I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 170: Chapter 127: Fishing Club

He’d fished all night and hadn’t caught a single blue-bodied Large-spot Grouper. The hook rate for this elite BOSS made Gu Nan shake his head.

He’d only earned 1,800 Gold Coins, which wasn’t worth using a bonus card on.

’It seems these cards and stickers are quite useful and hard to come by,’ he thought. ’I’d better save them for when they really count.’

As for the special item the game had mentioned earlier, Gu Nan hadn’t caught that either, and he had no idea what was going on with it.

He did catch a good number of blue crabs and Rose Dragons, but unfortunately, only three of them weighed over five and a half pounds combined. Specimens that large were truly rare; usually, they were around two or three pounds at most.

Since he’d gotten to bed late, it was already nearly noon by the time Gu Nan got to the shop the next day.

Yi Chen knew he was coming, so she had lunch ready for him.

On the table were braised pork belly, pan-fried mackerel, scrambled eggs with yellow chives, and a bowl of egg drop soup.

”You must be starving. Come and eat!”

”Yeah.”

Gu Nan hadn’t eaten breakfast, and by now, he was starving. The aroma alone made his mouth water.

A bite of scrambled eggs with yellow chives, followed by two mouthfuls of rice.

Then a piece of braised pork belly, washed down with three mouthfuls of rice.

The two of them ate at a small folding table, sitting on little stools just like a married couple.

The neighboring shop owners and the occasional male customer who passed by all watched with envy.

This was especially true for those who had married ”little princesses”; they sighed in lament.

”When will my wife ever learn to whip up a feast like that?”

”At my place, I’m the one who has to go out grocery shopping. She really doesn’t lift a finger. I do all the cooking.”

”You guys have it easy. Forget cooking and shopping, my wife insists on using a dishwasher. The floor has to be cleaned by a robot vacuum. And don’t even get me started on laundry. Anything that can’t be machine-washed has to go to the dry cleaner’s. I told her they use washing machines there too, but she refuses to believe me.”

”If I could find a woman like that, I’d be willing to work myself to the bone for her!”

”That kid Ah Nan is a sharp one. Found himself a great partner by ’hiring an employee.’ Why didn’t I ever think of that?”

The group of men walked away, shaking their heads and sighing. Out of sight, out of mind. The two inside the shop, however, didn’t hear their grumbling.

As if drawn by the delicious smell, Dahuang sauntered over.

’It’s not that he can’t walk fast,’ Gu Nan suspected, ’he’s just too fat to run.’

”MEOW~” Dahuang came and sat down beside them, letting out a cry.

Yi Chen, still in the middle of her meal, didn’t pet his head as she usually would. Instead, she got up and placed a bowl of cat food in front of him, topped with steamed sardine meat that had been carefully deboned.

They had too many sardines to sell quickly, so it was no problem to give Dahuang an extra treat.

Gu Nan had even bought two bags of cat food, which made Dahuang treat the shop like his own home.

The cat would usually wander the seafood market on ”patrol,” and when he got tired, he’d return to the shop and hop onto the small hoist to take a nap.

Gu Nan had turned down Ye Jing’s offer to adopt a kitten mainly because they were too much trouble. If a cat was like Dahuang, only needing to be fed and nothing else, he’d be more than happy to have it. After all, it was just a little cat food.

”Boss, having lunch? Why’s the shop being renovated again? By the way, gotten any new stock in recently?” Kang Ye, who hadn’t been around for a while, walked into the store.

”It’s not really a renovation. I’m planning to keep a few large groupers, and the old tank was too small, so I’m expanding it. I just got two types of fish in today that I guarantee you’ve never tried. Want to give them a shot?” Seeing Yi Chen start to get up to serve the customer, Gu Nan held her back, gesturing for her to continue eating.

He then walked over and led Kang Ye to a row of styrofoam boxes, opening two of the lids.

The display counter was gone for now, so Gu Nan had placed all the chilled fish in the styrofoam boxes, which were lined up in a row beneath the tanks on the shop’s left side.

Gu Nan gently nudged a styrofoam box with the tip of his foot and smiled. ”This long one is Australian Hake. It’s not too expensive if you take the whole fish—just fifty a jin. If you want it processed and bagged, that’ll be seventy a jin.”

”This reddish one next to it is an Orange Roughy. It’s also a deep-sea fish, eighty a jin. Take a look and see which you’d like. They’re all chilled on ice, so you can be sure they’re fresh.”

Kang Ye smiled. ”That, I believe. For imported fish, I’ve yet to find any fresher than what you sell. The only exception is when I go back to Taiwan and buy live fish straight from the docks.”

”I’ll take one of each. Boss, can you pick out some big ones for me?”

’He probably can’t finish two fish today,’ Gu Nan thought, so he tried to persuade him. ”Why don’t you just take one for now? It’d be a shame to have to freeze such fresh, chilled fish if you can’t eat it all. I get shipments pretty regularly, so I guarantee they’ll be in stock the next time you visit.”

Kang Ye shook his head. ”It’s fine. I’m going to dry-age them, so I’m not worried about the texture degrading if it’s frozen.”

”You can dry-age these?” Gu Nan asked, curious. ’Both of these deep-sea fish have such soft flesh and high water content. Wouldn’t they just turn into fish jerky after aging?’

”Anything can be dry-aged,” Kang Ye said, making a rare joke.

”Alright then, I’ll pick out two big ones for you.” Since the man himself wasn’t concerned, Gu Nan didn’t press the issue.

’If he ends up with some culinary disaster, he’s the only one who’ll have to eat it.’

He picked out two fish and placed them on the newly bought electronic scale. ”The hake is 4.7 jin, and the Orange Roughy is 4.2 jin. The total comes to... five hundred and seventy.”

Neither of these fish were particularly expensive, so Gu Nan didn’t bother offering any discount.

Five hundred and seventy was nothing. Compared to Kang Ye’s previous purchases, it was just pocket change.

He paid, said goodbye to Gu Nan, and left the shop with his fish.

Gu Nan went back to finish his lunch. No other customers came to buy fish. Around noon, most people were at home eating, so the seafood market was quiet.