"Anchor, you guys are running a scam, aren't you? Staging the catch yourselves."
"Streams like yours should be banned. I'm reporting you right now."
"Goodbye."
With that, the user left the livestream. You have to hand it to him, he was quite polite.
Only three people were left in the stream now, and one of them seemed to be Jiang Tianfu's own account.
Jiang Tianfu felt a bit crestfallen and tried to comfort himself by reminding himself that there were still people watching.
Jiang Nanzhou patted him on the shoulder, picked up the tongs, and got ready to tackle the big guy.
Jiang Tianfu wedged his phone into a crevice in the rock, adjusted the angle, and went over to help.
Jiang Nanzhou aimed the tongs at the eel's neck, clamping down firmly, quickly, and accurately. Jiang Tianfu brought the bucket over, and it took a good while before they managed to maneuver the twisted, rope-like giant eel into the bucket. Only after the eel had completely worn itself out and stopped struggling did Jiang Nanzhou release the tongs.
When Jiang Tianfu picked up his phone, he saw that there were now over thirty people in the livestream.
A user named Guanhaige Private Cuisine asked him if he was willing to sell the eel, saying he was ready to buy it at a high price.
Jiang Nanzhou and Jiang Tianfu were far from strangers to Guanhaige Private Cuisine. It was an extremely famous restaurant in their city, having even made the news a few years ago. Their prices were exorbitant—truly exorbitant—yet even at those prices, getting a table wasn't something just anyone could manage. If you wanted to eat there, you had to book a table a month in advance. Whether the food was actually any good was anyone's guess, as neither of them had ever eaten there.
Jiang Tianfu asked Jiang Nanzhou if he wanted to sell the eel, but Jiang Nanzhou flatly refused.
"You don't just stumble upon a wild oil eel this size every day. I'm planning to have Granny braise it in soy sauce tonight. Call Granny Guilan and tell her to come over to the old house for dinner."
"You're throwing money away! That fish has got to be worth at least two thousand yuan. Eating it is a waste."
"What a waste? It's not going into a stranger's stomach. It's settled, then. I'll have a few drinks with you tonight."
One of the viewers in the livestream couldn't sit still anymore.
"Anchor, you should talk your friend out of it. It's not easy for an eel to grow this big. You should just release it."
"Poster above you is right, anchor. Hurry up and persuade your friend to release it—and send me your address while you're at it."
"Your scheming is so loud I can hear it from the bathroom."
"You're all staring at that eel, but none of you noticed the anchor's friend? Sure, we didn't see his face, but the hand holding those tongs is seriously gorgeous—knuckles distinct, fingers long and slender, and his voice sounds amazing, too."
"Simps."
After Jiang Nanzhou and Jiang Tianfu picked up a few more octopuses and some conches, they decided to head back.
Jiang Tianfu turned off the stream and looked Jiang Nanzhou up and down.
Jiang Nanzhou started to feel a bit creeped out by the stare.
"Brother Tianfu, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"
"I've got to hand it to you, Xiaozhou, you really are a handsome kid. Why don't you start streaming and making short videos too? If you do well, you can make a decent amount of money."
"There's a fishing streamer in town with hundreds of thousands of followers who makes several thousand yuan a day just by going fishing."
"When I get home, I'm going to look into it. That stuff looks like a lot of fun."
"You'd definitely be great at it. Once you blow up, you can carry me."
"In your dreams, as if it's that easy to blow up. Hurry up and pack your things so we can go home."
Jiang Nanzhou walked ahead carrying the bucket, irritated by the sight of some broken fishing nets and numerous plastic bottles littering the edge of the reef beach.
Just as he picked up a plastic bottle, he heard the system prompt.
"Congratulations, Host, you have obtained +1 Ocean Prestige."
"Congratulations, Host, you have obtained Ocean Prestige for the first time. The system rewards you with one lucky draw."
So that was how it worked. It looked like he was going to be an ocean cleaner from now on.
Jiang Nanzhou only picked up a few bottles and two pieces of broken fishing net today, as he didn't have anything to carry a larger haul in anyway.
"Xiaozhou, why are you picking up that junk?"
"There's too much trash around here. Such a beautiful beach looks terrible with this kind of garbage lying around. Besides, protecting the marine environment is everyone's responsibility. Tomorrow, I'll bring Grandpa's tricycle and clear the trash out."
"College students really are different. What you said is so true! A few years ago, we still had tourists coming by, but now nobody comes at all. Back then, I even heard a big corporation was coming to our island to develop a resort, where every household could get a nice payout from the shares, but unfortunately nothing ever came of it. It was probably because this place is too remote and the environment isn't great. We really do need to protect the marine environment properly. I'm off tomorrow anyway and have nothing to do, so I'll come with you."
"Congratulations, Host, you have obtained +1 Prestige."
"Congratulations, Host, you have received one lucky draw as a reward for your first Prestige."
Hearing the system prompt, Jiang Nanzhou instantly figured it out.
However, he didn't dwell on it too much. Ocean prestige was easy to get—you just cleaned up trash—but regular prestige wasn't so simple.
Jiang Nanzhou had heard about that back then; his dad had even called him specially to say that if the development happened, all the nearby villages would have to relocate. People used to come and survey the area frequently, but as time went on, the project fizzled out.
For now, Jiang Nanzhou's plan was to work hard and save money. If possible, he also wanted to develop this island into a tourist resort, hoping that might make the village a bit more lively instead of as desolate as it was now.
Jiang Tianfu drove the electric tricycle carrying Jiang Nanzhou straight to the old house.
Grandpa Jiang was sitting in the courtyard smoking his tobacco pipe, and he watched as Jiang Nanzhou walked into the yard carrying two buckets by himself.
"Why didn't Tianfu come inside? Didn't you call and say he'd be eating here tonight?"
"He went back to pick up Granny Guilan. They'll be here in a minute."
Jiang Nanzhou carried the buckets straight into the kitchen and took a turn around the house, but didn't see Granny Jiang anywhere.
"Grandpa, where did Granny go?"
"Your Granny called your parents, but nobody answered, so she went over to your house to look for them."
"They probably didn't answer because they went to the back of the house to feed the chickens at this hour."
Jiang Nanzhou's family kept hundreds of free-range chickens in the woods at the foot of the hill behind their house, along with dozens of big geese and ducks, so collecting eggs and feeding them kept them quite busy every day.
"Grandpa, then I'll go prep that oil eel. Call my aunt and tell her and Uncle-in-law to come over for dinner."
Watching his grandfather pull out his old-school flip phone, Jiang Nanzhou rolled up his sleeves and headed into the kitchen.
By the time he finished washing and cleaning the fish, along with the conches, abalones, and octopuses they had foraged today, Granny Jiang had returned.
Just as Granny Jiang stepped into the courtyard, she saw the old man tapping his tobacco pipe.
"Stop clinging to that wretched pipe of yours all day long. Hurry up and go boil a pot of water for me so I can process the big goose."
From the kitchen, Jiang Nanzhou heard Granny Jiang's voice and immediately put a pot of water on to boil.
"Grandpa, I've got the water boiling. You just take a rest."
"Xiaozhou is back, is he? Your grandpa's been resting all day, give him something to do."
With that, Granny Jiang dropped the smile from her face and glared at Grandpa Jiang.
"What resting? Old man, go get the knife out, and bring a small basin while you're at it."