54: A huge dark shadow in the lake

Zhao Hu saw the dark shadow not far away, near the bow of the boat.

Looking at the dark shadow, which was at least the size of a bed, Zhao Hu was frozen in shock for a few seconds before reacting and shouting back to the others.

"Chen Wen, Xiangbei, look quickly, there's a huge dark shadow at the bow of the boat, even a 1.8-meter bed isn't that big!"

Hearing Zhao Hu's shout, Chen Xiangbei and the others looked at him, seeing him point towards the bow with an anxious expression.

Chen Xiangbei was the first to react. He handed the fishing rod in his hand to Chen Wen, immediately rushed into the cockpit, and took out the Deep Sea 1.

Running while adjusting the fishing rod, he reached the bow, attached the powerful Secret Bait to the hook, and cast it towards the dark shadow, which was many times larger than him.

The bait flew through the air for a while and landed precisely above the giant shadow.

As the bait fell into the water, the strong scent it emitted attracted the attention of the giant.

This caused the dark shadow, which was originally swimming downstream, to suddenly change direction, swim quickly, and bite the bait at an extremely fast speed.

Chen Xiangbei was startled by this movement. The powerful drag prevented him from reacting in time, and he was dragged along by the giant.

Chen Xiangbei quickly adjusted his center of gravity, stepped his left foot forward, bracing against the bow railing, slightly bent his right leg, lowered his center of gravity, and held the fishing rod tightly with both hands.

The spinning reel in his hand constantly released line to relieve tension, while also applying a counter-force to prevent the giant from swimming away easily.

Neither side showed any sign of giving way, and the angle of the fishing rod was bent at 90 degrees.

As the giant struggled more intensely, the curve of the fishing rod became larger. Chen Xiangbei's hands began to tremble slightly, and the strong pull made him feel somewhat powerless.

Chen Wen and Lu Hu saw that he was struggling more and more and wanted to go forward to help.

Just as they were about to reach out, he interrupted them.

"Don't come over, this fish is too big, the fishing line can't withstand such pressure, it's about to break. Just stand there and don't move, or it will snap back at you."

Chen Xiangbei knew that this giant was going to escape. Its strength was too great, exceeding the fishing rod's capacity. Even if the line didn't break, the rod was close to collapsing.

He tried his best to stabilize himself, carefully observing the state of the fishing rod. If it broke, he would immediately dodge.

He even considered throwing the fishing rod away; that would be the safest option.

But doing so would cause the giant to dart around in the water with the fishing rod, making it irritable, and it wouldn't be easy to lure it back next time.

About ten minutes passed, and the giant had swum three to four hundred meters away, almost reaching the maximum length of the fishing line.

Chen Xiangbei released the fishing line in reverse. While the line wasn't taut, he told Chen Wen to use a knife to cut the fishing line.

Without the counter-force, Chen Xiangbei instantly felt relieved. He lay on the bow, panting heavily, his hands trembling slightly.

Zhao Hu quickly brought a bottle of mineral water and handed it to him.

He took the mineral water, unscrewed the cap, and drank it in large gulps.

"Gulp, gulp..."

It wasn't until he finished the bottle of water that he recovered a little.

He said to Chen Wen and the others, "This giant is really damn strong. In my opinion, its weight is at least over 500 catties."

Xia Qi was the first to say excitedly, "So the Baiyun Lake Water Monster really exists! Since I started working at the company, I've always heard colleagues discussing it, saying that the Water Monster is real."

"At first I didn't believe it, but today I finally saw it. Although it was just a shadow, it confirmed its existence."

"But who would believe us if we told them? Only a few of us saw it, and there's no other evidence to prove it," Lu Hu retorted.

At this moment, Chen Wen opened his phone, found a video in his album, and showed it to them, saying with a smile, "Look at this."

Everyone gathered around, watching the content of the video.

In the video, Chen Xiangbei rushed into the cockpit, and soon after, ran out with the fishing rod, followed by the intense struggle with the giant.

Chen Wen smiled and said, "How could such an exciting scene not be recorded? While you were all engrossed in watching the Water Monster, I had already set up my phone and filmed this moment."

"Damn! Good job, Chen Wen, you're really clever. You didn't forget to record a video at the crucial moment," Lu Hu said excitedly.

"With this video, no one will doubt that we encountered the Water Monster. If we post it online, it will definitely make the news!" Xia Qi said, getting more excited the more she thought about it.

"Can I make a small suggestion?" Chen Xiangbei raised his hand to interrupt.

"When you post the video, please blur my face. I don't want to become famous all over the internet!"

"This is a great opportunity to become famous! You can open an account on a short video platform then, and I guarantee many people will follow you. What a great thing," Xia Qi said.

"Please don't. I don't want to be too high-profile. You can post it however you want, provided you blur my face or cut out the scenes where I appear, just keeping the Water Monster footage," Chen Xiangbei said firmly.

He didn't want to be famous because he was afraid of too much trouble. If the video went viral, many people would definitely come to interview him or want to go fishing for the "Water Monster" with him to gain some traffic.

He just wanted to focus on his work and making money. There would definitely be many reports about becoming famous like this in the future; there was no need to waste his precious time for this bit of traffic.

After hearing this, the others didn't say anything more. Some people like to show off.

Others prefer to live a low-key life, and it was clear that Chen Xiangbei belonged to the latter.

Chen Wen stepped in to smooth things over, saying, "Xiangbei has always been low-key and has his own ideas about things. We'll just edit the video according to his request. Anyway, our goal is to prove the existence of the Water Monster, right?"

"That's right, I was too impatient. I'm sorry, Xiangbei," Xia Qi apologized for her impulsiveness just now.

"It's a small matter. I'm not a narrow-minded person. I just think being famous is too troublesome, and it wasn't directed at you," Chen Xiangbei said with a smile.

"Oh, we're all friends, why so many apologies? Let's go, keep fishing. Don't waste such a good opportunity," Zhao Hu said with a grin.

"Let's go. While we couldn't catch the big fish, we can definitely handle these small fish. Where's my fishing rod? I'm going to wipe them out!" Chen Xiangbei joked.

In fact, he was still very unconvinced. If it weren't for his equipment not keeping up.

He would definitely have wrestled with this Baiyun Lake Water Monster, as he still had cards up his sleeve.

When the Water Monster took the bait, he knew clearly that this fish was going to escape. However, giving up the struggle directly was not his style, and he couldn't just deal with this matter hastily.

He would definitely try to catch it again, which is why he cut the fishing line instead of just throwing the rod away.

Based on his feeling, this giant definitely weighed over 500 kilograms.

The reason he told them it was 500 catties was to hide his own ability, as it's impossible for a person to fight against a giant weighing 500 kilograms.