As Chu Mingcheng took the rod, the man named Li watched him with keen interest.

He baited the hook with a river prawn and then, with a powerful swing, cast the line.

With a whoosh, the bait flew seventy or eighty meters out before hitting the water.

"Beautiful!" President Li exclaimed in admiration. A sea rod could naturally cast far, and he could do it too, but certainly not with the effortless grace Chu Mingcheng displayed.

A long cast didn't guarantee a big fish, but the chances were certainly higher than fishing close to the bank.

Still, President Li didn't get his hopes up for a large black carp. After all, it was purely a matter of luck.

But in the very next moment, Chu Mingcheng's rod suddenly tensed, bending into a deep arc.

He was pulled forward several steps by the fish, a clear sign that he had hooked something big.

"Whoa! You got one! Ah Cheng, be careful!" Jiang Bo rushed to stand behind Chu Mingcheng, grabbing his clothes nervously.

"I'm fine, Uncle. This fish isn't that big!" Chu Mingcheng had just been caught off guard for a moment.

Now he lowered his center of gravity, braced the butt of the rod against his stomach, and immediately stabilized himself.

"Impressive, little brother. Do you have some special technique for hooking big fish?" President Li had reeled in his own line and came over to watch.

"What technique? Just a bit of good luck," Chu Mingcheng replied, still having the energy to talk while fighting the fish.

With a sea rod, you could use the reel's drag system, which made the fight much easier.

A twenty-jin fish felt completely different on a sea rod compared to a hand pole.

"Can you guess how big it is?"

"Probably around twenty or thirty jin!"

Chu Mingcheng's answer was uncertain. He didn't have much experience with freshwater fish, and their pull wasn't as ferocious as that of sea fish, so it was hard for him to judge.

But President Li was very satisfied with the estimate. That weight was exactly what he had been hoping for. If it was a black carp, then his trip today would not have been in vain.

There were plenty of people visiting West Lake for the New Year, and the fishing had already drawn some attention.

Now that Chu Mingcheng had apparently hooked a large fish, a crowd of onlookers quickly gathered.

Someone nearby asked curiously, "Brother, can you just fish freely in West Lake?"

Chu Mingcheng had no time to answer, but as always, there was a know-it-all in the crowd to enlighten everyone.

"You need a special permit to fish in West Lake. And even with a permit, you can only buy two fishing tickets. There's a daily limit on how many fish you can catch."

"And don't even think about getting one of those permits. I've heard that so far, only a little over two hundred have been issued in total."

At these words, the crowd's perception shifted entirely. Some of the pretty young women, in particular, started looking at the fishing Chu Mingcheng with a different glint in their eyes.

He was handsome, and his family background was apparently extraordinary...

Evidently, a single fishing permit had just made Chu Mingcheng a prime catch in the dating market.

If he were a smooth talker, who knows how many WeChat contacts he could have collected, with plenty of opportunities for private "tours."

Unfortunately for them, they had set their sights on the wrong target. Chu Mingcheng hadn't even been inside his own luxury villa; he had no interest in their little apartments.

The fish seemed to have a lot of stamina. It took him over an hour of skillful maneuvering to finally bring it to the bank.

When President Li saw the stone-colored fish thrashing on the surface, he was overjoyed. "It really is a black carp! President Jiang, you must let me have this fish!"

Jiang Bo was completely relaxed now. Today's objective had been achieved, and he was sure Chu Mingcheng wouldn't begrudge him a single black carp.

After all, if he was willing to give away a 6.7-jin large yellow croaker to his future father-in-law, a black carp was surely no issue.

A short while later, the black carp was scooped up in the landing net.

Chu Mingcheng was a little surprised when he saw its size. It was bigger than he had expected, looking to be nearly forty jin. No wonder it had taken him over an hour.

"President Li, what do you think of this fish? Are you satisfied?"

"Satisfied! I'm more than satisfied!"

Chu Mingcheng's proactive offer immediately brought a wide smile to President Li's face; he knew the fish was his.

He had come well-prepared today, with a large fish tank in his car.

The three of them worked together to fill the tank with lake water, then placed the fish inside and turned on the aerator.

The roughly forty-jin black carp filled the tank completely, with no room to even move, a testament to its impressive size.

In the end, President Li left a happy man, and Jiang Bo and Chu Mingcheng packed up their gear and departed as well.

"Ah Cheng, thank you so much for today!"

"Uncle, we're family. There's no need for that."

"Right, right. We're all family."

Jiang Bo was growing fonder of his future son-in-law by the minute. When they first met, he had seemed like just a handsome young man.

But at the family gathering this year, the large yellow croaker had earned him endless praise from his relatives, giving him tremendous face.

And today, Chu Mingcheng had helped him solidify his relationship with a client, which would be a great help to his future business.

A son-in-law who only knew how to fish had turned out to be surprisingly reliable. Jiang Bo would never have expected it.

Back then, he had felt that his daughter was marrying beneath her.

But now, it seemed this son-in-law was not as simple as he appeared.

