Chapter 142: Chapter 134: Such a Big Space for Just One Small Green Bean?
This place really is a treasure trove for diving and collecting seafood, but unfortunately, Chu Mingcheng has to start his journey back at four o’clock.
As the time was about to reach four, he caught another Ban Qin shrimp that was more than twenty centimeters long.
Now there were three, just one for each person.
Not only that, but the number of horse manure sea urchins had reached seven, and he had also caught two more Pipashrimps as well as two Green Lobsters hiding under the coral.
The seafood feast tonight was definitely going to be rich, the only pity was the absence of a big fish.
Chu Mingcheng had not paid attention to fish before because he had only searched a small area.
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Now that the other seafood was almost enough, he took out his fish spear and began to expand his search area.
A little while later, he found an East Starfish that weighed about a pound; Chu Mingcheng hesitated for a moment and then left it alone.
It was too small; such a fish wouldn’t even be enough for him alone—he would need at least a five-pound fish for the evening.
Later on, he searched again and found three horse manure sea urchins and five Big Scallops, but still no bigger fish.
It seemed that the water here was too shallow for big fish to like it.
Chu Mingcheng then returned to the boat, put everything he had caught into a fish box, and dove back into the water with his fish gun.
This time, he did not go anywhere else but fished right under the boat.
Earlier, the fish had been disturbed and left their hiding spots, making them hard to spear, but the fish gun could be used.
About an hour had now passed, and the big fish should have all come back.
As soon as Chu Mingcheng got into the water, he spotted a big fish casually swimming about.
It looked like it might be from the sea bream family, but the water was too murky; he could only see a vague shadow of the fish.
For fish gun hunting, it was enough just to see the shadow of the fish.
He locked onto the target, pressed the trigger, and with a bang, the fish arrow shot out, leaving behind a beautiful trajectory.
The fish was successfully hit, and it seemed the shot hit near its gills.
As the fish struggled, the surrounding seawater quickly darkened with the spreading blood.
With the speed of the bleeding, had he hit the artery of the fish?
The initial struggles were strong, indicating it was not a small fish.
But because the blood flowed too quickly, Chu Mingcheng had only pulled for a little while before the fish showed hardly any signs of struggling.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.
Seeing this, he swam to the surface and pulled the fish back only to find that it was a Blue Spot Snapper, and not a small one either, probably weighing seven or eight pounds.
Serving this to Chen Yang and Zhang Wei felt a bit wasteful!
Blue Spot Snapper was quite rare and priced over two hundred per pound, twice as much as Pepper Diao.
However, friendship is more important than money. Today, he had personally caught several thousand worth of seafood to treat them, so why skimp on this one fish?
Well, mainly because he himself was also craving it.
If he gets tired of eating it later, he will be content to sell it off.
Chu Mingcheng took out the three smaller Coconut Snails from the fish box and decided to sell these along with the fish he caught today, while he kept the rest in another fish box, supplying them with oxygen, ready to be taken home later.
By the time he reached the dock, it was already half past five in the afternoon.
Seeing that Zhang Wei was still not there, he made a phone call.
“Ah Wei, where are you guys?”
Zhang Wei quickly picked up the phone, “I’m already in Xia City with Ah Yang; it’ll take another half an hour to get to your place.”
“Okay, then I’ll wait for you at home. There’s a surprise tonight.”
If they would arrive in half an hour, that was just enough time for Chu Mingcheng to sell a fish.
Zhang Wei, hearing there was a surprise, immediately perked up, “What surprise?”
“You’ll find out soon.” The essence of a surprise lies in the unknown; once everyone knows what it is, it’s not a surprise.
After hanging up, Chu Mingcheng first scooped the fish out into another empty fish box and turned on the oxygen pump.
As for the seafood for tonight, he moved it into the cockpit, locked the door, and waited to fetch it later since it wouldn’t fit in the car.
Perhaps, he should prepare a van for next time, spacious enough to carry three fish boxes in the back without any issues.
Seeing as it turned out, the sedan Zhang Wei was driving over now seemed somewhat redundant.
