Chapter 132: Chapter 126: This Glance Changed the Rest of My Life
As he collected swimming crabs, Chu Mingcheng had filled the net again and was about to swim up when he finally noticed a cave covered with seaweed, about ten meters away under a rock.
Because the distance was quite far and very blurry, it was only because of the light’s reflection, which formed a stark contrast outside and around the cave entrance, that the cave appeared like a gaping mouth; otherwise, he wouldn’t have discovered it.
From what he could tell, the cave’s diameter was almost one meter, making it an excellent hiding place.
Whenever one encounters such caves underwater, it’s a must to check them out, as there might be unexpected gains.
With average luck, there would be nothing to find.
With bad luck, one might get injured.
...
But with incredibly good luck… there would be a feast tomorrow.
Chu Mingcheng checked his diving time and found that it was almost up to five minutes. So he resurfaced to catch a breath and let Jiang Luoluo know he was okay, then he returned close to the cave.
He approached carefully, making as little noise as possible.
When he was about five meters away from the cave, a pair of small green eyes stared back at him…
Chu Mingcheng’s heart “thumped” and sped up. He didn’t disturb the creature but instead lowered his stance to lie on the sandy seabed and began to crawl backward.
There were no swimming crabs near the cave, so his crawling on the seabed didn’t cause much noise.
Only after retreating more than ten meters did Chu Mingcheng swim back to the surface and rushed to the boat.
He handed the net full of swimming crabs to Jiang Luoluo, then climbed up the ladder from the right side at the back of the boat.
With so many swimming crabs underwater, Jiang Luoluo thought he would go back to diving to catch more. Seeing him resurface, she was puzzled, “Ah Cheng, are you done fishing?”
“No, I found a surprise underwater, I need to prepare,” Chu Mingcheng said as he took off his fins and then walked barefoot to the fishing box to select the appropriate equipment.
Inside the cave, using a spear gun or a harpoon would be quite convenient, as it was usually a sure shot, but it wasn’t necessary.
A spear gun is mainly for shooting fish that are active in the water, which normally can’t be caught and thus have to be shot with a spear gun.
But the fish hidden in the cave are much easier to catch; if feasible, he would definitely not choose to kill it.
“A surprise?” Jiang Luoluo was initially confused, but when she saw Chu Mingcheng grabbing the Dali Ma Line and fish hooks, she understood and exclaimed excitedly, “Is it a big fish?”
“Of course, small fish aren’t worth all this preparation!” Chu Mingcheng nodded and laughed. He had his spear gun on his back; if the fish had been small, he would have just used the spear gun to stab it, regardless of whether it was alive.
“What kind of fish is it?”
“I couldn’t see clearly, but from the mouth, it looks like a grouper.”
“Wow, a big grouper, we definitely need to catch it.”
By now Jiang Luoluo was very excited. Then she noticed that Chu Mingcheng’s camera seemed a bit crooked, so she went forward to adjust it for him.
“We must catch this fish, and this shot must be perfect; it will surely attract a lot of attention when we post it.”
Staring at the girl close at hand, Chu Mingcheng suddenly felt fully motivated.
“Wait for my good news.”
“Okay!”
Unsure of the specific size of the fish, Chu Mingcheng, to be safe, cut a piece of size eight 8-braided Dali Ma Line, then tied it to the steel wire leader and fish hook.
For bait, he used a small squid that he had bought that morning, hanging it whole.
Going to sea with Jiang Luoluo, he wouldn’t buy sand worms, and moreover, squid was more attractive to big fish.
After getting ready, he went to the step, put on his fins again, and wrapped the fishing line around his hand, loop by loop.
Lastly, with the leader line, he left about ten meters of line and dived back into the water.
This time, he didn’t delay and directly found the cave.
From a distance, he first observed whether the fish was still inside, making sure it hadn’t been startled away by his earlier presence. Chu Mingcheng then circled around to come above the rock cave, about seven or eight meters high, where the fish hidden inside couldn’t spot him.
