Yao Xin's fish container was identical to his—the same thirty-liter model.

A half-full box was about what he'd calculated; she'd caught thirty-three jin of hairtail in total.

When He Zheng came over to check on Chu Mingcheng, he did a double-take. Here was a veteran angler with over a decade of experience who'd been fishing nonstop for nearly four hours, and this kid had caught almost as much as him.

The hairtail in Chu Mingcheng's container was practically overflowing. After weighing them, the total came to sixty-one jin. At forty-five yuan per jin, that was 2,745 yuan.

He Zheng paid another 300 yuan for the seventeen jin of smaller, two-finger-wide fish, which weren't worth much.

The four-finger-wide hairtail that didn't quite reach a full jin were all priced as a three-finger-wide fish. This portion totaled eleven jin, worth 495 yuan.

The rest consisted of sixteen fish weighing over a jin but less than a jin and a half. At eighty yuan per jin, they weighed just over twenty jin—only a few grams more, so he rounded it to an even twenty jin for 1,600 yuan.

In other words, Chu Mingcheng's total earnings came to 5,140 yuan, far exceeding his expectations. From that, He Zheng stood to make over two thousand yuan in profit from the price difference alone.

And it was only eleven-thirty at night. There were at least six hours until sunrise.

Even if the bite wasn't as frantic in the second half of the night, catching another fifty jin or more should be no problem.

He wasn't as delicate as Yao Xin; when he found a school of fish, he was determined to fish through the night. Opportunities like this were rare, after all.

Though Chu Mingcheng had run out of bait, it didn't matter.

He'd kept three of the small, two-finger-wide hairtails. Sliced into pieces, they would serve as bait—and much better bait than sandworms.

The China Academy of Fishery Sciences had once dissected over twelve hundred hairtails from the East China Sea and found that thirty-five percent of their stomach contents consisted of other hairtails. They were a cold-blooded, cannibalistic species.

Seeing Chu Mingcheng bait his hook with a piece of fish and cast out again, He Zheng was taken aback. "Ah Cheng, you're not taking a break? Can you handle it?"

"I've got to fish while I still have the energy. I'll rest in a few hours when I'm tired."

"Youth is a wonderful thing. Well, just be careful."

He Zheng nodded and said no more, a touch of wistfulness in his voice. He remembered being in his twenties when pulling an all-nighter was nothing.

Now... the thought alone was enough to bring a tear to his eye.

Soon, only He Zheng's two friends and Chu Mingcheng remained on the deck. He Zheng himself went back to the cockpit to rest.

He'd given the room to Yao Xin, so he took a blanket and made do on the sofa for the night.

Chu Mingcheng had just used a charge of Life Conversion and had rested while his catch was being tallied, so he felt nearly as fresh as when he'd started.

The bite was still good, or perhaps the hairtail meat was just more enticing to them.

After hooking a fish, Chu Mingcheng lifted his rod and felt that this one was heavier than any before.

Did I hook a big one?

His eyes lit up. A large hairtail could sell for over two hundred yuan per jin. A few of those would be much more satisfying than a pile of smaller ones.

But as he pulled the fish from the water, he realized he'd reeled in a train...

Only two hairtails had taken his hooks, but several others were latched onto their tails.

Three were biting one, and two were biting the other. These hairtails clung to their companions' tails, refusing to let go, and were pulled right onto the boat.

When hairtail bites tails, it's not to save their comrades but to eat them.

Chu Mingcheng had seen this happen before, but always with just one extra fish. This time, a single cast had brought in five extra, and not one of them was smaller than three fingers wide. He was ecstatic.

He happily sorted the fish. With his hook remover, he even managed to retrieve the baitfish that had been swallowed, ready to be used again.

With Yao Xin asleep, Chu Mingcheng borrowed her fish container, so he no longer had to toss his catch onto the deck.

His efficiency for the next few hours remained as high as it had been in the first four, often pulling in two or three fish at a time.

In reality, the fishing had slowed down for the two men on the aft deck. The school of hairtail under the boat was no longer as dense as before.

