novelraw Chapter 233: The Giant Coral Cave
Chapter 233: The Giant Coral Cave
Chapter 233: The Giant Coral Cave
In the past, these two large fish would have been a hassle for Chu Mingcheng—he'd have had to haul them onto the boat first.
But now, clipped to the fish stringer, his movements weren't affected in the slightest, so he just kept them with him.
Jiang Luoluo's dive time was only twenty minutes, so he had to keep accompanying her. However, another ten minutes passed without her finding any more large fish.
During the day, most fish hide until they come out to hunt at night. After nine o'clock, they hide again to sleep. These fish, which live in the coral reefs and rock clusters, remain stationary for most of the day.
The half-hour training session ended with Jiang Luoluo panting from exhaustion. It wasn't that her stamina was poor—she'd just spent most of it dealing with Chu Mingcheng earlier. She wasn't in her best condition, so a half-hour dive naturally felt tiring.
Back on the boat, Jiang Luoluo showered, then pulled out her laptop. She started listening to music, trying to choose a suitable background track from the songs she'd downloaded.
While Chu Mingcheng worked hard, she was no exception. Before she started filming her underwater dance, she would maintain her previous update schedule, releasing a video every ten days or so.
After choosing a song, she had to understand its background and the meaning expressed in the lyrics. Finally, based on the background and lyrics, she would choreograph suitable dance moves.
On the other side, Chu Mingcheng hovered five meters above the coral reef, activating his Fish Gathering function. With the Fish Gathering ability, he no longer needed to painstakingly search through the coral reef himself.
In just a short while, lobsters, groupers, and a premium wrasse appeared in his line of sight.
Chu Mingcheng observed them and found that only a blackspot tuskfish and a tiger grouper were relatively large, both estimated to be around ten jin.
However, the tiger grouper's price was slightly higher than the blackspot tuskfish's, so he chose to go for the tiger grouper first.
He kept his speargun raised and moved it slightly without alerting the group of creatures. Only a large movement from Chu Mingcheng would startle them out of their attracted state.
The next moment, the spear pierced the tiger grouper. The commotion was quite large, scaring the gathered creatures into scattering in all directions.
However, Chu Mingcheng only paid attention to the blackspot tuskfish's movement.
Gripping the line, he pulled the tiger grouper along and followed it, simultaneously deactivating the Fish Gathering function. This prevented the whole school from following him, which would have left him unsure of which target to choose later.
After swimming about twenty meters, the blackspot tuskfish slowed down. Thinking it was safe, it stopped beside a patch of seaweed.
Chu Mingcheng stopped about ten meters away from it, first pulling the tiger grouper over to bleed it.
After finishing, he clipped it to his fish stringer, reloaded the speargun, and then approached the blackspot tuskfish.
Startled by the earlier commotion, this blackspot tuskfish seemed to have become very wary.
When Chu Mingcheng got within about six or seven meters, it began to swim away uneasily. This distance was a bit too far—the carbon fiber speargun wasn't very effective.
Chu Mingcheng tried activating the Fish Gathering function and found that it didn't attract the fish. He turned it off and on again, repeating this several times, but it still had no effect.
He didn't know if the probability was too low or if there was a limit to repeatedly activating it like this. The Aquatic Codex provided no explanation.
Helpless, Chu Mingcheng could only maintain this distance, raising his speargun to aim and predict the fish's movement. With a bang, the spear hit the back of the blackspot tuskfish.
This position was a bit troublesome—the fish wasn't seriously injured, so it would struggle fiercely.
Fortunately, the spear had passed completely through, and the barb would keep it from falling off.
Chu Mingcheng let go of the speargun, holding the line without pulling too hard. He wanted to wear down the fish's stamina first, to avoid the wound widening if he pulled too forcefully.
Therefore, he played this fish for a full five or six minutes before pulling it in front of him.
The completely exhausted blackspot tuskfish didn't even move when Chu Mingcheng grabbed it, only struggling slightly during the final bleeding.
He removed the spear and examined the wound—it was still a bit large. Even the surface flesh was somewhat mangled. A pity.
Fortunately, the fish weighed about ten jin and was large enough, so the wound was acceptable. He currently had only four fish on him, far from his target.
Chu Mingcheng activated the Fish Gathering function again, attracting the hidden premium aquatic creatures.
The resources of this coral reef had truly exceeded his expectations. There were quite a few large fish, and every time he used the Fish Gathering function, it attracted a precious big fish of over ten jin.
Among them, there were even three Asian sheepshead wrasses, all male, and all weighing over twenty jin. These three fish would definitely have to be sold in Wenzhou, where the price was higher.
With twelve fish hanging from his stringer, the total weight had already surpassed two hundred and fifty jin. He didn't mind a hundred-plus jin of fish, but with over two hundred and fifty jin, even with his current physique, his swimming was still greatly affected.
It was a bit heavy. Fortunately, with the help of the seawater's buoyancy, it wasn't too difficult for him.
Returning to the side of the boat, Chu Mingcheng called Jiang Luoluo out and asked her to place two foam boxes nearby.
