Chapter 284 - 184: This is a Hybrid

Chapter 284: Chapter 184: This is a Hybrid

The two men stared intently at the enormous grouper, both looking a little tense.

Gu Nan continued reeling in the line. As the fish neared the surface, it suddenly thrashed, its tail breaking the water with a heavy slap that sent a huge spray of water everywhere.

Seeing the pattern on its tail, Gu Nan’s heart skipped a beat. He was familiar with this pattern; wasn’t it the same as the one on the tail of the Giant Grouper he’d caught when he went to the islands with Wang Junhe?

But the next moment, when the entire fish was revealed, both Gu Nan and Lin Zhijian let out a sigh of relief, their faces breaking into smiles.

Because this was a pearl gentian grouper, a hybrid of a Tiger Stripes and a Giant Grouper, a species successfully bred through artificial means.

It was the appearance of this species that caused the sky-high prices of grouper in the ’80s and ’90s to plummet.

Pearl gentian groupers are all farm-raised, but it was possible for them to escape every year when typhoons submerged fish rafts or when fishing nets broke.

A fish like this one, having grown to 1.3 meters, was effectively wild even if it was originally farmed, having lived in the sea for so long.

Still, Gu Nan hadn’t expected this type of fish to grow so large. This one had to be at least a hundred catties—plump, stout, and especially solid.

Lin Zhijian had already brought over the hoisting rope from the crane. He’d been wondering why there was a small crane on such a little boat, but now he understood.

A fishing boat this small normally wouldn’t need one, but its owner just so happened to frequently catch giant fish!

By now, the fish was too exhausted to move, its stamina completely drained by the fight against the line and lure.

Lin Zhijian easily looped the rope around the fish’s tail. He tightened it, gave it a tug to make sure it was secure, and then hurried over to start the crane.

The crane’s rope slowly retracted, lifting the pearl gentian grouper into mid-air. Gu Nan had also put down his fishing rod and was now carefully adjusting the crane’s angle to position the fish above the deck before slowly lowering it down.

Although this pearl gentian grouper was only about 1.3 or 1.4 meters long, it was clearly a whole size larger than the "fake oil-spot grouper" Gu Nan had caught before.

It wouldn’t fit in the livewell, so he would process it on ice right away.

He took out a mallet and gave the fish’s head two sharp blows, BANG! BANG!, dazing the large grouper immediately.

Its gasping for air slowed considerably, and its previously restless tail now lay limp on the deck.

Gu Nan took out a long spike and hammered it directly into the fish’s brain, performing an ikejime.

This equipment was originally meant for dealing with large tuna and marlin, but now it was being used on a big grouper.

Lin Zhijian stood by, watching the whole series of actions with great interest. It was like watching someone butcher a pig; he wasn’t sure why he found it so fascinating.

Besides, killing a fish wasn’t as bloody as butchering a pig, and there were no squeals, making it easier to watch.

As the spike was driven into its head, the grouper’s mouth gaped wide open, looking as if it could swallow a calf.

Its body instinctively gave a final struggle, its tail slapping the deck with a series of THUDS.

But after just a few slaps, the fish went still.

Seeing that the fish was more or less gone, Gu Nan pulled out the spike, rinsed it clean with water, and even wiped it dry with a cloth.

Then he took out a filleting knife, opened the fish’s gill cover, reached in, and severed the artery near the spine. The next second, blood gushed out as if it were free.

It drenched Gu Nan’s hands, a rather gruesome sight.

Afterward, he took the knife over to the steps, crouched down to wash it, and then used a bucket to fill a large, empty plastic container with seawater, one bucket after another.

Once the container was more than half full, he used the crane to lift the fish again, placing its head into the plastic container to let the blood drain out.

"Professional!" Lin Zhijian said after watching the entire process, giving Gu Nan a thumbs-up.

"But if you bleed it now, won’t it weigh a lot less when you take it back to be weighed?"

Gu Nan chuckled and replied, "It’s fine. I’ll just add some seawater in later."

Lin Zhijian: "..."

Catching the pearl gentian grouper had taken a good deal of time, and it was now five in the evening.

Gu Nan brought the gas stove, spatula, and other cooking utensils onto the deck and began preparing dinner.

They had barely rested all afternoon, and he was getting quite hungry. It was the perfect time to make a meal.

First, he washed the rice and set it to cook in the rice cooker inside the cabin, then came back out to start on the other dishes.

He had already done all the prep work for the dishes earlier, so now he just had to cook.

He could fish, earned a good living from his own shop, and he could even cook. Honestly, Lin Zhijian was very impressed with Gu Nan.

Thinking of his granddaughter, he felt he should introduce them.

’If Gu Nan became his grandson-in-law, his granddaughter would definitely be well taken care of. Plus, he could go sea fishing with his grandson-in-law often, and he wouldn’t have to feel awkward about bothering him since it would be perfectly justified.’

So he asked, "Ah Nan, are you married?"

"Not yet! But I have a girlfriend. Our parents have met, and we’re already discussing marriage."

Lin Zhijian’s face lit up at first, but it fell the moment he heard the rest of Gu Nan’s sentence.

’He’d finally met a young man he really liked, but someone else had already snatched him up. His granddaughter didn’t even get a chance!’

’What a pity!’

The moment he’d asked if he was married, Gu Nan had a pretty good idea of what he was getting at, so he shut him down right away.

Girls as beautiful and caring as Yi Chen were rare. He wouldn’t be interested even if Lin Zhijian introduced him to a goddess from heaven.

’Everyone’s a baby at heart; who doesn’t want to be taken care of!’

