Chapter 275 Part 1: The Possibility of Introducing Rare Aquatic Products (Patreon)

The second large fish from the depths was, unsurprisingly, another Bigeye Tuna.​

By the time Chu Mingcheng landed it, it was nearly twelve o'clock at night.​

Even for him, catching this tuna had been quite exhausting.​

No wonder some professional tuna fishing boats, even after a week at sea, would only catch ten or so large tuna at most.​

Even with the help of an electric reel, landing one fish took over an hour, sometimes even two.​

If someone used a conventional reel like him, it would take three or four hours, even with two or three people taking turns.​

Chu Mingcheng bled the second Bigeye Tuna, gutted it, then used the crane to lift it and check the weight.​

This one weighed 337 jin, a full thirty-plus jin lighter than the previous one.​

No wonder Chu Mingcheng had noticed its belly was noticeably leaner when he pulled it up—the length was about the same.​

He currently didn't know how to assess a fish's fat content or judge the quality of its meat, so he couldn't accurately estimate the value of the two Bigeye Tuna.​

He guessed they should fetch over fifty thousand yuan, but he didn't know exactly how much more.​

As for Yellowfin Tuna, he could estimate the price because the average purchase price for that fish was between thirty and fifty yuan per jin, rarely exceeding fifty, so the difference wouldn't be too significant.​

Bigeye Tuna might sell for fifty yuan per jin, or possibly over a hundred—it really depended on the meat quality and how well it was preserved, making it difficult to calculate.​

Of course, this was the approximate selling price in the Shanghai tuna market; the actual retail price would be much higher.​

"Yawn!" Jiang Luoluo, having helped operate the crane to move the tuna into the refrigerated hold, couldn't help but yawn now that the night's work was done.​

Today had been quite tiring for her too—fishing, practicing dance... the two hours of rest in the afternoon hadn't been nearly enough to recover her energy.​

This was even after her physical fitness had improved significantly. Two months ago, after being tormented like that by Chu Mingcheng at noon, she probably would have slept all afternoon.​

"Luoluo, you go shower and rest first. I'll tidy up here."​

Seeing she was tired, Chu Mingcheng let her go back first.​

"Mm!" Jiang Luoluo didn't argue, nodding and heading inside to shower.​

Chu Mingcheng grabbed the hose and first rinsed the blood off the deck, then put away the fishing rods.​

The sea lions had also emerged by now.​

Fearing they'd get in the way while fishing, Jiang Luoluo had previously shut them in the saloon.​

Now that Jiang Luoluo had gone inside, the door remained open, and the sea lions naturally came over, mainly drawn by the smell of food.​

Actually, Chu Mingcheng didn't mind. He could command the sea lions, and they would obey obediently.​

After putting the rods away, Chu Mingcheng scooped up some pomfret to feed them.​

Then he walked into the cabin. Soon, all the lights on the Poseidon went out, leaving only the warning light flashing in the dark sea.​

A new day arrived—Chu Mingcheng's third day at sea.​

He was up at six as usual, munching on bread while making breakfast.​

Last night's fishing had consumed quite a bit of energy; he'd woken up hungry. So he hadn't even waited for breakfast, grabbing a piece of Western-style bread first.​

Half an hour later, having filled his stomach, Chu Mingcheng started retrieving the crab cages, not bothering to wake the still-sleeping Jiang Luoluo.​

She wasn't here to fish—she was mainly keeping him company because she worried about him being alone at sea.​

He'd caught Spiny Pandalid Shrimp yesterday, so today he retrieved the shrimp pots first.​

After maneuvering the boat to a spot between the shrimp and crab pots, Chu Mingcheng went onto the deck, opened the small gate at the stern first to let the sea lions out to forage, then pulled back the shrimp pot buoy and tied the rope to the crane line to haul it up.​

"Skunked?"​

Chu Mingcheng felt a little frustrated—seemed his luck wasn't good today.​

If deep-sea crabs and shrimp were this hard to catch, he'd have to switch water layers tonight and go for swimming crabs and prawns, among others.​

Then, he also pulled up the crab cages, not holding out much hope.​

But unexpectedly, just like yesterday, when one wasn't working, the other was. The crab cage actually contained three crabs he recognized quite well.​

This delighted Chu Mingcheng—he'd caught Giant Spider Crabs.​

He had encountered this type of crab while diving in Australia when collecting species data.​

At the time, the dense gathering of hundreds, even thousands, of Giant Spider Crabs had made his mouth water.​

That kind of density was almost comparable to king crabs. Moreover, these Giant Spider Crabs weren't small; the carapace width could reach sixteen centimeters, nearly the size of an ordinary king crab.​

Their legs could reach seventy centimeters, and their claws were very long.​

Ordinary crabs usually only have one joint when you break off a claw, but Giant Spider Crabs have three, and their meat yield is quite high.​

Chu Mingcheng had tasted one back then; the meat was sweet and quite delicious.​

If he hadn't been preparing to return, he might have specifically targeted these crabs.​

Now, unexpectedly, he'd caught some in the waters near Treasure Island. He didn't know if it was just a coincidence.​

Chu Mingcheng immediately sped up retrieving the cages, wanting to know if there were many Giant Spider Crabs in these waters.​

The shrimp pots, unsurprisingly, were all empty, but a total of thirteen Giant Spider Crabs, with carapaces over twelve centimeters, were caught in the ten crab cages.​

This number couldn't compare to what he'd seen in Australia.​

The aggregations in Australia were massive, with at least hundreds of spider crabs in each group.​

Catching a few dozen in one cage drop would probably be easy there. This made him feel a bit regretful.​

Chu Mingcheng looked at the second ability of the Aquatic Species Codex, suspecting the presence of Giant Spider Crabs here was related to this ability.​