Jiang Bo decided to go home and discuss the two kids' future with his wife. Marriage could wait, but they could start planning the engagement.

Chu Mingcheng had originally planned to stay in Hangzhou for only two days, but his father-in-law's attitude had changed drastically. He was so much more enthusiastic than before that Chu Mingcheng ended up staying for several days.

It wasn't until the eighth day of the first lunar month that he had to take Jiang Luoluo back to Yanmen Island to pack their luggage and fly to Hainan with Zhang Wei and the others.

Whether in Wenzhou or Hangzhou, it was the middle of winter. If you didn't bundle up when you went out, the bone-chilling cold was more than most people could handle.

But the moment they arrived in Hainan, the four of them immediately switched to spring attire.

The temperature here was currently between eighteen and twenty-four degrees Celsius. The local beauties could show off their legs all year round, though they had to use a lot of sunscreen in the summer.

Chu Mingcheng and his group checked into a hotel. Considering his current relationship with Jiang Luoluo, he only booked two king-sized rooms.

Jiang Luoluo, embarrassed, averted her gaze, pretending not to notice, which was a tacit agreement.

Chen Yang glanced at Zhang Wei beside him with a look of disgust and said to the receptionist, "Miss, could you please get me another room?"

Zhang Wei immediately threw his arms around him, a look of anguish on his face. "Ah Yang, don't you love me anymore?"

"What the..." Chen Yang noticed the strange look from the receptionist, and his face immediately darkened. "Stop messing around. Aren't you going to the club to find your little sweetie tonight?"

Zhang Wei sighed dramatically. "Ah, don't mention it. Last time when we went diving, she was calling me 'daddy' this and 'daddy' that. Today, when I messaged her after we landed, I found out she'd blocked me!"

"Pfft!"

Chu Mingcheng and the others burst out laughing. With a joker like Zhang Wei around, the journey was bound to be much more relaxed and interesting.

After dropping their luggage in their rooms, they gathered in the lobby to go find some food.

Although they were in Hainan, Chu Mingcheng didn't try to meet up with Lu Zheqiang this time.

Mainly because Lu Zheqiang was also back in his hometown and hadn't returned yet.

After dinner, Chen Yang went back to the hotel first to call Zhou Jiayi.

Zhang Wei had also disappeared, probably off to find another "little sweetie."

Chu Mingcheng was happy for the peace and quiet, holding Jiang Luoluo's hand as they strolled through the streets of Hainan.

"Ah Cheng, I think celebrating the New Year here in the winter is actually very comfortable. The weather is nice, and it's lively."

"A lot of people come here for the New Year holiday. Why don't we buy a house here in the future? We could bring both our parents over every year for the New Year."

Both he and Jiang Luoluo were only children, so they would be responsible for taking care of both sets of parents when they got older.

Therefore, coming to the pleasant climate of Hainan for the winter was indeed a great idea.

"Let's talk about that later. For the next few years, I don't think my parents would agree," Jiang Luoluo said with a smile, shaking her head and rejecting the suggestion.

For adults, the New Year was all about family obligations and social connections; it wasn't that simple.

Chu Mingcheng didn't mind. The idea had just popped into his head, so he had mentioned it casually.

The two of them walked slowly along a small river. Suddenly, not far ahead, a fisherman started screaming and threw down his rod, running for his life.

Curious, the two of them went over to take a look. Jiang Luoluo shuddered and immediately jumped to the side, pointing at the river with a trembling hand. "Ah... Ah Cheng, that's..."

"Holy shit!" Chu Mingcheng had also seen the scene in the water. His heart leaped into his throat, and then a chill ran down his spine.

Two feet were floating in the river. Someone was dead.

"Luoluo, call the police right now. I'll pull the person out." Chu Mingcheng, being a man, was a bit braver.

After all, a true angler wouldn't abandon a freshly baited spot and would just let the body keep floating.

As a fellow angler, he wasn't so scared by the sight of a corpse that he couldn't move.

Well, the man who had just run away had already returned, hiding to the side, too afraid to approach. He was probably a novice, not a real angler.

To be honest, the two legs floating in the water were slender and fair. It looked like a woman.

Jiang Luoluo quickly ran to the side to make the call, while Chu Mingcheng picked up the abandoned fishing rod and pulled the body towards the bank.

There was a road right next to the small river, with quite a few pedestrians.

When something happened, passersby naturally glanced over out of curiosity.

But when they saw the two legs in the water, those with nothing better to do immediately stopped.

In just a short while, the news that a woman's body had been found in the river had spread throughout the vicinity.

The body had originally been in the middle of the river. Her ankle must have gotten tangled in the fishing line, which was how the previous fisherman had pulled her up.

Now that he had pulled her to the bank, Chu Mingcheng hesitated for a long moment, but in the end, he didn't dare to touch the body further, choosing to wait for the police to arrive.

The nearby police station responded quickly. In just a few moments, two police cars pulled up to the side of the road.

The officers cordoned off the scene, preventing anyone from getting close.

Then, two officers put on masks and gloves and prepared to pull the person out of the water.