With that, Chu Mingcheng sent a photo of the tiger grouper on the scale to Sea King, adding with a touch of swagger, "Sea King, what do you think of this tiger grouper?"

Sea King must not have been busy, because he replied almost instantly.

"!!!∑(°Д°ノ)ノ Is that really a tiger grouper? Bro, you didn't Photoshop that, did you?"

No wonder he was surprised. A thirty-jin wild tiger grouper was a once-in-a-lifetime catch for most food vloggers, let alone one weighing forty jin.

The specimen he'd featured in a special video had only been thirteen jin—a mere guppy compared to this monster.

Seeing the Photoshop comment, Chu Mingcheng chuckled. Sea King had quite the imagination.

"Of course it's real. I was on the seabed catching swimming crabs when I stumbled across this guy. Ended up luring it out with bait and hauling it in."

Sea King still seemed skeptical, but didn't show it, replying instead, "Bro, a fish that size has me curious! Are you free for a video call? I'd love to see it."

"Of course." Chu Mingcheng agreed immediately.

They weren't too far from shore, so the signal was decent. The video call was slightly choppy, but manageable.

When Sea King saw a handsome guy appear on screen, his eyebrows shot up.

Chu Mingcheng didn't have a profile photo, and Jiang Yuqi hadn't mentioned his appearance, so Sea King had no idea what he looked like.

"I didn't expect you to be so handsome, Ah Cheng!"

"Haha, you're pretty handsome yourself, Sea King!" Seeing a potential major client, Chu Mingcheng returned the compliment, though it felt slightly forced.

"That's a given—I'm a certified handsome guy, hahaha..." Sea King was quite the narcissist. After exchanging pleasantries, the two quickly warmed up.

"Right, where's the fish? Let me see it."

"Right here!" Chu Mingcheng switched to his phone's rear camera.

The 120-liter fish box was exactly a meter long. The single fish occupied almost the entire space.

The oxygen pump was humming, and the fish looked healthy, its mouth opening and closing rhythmically as it breathed.

Using the cockpit door for scale, Sea King could gauge the fish's size at a glance and sucked in a sharp breath.

"Hiss~! A wild tiger grouper that massive exists?"

"Yeah, if I hadn't pulled it up myself, I wouldn't have believed it either." As Chu Mingcheng spoke, he panned the camera around to show the surrounding scenery, carefully avoiding Jiang Luoluo, who was busy securing rubber bands on the swimming crabs.

With that display, Sea King understood the fish had indeed just been caught from the sea.

The man was on a boat surrounded by the ocean, and the fish was real. What was left to doubt?

"Bro, I'm seriously tempted by this fish! What's your asking price?"

Chu Mingcheng had specifically filmed the fish for him, so Sea King naturally understood his intention. Having seen it firsthand, he didn't hesitate to discuss price.

"How about this, Sea King? If you have time, you could come to Xiamen, and we can go fishing and diving together, and collaborate on a video. If you do, I'll sell you this fish at market price, and you just cover shipping!"

How do you build a following?

Collaboration was the obvious win-win approach.

If Sea King came, he'd get content for a video and buy the fish at a fair price.

Chu Mingcheng, in turn, could leverage his popularity and exposure to build his initial fanbase.

"Oh, you're a content creator too?" Sea King asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I just started. I think people would enjoy videos of fishing and spearfishing. I can also build a customer base and sell my catch directly to them."

"That's brilliant. Collaboration sounds perfect. I just need to clear my schedule, then I can head over. Xiamen's close by, so it's convenient."

Sea King hadn't tried spearfishing before and was genuinely interested.

Even without Chu Mingcheng's invitation this time, he'd been planning to visit once they knew each other better, to maybe film an episode.

"Perfect, it's a deal then. This fish is forty-three jin and five liang. At the market rate of 255 per jin, that comes to just over eleven thousand. Let's call it eleven thousand even."

"Deal. When you get back to shore, send me the shipping cost too, and I'll transfer everything at once."

With the fish sold and collaboration arranged, the two chatted for several more minutes before hanging up.

"Doesn't it hurt? You lost out on several thousand, maybe even close to ten thousand," Jiang Luoluo teased after overhearing the entire conversation.

"This fish would probably sell for fifteen thousand at most. It's not over fifty jin, so the chances of finding a boss willing to pay twenty thousand are slim." Chu Mingcheng wasn't convinced that all fish buyers were fools.

Tiger groupers were valuable, but like any commodity, they needed a buyer to fetch a high price.

Otherwise, no matter how rare or expensive, what was the point if no one wanted it?

Chu Mingcheng had a solid grasp of the market. Eleven thousand wasn't pocket change—for someone working a factory job, that represented two months' wages!

It was only nine in the morning, still early, so Chu Mingcheng returned to the water to catch more swimming crabs, specifically targeting the large specimens.

Whenever he spotted a reef, he'd swim over to check for any fish he might have missed.

As it turned out, he found two three-jin black seabream and a five-jin green grouper.

The green grouper was caught with bait, as it was also hiding in a rock crevice.

The black seabream were speared directly with his fish spear—they were too wary to take bait.

It wasn't until ten-thirty that Chu Mingcheng finished his crab-catching expedition.

"Luoluo, take a break once you're done. I'll shower and then make lunch."

"Okay, go ahead!" Jiang Luoluo took the mesh bag and poured out the swimming crabs inside.

She'd been securing swimming crabs all morning—at least several dozen. Now she was incredibly efficient, stepping on a crab and having its claws bound with rubber bands in under ten seconds.

