Chapter 193 - 134: The Club’s Other Two Shareholders

Chapter 193: Chapter 134: The Club’s Other Two Shareholders

He felt relieved leaving it to Gu Nan. As long as Gu Nan agreed, he would definitely take good care of it.

"Then I’ll bring it over tomorrow."

"I’ll just come to you. I can buy all the necessities at your shop while I’m at it!" Since he was going to raise it, Gu Nan wouldn’t be stingy.

It would have everything it needed. This would also give the big orange cat from the shop a proper home.

That night, Gu Nan didn’t go too hard on An Jun’s wallet, only making him spend 1,500.

After dinner ended, he dropped Yi Chen home. It was already a little past ten by the time he arrived at the pier to head out to sea again.

If it weren’t for the Tide-pooling Map or his weekly tide-pooling attempts, Gu Nan would have definitely gone home to sleep at this hour.

The boat wasn’t great for sleeping; it was far less comfortable than being at home.

But the quality of sleep he got after tide-pooling was so incredible that his surroundings couldn’t affect him in the slightest.

Just as he arrived at the pier, Gu Nan received a call from Guo Xiao.

"Ah Nan, where are you? I just got a tip on a hairtail run. Want to come along?"

"There are hairtail inshore this time of year?"

"In your dreams! It’s offshore. We’ll have to take my boat. Brother Wang is here too! I’ll introduce you to a couple of other friends from the club while we’re at it."

"Ah, I see. I’m actually nearby, so I’ll head over now."

Gu Nan had no reason to refuse. A little networking was always necessary.

He was at Fisherman’s Wharf, so he boarded his boat and grabbed his two boat rods. They would surely have bait where he was going, but the bait box from his game also contained Tenya lures, so he brought it with him as he set off.

He drove to the other pier, parked his car, and walked to the edge with his fishing rod and tackle box. He immediately spotted Guo Xiao’s lit-up fishing boat and headed over.

Four men were chatting on the deck. Gu Nan didn’t recognize two of them; they must have been the friends Guo Xiao had mentioned.

"Brother Guo, Brother Wang!" He greeted them as he boarded, then turned his gaze to the other two men.

The two men looked to be about the same age as Wang Junhe, probably in their early thirties.

Guo Xiao quickly made the introductions. As it turned out, these two were the club’s other two shareholders.

One of them owned a shipyard, which had supplied the club’s fishing boat.

The man even joked that if Gu Nan ever bought a boat from him, he’d give him a 20% discount.

Although he didn’t take the joke seriously, he made a mental note to actually go there the next time he bought a boat. He might not get a 20% discount, but any little bit would be nice.

From the expressions on Guo Xiao and Wang Junhe, he could tell they had a very good relationship with the shipyard owner.

The other owned a diving club down south and was a professional diving instructor.

Gu Nan happened to be interested in diving, so it looked like they would be dealing with each other often in the future.

Once everyone was aboard, they headed into the cabin. Guo Xiao started the fishing boat, and they set off.

Since only Guo Xiao’s boat could make the trip, the fishing spot had to be more than twenty nautical miles offshore.

Sure enough, the fishing boat traveled for three hours before stopping at a spot over fifty nautical miles from shore.

It was already past midnight, which was very late, but that didn’t affect their chances of catching hairtail.

Hairtail are nocturnal. At night, they rise from depths of around a hundred meters to feed near the surface, which makes catching them much easier than during the day.

Gu Nan glanced at the fish finder. It showed a large school, with hairtail active at depths ranging from about ten to forty meters.

To catch the bigger ones, though, you had to fish deeper.

Stepping out of the wheelhouse onto the deck, Gu Nan saw several other fishing boats dotted across the water in the distance.

There weren’t many fishing boats that could venture this far offshore. Most professional anglers used ten-meter-class boats designed for coastal waters.

Those were perfectly adequate for making a living from regular sea fishing, since there were fish runs every month.

Gu Nan and Wang Junhe were on the port side of the boat. They started by chumming the water with sardine chunks Guo Xiao had prepared, then began setting up their rigs.

Gu Nan had two rods. One was a golden Fengqi boat rod equipped with an electric reel, which made it easy to haul in fish.

But now the rod could catch fish native to the Fengqi Coast in any body of water, so he opened his game interface and disabled the feature, lest the others on board start to question their sanity.

His other rod was the purple Seven-Star rod. Since they weren’t in the Seven-Star Rock map area, he’d just have to reel it in manually.

He tied on a Tenya lure, hooked on a strip of fish, and then used the thin wire on the rig to bind the bait securely so it wouldn’t fall off.

Beside him, Wang Junhe chuckled as he rigged his own rod. "We’re just fishing casually tonight. Tomorrow, we’re going to look for tuna or big bonito. That’s when we’ll see what you can do, ha!"

Gu Nan was a little confused. "What do you mean, see what I can do?"

Wang Junhe explained in a low voice, "It’s a sea fishing competition jointly organized by twenty clubs. To ensure the tournament is exciting and runs smoothly, we’re only letting members recommended by their own clubs participate."

"Each club can only recommend three anglers, and the rule is one angler per boat. Old Guo and I recommended you. But our club has quite a few professional anglers, so we need to let the other two shareholders see what you’re made of."

"The competition isn’t long, just three days. The winner is whoever catches the biggest fish. That takes a certain amount of experience and luck, and when it comes to luck, I’m betting on you."

Gu Nan’s lips twitched. So you couldn’t just sign up. His interest in the competition had been lukewarm at best, and after hearing this, it evaporated completely.

"Brother Wang, maybe we should just forget it? My luck isn’t always that good."

"Come on, man. Your luck speaks for itself. The first-place prize for this competition is five hundred thousand. Are you sure you want to pass?"

’Holy shit. How could they test a man with a temptation like that?’

Gu Nan’s expression turned dead serious. "Brother Wang, just watch my performance. I’ll catch a huge hairtail for you all tonight."

"Haha, as long as you’re confident, that’s what matters!" Wang Junhe laughed, though he wasn’t actually expecting a giant hairtail.

Truly big fish weren’t that easy to catch. If Gu Nan actually managed to land one tonight, it would prove that Wang Junhe hadn’t backed the wrong person, and the other two shareholders, along with those professional anglers, would have no grounds for objection.

After rigging his Tenya, Gu Nan secured his rod holder, set the rod in place, and began to fish for hairtail.

He honestly didn’t know if he could catch a giant hairtail, but his fishing luck had been excellent recently, so he had at least some confidence.

(2024, wishing everyone a Happy New Year and great fortune!)