However, Chu Yongxin had a car at home too, and his was just gathering dust at home, hence why he had asked Zhang Wei to drive over.
Generally, most times after returning, he would directly ship out goods via express delivery. Only the Seafood Restaurant often required him to deliver himself, so for now, he would just wait and see.
Upon arriving at the Seafood Restaurant, he began calculating the fish sales.
One Pepper Diao, seven pounds six ounces, one hundred twenty-one per pound, priced at nine hundred twelve.
Silver Bream was cheaper at fifty-one per pound, sold for one hundred fifteen.
Yellowfin Snapper sold for two hundred ten, True Sea Bream for five hundred thirty-two, Black Sea Bream for six hundred forty-two.
All the fish added up to just around two thousand four hundred.
There were also three Coconut Snails, each six or seven pounds, totaling twenty pounds seven ounces, priced at forty-one per pound, sold for eight hundred twenty-eight.
The fuel costs today were not high, only running for two and a half hours, just over one thousand six hundred, so he made a small profit.
After that, Chu Mingcheng returned to the dock, moved the fish box out of the cockpit, and drove home.
He arrived outside the complex but did not go in, instead waiting for Zhang Wei and the others to arrive.
About ten or so minutes later, two cars drove by, one of which he recognized as his own car.
Chu Mingcheng got out of the car and waved at them.
The cars parked on the roadside, the doors opened, and Zhang Wei and Chen Yang got out and approached him.
“My goodness, you’ve gotten a shade darker in just a month!”
“You look well, you must be doing fine eh?”
“How could I not be dark, being out at sea every day? Life’s definitely been good, far more freedom than working a regular job, without all those annoying troubles.”
The brothers had arrived, and Chu Mingcheng’s face was all smiles.
As for his skin tone, being out at sea daily was inevitable, but luckily he was originally quite fair, so he wasn’t much darker compared to others.
Then, he went to his car and saw Mimi’s family.
When Mimi saw him, she seemed a bit puzzled. She sniffed around him for a while before she confirmed that he was her owner, then she got a bit more affectionate.
The three little kittens couldn’t really walk yet, all of them crawled, curled up in the cat nest, fast asleep.
Chu Mingcheng petted Mimi, then closed the car door.
“Let’s go, let’s head to my place first. I’ll give the security a heads up to let you in.”
The residential area didn’t allow external vehicles to enter, but Chu Mingcheng was now regarded as an owner. As long as friends registered upon visiting, the area still allowed vehicles to enter, showing reasonable understanding and leniency.
He also took the opportunity to register his own car, so he wouldn’t need to drive Jiang Luoluo’s car anymore for future sea trips. He still needed to take the car for a wash in the next few days to eliminate the smell.
After parking in the underground garage, Chu Mingcheng opened the trunk and moved out the fish box.
He had already emptied it of seawater at the dock, so it weighed only a few dozen pounds, not too difficult to carry.
“What’s that?” Zhang Wei got out of the car and came over. Seeing it was a fish box, his eyes lit up instantly, “Did you catch these today? What’s inside, let me see!”
Chen Yang, coming over later, didn’t say a word but instead helped out.
“Let’s see what’s inside when we get home, let’s head up first!”
After Chu Mingcheng spoke, he had Zhang Wei carry the fish box into the elevator while he and Chen Yang moved the cat nest and cat food, then they took the elevator up to his apartment floor.
Entering the apartment, he instructed Zhang Wei to place the fish box in the kitchen, and first settled down Mimi and her family.
There wasn’t much to arrange, just placing the cat nest in its spot, bringing over a prepared basin, pouring in some cat litter by the toilet, and then he went to the kitchen.
Meanwhile, the other two were busy examining his new home.
After looking around, Zhang Wei entered the kitchen, “Ah Cheng, your place is nice, but there’s only one bedroom. It’s going to be a bit cramped for us to sleep tonight!”
Chen Yang, following behind, said in surprise, “That’s easy, we’ll make you a bed on the floor, or you can sleep on the sofa!”
Zhang Wei was not having it, “Come on, why me!”
