Chapter 2275 - 2275: Opening a Path to Guimenguan

Liu Zhizhong knew exactly what things were like here—he'd already gone to check it out on the sly—but at a time like this, you need a few people to help open up the way, right?

Heh heh...

So Liu Zhizhong said to Yu, "Yu, fishing is really hard nowadays, resources are way too scarce. Lots of people net fish and shock fish with electricity. A place like Ghost Gate—if we could develop it, just imagine how awesome it'd be to fish there?"

Yu's eyes went wide. He took a deep drag on his cigarette, shaking his head over and over. "No way... Director Liu, develop Ghost Gate? Damn... that's too hard, isn't it? We'd have to use an excavator! It's just fishing—we don't need such a big project and such a big production, do we?"

Liu Zhizhong immediately saw what Yu was thinking—mainly that he didn't want to spend money.

He said, "Of course we don't need an excavator. The moment you bring in an excavator, the commotion's too big, word gets out. Then with a spot like that, we might not even get there before those old fishing geezers show up, or the net fishermen go in the night before, haha..."

Yu hurriedly said, "Yeah yeah, exactly! Those old fishing geezers are really sharp, and the net fishermen, their info is super well-connected too! Last year, there were even two old guys who tried to use machetes to hack out a path near Ghost Gate. But the vines were way too thick, too many thorns, tons of weeds—they only got halfway, then gave up. Hey, Director Liu, you're not thinking of opening up a path too, are you?"

Liu Zhizhong smiled and said, "That is exactly what I'm thinking! Yu, wanna do it together?"

"Uh... well..."

Yu was still stunned, then let out a speechless laugh and waved his hand. "Director Liu, this is too tough, isn't it? You're a director in the city bureau—why not talk to our station head or the county bureau chief, have a meeting, bring in an excavator or something? That'd be a lot better than the two of us doing it ourselves!"

"It's precisely because it needs to be secret—we're building a private fishing spot and fishing platforms—so we can't alarm too many people. Besides, what I'm thinking is..."

As he spoke, Liu Zhizhong slowly unfurled the outline of his plan.

Yu listened, getting more and more absorbed, practically dumbstruck. At first there was a flash of shock in his eyes; later they just went completely blank.

When Liu Zhizhong finally finished his speech and patted him on the shoulder, Yu snapped back to reality, utterly full of longing and seriously admiring Liu Zhizhong.

"Hey, Director Liu, are we really doing this? If you're doing it, I'm in, for sure, heh heh..."

Liu Zhizhong nodded. "Since you're up for it, then we'll do it! If we pull this off, it'll be a huge benefit for our fishing down the line, and it might even be good for our future work and careers too. You're still contract staff, outside the formal system—don't you want to get into the establishment?"

As soon as Yu heard that, he got excited—started rubbing his hands together, chuckling.

He was twenty‑eight this year, and had been working at the weather station as a contract worker ever since he graduated from college.

Now he'd reached this age but hadn't found a girlfriend, hadn't bought a house; what he had learned was smoking and fishing.

Yu was pretty clear‑headed. He said women nowadays are hard to meet; he'd deal with that later.

As for a house, prices hadn't crashed to the bottom yet, so there was no need to rush.

He dreamed of getting into the establishment—better benefits, more stable in the future, and a bit more security for retirement.

But now, after what Liu Zhizhong said, Yu instead replied, "Hey, with ten days, we can totally hack out a new path straight to Ghost Gate, then build platforms and a shelter at the best fishing spots—create exclusive fishing positions. And the whole process, Director Liu, we film it, do live streams, we're bound to become big influencers! Once we're big influencers, who cares whether I get into the establishment or not?"

Liu Zhizhong chuckled. "Mm, that's not a bad way to look at it either. Of course, when it comes to being an influencer, that'll be you, not me. I'm no good at that—I'll just do the grunt work and fish a bit. As for going live and showing your face, that's your department! I'll help you shoot the videos and do some commentary—that's no problem, haha..."

"Deal, then it's settled! Tomorrow we'll start working, from the spot where those two old guys quit halfway. I think I'd better go find a chainsaw or something. Gas saws are too loud—they spook the fish and easily attract attention from Fishing Man and net fishermen around us."

"Haha... that works. Anyway, Ghost Gate has always had just one road—once we open up that road, the best fishing spots will naturally be ours. There are plenty of trees over there; we can use local materials to build a shelter and so on, perfect. I remember there's a spring right next to Ghost Gate—back in the day, passers‑by liked to drink there and top up. But after they built the dam downstream, the road through Ghost Gate got flooded, and no one walked it anymore. The spring itself might still be there though, right?"

"Whoa! Director Liu, you know Ghost Gate way too well!" Yu was shocked, looking at him like some kind of monster.

Liu Zhizhong chuckled and nodded. "I know it pretty well, haha..."

Anyway, the two of them just clicked like that—once they said they'd do it, they got to work.

Changqing River Weather Station was really remote, and nobody cared what they did. The station head only came by once a day, then went back to the county seat.

Yu and the others worked rotating three shifts. As it happened, he was on night shift these days, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next morning. In practice, being on duty mostly meant sleeping—if there was any weather situation, the alarm would go off.

After getting off at night, there was no need to catch up on sleep. Once he had breakfast, he basically had a completely free daytime.

The next day, after Yu got off work, he and Liu Zhizhong had a simple breakfast in the little canteen at the weather station, then began their expedition.

They loaded up their tools, drove the station's engineering pickup, and went almost seven kilometers before they really couldn't go any farther—they were already near Ghost Gate.

There, Yu pointed to a faint low trail through a huge patch of medicinal vines and said, "Look, Director Liu, that's the little path those two old guys started last year and then abandoned. It's grown back again. Look at these vines—there really are too many, and they're a real pain..."

Liu Zhizhong nodded. "Those two know wild fishing too. They knew that opening a path here is actually the closest way to the Ghost Gate fishing spot, haha... Come on, let's get ready to start?"

"Okay! Let's do it!"

So the two of them got their tools off the pickup. Yu took the electric chainsaw and went in front, while Liu Zhizhong started filming, speaking in a magnetic voice: "Today, I've come out with my buddy into the wild to hack out a fishing route, build our shelter, and enjoy a hermit‑style, off‑the‑grid fishing life..."

Yu laughed, then got to work. Director Liu's voice was really magnetic, seriously professional! If this account takes off, it's definitely going to blow up, haha...

Of course he wanted it to blow up—and he and Liu Zhizhong had agreed: if the 'Yu Fishing' account goes viral, all the income will be split fifty‑fifty between him and Director Liu, haha...