Back in the garage, Chu Mingcheng parked the car, then brought his fish cooler, tackle box, and fishing rods up to his apartment. He gave th

Back in the garage, Chu Mingcheng parked the car, then brought his fish cooler, tackle box, and fishing rods up to his apartment.

He gave the fish cooler another rinse with fresh water and set it on the balcony to dry.

His fishing rods hadn't been maintained in a while, so he decided to take care of them before dinner.

After putting the rice on to cook, he warmed some water, soaked a soft cloth in it, wrung it out, and began gently wiping down the rods one by one. Once they were all clean, he let them air dry for about twenty minutes.

Next, he took out some car wax, applied it to a flannel cloth, and lightly polished each rod—a process known as waxing.

With that done, he placed the rods on the balcony, out of direct sunlight, to let them sit overnight. He'd bring them in first thing in the morning.

Chu Mingcheng's rods were on the expensive side and required regular maintenance.

If they were cheap hundred-yuan rods, there'd be no point. It would be much easier to just replace them when they wore out.

With the rods taken care of, Chu Mingcheng reheated the leftovers from lunch and sent a message to Jiang Luoluo, telling her to come over for dinner.

A short while later, she arrived.

Seeing she was alone, Chu Mingcheng asked, "Where's Zhang Ruomei?"

"Mei-jie always goes home for dinner. Don't worry about her." Jiang Luoluo, seeing the rice was ready, casually grabbed the bowls and chopsticks and started serving, as if she were in her own home.

"I see." Chu Mingcheng nodded, and the two of them sat down to eat.

"By the way, how was your catch today? Are you going out again tonight?"

"The sea conditions were good today. I sold the fish at the entrance of a scenic area and made almost two thousand. I'm not going out tonight—I'll keep studying instead."

Jiang Luoluo had never really known how much Chu Mingcheng earned. After all, the two times she'd visited him in Wenshi were for fun, and she'd never seen him sell his catch.

Now, hearing he could make two thousand in a single day, and seeing how casually he mentioned it, she was a bit surprised.

"Almost two thousand? You can make that much from fishing? And you said you learned spearfishing—if you did that, wouldn't you earn even more?"

"Whether it's fishing or spearfishing, it all depends on the sea conditions! But if I work hard, I think making an average of over fifty thousand a month won't be much of a problem."

In front of a woman he was interested in, Chu Mingcheng naturally had to show off his earning potential.

Hearing this, Jiang Luoluo immediately thought of all the advice she had given him when he was considering buying a boat, and she couldn't help but feel speechless.

If he was already making money this fast, why had he hesitated to buy a boat in the first place?

But she was still a little skeptical. Could he really make that much money consistently just from fishing and spearfishing?

She had worked hard for so many years, and it was only in the second half of this year that she had finally reached that level of income.

"I feel like fishing isn't that stable, and for spearfishing, you still have to find the fish, right? Can you really make that much?"

"It actually has a lot to do with pricing. I currently sell some of the more valuable fish to customers in a group chat, and today's catch was sold to tourists. Both were at market price, so the income is much higher."

"If I sold directly to a seafood shop or a fishmonger, I'd probably only make about a thousand today."

Chu Mingcheng sidestepped the question of stability. He had his Codex. Although the experience levels for his various aquatic species were still low, he had a guaranteed baseline.

Jiang Luoluo's face lit up with understanding. "So based on what you're saying, my suggestion for you to make videos, build a fanbase, and convert them into customers was the right move?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm planning to do."

"Then what are you waiting for? Let's eat quickly, and I'll continue helping you edit your videos. And you can't be idle either. Once the videos are edited, you should post them on a fixed schedule."

"You don't need to work on your choreography tonight?"

"It's fine. I can't be too active after eating anyway. Helping you edit videos is a good way to digest."

Chu Mingcheng looked at Jiang Luoluo, who had suddenly started eating faster, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But seeing her so motivated, he also picked up his pace.

After dinner and cleaning up, the two of them sat on the sofa together to edit videos.

Jiang Luoluo did the editing while Chu Mingcheng gave input from the side. After all, they were fishing videos, and he knew better what the highlights were.

An hour passed quickly. The two, engrossed in their work, were startled by the sudden ring of a text message. It was Chu Mingcheng's phone.

He took it out and saw it was a message from Jiang Yuqi.

"Ming-ge, the video of the Bin Diao snapper will be released next Tuesday at 4 p.m. Remember to watch it! Also, I had Brother Sea King add you—you should accept it."

Seeing the message, Chu Mingcheng slapped his thigh. He had been so busy since coming to Xiamen these past two days that he had completely forgotten about this important matter.

But what was this springy, smooth feeling on his palm?

"Feels good, doesn't it?"

A soft voice sounded in his ear. Chu Mingcheng shuddered, quickly removed his hand, and said with an apologetic smile, "Uh, I slapped the wrong spot."

Jiang Luoluo looked at her fair thigh, which was already starting to turn red, and rolled her eyes speechlessly, then scooted over a bit.

They had been sitting so close together without realizing it.

But to say Chu Mingcheng had done it unintentionally—she was a little skeptical. Under normal circumstances, how could you slap your own thigh and end up slapping someone else's?

"It's getting late. I'm going to work on my choreography. Do you want to come with me?"

"Sure!" Chu Mingcheng readily agreed. He followed Jiang Luoluo to her dance studio, sat down in a corner, chatted with Jiang Yuqi for a few messages, and added Brother Sea King.

As soon as he was added, a message from Brother Sea King came through.

"Hello."

Chu Mingcheng: "Hello, Brother Sea King. I'm a loyal fan of yours."