What they couldn't see was that the concentration of hairtail in the water beneath Chu Mingcheng was slightly higher than theirs.

Moreover, the proportion of four-finger-wide hairtail in his catch was now higher than before, while the two-finger-wide ones were becoming much scarcer.

When you're engrossed in fishing, time seems to fly by.

It wasn't until the first rays of sunlight touched the surface of the sea that Chu Mingcheng realized he'd fished all night.

No wonder the fish were biting less. The water layer had deepened without him noticing.

But he'd just used another charge of Life Conversion. He felt alert, and though his body was weary, it was manageable.

All around him, piles of hairtail were stacked—a clear sign that his haul from the second half of the night had been even greater than the first.

He glanced at his data panel and saw that his Hairtail skill had reached level 8.

[Hairtail, also known as Ribbonfish (Level 8)]

[Current Experience: 45/90]

[Size +8%]

[Deliciousness +8%]

[Capture Chance +8%]

I caught 242 fish in the second half of the night.

Chu Mingcheng did a quick count and was astonished. That was seventy-nine more than in the first half!

Considering the time spent fishing, his efficiency hadn't dropped at all. While everyone else's bite rate had slowed, his had remained steady. This cheat was truly something else.

Chu Mingcheng looked at the five hairtails he'd laid out on the deck.

Each of them was a meter long and weighed over two jin.

It was a shame he hadn't encountered a truly massive one. A fish of one and a half meters would probably weigh over five jin and be worth two thousand yuan.

Before He Zheng woke up, Chu Mingcheng began to sort his catch.

He picked out ten of the four-finger-wide hairtail, planning to give them to his parents, Chen Yang, and Zhang Wei. He made sure to select two of the one-jin fish for his parents.

He also set aside ten of the three-finger-wide ones to share.

He'd only caught about ten jin of the small, two-finger-wide hairtail this time. Most of them were nearly three fingers wide, but He Zheng wouldn't pay the three-finger price for them. They weren't worth even two hundred yuan, so he decided to take them all home.

It was hard to sleep on the sofa of a small boat. When the two anglers from the aft deck packed up and entered the cockpit, the noise woke He Zheng.

He glanced at the sky, saw the sun was already up, and rose to wash his face before starting to tally the catch.

When he stepped onto the foredeck and saw the haul, he froze.

He'd never imagined that Chu Mingcheng's catch alone would nearly rival that of his two friends combined. An idea began to form in his mind.

"Ah Cheng, you fished your heart out to make sure I could host a feast!"

The massive haul made He Zheng very happy. He stood to make five thousand yuan from Chu Mingcheng alone. How could he not be happy?

Chu Mingcheng shrugged and smiled. "Yao-Jie has taken me out twice now. After what she said last night, I had to make her happy, didn't I?"

"Yes, you certainly did!"

He Zheng beamed. Yao Xin might be happy, but he was even happier!

Then he added, "Ah Cheng, are you interested in coming out to sea with me long-term?"

Chu Mingcheng looked at He Zheng's expression and understood his meaning.

He wanted him to work as a long-term angler for him.

If this had been before, he might have been interested. After all, He Zheng was an old salt who knew how to find fish and had sources for fish run information.

But he was about to move to Xiamen to start his career there. Besides, working for someone else would never be as free as being his own boss. So he politely declined. "He-ge, I'd love to, but I'm moving to Xiamen soon to start my career there. It's a real shame."

He Zheng was taken aback, then laughed heartily. "That is a shame. By the way, when are you going to Xiamen? I'm planning to go fishing for a large yellow croaker in a couple of days. Are you in?"

Hiring Chu Mingcheng long-term would have meant taking on responsibility—offering a base salary plus commission, and covering his food.

That way, Chu Mingcheng would earn a bit less per trip, but He Zheng would take him out every time.

His total monthly income would likely be steady, just with more grueling work.

But since Chu Mingcheng had refused, He Zheng's next invitation was different. He wouldn't be teaching him any of his secrets for finding fish; it would be a simple, mutually beneficial partnership.

If it weren't for the fact that two of his regular crew were out of town, he wouldn't have invited Chu Mingcheng in the first place.