Today's harvest was actually excellent. The threadfins alone could sell for over fifteen thousand. The star-spotted snapper plus three groupers could easily fetch twenty-five thousand.

Unfortunately, a whole morning's work was only worth about the same as a large tuna he could hunt in ten minutes in open water.

The wind and waves were much stronger now. Chu Mingcheng skipped autopilot and drove manually.

Plowing through the waves caused continuous rising and falling. After just half an hour, Zhang Wei also couldn't handle it and went to lie down.

Perhaps because he was driving, he remained unaffected.

But shortly after Zhang Wei went in, he suddenly ran out with Chen Yang behind him.

"Cheng! Cheng! Quick, look left! There's something on the surface over there."

"What is it?" Chu Mingcheng looked left doubtfully. He couldn't see anything through the window.

But he still drove over, making a wide circle to avoid running parallel to the waves.

As they got closer, all three finally saw there was a little cutie tumbling on the surface.

Of course, it wasn't tumbling voluntarily—the waves were tossing it around.

The little cutie had a sleek body—a young sea lion.

From its size, clearly a sub-adult, very small, probably just starting independence.

Though its swimming skills were strong and it could stay underwater for extended periods, it was still a mammal needing to surface for air.

The waves made its small body powerless to resist, and its stamina was reaching its limit.

It was now like a drowning person, head occasionally submerged, then struggling to surface.

Chu Mingcheng quickly drove over while Chen Yang and Zhang Wei put on raincoats and went to the aft deck to open the small gate.

The young sea lion seemed to know this boat had come to its rescue, or maybe survival instinct made it willing to seize any opportunity.

It showed no fear and dove directly underwater.

When it surfaced again, it was right beside the boat.

Zhang Wei took the landing net and guided it toward the back gate.

Chen Yang gripped the boat's side with one hand and Zhang Wei with the other for safety.

After a moment, the young sea lion was guided to the stern, then jumped up on its own.

Seeing this, Zhang Wei quickly discarded the net and closed the small gate.

Chu Mingcheng saw them remove their raincoats and return to the cockpit. "Did you get it?"

"Right here!" Zhang Wei stepped aside, revealing the young sea lion peeking through the doorway.

The sea lion seemed to sense the crew's goodwill, or maybe it was just naive. It showed no fear of humans and even crawled inside, getting water all over the floor.

Chu Mingcheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. While driving, he said, "You guys grab a towel and dry it off a bit. It's soaked."

"Will it bite?" Chen Yang hesitated.

"It won't. I've seen videos saying sea lions are very gentle creatures," Zhang Wei said, getting a spare white towel.

Though he claimed it wouldn't bite, he remained cautious, testing several times with the towel. Only after confirming the young sea lion was just lying there motionless did he help dry it a little.

Seeing this, Chen Yang grew bolder and reached out to pet the sea lion.

Chu Mingcheng could only glance back occasionally. The wind and waves were strong now, requiring constant attention to avoid capsizing.

"Are we taking this sea lion back to the pier?" After a while, Chen Yang came to his side and asked.

"I'm heading somewhere perfect for it to live." After rescuing the sea lion, Chu Mingcheng had thought of an ideal spot—the deserted island where he'd encountered the fugitive before.

The fish resources there were abundant, and there were no sharks or other sea lion predators nearby. It was indeed perfect.

The boat continued sailing, and the well-rested sea lion seemed hungry. It lifted its head from the deck, apparently smelling food.

It turned and crawled toward the door. Since the door was closed, it could only bump against it.

"What's it doing?" Zhang Wei asked, puzzled.

Chen Yang guessed, "Trying to get back to the sea?"

Chu Mingcheng looked back. "Go get the black sea bream I caught and feed it. Keep it from moving around—I still have about half an hour to go."

"Use mine! We had threadfin for lunch, so my black sea bream's still there!" Chen Yang got up, retrieved the cleaned sea bream from the refrigerator, removed the plastic wrap, and tossed it to the sea lion.

The sea lion saw the food, immediately went over, sniffed it, then bit into the fish's head, chewing methodically.

Chu Mingcheng didn't want to miss such a rare scene, so he had them film it with his camera.

One fish disappeared quickly. This time, the sea lion didn't wander near the door but looked at Chen Yang and barked, clearly begging for more food.

