Are you exploiting a bug here?

The amusement faded from Tang Xiaolong's eyes, and his shrewd businessman's look returned.

"Since you won't part with them, Boss Chen, we brothers will just have to get what we want with our own hands."

He made no attempt to hide the probing intent behind his words.

Tang Xiaohu had long since run out of patience. He set his brand-new fishing gear on the Fishing Platform, bristling for battle.

"Why waste your breath on him, bro?"

"I'm hauling up the biggest one in there today! Let's see how much that hurts this boss!"

Chen Lin simply gestured for them to help themselves.

He leaned back in his lounge chair and closed his eyes, leaving them with a view of his utterly unruffled profile.

The brothers were indeed seasoned anglers. They mixed bait, adjusted their floats, and sounded the bottom in one fluid sequence.

But what happened next completely overturned everything they knew.

In less than three minutes, Tang Xiaolong's rod bent into an exaggerated arc, its line slicing through the air with a shrill whine!

Before he could cry out, an enormous force yanked Tang Xiaohu's rod beside him, bending it into a full curve that looked ready to snap!

A bite!

Another bite!

After that, they hooked fish almost the instant they cast, without a moment's respite.

The whine of taut fishing lines and the explosive splashes of fish breaking the surface rose one after another, weaving into a wild symphony.

Watching from behind them, the three women were both nervous and excited. Their screams and cheers nearly shook the entire pond.

Le Yao's alluring eyes, however, kept straying toward the young owner lounging in his chair, too lazy even to open his eyes.

This man really seemed to have everything under control.

The frenzied fishing continued until dusk.

Tang Xiaolong and Tang Xiaohu all but collapsed onto their fishing boxes, their arms so sore and swollen that they couldn't even light a cigarette.

Yet the sight of the big, lively fish flashing their scales inside the two enormous Keepnets left their faces flushed with exhilaration.

Chen Lin walked over and began tallying their catch.

"One hundred and thirty jin in total. Exactly."

Tang Xiaohu panted heavily but waved a hand without a care.

"Pocket change!"

He took out his phone and briskly scanned the payment code Chen Lin held out.

"Ding!"

A crisp electronic notification sounded.

"WeChat payment received: thirteen thousand yuan."

Including lunch, the group had spent fifteen thousand yuan in a single afternoon.

Before leaving, Tang Xiaolong took the initiative to add Chen Lin on WeChat, his manner much more sincere than before.

"Chen, my friend, I'm sold on this place. Let's keep in touch."

Tang Xiaohu came over too, thoroughly convinced after his defeat.

"Buddy, your fish put up one hell of a fight! Next time, I'm coming back for that big black one!"

Le Yao also walked over without hesitation, holding up her phone. She blinked her dewy, alluring eyes and flashed him a radiant smile.

"Young boss, let me add you on WeChat too, so I can book ahead next time I come for a meal."

Chen Lin agreed with a smile.

Only after watching the two luxury cars kick up dust and disappear at the village entrance did Chen Lin stroll back inside.

In the living room, Chen Guofu and Liu Shuqin were watching television.

"How'd it go? Those city kids didn't cause any trouble, did they?" Chen Guofu glanced at him and asked casually.

Chen Lin pulled out his phone and handed it straight over.

"Uncle, Auntie, take a look yourselves."

"We made fifteen thousand today, counting the food and fish."

The sound of the television abruptly stopped.

Liu Shuqin took the phone. At the sight of that long string of digits, her hands began to tremble.

She leaned closer and carefully counted the zeros.

Chen Guofu snatched the phone, his eyes bulging.

"Fifteen thousand?"

"In just one day?"

"From those lousy fish?"

He had spent most of his life bent over the fields, toiling all year round, and that was about all he could save.

Now his nephew had earned it in a single day.

The shock made the whole world feel unreal to him.

"This... this is just ridiculous..." Liu Shuqin murmured.

Chen Lin chuckled, a touch of smugness on his face.

"Uncle, Auntie, we're only getting started!"

"The good days are still ahead!"

In silence, Chen Guofu pulled a cigarette pack from his pocket, lit one, and took a deep drag.

Through the curling smoke, a complicated expression crossed his weather-beaten face.

Only after a long while did he utter a sentence.

"There sure are... a fucking lot of rich people."

The next morning, dawn had barely broken.

A low rumble of diesel engines suddenly came from the direction of the village entrance.

Two brand-new blue pickup trucks drove straight to the gates of the Farmhouse Courtyard, one behind the other.

The doors opened, and eight men piled out, all wearing Camouflage Training Uniforms, every one of them powerfully built.

They swiftly unloaded professional fishing boxes and tackle from the truck beds. They looked less like they had come to fish than to wage war.

The crew-cut man leading them walked to the courtyard gate and shouted at Chen Lin, who was brushing his teeth, "Boss, we're here to fish!"