"You’re so young, what are you doing dating? Getting married? Don’t you want your freedom anymore? Marriage is the grave, young man! I advise you to be smart about this and break up with her when you get back!"

"???" Gu Nan was stunned. ’What is with this old man?’

Seeing his dumbfounded expression, Lin Zhijian chuckled and became serious. "Just kidding. My granddaughter is gorgeous. I was going to introduce you, but alas..."

Gu Nan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He immediately started retorting, "That’s not right, Old Sir! I thought we were fishing buddies, friends, and here you are trying to make yourself my grandfather-in-law? Are you trying to get one over on me?"

"Who’s getting one over on you? I was going to introduce you to my granddaughter! I’m the one giving you a great opportunity!"

"A great opportunity? C’mon, Old Sir, take a look at your own homely face. I think I’ll pass on that ’opportunity’!"

Lin Zhijian’s beard bristled and his eyes widened. Granddaughter or no granddaughter, his own good looks could not be questioned. Back in his day, he was the heartthrob of all the surrounding villages.

A handsome lad with thick eyebrows and big eyes, he’d charmed the belles of several villages. To think that now, in his old age, a young punk was calling him homely! This could not be tolerated!

"You can’t just spew nonsense with a straight face! What part of me is homely? You can’t just tell bald-faced lies. Forget about back in the day—even now when I go square dancing, I’m always surrounded by a crowd of women."

Gu Nan chuckled. "There are twenty aunties in the square dancing group and you’re the only man. Isn’t that what being ’surrounded’ means?"

"Is that what I meant? I’ll show you a picture of my granddaughter right now, and you can see for yourself whether she’s beautiful or not."

Lin Zhijian almost exploded with anger. He immediately took out his phone and pulled up a photo.

"Look, look! My granddaughter is this beautiful because she takes after me."

Seeing him shove the phone right in his face, Gu Nan couldn’t help but lean back a little. But when he saw the photo, he froze.

Seeing his reaction, Lin Zhijian assumed he was stunned by his granddaughter’s beauty. As if he had finally won the argument, his expression became smug. "How about it? Mesmerized by my granddaughter, are you?"

"You can eat your heart out, kid! Serves you right for getting a girlfriend so early!"

Since Gu Nan already had a girlfriend and was at the stage of discussing marriage, Lin Zhijian had naturally given up on the idea of setting them up.

He was doing this now purely out of pique, to prove that the word "homely" had nothing to do with him.

"Not mesmerized, no. I just didn’t expect such a coincidence. Your granddaughter and I have been on a blind date before," Gu Nan said, shaking his head with a wry smile. It was the first time he’d ever felt the world was this small. It was rare to meet a fishing buddy he got along with so well, only to find out he was the grandfather of a past blind date.

"You two went on a blind date?" Lin Zhijian was stunned. He knew his granddaughter had been on a blind date—her one and only, in fact—but he never thought the timing would be such a coincidence.

Gu Nan nodded with a chuckle. "I had just started dating my girlfriend at the time, but my mom didn’t know, so it created a mix-up. Thankfully, your granddaughter wasn’t interested in dating either, so we cleared things up quickly."

"Thank goodness for that. Otherwise, if I’d ended up dating your granddaughter, I would have dropped down a generation for no reason!"

Lin Zhijian’s mouth twitched. ’What the hell does he mean, "dropped down a generation"?’

Then, he felt a slight pang of regret again. Sometimes, fate is just a matter of being one step too late.

If Gu Nan hadn’t been in a relationship at that exact moment, his granddaughter might have had a chance.

"But your granddaughter’s beauty doesn’t seem to have anything to do with you being homely, Old Sir. She doesn’t look like you at all. She probably takes after your wife, or maybe my sister-in-law?"

"I..." Lin Zhijian’s defenses were broken. His lips trembled a few times, but he couldn’t come up with a rebuttal.

He didn’t have any photos of his younger self on his phone. Besides, he had figured it out by now—Gu Nan was just deliberately messing with him.

Even if he did manage to find a photo from his youth, Gu Nan would just find a way to criticize it into worthlessness.

’He couldn’t win a battle of wits, but couldn’t he at least run away from it?’

So, with a long face, he picked up his fishing rod and went to fish on the other side of the boat, adopting an "out of sight, out of mind" attitude.

Gu Nan chuckled and continued cooking. ’This old man really is fun, just like a big kid.’

’But he’s also a man worth befriending. How could he not be, when he was willing to introduce his beautiful granddaughter to you?’

As the sun was about to set, Lin Zhijian caught a few more scorpionfish—enough to make a pot of fish soup back home.

Meanwhile, Gu Nan had finally finished his preparations. There was barnacle egg custard, Steamed barnacles, stir-fried twice-cooked pork, garlic romaine lettuce, and two braised black sea bream.

The five dishes were more than enough for two people. It was only because he had a large appetite that they might finish it all.

Looking at the five dishes laid out on the small table, Lin Zhijian sighed again. "Such a pity. My granddaughter was just one step too late."

Gu Nan shook his head with a wry smile. "Old Sir, my girlfriend is every bit as beautiful as your granddaughter. She might not be as savvy in her career, but she’s a fantastic cook, gentle, and caring. And right now, she’s managing my seafood shop very well."

"As a man, when you’re already successful in your own career, would you look for a career-driven ’strong woman’ type, or a woman who can grace the living room and master the kitchen?"

Lin Zhijian wanted to retort indignantly. His granddaughter was a great catch! It was just that, in terms of cooking and taking care of people...

Thinking about how his granddaughter sometimes couldn’t even take care of herself, he instantly deflated.