Several young men and women were on the boat, seemingly not participants in the competition. The other party also looked towards Li Haochen's location with binoculars and waved, likely seeing Li Haochen looking their way.
Li Haochen was stunned and felt a bit embarrassed, but he still waved back in response.
Not long after, the radio crackled to life.
"Starry Moon, Starry Moon, this is Free and Easy, respond if you hear me."
"Free and Easy, hello."
"Brother, out playing alone?"
"Heh, no, participating in the competition."
"Huh?... Impressive, hehe!" The man chatting with Li Haochen was clearly taken aback and felt a sense of mockery and disdain.
After a brief chat, it didn't continue, as they weren't familiar with each other and had nothing more to say.
"Ah Hui, what's their deal?"
"He said he's here for the sea fishing competition, all by himself. I admire his courage," the man said, smacking his lips with obvious disdain.
"Let me see!" Another man took the binoculars. "Starry Moon? I feel like I've heard that name somewhere..."
"Alright, why bother with all that? Let's go fishing too." Ah Hui grabbed two lures and pulled the man towards the deck.
The boat was indeed rocking quite a bit. Li Haochen lost his appetite for the noodles and quickly finished them, fearing he might get seasick if he ate slowly.
Ring ring ring~
Before long, three fishing rods simultaneously caught something. Li Haochen leaned on the railing and walked over, reeling them in unhurriedly. The first catch was a small grouper, not large, about seven or eight taels. The second was a yellow croaker, only about half a jin. The third was a bit of a surprise.
"Rockfish."
Rockfish, also known as blackhead fish, is a very delicious type of fish. It's not very expensive, with wild ones costing around 80 yuan. Still, he was happy to catch this species for the first time, as his spatial ocean could now include another type of fish.
There were quite a few farmed ones, but wild ones had different colors. Farmed ones were jet black, while wild ones were black with a whitish hue, making them easier to identify. The most famous was the "Jinghai 001," Asia's largest deep-sea intelligent cage, which farmed these very fish, raising thousands of tons at a time. Truly impressive.
"Keep going, keep going."
As Li Haochen continued his battle with the ocean, the Free and Easy, several hundred meters away, was filled with singing and dancing, extremely lively. The powerful DJ music even reached Li Haochen's location.
"Hahaha, Ah Hui, I caught a rockfish! Look." The young man held up a rockfish weighing just over an ounce and dangled it in front of Ah Hui, his demeanor making Ah Hui want to punch him.
It was no use. After fishing for so long, he hadn't caught anything, but this novice at fishing had managed to get the first catch. It made Ah Hui furious.
Two scantily clad beauties in bikinis lay on deck chairs, sipping champagne and chatting. They watched their boyfriends constantly casting and reeling, completely unable to understand their fervent passion for such a monotonous and boring activity.
"Hahaha, I caught one too! It's bigger than yours, see, Ah Xuan." Ah Hui proudly waved a slightly larger rockfish, his smugness implying that he, an experienced angler, was far superior to this rookie.
After fishing for a while longer without any bites, they lost interest and called it a day.
"This damn trash website! It said you could easily catch big fish here. I'll find people to bash it online when I get back."
"Exactly. After more than an hour, we only got these two egg-sized rockfish. They're too small even for soup."
"I wonder how that guy is doing. I keep thinking I've heard of the Starry Moon somewhere." Ah Xuan's mind was constantly occupied by this thought, but he couldn't place it.
"Let's go. What's there to see? Participating in the competition, what a joke."
Ah Xuan was bothered by this thought, feeling uncomfortable. He picked up the binoculars and looked over.
"Holy crap!"
"Damn it, what's with the fuss? You scared me."
"You... look!"
Ah Hui frowned, looking puzzled as he took the binoculars.
"Holy crap!"
Indeed, they were so surprised because they saw Li Haochen playing with a big fish.
The fish wasn't actually that large, only about ten to twenty pounds of pulling power. The electric reel was more than enough, but Li Haochen, feeling a surge of excitement, chose to fight it manually.
He had been using the electric reel a lot lately. While convenient and effortless, it lacked any fun. Since he had finally encountered a fish with some weight, how could he miss out on the joy of a good fight?
To better enjoy the experience, he reeled in the other three fishing rods and deliberately let out tens of meters of line.
The strong winds and rough seas added considerable difficulty, and the rocking of the boat prevented Li Haochen from using his body weight to lean back.
If he couldn't use leverage, he could only rely on brute strength.
Li Haochen braced one foot against the ship's railing, gritted his teeth, glared at the sea surface, and with each upward pull of the rod, reeled in two circles of line.
This process repeated. After seven or eight minutes, the fish revealed itself – a giant rockfish struggling and thrashing about seven or eight meters away.
Li Haochen let out a long roar towards the sky. His right hand kept moving, shaking the reel with all his might. In less than a minute, he had brought the fish close to the side. He quickly scooped it up with the net and hoisted it onto the deck with a heave.
"Not on the same level as a meter-long sea bass," Li Haochen muttered with disappointment, but he was still quite happy.
"A rockfish this large is truly rare. It probably takes ten or eight years to grow this big. Calling it the King Rockfish wouldn't be an exaggeration."
He wrapped the fish's head in a cloth, released it into the live bait well, noting that its energy expenditure wasn't high, and continued fishing.
On the other side, Ah Hui and the others had watched Li Haochen's entire fishing process. They were greatly impressed by how easily and effortlessly he landed a fish weighing about twenty pounds.
"That's amazing. Ah Xuan, do you think we should move closer to the island to fish? Look at him, he's caught another fish weighing a few pounds." Ah Hui had been watching through the binoculars and was itching to fish after seeing Li Haochen catch another decent-sized one.
"Holy crap!" Ah Xuan slapped his thigh and jumped up from his seat. "I remember! I remember!"
"Come on, Brother Xuan, can you stop doing that? If you do that a few more times, I'll probably end up in the hospital. What did you remember that's making you so excited?"
Ah Xuan said excitedly, "Starry Moon, Starry Moon! I remember now! This guy is participating in the competition alone! He's the formidable contender currently ranked third in this sea fishing competition! He's made nearly two hundred thousand yuan in just a few days!"
"This... this is that amazing?" Ah Hui was also shocked. He looked at the two women on the deck outside and whispered to Ah Xuan, "Look, for Xiao Mei's birthday, I rented this boat for a day, and it cost 4,000 yuan. If it keeps going like this, it'll be too much. Plus, if I can't buy a house, I won't be able to pass her mother's inspection. You're probably in a similar situation. How about we pool our resources and charter a boat together?"
"Can... can we do that?" Ah Xuan was also pressured by his future mother-in-law and was very tempted.