The next day, Zhang Wei returned clutching his lower back.

When Chu Mingcheng saw him shuffling around like an old man, he couldn't resist giving him a friendly kidney punch. The blow sent Zhang Wei straight to his knees.

"What the hell! I'm already holding my back and you still nail my kidney? Can't you see my legs are shot too?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, you can't just keep giving without getting anything back. How about I take you spearfishing later? Swimming and diving are perfect exercise."

"If we snag a moray eel or something, it'll help your recovery."

Chu Mingcheng shook his head at the pitiful sight. Even though he could boost his body through Life Conversion, physical fitness would still decline without regular exercise—which was why he maintained his daily workout routine.

Since getting the boat, he'd been running less in the mornings, mainly because spearfishing itself was a full-body workout.

Most gym machines and exercises were hard on knees, joints, and lower back, but swimming wasn't. It was perfect exercise.

But when Zhang Wei heard about spearfishing today, he stopped kneeling and immediately collapsed flat on the ground. "No way. I need bed rest and recovery today. College life is intense!"

"I'm done with the experienced ones. Tried something fresh for a change—nearly lost it completely."

"Alright, we get it, your conquest record is impressive. But I'd still suggest coming out with us today. When we get back tonight, you can slip out and crash somewhere else. Cheng's girlfriend bought two cases of baijiu this morning."

Chen Yang emerged from the bathroom, hauled the prone Zhang Wei upright, and offered his advice.

"Hiss!"

Zhang Wei clutched his back—whether from kidney pain or shock over two cases of baijiu was unclear—but he nodded frantically. "Let's go spearfishing! Today I'll show you what a real man looks like."

"Let's move!" Chu Mingcheng shook his head with a laugh, finished packing, and headed for the door first.

He stopped by Jiang Luoluo's place to check in. "Luoluo, taking Yang and the others spearfishing today. They're both still beginners—I need to get them comfortable with the sport so they don't have accidents when I'm not around."

"Go ahead!" Jiang Luoluo sat on the sofa reviewing choreography she'd worked on over the past few days. Hearing Chu Mingcheng was heading out, she nodded. "If you won't be back for dinner, remember to call me on the satellite phone."

"Will do!" Chu Mingcheng walked over and hugged her. "Your boyfriend's going out to work and earn money. Don't I get some encouragement?"

"Mwah!" Jiang Luoluo offered her lips, gently touched his cheek, then deliberately put on a cutesy expression and said in an exaggerated Taiwanese accent, "Darling, you have to work super hard today, okay?"

Chu Mingcheng shuddered, immediately rubbing the goosebumps on his arms. He grinned and said, "Where'd you learn that? Drop it, quick! It's more numbing than Chongqing hotpot!"

"Hahaha! I knew it! Jiayi told me all guys love this stuff!" Seeing his reaction, Jiang Luoluo burst into laughter.

"Who would actually like that? Please don't do it again!"

"Ugh! So cringey!"

Chu Mingcheng watched Jiang Luoluo curl her toes in embarrassment and laughed. "Can't handle it either, huh?"

"You're doing that idol drama voice. Of course I can't stand it!"

"Haha, enough teasing. Yang and the others are waiting, so I'm heading out."

"Hold on!" Jiang Luoluo called out as Chu Mingcheng started to rise, then stood up herself, hugged him, and stood on tiptoes for a kiss. "Cheng, didn't you ask me to keep an eye out and introduce Yang to someone?"

"I don't know many people. The only suitable ones are Wanying and Jiayi. But Yang's family seems well-off, and Jiayi's family isn't bad either. How about I call her over so they can meet?"

Chu Mingcheng had met both women. While he wasn't particularly close to either, he thought they were both decent people.

But Zhou Jiayi made him hesitate a bit.

Mainly because of recent drama from a certain Taiwanese woman whose story was full of ridiculous twists. Her various antics had left people speechless.

It made him wonder if everyone from there was like that. Previous impressions of sweet Taiwanese girls were now tainted with negative associations—dramatic and selfish behavior.

In comparison, while Chen Wanying wasn't as attractive as Zhou Jiayi, at least she'd worked hard to build a successful styling studio with decent annual income. She was capable and independent.

"How about we skip Zhou Jiayi? Honestly, I worry that if things go south between them later, Yang's personality would put him at a huge disadvantage. Even if Jiayi's fine, what about her family?"

"Will they be petty, selfish, and dramatic?"

Jiang Luoluo rolled her eyes. She knew what had triggered her boyfriend's prejudice. "I've met her family. Sure, they talk and act a bit like they're in an idol drama, but they're genuinely good people."

"Don't judge everyone from there based on one family. Whether someone has good character depends a lot on personality and family environment. Jiayi's family aren't the scheming type."

"Besides, I'm just arranging a meeting. Whether there's chemistry is up to them."

"I'm suggesting Jiayi because she's more innocent than Wanying. Not that Wanying's bad, but after working so many years, she's actually more calculating. Yang's personality might not handle that well."

"Alright then, go ahead and arrange it," Chu Mingcheng agreed.

