As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Jealousy

Chu Mingcheng was selling fish today, carrying a box of fish to sell at the dock, which naturally caught the attention of the fishmongers and some of the residents on the island.

Four thousand for the fish catch, something everyone craved.

Previously, when someone asked for the price, the fishmongers had been observing. If Chu Mingcheng had been a novice, they would have made their moves long ago.

Would there have even been a chance for customers to buy the fish?

But they were all local small-scale fishmongers, not so well-informed.

When they heard that Chu Mingcheng dove to fish, they were puzzled but didn’t think too much of it since they didn’t understand fishing and hunting.

But the gaunt man who stopped him knew exactly what fishing and hunting was.

Ye Haoyong, an ordinary resident on Yanmen Island.

Thirty-five years old, always idle and dodgy with a slippery personality.

He once sweet-talked a woman from outside the area into marrying him, but just as they started living together and she got to know him, she decisively divorced him and left.

Living on the island, practically everyone could fish or gather seafood.

Ever since the sea-crossing bridge was built, people from Xia City often came to buy fish. Thus, Ye Haoyong started working as a fishmonger, buying at low prices from others and reselling elsewhere for a profit, leading to somewhat better days.

But such lowlifes typically shared some traits: unable to save money, lazy, unwilling to handle small business and always aiming too high.

Not having much money in his pocket today, Ye Haoyong came to the dock to try his luck, preparing to face up and credit some seafood to sell.

He knew this was his most stable source of income, and he managed his credit quite well.

After selling the credited fish and getting the money, he always made sure to pay it back, so the fishermen at the dock still sold him some of the less marketable produce.

What Ye Haoyong saw today was Chu Mingcheng selling fish, four thousand for a box, and fishing and hunting involved, he instantly fixated on him.

“Brother, I just wanted to ask where you got these fish. I can do diving and fishing too, we’re all hunters here, how about we team up?”

Chu Mingcheng sized up the man in front of him, a bit speechless.

People who can fish and hunt, even if they look thin on the surface, generally have very solid muscles.

The most deadly thing in the ocean is the undercurrents, to fish and hunt, one first needs a strong body, definitely not this sort of skeletal figure.

If this guy jumped into the sea, probably just a small wave would wash him away!

“I was just tagging along with someone else for the experience, someone else took me there,” Chu Mingcheng always felt the man’s goal wasn’t really to go hunting with him, but he couldn’t be bothered to deal, so he responded perfunctorily.

Ye Haoyong could naturally tell he was being brushed off. Seeing him about to leave, he quickly stopped him and revealed his purpose.

“Brother, actually I have many clients here who love seafood. But you know how it is with our fishing resources—big fish are rare, and the good stuff is even rarer.”

“I think we could cooperate, yeah? You hunt the fish and sell them at the dock, but you can’t always be lucky enough to encounter rich folks, right?”

Chu Mingcheng’s expression remained unchanged, and he replied with a light smile, “I’m afraid I have to apologize. I really just joined someone for a sea outing. And I’m about to head to Xia City soon, so I can’t cooperate either!”

Isn’t finding a partner just asking for discomfort?

Now, in the information-rich era of the internet, many smart people no longer go to the market for seafood but specifically to the docks waiting for fishing boats to return.

Moreover, some local fishermen, tired of being pressured by fishmongers to lower their prices, have simply started selling fish themselves—who would bother getting a middleman anyway!

Keeping customers and connections in one’s own hands is the real deal; cooperating with others would mean bitterly earning some fish and then filling someone else’s pockets with the profits.

Even if considering a partnership, he wouldn’t just team up with a stranger casually.

Chu Mingcheng had made his stance clear, and Ye Haoyong couldn’t really keep him any longer, he could only watch him leave.

But the next moment, his eyes lit up.

It was Zhao Jun’s wife coming down from above, who greeted Chu Mingcheng when she saw him.

Seeing the two knew each other, Ye Haoyong intercepted Zhao Jun’s Wife at the corner down the road as she headed towards the dock, and from her, he learned about Chu Mingcheng’s identity.

Upon knowing that his hometown was in the area and that he usually earned money by fishing, Ye Haoyong’s expression darkened.

It’s said that seeing others make money feels worse than losing your own.

Ye Haoyong knew that fishing required a license, otherwise it was illegal, something he had learned by idly browsing on his phone.

Given the amount of fish Chu Mingcheng had caught, he even suspected that the other man used oxygen tanks underwater.

With the mindset of “if I can’t make money, neither can you,” Ye Haoyong took out his phone and made a report.

Chu Mingcheng didn’t know that a minor trouble was coming his way; when he got back home, he immediately took out his phone to calculate his earnings from selling fish earlier.

His total income for the day from fishing was 3,978 yuan.

Though it was a substantially high income, he had also spent more than half of it on buying fishing gear and a watch that day.

The advantage of fishing over casual angling is that once you’ve bought the equipment, the only cost is going out to sea.

Whereas with angling, the cost of hooks, lines, and bait all add up.

Once he got a boat and found a few good fishing spots, he could make a decent income from fishing.

“Dong dong dong~”

“Hello, is anyone there?”

Just as Chu Mingcheng was thinking of preparing the ingredients, there was a knock at the door, along with a familiar voice—it was the firefighter he had saved.

“Coming!”

The door was not closed; as he stepped out of the kitchen, he saw two men standing at the door with armfuls of items.

It wasn’t just the firefighter he had saved; astonishingly, the fire brigade captain from before was there too.

Chu Mingcheng hadn’t expected him to come, and quickly invited them in.

The two men stepped inside, set down their things, and expressed their thanks to him again.

Chu Mingcheng politely exchanged a few words, then asked, “I don’t know how to address you two elder brothers?”

“My name is Li Bin, and this is my captain, Liu Jianjun,” replied Li Bin, the firefighter.

“I’m Chu Mingcheng,” he introduced himself, went to the kitchen to make tea for them, and casually asked, “By the way, how is that girl from last time?”

“The girl realized her mistake and even came to the hospital to apologize and thank me; I think she’s grown a lot from this incident,” Li Bin said with a smile.

He was quite happy to have saved a life, and that she had matured, even though he had nearly lost his own life in the process.

“It’s good that she changed,” Chu Mingcheng nodded. “It’s just a shame that the scumbag didn’t face any punishment!”

Moral issues, at most, could discredit someone’s reputation, but amplifying the issue to that extent often costs money.

However, Chu Mingcheng had yet to see any news about it, and even the news about the rescue had not gotten much attention.

At that moment, Liu Jianjun and Li Bin both showed a peculiar expression.

“That man got arrested for theft.”

“Huh?” Chu Mingcheng was instantly baffled. What was this about?

Liu Jianjun found it somewhat amusing yet troubling, and explained, “The girl comes from a well-off family, a bit too sheltered and naive. She lived with her boyfriend and let him use her money freely.”

“Just two days before they broke up, the guy took ten thousand yuan in cash from a drawer. Apparently, he had done it often before,” he continued.

“But this time, she didn’t know about him taking the money until she returned from the hospital and then she called the police!”

Chu Mingcheng: Nicely done.