After a sincere apology from the other person, Xu An and his companion forgave the man's harmless blunder. Then, Xu An, despite being a novice, acted like a seasoned pro, instructing the student on how to catch mudskippers.
Well, some talents are innate. For example, Xu An, under Li Xindong's careful tutelage, only managed to catch seven pitifully small mudskippers in over an hour. This student, under the tutelage of Xu An, who was practically an amateur in the novice world, caught three plump and excellent mudskippers in just ten minutes.
So, this rather talented student, under Xu An's guidance, happily started catching mudskippers, catching nearly a pound in half an hour. And these mudskippers, without a doubt, all ended up in Xu An and Li Xindong's fish baskets.
Since the other party had provided the ingredients, Xu An invited the student to his home for a meal, but the student declined. Before they left, Professor Yu had instructed them not to leave the group without permission, not to accept gifts from the villagers, and especially not to go to the villagers' homes for meals.
Since that was the case, Xu An didn't insist. He just felt sorry for him, as this person would never be able to enjoy such a delicious local specialty.
Although Xu An and his companion were nearly five years apart in age, they could be considered peers. Xu An had also attended university in his previous life, so communication wasn't a problem. In less than half an hour of catching mudskippers, Xu An had thoroughly investigated the man's background.
This student, Huang Yan, applied to a marine-related university because he loved the sea. While working on a research project during his undergraduate studies, he happened to find that his research direction was similar to Professor Yu's. He shamelessly sought Professor Yu's advice, and they gradually became acquainted. Professor Yu was very satisfied with his learning ability, and after learning that he planned to pursue postgraduate studies, he asked for Huang Yan's opinion and took him on as his student.
Li Xindong listened to Xu An and Huang Yan's conversation and became more and more surprised. After they finished talking, Li Xindong finally couldn't help but ask, "You're studying marine aquaculture. Is it easy to find a job after graduating from this major? Are the salaries high?"
“How can it be hard to find a job? Putting aside everything else, the graduate students my professor mentors teach are in high demand every year. They basically have jobs booked before they even graduate.” Huang Yan said, looking around and pointing to a tall, thin boy: “This is my senior. He signed a contract with the fisheries department in his hometown two months ago. He will go back to work after graduation, mainly responsible for providing technical support to local aquaculture farmers.”
"And this is our senior brother." Huang Yan pointed to a kind-looking man chatting and laughing with the fishermen: "This senior brother decided to join the professor's research team during his postgraduate studies, and now he is doing research with the professor."
Huang Yan recounted the employment plans of the three people besides himself, then chuckled, "Although I've only been working with the teacher for a year, several large companies have already contacted me, hoping I can work for them after graduation. There's a severe shortage of marine aquaculture professionals in China right now. The ocean is so vast; if it could be developed into farmland like the land, it would be inexhaustible, benefiting generations to come!"
Xu An felt a bit emotional about this, but he wasn't very interested in marine aquaculture and was destined not to focus his career on it. So after hearing the idea, he just thought it was amazing and didn't pursue it further.
But after hearing these words, Li Xindong was undoubtedly hit by a Category 5 hurricane, his understanding shattered. Although he lived by the sea, was frequently in contact with the ocean, and currently made his living from it, he had never imagined that there was such a profession as marine aquaculture.
"Brother Huang Yan, is marine aquaculture a liberal arts or science major? What are the admission scores for your school?" Although he felt a little embarrassed, Li Xindong still asked.
"There are more science students, and fewer humanities students. As for the cutoff scores, this year it's 601 for humanities and 598 for science," Huang Yan replied after a moment's thought.
Hiss! Xu An couldn't help but gasp at this score.
I knew Professor Yu and his four students were capable, but I never imagined they were this capable. With these admission scores, the school is definitely a 985 or 211 university! More likely, it's both a 211 and a 985 university, a Double First-Class university.
My apologies for the low score. Goodbye!
Xu An was very self-aware. Unless he had memorized all the answers to the college entrance examination papers for all subjects before his rebirth, and memorized them perfectly, he would never have been able to achieve this score even if his brain was completely drained.
Upon hearing the score, Li Xindong's face fell. Based on his score this year, he was more than 150 points short of 601 – the score for a single major subject!
After chatting for a few more minutes, Huang Yan saw that it was almost time for the meeting mentioned by Professor Yu, so he exchanged contact information with the two men and left. Xu An and Li Xindong continued catching mudskippers and chatting idly.
It's unclear whether Huang Yan's luck transferred to the hoe, but Xu An had a much smoother time catching mudskippers afterward, at least the mudskippers he caught were of normal size.
After a busy afternoon of nearly three hours, Xu An's side had caught one pound and eight ounces of mudskippers. One pound was what Huang Yan caught, while the remaining eight ounces represented Xu An's true skill level.
The harvest was quite good. Xu An, who originally planned to make a pan-fried mudskipper, changed his mind and decided to add a stewed mudskipper.
Mudskippers are usually very clean, and most people in Haishi simply wash them and cook them directly at home. However, Xu An didn't quite accept this practice and insisted on gutting and cleaning each mudskipper. He then marinated them in coarse salt for ten minutes before washing them again, which helped ensure the fish remained intact during frying.
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