Jiang Luoluo made perfect sense, and he had no reason to object. It was just a casual meeting, not a formal blind date.

Chu Mingcheng reached the underground garage where Chen Yang and Zhang Wei were already waiting in the car. The group went to buy two large foam boxes of crushed ice.

Clearly, they were confident about today's haul.

Though realistically, Chu Mingcheng didn't think the other two could catch much.

Spearfishing could be roughly divided into three types. One was reef spearfishing—Chu Mingcheng's current main method. He basically hunted in coral reefs and reef areas near small islands.

This type was easiest and most suitable for beginners, but the downside was that resource quality was pure luck.

Second was structural spearfishing—finding oil rigs and hunting beneath them. The pillars under oil rigs were prime fish habitat.

But diving skill requirements were very high, with minimum three-star freediving certification and strong risk awareness needed.

Currently, Chu Mingcheng had only hunted some sea bream under a signal tower once, but single pillars didn't attract many fish.

He hadn't found a suitable structural spearfishing spot yet, unless he had a larger boat for going further offshore.

As for blue water spearfishing—that went without saying. Basically hunting large fish in open ocean.

Since he'd unlocked the longline technique, Chu Mingcheng bought a small fifty-hook setup. Without a winch on the boat, this size would be relatively manageable to pull up by hand.

Then he bought fifty live shrimp as bait, figuring the hook-up rate should be pretty good.

He hadn't been out to sea in several days. To ensure a solid harvest today, Chu Mingcheng headed for the coral reef where he'd previously hunted emperor fish.

Among all his current spearfishing spots, this had the most abundant resources.

Chu Mingcheng had to set the longline first. He drove the boat to deep water not far from the coral reef.

He had Zhang Wei slowly pilot the boat along the waterway—he could handle this simple task without problems.

Chu Mingcheng and Chen Yang attached live shrimp while gradually deploying the longline.

After setting the longline, they returned to the coral reef and dropped the shrimp and crab traps.

Both the longline and traps had floats, and they were right there, so no risk of losing them.

Then they anchored the boat, changed into wetsuits, and prepared to enter the water.

As for Zhang Wei, he headed to the cabin for some catch-up sleep.

In his exhausted and mentally drained state, Chu Mingcheng would never let him go spearfishing—too dangerous.

"Damn, it's cold out here!" Stepping out of the cockpit into the sea breeze, Chen Yang immediately hunched his shoulders.

Today Xiamen's high was only eighteen degrees, and it was even colder on the water.

For someone who stayed up all night, slept till noon, and spent afternoons sitting in a chair, poor constitution and cold sensitivity were normal.

"Today's actually pretty good—last decent spearfishing weather this year. In a couple more days it'll cool down, and daytime temps here will only hit low teens. Then we're stuck with regular fishing."

Chu Mingcheng did stretches on deck to warm up.

The hidden benefit of his enhanced physique was better cold tolerance. Maybe he could even try winter swimming in snow like those crazy Russians.

"Honestly, when I was learning spearfishing in Qiongzhou, I really didn't feel like winter was coming." Chen Yang started stretching with a wry smile. Otherwise, if his body was stiff when entering water, he might cramp up.

After warming up, Chu Mingcheng tossed his carbon fiber speargun into the water and jumped in.

Retrieving his speargun, he turned to take Chen Yang's weapon, watching him enter the water.

Today Chu Mingcheng came fully equipped, even wearing a head camera.

It was already mid-December, and he figured he'd be heading home after New Year's. Then a certain priceless fish species would be waiting for him to catch. Probably not many spearfishing days left this year.

After Chen Yang was in the water, Chu Mingcheng handed him his speargun, and they separated by about ten meters, going different directions.

However, he positioned himself slightly behind to monitor Chen Yang's movements and prevent accidents.

After a short while, seeing Chen Yang successfully spear a black sea bream, Chu Mingcheng finally relaxed.

He wasn't picky about targets today. Basically any decent-sized fish became fair game.

There were quite a few black sea bream around today, all over two or three jin. Just as Chu Mingcheng was taking aim, he noticed several star-spotted snappers swimming past.

Also known as star snapper or white-star snapper, nicknamed "golden boy"—a dream fish with an absurdly high price.

These fish were so rare in markets that prices stayed sky-high. Net-caught ones, even small specimens, cost over five hundred each.

But sea anglers usually went to deep waters, and their catches were typically over two jin, reaching fifteen hundred yuan each.

The ones Chu Mingcheng spotted weren't small—about the same size as the black sea bream he'd seen, meaning at least over two jin.

Seeing the fish lingering above the coral reef, he immediately approached with speargun ready.

When he was about five meters away, he chose one on the left that offered a cleaner shot, watched its movement pattern, and immediately pulled the trigger.

Instantly, the spear pierced through its body. Startled companions immediately scattered and fled.

Chu Mingcheng surfaced and began reeling in the line.

Chen Yang had already retrieved his fish and reloaded his speargun. He swam over with his weapon pointed downward. "What'd you get?"

"Star-spotted snapper—the kind that goes for at least a thousand each."

"Damn! Why didn't you call me over to shoot together?"