Chu Mingcheng gripped the speargun, drawing back the rubber bands to load it.

Zhang Wei had said the fish finder showed activity, which meant he'd been too focused on catching mantis shrimp earlier to notice.

The fish finder worked by reflecting electromagnetic waves—the closer the fish were to the surface, the stronger the reflection.

The larger the fish, the more prominent its display on screen.

Bigger targets appeared as deeper, thicker colors, while smaller ones naturally showed up lighter.

However, the length displayed on screen had no direct relationship to fish size; it only indicated how long the fish had lingered within the detection range.

Diving into the water, Chu Mingcheng was pushed by the current, his originally vertical body tilting to a forty-five-degree angle, though it didn't affect him much.

At fourteen meters depth, he spotted a school of deep-sea red snapper and amberjack swimming actively.

Just as Chu Mingcheng was about to choose a target, he was surprised to see another type of fish in the school. Its shape was clearly that of a pomfret, but due to the distance, he couldn't see it clearly—only that it didn't look like a golden pomfret.

The school swam with the current. Although he'd spotted the pomfret, he didn't make it his sole target.

Holding the speargun patiently, he waited. The fish needed to expend more energy to maintain position in the current, and he soon noticed a red snapper struggling to swim.

It was losing its battle against the current, being tossed about by the rushing water.

The moment it stabilized again, Chu Mingcheng pulled the trigger.

A distinct whoosh sounded in his ears, and the spear successfully hit the exhausted red snapper.

The red snapper thrashed instantly, but in the next moment, it was carried by the current, spinning in circles—a truly amusing sight.

Chu Mingcheng pulled it in slightly, and only then did it stabilize, swimming quickly in front of him with the spear still embedded.

Ignoring it for now, Chu Mingcheng swam to the surface to show himself before retrieving the fish.

After so many spearfishing trips, he was now quite experienced.

He always chose fish that were easier to handle, and this red snapper was clearly the right choice.

The commotion at the surface caught the attention of the two on the boat. Zhang Wei shouted, "Did you get one?"

Chu Mingcheng didn't answer, instead lifting the fish he'd just caught.

Comparing it to his head, the two could clearly see the fish wasn't small. In fact, it was quite substantial, weighing seven or eight jin.

Zhang Wei: "Damn, I just finished tying my rig and you've already speared one that big? Should you bring it back?"

Chu Mingcheng shook his head, clipped the fish to his live fish stringer, and dove back down.

Returning to his original position, he found a painted sweetlips swimming very close to him. It was a different species from yesterday's catch, but both belonged to the sweetlips family.

This fish was pitch black and rather ugly.

Seeing it bold enough to swim right in front of him, Chu Mingcheng politely sent it on its way.

The fish was only about three jin. The whole process took just a minute, so he decided not to surface, simply clipping the fish to his stringer and continuing.

After five minutes underwater, he finally surfaced. His stringer now held four fish, and with the amberjack he was currently retrieving, he had five.

He glanced at the two on the boat and saw they were engrossed in fishing, which made him smile.

He'd clearly overthought things. These two wouldn't be worrying about his safety like Jiang Luoluo would.

It wasn't that they didn't care about him—it was just the difference between men and women.

This also made Chu Mingcheng realize something. Girls seemed more sensitive. Treating Jiang Luoluo the way he treated his male friends might not be appropriate.

It seemed he needed to be more considerate in his daily interactions with her. It wasn't every day you met a girl who was both beautiful and had a good personality; he didn't want to lose her for no reason.

Snapping back to the present, Chu Mingcheng pulled the amberjack closer. This time, he didn't immediately clip it to his stringer. Instead, he took out his diving knife, pried open its gills, and severed the main artery inside.

Instantly, the fish's pained struggles caused blood to flow faster, staining a patch of seawater.

The amberjack was quite large—at least twenty-something jin. It was difficult for Chu Mingcheng to carry, so he swam back to the boat and had Chen Yang, who was currently free, take it to put on ice.

Five fish totaling over forty jin, caught in less than ten minutes. This efficiency stunned the two on the boat.

Chen Yang praised him sincerely, "Ah Cheng, if only you'd known you had this talent sooner. You never should have taken that office job."

"If you'd started spearfishing right after graduation, you'd probably be making more than me now."

Chu Mingcheng laughed at his words. "It's not too late now. I'm not even thirty yet. Spearfishing is a sport you can enjoy until you're fifty. I heard there's a seventy-something-year-old grandpa in Russia who still goes spearfishing every day!"

Chen Yang laughed. "So you're planning to do this until you're seventy?"

"Who knows?" Chu Mingcheng shrugged, then waved to him and dove back down to hunt.

This time, the pomfret he'd been eyeing finally showed weakness.

The pomfret was very large. For some reason, it suddenly decided to fight the current, pausing for a long time in the water.

How could Chu Mingcheng miss such an opportunity? It was practically a stationary target. He hit it with a single shot.

Because of the water color, he had to swim to the surface to identify the fish.

When he pulled it up, he found it was quite large, similar to the first red snapper—probably six or seven jin.

The pomfret was a beautiful, shimmering silver, but it wasn't a silver pomfret. It was a Dou Chang pomfret—a species even more precious and rare.

The Dou Chang pomfret is found in the southern waters of the country, including the Taiwan Strait.

Chu Mingcheng's choice to come to Xiamen hadn't been wrong; the variety of fish in the Taiwan Strait was indeed abundant.

The fish resources might not be as rich as those around the South China Sea islands, but for him, this was still an excellent hunting ground.

The larger the Dou Chang, the more expensive it was. The one he'd speared would start at two hundred fifty yuan per jin, probably selling for around two hundred seventy or eighty.

At certain times, like during Spring Festival, this fish could fetch a sky-high price of five hundred yuan per jin, and people would still clamor to buy it.