Seemed one fish wasn't enough to fill it.

An adult sea lion can eat twelve jin daily. Even a young one—a gutted fish under two jin definitely wasn't sufficient.

So Chen Yang made a special trip out and brought the black sea bream Chu Mingcheng had mentioned.

But he didn't bring it into the cockpit. Instead, he placed it by the door, luring the sea lion outside.

Mainly because the sea bream Chen Yang had cleaned was pristine, but this one was untouched. If it ate and got blood and guts everywhere, cleanup would be hellish. Besides, sea lions weren't afraid of rain.

After finishing the second fish, it stopped begging, clearly satisfied.

And at that moment, Chu Mingcheng's boat had reached the deserted island.

With the stern facing the small beach, he had the two release the sea lion.

Chen Yang felt reluctant. He quite liked this sea lion, but it was a protected animal—you couldn't keep them domestically.

He opened the small gate. The sea lion seemed to understand their intention and actively moved toward it.

At the doorway, it even looked back at the boat's crew before jumping into the sea.

Pushed by the waves, it quickly swam toward the beach until it landed safely.

Clearly secure on land, Chu Mingcheng drove the boat away and returned to the pier.

"Such a shame. You can't keep these animals domestically. Otherwise, I would've adopted this sea lion," Chen Yang said regretfully after returning to the cabin.

"Actually, bringing the sea lion here wasn't without ulterior motives," Chu Mingcheng said with a smile. "This is the territory I've arranged for it. As long as it doesn't leave, we might see it often in the future."

"What!" Chen Yang and Zhang Wei reacted simultaneously.

"Good grief, you're the one with the real scheme!"

"Right! How didn't I think of that? As long as the sea lion settles here, we can bring fish to visit every time we go out. Over time, it'll naturally become close to us—that's basically pet ownership, right?"

Chu Mingcheng nodded. "Exactly what I was thinking. When it gets bigger, it might even help us herd fish during spearfishing."

"And if we ever face trouble like drowning, it might be able to save our lives."

"You've really thought this through," Chen Yang said, speechless. He just wanted a pet, but someone else was already operating on another level.

After returning to the pier, it was already past three in the afternoon.

The rain at the pier was lighter than at sea. Chu Mingcheng and the others moved all their catch to the car, including the still-living catshark.

Because of the rain, it wasn't convenient to sell today's catch to customers in his group chat, so Chu Mingcheng hauled everything to the seafood restaurant.

He kept one of the two star-spotted snappers for himself and sold the other.

Chu Mingcheng had thought one would weigh about two or three jin, but it was heavier than imagined—reaching four jin and three liang.

And the price wasn't a thousand per jin, but fifteen hundred.

He could only marvel at how great it was being in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces—most seafood was more expensive than in other coastal cities.

A four-jin-three-liang star-spotted snapper sold for a full six thousand four hundred and fifty yuan.

He'd originally thought the two together would be five or six thousand at most, but hadn't expected one to reach such a price.

The groupers, besides the Pearl Gentian Grouper, included two more plus the catshark, selling for five thousand four hundred.

The threadfins were priced by weight. Chu Mingcheng had none under two jin, so they were divided into three tiers with five jin and ten jin as boundaries.

The prices were eighty, one hundred twenty, and one hundred sixty per jin.

Thirteen under five jin, totaling fifty-six jin and three liang, sold for four thousand five hundred.

Seventeen between five and ten jin, totaling one hundred forty-six jin and eight liang, sold for seventeen thousand six hundred.

Only three exceeded ten jin, none over fifteen jin. He kept one and sold two.

Together they weighed twenty-six jin and nine liang, selling for four thousand three hundred yuan.

Today's total harvest was fifteen thousand more than Chu Mingcheng had expected. Seemed he could be bolder with future estimates.

After collecting payment, he drove to Wei Jianguo's house.

The large threadfin and star-spotted snapper he'd kept were naturally gifts.

Wei Jianguo emerged from his house, somewhat surprised to see all three.

But thinking that Chu Mingcheng seemed to bring good things every visit, he felt a flicker of anticipation.

"What—got some good stuff today?"

"Nothing special, just a star-spotted snapper and a ten-plus-jin threadfin." Chu Mingcheng didn't keep him in suspense and opened the foam box with casual tone.