He lowered the squid, placing it three meters outside the cave entrance while simultaneously rotating his wrist to release the line and ascended higher.
The underwater visibility was about ten meters, so he needed to be a bit farther away, eventually stopping at about fifteen meters depth in the middle of the water layer.
With food delivered to its doorstep, a grouper’s brain wouldn’t be suspicious.
Indeed, as soon as Chu Mingcheng stopped, he spotted a vague shadow emerging from the cave.
As he watched the scene, the sound of the flowing water around his ears gradually decreased, replaced by the increasingly rapid beating of his heart.
The shadow was almost as long as the cave’s diameter, indicating it was nearly a meter in length.
Such a large grouper, even if it was the least valuable Dragon Gizzard Grouper, could sell for over two thousand yuan, weighing at least thirty kilograms.
Suddenly, a powerful force yanked Chu Mingcheng’s hand violently downward, pulling his body down a bit.
An immense force seemed to be dragging him away; the fish had taken the bait.
Chu Mingcheng quickly yanked the fishing line hard to ensure the hook was deeply embedded.
Then, gripping the fishing line with both hands, he began to kick his legs to try to pull the fish up a bit.
Almost a meter-long grouper, unharmed, would be difficult to pull up directly.
But since the fish was too close to the cave it was hiding in, failing to forcibly pull it away from the cave might cause the line to touch the rocks and break.
Thus, Chu Mingcheng could only forcefully pull it first, bringing the fish into an open water area before anything else.
The 8-braided Dali Ma Line had a tensile strength of around 36 kilograms. Under normal circumstances, combining the fish’s pulling force and the water resistance, as long as it didn’t exceed 36 kilograms, it could be caught.
Yet, in actual fishing, the roles of the fishing rod, reel, and the angler were significant; this kind of fishing line was intended for catching big fish, not for brute-force pulling.
Chu Mingcheng pulling a fish weighing over thirty kilograms directly like this was completely manageable for a while.
As he swam upstream and occasionally tugged on the fishing line, the fish, in pain, darted around wildly, slowly being pulled to the middle of the water.
Now, Chu Mingcheng could relax a bit.
He steadied himself in the water, letting the fish swim around him while he gradually reeled in the line.
Whenever the fish exerted force, he would slightly loosen the line to buffer it.
Finally, when the line was less than ten meters, Chu Mingcheng could clearly see the fish—it was an extremely precious tiger spot.
Tiger spot, also known as brown spotted grouper, was wild and alive fetching at least two hundred and fifty yuan per five taels, the larger, the more expensive.
This one was nearly a meter long, definitely weighing over thirty taels, maybe even close to forty taels.
Wild tiger spots grew slowly; this one might even be older than Chu Mingcheng.
On the boat, Jiang Luoluo anxiously clutched her camera, staring at the surface of the water, occasionally glancing at her watch.
Chu Mingcheng had been in the water for four minutes now, and she, unaware of the underwater situation, grew increasingly worried.
Just then, there was a disturbance on the surface, and Chu Mingcheng finally swam back up, even finding the time to wave at her.
Jiang Luoluo breathed a sigh of relief, her face breaking into a stunning smile as she shouted, “Did you catch the fish?”
Chu Mingcheng nodded and then gave a thumbs up.
Then he dove back in to continue reeling in; the fish was still seven or eight meters away, and he needed to keep pushing.
As for encountering any predatory creatures that might compete for the fish, that was unlikely.
This was near the shore where fish were scarce.
Neither dolphins, sharks, nor seals would appear because the limited fish could not sustain them.
If they stayed here, let alone the nets dropped by various fishing boats near the shore, just the scarcity of food could starve them to death.
Thus, diving in domestic coastal waters, except in some specific areas, one didn’t have to worry about encountering predatory sharks.
As the tiger spot was pulled closer, although it still had energy to struggle, once Chu Mingcheng clasped its gills, it essentially lost the ability to resist.
