After Reincarnating as the Dragon King, I Made a Fortune with Seafood – CH63

Chapter 63

After their first successful experience, Lin Gongshang became extremely interested in going out to sea to pump out tide pools.

That day, Lu Ao had just finished his class in the county town and was on his way back. Before he even got home, Lin Gongshang called him, saying excitedly, “Lu Ao, are you going to pump out tide pools later? I borrowed a boat. Brother Zhang is going too.”

“Not today,” Lu Ao said. “It’s too late today. I’m going to collect the nets from that wild pond upstream.”

“What nets?”

“I set two floating nets in the wild pond last night. I’m going to see if there’s any catch. We’ll go tomorrow.”

“Fine, then let’s make plans for tomorrow.” Lin Gongshang’s voice was full of disappointment. “You have to come tomorrow.”

“Mm. I probably won’t have anything else to do tomorrow.”

Life in the countryside was like that. One could be busy if one wanted, or idle if one wanted. Perhaps one would earn a little less money, but life felt closer to its essence rather than mere survival.

After lunch, Lu Ao took an afternoon nap. When he woke up, it was past three.

Dark clouds covered the sky outside. It looked like rain would fall soon.

He simply sat in the living room and played on his phone, planning to wait until the rain had passed.

In midsummer, their area always had plenty of rain. Usually it fell in the afternoon, and once it stopped, the sky would clear again. After that, people could safely go out to work or do other things.

Farmers quite liked rain. On rainy days, they did not have to water the fields, saving one step of work.

Rainy days were also cool. They did not need to turn on fans, saving a bit of money.

Sometimes, Lu Ao would take advantage of the rain and go into the courtyard to sense how rain formed, or to reduce or increase the amount of rainfall.

His current ability was still not very strong. He could only control it for a little over ten minutes. If he exceeded that limit, he would become utterly exhausted.

Lu Ao took out his phone and glanced at the time. It was 3:07 p.m. Based on his senses, the rain would start around 3:20 to 3:30 and stop around 3:50.

He opened WeChat. Lin Qiyan’s message popped up first: Lu Ao, are you going to collect nets this afternoon? Can I come along and film an episode?

—Sure. I’ll probably leave around four.

—Aren’t you guys going out to sea to pump tide pools?

Lin Qiyan replied instantly: It’s raining, so we’re not going.

Lin Qiyan: Brother Zhang said earlier that he had something to do and couldn’t go. With only the two of us left, we’re too lazy to go.

Lin Qiyan: Lin Gongshang is beside me. He says he wants to come collect the nets too. Shall we go together?

—Come along, then. No point sitting around idle.

As soon as Lu Ao replied, Lin Gongshang pulled the three of them into a group chat.

Lin Gongshang: Should we go out for a picnic this afternoon? Lu Ao, you’re collecting nets anyway, right? I’ll bring a chicken, some seasonings, and vegetables. If we catch fish later, we can roast them right there. How about it?

—Not great. It just rained. Where are you going to find firewood?

Lin Gongshang: Worst case, I’ll bring some myself.

Lin Gongshang: Come on. It’s been ages since we dug for mud crabs. While you guys collect the nets, I’ll dig up some mud crabs in the woods. Maybe we’ll even find butter crabs.

Lin Gongshang: @Lin Qiyan Say something. What great material, right? Don’t you video creators love doing wilderness cooking and stuff?

Lin Qiyan: I’m fine either way. It depends on you guys. Filming the net collection today would already be enough for one episode.

Lin Gongshang: Then just come along for my sake.

Before Lu Ao even agreed, Lin Gongshang started flooding the group with stickers. Judging by his posture, if the two of them did not agree, he could keep spamming stickers until the end of time.

The two had no choice but to compromise.

Lin Gongshang: I’ll bring firewood, seasonings, vegetables, and meat later. You guys bring whatever you think is useful.

Lin Qiyan: I still have some dried squid at home. I’ll bring some to grill later.

Lu Ao: I’m bringing nothing. Whatever gets caught in the net, take anything you’re interested in.

Lin Gongshang: That works too. Then let’s get ready. After the rain stops, we’ll meet at the entrance to the little grove.

Neither of them had any objections.

Once the rain stopped, Lu Ao specially took a bamboo pole and went next door to drive out the geese.

His geese had grown a little bigger again. Most of them now weighed around two or three catties, about the same size as other people’s ducklings.

The flock was gradually shedding its gray down. They no longer looked quite as silly and adorable, but when they waddled along, they were still very cute.

Lu Ao did not ride his vehicle. He carried a bucket and slowly herded the geese toward the riverbank.

It was already past July, and the grass along the road had grown thick and lush. Many grasses had even gone to seed.

Lu Ao’s flock of geese pecked here and there all along the way, wasting quite a bit of time. By the time they reached the riverbank, Lin Gongshang and Lin Qiyan had already arrived.

The two had already begun filming a video of digging for mud crabs.

Lu Ao ignored them. He drove the geese to the riverside, released his will, and with some difficulty transmitted the command for the geese to follow the river upstream. Then he left them alone.

Carrying his bucket, he headed upstream to collect the nets. On the way, he happened to run into Lin Gongshang and Lin Qiyan.

Lin Gongshang had been digging for mud crabs for a while, and his pants were covered in mud. He looked extremely disheveled.

Seeing Lu Ao, he asked, “You’re going to collect the nets now?”

“Mm.” Lu Ao asked, “How many mud crabs did you dig up?”

