Fish Shop

He treaded water and kept swimming forward.

Before he found any fish, he first spotted a patch of sea urchins and conch shells.

Since he was already here, he did not waste the opportunity and casually picked up some conch shells, putting them into the basket on his back.

This stretch of sea might rarely have visitors; there were simply too many conch shells and the like. He picked them up casually and had already filled half a basket.

Looking at the countless remaining conch shells, Lu Ao reluctantly stopped. He had come here today to catch fish, so he had to leave room for them.

He continued swimming forward, firing several shots along the way and eventually catching a White Wax Fish.

After more than an hour out here, his keepnet still held more conch shells than fish.

Lu Ao treaded water as he swam toward waters farther offshore.

He caught several more fish one after another. It was neither a particularly large haul nor a small one.

Lu Ao suspected there were not many fish in this area and planned to change locations.

Just then, a swath of shadow suddenly flashed before his eyes.

Lu Ao looked closely and discovered that the shadow was actually a school of Giant Red Grouper. Judging by its size, there had to be at least forty or fifty fish!

Lu Ao's spirits soared!

He surfaced for a breath, then dived back down.

Silently, he closed in on the school of Giant Red Grouper.

At that moment, without realizing it himself, his eyes were no longer the dark brown common among Chinese people, but a deep green.

His presence withdrew in a strange way, like a fallen leaf drifting through the sea.

He came within three meters of the Red Snapper school, yet the fish did not notice him.

He raised his speargun.

He took aim.

Fire!

The steel spear on the speargun shot out violently, carrying tremendous force as it plunged into the school in the blink of an eye.

The steel spear passed directly through the body of one Giant Red Grouper. Its momentum undiminished, it immediately plunged into another Giant Red Grouper and pierced straight through it.

The school was suddenly startled. The fish turned and fled rapidly outward.

Lu Ao dragged the fish as he swam toward the surface.

Both Red Snapper weighed more than twenty jin by his estimate. They struggled with tremendous strength; an ordinary person might not have been able to hold them at all.

Lu Ao could barely keep them under control. Pulling the line, he led the fish upward.

The Giant Red Grouper struggled desperately in the water, but gradually drew closer to him in the end.

The steel spear had barbs. With their bodies pierced through, the fish had no way to escape.

At the surface, Lu Ao took a deep breath, straightened out the barbs, and slowly backed the spear out of the fishes' bodies before scooping them into the keepnet.

Even after entering the keepnet, the Red Snapper were not dead. They struggled in the net bag for a while.

By then, dawn had broken, and the crimson sun rose from the sea.

Lu Ao panted as he rested at the surface for quite a while, then dived down again.

The Red Snapper school did not range very far, and Lu Ao quickly found them again.

He aimed at his target and fired another spear.

He spent the entire morning competing with that school of Red Snapper.

By a little after nine in the morning, he had caught seven Giant Red Grouper.

It was not that he did not want to catch the rest. He was hungry again, so hungry it gnawed at him from the inside out. His limbs had gone weak, and his strength was basically exhausted. He truly could not lift the speargun anymore.

That was only because he had eaten a large amount of beef for breakfast. If he had eaten instant noodles as usual instead, his stamina would probably have been completely depleted within two hours.

Lu Ao carried the last fish he had caught ashore.

The Red Snapper he caught that morning were simply too heavy. Rather than keeping them in the fish basket the whole time, he had found a roughly one-meter-deep tidal pool on shore to store them in.

Once ashore,

Lu Ao took off his diving suit, calmed himself for a while, ate a small bag of chocolate, and drank a bottle of water.

Then he pulled out his phone from its hiding place and messaged Lin Dawu on WeChat to ask: Brother Da Wu, do you know where the largest seafood market near us is? I just caught several Giant Red Grouper and need to take them to sell.

Lin Dawu replied instantly: Several? If it is not much, you can sell them at a fish shop in town. If there is a lot, take them to Long Township Wharf.

-Seven. Together, they might weigh around a hundred jin.

Lin Dawu was shocked: Really?!

-You caught around a hundred jin of fish in one morning?!

-Yeah. They are all still alive, kept in a tidal pool.

-Photo JPG, photo JPG, photo JPG

After taking the photos, Lu Ao looked toward the tidal pool.

The seven Giant Red Grouper were packed tightly together in the pool. They were all still alive and quite lively.

Lin Dawu sucked in a sharp breath when he saw the photos.

Lin Dawu never imagined that this refined, handsome young man could be so fierce. He had caught so many fish as soon as he came back.

He sprang up from his chair in shock. "Wait there. I'll come over and take a look right now."

Lin Dawu's wife, Gui Yandan, was doing the accounts behind the counter. His sudden movement startled her, and she frowned. "What is it? Why are you jumping around like that?"

"It's that Lu Ao from yesterday. He just caught a whole bunch of Giant Red Grouper and is planning to take them to the fishmonger to sell."

"So what?"

"A whole bunch of Giant Red Grouper! Of course I have to go take a look. Ah, never mind, I won't explain it to you. I'm leaving first. Watch the shop."

As he spoke, Lin Dawu grabbed his motorcycle keys and ran out.

Gui Yandan leaned out and called after him, "You're leaving this early in the morning?! Come back early!"

Before she could finish the last sentence, Lin Dawu had already ridden off on his motorcycle and vanished from sight.

Fish Shop

Lin Dawu hurriedly drove his vehicle straight to Chongxin Village. Five minutes later, he arrived at Lu Family Village and called Lu Ao. "Lu Ao, where are you?"

"I'm still by the reefs outside the village." Lu Ao asked, "Are you here?"

"I'm here, at the big grain-drying yard in your Lu Family Village. Wait a moment, I'll come find you right away."

Lu Ao waited where he was, keeping an eye on the Giant Red Grouper at his feet.

The tide had already passed its highest point, and the terrain here was high as well. The water should not flood this place, so there was no need to worry.

Lin Dawu moved quickly. In just over five minutes, he reached the reef area.

From a distance, he saw Lu Ao sitting on the rocks. With a cigarette clenched between his fingers, he hurried over.