After Reincarnating as the Dragon King, I Made a Fortune with Seafood – CH12

Chapter 12: Night Fishing

The group carried the boat into the sea, pushed it along for a while, and only then boarded.

Their fishing boat was more than three meters wide. Even with six people on board, it was not crowded. In fact, it was just right.

Lu Ao stared thoughtfully at the fishing boat without blinking. It would be pretty good if he could buy a boat like this someday.

Lin Qiyan secretly looked at Lu Ao, his eyes full of amazement.

A few days ago, Tian Mingzhi had indirectly chatted with him, and only then did he learn that Lu Ao had returned.

They were all from the same province, and Lin Qiyan paid quite a lot of attention to Tian Mingzhi’s video account. He knew that their account had gained a wave of followers because Lu Ao had appeared in their videos.

Maybe the good thing of gaining followers would fall to him next.

Lu Ao sensed someone looking at him and raised his head toward that gaze.

When Lin Qiyan noticed his gaze, he immediately grinned, revealing a bright smile. His eyes were especially bright.

Lu Ao paused, then calmly looked away. He felt it was a little strange, but he did not ask anything.

Lin Manzhang started the engine. With a putt-putt-putt sound, the fishing boat slowly headed out toward the vast sea.

By now, the sky had completely darkened. Even though there were basically no fishing boats on their route, they still had to be careful while sailing. Their boat’s speed was more than half slower than during the day.

Lu Ao adapted well and did not get seasick at all. The others were the same, and everyone chatted and laughed as they headed toward the target sea area.

Lu Ao went to look at the octopus hooks. “What bait are we using today?”

“Just the ones bought from the market, plus a small bucket of earthworms.” Lin Gongshang brought out the bait for him to see. “Tie them now?”

“It’ll be more convenient to tie them in advance.”

Lu Ao took out the octopus hooks and began tying the bait.

Lin Qiyan immediately picked up the camera and aimed it at Lu Ao’s hands.

Lu Ao raised his head to look at him.

Lin Qiyan smiled ingratiatingly. “I’ll only film your hands. Is that okay?”

Lu Ao nodded. “Don’t film my face.”

“Got it.” Lin Qiyan said, “Don’t worry. Once the video is edited, I’ll let you review it first. I guarantee there won’t be anything that shouldn’t be there.”

Lin Gongshang came over. “Lin Qiyan, why are you only filming him?”

Lin Guixiao casually said from the side, “What else could it be? Lu Ao looks good, of course.”

“He’s not showing his face. How can anyone tell whether he’s good-looking or not?”

Lin Guixiao raised his head. “Even if he only shows a pair of hands, he still looks better than you.”

Lu Ao was too lazy to pay attention to their bickering and focused on tying the octopus hooks.

Octopus hooks were different from other fishhooks. They were made of eight hooks joined back-to-back, looking like a flower in full bloom.

These hooks were meant to better catch the body of a squid. Once a squid was hooked, it basically could not escape.

A wooden shrimp was attached to the middle of the octopus hook. When light shone on it, the wooden shrimp glittered. This kind of luminous thing attracted squid the most.

Lu Ao wrapped the octopus hook in bait. After it was wrapped, when the squid looked over, it could only see the wooden shrimp and not the octopus hook. Basically, one cast would catch one squid.

The fishing boat chugged forward. After more than forty minutes, they finally reached the target sea area.

There were already not many fishing boats at night, and their location was relatively remote. Looking around, aside from the dark sea and the brilliant river of stars above their heads, nothing else could be seen.

Today was a clear day. Before the fish-attracting lights were turned on, Lin Qiyan specially took a shot of the starry sky.

On land, it was rare to see such a scene: stars in the sky, and it seemed as if there were stars in the sea as well. Wherever the eye reached, it felt as though their entire boat were wandering through a sea of stars, with dazzling brilliance in every direction.

Looking at the sky full of stars, Lu Ao felt his entire heart settle into peace.

Lin Manzhang stopped the boat. To cooperate with Lin Qiyan’s filming, everyone specifically turned off the boat lights and then turned off their headlamps.

Everyone waited under the starlight.

Lin Qiyan could not help saying softly, “Wait a moment. Let me take another set of photos.”

It was a rare scene. If he missed it today, whether he could photograph it again next time would depend on fate.

No one rushed him. They let him finish taking photos before Lin Manzhang turned on the boat lights.

