Lu Wuyai asked doubtfully, "Wild tigerfish. This stuff doesn't taste as good as farmed fish."
The old man sneered, "Doesn't the menu say 'Wild'? Anyway, there are a few wild town shops. Otherwise, if I run into another discerning customer like you, I'll smash up the door."
Lu Wuyai immediately frowned and said, "Didn't you agree to change the menu name?"
The old man knew what he was thinking from his tone and laughed again: "I've changed it. If you don't believe me, come and see. But this is an old shop, passed down from my father, and most of the customers are referred by regulars. These people don't look at my menu. I was afraid of encountering picky customers again, so I thought I'd prepare a few fish. It's very simple to solve the problem."
"Oh, I see. Okay, then I'll go down into the sea and take a look."
After hanging up the phone, he and Hou Banshuang went to the primary school with breakfast and their suitcases.
After a full day of cleaning yesterday, the primary school already looks like a proper school.
The little count (dog) greeted him at the door, its barking so cheerful.
Lu Zhizi draws water from the pumped well in front of her house. Before running water became widespread, this was a common water-fetching tool in the fishing village. Water is generated by a piston and pressure. Before using it, you need to pour water into its "primer."
The school had long been dilapidated and lacked running water, so Lu Wuyai repaired the booster well yesterday, allowing water to be drawn directly from the ground.
Seeing Lu Wuyai press the handle to release water, Hou Banshuang ran over and said, "Teacher, let me do it."
Lu Wuyai shook his head and said, "No, this kind of life is quite fun. It's really like the Taiyuan countryside."
Lu Wuyai gave a wry smile. In their village, replacing the tap water system was a huge undertaking, but the girls from the city preferred the pressurized well.
Clear groundwater gushed out, and Lu Wuyai took a sip with his hand and laughed, "It's so sweet, this is real spring water."
Lu Wuyai said, "Yes, there are many springs in Dalong Mountain. This well leads to one of them, and the water quality should be very good."
Lu Wuyai exclaimed, "Not only is it good, it's super good. I used this spring water to wash my face, and my skin felt smoother and my pores were cleaner afterwards."
Lu Wuyai laughed and said, "That's for sure. It can also nourish yin and strengthen yang, promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis, benefit essence and promote diuresis, and delay aging..."
Lu's son realized that he was joking about the "miracle oil" from traditional Chinese medicine, so he said dejectedly, "I'm serious. After washing with this water, my skin really feels much smoother. Hey, what are you holding in your hand?"
Lu Wuyai raised his left hand and said, "This is breakfast, seafood noodles, for you to eat." Then he patted the box with his right hand, "This is for you to use after you finish eating."
Lu Wuyai was very curious, so he opened it and found that it was a toilet.
Lu Wuyai said with a smile, "I bought it at a supermarket in town yesterday. I guess you're not used to the dirt toilets at school, so I modified one for you at home."
Lu Wuyai was overjoyed: "You're amazing, you're incredible!"
Hou Banshuang, who was feeding the dog regular dog food, turned around and said, "Mr. Lu, I saw on TV that a decent girl would never say that to a man."
Lu Zhizi: "What TV are you watching? You don't have enough homework."
Hou Banshuang: "..."
The teachers' dormitory had a concrete floor, and so did the toilet. It was located in the courtyard, a typical dry toilet in the countryside. For someone accustomed to a traditional toilet, this environment and method were unbearable.
Putting aside the delicate young girl in Lu Zhizi's writing, after living in the city for several years, Lu Wuyai, as an old man, was also not used to this kind of dry toilet.
Seeing that he had brought the toilet, Lu Wuyai also revealed the truth: "I almost gave up the idea of staying here last night, but this toilet is a bit too big."
Lu Wuyai said, "Not bad, now we can squat in the toilet. Do you know how our village used to do it? We would just dig a hole, then surround it with old mats, and people would squat by the hole."
Lu Zhizi said weakly, "I know this kind of thing. We used it during our teaching internship, and one of our students fell in..."
Even so, she had a lingering fear on her face, clearly indicating that the incident had frightened her.
