Seeing Chu Mingcheng arrive with breakfast, Zhang Ruomei was stunned. She couldn't believe that in the two short days she'd been away, her territory had been completely invaded!

When she heard he was now living next door, her feelings grew more complicated. It seemed their innocent little lamb was finally going to be claimed!

But she was just a photographer—a part-time one at that. It wasn't her place to get involved.

Chu Mingcheng handed the breakfast to Jiang Luoluo, took the car keys from her, and left without another word.

He had originally bought breakfast for two, planning to eat with her, but with Zhang Ruomei's unexpected arrival, he decided he'd just eat at a restaurant instead.

Today was November 10th, the seventeenth day of the lunar calendar. It was still a spring tide—perfect for fishing.

He went home, grabbed his float rod and lure rod, and brought his tackle box along.

His plan for the day was to scout the nearby area and find a few good fishing spots.

If he couldn't find anything suitable nearby, he'd have to head to the marina or the breakwater to fish for black seabream.

Chu Mingcheng drove around the area for a while and found that there weren't many great fishing spots. It was either sandy beaches or stretches of jagged reefs.

In that case, the breakwater was the better option. At least it would be easier to catch black seabream there.

Chu Mingcheng knew where the breakwater was—he had seen it on his way to buy the boat.

While Chu Mingcheng drove off to fish, Jiang Luoluo dragged a bewildered Zhang Ruomei out to buy groceries.

Now that the song was chosen, she needed to contact the singer's company to purchase the rights. Then she had to contact a costume supplier to have them design two or three suitable outfits.

But she never had to worry about any of that. Her only job was to choreograph the dance and film the video when the time came.

"Luoluo, you're buying groceries... you're not planning to cook, are you?"

Since graduating, Zhang Ruomei had been busy with work. Although she was married, it was always her mother-in-law who did the cooking.

Her mother-in-law lived on the floor below her, making it exceptionally convenient to pop over for meals.

For lunch, she usually just grabbed takeout at Jiang Luoluo's place.

But today, her boss was uncharacteristically buying groceries, which made Zhang Ruomei sense that something was up.

"Mm-hmm, the vegetables are fresh in the morning. I'm just buying some to have on hand." Jiang Luoluo didn't explicitly say that she planned on eating over at Chu Mingcheng's place often from now on.

But eating over was one thing—she couldn't just eat for free. Buying groceries was necessary.

The two went downstairs. Since Chu Mingcheng had taken Jiang Luoluo's car, she had to take Zhang Ruomei's to a nearby supermarket.

On the way, something occurred to Jiang Luoluo. "Mei-jie, do you know how to make Muscovy Duck and Earth Dragon Soup?"

Zhang Ruomei looked embarrassed. She was the type of woman whose hands never touched the kitchen sink, thank you very much!

"Well, you know, I'm pretty busy with work, so I don't really spend much time in the kitchen... Why do you ask? Are you planning to make it yourself?"

"I am! The price of wild earth dragons is too high right now. Who knows how much it would cost at a restaurant? I was thinking of learning how to make it myself and surprise my parents when I go home for the New Year."

Beautiful women are natural actresses. Jiang Luoluo's words were half-truth, half-lie, but Zhang Ruomei, despite her suspicious glances, couldn't find anything amiss.

"There are tutorials online, or you could practice with some cheaper ingredients first?"

Jiang Luoluo nodded, thinking it was a good suggestion.

So at the supermarket, she bought an ordinary duck—just half of one. She also substituted a common farmed sea eel for the earth dragon, which only cost a few dozen yuan per jin.

If she could make these ingredients taste good, then using top-tier ingredients would surely result in delicious soup.

After buying the groceries, she went home and started researching how to make the soup, even putting her choreography on the back burner.

Meanwhile, Chu Mingcheng had already bought sandworms and a shrimp brick for chum at the tackle shop, along with a 45-liter fish cooler.

The cooler came with four reusable ice packs and a dual-tube oxygen pump.

The ice packs needed to be filled with water and frozen, so they were unusable today, but the oxygen pump was ready to go, and the battery was full.

