Chapter 229 Live BBQ, Real Seafood!
The pulling force from the rope in their hands was not only felt by Kang Zhenghao, but also by Zuo Shan and the others.
Everyone was excited. Kang Zhenghao roared, "What are you waiting for? Pull hard!"
As if waking from a dream, everyone hurriedly pulled the rope to haul in the net, dragging it ashore.
Zuo Shan stared wide-eyed at the net, which had yielded a decent catch, but mostly consisted of first-tier sea crabs and clams. Fortunately, there were two second-tier fish, a saury and a ribbonfish, which were some consolation.
The rest were just small fish about a circle long.
Before entering the Azure Bay for hunting, the organizers emphasized that everyone should release as many fish fry as possible back into the sea to ensure that there are always fish to catch.
In the wasteland era, the sea fish were all mutated species. The smallest adult fish were over a meter long, and those that grew too big were considered fry. People would jump them out of the fishing nets spread on the ice and throw them back into the sea.
Although there are many first-class fish, they are much smaller than second-class fish. This net of first-class fish only weighs 34 jin (12.5 catties), but the two second-class sea fish weigh a total of 128 jin (64 catties)!
Seeing Zuo Shan standing there in a daze, Master Liu assumed she was dissatisfied with the catch and laughed, "Be content! Do you think second-tier sea beasts are like wild vegetables, something you can just pick up a handful of at will?"
Did you know that some unlucky people can go an entire day without catching a single Tier 2 sea beast?
Kang Zhenghao glanced at the other two ice caves of his mercenary group, two hundred meters away, and seeing that they hadn't closed their traps yet, he couldn't help but laugh:
"Left Fan, aren't you lucky, bro? You caught two Tier 2 shards on your very first net! Let me tell you, with me with you guys, even if you have fewer people, you're sure to get a good haul!"
"Yes, yes, we're all thanks to Commander Kang!" Zuo Shan flattered him savvyly.
Master Liu couldn't help but roll his eyes: It's not certain who's benefiting from whose success!
The spatial buttons brought by Kang Zhenghao are temporarily kept by Ding Tai. Their two groups, totaling 15 people, have sealed the harvested sea monsters in vacuum bags, labeled them with the group's tags, and stored them in the spatial buttons, to be divided up when they return.
As for Zuo Shan and her group, Master Liu borrowed a spatial button from a friend when he came this time, so their loot was kept by Master Liu and they didn't mix with the mercenaries.
However, to avoid suspicion, Master Liu weighed the catch on a scale, made a note in his notebook, and even marked the time of the catch.
Kang Zhenghao thought he was being too verbose, but Zuo Shan thought it was better to keep the accounts clear this way, so as to avoid trouble later.
Today the weather is fine and sunny, and the temperature on the sea is even a bit warmer than on the shore. After the nets are cast, it will take at least half an hour to an hour to retrieve them.
During this time, Pan Duole put Achen in a stroller and pushed him around on the ice to play, while Xiaobao ran around and played with them.
The sea ice was one or two meters thick, so playing on the ice wouldn't scare the sea creatures below. Zuo Shan watched them having fun and even took a few photos with her wristwatch.
From the moment the nets are cast, every two times the nets are retrieved, a metal bucket with burning charcoal must be thrown into the ice cave to warm it for a while, so as to prevent the rising seawater from freezing the ice cave again.
You keep all the catch from the first three days, but you have to hand over 40% of the catch from the following seven days. After all, the organizers can't just pay for your travel and accommodation expenses for nothing.
It's winter now, so solar radiation is relatively low. Plus, we all got our share of the harvest from the first three days, so everyone unanimously decided to cancel the lunch break.
Not taking a break is fine, but Zuo Shan doesn't plan to eat dry rations.
While the metal bucket was grilling the ice cave over charcoal, she grilled a piece of second-grade cod for everyone. Before leaving, she had Xiaobao make over a hundred iron tongs for grilling, just so they could grill at the fishing site.
What makes real seafood? It's seafood that's processed right after it's caught – that's where the best flavor comes from!
