319: The first fish caught is the last fish caught.

"A perfect finishing fish!"

Yang Qi smugly began to pack up his fishing rod.

"This..."

"Hubby, the two of us haven't even started the morning bite yet! How can you be on your finishing fish already?"

Bai Xue said with a pout.

Liu Zheng was also completely bewildered, unable to understand Yang Qi's strange move.

"You guys keep fishing; anyway, I've already caught my finishing fish! Hehehe."

Yang Qi said to the others while packing up his line set.

"Alright, once we're done with the morning bite, I'll take you to the town for some local breakfast. Then we'll go fish for peach blossom fish."

Liu Zheng said to the girls. Looking at his bloodshot eyes, they didn't know what to say.

This big brother really gave it his all for fishing; his wife had been calling all night. Every time he said it was the last cast, but that 'one last cast' lasted the whole night, and now he wanted to squeeze in the morning bite too.

Bai Xue and the other girl began baiting their hooks and fishing, catching a few Crucian carp here and there. Checking the time, it was already past six o'clock.

"I'll stop once I catch a finishing fish."

Liu Zheng said to them after checking his phone.

To their surprise, however, he waited another hour for that finishing fish.

Just as Yang Qi and the others were preparing to make breakfast themselves, Liu Zheng finally reeled in a tiny mahjong crucian carp weighing about two qian.

Packing up, packing up—if you don't catch a finishing fish, it feels as uncomfortable as not wiping after taking a dump.

Liu Zheng led the way in a van with the large characters for 'Huo La La' sprayed on the side.

Yang Qi drove the dodge ram, slowly following behind him to a breakfast shop in town.

Under his recommendation, Yang Qi ordered rice soup, green rice cakes, meat pies, blanched rice skins, tofu buns, soy milk with fried dough sticks, and so on.

"This..."

Liu Zheng originally wanted to ask, "You ordered so much, can you finish it? Don't let it go to waste!" But he knew that Yang Qi and the others didn't look like they were short on money.

So he didn't say anything, just took last night's catch home to put the fish away first.

Besides the Big Black Carp and the large Topmouth Culter, Yang Qi and the others gave him all the other catches, totaling about twenty to thirty catties.

Liu Zheng's home was nearby. When he carried the fish back and reached the door, he ran into his wife.

"I say, what's wrong with you? If you hadn't been answering your phone, I would've thought you fell into the water and drowned!"

"Uh~ the bite was good last night, I couldn't stop."

"What do you mean you couldn't stop? It's not like the fish in Qiandao Lake will starve to death if you don't feed them. Besides, what does it matter to you if the fish live or die?"

"Hurry up and eat breakfast, then get lost and go to sleep."

She was his wife after all; though her words were harsh, she was worried about his health and couldn't bear to see him like this.

"I can't sleep today! A few bosses from out of town came to fish and hired my car for a few days. Six hundred a day plus meals! They're waiting for me to have breakfast!"

Liu Zheng explained the situation.

"In your dreams—six hundred a day plus meals. I think you just want to go fishing yourself and don't even want to go to work anymore."

His wife didn't believe such a good thing existed.

"It's true. They came to travel in an RV and asked me to lead the way. A young man with two girls."

"Really? You're not lying to me?"

"Why would I lie to you? If you don't believe me, come along and see for yourself. They're having breakfast at my Third Uncle's place right now! Oh, and go pick some of the vegetables we grew ourselves; I'll take them to give to them later."

Liu Zheng told his wife to go pick some vegetables.

Fifteen minutes later, he brought his wife to where Yang Qi and the others were.

"Come, come! Brother Zheng, have some breakfast. We were hungry, so we started eating without waiting for you to get back."

Yang Qi greeted him warmly.

"Brother Yang Qi, this is my wife. She brought some home-grown greens for you to keep."

Liu Zheng took the large bag of greens from his wife and placed it by Yang Qi's feet.

"Oh! Hello, Sister-in-law. Sit, sit, hurry and have some breakfast."

Liu Zheng wasn't formal either; he pulled his wife down to sit and started eating. However, his wife repeatedly said she had already eaten, but she sat down to keep him company anyway.

Bai Xue and the others invited her a few more times, but seeing she really didn't want to eat, they let it be.

"Boss, three more pies, five green rice cakes, three tea eggs, and two bowls of savory soy milk. Seriously, your savory soy milk is really fragrant. Brother Zheng, you and Sister-in-law order whatever you like."

Yang Qi said to Liu Zheng while eating.

"Ah! Oh, okay."

Liu Zheng thought Yang Qi had just ordered for him and was about to stop his Third Uncle, saying he couldn't eat that much.

Luckily he didn't say it, or it would have been embarrassing. He then went to order a few things he liked.

This breakfast was eaten with such gusto that even the boss started wondering if his skills had improved.

Really, was it that delicious?

After breakfast, they invited Liu Zheng's wife to join them. She figured she had nothing to do at home, so she happily agreed.

With Liu Zheng and his wife leading the way, Yang Qi drove the dodge ram closely behind the van.

Five kilometers later, they entered a place shown on the map as Qingniu Gorge. There was a stream between the mountain ravines, its water crystal clear.

Liu Zheng found a spot and drove the car to the edge of the stream. The two vehicles stopped at a flat area.

"Wow, the scenery here is so beautiful!"

As soon as Bai Xue and Yao Shanshan got out of the car, they were captivated by the surrounding scenery—green mountains, clear waters, withered grass, red leaves, and yellow flowers. It was completely different from the seaside.

The air here was different from the slightly fishy scent of the seaside. It had the unique freshness of the mountains, even a hint of sweetness.

Bai Xue took a few landscape photos with her camera, then grabbed her tackle box and quickly caught up with the others.

Liu Zheng pointed at the crystal-clear stream and said:

"There are quite a few stream groupers in this stretch of the stream, but before we fish, we need to build a water wall."

"Or find a slow-moving area blocked by large rocks, throw in some groundbait, and we can start fishing after half an hour."

So the four of them split up to find spots nearby. Since Liu Zheng's wife didn't really like fishing, she took a bucket to catch mountain crabs.

Yang Qi set up two spots. Following Liu Zheng's advice, he switched to the newly bought seven-star floats, used a 3.6-meter rod, and began fishing.

Yang Qi baited his hook and cast. Just as the bait sank to the bottom, the seven-star float gave a distinct downward tug.

He hurriedly struck the fish. Because he was using a soft rod and thin line, the feel after hooking the fish was excellent. With a 0.6 main line, he didn't dare use too much force.

After a dozen or so seconds, a stream grouper weighing about two taels was pulled out of the water.

Its back was grayish-brown, its lower sides pale yellow, and its belly white. There were six dark brown transverse stripes on the sides of its body, and a dark brown longitudinal stripe running from behind the gills all the way to the tail.

It was very beautiful overall. The male fish was even more attractive, with purplish-red tints on its body and fins.

stream groupers have few bones and tender meat, taste delicious, and look beautiful; they can be eaten, kept for display, or caught for sport.

Because they have very high water quality requirements, their numbers are gradually decreasing.

Some restaurants and agritainment farmhouses offer a purchase price of 100 yuan per catty.