Chapter 293 - 193: 2 Shrimp Traps Were Stolen

Chapter 293: Chapter 193: 2 Shrimp Traps Were Stolen

Happily carrying the two mantis shrimps and other ingredients, Gu Nan went to the kitchen and started preparing a late-night snack.

Thinking he would bring the noodles to their room to eat, he decided to shell the two mantis shrimps. He deveined the meat, cut it into pieces, and then flash-fried it in oil.

It wasn’t just the mantis shrimp. The two-pound long-tailed red snapper was quite large, so he filleted that too, flash-frying the bones after cutting them into sections.

He put the fish head in the fridge. They still had two more days at sea, and he figured they would collect several fish heads by then, which they could cook all at once.

As he was busy cooking, he suddenly heard a sound behind him.

Gu Nan turned around and saw it was Yi Chen. She was wearing a thin, silk nightgown, through which he could faintly see her full figure.

"Why aren’t you resting in bed?"

"I was afraid I’d fall asleep. I figured you were almost done here, so I came over." Yi Chen took small, slow steps to the dining table and gently sat down.

The pain wasn’t so bad anymore, but she still felt some discomfort, which affected her walking.

Yi Chen had been worried that walking would hurt, but the result wasn’t what she’d expected.

She had looked it up online and learned that everyone’s body is different.

As for the bedsheets, she had already taken them off. She used the key to open the guest cabin and replaced them with the sheets from there.

Although the boat came with its own sheets and blankets, the four-piece sets for these two rooms were ones they had specially prepared themselves.

’Yi Chen finally understood why Gu Nan had specifically asked her to buy, wash, and bring two sets. She’d originally thought it was because they wouldn’t be used to the boat’s own linens. Now, it seemed someone’s sinister plan had been laid bare long ago; she just hadn’t seen it at the time.’

Now that he had succeeded, she no longer objected to sleeping together.

"Almost ready, almost ready!" Gu Nan chuckled, lifting the pot lid to taste the broth. Deciding it was just right, he turned off the stove, grabbed a large soup bowl, ladled all the noodles into it, and brought it to the table.

Then he brought over two pairs of chopsticks and two small bowls so they could transfer the noodles to cool them down before eating.

"What kind of meat is this?" Yi Chen asked, puzzled, as she looked at the seafood noodles in front of her and pointed to a few pieces of meat on top. "Lobster?"

"Why don’t you try it first?" Gu Nan said with a smile, handing her a bowl and chopsticks.

The mantis shrimp meat had been flash-fried, so it was hard to tell what it was just by looking.

Curious, Yi Chen picked up a piece. One bite revealed a soft, tender, and sweet flavor, with the distinct taste of shrimp roe and mantis shrimp.

"Huh? It’s actually mantis shrimp! Where did you get this?"

She asked in surprise after finishing the piece.

She remembered clearly that they didn’t have any mantis shrimp on the boat.

"I just pulled up a crab pot. There were seven deep-sea mantis shrimps inside, the spiny kind. This stuff is expensive—two thousand for a single live one."

Gu Nan didn’t keep her in suspense and told her straight out.

"Hiss~ Two thousand?" Yi Chen was genuinely stunned by the price.

Their shop had sold Spotted Prawn Shrimp twice before, and even the largest one, weighing over a pound and a half, had only been about five hundred.

Being quite knowledgeable about seafood by now, she certainly understood what a two-thousand price tag for a single one meant.

"You just threw a two-thousand-a-piece shrimp into the noodles?" Yi Chen’s heart ached at the thought. The piece she had just eaten was so big; wasn’t that worth three or four hundred?

"Hah, nothing is as important as you. You were so tired earlier, so I had to give you something to replenish your strength." Even a fisherman knew how to sweet-talk.

And just like that, Yi Chen wasn’t mad at him anymore. Instead, she felt a little shy and sweet inside.

In the end, she could only chide him softly, "Don’t be so extravagant next time. It’s not like I need something this expensive to ’replenish’ myself."

"I know, I know. Eat up, eat up!"

Gu Nan eagerly ate a piece of the mantis shrimp himself. He found that while it was delicious, it wasn’t that much better than the Spotted Prawn Shrimp. It was just a tiny bit fresher and sweeter, with no substantial difference.

Clearly, the huge price difference was mainly due to its rarity.

After they finished the noodles, it wasn’t good to sleep on a full stomach. So Gu Nan washed the dishes, then swept Yi Chen into his arms and carried her to the lounge area on the flybridge, where they snuggled together.

They whispered sweet nothings, gazed at the stars, and discussed staying up for another two hours to watch the sunrise.

But it wasn’t long before Yi Chen fell asleep in his arms.

A gentle smile on his face, Gu Nan held her and leaned back against the sofa, closing his eyes to rest.

The first rays of dawn pierced his eyes. Having fallen asleep without realizing it, he slowly opened them to find the sun had already peeked halfway above the horizon.

He glanced down at Yi Chen in his arms and saw her little face was flushed, like a child’s.

"Chenchen, wake up. Time to see the sunrise!"

"Hmm?"

Still groggy, Yi Chen let out an adorable hum.

Gu Nan was already feeling aroused, and now he couldn’t hold back any longer. He lowered his head and kissed her.

"Mmmph~"

That woke Yi Chen up completely. Unfortunately, she was pinned in his arms and couldn’t struggle, forced to passively accept his kiss.

After a short while, not only did Gu Nan’s passion not subside, but the fire burned even hotter. He simply scooped her up and headed for the bedroom cabin.

