"These Spanish red prawns and langoustines... you must have spent a lot of money, right?" Jiang Luoluo said, placing the container of raw marinated seafood on the table.

Chu Mingcheng set the binoculars aside and smiled. "It was nothing. I sent you that picture before and made you hungry, didn't I? This is especially for you. You didn't get to eat well in Pengcheng, so how could I let you down now that you're back?"

"Haha, then I won't be polite about it. Oh, I was dying for this!" Jiang Luoluo immediately put on a pair of disposable gloves and picked up a Spanish red prawn from the container.

"I've heard Spanish red prawns are the most delicious shrimp in the world. I wonder if that's true."

"The shrimp flavor of a Spanish red prawn is ten times stronger than that of regular sea shrimp. Plus, these are imported from Spain, so they can't be bad."

"Really? Then I have to try it!"

Jiang Luoluo eagerly broke open the shrimp's head, revealing the pale yellow roe and tomalley inside.

After a moment's hesitation, she copied what she'd seen others do and took a slurp.

"How is it?" For those who enjoyed it, shrimp head was a delicacy; for others, it could be too fishy.

Of course, it also depended on the shrimp's freshness. The batch Chu Mingcheng had bought was a fresh arrival.

He had checked them carefully while thawing—they were perfectly fresh. He wouldn't dare use anything less than fresh for a raw marinade; he wasn't looking for food poisoning.

Jiang Luoluo frowned at first, clearly a little unaccustomed to the tomalley, but her expression quickly smoothed out. "Not bad. The shrimp flavor really is intense, it's just a little unusual for a first-timer."

She then peeled the shell, tasted the meat, and after swallowing, exclaimed in admiration, "The meat is still the best part, though. It's so tender, fresh, and sweet. You have to try it."

Chu Mingcheng couldn't wait any longer either and picked up a Spanish red shrimp.

Tasting the tomalley, he found it a bit strange—mainly a little fishy, but acceptably so. There was also the rich aroma of the roe, with a distinctive aftertaste.

The meat, needless to say, was exquisite.

But after eating a langoustine, he instantly realized the flash-frozen Spanish red prawn was no match.

The fresh langoustine meat was springy and crisp, not to mention incredibly fresh and sweet.

No wonder the price was over a hundred yuan higher than the Spanish red prawns. There was simply no comparison between frozen and live.

Even the harlequin mantis shrimp wasn't much inferior to the Spanish red prawn. It was just that Jiang Luoluo had eaten mantis shrimp before and couldn't tell the difference between it and the harlequin variety.

The humphead wrasse... everyone who tried it loved it.

Good food really does lift one's spirits.

...

The next morning, Chu Mingcheng woke up, pulled open the curtains, and found it was raining.

Yesterday had been bright and sunny, and today it was raining. The weather in coastal cities was truly unpredictable.

Just then, he saw a text from An Xiuwen, telling him a cold front had arrived and to be sure to stay warm.

In reality, he didn't feel cold. He checked the weather forecast for Xiamen and saw that the average temperature for the next ten days would be between 15 and 22 degrees Celsius, with little variation.

The only trouble was that there wouldn't be many sunny days—it would be either cloudy or light rain.

Then he checked the weather in Wenshi and realized it had indeed gotten cold there. The temperature, which had been in the twenties, had suddenly dropped to around ten degrees.

So Chu Mingcheng transferred ten thousand yuan to An Xiuwen, telling her to buy some warm clothes for herself and a set for Chu Yongxin as well.

Perhaps because it was such a significant amount, An Xiuwen called him immediately.

"Son, why did you send so much money? Do you have enough for yourself?"

"I have plenty. I've made quite a bit from my sea trips these past few days. I should be able to pay you back what I owe you soon."

"That's good. We'll just consider this ten thousand a gift from you to your father and me. We won't deduct it from what you borrowed!"