Lin Gongshang could not wait. “Quick, quick, quick. Start the induction cooker and boil water.”

Lin Guixiao yawned. “There isn’t even a shadow of squid yet. Boiling it now is useless.”

Lu Ao looked at the sea surface, directly chose a direction, and lowered the fish-attracting light.

The lights they brought today were red fish-attracting lights: one for above water and one for underwater, two in total. Connected to a large battery, they could last all night.

After placing the fish-attracting lights and waiting for the squid to slowly gather, Lu Ao signaled for them to begin fishing.

Each person held a fishing rod, jerking it up and down. The wooden shrimp also hopped up and down, attracting squid.

Tan Junhao held a large landing net and waited eagerly at the side.

“They’re here,” Lu Ao reminded them.

Everyone’s spirits lifted, their eyes burning as they looked at the fishing rod in Lu Ao’s hands.

Lu Ao lightly lifted the rod. Sure enough, a squid two fingers wide was hanging from below.

Lin Manzhang hurriedly said, “Careful! Watch out for its ink!”

Lu Ao knew this and had long been prepared. When lifting the rod, he deliberately paused before pulling it out of the water.

Sure enough, the squid fell for it and sprayed all its ink under the surface. By the time it was lifted out, it was like a deflated balloon.

A small patch of sea beside their boat was instantly dyed black.

Lu Ao reached out to unhook the squid.

Seeing his bold movement, Lin Gongshang quickly said, “Be careful. Don’t get bitten.”

When unhooking a squid, one must not place their hand directly underneath it. That was where its mouth was, and with one careless move, it could bite.

Lu Ao gave a sound of acknowledgment and nimbly removed the squid, tossing it into the live well.

The little translucent, crystal-like creature quickly moved its tiny legs and shot away, hiding in one corner of the fish hold.

Lu Ao ignored it and continued casting the hook to fish.

The others also began catching squid one after another.

Lin Gongshang unhooked the squid from his hook, tossed it into the fish hold, wiped his hands on his clothes, and excitedly went to fiddle with the induction cooker beside him. “Come, come, come. We really need to start cooking this time. It’s been so long since I last ate freshly caught squid.”

Lin Qiyan aimed the camera at him.

He quickly opened a large bottle of mineral water, poured it all into the pot with a glug-glug sound, then placed the large pot on the stove and started boiling it.

To remove the fishiness and dispel the cold, he even specially added a few slices of ginger.

There were quite a lot of squid this season, especially after finding the right squid nest. There were as many squid as tiny shrimp.

The squid were attracted by their fish-attracting lights and gathered in greater numbers.

Their rods caught squid one after another, and satisfied smiles appeared on everyone’s faces.

Tan Junhao held a large landing net on the side and scooped from time to time.

Very soon, there were already more than thirty squid in the fish hold, and the water in the pot had also boiled.

Lin Gongshang hurriedly used the landing net to scoop the squid from the live well and tossed them into the pot all at once.

The squid freshly caught from the sea were extremely lively. After being put into the pot, they were cooked with just a brief boil.

The squid they caught were all only a few fingers wide, and once cooked, each one was just right for one bite.

Lin Gongshang checked them, then hurriedly opened a plastic bag and took out the disposable bowls and chopsticks they had brought. He also took out soy sauce and garlic chili sauce, shouting, “Come eat squid! They’ll get tough if you wait!”

Everyone put down their fishing rods one after another and gathered in a circle with grins.

Lu Ao took a bowl and chopsticks, poured in soy sauce and garlic chili sauce, and scooped squid from the pot.

The freshly cooked squid carried a faint pink color and was still steaming.

He dipped the squid into the sauce, rolled it around, and placed it in his mouth.

The salty freshness of the soy sauce and the fragrant heat of the garlic chili sauce suppressed the squid’s fishiness very well. When bitten into, only freshness and crispness remained.

That incomparable crisp and tender texture burst open in his mouth. Even Lu Ao could not help narrowing his eyes, his gaze full of satisfaction.

“Fuck, this is too good!” Lin Gongshang huffed and puffed from the heat. “I’ve been thinking about this for more than half a year. Finally, we’re squid fishing again.”

“Eat more.”

“Hehehe, definitely. Hey, Brother Zhang, where’s the beer? Open the beer, open the beer!”

Lin Guixiao took beer from a plastic bag and gave it to him. “Careful of the gout set meal.”

