After Reincarnating as the Dragon King, I Made a Fortune with Seafood – CH34

Chapter 34: The Competition

Lu Ao personally boarded the boat and inspected it. After confirming there were no problems, he went onto the official website and paid the deposit.

When he paid the deposit, he specifically checked. So far, he was the only person who had paid one, which meant not many people were interested in this boat. Barring any surprises, he should be able to win the bid.

As for the boat’s restoration and modifications, those would have to wait until after he had actually won it.

The matter with the Qianyong Maritime Shipping Public Security Bureau finally came to an end. Lu Ao and Song Zhou returned home.

They did not take a car. Song Zhou brought Lu Ao straight back with a teleport.

Song Zhou had his subordinates forge a travel record for Lu Ao. If anyone deliberately looked into it, they would only find that fake record.

Traveling was exhausting. But if one could arrive at the destination in the blink of an eye, that was another matter entirely.

Lu Ao was half-dead with exhaustion. As soon as he got home, he collapsed into a chair and lazily said, “This skill is really practical.”

“It is practical. Want to learn it?”

“I can learn it?”

“Of course.”

“Is it hard?”

“Not hard. Just a little harder than making rain.”

Hearing him say this, Lu Ao lay back down and gave up hope.

Making rain was supposedly a natural talent of dragons, but in reality, he still had not figured out the slightest clue. There was even less need to think about learning something more difficult.

After lying there for a while, Lu Ao sat up. “Are you free tomorrow afternoon? Should we keep learning how to make rain?”

Song Zhou agreed. “I’m free. I’ll come over around five tomorrow afternoon.”

“Good. I’ll wait for you in the vegetable field.” Lu Ao got up to see him off, looking rather reluctant. “See you tomorrow afternoon, then.”

Song Zhou’s eyes curved. “See you.”

Song Zhou’s figure soon disappeared from the courtyard.

The courtyard was still the same courtyard. Yet standing there, Lu Ao felt it had become exceptionally quiet.

He stood in the yard for quite a while before slowly returning inside to sleep.

The next day, he slept until he woke naturally. He did not go fishing. Instead, he drove his three-wheeled farm vehicle straight to town to shop.

He had not gone shopping for several days. The rice and oil at home were almost gone, not to mention the vegetables.

When Lu Ao went to the market, he made a special trip to the vegetable market and bought a slaughtered sheep and twenty catties of pork.

He had vegetables at home. Eggplants, chilies, pumpkins, beans, and the like were already ready to pick in his vegetable field. He did not eat that many vegetables anyway, so there was no need to buy any. He only needed meat.

Seafood had the freshness of seafood, while beast meat had the richness of beast meat. Neither could be missing.

After buying the food and returning home, Lu Ao washed the lamb and pork, divided them into portions, and froze them. After tidying the kitchen, he took a small bucket and a bamboo pole, preparing to herd the geese and go beachcombing.

His goose pen was next door. Once he left the courtyard and turned left, he would reach it.

Holding the key, he looked through the gaps in the fence. The flock of geese was lying on the ground resting.

He had not seen these geese for only two days, yet they had grown quite a bit. Each one was still covered in gray down, looking about the size of a small hen.

Unfortunately, these were lion-head geese that could weigh several dozen catties when fully grown. Otherwise, he could already look forward to eating goose meat.

Lu Ao looked at them. The flock keenly noticed him and began to stir uneasily.

There was already a leader among the geese. It was the largest male goose, named Sesame Ball.

When Lu Ao entered, Sesame Ball gave a “ga” cry. Its wings were not even as large as chicken wings, yet it still flapped them as though trying to threaten someone, looking quite like a goose king.

“What are you doing?” Lu Ao shot it a threatening look and strode over with his long legs. He lightly tapped Sesame Ball on the head.

Sesame Ball instantly lost its nerve. It immediately tucked its wings away, gave another “ga,” and crouched on the ground.

Lu Ao checked the food and water.

When he was at home, he usually fed these geese old rice mixed with sweet potato leaves.

He had planted half a mu of sweet potato leaves in the field. Even if he cut some every day, he could not finish them, so using them to feed the geese was perfect.

If he was not home and asked Song Zhou or Lin Gongshang to feed them, the geese would only eat old rice.

Lu Ao had not come to check on the flock for one night. The old rice in the trough was almost finished, and there was not much water left either.

Since he was going to drive them out to graze soon, Lu Ao did not plan to feed them now. He brought over a bamboo broom, swept the goose pen clean, and poured the swept-up waste into a pile nearby to compost.

