After Reincarnating as the Dragon King, I Made a Fortune with Seafood – CH60

Chapter 60

The next morning, Lu Ao first called Lin Dawu to ask how the two young people were doing.

Lin Dawu said, “They’re both still in the ICU. Chenchen’s girlfriend inhaled seawater into her lungs. Chenchen just had cranial surgery. The doctor said they’ll observe him for a bit longer. If things look good, he can be moved out of the ICU tomorrow.”

“As long as it’s nothing serious. The girl’s family arrived too? They didn’t get into a conflict with you, did they?”

“No, no. They were just anxious when they first arrived. Once everything was explained, it was fine. They’re all reasonable people.” Lin Dawu said awkwardly, “They also said they wanted to find you and apologize. Their attitude was bad yesterday. They wronged you.”

“It’s fine. Any family would be anxious if something like that happened.” Lu Ao said, “Tell me once the two of them recover.”

“Yes, I’ll tell you right away! Yesterday really was all thanks to you. When you come back, I’ll treat you to drinks!”

“That’s too polite. We’ll have a drink together then.”

Lu Ao hung up, got out of bed, slipped into his slippers, and walked outside.

Song Zhou was not home. In the kitchen, there was a large lacquered food box with a note stuck on top, telling Lu Ao to heat the food himself after waking up.

The handwriting on the note was strong and elegant, with a graceful, free-flowing air.

Lu Ao stared at the words for quite a while before finally taking the note back to his room and tucking it into the notebook in his drawer for safekeeping.

He came back out and opened the lacquered box. Inside, the dishes were stacked layer by layer.

The top layer seemed to be tender sprout, chicken skin, and pickled bamboo shoot soup. As soon as he opened it, a sour, fragrant aroma rushed out.

The second layer was braised lion’s head meatballs, a full plate of ten, each one the size of a child’s fist. The outside looked crispy.

The third layer was a large plate of spicy stir-fried pork belly. The fourth layer was sauced lamb ribs. The fifth layer was salad.

It was clear that the person who made the meal had carefully matched everything: meat and vegetables, dishes and soup, even taking his personal tastes into account.

Lu Ao went to the pot to scoop rice. Just as he was about to eat, he thought for a moment, then took out clean plates and bowls and set aside a portion for Song Zhou.

Only after setting aside the food did he treasure every bite and finish his meal.

After eating, he went to check on the geese.

The geese in the pen had already been fed. They lay in small groups of two or three, resting.

When they saw Lu Ao, they only gave a few lazy honks.

Lu Ao returned to the yard, opened his phone, and asked Song Zhou: Are you back at work?

Song Zhou replied very quickly: I came over to handle some things. I’ll be back in a while.

—Mm. I saved food for you.

Song Zhou: Okay. I’ll eat it when I get back.

Lu Ao looked at the message for a long while before letting out a soft breath.

He exited the chat and went to look at the fishing group’s messages.

The fishing group once again showed ninety-nine-plus unread messages.

Lin Gongshang alone had contributed more than half of them with his endless chatter.

Lu Ao scrolled to the bottom. They were discussing where to go fishing that afternoon.

Lu Ao appeared in the group: Where are you planning to fish this afternoon?

Lin Gongshang: Lu Ao, you’re back? How are Chenchen and his little girlfriend? Are they okay?

—They’re both still in the ICU. They said their condition is improving, so it should be nothing major.

Lin Gongshang: That’s good, that’s good. I still don’t know how the two of them slipped into the sea when they were standing on the rocks just fine.

Lin Qiyan: The rocks are that slippery. If a wave hits and you’re careless, you slip. What’s strange about that?

Lin Gongshang: I was just sighing over it.

Lin Qiyan: The police already released their conclusion. What’s there to sigh about?

—The police released the result?

Lin Gongshang: They did. They found traces at the scene. The current conclusion is that the girl slipped into the sea while digging for snails, and Chenchen tried to pull her back. They said they’ll have to ask the two of them more after they wake up.

Lu Ao was not surprised by this result. He did not keep asking and changed the topic instead: Where did you say you wanted to fish this afternoon?

Lin Gongshang: We haven’t decided yet. The sun’s too fierce in the afternoon. Fish in the shallows basically won’t come out. The water has to be deeper, but for people like us without gear, fishing is too hard.

