After an hour of sailing, Li Haochen stopped, attached his bait, and began to fish. Wang Haixuan and his companions, who had been following, stopped several tens of meters away and also started fishing.
Half an hour later, just as Wang Haixuan’s group excitedly pulled in two fish, Li Haochen raised anchor and set sail again.
“Keep up, keep up.”
After sailing for another hour, they were far from the coastal waters. This time, Li Haochen stopped for much longer. Wang Haixuan and his group had also caught quite a few sea fish. This was Li Haochen’s strategy: only by letting them profit would they be lured deeper and deeper.
Setting sail again, this time the journey was much longer. They had been sailing for over two hours without stopping, but the speed had slowed down.
“Brother Xuan, why is this guy sailing for so long this time? Should we still follow?”
Wang Haixuan looked at the slowing Xingchen, gritted his teeth, and said, “Follow. His speed has decreased, he must be stopping soon.”
As dusk began to fall, unnoticed, they had been moving on and off since leaving the deserted island, and it had been nearly eight hours by the time they reached this point.
Li Haochen knew their fuel must be running low. His own speed boat of similar size didn’t have a large fuel tank, and even with a reserve tank, it wouldn’t hold much.
Suddenly, Li Haochen increased his speed, leaving Wang Haixuan and his group guessing. Nevertheless, they pushed the accelerator and followed. After a while, Li Haochen slowed down again. After repeating this a few times, Wang Haixuan and his group realized they were being toyed with. “Damn it, chase him down and I’ll beat him to a pulp!”
Adi pushed the accelerator to the floor, and the boat instantly surged forward, the bow lifting high. As they approached the Xingchen, the engine sputtered, and black smoke billowed from the exhaust. “Shit, what’s happening? Chase! We’re almost there.”
“Brother... Brother Xuan, we... we’re out of fuel.”
“If you’re out of fuel, why didn’t you refuel? Hurry, we can barely see him.”
“We’re really out of fuel.”
Adi picked up the fuel can and shook it. The last bit of residual fuel sloshed with a dull thud. He felt like crying.
“What the hell! If you’re out of fuel, why were you chasing him earlier?”
“Didn’t you tell me to chase him?” Adi mumbled aggrievedly.
“I…” Wang Haixuan wanted to curse a few more times but stopped himself. What was done was done, and no amount of scolding would help. Moreover, there was no phone signal. “Pour in the residual fuel first. We should be able to go another nautical mile or two. Let’s see if we can encounter any other returning or departing ships.”
“Damn it, I’ll remember the Xingchen…”
After sailing for a while longer without seeing Wang Haixuan’s group, Li Haochen chuckled, “Let’s see if they dare to cause trouble again, hehe!”
To be safe, Li Haochen sailed a bit further before stopping. Checking the nautical chart, he found he was already tens of nautical miles away from the coastal waters, in the waters of Yijiang Estuary in the neighboring city.
He had been so annoyed all day that he hadn’t managed to fish properly, wasting so much time. Li Haochen wasn’t feeling good.
“People are made of iron and rice; one meal missed leads to hunger. I need to fill my stomach first.”
Li Haochen went into the kitchen and took out a portion of beef and some roasted pork. He washed the rice and started cooking it quickly. He steamed some buns and prepared a soup with bitter melon, seaweed, and salted egg.
After eating and drinking his fill, it was past nine in the evening. He wasn’t sleepy, so he turned on the fishing lights to start fishing. However, he noticed many mullet swimming in the sea and immediately changed his mind.
He went into the kitchen, took out a packet of dried shrimp, and carried a large scoop net to the side of the boat.
He hung the scoop net in the sea, adjusted the position of the fishing lights, grabbed a small handful of dried shrimp, and threw it at the scoop net. The floating dried shrimp slowly sank, attracting many small fish and mullet. Soon, a few mullet swam over to snatch them.
Li Haochen did not immediately retrieve the net. He grabbed another small pinch of dried shrimp and threw it down. This time, more mullet swarmed over. He threw another handful of dried shrimp, which slowly sank like quicksand. The continuous stream of mullet, only focused on snatching the food, had no idea of the danger approaching.
While releasing the dried shrimp, he slowly raised the scoop net. As the iron ring at the top of the net emerged from the sea, he quickly pulled it up.
“Hahaha, not bad, at least twenty or so. Too bad they’re not big.”
Mullet, scientifically known as Mugil cephalus, are similar to grey mullets but belong to a different order. They are easily distinguishable by their eyes; grey mullets have a red spot, while mullet do not.
These mullet travel in large schools. If there was a net here, cast in a large circle, they could probably fill it in one or two hours, leading to a return voyage. Unhooking them would be a hassle, and their market price was low, only about ten yuan per jin. They became more expensive when fishing was banned.
He scooped some seawater into a plastic bucket to keep them alive. Soon, he caught several dozen more. This continued until the entire packet of dried shrimp was used up. He had two buckets full of mullet, all small, just juveniles.
He picked out about a jin or two of the larger ones for eating. The medium-sized ones were transferred to the spatial sea, while the smaller ones were kept. They were excellent bait, as many fish liked to eat them.
That night, a gentle easterly wind blew, the current was not strong, and the seawater was clear. The mullet gathered under the lights on the sea surface made Li Haochen’s eyes gleam. However, without the allure of dried shrimp, he couldn’t catch many, so he gave up the idea of continuing to scoop.
After a short rest, he had some tea and snacks before preparing to fish.
First, he checked the water depth, which was simple enough as the electric winch had a depth display, and he could roughly estimate it by feeling the weight of the lead sinker.
The water was not very deep, only about ten meters. He could rig up four fishing rods. Since there were many juvenile mullet, he didn’t use any other bait.
After rigging the hooks and letting them sink, he waited for his catch.
On this October night, with the easterly wind blowing, it was indeed a bit chilly.
Li Haochen went into the cabin, put on a light jacket, and then filled his thermos with hot tea before going back out.
As soon as he stepped out, the bell on the fishing rod to his left was ringing continuously, but the pull was not very strong, indicating a fish of about three to four jin.
Through prolonged use, he had become familiar with the changes on the electric winch rod when a fish took the bait and could easily estimate the fish’s size, with little deviation.
He walked over, pressed the button, and waited for the catch. It was a simple, convenient, and effortless operation.
The electric winch whirred. Li Haochen held the scoop net close to the sea surface, ready to scoop.
Within seconds, the fish was brought out of the water. Li Haochen didn’t have time to get a good look before scooping it up with the net.
When its true appearance was revealed, Li Haochen was greatly startled. He was even more excited than when he had caught the large yellow croaker. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit…”
Its back and sides were grayish-brown with orange-yellow, its belly was grayish-white, there was a black spot in the axil of its pectoral fin, its tail fin was grayish-black, and it had that iconic large orange-yellow lip.
“This… this is a Bahaba filamentosus.”
Although it wasn’t large, only weighing four or five jin, it was enough to make him incredibly excited. Li Haochen was too thrilled to speak, and he didn’t even react to the clear ringing of the bell from the other fishing rod, indicating another fish was on the line.