The flybridge was open-air. Never mind that Yi Chen wouldn’t be able to accept it; he wasn’t that bold either, for now.

So much for watching the sunrise. The sun had already crested the horizon, but in the end, they missed it.

Yi Chen hadn’t gotten enough sleep to begin with, and after another round of activity, she fell into a deep slumber again. Gu Nan was fine, but he didn’t feel like getting up either, so he just held his girlfriend and went back to sleep.

When they woke up again, it was already past noon.

Gu Nan wanted to stay in and cuddle, but Yi Chen was still thinking about fishing to earn money for gifts. She refused to sleep any longer. Even though her body was sore and weak, she gritted her teeth, got up, and went to the kitchen to prepare lunch.

Lying there alone wasn’t much fun, so Gu Nan decided to get up and check his crab and shrimp pots.

He went to the pilothouse and first steered the boat to pull up the nearby shrimp pots.

The first shrimp pot was for shallow water. When he pulled it up, it was completely empty.

Gu Nan wasn’t too disappointed. With good luck, he might catch some valuable prawns; with bad luck, getting skunked was normal. Wild shrimp populations were truly scarce these days, so he was just trying his luck.

After three consecutive pots, he finally caught a few pounds of red shrimp. They were cheap, but great for stir-frying shelled or with corn kernels, as they had a rich, savory flavor.

Gu Nan took out the red shrimp and set them aside, then threw the pots back into the water.

The fishing was good here, so he didn’t plan on moving for the time being.

However, when he looked around, he suddenly noticed only ten buoys on the water. All of them belonged to the crab pots. ’So where are my other two shrimp pots?’

"Fuck! They even steal shrimp pots!" Gu Nan suddenly realized, slamming his hand on the console in anger.

It made sense, though. There were a lot of fishing boats near the oil rig, and not everyone was decent.

Stealing a couple of shrimp pots under the cover of darkness was pretty common. He was lucky they hadn’t taken all his crab pots.

This made Gu Nan realize he couldn’t put out crab or shrimp pots when other boats were nearby.

If things continued like this, he might not have a single pot left by the time he headed back.

He decided to just pull up his other two shrimp pots. The fishing wasn’t usually great in the afternoon anyway, so he might as well find a new, secluded spot.

Afterward, he continued pulling his crab pots. There weren’t any crabs at the bottom, perhaps because there were too many fish here and the crabs were afraid to show themselves.

He did, however, catch some more of the spiny deep-sea mantis shrimp. The ten crab pots yielded a total of thirty-seven, along with a few bizarrely shaped deep-sea creatures.

Gu Nan identified them all and, finding they weren’t valuable, simply cleaned them out and threw them back.

As for the mantis shrimp, the smallest was at least twenty centimeters long. Twenty-four of them were over thirty centimeters. Including the five left from last night, he could probably sell them for over seventy thousand.

It wasn’t a huge quantity, but it was valuable, which was great.

Gu Nan went to the livewell, grabbed a thin rope, and pulled up the perforated cage inside, placing all the mantis shrimp into it.

The five mantis shrimp from last night were all still alive and quite energetic. Clearly, these shrimp were pretty resilient.

"Ah Nan, lunch is ready!"

Just then, Yi Chen came out of the cabin, calling him to eat.

When she came closer and saw the half-full cage of mantis shrimp, she exclaimed, "Wow, so many! Are these the same two-thousand-a-piece kind you gave me last night?"

"Yep, this is them!" Gu Nan nodded. He thought for a moment, then took out four of the smaller ones, the largest of which was only about twenty-five centimeters. "Take these to the kitchen. We’ll try cooking them a different way tonight."

"No, don’t! They’re so expensive, we should sell them."

"It’s fine. We’ll swing by here again when we’re ready to head back and catch some more. Besides, these are the small ones; they aren’t as expensive."

"Well... alright then!"

After putting the perforated cage back in the livewell, Gu Nan followed Yi Chen to the kitchen for lunch.

In the afternoon, he steered the boat away from the oil rig area. When they had first arrived yesterday, there were only about twenty boats, but now there were nearly a hundred. Each boat kept a certain distance from the others, which meant the entire sea surface was dotted with them.

The moment Gu Nan left, another boat moved in to take his spot.

The fishing here was decent, but it was true that setting pots made them easy targets for theft.

"Where are we going to fish now? That reef island from last time?" Yi Chen brought some cut fruit to the pilothouse, feeding a piece to Gu Nan before asking.

"We can check it out. The main thing is to find a spot with no one around so we can set our pots without them getting stolen."

"I can’t believe someone would even steal shrimp pots. They have no shame!"

Yi Chen knew about the stolen pots. She pouted, indignant. The pots themselves weren’t worth much, but who knew if there was a good catch inside? That’s what annoyed her.

Gu Nan smiled and stroked her smooth hair. "There’s always a bad apple in the bunch. We just have to learn our lesson from it."

Yi Chen nodded and started eating her fruit.

Actually, she didn’t like people touching her hair or head, but it depended on the person. With Gu Nan, she could accept it.

An hour later, the fishing boat had traveled more than ten nautical miles.

Suddenly, the fish finder showed a large school of fish slightly southeast of their position.

Gu Nan and Yi Chen both saw it on the screen. They jolted simultaneously, suddenly full of excitement.

’A school of fish!’ He quickly turned the boat to chase after it. Even if it wasn’t a very valuable species, a large quantity would still sell for a good price.