Chapter 25 Canal Treasure and Fishing for a Giant

The afternoon sun spread evenly over the deep pool, shimmering with sparkling waves. Even so, the desolate waters still felt cold and eerie!

If it had been before—Bai Zimo would definitely have stayed far away, but now things were different. He took off his hat and shirt and plunged headfirst into the water.

He kept diving deeper. Underwater, it looked even darker and more mysterious. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal generally has an average depth of 4 to 5 meters. But some areas go far beyond that. For example, certain tributaries have deep pools that seem like bottomless pits. The deep pool in front of him was incredibly deep!

Bai Zimo felt he had already dived more than ten meters, but still hadn’t touched the bottom. Luckily, the strong sunlight meant he could still see clearly underwater, and visibility wasn’t a problem.

“Eh?”

Suddenly, he spotted a piece of wood. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be part of a boat!

“A sunken ship!”

There really was a sunken ship, though only the skeleton and a few planks remained. The thick underwater plants and mud gave the wreck perfect camouflage.

Bai Zimo surfaced for a quick rest, then dived back down again. Since he could find the sunken ship, it meant others could too. It was only a matter of time!

He needed to locate the valuables quickly—whatever they were—and grab them first.

“Damn, so much porcelain!”

“Jiaqing! Xuande! Xuanhe! Qing, Ming, Song dynasties—what a chaotic mix of eras!”

“Fits perfectly with the style of those traveling foreigners back then, collecting all sorts of beautiful ceramics.”

Digging further, besides all kinds of porcelain, he also found a few small bronze artifacts. Thankfully, he had his system space. Even though it was only one cubic meter, it was just enough to store these items.

_____

Jackpot!

If all these items turned out to be genuine, he wouldn’t have to work hard for years!

He kept diving up and down, spending several trips to haul all the porcelain out. There might have been things he missed, but he wasn’t a professional salvager, and he didn’t have equipment anyway.

“Phew!”

Sitting on the shore, Bai Zimo ate some snacks stored in the system space to replenish his strength. Then he cast out his fishing rod again. The treasure hunt had to remain secret. Later, he’d need to make up a cover story and find a place to test the market value. So today, even if he didn’t catch a single fish, he had to pretend he was fishing.

“Zimo! Zimo!”

He suddenly heard Da Huazi calling from a distance. Bai Zimo quietly let out a sigh of relief. Good thing he had finished diving. Otherwise, if Da Huazi and Ma Siyi had arrived while he was underwater, and not found him, it might have turned into a missing person incident, causing a huge mess.

“Da Huazi, Siyi—what are you guys doing here?”

“Weren’t we talking about making money? Why’d you come alone without calling us?”

Bai Zimo chuckled, “Alright, I’m fishing here. You guys wanna fish too or go hunt for snails?”

Children who lived by the canal were lucky.

Not only could they swim and play, but if they put in some effort, they could also earn some pocket money—catching loaches, grabbing eels, picking river snails, or fishing!

“If you’re not going, then we’re staying here! We’ll help you watch the fishing rod, and we get half of whatever you catch.”

“You’re kidding me! You’re even bargaining with my catch now?”

“Hey, if you don’t want help, don’t come crying to me when you need someone to wash your stinky socks.”

“Fine… but if we don’t catch anything, there’s nothing to split! Siyi, you watch the rod. If it moves, call me!”

After diving back and forth so many times, Bai Zimo was tired. He pulled his straw hat down over his face and laid down for a rest.

_____

“Zimo!”

Before long, Ma Siyi, who was watching the rod, shouted nervously and excitedly.

“Ah… Zimo! Help me!”

The fish yanked so hard that Ma Siyi almost got pulled into the river!

“It’s a big one!”

“A huge fish!”

Bai Zimo quickly got up and wrapped his arms around Ma Siyi to stabilize her.

[Ding! You have caught a giant fish today. System space increased by 10 cubic meters!].

Nice one, System!

Thank you, Mother Nature!

It was exactly what he needed!

His system space had already been stuffed to the brim. Expanding it by another 10 cubic meters would make things much more convenient in the future.

“Siyi, let go first. The fish is strong, I need to play it carefully.”

Luckily, Bai Zimo had real skills. Otherwise, handling a giant fish would’ve been tricky, and it was common for elementary schoolers to get dragged into the water by fish this big.

“I’ll get the landing net… Whoa, it’s a huge ‘firehead’!”

‘Firehead’ was another nickname for a giant snakehead fish. Snakeheads have long lifespans, and this one probably grew so big because the area was so desolate.

Da Huazi grabbed the net and, when he saw the fish underwater, started shouting at the top of his lungs.

“Waaah…”

Bai Zimo was speechless.

“Hey, Da Huazi, could you not scream right in my face?”

“Zimo, you think you can handle it?”

“Seriously, do you have to ask?”

“I’m gonna get backup! I saw Old Huang setting traps under the willow tree when we came.”

Before Bai Zimo could respond, Da Huazi had already taken off like a shot.