As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Continue Fishing for Softshell Turtles

He left home and went to fetch the car from the car wash.

Chu Mingcheng returned to his family home on Yanmen Island, took out the fishing equipment again, and loaded it into the car.

All the black fish he had kept overnight were packed into a fish box for the car, but he left the smallest black fish for Xiao Mi.

The Qiao Zui fish from yesterday was nowhere to be seen; he didn’t know if it had hidden itself away.

He drove to the town’s vegetable market where today he planned to try selling the fish himself. If it sold well, he could sell the fish he caught at sea this way in the future; if not, he would have to sell to a stall owner at a low price.

Chu Mingcheng bought some bags, then carried the fish box and digital scale to set up his stall on a small road next to the back door of the vegetable market.

It was strictly controlled at the front door where casual vending was not allowed, but there were no issues at the back door, where some people would set up to sell their goods.

There were quite a few people shopping for groceries early in the morning, and the foot traffic at the back door was not low.

Seeing him selling black fish, a few people came over to ask, but upon hearing forty yuan per pound, they walked away without looking back, deeming it too expensive.

Indeed, one black fish weighing three pounds would cost one hundred and twenty yuan, which could buy quite a lot of pork.

After trying to sell for a while, Chu Mingcheng felt that the black fish were not selling well, so he planned to take them into the vegetable market to see if the fish stall owners were interested in buying them at a discount.

Just then, a middle-aged man who was passing by curiously came over to look and asked, “Brother, how are you selling these fish?”

“Thirty-five yuan per pound, they are wild,” said Chu Mingcheng. His confidence was somewhat undermined after about a dozen people commented on the high price, so he thought he’d lower the price a bit to see how it went.

“Can I take a look?”

“Of course.”

The middle-aged man squatted down and reached out to pick up a black fish to look at it.

However, the black fish struggled fiercely; it not only broke free from his grasp but also splashed water everywhere, causing Chu Mingcheng to keep a good distance while he was attempting to catch the fish.

Having witnessed this scene the night before and that morning, he knew that the black fish would resist violently the moment it was grasped.

The middle-aged man also dodged when the fish slipped from his hands, but he still got splashed somewhat, though he didn’t mind.

He now knew for certain that these black fish were wild, caught with a fishing rod, so he asked further, “Brother, where did you catch these fish?”

“They were caught in an abandoned pond. They were kept overnight, but the water is still pretty clean, so they’re safe to eat,” replied Chu Mingcheng, remembering what Chu Yongxin had warned him about the previous day, and he spoke truthfully to address the middle-aged man’s concerns.

“Okay, give me the biggest one,” the middle-aged man said, pointing to the largest fish in the box. Then he took out his phone and started making a call.

“Ah Hai, I’ve found some wild black fish at the market, very clean. Do you want one? If so, I’ll bring you one.”

“Yeah, how big do they get? The smallest one here looks to be about three pounds.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll see you soon.”

After the first call, he made two more calls before finally hanging up and putting away his phone. Then he turned to Chu Mingcheng and asked, “Can you weigh three more black fish, each about three pounds?”

“Absolutely!” Finally getting a good sale and selling four at once, Chu Mingcheng felt genuinely motivated.

Aside from the one just weighed at five pounds and three taels, the remaining three weighed two pounds and nine taels, three pounds and three taels, and three pounds and six taels, totaling 528.5 yuan. Chu Mingcheng rounded it down to 525 yuan.

Selling is strange like that, as long as someone starts buying, the business naturally picks up.

After the middle-aged man left with the fish, it wasn’t long before a young couple came by.

Mainly it was the young wife who craved sour fish soup. Hearing it was wild black fish, she immediately bought one.

By the time all the fish had sold, it was already nine in the morning, and he had spent over two hours.

Chu Mingcheng calculated the accounts, a total of forty-six jin and three taels, and he had received 1610 yuan, rounding off the fractions and ending up 21 yuan short.

If he considered thirty-one jins sold to the fish stall owner, that would be 1398 yuan, a shortfall of 212.

Earning an extra two hundred yuan for just over two hours of work was still worthwhile.

After packing up his belongings back in the car, Chu Mingcheng went into the market to buy five jin of pork liver.

Now that he knew the price of wild turtles was so high and they sold easily, it made no sense to do anything else!

He might have finished fishing in the abandoned pond, but he could still go to the reservoir. It was such a large body of water, it was hard to believe there weren’t any turtles there.

However, the Fushouluo still needed burning. There wasn’t a lot of burnable wood left by the abandoned pond, and most of what was easy to burn had been used up yesterday, so today he specifically bought some charcoal to bring along in his car.

Arriving again at the abandoned pond, Chu Mingcheng first threw two jin of pork liver to prepare the spot, then attached the fish hooks, baited them, and set up the stands; after he finished setting up, he left it alone for now and started scooping up Fushouluo with a net.

He had almost cleared out all the Fushouluo by the pondside yesterday, but overnight, a few had appeared again, just not as many as before.

He scooped and picked through them, and after half an hour, the spot he prepared should have taken effect, and Chu Mingcheng then began fishing for turtles in earnest.

The pond was only so large, wherever there was food, the aquatic life naturally gathered; the effect of preparing the spot was much better than that of the reservoir since it was smaller.

Yesterday morning, in just two hours, he had caught five turtles; today, starting from ten, Chu Mingcheng caught only one large turtle of about four jin, one Black fish, and three Catfish.

He planned to see how it would go after the temperature dropped in the afternoon; if there wasn’t much caught, then there was no need to come back to this pond next time. @@novelbin@@

Lunch was still solved outdoors, and in the afternoon, he continued to burn Fushouluo.

This time, until three o’clock, did Chu Mingcheng use the remaining two jin of pork liver to prepare the spot and then poured water to extinguish the fire.

The Fushouluo he burned today were far fewer than yesterday, totaling 343, having undergone three life transformations.

The afternoon of fishing took quite a while, stretching until past seven in the evening, and once again, the harvest was pleasing.

The smallest wild turtle weighed two jin, the largest five jin, and together with this morning’s, he had a total of seven turtles, one more than yesterday.

It made sense as the pond wasn’t small, and yesterday he even caught one weighing over ten jin.

For wild turtles to grow to over ten jins, they must be at least ten years old, one of the reasons why they fetched such a high price of eight thousand; it was incredibly rare.

If they were farm-raised, he estimated they could grow to ten jins in two or three years.

Having a turtle over ten years old indicated that the turtles in the pond had been breeding continuously.

Even if the pond was low on food, it wasn’t enough to deplete six or seven turtles by fishing them out.

However, he caught quite a lot of Catfish today too, all of which he released back.

In total, he had caught only five Black fish, and for the time being, he didn’t plan to sell them, choosing instead to keep them at home and perhaps sell them when he had time.

Packing up and heading back, he returned once again to his old home on Yanmen Island tonight.

He placed the turtles in one fish box, filling it with fresh water to keep them, and poured the Black fish into another box.

Chu Mingcheng then checked on Little Mi, who now behaved very affectionately whenever she saw him, always approaching him on her own initiative.

After petting the cat for a while, he took a bath and lay down on the bed in the attic, stretching leisurely. Indeed, nothing beat the comfort of sleeping here.