Lu Wuyai said with a smile, "Don't worry, if you fall, the little count (dog) will pull you up."
Upon hearing this, Lu Wuyai was furious: "It dragged me along. I dragged it along. Last night it was wandering around in the toilet. At first I thought it had discovered something, but then I realized it wanted to jump into the toilet and eat poop."
The little count (dog) squatted at the toilet door and poked his head out, eager to try.
Modifying a toilet is troublesome, mainly because it requires a seal.
Fortunately, the school had to be cleaned up today, and some indigenous residents came in the morning, so Lu Wuyai asked someone to help him shut off the toilets, unplug a sewage pipe, and sit on the toilet.
After tidying up, he wiped his hands and said, "There's no running water, there's nothing we can do about it. I'll remove the toilet seat for you, and you can pour water in."
Lu Wuyai handed him a towel and said with a smile, "Alright, it just so happens that there's no need to waste laundry water."
Gu Yuxin, standing next to him, said with a bitter face, "Oh, I really need to conserve water. It's been a bit dry this year, and the water level in Longyanxiang Lake has dropped a lot."
In the afternoon, the school temporarily cleaned up the area and allowed the construction team to come in and start work.
Gu Yuxin asked Little Earl (the dog) to accompany Lu Zhizi up the mountain. Most of the construction team members were bachelors. Lu Wuyai was unaware of the danger, but he was well aware of it.
If he had time in the afternoon, he felt it was still early and planned to go out to sea.
Coincidentally, the speedboat was still docked at the island's trade port, and no one from the police station came to move it. Gu Yuxin did nothing; she simply requisitioned it for herself.
He added a bucket of diesel fuel, then turned the key to start the ignition, and the speedboat roared into the sea.
This is much more powerful than rowing a sampan. Lu Wuyai wore sunglasses, and the strong sea breeze made his hair and clothes flutter, making him feel like a rich second-generation driving a car on the sea.
Unfortunately, he turned back. There wasn't a single busty, long-legged girl on the speedboat. There used to be a dog, but this time there wasn't.
After driving for a while, he stuck his head into the water and looked down.
Finding tigerfish isn't difficult. Just like he did before, he searched for underwater currents at depths of 70 to 80 meters. Once he found such a spot, he could find tigerfish.
According to the map, he caught a box of tigerfish in a very short time, roughly estimated to be fourteen or fifteen.
He paused here. This type of fish isn't very popular. Wild fish are more expensive and less palatable than farmed fish, which takes away from the so-called pollution-free and nutritious benefits.
During his trip, he encountered some swimming crabs and scooped them up. Wild swimming crabs taste very good, and even if he didn't sell them, he could eat them himself.
He was looking for grouper, which occasionally appeared in the surrounding waters, and trying his luck to catch humpback whale bass, nicknamed mouse grouper.
The grouper didn't find it. As he ventured deeper into the water, he stumbled upon a patch of marine mud forty or fifty meters deep, and discovered many U-shaped holes.
The ancient well at the bottom of this body of water was calm, without waves or undercurrents. The muddy ground was still, with only some messy drag marks on the surface besides the cave. Seeing this, Lu Wuyai smiled, both surprised and delighted.
After swimming to the seabed, he did not fall in. Instead, he flipped over, held his head upside down in the water, and stirred the mud on the seabed with his hands.
Soon, the mud rose to the surface, the seabed became murky, and some small shrimp with shells emerged.
These shrimp have flat bodies, bright colors, a carapace on their backs, short legs on their bellies, a large carapace, and two small antennae on their heads. They are the famous mantis shrimp.
Mantis shrimp have many names, including climbing shrimp, mantis shrimp, and so on. In some parts of Southeast Asia, they are called "wealthy shrimp" because they were quite expensive in ancient times and were a favorite pastime of the wealthy.
April to June is the peak season for eating mantis shrimp. During this time, they lay eggs, making it the most nutritious, juicy, and tender time of year.
The succulent mantis shrimp has a head full of fat, and its meat is tender and delicious. The female shrimp with roe, in particular, has an enticing aroma and is incredibly exciting to eat.