“Only one.” Lin Gongshang gloomily showed him the one mud crab he had dug up. “Maybe because it rained and the weather is cool and damp, all the mud crabs went outside to look for food.”

“Maybe.”

“Forget it. I’m not digging anymore. We’ll go collect the nets with you and see if we can get anything good.”

“We still have to walk ahead. The nets are in the wild pond.”

“Hey, I think I saw them. You used wooden stakes to secure them, right?”

Lu Ao nodded.

Lin Gongshang excitedly ran ahead.

There was a lot of rainwater now, so Lu Ao had set floating nets. The fishing nets floated on the surface of the water. If he had not driven wooden stakes into the pond bottom to secure them, the current would have washed them off to who knew where.

The three of them walked along the river, and before long, they reached a wild pond near the upper reaches.

Lu Ao had set his nets here yesterday.

No one had tended this wild pond for decades, but it was connected to the river, so there should be some fish, shrimp, and crabs inside.

Lin Gongshang stood on the bank and looked for a moment, then volunteered, “You guys stay here. I’ll go pull them up. My pants are already wet, so you two don’t have to get yours wet.”

“Be careful.”

“I know.” Lin Gongshang stepped directly into the pond with his shoes on and made his way over to pull up the net.

It was summer, and the rainfall was abundant, so the water in the pond had also risen somewhat. It now reached Lin Gongshang’s thighs. Pulling up the net was not easy.

He waded over bit by bit. After finally reaching the place where the net had been set, he tugged at it and immediately said, “It’s so heavy! There must be something good in this net!”

“Pull it up and let’s see!”

“Alright! Wait a moment!”

As Lin Gongshang spoke, he pulled the net toward the bank step by step. Lu Ao went over to help.

Many people who collected floating nets liked to do so directly in the water. They would sit on a small floating raft, slowly pull the net up along its length, remove the things caught in it, and then leave the net there to catch another round.

Their way of dragging the net to the shore was actually relatively rare.

After quite a while, Lin Gongshang finally dragged the net to the bank.

He dropped it onto the grass and said excitedly, “Quick, let’s see what good stuff we got.”

Lu Ao had already seen quite a few fish. “There probably isn’t anything good.”

“Impossible! It felt so solid. How could there not be anything good?” Lin Gongshang dragged the bucket over. “Come, come, come. Let’s untangle the fish!”

“The first one, a suckermouth catfish…” Lin Gongshang looked at the suckermouth catfish in his hand, fell silent for a moment, and said, “Alright, this is a case of lowering expectations before raising them. Let’s look at the second one.”

Lu Ao untangled a large tilapia and threw it to him.

Lin Gongshang caught it, sounding somewhat regretful. “The second one is a tilapia. Neither good nor bad. Let’s look at the third one…”

Lin Gongshang muttered as he untangled the fish. Even after removing nearly half the net, they had not found any valuable fish. The net held either tilapia or suckermouth catfish, with very few miscellaneous fish.

Tilapia and suckermouth catfish were both invasive species. They were extremely hardy and had no natural predators, so they had spread rampantly throughout the waters of southeastern China.

After untangling yet another suckermouth catfish for who knew what number of times, Lin Gongshang was truly irritated. He simply slammed the suckermouth catfish down. “Why are there so damn many of these useless fish?!”

Lu Ao calmly picked it up. “Keep it. We’ll take them back later, crush them up, and feed them to the geese.”

“Geese can eat this?”

“Why not? They can eat anything.” Lu Ao said, “Just crush them up.”

In order to cut sweet potato leaves for the geese, Lu Ao had specially bought an electric grinder. Suckermouth catfish of this level could be thrown straight into the grinder and turned directly into minced fish. It made very good goose feed.

Only then did Lin Gongshang patiently continue untangling fish.

There were simply too many suckermouth catfish and tilapia in this pond. Even with Lu Ao’s usually good luck, they did not get anything especially nice today.

Lin Gongshang specifically used the bucket lid to set aside the fish they were going to eat. “Tilapia can still be eaten. Let’s roast six first. Not too big. About one catty each is best—fat and tender.”

“These dozen or so river shrimp can be roasted too. River shrimp this season are very fresh and sweet. They should taste pretty good grilled.”

“And last, this bass. Let’s roast this bass too?”

“Whatever you like.”

“Then I’ll take these to clean.” Lin Gongshang looked at the half-bucket of suckermouth catfish and tilapia, still feeling gloomy. “I feel like we shouldn’t have used floating nets. I wonder if bringing a fyke net over would be better?”

Lu Ao had bought this floating net on the first day he returned to his hometown. At the time, he did not have much experience. Seeing nets for sale and finding that they were not expensive, he had bought them.

Their place really was not very suitable for floating nets. Fyke nets would be better.

If he insisted on using floating nets, then once his boat arrived, he could use them in the sea someday if he was in the mood.

But his fishing boat already had a trawl net. Using such a small floating net would be somewhat inadequate.

Lu Ao said, “We’ll see later. Once Brother Dawu is free, I’ll go to his shop and buy a few fyke nets.”

“Sure. I need to go over there and restock some fishing hooks too.” Lin Gongshang stared at the bass in his hand and said, “Bass are gradually getting fat now. Why don’t we buy some bass hooks and go sea bass fishing?”

Lu Ao had never fished for bass before and became rather interested. “Is bass fishing hard?”

“Not hard, not hard. It depends on luck. If you’re lucky, it’s not hard at all.” Lin Gongshang sincerely added, “Work that depends on luck is the most suitable for you.”