Xiuwen's words left Chu Mingcheng not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "It was meant for you to buy clothes. It's gotten cold in Wenshi, so make sure you don't catch a cold. It's still warm here; it'll probably be a while before the temperature drops."

"Mm, by the way, the fish you brought was excellent, especially that Dou Chang pomfret. It was delicious. But don't bring any more next time. Your dad said the fish you brought was worth several thousand yuan. How could you be so extravagant?"

"Of course I'm willing to spend it on you."

"You always know what to say. Alright, I won't keep you. I'm going to ask your Auntie Le to go shopping with me."

"Okay."

After hanging up, Chu Mingcheng put his phone away and looked out the window, his mind turning to the temperature drop in Wenshi. He wondered if some migratory fish would start heading south.

The current temperature in Xiamen was comfortable, so the fish would still be very active.

Maybe he should ask Wei Jianguo. With a boat and a passion for fishing, he would likely know about these things.

"Hello, Agong, how did that humphead wrasse taste?"

Hearing Chu Mingcheng's teasing tone and looking at the humphead wrasse in his fish tank, Wei Jianguo was more than a little speechless.

He wasn't an idiot. After buying a fish like this, was he really going to eat it? He'd probably keep it until it died of old age.

"What do you want? Just say it."

"Ahem..." Seeing that his teasing had failed, Chu Mingcheng got down to business. "I noticed the temperature dropped in Wenshi today, so I was wondering if some migratory fish might be heading this way."

"So I called to ask you, Agong, if you know about any fish runs."

"It's gotten cold there?" Wei Jianguo hadn't noticed. Fishing was just a hobby for him, not his livelihood. "Hold on, let me ask a few friends."

Under normal circumstances, what Chu Mingcheng described was likely to happen.

For example, after a temperature drop, sea bass would swim to deeper waters or head south, returning north after winter.

Also, around January, the mullet in the Taiwan Strait were famous. They were all large and fat-bellied, full of roe.

The so-called "mullet" of Taiwan was actually a type of grey mullet. In winter, fishermen would catch them, kill them on the spot, and extract the roe.

After light processing, the mullet roe could sell for eight hundred to a thousand yuan per jin.

The male fish's swim bladder was also valuable. You could say the most precious parts of this fish were its innards.

The meat itself wasn't worth much—only a few yuan per jin.

Now that the Taiwan Strait was open, Chu Mingcheng could fly the national flag and roam freely. He definitely wouldn't miss out on these mullet.

A short while later, Wei Jianguo called back and told him what he had learned.

The sea bass had already started their southern migration, and indeed, many anglers and fishermen had gone out to sea to make their fortunes.

It wasn't just sea bass; many other migratory fish were also heading toward the Taiwan Strait, but since the temperature had only just dropped, the exact situation was still uncertain.

After explaining, Wei Jianguo also gave him a few proven migration routes.

With the routes, as long as Chu Mingcheng went out to sea consistently over the next few days, he was sure to have a good harvest.

Even though it was raining today, he still planned to go out to sea.

He packed up his fishing and diving gear to take to the boat later, then went to Jiang Luoluo's apartment.

They now knew each other's door codes, so they could come and go as they pleased.

The difference was that Chu Mingcheng didn't lock his bedroom door from the inside, while Jiang Luoluo always did, to prevent anyone from sneaking in during the night and taking advantage of her.

When he arrived at her place, she was already up and making breakfast.

Jiang Luoluo noticed him and said, "Ah Cheng, just wait a moment. I'm almost done here."

"No rush. By the way, Luoluo, are you busy today? Want to come out to sea with me?"

"You're going out to sea even though it's raining?"

"Yeah, the rain isn't too heavy. It's gotten cold in Wenshi, so I got some migration routes from Agong. I'm going to try my luck for the next few days."

"Alright then. I just got back from Pengcheng and was planning to rest for a couple of days, so I'll go out to sea with you for fun!"

