Chapter 131: Chapter 125: Surprises All Under the Small Bump on the Seabed
Time had passed, five days since Jiang Luoluo last shot a video, which had been post-processed and released yesterday.
Compared to the live scene, the dance in the video was more coherent, transitions were stunning, and especially the snowfall special effect added to the middle part greatly enhanced the artistic conception of the dance, receiving exceptionally positive feedback.
Chu Mingcheng naturally liked, donated coins, and shared it, scrolling through a dozen praises below, which embarrassed Jiang Luoluo to the point that she stormed into his house, demanding he retract his sorcery.
In the end, he let her massage his shoulders as a trade-off and deleted a few overly flattering comments that were cringe-worthy to the point of toe-curling.
There was also good news: he finally got his boat driving license.
The exam was a piece of cake for him, practically effortless in practice.
...
Chu Mingcheng had moved all his fishing gear onto the boat, for convenience to use at any time.
Having obtained the license, he decided to set out to sea right away.
His customers had been tagging him in the group chat the previous two days, inquiring about high-end goods.
At that time, without a driving license, Chu Mingcheng could only stick to the shore or small lakes; there was no chance for high-end catch.
He hadn’t even come across any big fish recently, and his daily income had dropped to around one thousand yuan, which had him worried.
Fortunately, now that he had the license, he could search for quality fishing spots and catch some premium goods.
Jiang Luoluo had taken up commercial performances the past few days, and after finishing up, she had officially started to rest yesterday, which was perfect timing to invite her along.
He first called Wei Jiaguo, intending to invite him too, but learned that he was heading out to the Far Sea with friends and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow; he had just set off.
Since that was the case, Chu Mingcheng went to the market first to buy veggies for lunch, and then returned to the community to pick up Jiang Luoluo.
The weather today was great, clear skies all around. When they arrived at the pier, Chu Mingcheng was surprised to find that the water was exceptionally clear.
This condition was quite suitable for diving.
He specifically checked the sea water temperature for today; it was 23 degrees now and would reach 25 degrees by noon.
“Luoluo, it’s quite suitable for diving today, do you want to buy a diving suit and have some fun?” he asked.
Jiang Luoluo hesitated upon hearing this and asked, “Won’t it be cold?”
The weather this year was indeed peculiar, with the recent rain it seemed like it would gradually cool down, so they had started wearing light long sleeves, but now everyone was back to short sleeves again.
However, touching the seawater would still feel icy.
“It will be a bit, but it’s okay with a diving suit. Besides, you are bound to go diving for fun eventually, so it’s alright to buy the equipment in advance.”
“Okay, then I’ll listen to you,” she agreed.
Jiang Luoluo herself was also interested in diving, and hearing him say this, she let go of that bit of concern in her heart.
Afterward, the two found a large outdoor store where they chose a whole set of diving equipment, spending eight thousand yuan, with the diving suit alone costing four thousand.
Then, they headed to the digital city and each bought an underwater camera.
However, Chu Mingcheng’s was still a head-mounted type for convenience in shooting his future fishing and hunting videos.
Even after Jiang Luoluo became proficient at diving, she could even be a part-time underwater photographer for him when she was free.
With the equipment all purchased, they then had to consider how to store the fish and game they would catch.
Chu Mingcheng bought a large amount of crushed ice to store the fish they caught.
He didn’t forget to buy shrimp bricks and bait for fishing, as well as a pack of rubber bands.
Assuring that everything was ready, they finally boarded the boat and set off.
This time, setting out to sea felt different for Chu Mingcheng than before—it was the freedom of a bird set free.
With a license, he wasn’t just looking at the boat anymore, unable to sail; nor did he need to ask Wei Jiaguo for help.
From now on, he could set out to fish whenever he wanted, basically no need to worry about having little or no catch.
His career was finally becoming stable.
“Ah Cheng, where are we heading?”
As the boat sailed on the vast sea, Jiang Luoluo looked around at the uniform scenery and felt a bit lost.
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“To that spot where we fished at night before,” he replied.
“Huh, you know the way there?”
“I noted down the coordinates on the navigation. Just set the destination, and the boat will automatically make its way there,” he explained.
“The boat can navigate automatically? Isn’t it risky with unseen reefs or oncoming ships?” she asked.
“Yeah, automatic navigation for boats has been around since last century. The map on the navigation system accurately marks where reefs are, and when you set your destination, the system automatically avoids the reefs and picks the safest route,” he said.
“As for oncoming ships, that’s where you need to adjust your position yourself, which is why there has to be someone at the helm.”
Jiang Luoluo suddenly understood that this automatic navigation function was much less advanced than the type she envisioned that could autonomously avoid danger.
Only in the broad ocean could this technology be utilized, which also explains why car autonomous driving is still under development and hasn’t become widespread.
The solitary reef was actually not that far; in just half an hour, they had arrived.
Chu Mingcheng’s main purpose here was to catch swimming crabs.
The reason he didn’t use crab pots was that he didn’t plan to stay here too long.
If there were crabs he would catch them, otherwise, he would continue towards the Far Sea.
There was enough fuel in the tank for over five hours of sailing, plenty for his needs.
“Luoluo, you fish in the morning. I’ll dive to see if there are any swimming crabs to catch. If so, we’ll grab some. We’ll head even farther out at noon, by then it will be warmer and I’ll teach you how to dive,” he instructed.
“Mm-hm, got it, be safe,” she acknowledged.
Only then did Chu Mingcheng go to the bedroom to change clothes, and soon he came out fully geared up.
With Jiang Luoluo present, he could only don his equipment as a formality.
He didn’t forget the camera either; the crab-catching video still needed to be filmed.