Lu Wuyai's legs trembled, and with the help of the seawater's buoyancy, the sand on the seabed was constantly stirred up. The mantis shrimps, which like to come out at night, were frightened and rushed out one after another.
This is one way to catch mantis shrimp. Another way is to catch shrimp by scooping them up, which is usually done on the beach at low tide, but it won't work on the seabed.
As more and more mantis shrimp emerged, he picked out the larger ones and put them into the net bag hanging on his waist.
Although mantis shrimp is not an economically important species in coastal shrimp production, it is abundant and harvested every year, resulting in a bumper harvest of mantis shrimp every year.
The reason for this is that they are not easy to catch, and they like to hide in the mud on the seabed. Fishing boats cannot catch them on a large scale, thus saving their species from extinction.
Since this species is not in danger of extinction, you can eat it without worry. Lu Wuyai specifically sought out female shrimp with larvae and released both the baby shrimp and male shrimp so that the population could continue to reproduce.
Male and female shrimp are very similar in appearance, but the difference is that male shrimp are slightly larger. If it grows to 20 centimeters, then you don't need to look too closely, it is definitely a male shrimp.
To identify them, you must look at the last pair of legs on the shrimp's thorax. Males have thicker second mandibles and a pair of rod-like connections on the inside of the last pair of legs on the thorax, while females do not.
In addition, female shrimp have white, "king"-shaped gelatinous glands on the ventral surface of the 6th to 8th thoracic segments during the breeding season, which is a symbolic characteristic.
Along the way, he selected female shrimp and released golden water vapor as a way of giving back to the mantis shrimp population.
Regarding his repeated actions of taking away expectant mothers from the family and releasing the golden immortality that greatly benefits the family, I don't know whether Pipi Shrimp should blame his mother or criticize him because of his conscience.
With a net full of mantis shrimp, he resurfaced and continued his search for grouper.
As evening approached and the sun was about to set, he discovered a muddy area on the seabed.
Several large fish came into his view. These fish had yellowish-brown bodies with small, round, reddish-brown spots and several broad, dark horizontal stripes scattered across their surfaces.
Gu Yuxin cheered; the emperor had received his reward. It was a spotted grouper, a type of grouper with average economic value, estimated to cost around 200 yuan per jin (approximately 500 grams) on the market.
For fish, 200 yuan per jin is a considerable price, but you must know that this is a real grouper, like his original target, the wild grouper, which costs 2,000 yuan per jin.
The spotted grouper is nicknamed the blue-spotted grouper, and it's quite common to encounter them; they are far more numerous than the mouse grouper.
However, catching some grouper would be good. These fish are characterized by their large size. The largest one Lu Wuyai saw was nearly a meter long and estimated to be worth three to four thousand yuan.
It depends on the fishing. He puts the prepared fish meat on the hook, sprinkles a few grains, and then keeps a close eye on the big fish.
Green Flag has a ferocious nature and a voracious appetite. Like Lu Wuyai, almost all the bait was put into its mouth, so it had no reason not to eat it.
Soon, a large fish took the bait, but Lu Wuyai didn't try to catch it. Instead, he secured the fishing rod, removed the net, and used a unique number to catch a sea turtle.
This minimizes the impact on it while it struggles and gives it a chance to catch a few other fish.
Lu Wuyai immediately froze the large fish on the boat. Of course, a fresh grouper would be more valuable, but this fish was too big and his boat was too small to keep alive.
To be honest, looking at these rare catches in the ocean, he really didn't want to just sell them, but wanted a farm to raise them.
These large green-spotted blue-spotted animals are very suitable for breeding. They have a unique ability called "sex transformation"—they can first become female and then male. In this way, as long as a batch of blue-spotted animals is captured and raised to a large size, the future population will definitely expand.
He worked until the night of the full moon and caught twelve large, wild grouper, which he could sell and make a fortune.
Having a speedboat is very comfortable. In the past, after finishing his work, he had to row back. Now, he only needs to get on the boat, and the speedboat roars back to the island's trading port.