Bacteria had been added to the manure. After piling it for a month or two, once the fertilizer had fully decomposed and been sterilized, it could be sent to the fields as fertilizer.

The geese were driven into a noisy chorus of honking. Since they had nothing to eat, they were somewhat dissatisfied and kept flapping their small wings at Lu Ao.

Lu Ao was unhurried. Only after cleaning the goose pen did he drive the geese out.

He was going to the same shallow beach where he had caught the eel last time.

The geese also liked that place. There were plenty of water plants there, as well as small fish, shrimp, and snails. Taking them there to graze would give them an extra meal.

Lu Ao drove the geese to the place, only to see that Lin Qiyan and Lin Gongshang were there too, bending over under the sun and searching for something.

He was a little surprised. “Why are you here?”

Lin Gongshang called out, “The tide isn’t good today, so we can’t go fishing. We had nothing to do this morning, so we came to beachcomb. What about you?”

“I’m herding geese.” Lu Ao drove the geese into the surroundings and let them move freely. Then he carried his bucket over. “Have you found anything good?”

“Not yet. Half the morning, and we’ve only found a few mud crabs and a few snails. They’re not even that big.” Lin Gongshang opened the lid for him to see, looking a little dispirited. “Weren’t you out doing some private job? Why are you back so quickly?”

“It’s done.”

“It’s only been a few days, and it’s done?”

Lin Gongshang asked, “With such a short time, how do they calculate your pay?”

“Five hundred a day, settled daily.”

Lin Gongshang said, “That income isn’t that high, is it?”

“It’s alright.”

On the surface, he had only been paid a thousand yuan. In reality, he had a twenty-thousand-yuan bonus, had gotten information about a boat, and had gained the goodwill of the Qianyong Maritime Shipping Public Security Bureau. No matter how he calculated it, the deal had not been a loss.

Lin Qiyan heard them talking and could no longer keep filming. Since he had already gathered enough material, he simply turned off the camera and came over to chat. “Lu Ao, has your friend gone back? Song Zhou.”

Lu Ao looked at him. “Hm?”

Lin Qiyan quickly raised his hands. “I’m just asking randomly. Someone was asking about you this morning.”

Lu Ao asked, “Who?”

“Manager Shen from Jiacheng Grand Hotel,” Lin Gongshang said from the side. “He suddenly asked Brother Zhang about you this morning. He didn’t say what it was about. He only asked where you were, so Brother Zhang didn’t answer him.”

“Right. Brother Zhang also told us to be careful and not reveal your whereabouts.”

Lu Ao thought for a while. “Why is he looking for me?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he wants to reserve fish from you again?”

Lin Qiyan disagreed. “If he wanted to reserve fish, there’d be no need to be so secretive. I think it must be something else.”

Lu Ao thought for a while but had no clue, so he simply stopped thinking about it. “Forget it. If he looks for me, we’ll talk then. I’m going beachcombing. Do you want to come?”

“Sure.” Lin Qiyan agreed at once. “I didn’t catch much anyway. If we walk around more, maybe we can get a dish to bring home.”

Lin Gongshang wiped the sweat from his face, panting from the heat. “I won’t keep going. The sun’s too strong.”

Lu Ao waved and said goodbye to him.

Lin Gongshang soon left along the reef.

Lu Ao carried his bucket and searched carefully. Lin Qiyan was on the other side.

The two were on the same beach, but Lu Ao somehow caught far more than Lin Qiyan.

When they took a break midway, Lin Qiyan looked at their buckets. Lu Ao had overtaken him from behind. The bucket already held nearly half a bucket of fish, shrimp, sea snails, sea urchins, and other things. All of them were sizable. Lin Qiyan was not quite convinced. “Does your side have good feng shui or something?”

“It’s my skill that’s good. What does feng shui have to do with it?” Lu Ao sat on a reef and watched the large flock of geese behind him scatter to search for food. “Even if we swapped places, I’d still catch more than you.”

Lin Qiyan secretly gave him a thumbs-up, then quickly lifted his phone and filmed himself with a face full of defiance. “I don’t believe that. Want to make a bet?”

Lu Ao looked at him. “Bet on what?”

“Let’s not bet money. That hurts feelings. How about betting time? Whoever loses has to work for the other person for two hours. If you lose, I won’t make things difficult for you. Just cooperate with me and film two hours of beachcombing videos.”

“No problem.” Lu Ao asked, “How are we betting? By weight or by value?”

“Weight, weight. Your luck is too good. Whenever you beachcomb casually, you always end up catching valuable stuff. I’m not betting value with you.”