He had already released five videos, three of which featured Mimi, and the remaining two were about fishing. He hadn’t had the chance to film the hunting and diving segments yet.
He had fifty-six followers for the time being, and definitely needed to work on drawing in more traffic. There was a dance influencer nearby, and although her content was completely different, a recommendation from her would surely have some impact.
Then there was Brother Haiwang who hadn’t been approached yet, and his support would be substantial.
But with so few videos available, it was not the right time.
After securing the float with a safety rope, Chu Mingcheng dived into the water.
Today’s visibility was around ten meters, meaning the water was quite clear.
If it were any clearer, it would reach the level of blue water.
Once underwater, he was able to observe the entire isolated reef and, as he had guessed, most of the area below was sandy.
The isolated reef that protruded above the water actually wasn’t very large, and there were no clusters of rocks underneath, only a sparse few.
No wonder there were so few fish before, but plenty of swimming crabs were caught instead.
Swimming crabs usually live in sandy soil about 10 to 30 meters under the water.
At the moment, this seemed to be a habitat for a group of swimming crabs. There you go, a swimming crab brazenly swam right before his eyes.
The way it scuttled backward reminded him of a song: “Let us row~ the oars~~ together~~~”
If it weren’t too small, Chu Mingcheng would’ve taught it the consequence of provoking him.
Steam, stir-fry, pan-fry, or sashimi, it could take its pick.
The depth here was around fifteen meters, not too deep, and the light was good. Chu Mingcheng dived straight to the seabed for a bit of underwater crab-catching.
Swimming crabs would bury in the sand, creating little mounds on the seabed.
He also didn’t need to worry about being pinched painfully by their claws, as they were less powerful than those of the Green Crab and he was wearing diving gloves, naturally without fear.
As soon as he reached the seabed, he saw several mounds dotting it, could there really be so many?
With limited time for breath-hold diving, Chu Mingcheng didn’t hesitate and put on a show.
He reached his hand into an oval mound and suddenly grasped the head and tail of a swimming crab.
Indeed, as expected, the pinching of the crab felt more like an itch.
Unfortunately, this one wasn’t very big, only about five or six taels.
He placed it into the net bag and continued on.
Reaching his hand toward another mound, the swimming crab inside darted out “whoosh,” with impressive speed.
Chu Mingcheng, catching sand-burying swimming crabs underwater for the first time, hadn’t expected it to bolt out suddenly, and his lack of experience allowed it to escape.
Fortunately, there were plenty here, so losing one wasn’t a big deal.
Being more cautious afterwards, the third crab didn’t get away and he successfully caught it.
It was hard to tell which were fatter underwater, so he put every crab he caught into the net bag.
In a blink of an eye, he had caught five. After two minutes, but most of the net bag was still empty.
After some thought, he decided to first swim up to the surface and back to the boat. He handed the net bag to Jiang Luoluo and, removing his snorkel, said, “Luoluo, there are a lot of swimming crabs down there. I’ll catch more. You sort through those I bring up and keep the fat ones, throw the skinny ones back into the water.”
Jiang Luoluo nodded and took the net bag, pouring the crabs into a bucket: “Okay, I got it. Just be careful yourself.”
“Sure. By the way, I might stay underwater a bit longer, don’t worry. I can hold my breath for over five minutes, which is why I could save that firefighter before.”
By saying this, Chu Mingcheng wanted to reassure her, and also allow himself to stay underwater longer without the hassle of constantly going up and down.
Jiang Luoluo frowned upon hearing this, suddenly doubting whether Chu Mingcheng’s earlier statement of being underwater for only two minutes was just to reassure her.
But in the end, she didn’t bring it up again, instead instructing, “Then it’s agreed, come up for air every five minutes. I’ll keep track of the time.”
“If you don’t surface, I’ll pull your float.”
“Okay, I have a dive watch. I’ll keep track of time.”
Chu Mingcheng re-entered the water, and because he stayed longer this time, he caught a total of nine crabs.
But since the net bag wasn’t full, he took another breath and dived down again.
As he went deeper, he noticed that the swimming crabs were getting larger.
With this new knowledge, he headed straight for the deepest area, which was a full thirty meters.
Most hunters wouldn’t choose to dive to such depths, only diving temporarily if they found big fish.
For Chu Mingcheng, however, depths within one hundred meters were probably all within a safe range.
The mounds here were all large, and as he grabbed a swimming crab, he felt more pinching pressure on his fingers.
These swimming crabs turned out to be at the jin level, a pleasant surprise indeed.
After filling the net bag, Chu Mingcheng returned to the boat, and Jiang Luoluo, after emptying the crabs, looked surprised: “Wow, such big crabs, even bigger than the ones we caught before.”
“Yeah, the deep water here has a lot of big crabs. Luoluo, take out that pack of rubber bands I bought, I’ll show you how to tie up their claws so they don’t bite each other while in close proximity.”
Chu Mingcheng stayed near the boat without leaving, as the pack of rubber bands he had prepared would now come into use.
“Okay, just a moment!”
Jiang Luoluo hurried back to the cabin, brought out the rubber bands, and also picked out a large, plump crab for him.
Tying the swimming crabs was simple. He just needed to press down on the claws and slip a small rubber band over the arm; the main point was how to hold down the claws, which Chu Mingcheng explained in detail.
But Jiang Luoluo’s hands were not as large as his, and she had trouble getting a grip on some of the bigger crabs.
One could step on the body of the crab to keep it stable and make the claws stand up, which made it very easy to tie.
Once she learned how to do it, Chu Mingcheng flipped back into the water to continue his crab-catching endeavor.
He returned to the spot where he had caught the large crabs. Each time he reached down to another mound, there was a reward waiting.
However, he didn’t notice that he was getting closer and closer to a large rock—underneath which was a big cave…