As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up
Chapter 295 - Chapter 295 Chapter 250 Local Crabbers Attention

Chapter 295: Chapter 250 Local Crabbers’ Attention Chapter 295: Chapter 250 Local Crabbers’ Attention Speaking without thinking, Chu Mingcheng almost got kicked out that night to sleep on the couch. Luckily it happened at a friend’s house, so Jiang Luoluo ended up giving him some face and didn’t have the energy to send him away.

The next day they didn’t go out to sea either, as the seafood at Noah’s place wasn’t selling that fast, so there was no rush.

After enjoying a day of warmth, Chu Mingcheng took Jiang Luoluo to the airport the day after and embraced her goodbye.

The following days without his girlfriend by his side left him feeling somewhat lonely.

But it wasn’t all downsides, at least Chu Mingcheng could let loose and do something exciting.

However, before that, he still had to make sure to catch the full quota of Emperor Crabs first.

Back at Noah’s house, seeing Chu Mingcheng a bit silent, Noah thought he was in a bad mood and immediately came over laughing and hugged his shoulder, saying, “Chu, I know you’re a bit upset, but no worries, I’ll take you to a fun place tonight, you’ll definitely enjoy yourself.”

“Uh… Noah, I’m planning to go to sea this afternoon, and I might not be able to join you looking for fun tonight,” Chu Mingcheng said with a wry smile as he tactfully declined.

What Noah referred to as a fun place was nothing more than a nightclub, followed by picking up a woman for some sweat-inducing activities, but Chu Mingcheng really had no interest in such places.

After all, he was a man with a girlfriend; he could not just go astray.

As for Noah, Chu Mingcheng didn’t feel it was his place to judge. In Huaxia, he could see that the man cared for his family and seemed to have a loving relationship with his wife.

But when on his own, the guy was just like Zhang Wei, seeming extremely interested in other people’s “donuts,” never refusing as long as they weren’t too ugly and had the right curves.

“Oh no, Chu, you should learn to let yourself go. It’s not worth it to give up the entire forest for one tree.”

“Noah, we’re friends, and I don’t mind you tasting different flavors of donuts. But I’m picky and only eat one kind, so I have to decline your kind offer,” Chu Mingcheng responded.

“Alright, I respect your thoughts,” Noah said, spreading his hands, no longer pressing the issue. He had simply been well-meaning.

Being a person with high emotional intelligence, he didn’t think Chu Mingcheng was foolish for refusing, nor did he get angry about it.

Having settled in Huaxia for a few years, he understood that most people in the country took responsibility for their families seriously.

Even though Chu Mingcheng was mentally prepared for Jiang Luoluo’s departure, he still felt a bit empty inside.

That’s why he decided to go out to sea that afternoon to keep himself busy and distract his attention.

Driving to the dock, he moved the newly purchased items onto his fishing boat. Even though the boat had over thirty hours of remaining battery life, he still filled up the tank with fuel.

The shrimp cages that Noah had bought were already on board, looking like huge jars.

The body of the cage was quite large, capable of trapping many lobsters, though the entrance was rather small, with a diameter of only about fifteen centimeters.

And there was no little door or lid that could be opened or closed; it was just open at the top.

According to Noah, the shrimp cages had to be set up with the entrance facing upward.

The lobsters would be attracted by the bait and crawl into the cage. Once inside, they wouldn’t leave as they’d feel the hiding spot was safe, and they would just keep gathering.

This principle presumably took advantage of lobsters’ tendency to congregate in order to catch them.

Because the shrimp cages weren’t like the usual crab cages made of wire mesh but were woven bamboo cages, completely enclosed, giving lobsters a greater sense of security.

The cold-storage compartment was for fish, and the live well was for storing Emperor Crabs, so Chu Mingcheng purchased additional foam boxes to place in the living room for the lobsters and also bought two larger oxygen pumps.

After preparing the food supplies, he started the fishing boat and set off.

At the same time, as Chu Mingcheng’s video trading Emperor Crabs with Noah at the dock caught the attention of a group of old men.

The presence of a civil servant made them realize that his crab fishing was legal, which upset everyone there.

One burly man slammed his fist on the table, cursing, “Shit, do those fishery officers have shit for brains? Why would they allocate crab fishing quotas to some yellow monkey?”

A slightly slimmer man next to him suggested, “Maybe it’s an Australian local who got the quota and then employed this yellow fellow to catch crabs?”

Another chimed in, “No matter who it is, those quotas were supposed to be internally distributed among our companies. The fishery authority shouldn’t have given our share to someone else; that’s like stealing money from our pockets.”

“We need to investigate how many quotas he got. If we can get his share, then we might make an extra few hundred thousand this year,” said one.

The people present nodded in agreement, and what they did not realize was that other crabbing groups had the same idea.

Normally, only a few fishing companies shared the Emperor Crab quotas, and it had always been this way over the years.

Now, with someone else getting a share, it meant fewer for the established fishing companies, as if their guaranteed part was snatched from their hands, leading to concerns that more people might come in the future to grab a piece of the pie.

It wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, but every time, these crab catchers and their companies combined forces to drive the newcomers out.

Those at the bottom had their ways, and the companies had their capabilities. By working together for mutual benefit, they had managed to keep a tight hold on the Emperor Crab quotas for decades.