Her grilling skills are quite good, and she also uses homemade fine salt and Sichuan peppercorn powder as a grilling seasoning. The cod itself is tender and has few bones, making it both convenient and delicious to eat.
The four of them, plus Xiao Bao, were stuffed. They ate a tenth of a nearly 200-pound second-grade cod.
Although those with superpowers have a relatively large appetite, this is the meat of a second-tier sea beast, which contains a lot of energy. Normally, Kang Zhenghao and the others can only eat a little over two pounds in one meal, but today they each ate five pounds.
Even Lele ate three pounds!
Poor Zuo Shan, the hardworking cook, was of the lowest rank and naturally had the smallest appetite. She was so full after eating only two jin (1 kg).
After enjoying the culinary feast, Kang Zhenghao couldn't help but exclaim, "Zuo Shan, your grilled fish is absolutely delicious! It's much better than the cook at the Dolphin Hotel!"
Fortunately, the distance between each ice cave is about 200 meters, otherwise, if other people heard about the aroma, they would probably all come over to buy it.
In my opinion, you shouldn't go back to District 48. Just stay here and sell grilled seafood; you're guaranteed to make a fortune!
Actually, second-grade cod is quite popular and can fetch a good price, but since it's freshly caught, people don't feel bad about wasting it when they eat it.
Kang Zhenghao and Master Liu also agreed that the cod should not be sold, but kept, and that Zuo Shan could grill it and eat it when they got back.
Of course, the two of them had big appetites and didn't intend to take advantage of the situation. They planned to give Zuo Shan and the others a larger share when they went back to divide the spoils.
There are few people in their ice cave, so they can't haul in a thousand or eight hundred pounds of fish in one net like in other ice caves. They start pulling in the net as soon as they feel it's getting a little heavy.
Although the catch is smaller, it takes less time per net and the variety of fish caught is greater.
The downside is that it's almost impossible to catch a Tier 3 sea monster in the net.
However, they would catch one or two second-class sea fish every two or three nets, so their harvest was quite substantial.
As the sun began to set, the organizers announced the end of the day's fishing and placed two layers of insulation boards in each ice hole. This way, when they came back the next day, they could simply break open the surrounding ice, remove the insulation boards, and cast their nets directly.
As soon as they stepped out of the hunting grounds, many merchants who wanted to buy sea creatures gathered around, shouting, "We'll buy them at a high price!"
Those groups of fifty people often find it troublesome to distribute the prey, so they choose to negotiate prices with vendors who look honest and simple.
Since Zuo Shan and her group were few in number and consisted of women and children, few merchants approached them, so they quickly squeezed out of the crowd and returned to their inn.
Back at the hotel, many guests had already gone to the kitchen to order barbecue. Kang Zhenghao and Master Liu were really not tempted this time. They would rather eat a meal of dried meat and vegetable dumplings than eat Zuo Shan's barbecue at noon tomorrow.
The superhumans from District 48 had no intention of selling their catch to local fishmongers. They didn't have access to the sea there, so seafood was rarely available, making seafood at least a third more expensive there.
In addition, this fishing activity was officially organized, and there were official aircraft carriers escorting us home, so there was no worry about being robbed.
So after discussing it, the group decided to take all the prey back with them.
However, before wrapping up, Master Liu still took a picture of the day's accounts with his wristwatch and distributed them to each member of his little group.
Today we caught a total of 13 nets, including 8 second-tier sea fish with a total weight of 306 kg, and several first-tier sea monsters with a total weight of 280 kg.
Zuo Shan had discussed it with the two of them beforehand. Their side consisted of a woman, a child, and a mutated beast, which would take up two portions in total. Kang Zhenghao and Master Liu would each take one portion.
They meant well and wanted to take care of the two sisters. Zuo Shan wouldn't be ungrateful and take more than her share. After all, she and Lele were relatively weak, and only Xiao Bao was strong enough to be as strong as an adult man.
This allocation is more reasonable. The two originally wanted to take better care of them, but they didn't insist too much, since wastelanders have always distributed rewards based on labor.
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