Normally, the waters of China shouldn't be able to support, or would make it difficult for, Giant Spider Crabs to survive.​

But this ability increased survival rates by 20%, plus boosted reproduction speed. With artificial release, perhaps they really could survive, just not reach rampant levels for the time being.​

But given the domestic situation, he really wasn't afraid of Giant Spider Crabs becoming rampant.​

If that really happened, would it be possible to introduce king crabs, Giant Tasmanian King Crabs, and other relatively precious foreign seafood?​

At the very least, Chu Mingcheng really wanted to eat fresh Scarlet Shrimp; the frozen ones available domestically just weren't the same. To eat fresh ones, you had to go to Spain.​

His thoughts wandered for a moment before he shook his head and refocused. For now, it was unnecessary to dwell on these things.​

Perhaps when his cheat level was higher and he had more free time, he could try introducing these aquatic products.​

He tied up the claws of the thirteen Giant Spider Crabs, took a photo first, then bound them and placed them in the original Regal Mantis Shrimp spot.​

Then he noticed a few dead Spiny Pandalid Shrimp.​

He hadn't expected any to die after just one day. He wondered how many would survive by the time they reached shore.​

Chu Mingcheng scooped out the few dead Spiny Pandalid Shrimp. He'd originally planned to throw them away but noticed they were actually still alive, just very weak.​

This brightened his eyes. He quickly took them into the kitchen, peeled the meat, chilled it in ice water, and tasted the sashimi.​

With one bite, his eyebrows shot up. He found that most deep-sea seafood, if edible, tasted fantastic.​

The Spiny Pandalid Shrimp sashimi was even better than the Giant Tiger Prawn, extremely fresh and sweet, with a unique shrimp flavor that was quite addictive.​

He ate them all in one go, not leaving a single one.​

As for Jiang Luoluo's share, he'd just grab some live ones at noon.​

He prepared cat food for the cats. After they finished eating, Chu Mingcheng went onto the deck to check the situation.​

The sea lions were still searching for tuna or schools of fish; he could only wait for now.​

So he sat in the chair at the stern, took out the photo of the Giant Spider Crabs he'd just taken, and sent it to Brother Sea King. This guy should be interested in these crabs.​

"Brother Sea King, what do you think of these crabs?"​

"Huh, these spider crabs look familiar!" Brother Sea King must have been free, replying quickly.​

Just as Chu Mingcheng was about to tell him what kind of crab it was, he immediately called.​

"Brother, you caught Giant Spider Crabs, right? These seem to be from Australia. Are you in Australia?"​

Brother Sea King guessed Australia mainly because the picture background was the boat deck, instantly recognizable.​

If it were a seafood shop, the background would likely be the ground or a fish tank.​

Chu Mingcheng replied, "No, I bought a bigger boat and went deep-sea fishing for tuna. I dropped some crab cages last night and unexpectedly caught these spider crabs. I thought you might be interested in exotic seafood, so I sent you a picture."​

Brother Sea King exclaimed, "Damn, China has Giant Spider Crabs? I never expected that; I thought only Australia had them. I definitely want these, brother. You have to save the biggest one for me."​

Then he suddenly reacted, "Wait, what did you just say? You bought a bigger boat to go fishing for tuna?"​

Chu Mingcheng confirmed, "Yeah, caught five yesterday. Probably heading back in two days. I'll sell them in Shanghai, so I'll pass by your area."​

Brother Sea King was delighted. If it were shipped like before, he'd have to pay several hundred in shipping fees.​

Of course, that wasn't the main point. The main point was that Chu Mingcheng's boat would pass by his area, allowing him to board and see what else he'd caught. Maybe he could buy a few more types of ingredients.​

"Awesome, brother! Last time it was a small boat, this year you've upgraded big time! When you pass by my doorstep in a few days, you absolutely have to call me."​

"Sure, I'll definitely call you then."​

After chatting for a few sentences, Chu Mingcheng hung up. He then thought of Uncle Kuangshan in Putian and called him too.​

Uncle Kuang was also interested when he heard the boat would pass by and immediately agreed.​

With two buyers secured, he didn't contact anyone else.​

Customers in the group chat didn't need advance notice; he could just let them know when he was almost back in Wenzhou, and they could come to the pier directly.​

As for the customers further inland, some seafood couldn't be shipped.​

Both the spider crabs and the Spiny Pandalid Shrimp, if shipped alive, would likely be dead upon arrival. It was better not to sell them.​

He could sell them some frozen fish at most, which couldn't be helped.​

A full two hours passed before Little Yellow returned to the boat first. Seeing Chu Mingcheng, it barked a few times.​

"Found fish? Then lead the way."​

Chu Mingcheng immediately took action, went to the cockpit, started the Poseidon to warm up, then sounded the horn, calling the other two sea lions back first.​

He then went to the refrigerated hold and brought out a new box of mackerel bait.​

Thinking the sea lions probably hadn't eaten their fill, he brought out another box and placed it on the deck to thaw.​

He wasn't sure what kind of fish it was this time, but mackerel could serve as bait for most.​

A little while later, after Little Black and Little White returned, he piloted the Poseidon out.​

Little Yellow waited ahead of the Poseidon. Sensing the boat moving, it immediately started leading the way.​

This trip was quite far. Over an hour later, Little Yellow finally stopped.​

Chu Mingcheng stopped too, then checked the fish finder, but found no thick red lines.​

However, he wasn't concerned. Whether it was a school of fish or tuna, they wouldn't just stay in one place.​

Become a Pledge member on my Patreon to unlock early chapters for all my translated novels. Read ahead now!

If you are enjoying the novel, please leave a 5-star rating on Novel Updates!

[Chapters List]

[Next Chapter]