She tossed the skinny ones back into the water and secured all the plump specimens.

Jiang Luoluo brought over a plastic crate and electronic scale. Using one jin as the benchmark, she sorted the swimming crabs into two buckets.

Examining the crabs weighing over a jin, she discovered that in just three short hours that morning, Chu Mingcheng had caught twenty-seven jin of premium swimming crabs, plus just over sixteen jin of smaller ones.

The swimming crabs alone were worth nearly a thousand yuan. Now she truly understood his earning potential—it was indeed faster than hers.

Stretching, Jiang Luoluo returned to the cockpit. She'd just picked up the vegetables they'd bought that morning to wash them when Chu Mingcheng emerged from the bathroom.

"Ah Cheng, what are we having for lunch?"

"Let's have rice. I'll stir-fry a couple of dishes." Chu Mingcheng headed to the kitchen, and thinking of the swimming crabs from that morning, he added, "How about a few of the crabs we just caught?"

"Sure, how do you want to prepare them?" Jiang Luoluo hadn't realized it before, but after this time together, she'd discovered she was also a crab enthusiast. She felt like she could never tire of eating them.

"Braised. These swimming crabs were all buried in sand. If they're not cleaned properly, there'll be grit inside." As he spoke, something seemed to occur to him, and he quickly stepped out of the cockpit.

Seeing that Jiang Luoluo had placed the swimming crabs in buckets and sorted them, he slapped his forehead.

"I forgot to mention—these swimming crabs need to stay in the live well for a while to purge the sand."

"Swimming crabs have sand in them?" Jiang Luoluo looked baffled. She couldn't understand why a crab's stomach would contain sand—she'd never noticed it when eating them before.

"Yeah, swimming crabs like to bury themselves in sand and sometimes accidentally ingest some. They'll expel it in clean water. If you buy freshly caught swimming crabs, you have to soak them, or they'll be gritty when you eat them, which really ruins the taste."

While explaining, Chu Mingcheng poured both buckets of swimming crabs into the live well. He'd retrieve them when they returned to shore.

Jiang Luoluo's eyes sparkled as she watched him quietly.

A man who excelled in any field could easily attract the opposite sex.

She was discovering that Chu Mingcheng was born for the sea. His fishing, diving, and knowledge of marine life were all remarkably comprehensive.

Even if it was simply a profession of living by the sea, she believed that one day he would stand at the pinnacle of this field.

After lunch, the boat started up again, heading for more distant waters.

This time, Chu Mingcheng had no specific destination. He randomly selected coordinates and let the boat sail on autopilot.

He remained at the helm, occasionally observing the sea surface and the fish finder.

It wasn't until one in the afternoon that he was pleasantly surprised to discover a considerable number of large fish active near a signal tower.

Even without fish, he'd been planning to head to the nearest isolated island or reef. Going any further would leave insufficient fuel for the return trip.

"Luoluo, I'm going spearfishing. Want to try fishing from the boat? I'll set up the rod for you first, then teach you diving later."

"Sure, I haven't tried catching big fish yet!" Jiang Luoluo was eager to try, having already experienced the thrill of fishing.

The fish finder showed quite a few large fish in the area. Chu Mingcheng retrieved the size 80 rod for her, rigged it with Dyneema line, and secured it in the fishing rod holder.

"Later, just hook on a whole squid and cast it out. The fish here are quite large and will fight hard, so don't remove the rod from the holder. Just grip it with both hands, pull back, then reel in the line."

"It's fine if the line breaks or snaps, but whatever you do, don't take the rod out."

Chu Mingcheng repeatedly emphasized this point, worried that if Jiang Luoluo was lucky enough to hook something substantial, her small frame might not handle it.

Never mind an exceptionally large specimen—even a thirty-jin bonito could drag her around.

But Jiang Luoluo wasn't reckless. Seeing Chu Mingcheng's repeated warnings, she definitely wouldn't remove the rod.

With everything prepared, Chu Mingcheng changed into his gear and entered the water with his speargun.

He hadn't noticed before, but as soon as he submerged, he realized something was different. This location featured blue water, with visibility reaching fifteen meters.

This was both advantageous and problematic for him.

Fish also possessed vision. Some species were more cautious—if they spotted him from over ten meters away, they would definitely keep their distance.

Chu Mingcheng's accuracy at seven or eight meters wasn't perfect, let alone beyond ten meters.

He sensed that whether today's harvest would be successful would likely depend on his marksmanship.

He first activated his dive watch's dive mode, then pulled back the speargun's rubber bands to load it.

He initially scanned the area beneath the boat—no trace of fish.

Chu Mingcheng observed the current direction in the water and found it flowing toward his eleven o'clock position, so he swam in that direction.

The fish finder could detect fish nearby, but couldn't provide precise locations, as fish were constantly moving.

After swimming roughly a thousand meters on the surface, he discovered the current was strengthening.

He didn't even need to swim—the water carried him along.

He also spotted numerous small fish lingering in the area, and even schools of amberjack swimming back and forth.

Amberjack made excellent sashimi. If he couldn't sell it through his group chat, he could always offer it to a Japanese restaurant. It was a valuable species.

Unfortunately, these fish were somewhat small and lacked rich fat content. Even if he speared them, he wouldn't command high prices.

Fish, naturally, were tastier and more aromatic when they contained more fat.

When fishing, if you caught an unwanted fish or one too small, you'd still release it.

Freediving spearfishing operated similarly. Most practitioners of this extreme sport shared an unspoken understanding and basic hunting principles.

They only harvested the fish they needed, ensuring populations could continue reproducing.