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"Uncle Six, all these are the secrets for the rise of our family. We must prioritize keeping them confidential." Wang Shouzhe temporarily gave up the idea of sharing with him the basics of Luya angling, solemnly said.
"I understand. I will be extra careful in doing all of these, and I hope the family can assign two head of households to assist me." Wang Dinghai was trembling with excitement. "Also, about the scoop net, I have some ideas. We can quickly modify a scoop net using cast nets. Let's try it first. If it can..."
His eyes were gleaming and he couldn't wait to experiment.
The area from Dingpu Ferry to Chaotic Stone Beach was all Wang family's territory. Ordinary people would neither dare nor have the means to approach the river bank. After all, the river bank was underdeveloped and was only crudely cleaned up, filled with all sorts of unintentional dangers.
Furthermore, this segment of the river was winding with many secluded places. Inspired by Wang Shouzhe, Wang Dinghai, who was familiar with the fishing industry, had many plans and ideas.
After getting Wang Shouzhe's approval, Wang Dinghai headed towards a concealed mini dock on the river segment. Each dock here was a secret base, which had a variety of uses. Just like a cunning rabbit has three burrows, this was even more so for the Wang family's fishing fleet.
A hidden wooden cabin was built next to the mini dock, serving as a shelter from wind and waves. Wang Dinghai arranged for Wang Shouzhe and Gongsun Hui in this simple cabin. Leaving Wang Goudan to serve the two, he hurriedly left.
"This is the first time that I've seen Uncle Six in such a hurry." Gongsun Hui commented, "It seems that the fishing method you suggested, Zhe Er, will be very effective."
"The method was learned from some ancient books and is untested in practice, so I'm not sure. I just hope it will be useful for the family." Wang Shouzhe smiled indifferently, then turned to Wang Goudan, "Goudan, can you roast fish?"
"Yes." Wang Goudan nodded smartly, "Lord, I will go roast the fish now." As soon as he had finished speaking, he dashed out.
When only Gongsun Hui and Wang Shouzhe were left, Gongsun Hui looked carefully at Wang Shouzhe. After she had stared at him for so long that he felt somewhat uneasy, she finally sighed and said: "Zhe Er, you have changed, becoming more free-spirited and confident. When you were younger, you only focused on cultivation and ignored everything else. If my sister-in-law hadn't watched you grow up, I would really doubt you were switched at birth."
"Sister-in-law, you're joking. In the past, my father took care of everything, so I could just focus on my own affairs." Wang Shouzhe said with a calm expression, sighing, "But now, father has passed away, and the family situation has deteriorated to such a degree. If I don't step up, where will the Wang family go? Sister-in-law, let's not talk about this for now. You have had a long journey, rest for a while, let's look forward to Uncle Six's surprise later."
Wang Shouzhe took control of the situation, actively ended the topic and began to rest.
Around an hour later, Wang Goudan brought back several golden roasted fish. The aroma was enticing. Wang Shouzhe took out two copper coins and threw them to him: "Here's a reward for you. Wait for us outside."
"Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord." Wang Goudan happily ran out.
Wang Shouzhe shared the roasted fish with Gongsun Hui. Although Goudan's cooking skills were average and he only added some coarse salt, the choice of fresh and high-quality seafood made Wang Shouzhe savor the dish and sing its praises.
It was also the first time for Gongsun Hui to eat such rustic food. After a few bites, her beautiful eyes kept shining, as if she found it very tasty.
When they had finished eating the roasted fish, they heard the excited shout of Wang Dinghai from outside: "Shouzhe, Sister-in-law, please come out and see."
Wang Shouzhe and Gongsun Hui followed the sound and arrived at the dock. They saw that Wang Dinghai had already set up a simple portable fishing net according to his plan. That net made Wang Shouzhe raise his eyebrows. The four support poles were as thick as arms and the main pole was even bigger than one's thigh.
This thing was too heavy, probably weighing about 200 or 300 pounds. Ordinary people on Earth would not be able to handle it.
But there stood Wang Dinghai on the wooden dock, bending his waist and hardening his legs. With slight strength, he easily lifted the heavy net out of the water.
Well, I forgot that he was a Level Five Qi Refiner in the Profound Martial Realm. His strength was more than ten times as strong as an ordinary person on Earth.
"Boom!"
A large fish had been caught by the net. The fish splashed water with a wave but was blocked by the net and lost its way. Before it could react a second time, it was lifted from the water, lying in the center of the net, ready to be slaughtered. Furthermore, a few small fish weighing one to three kilograms were quietly lying next to it.
