145: Do you want to go to heaven?

Yang Qi and Zhang Jun, along with the others, watched Liu Yao's smug expression and listened to his tone of voice. They all ignored him, rolling their eyes repeatedly.

It must be said, Liu Yao's technique was indeed decent; he quickly endured the big fish's second burst of strength.

However, it seemed his physical strength couldn't compare to Zhang Jun's. Not long after, he was already panting.

"Hehehe, you're a young man, but your body seems a bit weak!" Zhang Jun chuckled with a hint of mischief.

"Weak? I... I can still last a long time," Liu Yao insisted stubbornly.

"Brother Yao, let me take over for a bit," Yang Qi offered.

"I'm fine, I can still hold on."

"Let me do it. You go check if you have anything biting over there." Yang Qi had no choice but to give him an out.

"Alright then! You take over! If you can't hold on, I'll relieve you!" Liu Yao went with the flow and handed the fishing rod to Yang Qi.

Yang Qi took the rod and pulled a few times, confirming there was still a lot of resistance. When fishing for big fish with a hand rod, you can't reel in the line. You can only hold the rod, retreat as much as possible, keep the rod vertical, and pull the big fish towards the water's surface and the bank.

The big fish struggled continuously in the water, causing huge splashes on the surface not far away.

Most of its dark green tail emerged from the water, as big as a fan.

"It really is a big grass carp!" Liu Yao shouted.

"Oh, with a tail that big, the fish won't be small!" Zhang Jun also commented.

Yang Qi, of course, already knew it was a big grass carp underwater.

At this moment, he gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead, and sweat trickled down his cheeks. After a few more minutes of stalemate, the fish's strength seemed to wane slightly.

Finally, the big fish's head was pulled out of the water for the first time. Fish breathe with gills, so pulling its head out of the water and letting air into its gills actually obstructs its breathing.

Repeating this several times will cause it to become weak all over due to lack of oxygen.

Fishermen call this act 'choking the fish with water'.

After the big fish is choked with water for the first time, it will exert itself again and dive underwater due to discomfort.

What Yang Qi needed to do was hold the fishing rod, endure this surge, and then pull the fish out of the water again to choke it once more.

After three or four such times, even the largest fish would lose its strength, being dragged towards the bank like a dead dog.

As the fish gradually approached the bank, everyone saw clearly that it was indeed a huge grass carp. Over a meter long, easily 50 jin.

Its large mouth opened and closed, almost big enough to fit an adult's fist.

Don't compare this mouth to fish of similar weight in the sea, which are much smaller.

That's because the grass carp's mouth has a long upper jaw and a short lower jaw. It's generally in a 'scoop' shape, suitable for pecking and eating creatures like snails.

The landing net wasn't big enough, only managing to scoop in half of the fish's body. Zhang Jun immediately took off his shoes and waded into the water, half-hugging the big grass carp back to shore.

Everyone pulled out their phones to take pictures of him and the big grass carp.

He, in turn, spoke eloquently into Uncle's phone, insisting that this big grass carp weighed almost seventy jin.

He claimed it was a purely wild big grass carp that he, with the help of his two brothers, had managed to pull in after a great deal of effort.

Yang Qi and Liu Yao didn't feel much about it, but Uncle, being a rural person, was seeing this operation for the first time and was dumbfounded, thinking he had misheard.

"Come on, come on, it's your turn now." Zhang Jun carefully handed the big grass carp to Liu Yao, who had already reached out.

He then took the phone from Zheng Tie's hand and turned off the recording.

"How could my phone possibly show someone else holding a big fish and showing off? Impossible."

At this moment, Liu Yao, holding the big fish with a beaming smile and ready for the camera, noticed Zhang Jun putting away his phone. He immediately became anxious:

"Hey, hey! Brother Jun, why are you putting your phone away? Take a video for me too!"

"Forget it. If I let you film now, who knows what it would turn out like. My head might not even be in the shot."

"Yang Qi, take my phone and film me."

Yang Qi also found this amusing and took his phone to start filming.

Sure enough, same nutrition, same recipe.

Liu Yao, all smiles, faced the camera, boasting about how brave he was and how he managed to pull in this seventy-plus jin big grass carp.

Yang Qi secretly thought, *Is he going to say eighty jin when it's my turn?*

The big grass carp, which was clearly only fifty-something jin, had gained ten or twenty jin of 'meat' after these two got their hands on it.

"Forget it! Let them two handle the showing off. They're more suited for it, they're professionals!" Yang Qi muttered to himself.

He and Uncle Zheng Tie simply took a few photos.

The group carefully placed the big grass carp into the large fish keepnet.

Seeing that it was half past ten, they decided to eat lunch and rest before coming back in the afternoon.

Yang Qi suggested taking the big grass carp home to eat for lunch. The others agreed. Zhang Jun and Liu Yao hadn't caught anything for half the morning.

Because they were fishing with pond snails, other fish wouldn't bite. This is actually a normal occurrence when fishing for big fish in the wild.

Unless you've been continuously chumming for several days, you won't have attracted the fish to your spot beforehand. The videos of those internet 'gurus' catching tons of fish are filmed this way. Or they are all fishing in black pits with very high fish density.

Besides the big grass carp Yang Qi caught, only Uncle caught three crucian carp with earthworms, and they were quite large, all over four liang.

Before leaving, the group put all the pond snails they brought that morning into the fishing spot.

Replenishing the bait, nothing shameful about that.

Back at Grandpa's house, the family members were all amazed to see such a large grass carp. Except for Grandpa and Grandma, who had seen such large fish before, everyone else had never seen one.

A group of people gathered, ready to watch Yang Qi remove the fish stone from the grass carp.

"Yang Qi, wait a moment!" Zhang Jun immediately stopped Yang Qi's hand reaching for the big grass carp.

"What's wrong, Brother Jun?" Yang Qi asked, a bit puzzled.

"Uh, someone in the group wants to buy this big grass carp, offering 30,000 yuan." Zhang Jun saw everyone looking at him and had no choice but to tell the truth.

"How much? 30,000 yuan for one fish?" Grandpa thought he was hard of hearing and had misheard.

"Yes, Grandpa, but he wants a live fish," Zhang Jun said to Grandpa.

"Then don't kill it, let's sell it for money, Xiao Qi, listen to Grandma." Grandma immediately spoke to Yang Qi.

"That's right, Xiao Qi, let's not eat this fish, let's sell it! It's 30,000 yuan." Both aunts said.

On the other hand, Dad and Mom didn't say a word. They were somewhat used to their son's operations, and besides, this was meant to entertain guests.

"Let's just eat it ourselves! I've never eaten such a big grass carp before. What do you all think?" Yang Qi still wanted to struggle a bit.

"You're trying to reach for the sky! You're going to kill and eat a fish worth 30,000 yuan?" Big Uncle was a bit angry. It wasn't their fault; rural people might only earn thirty or forty thousand a year. You were planning to spend half a year's income on one meal, no wonder Big Uncle and the others were angry.

Even if you've made some money, you shouldn't squander it like this!