novelraw Chapter 270: Who's Afraid of Whom!
Chapter 270: Who's Afraid of Whom!
Jiang Luoluo gave Chu Mingcheng a light kiss on the lips, then returned to the bedroom to sleep.
Sitting alone in the pilothouse, surrounded by darkness with only the occasional sound of waves, it was easy to feel lonely.
But for an angler, loneliness was the easiest thing to endure.
Having worked at sea for so long, Chu Mingcheng was naturally used to it.
Even without playing games or browsing his phone, he could simply let his mind wander and pass the time.
But having internet access at sea now was fantastic. Browsing short videos, looking at beautiful women—time flew by.
Don't get the wrong idea. With a top-tier girlfriend in both looks and figure, Chu Mingcheng was completely uninterested in other women.
Especially online beauties with beauty filters, long legs, and other special effects—they weren't his type. He was just looking for research purposes.
What was he researching? Clothes, of course.
Some outfits seemed quite nice. He screenshotted them, then opened a shopping website.Chu Mingcheng knew Jiang Luoluo definitely wouldn't wear anything too risqué right now.
So he could only start with some relatively sexy outfits that easily aroused excitement.
In just a short while, he had bought seven sets online, complete with matching stockings—very durable… for tearing.
It cost just over two thousand, not even three thousand yuan.
Seven sets of clothes were far from enough, but that was it for today—no need to rush.
In the future, if he saw any clothes that made him react physically, he'd buy them.
He'd earned so much money—what was it for if not to spend?
As for those uniforms, Chu Mingcheng didn't buy any for now—those could be the second phase.
Emotional exchange between couples is like fishing.
First, cast a long line, then slowly play the fish. That's where the fun is.
Just as he finished buying clothes and put away his phone, he realized the Poseidon had arrived at the destination, slowing down and coming to a stop.
Looking at the time, it was already past one in the morning.
Chu Mingcheng didn't immediately turn off the engine to rest. He first checked the fish finder.
The deepest point here was only fifty-something meters—clearly not a good spot.
Then Chu Mingcheng manually steered the boat, searching for deeper waters.
The ropes for his crab cages and shrimp pots were three hundred meters long. This depth could catch the vast majority of deep-sea species.
Therefore, there was no need to add more rope. After all, this was a fishing yacht, not an Alaskan King Crab boat.
Long ropes took up a lot of space and were troublesome to handle.
After cruising for about ten minutes, Chu Mingcheng looked at the fish finder and let out a soft sound of surprise.
This was an area with a depth of two hundred and fifty-seven meters, and the fish finder showed several thick, long red lines—clearly large fish at the bottom.
Chu Mingcheng stopped the boat directly above this spot, then observed the movement of these thick lines.
In just a short while, the thick lines moved from the rear of the boat to the far left of the fish finder screen.
Based on this movement trajectory, Chu Mingcheng determined that the fish below must be tuna, and large ones at that.
He didn't expect to find them right away. It seemed he had found the right location.
However, in the middle of the night, Chu Mingcheng didn't plan to fish. He turned on the deck lights, went to the refrigerated hold, and brought out a box of squid bait.
His refrigerated hold could reach a minimum temperature of -55 degrees Celsius, not much different from the -60 degrees Celsius of ultra-low temperature freezing, perfectly capable of preserving the freshness of tuna.
But for now, it was just storing bait, so he had set the temperature similar to a normal cold storage, at -18 degrees Celsius.
These squid were frozen solid. Fortunately, Chu Mingcheng had a dedicated fish filleting knife for dissecting tuna.
He had bought this knife just three days ago. It looked much like the cleaver used at a butcher stall—super sharp and sturdy.
With it, the frozen solid small squid could be chopped in half with one stroke.
It didn't matter if the knife got dull—there were two new whetstones on the boat. A quick sharpening would fix it.
He placed the chopped squid into the small bait cages inside the crab cages and shrimp pots. Just this one baiting session used about twenty jin of squid.
Once that was done, he dropped the crab cages one by one along this area, then dropped the shrimp pots as well.
Dropping the crab cages was more troublesome—they needed to be spaced out. So he'd drop one from the bow, then carry one to the stern and drop another.
Run to the pilothouse, move the boat, continue… He ran back and forth to the pilothouse four times to get it done.
The shrimp pots were the same. After dropping the crab cages, he'd grab a shrimp pot and drop it on the other side of the boat, one pot per location.
Ten crab cages and five shrimp pots in total. If luck was good, he should catch something.
It didn't matter if the catch was small. As long as it was deep-sea and alive, the price would be ridiculously high.
Even if they died and were frozen, as long as they were fresh, they were still much more expensive than commonly caught seafood.
The resting sea lions and cats on the boat were woken by his movements, just staring at him.
After finishing, Chu Mingcheng went to the pilothouse, turned off the engine, then took a shower, returned to the bedroom, and snuggled up to the soundly sleeping Jiang Luoluo.
Her skin, exposed outside the covers, felt cool and soft against the air conditioning—incredibly comfortable to hold.
His girlfriend served another function at night—a very comfortable body pillow.
Of course, for Jiang Luoluo, Chu Mingcheng served the same purpose.
Sure enough, even in deep sleep, she instinctively snuggled into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his waist and simultaneously lifting a long leg to rest on his.
Chu Mingcheng's lips curved up. He let her keep it there and soon drifted off to sleep.
The Poseidon's warning light stayed on, gently drifting on the sea surface.
