he earned nearly two thousand yuan a day on average. Even after fuel, bait, taxes, and other expenses, his daily net profit was still five or six hundred yuan—enough to live on.

That Friday, after they finished fishing for the day, Lu Ao said to Tian Mingzhi and the others before they parted ways, "I won't be coming fishing next week."

"Huh?!" Hu Xingjin reacted strongly. He straightened up, his eyes wide as he looked at Lu Ao. "Don't! Why?"

"I'm going back to my hometown."

They had discussed Lu Ao's hometown before.

Lu Ao's hometown, Qianyong City, was by the sea. It was sparsely populated and rich in marine resources, and many sea-fishing enthusiasts went there every year to fish.

When it came purely to catching fish, it was indeed more convenient to return there.

Hu Xingjin was unwilling to accept it. "God Lu, can't you stay here? There are so many of us, and we can look out for each other. If you go back to your hometown, you'll be all alone. You won't even have anyone to talk to. How lonely would that be?"

Lu Ao shook his head. "I've made up my mind."

Lu Ao did not talk much and had always meant what he said. Once he said this, Hu Xingjin and the others knew there was no room for discussion.

Chen Shengrong patted his shoulder. "Going back is good too. The fishery resources are abundant, the cost of living is low, and the environment is better than here."

Lu Ao nodded. "Thanks for looking after me these past few days. I'll buy everyone drinks later."

That afternoon, after they returned from sea, Lu Ao specifically treated the three of them to food and drinks at a mid-range restaurant in the city.

Tian Mingzhi and the other two drank themselves into a stupor, deeply melancholy.

Ever since Lu Ao joined their boat crew, their lives had entered easy mode—sea fishing never came up empty, even their pond-draining videos caught big fish, their videos gained followers rapidly, and the platform even featured them on its homepage.

Just when their careers seemed ready to take off, the most important person was leaving. How could they not feel despondent?

Unfortunately, Lu Ao had never said he would join them, and he had already made up his mind, so they could not keep trying to persuade him.

After parting with Tian Mingzhi, Lu Ao was not in a good mood either.

That night, after returning home, he lay on the third-floor terrace and watched the stars until the middle of the night.

These past days, he had been avoiding it. He refused to turn back into a lizard, and whenever there was even the slightest sign of transformation, he did everything he could to stop it.