I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 46: Chapter 46: Encounter at the Shop

Having gotten a taste of success, Yi Chen was instantly filled with motivation and busied herself on the small patch of sand.

Although she didn’t find something every single time, the occasional success was the greatest source of motivation.

She got so busy that she lost all track of time and only stopped when the rising tide made it impossible for her to continue foraging.

By then, her bucket was already filled with a good number of assorted shellfish and some of the more popular small whelks.

She’d been stunned for a moment when she found the small whelks, not expecting to find such things along this part of the coast.

Yi Chen roughly estimated she had about two or three pounds in her bucket. Apparently, this little spot, long ignored by everyone else, still had some things to offer.

However, the freshly dug shellfish were full of sand. They would need to be kept in water for a while to let them purge it.

Yi Chen walked slowly along the road, carrying her bucket. The coastal highway had streetlights, so she wasn’t too afraid.

Besides, she had stayed out this late while foraging before. Back when she worked the mid-shift, she’d gotten off at midnight, so she was used to it.

Unfortunately, her route took her right past the seafood market.

Just then, the whir of an electric motor started up. Yi Chen instinctively glanced over and was surprised to see it was Gu Nan.

”Boss?”

”Yi Chen, what are you doing here?” Gu Nan’s brow furrowed slightly as he braked to a stop beside her.

He’d thought the person he saw from a distance looked a lot like her, and it turned out he was right.

’Wearing rain boots and holding a small rake... what was she up to?’

”Um, I was watching some videos tonight and suddenly got the impulse to go foraging. I just gathered some small shellfish.” For some reason, Yi Chen felt a little awkward. This was definitely not how she wanted to run into him.

”Foraging?”

Gu Nan was taken aback. He got off his tricycle and glanced into her bucket, spotting some shellfish and whelks.

He was exasperated. ”Instead of getting some rest late at night, you went out to gather this?”

Yi Chen lowered her head, slightly embarrassed. ”It was just a sudden impulse!”

Then she pouted, brandishing the small rake in her hand with an adorably indignant expression. ”It’s all the fault of that short video app! It just had to recommend foraging videos to me. I figured I could sell this stuff for money, so I came out to try and gather some. I’ll sell them at the market tomorrow on my way to work.”

”Uh... are you that short on cash? Or are you in debt?” Gu Nan looked at her with a strange expression. ’Her commission today was over two hundred yuan, wasn’t it? Is she really worried about the ten or so yuan she could make selling this stuff?’

’The whelks and shellfish were all different sizes; most people wouldn’t buy them.’

’Even if she sorted through them and picked out the bigger ones, there wouldn’t be many, and they wouldn’t fetch a high price.’

’Most of what was on the market was farmed, and the price for farmed shellfish and whelks was nearly identical to wild-caught. Besides, any place with good stuff had long been picked clean by others. No one really went out of their way to gather these to sell anymore.’

’If the beaches at Yangjiang Port had razor clams, she could go forage for some Clam Kings and make a little money, but there aren’t any here!’

’Don’t be fooled by all those foraging videos online that make it look so profitable. Those people earn money from views and traffic. Occasionally, they get lucky and catch something sellable, but most of the time, they just take their haul home to eat.’

Hearing his question, Yi Chen frantically waved her hands and shook her head. ”I’m not in debt! I just want to earn a little extra, that’s all. Of course I’m short on money!”

”Alright, then.” If she was working this hard foraging just to make a little extra, what else could Gu Nan say?

’It’s just... such a clumsy method...’

’He had to admit, the girl was kind of cute. He just hoped their future kids didn’t inherit her brains.’

’Still, for now, she seemed like a good, hardworking girl—about as rare as a panda in today’s increasingly restless society.’

”Since we’ve run into each other, you can give me a hand. Hop on, we’re going to the shop first.” Gu Nan didn’t ask any more questions, shamelessly ordering her around. He planned to have her help sort the fish he’d caught that night.

Yi Chen’s face fell. She had only gone out for a bit of foraging. Not only was her haul worthless, but now she was being roped into working overtime by her boss. ’That stupid video!’

But the job paid well, so she couldn’t bring herself to refuse.

She got on the tricycle, and when they arrived at the shop, she helped him carry a water tank and some styrofoam boxes inside.

When she saw the fish in the tank and boxes, she looked surprised. ”Boss, did you go pick up a shipment?”

”More like I went to pick up the delivery. The shop gets fish delivered daily, sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes at night. Isn’t that why I bought the tricycle? To save on delivery fees and pick it up myself?”

”Oh, right. You mentioned that before.”

Yi Chen helped carry everything inside. She’d originally thought she was just being used for manual labor, but then Gu Nan started teaching her a few useful things.

For example, before putting live fish into an aquarium, you needed to mix some of the aquarium water with the water from the transport container and let the fish acclimate first.

This prevents them from dying due to the shock of a sudden change in environment.

He also told her to check the aquariums every morning when she came in and to scoop out any dead fish.

But then she saw the fishing rod Gu Nan brought in, along with fish like black porgy, and her eyes lit up. ”Boss, don’t tell me you caught these black porgies yourself?”

Gu Nan nodded. ”Yeah. The shipment over there doesn’t arrive until after ten, so if I have nothing to do, I’ll fish nearby for a bit. Usually, there’s not much to catch, but I got really lucky tonight. A school of black porgy swam by.”

Yi Chen wasn’t a complete novice anymore, so she knew how much black porgy sold for.

So when she saw so many of them, she was stunned. ’This has to be worth a fortune!’

’At fifty yuan a pound, this haul was worth at least several hundred yuan, maybe even over a thousand.’

This completely shattered Yi Chen’s worldview. ’Fishing was this profitable?’

’So, could she go fishing at night and then sell her catch to the boss at a low price during the day?’

But then she decided against it. It would probably affect her performance at work during the day.

’Staying up late every night... no matter how young she was, she wouldn’t be able to handle it. After all, her shift started way too early.’

Gu Nan had no idea she had been thinking so much in such a short time. After they finished up, he asked, ”Are you hungry? Want to go grab a late-night snack?”

Yi Chen quickly shook her head. ”No, no, it’s really late. I need to get home and rest. I have to be up early for work tomorrow.”

”Well, I’ll be going then, Boss. Bye-bye!”

”Hey, wait. It’s so late, let me give you a ride home. Your place is a ways from here.”

Yi Chen thought about it and agreed. He had already given her a ride once, so a second time wouldn’t hurt. She accepted his offer.

After locking up the shop, Gu Nan drove off with her in the direction of her home.

Remembering the way Yi Chen’s eyes had lit up when she saw his fishing rod and the black porgies, he knew what kind of ideas were running through her head.

’Honestly, if she went foraging or fishing late every night and then had to wake up so early for work, it would almost certainly affect her performance at the shop over time.’

’So, he felt he should get her to give up on that plan and do something that wouldn’t interfere with her job—something that might even benefit the shop.’

’The ”Most Beautiful Fishmonger” plan Xu Zhina had mentioned... maybe it was time to put it into motion.’

So he said, ”Yi Chen, have you ever thought about getting into social media? You know, filming and posting videos?”

Yi Chen was taken aback. ”That... I wouldn’t know how!”