The fishing companies took note of the situation and sent people to inquire with the fishery authority.

Normally, considering the long-standing cooperation between the fishery authority and these companies, intertwined with all sorts of complexities and shared interests, quotas wouldn’t just be doled out for no reason.

So, the fishing companies were genuinely just inquiring about the situation, not yet at the point of applying pressure.

But the response they received took everyone by surprise.

“`

The people sent there didn’t find out anything, and their attitude suddenly changed, as if it were taken for granted.

This mood even affected the higher-ups at the company, who felt that the crab catchers didn’t need to make a fuss, and in the end, the matter was dropped.

The company’s stance puzzled the group of crab catchers, and their hearts were filled with gloom.

In reality, for the fishing company, valuing the Emperor Crab quota was only because the species is unique to Australia, and as a local enterprise, it naturally wouldn’t allow outsiders to take a share.

But in fact, the annual yield of Emperor Crabs was not high, and the profits generated were far less than those from various fish species that were abundant in numbers.

Therefore, under the influence of Chu Mingcheng’s “external influence”, the higher-ups of these fishing companies also felt the effects after meeting with the influenced people.

This left the particularly concerned crab catchers frustrated, as the company’s inaction made it much more difficult for them to get rid of the “intruders”.

However, they had not been in contact with the affected individuals and were not going to give up easily.

So, they had the workers who were involved in crab catching stake out at the docks, to first identify which boat it was before taking action.

Chu Mingcheng had now arrived at the waters where he previously went crab fishing, and since it was already dark, he decided to have dinner first.

Putting on diving goggles, he took out an onion and started chopping.

Interestingly, he didn’t need the goggles for diving, but they turned out to be quite suitable for chopping onions.

After dicing the onions, he removed the goggles and took out a clean piece of pork belly, which, when stir-fried with onions, is a dish that goes very well with rice.

He then made a dish of shredded pork with steamed egg and hot and sour cabbage.

Always eating precious seafood, today’s meal was quite down to earth.

Having downed three dishes with a small pot of rice, Chu Mingcheng patted his belly in contentment.

After resting and digesting for a while, the weakness in his body due to hunger quickly returned to optimal condition.

He then started his fishing boat and found a spot where the water was one hundred and fifty meters deep, and deployed the crab cages one by one along this area.

With his experience of catching Emperor Crabs from before, Chu Mingcheng decided not to worry about the crab cages tonight and just check them in the morning.

There were other things to do for now; he changed into a diving suit, carrying two lobster traps and putting the new, powerful harpoon that he bought into the traps before taking them underwater.

This harpoon, like the wooden one he kept in Xia City, had three rubber bands and was capable of hunting large fish.

Of course, it could be used for small fish too – just removing one rubber band would suffice, greatly reducing its force.

However, being made of carbon, it didn’t have the nice feel of wooden spears.

Chu Mingcheng, carrying two lobster traps, swam in the water, wearing a headlamp to see the seabed clearly.

But the water resistance of the lobster traps was significant, and with two floats on them, his swimming was not very fast.

After a while, he arrived at the coral reef area.

But once he got to the spot where he found the lobsters before, he was a bit gloomy.

It seemed the lobsters had moved, and there were none under the coral; it looked like he would have to search anew.

While Chu Mingcheng was searching for lobsters, he unexpectedly saw an orange crustacean crawling at the bottom of the coral reef.

Its appearance was quite odd, looking a bit like a Pipashrimp, but it bizarrely had a pair of pincers.

The individual was not big, about the size of a palm.

Chu Mingcheng put down the lobster traps and grabbed this oddly shaped creature.

He hadn’t expected that once he caught it, its pincers would be surprisingly long and flat, seeming not very powerful at a glance.

The head was remarkably large, but the body was tiny, apparently not very meaty.

However, Chu Mingcheng quickly accessed his memory and found information on this creature.

This was a type of crab commonly found along the coasts of Southeast Asia and Australia; it was also present in the East Sea and South Sea of Huaxia, though not in great numbers.

Tiger Crabs could apparently sell for around one hundred and thirty yuan each in Huaxia, he wasn’t sure about Melbourne, but they were likely much cheaper.

Considering selling them to Noah would be at purchase price, he estimated they would only go for around ten Australian dollars per kilogram.

This price was far from that of Australian lobsters, and Chu Mingcheng was not very interested, so he simply let the Tiger Crab go.

However, while he continued his search for Australian lobsters with the lobster traps, he found that this area of the coral reef was full of Tiger Crabs, and some were even larger than the size of a palm.

With a small number, he really wasn’t interested, but with a larger number, it seemed like a good idea to leave a lobster trap, though he wasn’t sure how effective it would be for catching this particular species.

Chu Mingcheng checked the lobster trap and decided to give it a try first.

Afterward, he found a relatively flat sandy area and set the trap down, then placed a few stones in it to prevent it from floating away.

With the lobster trap in place, Chu Mingcheng continued his search for Australian lobsters.

The light was limited at night, and after a long search, he finally found a spot where Australian lobsters congregated.

He set the lobster trap and weighed it down with a few stones, then he took the harpoon and left the area.

“`

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