"What's wrong? Who's looking for you?" An Xiuwen asked, seeing her son reply to the message.

Chu Mingcheng checked the time. It was only five-thirty, so he wasn't in a rush. He took a bite of fish and said, "A fishing buddy invited me to go after large yellow croaker tonight. He said to be at Wenshi Pier by seven."

"Fishing for large yellow croaker?"

His parents stilled abruptly. Then, as Chu Mingcheng watched in confusion, one reached for his bowl while the other gently plucked the chopsticks from his hand.

“What are you waiting for? Get back to Yanmen Island, pack your gear, and go!” his parents urged.

Chu Mingcheng couldn’t help but chuckle, torn between amusement and exasperation. “It’s at seven. I’ve got plenty of time to finish dinner.”

Chu Yongxin tugged him to his feet. “You’ve been eating for half an hour and still aren’t done? We’re talking large yellow croaker here! Catch a few three-jin ones, and you’ll have enough for a new outboard motor.”

"I'd be lucky to get a three-liang one, let alone three jin!" Chu Mingcheng retorted, exasperated. Still, he let his father pull him up; he was mostly full anyway.

An Xiuwen was already busy. She got out a thermos, filled it with fish soup and meat, and packed it with rice.

"Son, this is for your late-night snack."

Chu Mingcheng accepted it without hesitation. It saved him the trouble of buying sandwiches or bread.

Leaving his parents' house, he first drove to Yanmen Island, loaded his fishing rods and other gear for the night into his car—his thirty-liter fish cooler would be more than enough. Fishing for large yellow croaker wasn't as frantic as fishing for hairtail.

However, he was out of the ice he kept in his freezer, so he'd have to buy some today. He also needed to buy more sandworms and some shrimp bricks for chum, which was all on the way.

This time, Chu Mingcheng bought extra sandworms, worried about running out like he had last time. Back then, he could fall back on using small hairtail as bait. But now? There was no way he could afford to use yellow croaker meat—that was far too extravagant.

It was just after six when he arrived in Wenshi. Chu Mingcheng parked his car, slung his rod bag over his shoulder, and carried his fish cooler and thermos to the pier's boarding dock. He was about to call He Zheng when he saw him emerge from the cockpit of a fishing boat at the dock.

"Ah Cheng, over here!"

Chu Mingcheng was a little surprised. "He-ge, did you get a new boat?"

He Zheng laughed and explained, "There are more people today, and my friend's boat is more spacious."

The boat was actually about the same size as his previous one, around twelve meters long. The difference was the cockpit, which was very small, containing only the helm and a narrow sleeping space behind a small door to the left. There was no sofa or rest area to speak of.

But while He Zheng's boat could carry at most eight anglers, this one could take twelve, with six on each side still feeling spacious.

By six-thirty, the eleventh person had arrived. With the captain, that made a full dozen.

They set off for the fishing spot.

This time, it took them two hours to reach their destination.

Just like last time, the area was dotted with many fishing boats and trawlers. It seemed the fishing conditions were indeed excellent today.

First, they chummed the water to attract the fish. At night, yellow croakers liked to feed in schools, so chumming made it easier to draw them in and increase the chances of a hook-up.

Next, Chu Mingcheng began to tie his line and attach his hook, starting by finding the right water depth. If he couldn't find the right depth, he wouldn't be catching much of anything tonight.

A short while later, Chu Mingcheng felt a nibble and focused his attention, waiting for the fish to take the hook.

But as he waited, something felt off. He lifted his rod—and sure enough, the sandworm was gone.

This large yellow croaker was a cautious biter. A hairtail would’ve swallowed it in one go.

With the depth found and the croaker's biting habits understood, Chu Mingcheng had a good idea of what to do.

He re-baited his hook and cast it back into the water. Before the bait had even sunk, an angler next to him had a fish on.

Soon, a fish that gleamed golden under the lights was pulled onto the boat.