“I’ll eat it even if I get gout. Hoo—hot and refreshing. This taste is amazing!”

Lin Manzhang said, “Squid has to be eaten right after it’s caught. Once it sits in the market, it’s not this taste anymore.”

“That’s right. Let’s catch more and eat more tonight. It’s too good!”

Lu Ao swept through the squid quickly from the side without saying anything.

In just two or three minutes, he had eaten half the squid in the pot.

He stood up, wiped his mouth with a tissue, and said, “I’ll go scoop more.”

Lin Gongshang hurriedly called, “There’s still some. Eat a little more.”

“I’ll eat again later.”

Lu Ao was tall with long legs. Holding the landing net, he reached the side of the boat in one stride.

Lin Qiyan no longer cared about eating squid. Huffing from the heat, he hurriedly picked up the camera and aimed it at Lu Ao to keep filming.

Lu Ao’s eyes were extremely sharp, and his aim was excellent. The landing net scooped beneath the sea surface, and when he lifted it, five squid instantly appeared inside the net.

He lowered his head, his long, slender fingers like white jade rummaging through the landing net, neatly throwing the squid one by one into the live well.

After picking out the squid, he stared at the sea surface, chose another spot, and lowered the net again. This time, there were another three or four squid in the net.

After this happened two or three times, Lin Gongshang and the others were all stunned. Holding their bowls, they shuffled over in little steps. “Your aim is pretty good!”

“This is way faster than fishing!”

“Hey, hey, hey, Lu Ao, over there! There’s another cluster over there.”

Lu Ao did not speak. He raised his eyes and lowered the net where they pointed.

The squid had no time to flee and crashed into the net all at once. This scoop brought up another six squid.

Lin Gongshang became excited watching. He stuffed the last squid in his bowl into his mouth in one bite and chewed with a crunching sound, saying unclearly, “Let me.”

Lu Ao had caught thirty or forty squid in one go and did not fight him for it. He directly handed the landing net to him, turned around, and went back to cook the squid.

Squid cooked quickly. Lin Gongshang and the others shouted and cried out at the side of the boat as they scooped squid, while Lu Ao sat on the other side, satisfiedly eating squid in large mouthfuls.

Most of these squid were not big, just right for one bite each. When bitten into, they carried an indescribable crispness.

Lu Ao’s cheeks bulged as he narrowed his eyes in satisfaction, eating one after another and occasionally taking a sip of beer.

When Lin Gongshang and the others grew tired from scooping, they came over and sat down heavily, panting. “Same sea, same landing net, same squid. How come we catch two or three with one scoop, while you catch four or five with one scoop, Lu Ao?”

“Young.”

“Hey, what does that have to do with age?” Lin Gongshang straightened his waist unconvinced, his gaze sweeping around Lu Ao’s waist. “Which one of us isn’t young?!”

Lu Ao slowly continued, “Agile hands and feet. Good eyesight.”

This sentence landed right after Lin Gongshang’s words, and everyone burst into laughter.

Lin Manzhang patted Lin Gongshang. “At such a young age, clean up the yellow waste in your head.”

Lu Ao was too lazy to pay attention to them. Once he had eaten almost enough, he continued going over to scoop squid.

He ate while scooping. In one night, he ate at least more than ten jin of squid.

Lin Gongshang and the others were so stuffed beside him that they could barely move, but Lu Ao could still slowly finish the remaining half pot of squid, then drink beer to fill the cracks.

He could eat, and he could scoop.

They fished squid from past eleven until after three in the morning. All three live wells were filled to bursting. More than half of that had been contributed by Lu Ao alone, while the remaining smaller half had been caught by Lin Manzhang and the other five people together.

Once the squid had filled the wells, Lin Manzhang called everyone to start the boat back.

After much effort, they finally returned to the shore. Everyone was full in the stomach and sleepy in the eyes, yawning as they prepared to divide up the squid and go home.

Lu Ao said, “No need to divide any for me. Take them home and eat them.”

Lin Manzhang immediately said, “How can that be? We caught a lot of squid today. Each person can get at least ten jin!”

Lu Ao waved his hand. “It’s not easy to come out once. Keep more for the children.”

Lin Manzhang and Tan Junhao were both married. Lin Gongshang and Lin Guixiao also lived with large families. Even Lin Qiyan had a grandmother at home.

They had caught a lot of squid today. They should bring them home for their families to try.