Lin Gongshang: Lin Qiyan just suggested going to the outer sea to pump out tide pools. There are so many tide pools out there, and very few people have pumped them dry and searched them. If we go take a look, maybe we can find something big.

Lin Qiyan: There are a lot of octopuses right now. They’re forty or fifty yuan a catty.

Lin Qiyan: The afternoon sun is strong. Sitting at home is still sitting around. Borrow a water pump and take a boat out. It won’t cost much in fuel. Whatever we get is a bonus.

Lin Gongshang: I think so too. Just enough to earn some drinking money hehe JPG.

Lin Gongshang: Lu Ao, are you coming? You’re lucky. Come with us and bless us a little?

Lu Ao: I’ll ask.

Lin Gongshang: Ask what? I’ll just borrow a fishing boat from Brother Zhang. My family has diesel. I can operate the boat. No need to ask.

What Lu Ao meant was that he wanted to ask whether Song Zhou would be back soon and whether he wanted to go out to sea together.

Since Lin Gongshang asked, Lu Ao could not say that in the group, so he simply stopped talking.

Lin Qiyan guessed what he meant, but there was no point explaining anything to a straight man like Lin Gongshang, whose mind was broader than the sea.

Lin Gongshang muttered to himself in confusion for a while. Seeing no one answer him, he could only say: Fine, ask first. I’ll go borrow the boat from Brother Zhang.

Lu Ao called Song Zhou.

The two of them rarely spoke on the phone. Song Zhou’s voice through the receiver was a little distorted, yet carried a different kind of charm. “Lu Ao?”

“Ahem.” Lu Ao rarely called him, so he felt a little awkward. “It’s me. Did you see the messages in the fishing group on WeChat?”

“Not yet. What happened?”

“It’s just that Lin Gongshang and the others are discussing going out to sea. I wanted to ask whether you’re free, and whether you want to come along.”

“I’m afraid I can’t today. There are a lot of things to handle.” Song Zhou’s voice carried a hint of apology. “I’ll need another hour or two before I’m done. You go with them. I’ve fed the geese and watered the vegetables. You don’t need to worry about them for the rest of the day.”

“All right. Then I’ll go. I’ll bring fish back for you. I checked, and the scallops are still alive. We’ll have a scallop feast tonight.”

“Okay. If it’s not urgent, I’ll probably be back around four.”

“No rush. I probably won’t be home by four anyway. You focus on work first.”

Lu Ao hung up. He wanted to ask why Song Zhou had been so busy lately, but he was afraid asking might put him in a difficult position.

After hesitating, the chance passed.

Lu Ao sighed silently and switched to WeChat: @Lin Gongshang Add me in this afternoon. Let’s leave early.

Lin Gongshang: No problem. How early?

—As soon as possible. The earlier we go, the earlier we come back.

Lin Gongshang: Sure. The island we’re going to isn’t too far. We’ll leave around one and be back around five.

—Okay. I’ll come find you now.

Lu Ao closed WeChat, locked the door, and drove the three-wheeled cart straight to Lin Gongshang.

Lin Qiyan also came out to meet them.

No one else was interested in pumping tide pools that afternoon. It was just the three of them.

Under the blazing sun, the three of them moved the tools onto the boat. Lin Gongshang poured oil and water into the engine, pulled the cord, started the motor, and set off.

Lin Manzhang’s fishing boat was similar to a speedboat, but a little larger and more stable.

Once the boat reached the sea, the wind was strong, puffing up the three men’s clothes.

The sun was too harsh, and it was also the middle of the afternoon rest period. Looking out, the vast, boundless sea held no one else except their speedboat.

Lin Gongshang drove the boat, Lin Qiyan held his camera and filmed footage, while Lu Ao played on his phone off to the side.

Seeing that he looked bored, Lin Gongshang called out, “Lu Ao, aren’t you studying for your Certificate of Competency? Want to try driving the boat?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, give it a try.” Lin Gongshang encouraged him. “There are no reefs here, and no other boats either. Just relax and drive. Just don’t go too fast.”

If he drove too fast, the boat might shoot forward and possibly capsize.

If it were any other beginner, Lin Gongshang would not dare let them drive.

But Lu Ao was different. Ever since Lin Gongshang had known him, he had never done anything unreliable. Handing the boat to him, Lin Gongshang felt completely at ease.

Lu Ao was quite interested in driving a boat. Hearing this, he went to the stern and carefully observed how Lin Gongshang operated it for a while.