Jiang Luoluo could now see the fish, and, unexpectedly large, she quickly raised her camera to capture this scene.
Chu Mingcheng grabbed the fish by the gills and, with gentle kicks of his flippers, began swimming towards the boat.
Having flippers was definitely convenient at this time; without them, juggling the fish, he wouldn’t have been able to swim very fast.
Having caught a massive fish, both were very happy.
Chu Mingcheng swam to the side of the boat, and Jiang Luoluo brought over a huge scoop net; as she lifted, she embarrassingly found she could lift it, but not haul it up.
Normally, she could manage sixty pounds of water, but this fish, probably not even fifty pounds, was hard for her to pull up.
This was mainly because the forward-leaning position made it hard to exert force, and the boat’s side was a bit high, beyond her strength.
“Don’t rush, don’t rush; let’s try the back stairwell,” she said.
Chu Mingcheng also recognized a serious issue; without a winch on the boat, hauling big fish aboard in the future would be a problem!
Looks like after sailing back, he would need to inquire at the shipyard about getting a small crane or winch.
The deck had ample space; he planned not to rent but to own, keeping so many fishing spots wasn’t useful, better to have practical things.
Arriving at the back deck stairwell, with their combined effort, and the fish just fitting through the small doorway, they finally hauled it aboard.
“Phew…phew,” Jiang Luoluo panted heavily, sweating profusely from hauling the fish, being the main force while Chu Mingcheng, unable to exert much force in the water, could barely support the fish, helping her pull it aboard.
After catching her breath, she quickly went to the cockpit to fetch the scale and tape measure, “Ah Cheng, quickly measure it, see how big it is.”
“Alright!” Chu Mingcheng, equally curious, first measured the length of the fish, eighty-seven centimeters, almost reaching ninety.
Then he placed it on the newly bought large scale to weigh it, finding it weighed forty-three and a half taels, the largest wild tiger spot he knew of to date.
However, tiger spots can actually grow to one point two meters; this one was far from breaking the record.
It being found here, Chu Mingcheng guessed, might be due to the swimming crab population below.
With ample food, there was no need to venture into the more dangerous Far Sea.
But success and failure were both due to swimming crabs; the tiger spot couldn’t possibly have anticipated encountering Old Six diving to catch swimming crabs.
And with just one gaze exchanged, its fate was changed forever!
For convenience, Chu Mingcheng had purposefully cleared some crushed ice from a fish box and placed the fish inside, pouring seawater and oxygen over it.
Using a live fish tank would have worked too, but it was hard to extract the fish from there.
Jiang Luoluo, having captured enough footage, temporarily turned off the camera and asked, “Ah Cheng, how much could we sell this fish for?”
“I’m not too sure; wild and alive tiger spots can sell for two hundred and fifty yuan per five taels. This particular one might fetch even more, maybe three hundred or three hundred and fifty per five taels. There would be buyers,”
Chu Mingcheng shook his head, pondering whom to sell it to.
Selling to Seafood Restaurant or the big bosses in the group would definitely fetch a high price.
But he was considering selling to Brother Haiwang; though the actual price would be lower, only reaching the normal market rate.
The only benefit was drawing in popularity, taking the path of generating traffic to accumulate customers.
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Selling to the bosses would visibly increase his funds by a few thousand yuan; selling to Brother Haiwang might lose him a few thousand, and how much popularity it might draw was unclear, an unknown factor.
“Luoluo, do you think I should sell to the wealthy bosses, or to Brother Haiwang?”
Jiang Luoluo, understanding his intent, smiled and said, “Don’t you already have a preference? Why not ask Brother Haiwang first? He’s filmed tiger spots before; he might not even want it!”
Chu Mingcheng laughed at her response, “You’re right, I’ll send it to him to see first, and if he wants it, I’ll sell to him; if not, I’ll sell to Seafood Restaurant or customers in the group.”