“Because you curse out loud in your sleep at night!” Chen Yang replied with a sidelong glance, clearly a victim.
Chu Mingcheng nodded in agreement, having experienced it himself, “You’ve been shouting out in your sleep for so many nights; it’s probably because the resentments run deep, turning into shouting even in your dreams. No wonder you suddenly curse at night.”
“Chen Yang aside, even I have been startled by you once.”
After that, he exchanged glances with Chen Yang, and they decided on Zhang Wei’s bed place—the sofa.
He wasn’t even allowed to sleep on a bedroom floor mat.
Unable to resist, Zhang Wei turned his attention back to the fish box and opened it, but then he froze.
Curious, Chen Yang leaned forward to see the contents of the fish box, and immediately gasped in shock.
“You’ve got to be kidding, did you catch this yourself or did you buy it specifically?”
Chu Mingcheng, surprised, “Do you two have so much clout that I need to buy it specifically just to pretend?”
“Come on!” Chen Yang and a reactive Zhang Wei both flipped him off simultaneously.
Immediately after, they took out the coconut snail first, not because they weren’t interested in the other seafood but because the size of the coconut snail was truly shocking.
“I heard there are pearls in this thing!”
“Hurry up, let’s open it and see!”
They placed the coconut snail in the kitchen; the cutting board was completely covered, the snail was bigger than the board.
“How do we deal with this?” Chen Yang gestured, seemingly at a loss for how to begin.
Chu Mingcheng rolled up his sleeves, “I’ll reach in and see if there are any pearls.”
As he spoke, he reached his hand into the shell’s edge, but he didn’t feel any hard objects.
He was slightly disappointed, yet still hopeful.
“It’s hard to feel anything this way, I better cut off this outer layer of flesh!”
The other two agreed, “Right, it’d be a shame to damage such a huge shell.”
Then, Chu Mingcheng took a knife and cut the exposed flesh of the coconut snail.
It felt a bit hard, like cutting rubber.
The chunk of flesh he cut off weighed over ten pounds.
He cleaned out the intestines and cut it into four parts, regrettably not finding any pearls.
However, he saw some parasites, even within the flesh of the snail.
This meant the snail couldn’t be eaten raw; it had to be cooked thoroughly.
Then, he reached into the shell again, digging out several pounds of messy innards. Finally, after about ten minutes, he was able to dig out the tail end of the coconut snail.
It’s easier to remove the innards of a live coconut snail; the more it’s cooked, the harder it gets, especially for one this size.
He continued cutting, and the sharp-eyed Zhang Wei suddenly shouted, “There it is, I see orange!”
“Really?” Chu Mingcheng, skeptical, searched and eventually dug out a pearl the size of a small green bean.
“…” Seeing this, all three were speechless.
The bigger such pearls are, the more valuable they are; something so small had little economic value.
Chu Mingcheng felt frustrated. If he had known that there was only such a small pearl inside, he would have sold the snail right away. Wouldn’t it have been better to keep just six or seven pounds for cooking?
“Actually, it’s not bad, you could at least put it on a ring… pfft…” Zhang Wei tried to offer consolation but ended up laughing mid-sentence.
A green bean-sized pearl could indeed be used for jewelry, but making it into a ring would be quite the odd choice!
This was truly a situation where it was hard to discard but painful to keep.
In the end, Chu Mingcheng still took it upstairs and kept it, thinking that maybe in the future he could gather more small green beans to make a bracelet.
With the snail’s innards removed, there were still over ten pounds of flesh left.
The three of them couldn’t finish it in one go, especially with so much seafood.
Chu Mingcheng cut about a pound of it, and wrapped the rest to freeze in the fridge.
In a pot, he poured water and blanched the snail’s meat with several slices of ginger.
Then, he took out the rest of the seafood—pipashrimp, lobster, and sea urchins—and entrusted them to the other two for handling.
Chu Mingcheng himself dealt with the Blue Spot Snapper, slicing the fish.
Today’s seafood was highly anticipated, and Zhang Wei and Chen Yang were full of enthusiasm, not expecting to enjoy such a grand meal right upon arrival.