Chen Lin spat out the foam, his gaze turning cold.

He took out his phone and sent Tang Xiaolong a WeChat message.

"Brother Tang, what's the meaning of this?"

Tang Xiaolong replied almost immediately, complete with an innocent-looking sticker.

"I have no idea! I only mentioned to a few friends that your fish taste great and are easy to catch. They went on their own. Nothing to do with me! Besides, Boss Chen, isn't business at your door a good thing?"

A good thing, my ass!

Are you exploiting a bug here?

Chen Lin sneered inwardly.

They're not here to fish. They're here to stock up!

If I let you keep this up, you'll strip my pond of every fish raised on spirit spring water in less than three days!

He didn't reply again, simply slipping his phone back into his pocket.

The eight burly men had already helped themselves to the eight best fishing spots, lining up and preparing to cast.

"Wait a moment."

Chen Lin walked over at an unhurried pace, his voice calm.

The crew-cut man turned and frowned. "Something wrong, boss?"

Chen Lin walked to the pond and took down the wooden sign that read, "Fishing: 100 yuan per jin."

In front of everyone, he found a fresh board and wrote two lines on it.

[Recreational fishing: 100 yuan per jin]

[Daily catch limit: 10 jin per person]

Once finished, he put the new wooden sign up in the same spot.

Only then did he dust off his hands, look at the eight burly men, and speak evenly.

"New rules. Read them before you fish."

The crew-cut man's face darkened instantly. He rose to his feet, his height of over six feet lending him an imposing presence.

"What's this supposed to mean, boss? We came all this way, and now you pull this on us?"

"Don't open a business if you can't handle the action!" another burly man chimed in.

Chen Lin swept his gaze over them and smiled.

"My pond, my rules."

"If you think you can't handle them, you can leave now. The gate's over there. I won't see you out."

"You!"

The crew-cut man flushed red, left speechless. He took out his phone, clearly calling Tang Xiaolong.

A moment later, he hung up and forced a stiff smile onto his face.

"Boss, how about this? We accept your rules, but that ten-jin limit... could you make an exception? We'll still pay a hundred per jin for everything we catch today. Surely that's fine?"

Chen Lin looked as though he had heard a joke.

"Do I look like I need your measly money?"

He pointed at the sign. His tone remained calm, but each word landed like a nail driven into the ground.

"Either follow the rules, catch ten jin each, and leave."

"Or get the hell out now."

The morning air instantly grew heavy.

The eight burly men exchanged looks, their faces shifting between anger and dismay. Tang Xiaolong had paid them to clean out the stock. They had thought it would be easy money, only to encounter someone who refused both persuasion and intimidation.

Finally, the crew-cut man gritted his teeth and squeezed out his answer.

"...We'll fish."

Only then did Chen Lin nod in satisfaction and return to his lounge chair to rest with his eyes closed.

He wanted Tang Xiaolong to understand that this wasn't a place where he could come and go however he pleased.

Much less his wholesale fish market!

Night lay deep, and moonlight flowed like water.

Chen Lin sat cross-legged in the courtyard, repeatedly cycling his breath according to the Taiyin Breathing Technique.

As the final circulation ended, he suddenly felt as though an invisible hand had reset and aligned every bone in his body, producing a faint grinding sound that set his teeth on edge!

A far denser, far greater power surged from deep within his limbs and bones!

I've broken through!

Chen Lin opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing through them.

He stood, walked over to a head-sized piece of bluestone in a corner of the courtyard, and took a deep breath, sinking his energy into his dantian.

Then he threw a perfectly ordinary-looking punch at the stone.

There was no earth-shattering crash.

Thud!

The muffled sound resembled a skilled butcher breaking an ox bone with a heavy hammer.

Chen Lin slowly withdrew his fist.

A fist imprint over an inch deep marked the hard bluestone, its edges smooth as glass, as though a precision mold had forcibly stamped it into the rock!

Yet the skin on his fist remained smooth and unblemished, without even a red mark.

"Master, you're amazing!"

"Master is the best!"

Clear Wind and Bright Moon had come over at some point, their sweet little-girl voices showering him with praise inside his head.

Feeling the power coursing through his body, Chen Lin found himself filled with unprecedented confidence.

Whether facing the gun of a ruthless criminal or the schemes of a businessman like Tang Xiaolong, everything ultimately came down to his own strength.

When you possessed the power to make rules and force others to follow them, every scheme and trick became powerless.

I have to grow stronger!

He returned to his room, lay down on the bed, and closed his eyes.

Today was another day when the Myriad Worlds Garbage Transfer Station would open.

In the small hours, all was silent.

Lying in bed, Chen Lin shuddered slightly as a familiar sensation of weightlessness and distortion enveloped his body.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already inside that strange, gray space.