“Fine. We’ll bet by weight. Whoever catches more seafood in the end wins.”

Lin Qiyan rubbed his hands, determined to beat him, and added, “The snails count too.”

Lu Ao had not picked up many snails today. He did not care for small ones. It was better to leave them for the geese.

Lin Qiyan was different. He did not have many results from beachcombing to begin with, so whatever he saw, he tossed into his bucket. Even snails were accepted without question.

The two found a tide pool and put down their respective catches, then swapped positions and began beachcombing.

Within five minutes, Lu Ao caught a large octopus. Judging by its size, it had to be at least two catties.

Lin Qiyan glanced at it and was grief-stricken. “Why did you find something the moment you went over there?! I searched that side for ages just now and didn’t find a damn thing!”

“You weren’t searching carefully enough.”

Lin Qiyan refused to admit defeat. “Again!”

Lu Ao had no objection.

They continued. Lin Qiyan became serious, filming explanations while picking snails and catching crabs. Before long, he had quite a bit of harvest.

Other than that octopus, Lu Ao basically found nothing else.

He was too lazy to pick up small snails. There was not much meat after bringing them back.

He would not catch small fish. He did not see any big ones.

There were a few mud crabs, but they were not big either, only around three or four liang.

Octopuses were very good at eating mud crabs. He had an octopus in his bucket, so he could not catch small mud crabs, lest they be ruined by the octopus.

After walking like this for more than ten minutes, they were almost at the end. Lu Ao’s bucket still held only one octopus and two mud crabs weighing over half a catty each.

Lin Qiyan quietly looked at the half bucket of snails he had collected and said to the camera, “I think I’m about to win. I can’t beat him in seafood value, but in weight, I’m absolutely ahead.”

Lu Ao raised his head at his words. “Not necessarily.”

“It’s still not certain?” Lin Qiyan aimed the camera at his own bucket, then splashed over to film Lu Ao’s bucket. “You have one octopus and two mud crabs. At most, that’s only four catties. I have nearly six or seven catties here.”

As he spoke, Lin Qiyan displayed the contents of his bucket to the camera. “The mud crabs I caught aren’t that big, but I have the advantage in numbers. These five mud crabs must be heavier than your two.”

Lu Ao said, “That’s the case now. Later, it may not be.”

“There’s still a later?” Lin Qiyan looked up. They had already reached the end. Beyond this were large reefs and the sea. There was no more shallow beach.

Lu Ao glanced at him, then suddenly walked forward and lifted a large stone.

When the stone was lifted, it stirred up a cloud of mud and sand, but the water soon cleared again.

Lin Qiyan’s attention first landed on that large stone. He pointed the camera at it and filmed a close-up. “This stone is huge. It looks like it weighs at least a hundred catties. Brother Lu is famous for being strong. Only someone like him would beachcomb by simply and brutally lifting a huge stone weighing over a hundred catties. We usually just poke around with iron hooks. Only if we really can’t reach would we consider lifting it.”

After listening to him ramble, Lu Ao tapped the large stone with his foot. “Did you miss the main point?”

“What’s the main point—holy shit! How did you know there were coconut snails under here?”

Lin Qiyan hurriedly aimed the camera at the now-clear water. Beneath the lens were two large golden coconut snails. One was nearly ten centimeters long, and the other was six or seven centimeters.

“These coconut snails are way too big. Together, the two of them must weigh more than five catties.”

“As long as you know.” Lu Ao picked the coconut snails up and put them into his bucket, slightly lifting his chin. “Remember to come to my house tomorrow morning?”

“Huh?”

“A bet is a bet. Tomorrow morning, come cut sweet potato leaves for two hours to feed the geese.”

Lin Qiyan: “…Fuck! I really lifted a stone only to drop it on my own foot.”

A hint of amusement appeared in Lu Ao’s eyes. He picked up the bucket. “Let’s go.”

Lin Qiyan quickly filmed his back, then deliberately filmed his own bucket. Only after gathering enough material did he turn off the camera and catch up, asking, “Lu Ao, you still haven’t said it. How did you know there were coconut snails under that stone?”

“How else? I saw them.”

“Your eyesight is really good.” Lin Qiyan was sincerely envious. “Ninety yuan a catty for coconut snails. If you take them to sell, even after taxes, you’ll still get at least two hundred yuan.”

“I’m not selling them.” Lu Ao said simply, “I’m keeping them to eat.”

“Hey, you’re a single guy. You’re just going to squander good stuff like this?”

“To entertain a friend.”

“Song Zhou?” Lin Qiyan looked at him, his meaning pointed. “You two really are close.”