This was a premium catch!

Chu Mingcheng's eyes lit up. The red snapper and amberjack suddenly seemed less appealing.

He wanted to spear more Dou Chang pomfret—not only to sell to his group chat but also to take some back for his parents.

He was sure his mother would be very pleased with this fish.

So Chu Mingcheng went back into the water, diving even deeper this time, specifically hunting for Dou Chang pomfret.

It took longer, but the results were gratifying.

Forty-something minutes later, he surfaced again, pulling a large amberjack and bleeding it.

Why an amberjack? Because he was already carrying a full string of Dou Chang pomfret—twelve of them, the smallest at least three jin, the largest around five.

He didn't want to hunt bigger ones; those over five jin were too hard to find.

The blood once again stained the sea. Chu Mingcheng returned to the boat, this time handing the fish to Zhang Wei, who was free.

The twelve Dou Chang pomfret had this guy exclaiming in amazement again.

But Chu Mingcheng had no time to chat and quickly returned to the water.

He didn't know that bleeding the amberjack twice and the fish's struggles had attracted nearby predators, which were now rapidly swimming toward them.

Chu Mingcheng returned to his original position. The twelve Dou Chang pomfret had barely impacted the school.

Although they gathered in small groups, if one group was scattered, another would quickly form elsewhere.

As long as they didn't leave this area today, Chu Mingcheng could probably spear two hundred jin.

Holding his speargun, he suddenly spotted another Dou Chang pomfret over five jin.

Predicting its movement, he pulled the trigger. With a sharp crack, the spear pierced its body.

Just as Chu Mingcheng was about to retrieve it, a massive shape suddenly rushed over, bit down on the injured Dou Chang, and with several violent shakes, tore off half its body, freeing it from the spear.

Then another shark of similar size swam over, caught the remains of the Dou Chang, and swallowed it in one gulp.

Chu Mingcheng saw the newcomers clearly and felt his blood run cold. Five sharks, each nearly a meter long, had appeared.

Many sharks were protected animals in China, so he'd studied numerous species.

These were requiem sharks—not a protected species, and even farmed commercially.

Some shark meat was delicious, though he didn't know about this particular type.

Although requiem sharks didn't attack humans, the fact that they dared to eat his fish and linger here, disrupting his hunt, infuriated Chu Mingcheng.

He retrieved his spear, drew back the rubber bands, aimed at one of the requiem sharks, and with a sharp crack, the spear pierced its gill area, though not all the way through.

It was clear that a one-meter speargun wasn't powerful enough to hunt large prey.

In just a short moment, all the line from his reel spooled out. Chu Mingcheng had originally wanted to bring the shark back, but the spear was yanked free.

Although it left a large wound on the requiem shark—and it probably wouldn't survive long—it wouldn't die immediately either, and ultimately escaped.

Escaped was escaped; Chu Mingcheng didn't mind.

But the remaining sharks still wouldn't leave, circling the area and causing the fish school to move away.

Chu Mingcheng was furious. He didn't bother with the speargun anymore; they'd just escape anyway.

So he swam back to the boat and shouted to Zhang Wei, "Ah Wei, go to the galley in the cockpit and get my rolling pin!"

Zhang Wei was stunned. "What do you need a rolling pin for?"

"A few sharks came and ate a Dou Chang I speared. The spear can't penetrate them properly, and one just got away. Get me the rolling pin so I can drive them off."

"Uh..."

Zhang Wei's eyes widened at his words.

Chen Yang exclaimed, "Are you crazy? There are sharks down there, and you're not coming up? You want to hit them with a rolling pin?"

"Don't worry, they're just meter-long requiem sharks—not very dangerous." Chu Mingcheng waved his hand dismissively. If they were aggressive sharks, he would have fled, but requiem sharks weren't in that category.

With the current state of China's waters, it wasn't easy to encounter a large shark over three meters.

Even with a shark over two meters, armed with a speargun, it wouldn't choose to attack him.

Sharks won't rashly attack creatures of similar size, and humans aren't on their menu.

Essentially, animals are bullies—they prey on the weak and fear the strong. When encountering a shark, you don't need to panic too much.

Because either you get on the boat safely, or you're gone!

Taking the rolling pin from Zhang Wei, Chu Mingcheng unstrapped the fish spear from his back, then drew back the rubber bands on his speargun to reload it.

Rolling pin in his left hand, speargun in his right—he went to battle dual-wielding.

Diving back into the water, he saw the sharks swimming on the outskirts of the school, seemingly wanting to hunt.

This time, Chu Mingcheng didn't hold back, kicking his legs and shooting forward.

His sudden acceleration was much faster than the sharks' lazy circling, but the sharks seemed quite wary of him, scattering immediately.

They were aquatic creatures, after all. Chu Mingcheng couldn't match their burst speed.

He'd anticipated this, so he raised his speargun, aimed, and with a sharp crack, the spear hit another requiem shark.

This time, he released the speargun and pulled on the line, closing the distance.

The shark, in pain, darted around wildly, dragging him with it.

But with the spear embedded and without Chu Mingcheng's strength to counter, it wasn't easy to pull free. So the distance between them grew smaller and smaller.

When he got close to the requiem shark, he saw it suddenly turn and charge at him. A corner of his mouth lifted. He gripped the rolling pin in his right hand and swung it hard at the charging shark's nose.

Then he pulled back, creating distance. He couldn't match its speed, but his agility in the water was quite respectable.

The remaining three sharks had no intention of helping. The two speargun attacks had already frightened them, and they'd long since fled.

The requiem shark he'd struck was somewhat dazed. Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng swam forward, raised the rolling pin, and gave its head several more solid whacks.

Requiem Shark: o(╥﹏╥)o Is there a police officer? Someone is beating a shark!