Her Cultivation Diary-Chapter 189 - . Late Night Fisher_1
Chapter 189: 189. Late Night Fisher_1
Chapter 189: 189. Late Night Fisher_1
3:00 a.m.
Zhang Yanping was jolted awake by his five consecutive alarm clocks and felt truly sobered up only after the slightly cool air hit him when he opened the door.
Moonlight cast a cold and clear glow over the rustic farmhouse courtyard, creating a dim luminescence.
The cooking area in the shed was tidied neatly, and the three treasures, Wu, Liu, and Qi, were nowhere in their positions but rather sleeping right in front of the stove amidst the pile of firewood and straw.
At this moment, whether they were dreaming something, they intermittently issued humming and squeaking sounds; their little paws scratching the dry leaves and pine needles, making rustling noises.
On the courtyard wall studded with nails and pieces of glass, several fuzzy black silhouettes moved agilely, evidently all too familiar with their surroundings.
Looking closely, they were a dozen or so grey squirrels whose fur under the moonlight seemed to shine faintly.
Zhang Yanping subconsciously touched his own hair—
Eating nuts really promotes hair growth, right?
Otherwise, these grey squirrels, which were a bit dry when he first arrived, now appeared to be increasingly robust.
And their boldness, perched on the walls every day!
If one said they were stealing things, it seemed nothing was missing. If they weren’t stealing… what, they were looking to adopt a master?
He focused his gaze into the distance, beneath the moon’s clear glow, the entire village seemed shrouded in thin layers of mist. Unfortunately, being in the thickest center of the mist, he couldn’t discern it.
All he knew was that the air had the damp scent of morning dew which, for some reason, made him feel instantly refreshed and wide awake after a sniff.
Putting on a jacket, grabbing the flashlight he had prepared in advance, and taking his mobile phone, he quietly opened the front gate and made his way to the empty roadside to wait.
The bamboo forest rustled with the wind, the pond occasionally echoed with the sounds of fish and shrimp leaping, and the insects freely sang in the grass…
But none of this serenity could change the fact that it was only 3:00 a.m.
He stared at his phone for a moment, feeling that something was amiss.
Speaking of which… why had he come to the village in the first place?
Was it to escape the nagging and the pressure of civil service exams, right?
Because he just wanted to be a lazy salted fish.
So now…
His phone vibrated. He checked it and sure enough, someone in the fishing group he had joined at the last minute was mentioning him:
[Checking the navigation, it should take five more minutes to get there, is the location accurate?]
Yes.
Without thinking, Zhang Yanping replied, then numbly thought:
He, waking up at 3:00 a.m., had accepted these ten people’s requests. With each person ordering a box lunch, that’s only four hundred yuan, giving Tantan a hundred for the cost, he and Seventh Uncle would get one hundred fifty each.
Is it that he couldn’t earn one hundred fifty in a day selling fruit?
Or is one hundred fifty yuan enough to buy his waking up at three o’clock?
Zhang Yanping looked at his own bewildered face reflected in the phone’s camera and, for the first time, began to waver.
—He really didn’t have any talent for business, did he?
Maybe he should go back and join a training course to take the civil service exam, right?
But then he wouldn’t be able to eat the food here…
With just that moment of hesitation, the rumble and headlights of a car approached from the distant road.
His spirits were instantly lifted!
Good grief, he promised himself that if he didn’t sell at least two bowls of rice per person today, he wouldn’t call himself Zhang Yanping!
The other party drove a modest BMW, got out of the car, and couldn’t help stretching :
“Ah, the air in the village is just so refreshing!”
Then, turning to Zhang Yanping with a smile, he said, “Brother, we’re all from the same forum, right? We’re all our own people here, so don’t swindle us.”
Zhang Yanping was resolutely earnest, “Just try fishing for a day and see how it goes.”
The other party wasn’t courteous either, “Let’s go, let’s go, get in the car, and tell me where the pond is. I want to check out a good fishing spot first.”
Well, that really wasn’t okay.
Zhang Yanping pointed at his cell phone, “There are still nine people coming after me. Aren’t you all good brothers? They’ll be here soon, so let’s stick together.”
“No way!” The other person suddenly became upset, “Even good brothers can’t hold me back from finding a fishing spot!”
“I sneaked downstairs like a thief at one in the morning and drove here. How can I be with them? Don’t I deserve some privilege for being here first?”
Zhang Yanping was helpless.
At this point, he simply pointed out,
“You see that bamboo forest? The pond is right behind it. Choose any spot you like. Remember to beat it with a stick first, to make sure there are no snakes.”
“Also, some stones have our traps tied to them. Just don’t knock them into the water, and it’ll be fine.”
“Alright then!”
The person couldn’t wait to open the trunk, slung the fishing rod over his back with one hand, and with the other, carried a heavy bag with pride toward the edge of the pond.
To be honest, if going to work was as motivating as fishing, everyone would have perfect attendance.
Now, after waiting just an extra ten or twenty minutes, Zhang Yanping led the last three middle-aged men, wearing cotton-padded jackets and riding motorcycles, to the pond.
“How long did it take to ride here from the city?”
“Oh, don’t even mention it, the roads to your place are just too rough. My heart was in my throat the whole time, it took me more than two hours to ride here.”
Zhang Yanping: …
Though he mingled in all kinds of forums, the fishing enthusiasts clearly were the most fascinating bunch.
Tell them to go to the gym, they say they can’t stand the pain of exercise.
But tell them to endure back pain, ride bikes, sit on stools, and watch over the water for a day and a night, they’re more enthusiastic than anyone.
—Fishing enthusiasts, indeed a mysterious organization.
However, now everyone was staring at the pond and fell into silence.
A two-to-three-acre pond wasn’t bad for ten people, pretty spacious.
But the problem was—
“This seems like false advertising! I thought it was a much bigger pond!”
Although three acres isn’t small, it obviously didn’t promise much catch!
“Brother, the catches you showed off in the traps before, were they real or not?”
This pond looked so ordinary, how come it didn’t seem reliable?
Zhang Yanping was prepared, and at that moment, he retrieved the trap left in the bushes overnight, took out a plastic bag, and untied a small bunch of chicken intestines Song Tan had thrown in.
“Fellas, we’re from the same forum, I won’t deceive anyone—this is an empty trap, if you’re worried that there are no fish in this pond, there’s really no need.”
“Someone pick a spot, I’ll set the trap down, and I’ll come to collect it at seven in the morning. Does that work for you?”
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Zhang Yanping rarely fished, and the others weren’t familiar with him, but these active fishing enthusiasts in the forum had all chatted with each other at some point.
Thus, there was actually more trust among them.
So the middle-aged man who arrived first exchanged a look with a few brothers and then casually pointed:
“Right here is fine, lay the trap here. I’ll weigh it down with my little stool.”
Okay!
Zhang Yanping was straightforward.
Song Tan had been setting quite a number of traps these days, and the concrete pond at home was nearly full. The good thing was that there were ten people to feed; a couple less and they’d hardly have enough to eat.
Indeed, this pond had its charms; the fish were all blissfully naive.
If it weren’t for Song Tan’s solemn promise that the fishermen wouldn’t lose out, Zhang Yanping really wouldn’t want to be doing this lossmaking business at three in the morning.