Lin Gongshang taught him patiently too. “There’s not much technique to driving a small speedboat like this. Look here. This is how you start it. After it starts, observe the state of the boat. If everything looks fine, you can drive it out.”

“This lever controls the direction. You can drive a car, so you should adapt quickly. This is for speeding up and slowing down. Whether you speed up or slow down, don’t do it too sharply…”

Lin Gongshang introduced the basic functions to Lu Ao one by one.

Lu Ao went over, gripped the lever, first maintaining Lin Gongshang’s original operation. Once he got the hang of it, he tried other things.

Driving a boat was even simpler than riding a bicycle. Before long, he had mastered it.

In the middle, he deliberately stopped once, then went through all the steps: stopping the boat, starting the motor, setting off, accelerating, and slowing down. Only after confirming there were no problems did he feel reassured.

Because of this, the three of them were delayed on the way and only reached the island after two-thirty.

The island they went to had rather strange terrain.

It was more than ten meters long and six or seven meters wide at its widest point. In the middle was a large, winding tide pool. Apart from that, the island was bare. Other than moss, there was not a single plant to be seen.

The island’s terrain was relatively low. When the tide rose, the large tide pool would be submerged by seawater. When the tide went out, it would reveal its original shape.

Fish swam in during high tide and could not swim out when the tide receded. What they wanted to catch today were those trapped sea fish.

The three of them carried two water pumps onto the island, poured in diesel, and began pumping water.

While waiting for the water to be pumped dry, the three did not sit idle. Instead, each took a bucket and began digging for snails along the reefs.

There were all kinds of snails on the island, as well as mussels, but they were all fairly ordinary in size. There were no especially large snails, most only about thumb-sized.

When digging, they used iron hooks. With a dig and a pry, they could basically pry off one snail.

Lu Ao and Lin Gongshang each carried a bucket to dig snails.

Lin Qiyan held his camera and filmed footage of the two of them digging snails.

Although he said he was filming, he mainly filmed Lin Gongshang.

Lu Ao never showed his face on camera, and even shots of his back rarely appeared. Lin Qiyan only filmed one or two clips of him to insert into the video, enough to make fans curious and increase the discussion.

Making videos these days was not easy either. Lin Qiyan had put in quite a lot of effort to maintain his popularity.

The two of them dug snails, one heading east and the other west. Soon, they could no longer see each other.

Lin Qiyan followed Lin Gongshang to the west to film, leaving Lu Ao alone on the east side.

After digging snails with the iron hook for a while, Lu Ao grew annoyed. He pricked up his ears and listened to the movements of the other two. Knowing they were far away and could not see this side, he simply transformed his right hand back into a dragon claw, held his left hand underneath, and used the dragon claw to dig snails.

The nails on his dragon claw were hard and sharp, even more useful than a knife. Since the dragon claw was part of his body, it was extremely nimble. Basically, with one scrape across the rock wall, he could dig down a whole sheet of snails.

After digging for a while, he was too lazy to keep using the method of digging with his right hand and catching with his left. He simply placed the bucket beneath the rock wall. With one swipe of his dragon claw, snails of all sizes fell into the bucket with a crackling sound, like rain.

Even with so many snails, Lu Ao did not keep them all. He kept the big ones and picked out the small ones, placing them back on the rocks to keep growing.

His efficiency was simply too high. In less than twenty minutes, the bucket was full.

The snails in the bucket, no matter what kind, were all plump. Lu Ao casually pried one open. There was already roe inside, and it looked very fresh and delicious.

Snails like these could be brought home and kept for a day or two to spit out the sand. Then, a quick stir-fry over high heat would make them rich, plump, and delicious.

Lu Ao had dug far too many snails. Too lazy to continue, he set the bucket down and went to check how the tide pool pumping was going.

Lin Gongshang was still huffing and puffing as he struggled with the snails. Seeing Lu Ao’s figure, he raised his voice and asked, “You’re not digging anymore?”

“I filled a bucket. I’m done.”

“A bucket? No way.” Lin Gongshang hurriedly poked his head out to look. Seeing that the small red bucket at Lu Ao’s feet really was full, he said in disbelief, “How are you so fast at everything?!”

“Hm?” Lu Ao’s gaze turned unfriendly.

A chill ran down Lin Gongshang’s neck. He chuckled and quickly tried to save himself. “Ahem, except for that kind of thing. I don’t know much about that kind of thing anyway, right?”