Meanwhile, this area frequented by tuna was anything but quiet.
Tuna fishing boats used fish-attracting lights to gather tuna, with a dozen or so boats forming a circle, waiting only for dawn to haul in their nets.
But there were even more small fishing boats, setting out longlines one after another, or simply casting nets, hoping for a good harvest in the morning.
There were also boats specifically fishing for squid. These boats, taking advantage of the squid's attraction to light, worked at night and slept during the day—a particularly tough job.
If Chu Mingcheng encountered them, he could actually buy bait directly from their boat, probably three or four yuan cheaper than ashore.
As for fishing yachts like his, they were still relatively rare in the open sea.
This kind of boat was basically for rich people to go sea fishing. Its practicality was much lower than a fishing boat of the same size.
It was only because Chu Mingcheng mainly fished and hunted, could handle everything himself at sea, and prioritized comfort that he bought a fishing yacht.
The night passed. The next day, Chu Mingcheng woke up first again, just a little past six, not quite six-thirty.
Using the restroom and washing up, he came to the kitchen to make breakfast.
He took a large carton of milk from the fridge, opened it, poured two glasses, and heated them in the microwave.
He took out the egg boiler from the cabinet, put in five free-range eggs, and started cooking them.
Finally, he poured purified water into the pot on the induction cooker, took a pack of char siu bao (BBQ Pork Bun) from the fridge—four in total—and steamed them all.
Jiang Luoluo could eat at most one bun and two eggs—the rest were all his.
Fishing was physically demanding. If he didn't eat enough, where would he get the strength?
A little while later, before everything was ready, he heard footsteps behind him.
Turning around, he saw Jiang Luoluo walking over groggily, her face unwashed.
Chu Mingcheng smiled, went forward, picked her up, and sat her on his lap.
"If you're still sleepy, sleep a bit longer. Why get up so early?"
Jiang Luoluo leaned comfortably against his chest, her small hand unconsciously stroking his abs, her voice carrying a hint of petulance. "I'm hungry…"
"It'll be ready soon," Chu Mingcheng said softly, letting her lean against him.
A little while later, the eggs were cooked, and the buns were steamed.
Chu Mingcheng held Jiang Luoluo as he turned off the stove, then carried her to the bathroom, letting her wash up first.
The slightly cool water on her face instantly woke her up quite a bit.
After brushing her teeth, washing her face, and applying some face cream, she suddenly hopped onto Chu Mingcheng like a little rabbit, wrapping her arms around his neck and hooking her long legs around his waist.
"What are you doing?"
"Aiya, my legs feel so weak. Carry me!"
Jiang Luoluo gave him a light peck on the lips, acting spoiled.
Chu Mingcheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Alright, today his girlfriend had turned into his daughter, but he quite liked this feeling.
So he carried her toward the kitchen, teasing as he walked. "By the way, I didn't push you too hard last night, did I? How come your legs are weak?"
"It's because I'm tired from dancing, okay? When have you ever pushed me hard enough to make my legs weak?" Jiang Luoluo immediately bristled. Every time this topic came up, she was verbally unyielding.
Sometimes Chu Mingcheng couldn't tell whether she was truly stubborn or just putting on a show.
But no matter. He immediately proposed a confrontation, wanting to continue exploring this question.
"Want to try tonight?"
Jiang Luoluo's eyelids twitched, and she hesitated, pursing her lips.
But the next moment, she noticed the teasing smile on Chu Mingcheng's face and immediately lifted her head. "So what if I do? Who's afraid of whom!"
The couple bickered all the way to the kitchen. After eating breakfast, Jiang Luoluo went to the pilothouse to start the Poseidon and warm up the engine, while Chu Mingcheng went onto the deck to start retrieving the crab cages.
It wasn't even seven yet, but the summer sun rose early, and the sky was already bright.
Fortunately, the temperature wasn't high yet—it was still quite cool.
Chu Mingcheng first retrieved the buoys of the two nearby crab cages, then used the crane to pull the cages to the surface.
A little while later, the first crab cage was successfully pulled up.
However, the few unknown crabs inside, not even palm-sized, left him a bit speechless.
He checked the Aquatic Species Codex—no experience points gained. Clearly, these weren't commercially valuable aquatic products. He released them all.
Then the second crab cage. The result was even more ridiculous—completely empty. It seemed his location choice last night wasn't good—there wasn't much here.
Giving up hope, Chu Mingcheng pulled up the shrimp pots as well, but unexpectedly, the shrimp pots brought a surprise. Inside were "small lobsters," about thirty of them.
Chu Mingcheng recognized them at a glance—they were Spiny Pandalid Shrimp that looked quite similar to small lobsters.
This species was extremely rare, almost never seen in the market.
As for the price, it depended on the person. One shrimp weighed only about one liang, maybe a bit more, never exceeding two liang.
But it was said they had sold for a high price of one hundred yuan each. He didn't know the specifics—he'd only heard about the price.
These retrieved shrimp were still alive. Chu Mingcheng quickly put them into the live well to keep them alive.
He'd heard these shrimp died easily. He thought for a moment, took out the remaining bait from the cage, picked a clean piece, and put it into the live well as food for them.
Hopefully, with food and oxygen, they could survive until they reached shore.
Of course, the areas for the Mantis Shrimp and Giant Tiger Prawns also got some clean squid to prevent them from starving.
If they didn't eat and were about to starve, Chu Mingcheng would kindly send them on their way, letting them remain on Earth in another form.
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