"Gok-gok-gok-gok~!" The yellow croaker made its characteristic sound after being caught.

The angler removed the hook, checked the weight with his fish gripper, then pressed the pectoral fin against the fish’s eye—it covered it perfectly. A wild one.

Only then did a smile spread across his face as he placed it into his fish cooler.

At He Zheng's buying price, that fish was worth about seventy yuan—not bad at all.

Chu Mingcheng shook himself from his thoughts and focused on his own rod. A short while later, he had another bite.

This time, he didn't hesitate, immediately lifting the rod to set the hook. Fish on.

Lift the rod, reel in the line, lift the rod, reel in the line. It didn't take much effort to bring a large yellow croaker to the surface.

It had a long, slender body, much larger than the one the other angler had caught.

The angler next to him was slightly envious. “That’s a nice one. Probably seven or eight liang.”

[TN: 1 liang ≈ 50 grams, so seven or eight liang is roughly 350–400 grams.]

"We'll have to see if it's wild," Chu Mingcheng said with a grin, holding up the fish. He removed the hook and used his fish gripper to check the weight.

421 grams, over eight liang. The price for this weight wasn't cheap—four hundred yuan per jin, making this one fish worth over three hundred.

Finally, he bent the pectoral fin. It perfectly covered the eye, and the scales were arranged in a neat, beautiful pattern. Even though they were all farmed and released, fish like this were considered wild. Chu Mingcheng happily put it in his cooler and continued fishing.

Unfortunately, the hook-up rate wasn't very high. He was only catching a yellow croaker every five or six minutes, and they mostly weighed between three and six liang.

An hour passed. Chu Mingcheng had caught eight large yellow croakers. Besides the first eight-liang one, the other seven were only four or five liang each. Luckily, they were all wild.

But it wasn't that no one was catching fish over a jin. An angler on his boat had landed a one-and-a-half-jin one, and Chu Mingcheng was green with envy.

However, tonight wasn't like the hairtail trip where he only caught one type of fish. This time, he also caught two 'mian' fish. They were three jin each and were also tossed into the cooler. If He Zheng didn't want them, he'd take them home.

[Yellow Croaker (Level 0)]

[Current Experience: 8/10]

[Size +0%]

[Deliciousness +0%]

[Capture Chance +0%]

The data panel from his Codex, however, left Chu Mingcheng a bit puzzled.

He'd actually felt something was off when he caught the green grouper before. If every fish species required a fixed number to level up, he would never be able to max out the skills for groupers and other fish in his lifetime.

There were also many coral fish, like the green wrasse, that weren't exactly abundant. How could he possibly catch tens of thousands of them?

He didn't know if the Aquatic Species Codex would change. For now, Chu Mingcheng could only put those thoughts aside and continue fishing.

He cast his hook into the water and scooped out two ladlefuls of shrimp brick to keep the school of fish around.

Two minutes passed. He hadn’t even noticed a bite when his rod tip suddenly plunged, bending into a crescent.

“Whoa, what did I hook? This thing’s heavy!”

This definitely wasn’t a yellow croaker—it felt almost as hefty as the green grouper he’d caught before, probably around ten jin.

If this really was a yellow croaker, Chu Mingcheng feared he’d be tossed into the sea to feed the fish tonight.

"Hey, you've got a big one! Brother, your luck is incredible!"

The commotion immediately attracted the attention of the two anglers next to him, who were more than a little envious.

Every sea angler is tempted by a big catch. More often than not, a big fish meant big money—unless it happened to be a particularly worthless species.

Chu Mingcheng just smiled without replying, keeping his focus on the line.

The fishing rod creaked and groaned, looking like it might snap at any moment.

But he wasn’t the novice he used to be—the guy who had only learned about fishing online and believed a rod’s stiffness strictly determined the size of fish it could handle.

And his technique was different now. If the rod was soft, he'd play the fish. He just couldn't use brute force.