Brother Sea King: "A loyal fan? Did you do the one-click triple?"

Chu Mingcheng: "Of course. If I missed any, I'll stay up all night to catch up."

He knew who the food vlogger Jiang Yuqi was going to introduce him to when he was on the Sky High. He had watched a lot of his videos these past two nights and had some understanding of this Brother Sea King.

Most importantly, the place he lived wasn't very far from Xiamen—just two cities away, about one hundred and forty nautical miles.

With the speed of his boat, he could get there in seven hours at an economical cruising speed.

Did that mean it would be more convenient for him to buy ingredients in the future?

Brother Sea King: "Haha, I heard from Little Qi that you know how to spearfish. When I have time, I'll come find you, and you can take me to experience it!"

Chu Mingcheng: "No problem. I just bought a boat and I'm getting my license now. When you come over, Brother Sea King, I'll take you to a more distant spot to hunt big fish."

He had a spearfishing license, so taking someone with him was no problem.

At home resting, Brother Sea King saw this message and his eyebrows shot up. He immediately took this so-called fan more seriously.

He had a boat and knew how to spearfish. That meant he could easily obtain some marine creatures that were not available on the market, or exceptionally large fish.

He definitely had to maintain a good relationship with this kind of partner. After all, he had posted over five hundred videos and eaten at least four hundred different kinds of marine life. Finding suitable ingredients was becoming more and more difficult.

Chu Mingcheng chatted with Brother Sea King for a while longer before ending the conversation.

After all, they weren't familiar with each other yet. There would be plenty of opportunities to interact in the future.

Then he continued doing practice questions while Jiang Luoluo kept practicing her dance moves, redoing the ones she wasn't satisfied with and filming the ones she was.

For a time, the dance studio was exceptionally quiet, but also exceptionally harmonious and warm.

…

The next day, Chu Mingcheng came back from his morning run and went straight to Jiang Luoluo's place without bringing breakfast.

After making that Muscovy Duck and Earth Dragon Soup yesterday, the girl seemed to have unlocked her cooking talent and became interested in cooking.

Sure enough, when he was about to go to bed last night, Jiang Luoluo had specifically told him to come to her place for breakfast this morning—she would have it ready.

With a hint of curiosity, Chu Mingcheng went to the kitchen and found that her breakfast was almost ready.

"Oh, is this a thin pancake?"

"Mm-hmm, Xiamen thin pancake. You'll love it."

Jiang Luoluo had already prepared all the side dishes. She spread out a thin flour wrapper and placed bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, dried tofu, egg shreds, and shrimp on it.

Because she didn't have time to make braised pork, there was no sauce. So she had to add some salad dressing. Soon, a thin pancake was ready.

She placed the pancake on a plate, poured a glass of warm milk, and set it in front of Chu Mingcheng. "There, try it."

They were all blanched side dishes with some salad dressing. He knew what it would taste like just by looking at it.

Chu Mingcheng confidently picked up the pancake and took a bite. It was quite similar to old Beijing-style rolled pancake, just with a thinner wrapper.

"It's pretty good. Homemade is always more reassuring."

"That's good!" Getting his approval made Jiang Luoluo very happy. Knowing Chu Mingcheng's appetite, she made three more before sitting down to eat breakfast herself.

After breakfast, they each went about their own business.

Today was a mid-tide, and the weather was cloudy—a good day for fishing.

Chu Mingcheng drove off, planning to go back to yesterday's fishing spot. But on the empty road, he saw a strange combination.

A black sedan was pulling a very high-end looking boat behind it. He had never seen a boat like that before. Could it really be pulled on the road?

But the next moment, the car in front of him slowly slowed down and stopped by the side of the road.

Chu Mingcheng had been observing the boat, so his speed was also very slow. Then he saw the old man in the driver's seat wave at him.

He pulled over, got out of the car, and walked over. "Agong, what a coincidence. Are you taking your boat out to fish?"

"Yeah, I'm going to fish for big Mandarin fish today. Want to come?"

"Mandarin fish?"

Chu Mingcheng was surprised. Wild Mandarin fish were widely distributed. Except for the Tibetan Plateau, they could be found in any relatively clean body of water in the country.

Although the area around Wenshi was heavily polluted, there were still some places where you could catch Mandarin fish.

Unfortunately, he didn't know the exact locations, so he had never caught one.

The price of Mandarin fish was not cheap. Since the old man had invited him, he was naturally interested.

"Agong, you're taking me to fish for Mandarin fish?"

"That's right, there's a good spot. Are you coming?"

"Of course I'm coming!"

So Chu Mingcheng followed behind the old man's car and arrived at a beautiful lake with clear water and green mountains.

"You hold the rope later—don't let the boat run away."

"Got it!"

The old man started backing up the car, slowly putting the boat into the water. After it was in, he drove the car forward and parked the boat trailer on the side.

Chu Mingcheng had been holding the rope, but in reality, the boat barely moved after it was launched. It wouldn't have run away even if he hadn't been holding it.

When the old man came over, he asked, "Agong, what kind of boat is this? It looks so fancy."

"It's a lure boat. It's very convenient for fishing in reservoirs or big rivers."

So this was a lure boat. Chu Mingcheng made a mental note to look up the price online tonight. If it wasn't expensive, he'd get one too.

After all, there were still some valuable freshwater fish. If he could only fish from the shore without a boat, he wouldn't be able to catch the big ones.

The old man saw Chu Mingcheng bringing all his fishing gear and said, "Just bring your lure rod and tackle box. The line setup is 5+3. I'll give you the hook and bait."

"Got it!"