"Excellent!"
The surrounding fishermen cheered enthusiastically as they hurriedly scooped up the catch with makeshift handles. Although it was an inexpensive red carp, it weighed about six to seven kilograms and could sell for dozens of shillings, thus proving the effectiveness of the fishing net lift.
Then, under the personal guidance of Wang Shouzhe, Wang Dinghai made further improvements to the fishing net lift, adding a reverse rod and additional weighting equipment.
The principle is extremely simple, resembling a seesaw on Earth. However, this seesaw is triangular in shape, with the two ends connected by a rope. By positioning an appropriate weight on one side of the seesaw, slight pressure could lift the opposite end of the fishing net out of the water in a seesaw-like motion.
Afterward, four hours passed before everything was set up and the sky had turned dark, but everyone's enthusiasm remained high. With just an hour's wait, they could pull up the net, and it was not labor-intensive.
Of course, netting nothing could not be avoided. But as it was already dark, many fish started to come closer to the shore under the cover of darkness to look for food as there were more food near the shore than in the center of the big river.
"Boom!" "Crash!"
After several empty nets, there were always occasions when a big fish was caught with a loud bang. Every so often, they even caught two or three fish in one throw, which excited those fishermen and Wang Dinghai.
"Shouzhe, we're rich!" Wang Dinghai, holding a torch, reported gleefully, "We just pulled up thirty nets in two hours, lost five, but caught nine large ones, and countless small and medium-sized ones.
In just two hours, we caught over a hundred kilograms of fish, which would be worth over ten copper coins."
The alarming amount of catches even baffled Wang Shouzhe. This was indeed the Profound Martial world, with more resources than Earth. However, Wang Dinghai also indicated that it was the salmon run season and night was the best time for fishing, so this kind of harvest could be considered reasonable.
"This tool is much better than a casting net." Wang Dinghai said excitedly, "Casting nets can also catch a lot of fish, but a physically robust fisherman can only cast about a hundred nets in one day before getting exhausted. But this new tool doesn't require much physical effort or skill. We can arrange for two fishermen to work in shifts for twelve hours, and it's relatively safe. After all, fishing on the riverbank is much less dangerous than fishing in the center of the river."
"Good point, but you've overlooked one advantage, and that is replicability," Wang Shouzhe, also in high spirits, said, "Uncle Six, find some skilled craftsmen from the family tomorrow to refine this crude tool and gradually promote it. Let's seize the opportunity during this year's salmon run season and catch more fish."
"The most important thing is confidentiality," Gongsun Hui added from the sidelines, "Uncle Six, don't blindly increase manpower. Try to find reliable helpers from our peripheral family members."
Everyone was chipping in ideas.
Suddenly!
A loud splash echoed.
"Sea Lord, hurry, come over quickly," Wang Goudan roared from a distance.
The three people looked over and saw a long serpent-like creature being caught in the fishing net lift. Despite being lifted out of the water by two adult fishermen holding the lift's frame, it was still furiously struggling in the net, causing the whole frame to shake.
"It's a red-scaled eel!" Wang Dinghai shouted in excitement. But almost immediately, his face turned pale, "No good, it's going to break the net."
The red-scaled eel bit the net with its sharp teeth and wildly twisted its body, tearing a large hole in the fishing net in an instant. It tried to squeeze itself out through the hole.
Without a second thought, Wang Dinghai immediately dived into the water, swimming rapidly towards the fishing net. Just as the red-scaled eel was about to escape, he reached out and grabbed its neck, pulling out his diving knife and ruthlessly stabbing it into its head and stirring it around with his other hand.
Despite this, the red-scaled eel wrapped itself around him and struggled violently, showing an incredible vitality. Only after an hour did it finally succumbed and died.
Wang Dinghai dragged it to shore and laid its body on a makeshift dock. The creature was over twenty meters long and as thick as a thigh at some points, its entire body covered with red scales.
"A Level One marine fierce beast, red-scale eel, Uncle Six, this must be a mature one, right? It weighs about a hundred kilograms?" Wang Shouzhe and Gongsun Hui also came to take a look curiously.
"Hahaha, even more than that, this one weighs at least one hundred and fifty kilograms, and it's worth at least thirty to fifty Qian Gold." Wang Dinghai, sitting on the ground while gasping for breath, had an excited gleam in his eyes, "If this beast had escaped into the water, I might not be able to catch it. But this red-scaled eel is a treasure all over, Family Head, today's catch is all thanks to your blessings, haha~ we'll show off this catch at Dingpu Ferry tomorrow."
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