Upon arriving at the island's trading post, he called Old Sun and asked him to come pick up the fish the next day. Meanwhile, the clothes and shoes Lu Wuyai had ordered online arrived. They wouldn't be delivered to the fishing village. Lu Wuyai contacted a courier and had them deliver them to Old Sun, the head chef.
After making the call, he saw a text message on his phone that had expired long ago.
The text message was from the Land Rover driver. He apologized first, then said he couldn't get through to him by phone and asked if there were any lobsters left.
Since three days have passed since the auction ended, Lu Wuyai can file a complaint and have the auction results cancelled.
Looking at the text message, Lu Wuyai curled his lip in displeasure. This Land Rover was unreliable. After thinking for a moment, he dialed back.
Finally, the call went through.
A rough voice rang out: "Hello, Mr. Lu Wuyai. I've finally received your call. This is Land Rover. I'm sorry, I haven't been to your place to complete the transaction yet."
Lu Wuyai said, "It's alright, Mr. Lu. If you give me your address, I'll send you Hongyang."
Land Rover said, "I'm busy with some things right now and I'm not in Hongyang, I'm very sorry. But I really want to buy your lobster, isn't it still alive?"
“Yes, perfectly intact.” Lu Wuyai curled his lip. The other party refused his delivery service, so it was clear he didn't genuinely intend to buy his lobsters.
Land Rover said, “Okay, so if you give me an account, I’m not kidding, this deal is my responsibility, I’ll take full responsibility. I’ll transfer the money to you first, you can help me raise the lobsters for a while, and then I’ll go back to Hongyang to pick them up myself.”
Lu Wuyai sneered, paid for the lobster, and didn't even glance at it. Who is this person?
He felt this was definitely another scam, but he wanted to see what was going on, so he sent him his bank card number.
Shortly after, a text message arrived: On June 9th, your debit card account 8505 received RMB 42,000.00, and the remaining balance is RMB 222,878.25 (from a bank in a certain country).
He glanced at the number in the text message.
This left him completely bewildered; the other party had actually wired the money. They hadn't even glanced at the goods before sending the money. And it would cost even more.
At this moment, Land Rover shouted, "Did you receive the money? I'll give you an extra two thousand yuan, firstly as an apology, and secondly to ask you to help me raise these two shrimp; I need to survive."
That very evening, he transferred money to Tang Congyang's POS machine and sent a text message. The amount was correct; Land Rover actually paid him 42,000 yuan.
Lu Wuyai said nothing and could only wait patiently for someone to come looking for him.
The next day, the old grandson's son arrived first. He came by ferry, dropped off a bunch of deliverymen, and said, "Dude, you buy more things than girls."
Lu Wuyai said, "They all belong to Teacher Lu."
Sun Yijin was taken aback and immediately changed his expression: "Ms. Lü is such a good housekeeper. When I look at these things, I see that they are all worthless. Although a lot of things were bought, the money spent was minimal."
Lu Wuyai added, "I bought it for her."
Sun Yijin immediately said dismissively, "You're really picky."
Lu Wuyai squinted at him and said, "Don't offend me. If you offend me, all these wild grouper and tigerfish will be sold to the restaurant next door to your house."
Sun Yijin immediately backed down: "Don't tell me, buddy, our conflict stems from a fight between men. This can't affect business. I even brought you a gift. Yes, go weigh yourself."
Fifteen tigerfish were auctioned for a total of 2,200 yuan, with the highlight being the 12 large green-spotted tigerfish, each weighing a full 100 jin (50 catties), which sold for 20,000 yuan.
Sun Yijin also helped him set up an online banking transfer, and an extra sum of money appeared in his account.
After taking the fishing hook, the shopkeeper asked, "Buddy, you're good at fishing. When are you going back to the sea? Let me tell you, go find some Dongxing spotted rats or something like that; those things are worth a lot of money."
Lu Wuyai squinted at him and said, "I think the yellow croaker is more valuable."
The small business owner muttered, "I meant well by reminding you, but you still mocked me. Fine, forget it then."
Having made money these past two days, Lu Wuyai plans to temporarily head out to sea and sell large yellow croakers on the forum. He had originally been counting on Ma Kai, but it turns out Ma Kai was a fraud, so he'll have to rely on himself.
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