It was an external dual-tube pump, which the shop owner helped him install on the spot. It had a battery life of ten hours.

With this cooler, any fish he caught would be guaranteed to stay alive for at least ten hours.

However, the cooler wasn't cheap—it cost seven hundred yuan.

A 120-liter one would be twelve hundred, but he didn't need one that big for now.

Once he was out at sea, his boat had a live well, so he would only need to buy a few regular insulated coolers.

After buying his supplies, he arrived at the breakwater.

He parked his car, took his tackle and cooler, and saw that there were already two other anglers fishing on the breakwater.

He wasn't late at all—it was only eight-thirty in the morning.

The tide had come in at seven, so by eight-thirty, it was nearly at its calmest, and the fish wouldn't be biting as aggressively.

But as soon as Chu Mingcheng reached the shore, he noticed that the water seemed exceptionally clear today.

When fishing from the shore, two situations often led to getting skunked.

One was when the water was too clear. This was rare along the coast in China, but not unheard of.

Clear water holds no fish. In this situation, the fish become more wary and won't come out to feed easily.

Especially for intelligent fish like black seabream, there was no way they would venture near the shore in clear water.

So you needed to find a relatively murky spot to have a better chance of a catch.

The opposite was also true—you couldn't catch fish in water that was too murky.

Fish rely on their vision for about 20% of their activity. When the water is too murky, they become more alert and stay still.

Therefore, the most basic principle of sea fishing is: if the water is clear, find a murky spot; if the water is murky, find a clear spot.

The ideal water color is one with about a meter of visibility.

Chu Mingcheng walked along the breakwater, checked the catches of the two other anglers, and got a good sense of the situation.

The two anglers were probably beginners—their coolers were empty.

He took his gear back to the car and prepared to head to the reef area he had discovered earlier.

If the water was this clear everywhere today, he'd have no choice but to go shore diving to catch fish.

Clear water was perfect for spearfishing.

Fortunately, after checking a few places, he finally found a suitable fishing spot.

The water here was murkier than at the breakwater, perhaps due to the sandy bottom.

Chu Mingcheng took his float rod from the trunk, then carried his tackle box and fish cooler onto the reef.

He finally settled on a reef about five meters above the water level, then took his cooler to a lower spot nearby to get some water.

His target fish for the day were black seabream and yellowfin seabream. Both species fetched high prices and were easy to sell.

The shrimp brick had thawed a bit. Chu Mingcheng chummed the water first, then started setting up his rig, attaching a sinker to test the depth.

With the tide just coming in, the water was eight meters deep.

That meant the five to seven-and-a-half-meter depth was suitable for black seabream. He used a number 5 main line, a number 3 leader, and a size 3 Chinu hook.

He baited the hook with a sandworm, cast it into the water, and opened the bail. The weight of the sinker pulled the bait down quickly.

When the speed of the line coming off the reel slowed down in distinct stages, it meant the sinker had hit the bottom.

Chu Mingcheng closed the bail, then reeled in the line a bit to fish at a depth of seven and a half meters.

The shrimp brick had already attracted some fish.

After a short wait, he felt a tug on his rod, and the tip bent downward. A fish was on.

Chu Mingcheng lifted the rod, but it felt light. It must be a small fish.

He reeled it in, and a red rockfish emerged from the water. It was probably only three liang—no wonder it felt so light.

Chu Mingcheng's tackle box could also hold fish, but he usually used it as a stool, and it was full of other things, so he always brought a separate fish cooler.

He put the rockfish into the cooler filled with seawater.

The sandworm hadn't been eaten, so he could continue using it.

Just as he was about to continue fishing, he saw a man carrying a tackle box and fishing gear walking on the reef about ten meters to his left. It was an old man.

Chu Mingcheng watched him walk on the reef with trepidation, afraid he might slip and fall into the sea.

Fortunately, the old man was steady and found a flat spot.

The old man looked to be at least in his sixties or seventies. It was surprising that at his age, he still dared to venture onto the reefs. He must truly love fishing!

