Jiang Nanzhou didn't know whether to laugh or cry at these comments.
The next day, as Jiang Nanzhou was walking home from his training class, he ran into Second Uncle Jiang on the road.
"Little Zhou, I heard from other boats that there are quite a few tuna around lately, and quite a few boats have caught some. I'm planning to go out too. Are you interested in coming along for a ride on your second uncle's boat?"
"Count me in for sure! I've never been on Second Uncle's boat before. What time are you heading out? I'll come over then."
Jiang Nanzhou didn't stand on ceremony. He had never been out to the deep sea before, as his grandfather's beat-up little boat could only manage the inshore waters—going out to the deep sea was simply too dangerous.
"We leave at six in the evening. Just head straight to the dock then. This trip will take three days before we're back, so make sure you tell your family."
That evening, Jiang Nanzhou eagerly gathered his gear and boarded Second Uncle Jiang's boat, the Xingfu.
Second Uncle Jiang had only hired three men for his boat: Jiang Tianfu, and a pair of brothers from Jiang's father's generation whom Jiang Nanzhou had to address as uncles—Jiang Damao and Jiang Ermao.
Second Uncle Jiang was steering the boat from the wheelhouse, while Jiang Tianfu and the others were handling the trawl nets. Feeling it wouldn't do for him to just stand around watching without lifting a finger, Jiang Nanzhou went over to lend a hand.
Once the trawl net was cast, everyone gathered together to chat. Seeing Jiang Nanzhou's excited state, Jiang Tianfu said:
"It takes about six hours of sailing from here to the tuna fishing grounds. You can get some rest first so you'll have the energy to tackle the big ones when we get there."
Jiang Nanzhou wouldn't be able to fall asleep at this hour anyway, and given how excited he was today, sleeping was completely out of the question.
"I won't be falling asleep at this hour. You guys go catch some shut-eye first."
Seeing them head off to rest, Jiang Nanzhou made his way up to the captain's wheelhouse.
Second Uncle Jiang was browsing short videos there, occasionally looking up at the screen with an utterly carefree expression.
"Second Uncle, you even have Wi-Fi on this boat?"
"Of course! The equipment on boats these days is fully decked out. The password is the name of this boat, Xingfu."
Jiang Nanzhou chatted with Second Uncle Jiang all the way until they reached the coordinates, learning quite a bit that would save him from making many detours.
During the voyage, the trawl nets had been hauled in and redeployed twice, but the catch wasn't much.
Now they pulled in the trawl nets for good and directly set down vertical longlines.
Jiang Nanzhou looked down into the sea and was surprised to find that there really were tuna in the vicinity, though none of them were very large—only two or three were of any decent size.
There were also quite a few crabs on the seabed. Seeing that Second Uncle Jiang had no intention of dropping any crab traps, Jiang Nanzhou couldn't help speaking up.
"Second Uncle, let's drop all the crab traps too. The boat's stopped here anyway."
"Little Zhou, I've dropped crab traps in this spot before, but we never caught more than a few each time. We'll skip it this time; we can drop them at another spot when dawn breaks. There are plenty of crabs over there."
"Let's drop them here too. I have a hunch we're going to haul in a full cage."
Hearing Jiang Nanzhou say this, Second Uncle Jiang and the others all laughed.
"All right then, let's drop the crab traps. I've heard before that you're lucky and always run into good catches. Your second uncle will take your word for it."
There were twenty crab traps in total. With five of them working, things went fast, and they finished setting them in no time at all.
Jiang Nanzhou took his drone out of his backpack, connected it to his phone, and started a livestream.
Noticing how crystal-clear the livestream feed was and how steady the camera remained without any shaking, he tucked his phone into his shirt pocket.
The men on the boat spaced themselves out and began casting their lines to fish. Jiang Nanzhou's target was crystal clear: today, he was going to bag a tuna.
The first to catch a fish was Second Uncle Jiang, who hooked a large white pomfret. The hook caught right in the fish's gills, and it weighed around two jin—a pretty good start.
