Li Hao Chen spent the entire morning, exerting himself to the utmost, picking at least twenty thousand. His tongue felt like it was about to fall out, and he had to rest on the beach for half an hour to recover.
It took him several more hours to bring out the coconuts and stack them. The entire warehouse was packed full.
By the time he finished, it was past two in the afternoon. Li Hao Chen was ravenously hungry, but it was better to be safe than sorry. He had to check that the door was locked before leaving, no matter how hungry he was.
It was an awkward time. He didn't feel like going home to cook. Fortunately, as he passed a construction site for a residential development, a small vendor was still open for business.
"Boss, one ham and egg rice noodle."
"Coming right up, please wait!"
By this time, everyone at the construction site had already eaten and gone back to work. Li Hao Chen was the only customer at the stall.
He poured himself a cup of lukewarm tea made from leftover tea leaves and drank it. In less than two minutes, the boss brought over a large box of stir-fried rice noodles.
It was a truly massive portion, incredibly generous, and the wok hei was strong. The rice noodles were very fragrant. Adding some chili sauce made it exceptionally delicious. The price was also not expensive; with meat and egg, it was only eight yuan. Don't underestimate these unlicensed, uninspected small vendors; they could earn more money in an instant than a civil servant would envy.
After eating his fill and paying, he rode his beloved little Aima towards home.
As he passed a fishing tackle shop, he bought a box of Antarctic shrimp. Li Hao Chen planned to go to Butterfly Bay later to catch some fish for dinner.
As soon as he got home, he received the payment for the seafood from Yang Tao, totaling over 28,700 yuan. However, most of it was from Xie Baolian and Murong Yanran's catch. Li Hao Chen transferred ten thousand yuan to each of them.
The two women did not hesitate and happily accepted the money. Xie Baolian even boasted that next time they went out to sea, she would catch hundreds of thousands of yuan and achieve financial freedom for cosmetics.
Gathering his gear, Li Hao Chen headed towards Butterfly Bay. When he reached the entrance gate, it was already covered in dust, and even the lock was a bit difficult to open.
Li Hao Chen ran home again and poured some sewing machine oil onto the lock. He inserted the key a few times, and it immediately became much smoother.
After locking the gate, he walked inside. He noticed some traces of sea snails on the reefs within the bay, but there were very few. It had been over ten days since they were cleaned out so thoroughly last time. Li Hao Chen walked around briefly and found the situation to be acceptable. At this rate, it should recover to its original level in about half a year.
Li Hao Chen looked around the entire Butterfly Bay sea area for a while and felt a bit helpless. "Alas, I'm short of money."
Shaking his head, he didn't dwell on it. He put on his protective gear, took out his fishing rod, attached the bait, and cast it with a sideways flick. The bait landed precisely in the spot he intended. Li Hao Chen gave himself a high score for his casting technique.
He lightly flicked the fishing rod and slowly reeled in the line.
"Swoosh~"
Suddenly, a sound ripped through the air. The tip of the rod bent, becoming taut. He placed the fishing rod against his stomach. This was something he had bought along with the bait; it wasn't expensive, only a few dozen yuan.
"Heh heh, buying this stomach support was the right choice; it's really good. I won't have to suffer with my stomach when sea fishing anymore."
With the stomach support, Li Hao Chen could put his whole body into it. He lifted the rod with his left hand and furiously reeled with his right. The coordination between the two was seamless. In just over a minute, he pulled the fish to the shore. He grabbed the landing net and scooped it in with a "chuot" sound. The fish successfully landed in the net.
"Not bad, not bad, a black sea bream weighing over two pounds."
This black sea bream was quite feisty. Even when held by its head, it was still thrashing its tail wildly. Fortunately, it wasn't very large; if it were five or six pounds, it could probably have made someone stumble.
He removed the hook and placed the fish in the keeping net, then continued. In less than two minutes, he hooked another sea bass weighing over three pounds.
Seeing that he already had two substantial fish, he decided not to fish anymore. Catching too many would mean they couldn't all be eaten, and seafood didn't taste good the next day. Even if unfrozen, there was a complete difference in taste between fish that had been iced and those freshly caught.
"Hey, I wanted to fish for another hour to have some fun, but I finished my task in just a few minutes." Li Hao Chen stood up, patted his butt, and said, "Alright, time to go home and rest."
He packed up his gear and was about to leave when a sharp, acrid smell wafted through the air, similar to the smell of disinfectant when entering a hospital.
Li Hao Chen frowned, his eyes searching for the source of this noxious substance. Suddenly, a flat, gray, uneven floating object in a small pond a few meters ahead caught his attention.
He cautiously walked over. The smell grew stronger, and Li Hao Chen was very sure that this floating trash was the source.
Pinching his nose, he picked up the object. "Huh, it looks so big, but it's surprisingly light."
Without further thought, he grabbed a trash bag and carefully wrapped the object. Even with the trash bag, a faint odor still escaped, but it was bearable.
"Some people are just too inconsiderate, throwing such pungent trash around so casually." Li Hao Chen grumbled as he carried his fishing gear and the garbage out of Butterfly Bay. He reached the exit, locked the gate, and walked towards the trash cans by the shore.
He couldn't stand the smell any longer. If he took it home to throw away, Murong Yanran would surely skin him alive when she returned that evening.
A few minutes later, he arrived at the shore. It was the hot afternoon, and to his surprise, an old man was sitting nearby. Judging by his face, he was clearly not from the village.
Li Hao Chen nodded politely as he saw the old man look at him, then walked to the trash cans a few meters away.
"Why does this smell seem so familiar?" The old man was Liang Borui, the owner of Jiuzhitang. He frowned, trying to recall the scent he had just detected.
Just as Li Hao Chen opened the lid of the trash can, a sudden, urgent shout came from behind him, "Stop."
It turned out that Liang Borui had followed the scent and confirmed that it was coming from the trash bag in Li Hao Chen's hand. Seeing Li Hao Chen about to throw the object into the trash can, Liang Borui shouted in alarm.
Before Li Hao Chen could react, Liang Borui snatched the trash bag from his hand and, with great excitement, opened the bag.
"Uh, does this old man have this kind of hobby?" Li Hao Chen's mouth twitched. He wondered if he had encountered a madman and felt a sudden chill.
Liang Borui took out the pungent object, rubbed it between his fingers, sniffed it, and then shouted excitedly, "Hahaha, it's a top-grade item! Truly top-grade! I haven't encountered such good ambergris in decades."
"What? This object that smells like feces is the legendary ambergris?" Li Hao Chen was also bewildered.
Liang Borui's mouth twitched, and he looked at Li Hao Chen with a dark expression. "You're not wrong to compare it to feces. Ambergris is actually the excrement of a sperm whale, which floats in the sea for decades, even centuries, before it can transform. I must say, you're very lucky. This piece you have is top-grade and extremely precious."
"So... is it valuable?" Li Hao Chen didn't care whether it was top-grade or rare; he only wanted to know how much it was worth. He had a lot of things that required money, so he didn't mind being a bit materialistic.
"Well, about 2,000 yuan."