Chu Mingcheng turned his attention back to his fishing. This time, the bite came quickly again—less than a minute after he cast his line.

He quickly lifted the rod, but it felt weightless.

Unlike the rockfish, this time there was no weight at all.

He reeled in the line and saw that the sandworm was still on the hook. It seemed the movement on his rod had just been his imagination.

"Huh..."

Chu Mingcheng was confused about what was happening, so he cast the bait back into the water.

But the second time he felt a bite and reeled in, there was still no change.

Chu Mingcheng frowned, took out his phone to look it up, and then understood the situation.

There were fish at the bottom, but they were very cautious with their bites. They were probably just holding the bait in their mouths without actually swallowing it.

This kind of bite was characteristic of yellowfin seabream.

With that in mind, Chu Mingcheng cast his bait into the water for the third time.

This time, he waited a full three minutes before the rod moved.

Seeing this, he didn't immediately lift the rod. Instead, he opened the bail and let out a few meters of line.

The once-taut fishing line immediately went slack, forming an arc on the water's surface.

But the next moment, the line was pulled into the water bit by bit, and the slack line gradually tightened.

Chu Mingcheng didn't rush. If it was a yellowfin seabream, it would be very cautious, repeatedly taking the bait into its mouth and spitting it out.

So when fishing for yellowfin, you had to be steady and not rush.

As the line tightened, a sudden force was transmitted through the rod to Chu Mingcheng's hand. This time, it wasn't the light, fluttering feeling from before, but something similar to when he had caught black seabream.

He couldn't miss this opportunity. This time, he decisively lifted the rod and quickly reeled in the line.

Soon, a seabream appeared on the surface. Its yellow fins clearly identified it as a yellowfin.

The fish wasn't small—about a jin.

The fish struggled fiercely. Chu Mingcheng had lifted it partway, but seeing it struggle, he lowered it back to the water's surface. To be safe, he used his retractable landing net to scoop it up.

He had encountered this fish while diving before. It was very difficult to catch, and it seemed that fishing for it was also much harder than for other fish.

A one-jin yellowfin seabream was worth about a hundred yuan. Since there were yellowfin here, he would prioritize fishing for them.

But in reality, yellowfin seabream were much rarer than black seabream.

On his next cast, he caught a black seabream—about seven or eight liang.

Then another rockfish. By ten-thirty, after nearly two hours of fishing, he had only caught eight fish.

One yellowfin, three black seabream, and the rest were two or three-liang rockfish.

Shore fishing was indeed not very efficient. It would be difficult to make much money from it.

Worried that Jiang Luoluo would get too caught up in her choreography and miss lunch, Chu Mingcheng packed up his fishing rod, planning to go back and cook first, then come back to fish in the afternoon.

Back at his car, he went to the market to buy some groceries, spending sixty yuan, then drove home.

Carrying the groceries back to the complex, Chu Mingcheng first went to Jiang Luoluo's and knocked on the door, planning to remind them to come over for lunch. But when Zhang Ruomei opened the door, he was greeted by the aroma of meat and was taken aback.

"Are you guys making lunch?"

"Uh..." Zhang Ruomei hadn't looked through the peephole, so she hadn't noticed it was Chu Mingcheng at the door. Seeing the groceries in his hands, she didn't know what to say.

"Well, Luoluo said she wanted to learn how to make Muscovy Duck and Earth Dragon Soup to make for her parents when she goes home for the New Year, so she's practicing now!"

"Ah Cheng, you have so many groceries. Are you planning to make lunch?"

"Yeah, I was afraid you guys would get busy with work and order takeout again, so I was going to make extra. Remember to come over later."

Hearing that Chu Mingcheng was making lunch, Zhang Ruomei let out a heavy sigh of relief and quickly nodded in agreement.

She had been terrified while Jiang Luoluo was making the soup. As the person closest to her in Xiamen, wouldn't she be the first one to taste it?

Tasting it to give feedback would be fine, but she was afraid they wouldn't want to waste it and would have to eat the whole thing!