Then, one by one, he unclipped the fish from the stringer and handed them to her to place in the boxes and cover with crushed ice.
With her help, the twelve large fish were all arranged in the foam boxes in just a short while.
Chu Mingcheng didn't continue spearfishing. Instead, he returned to the boat and moved the two nearly full foam boxes to a more inward position.
An hour and a half had passed—he needed to collect the buoys floating on the water to see what his catch was like.
He pulled on the first buoy and immediately felt a pulling force in his hand. A smile appeared on his face. "Good luck, a fish on the first one."
"Quick, pull it up and see what it is."
Jiang Luoluo had been steering the boat. After he brought the buoy up, she immediately came to the deck to see the harvest.
Chu Mingcheng hadn't taken off his gloves, so he could safely pull the line now. As the line was reeled in, a bluespotted snapper was lifted up.
He had thought it was a grouper, but it turned out to be a snapper. However, the snapper wasn't small—to be able to swallow a small squid, it had to be at least five jin.
Jiang Luoluo quickly brought over the scale. Chu Mingcheng placed the fish on it to weigh it—seven jin and seven liang. Not bad.
Next was the second buoy. It felt even heavier than the first, so the fish was clearly bigger.
A bigger fish was naturally a good thing, but it also depended on what kind of fish it was. If it was an ordinary sea bass, even if it was over ten jin, the price wouldn't compare to the bluespotted snapper.
"Holy shit!"
"Whoa!"
The two on the boat let out cries of amazement when they saw the fish struggling on the water's surface. The next moment, Jiang Luoluo hurriedly brought over the landing net and scooped the fish up.
This was a humpback grouper, and it looked much larger than the one he had sold to Wei Jiaguo before—almost seventy or eighty centimeters long. How could he dare let Chu Mingcheng just lift it straight up!
"We've struck it rich, struck it rich! Quick, weigh it and see how heavy it is," Jiang Luoluo said, looking at the fish with great excitement.
This was a live humpback grouper. Even if Chu Mingcheng had encountered it while spearfishing, he would have tried to catch it alive. The price difference between a live and dead humpback grouper was just too exaggerated.
The fish was placed on the scale—fourteen jin and six liang. This humpback grouper was worth at least fifteen thousand. After weighing it, Chu Mingcheng quickly placed it in a separate fish box, poured in seawater, and turned on the oxygen pump.
"Who should we sell this fish to? Agong bought one before, will he buy another? How about we sell it to Brother Sea King? I feel like he's particularly fond of these exceptionally large fish."
Jiang Luoluo asked, seeking his opinion.
"Brother Sea King's no good—he only haggles when he buys fish, asking you to lower the price. He's not like Agong, who always buys our seafood at a premium."
Except for the very beginning when his account needed traffic and he sold a fish on the cheap, Chu Mingcheng basically hadn't considered selling to him again, unless he asked. If he could sell his fish to others at a high price, he certainly wouldn't sell it for less.
"After we get back, I'll ask in the group chat first. If the price in the group doesn't exceed twenty thousand, then we might as well sell it to Agong for a bit cheaper."
Compared to Brother Sea King, Wei Jiaguo was closer to them and had helped him a lot in the beginning. If he had to give someone a discount, Chu Mingcheng felt he'd rather give it to him.
Jiang Luoluo agreed with his decision, so the two continued to collect the buoys, hoping for another humpback grouper.
Unfortunately, a humpback grouper this large might not appear even once in several years. The fact that they'd caught one was all thanks to the sea lion.
The remaining buoys all had fish on them: six groupers, two parrotfish, and two snappers. The lightest one was five jin—the harvest was astonishing.
So Chu Mingcheng baited the hooks with small squid again and threw the buoys back into the water one by one. After finishing, he entered the water once more to continue spearfishing.
Because he had been collecting the buoys, the fishing boat had already left the original area and was now closer to the small island.
Chu Mingcheng dived to the bottom. Just as he was about to activate the Fish Gathering function, he was stunned to find a cave in the coral cluster to his left, large enough for him to enter.
With a hint of curiosity, feeling that there might be some big catch inside, he swam over to check the situation.
However, when he reached the cave entrance, he found that the depth of the cave was a bit beyond his expectations.
The weather today was great, with a clear sky and plenty of sunshine. Logically, if the cave was shallow, he should be able to see the situation inside clearly with the help of the sunlight.
However, when he reached the edge of the cave, he found that it was still pitch black inside, making it impossible for him to see what was in there.
This piqued his curiosity, making him want to explore what was inside. Chu Mingcheng returned to the boat and asked Jiang Luoluo to bring him the underwater flashlight.
She was very puzzled by this. After handing him the flashlight, she asked, "What did you find that you need a flashlight for?"
"I found a coral cave, and it's quite large. I plan to go inside and take a look—maybe there'll be some kind of harvest."
"This... won't it be dangerous?"
"It won't be. At most, there are just some fish hiding inside. The truly dangerous things in the sea are those big sharks, and we won't run into them here."
Jiang Luoluo thought about it and agreed. Plus, she hadn't seen the specific situation, so she just let Chu Mingcheng be.