Dinner is ready!
It smelled so good. Perhaps it was because his appetite was particularly good after working, but he ate the entire pot of rice with soy sauce, leaving no grain behind.
After eating and drinking his fill, and resting for a while, Li Haochen took out the Qianlong rod.
He didn't dare to use lures in this sea area. It was tens of meters deep, and there was a good chance of encountering some fierce big fish.
After baiting the hook and casting it down, Li Haochen put on his belly band and gloves. The lead sinker took the bait to the bottom. He checked the depth: 45 meters.
He reeled in three meters, locked the star drag, and waited.
In less than ten seconds, the fishing rod suddenly dipped. The fishing line whizzed away. The force was such that Li Haochen didn't even bother to act.
With a beep, the reel started to operate, retrieving the line at a steady pace, neither fast nor slow.
The fish below sensed the threat to its life and began to struggle frantically.
The barbs on the large fishhook were not easy to dislodge.
The more it struggled, the deeper the barbs dug in. Unless its mouth rotted away and the entire hook fell off, there was no escape.
In just over a minute, a figure could be seen. It was red. Li Haochen became hopeful. If it were a red grouper, it would make a pair with the one from earlier and could be served on the table.
Unfortunately, it wasn't. What came up was just a big-eyed fish, its eyes bulging as if about to burst.
Li Haochen was too lazy to throw it back into the space ocean. It would be perfect for cooking this afternoon.
He baited the hook and continued fishing.
This time, a fish took the bait incredibly quickly. As soon as it went down a few meters, the rod suddenly dipped, and the reel spun rapidly as the fishing line was pulled.
Li Haochen didn't even expect it. By the time he reacted, the fishing line had already been pulled out over a hundred meters.
Judging by the speed and force of the pull, this fish must have weighed at least ten pounds.
The fish was moving quite fast. Li Haochen didn't dare to completely disengage the drag. If it locked suddenly, the fish might tear its mouth and escape.
He adjusted the reel's knob to 80% drag. The speed was limited, and the fish became slightly flustered. It changed direction and darted to the right.
This change in direction drove the hook in deeper, sealing its fate.
Perhaps feeling the pain, the fishing line moved erratically, left and right. Li Haochen immediately locked the star drag and slowly reeled in.
A few minutes later, a blue-green triangular dorsal fin appeared on the surface of the sea not far away, stunning Li Haochen.
"A shark?"
It really was. Its back and upper sides were gray-green, and its belly and lower sides were white. It was undoubtedly a blue shark.
These creatures were fierce and swam very agilely. However, this was just a baby shark, not very big, and rather cute.
Li Haochen picked up a large landing net and scooped it up. It was still defiant, slapping its back and trying to bite him.
Just a baby shark, what are you showing off about?
"Slap, slap!"
Li Haochen went up and hit its little head a couple of times. "See if you're still so cocky. I could even take down your mother."
This thing couldn't be eaten, nor could it be sold. Otherwise, he'd end up with a pair of silver bracelets.
However, he couldn't let this guy go. The space ocean didn't have this kind of creature yet. Although it wasn't valuable, it was necessary to improve the marine ecosystem of the space ocean.
Li Haochen flipped the blue shark over in the net. The fishhook was stuck near its teeth, quite deep. He thought about it and decided not to pull it out. It would probably cause it immense pain. Anyway, the fishhook was in seawater, and it would slowly rust and dissolve after some time.
He cut the fishing line and took the creature into the space ocean. As soon as it hit the water, it darted away incredibly fast, disappearing hundreds of meters away in the blink of an eye. It was indeed a swimming champion.
He still had plenty of time. After returning from the space, he replaced the fishhook and continued fishing.
Before long, a huge blue-gray triangular dorsal fin appeared on the sea surface, circling the "Star" yacht. It startled Li Haochen, who quickly reeled in his rod.
Its appearance suggested that it was likely the mother of that little guy.
Whether it was telepathy or scenting the smell, it kept swimming towards the "Star" yacht. From afar, it didn't seem terrifying, but now, hovering near the hull, its length was at least 6 meters. This scared Li Haochen, and he quickly retreated into the cabin.
Alright, saying he could take down its mother earlier was just a joke.
Don't think you're safe just because you've hidden in the cabin. Great white sharks can still tear you apart. So, Li Haochen slipped into the space to hide.
Since he was here, he decided to tend to the coconut seedlings.
More than two hours later, Li Haochen, soaked from head to toe, returned to the cabin. Seeing the calm sea, he breathed a sigh of relief.
He checked the time and realized it was time to head back. Li Haochen put on his gloves and walked over to start pulling in the traps.
"Huh? Why is it so light?"
The more he pulled, the darker Li Haochen's expression became. Ten minutes later, he looked at the more than 20 mangled traps on the deck. One of them still had a red grouper head the size of a fist. If it were intact, it would have weighed at least 4 pounds.
Looking at the utterly destroyed traps, Li Haochen cursed loudly, "F--- mother..."
He had suffered a huge loss this time. More than twenty traps, each costing thousands of yuan, not to mention the potential harvest.
This made Li Haochen sulk for quite a while. It wasn't until he chugged down two large bottles of frozen glass-bottled sarsaparilla and let out a long burp that he felt a little better.
There was actually still time to fish, but he was so angry that he had no mood for it anymore. So, he weighed anchor and set sail back.
After sailing for about two hours, he got a phone signal. He looked at the screen and saw several missed calls from an unfamiliar landline number, which made him very curious.
He called the same number several times. It seemed they weren't mistaken calls.
"Who is it?"
Li Haochen called back. A few seconds later, a pleasant female voice came from the other end of the phone, "Hello, this is the customer service department of Dongyang Fast Food Chain. How may I help you?"
"Dongyang Fast Food?"
Li Haochen was also bewildered. Had someone ordered takeout and left the wrong number?
"Uh, hello, beautiful. My phone shows that you've called me several times. Is there something you need?"
"Oh, is this Mr. Li Haochen?"
"Yes, what's up?"
"It's like this, we at Dongyang Fast Food would like to establish a strategic partnership with your Chopstick Factory. Do you have time to come to our main store to discuss it?"
"Yes, yes... Okay, see you tonight."
As soon as the call ended, Li Haochen couldn't help but shout with excitement, "That's great, that's really great!"
In his excitement, Li Haochen took the time to look up Dongyang Fast Food. My goodness, they had as many as 3,000 chain stores nationwide! This number stunned Li Haochen.
3,000 stores! What kind of concept was that? Assuming each store used 500 pairs of chopsticks a day, the total daily consumption would be 1.5 million pairs. One could imagine that.
And that was a conservative estimate. A fast-food chain group of this scale would have much higher consumption.
Thinking of this, Li Haochen started to grin foolishly.
"1.5 million... 1.5 million pairs, hehe... hehe!"