"Large white pomfrets go for over a hundred per jin. Second Uncle's got the opening strike!"
"You guys better step up too, and strive to bag a bluefin tuna."
Jiang Nanzhou leisurely deployed his old tactics, moving close to the prey and enticing it to bite bit by bit.
*Whoosh!* His fishing rod bent sharply under the pull of the fishing line, giving Jiang Nanzhou a jerk that pitched him forward.
Jiang Nanzhou braced his body and steadied his stance. *Crap, thank goodness my build is sturdy.*
The spinning reel screeched as line continued to stream out at a rapid pace.
Jiang Nanzhou felt the terrifying pull coming from the other end of the line. He wasn't afraid of the line snapping, as he had plenty of confidence in items produced by the system; what he feared was the fish shaking the hook. He needed to reel it in quickly to set his mind at ease.
Uncle Ermao, who was fishing nearby, saw that Jiang Nanzhou had hooked a big fish and hurriedly reeled in his own line, grabbing a gaff and a landing net to stand ready by Jiang Nanzhou's side.
Jiang Nanzhou alternated between letting out drag and reeling back in, locked in a stalemate for over ten minutes before the tuna finally broke the surface.
Uncle Ermao shouted toward the others, "It's a huge yellowfin tuna! A conservative estimate puts it at around a hundred jin."
Hearing this, the others all reeled in their rods and hurried over to Jiang Nanzhou's side.
Even Uncle Damao, who was usually silent and rarely spoke, raised his voice several octaves.
"Good lad! Your very first move, and it's a yellowfin tuna—and such a massive one at that."
The back, tail fins, and finlets of a yellowfin tuna were all pale yellow. While its flavor wasn't as sweet as that of the bluefin tuna, it was still quite good.
Second Uncle Jiang lit a cigarette, thinking to himself that this kid really knew what he was doing.
Jiang Tianfu readied the winch rope.
Feeling the fishing reel start to heat up, Jiang Nanzhou called out to Jiang Tianfu.
"Tianfu Brother, pour some water on my reel! I'm afraid it's going to start smoking in a minute."
Jiang Tianfu immediately grabbed a bottle of water and poured it over the fishing reel, completely past caring whether Jiang Nanzhou's clothes got wet or not.
Jiang Nanzhou was also burning with excitement, sweat beading on his forehead. This was insanely thrilling—this was what real sea fishing was all about.
While Jiang Nanzhou was entirely focused on battling that huge yellowfin tuna, the livestream chat that he had neglected exploded at 1:30 in the morning.
"Ahhh, Fisherman Brother's explosive power is off the charts! Look at those sexy biceps and that drool-worthy expression!"
"Fake. Anyone can tell this is a pre-recorded video, not a livestream at all."
"Stupid trash upstairs, stop trying to smear the streamer. I've been here since he first started the stream."
"I got drawn in by the drone. What brand is that thing anyway? How can it be this clear at night?"
"The three thousand of us are total suckers, staying up in the middle of the night to watch a AFK streamer's channel and crying emoji."
"I came for the streamer's looks, I stayed for the streamer's body. I've got material for my dreams tonight."
"You guys are too superficial. The streamer just hooked a wild yellowfin tuna! That goes for a couple of hundred per jin."
"I'm night fishing out at sea too, and I've only caught half a bucket of squid. My heart hurts."
It took all of Jiang Nanzhou's strength to finally subdue the yellowfin tuna.
Jiang Tianfu and he placed the yellowfin tuna onto the scale. Holy cow—135 jin!
"Little Zhou, hurry up and give me your phone. My phone's camera resolution is terrible—let me take a picture of you for a souvenir."
Jiang Nanzhou pulled his phone out of his shirt pocket and saw his own livestream feed, with plenty of people sending him virtual gifts and the chat screen flooded with praise declaring the streamer was amazing.
But Jiang Nanzhou had no time to look at that right now.
"Tianfu Brother, use your phone. My phone is livestreaming."