After breakfast, the two of them left with their gear, taking Chu Mingcheng's car.

Shrimp bricks and crushed ice were essential purchases. He still had some squid meat left over from before—he had mostly been spearfishing those past few days, so he hadn't used it all.

They bought some more groceries for lunch and then headed to the pier.

As usual, they filled up on water and fuel. The boats at the pier certainly brought a lot of business to the nearby gas stations each year.

The routes Wei Jianguo had given him were all in the northern part of the strait, so Chu Mingcheng chose the closest one to check out first.

The binoculars Jiang Luoluo had bought him came in handy. There were many boats out today, and he could use them to follow the others, making it easier to find a fishing spot.

The journey was quite long this time. After a full three hours, he finally spotted a flock of seabirds and some fishing boats bobbing on the waves.

Last time when he was fishing for filefish, there had been only about twenty boats. Today's scene was much more spectacular, with at least fifty.

And he could see the fishing was excellent—some people were pulling in fish one after another.

Through the binoculars, he could see the fish being pulled up.

It wasn't the sea bass he had expected, but golden pomfret with their distinctive golden fins.

Most of them looked to be between half a jin and a jin, and occasionally he would see an excited angler pull up a golden pomfret that looked to be five or six jin.

Chu Mingcheng had a good sense of the situation.

The same rig used for filefish would work for golden pomfret. If he hooked a big one, he could easily handle it.

"Ah Cheng, what kind of fish are there today?" Jiang Luoluo, already in her raincoat, came out of the cockpit and asked.

Without binoculars, and with the boat not being very close, it was hard to see what others were catching in the dim light.

"Here, take the binoculars." Chu Mingcheng didn't answer directly, but handed them to her instead.

"Oh wow, are those golden pomfret?"

"Yes, golden pomfret. The price isn't that high, but the fishing is good. If you catch a lot, you can still make decent money."

After making tens of thousands in a few days, Chu Mingcheng wasn't about to turn his nose up at fish that might only bring in ten thousand yuan at most after a full day's work.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's start fishing!" Jiang Luoluo urged. "By the way, don't forget the camera. Are you running low on video footage?"

"Yeah, I only have enough for two more videos. They'll be posted soon."

"Then when I get tired of fishing, I'll go into the cockpit and help you edit."

"Deal!"

Chu Mingcheng took out the shrimp bricks and squid meat to thaw, then started tying his rigs. Jiang Luoluo watched from the side, learning.

Once the squid meat had thawed a bit, she took a knife and started cutting it into pieces.

The guts and scraps were thrown into a bucket. They would be used as chum later, which would save some of the shrimp bricks.

Once they were ready, the two of them started fishing from the port side of the boat.

Golden pomfret are warm-water, mid-to-upper-layer fish. Since they were in open water, letting the baited hook sink to the mid-to-upper layer was sufficient.

If they were near an island reef, they would have to wait for the right tide and then use a tandem rig to fish the bottom. The golden pomfret would usually be in the water layer about fifty centimeters from the bottom.

After casting, it was a matter of patience. After just a short wait, Chu Mingcheng's rod bent into the shape he wanted to see.

The rod tip was pulled down to a 90-degree angle, then shot back up before bending sharply down again.

The line was being pulled out at a speed beyond his imagination, the reel spinning like crazy.

"Whoa, a big one, a big one!" Jiang Luoluo, seeing the commotion, shouted excitedly.

After all, from the looks of it, it couldn't possibly be a small fish. Chu Mingcheng thought so too.

He lifted the rod and gave it a pull, then another, and felt the rod tip being pulled down.

But that one pull made him a little suspicious. The commotion was fierce, but he didn't feel much weight!

However, his action had once again startled the fish below, causing it to unleash its primal power in a final struggle.

It cleverly ran toward the bottom of the boat, seeming to understand it could use the sharp edges of the hull to break the line.

But no matter how smart a fish was, it was no match for a human at the top of the food chain.