Cage stopped the boat and then activated a device at the bow. Jimmy had never been on a fishing boat before, so he didn't know what all this equipment was for.

"This is a fish attractor, basically a small electric trident. Just a little electrification, and the carp here will jump out of the water."

"Electrofishing? Is that legal? Electrofishing causes the mass death of small fish." Jimmy was a bit confused; Jimmy remembered that China strictly prohibited electrofishing in rivers, this was definitely illegal.

"Of course not, the electric trident has very small power, and we also have to use it in secluded, deserted areas, as long as no one sees, it's okay. Haha."

Cage prepared the equipment, then began to adjust his clothing. He had come out wearing a T-shirt and shorts, and now that he had stopped the boat, he began to put on protective gear—a ring of arm guards on his arms, a wide-brimmed sun hat replaced by a safety helmet that looked like a plastic narrow-brimmed sun hat because of an additional circle around it, and he also put on gloves, although they were three-finger gloves with the ring finger and little finger exposed, finally, he strapped on an apron. Once he was dressed in all this protective gear, Jimmy instantly thought it was a mistake to come shooting fish, as it seemed way too dangerous to require so much gear.

Jimmy hadn't prepared in advance; he only had an apron and a safety helmet, both provided by the boat.

Both men picked up their weapons, and Cage had Jimmy sit down first, waiting for the fish to start coming up before standing. Jimmy was a bit speechless; did these Americans have some misconceptions about carp? Were they here to shoot fish, or did they come to fight ancient monsters?

Once Jimmy was seated securely, Cage started the fish attractor. The electric trident, firing intermittently, directly stimulated all sorts of fish in the river, and dozens of large fish, each several tens of centimeters long, leapt out of the water. Cage turned off the attractor and had Jimmy stand up, but before Jimmy had time to get up, he was hit by a carp, the tail slapping his arm and nearly making him drop his crossbow.

Well, now Jimmy knew why Cage was wearing all that protective gear. The carp he remembered were only twenty to thirty centimeters long, didn't jump very high out of the water, but the school of fish here seemed to be composed of individuals all larger than fifty centimeters, jumping more than a meter high, and countless fish leaped directly into the fishing boat, bouncing on the deck.

In a moment, Jimmy had been attacked by two fish, one hitting his arm and the other his back, soaking quite a bit of his clothes with river water.

Cage fared slightly better, fully protected, although he also got hit, at least his inner clothes weren't splashed all over with river water.

Jimmy stood up, fixed the crossbow bolt, Cage faced the bow and sides, Jimmy only had the stern area to himself. For safety, their fields of fire didn't overlap, and they couldn't shoot in other directions, like up into the sky.

The school was simply too big, looking down at the water, it seemed like fish were everywhere. Jimmy aimed casually, pulled the trigger, and the crossbow bolt fired, He grabbed the rope at his feet and started to reel it in, a twisting carp already being dragged back.

Although the carp had been hit by a bolt, it didn't die immediately. Clearly over 50 cm in size, it was very strong; pulling it in the water was fine, but once Jimmy got it onto the boat, it immediately started thrashing at the bottom, the crossbow also moving wildly. Jimmy stepped on it, pulled out the bolt, and just left the fish at the bottom of the boat.

Jimmy looked over, and Cage was already retrieving his second one. For the 40-pound compound bow, passing an arrow through a fish was quite easy, and Cage seemed very practiced in retrieving the rope, pulling out arrows, and rinsing the arrowhead in the river—his motions were smooth and flowing.

Jimmy also rinsed his crossbow bolt in water, cleaning the blood off the arrowhead, then continued shooting at the school of fish, but this time, he missed.

Jimmy retracted the crossbow bolt, aimed again at the school, and another unlucky carp was hit. After several tries, Jimmy had basically mastered the shooting skills of the crossbow; to hit the visually perceived school of fish underwater, he needed to lead his shots. Directly using the crossbow to close in on a fish almost always resulted in a miss; without someone to teach, it really wasn't easy.

Jimmy glanced at his catch, 5 fish, then looked back at Cage, who already had more than a dozen at the bottom of the boat.

Cage had already put away his compound bow, beginning to remove his protective gear. The weather was still very hot, wearing all that gear was like being turned into a rice dumpling, standing under the sun, it didn't take long for Cage's face to turn red.

Jimmy also put away his crossbow, and the two started the fishing boat to find a suitable place to go ashore. Jimmy picked up his bag, which had a ground cloth and lunch inside.

Jimmy spread the ground cloth under a tree, took the lunch out of the backpack, along with two cans of beer. Lunch was sandwiches and wraps; for two rough guys, preparing those dainty foods was completely unnecessary, their usual lunches were just burgers from a food truck or pizza bought on the side of the road to eat in the police car.

"Cage, any word on my case yet?" Jimmy chatted casually as he ate.

"Don't worry, no problem. As long as the ADA doesn't mess things up, you'll be back soon." Cage was an experienced cop and had way more experience in handling cases than Jimmy.

"What's the deal with Kaya? At the inquiry, she seemed to be targeting me constantly."

"A little person blinded by greed, a lot of people are fed up with her. We don't have many cases on our side, but the LRPD has had plenty of trouble with her. She used to be an intern at some big law firm, and then she went to work as an assistant in the DA's office, spending years until she became the ADA."

"Is she a supporter of the anti-violence movement?"

"No, she's a Democrat, always looking to limit police powers. In cases of police brutality, if anything gets stuck, it's likely her doing. Now it's okay, there's someone in charge of her, but in the future, it's hard to say. There are rumors about the DA's office wanting to groom her for succession."

"Shit. Am I already on her blacklist then? What if she targets me in the future?"

"Let's take it one step at a time. We can't handle those high-up matters, we just have to follow along. If that situation really happens, we'll just be unlucky. Just do less and make fewer mistakes, that's all."

Neither of them felt like talking anymore, it was too distressing.

"By the way, Jimmy, you did that on purpose, right? Those two shots you fired at Johnny."

"What? What on purpose?"

"One in the chest, one in the neck, you could have settled it with one shot."

"That's what you think, I'm not admitting to anything."

"OK, I'll call you directly next time something happens."

"Hey, hey, I'm a cop, not an assassin, what do you mean 'call me'?"

"Didn't you know? The nickname 'Butcher Jimmy' has been making the rounds in all the departments."

"Who did that!? I'm not admitting it. I'm a good cop, I follow the rules, respect the elderly and love the young, why would I be called a butcher?"

"You should go find Kaya. That rumor started from her side. Killing six people in five months, impressive."

"SOB!"

===

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