Chapter 3: What Kind of Amateur Method Is This?

Chapter 3: What Kind of Amateur Method Is This?

Seeing that these old men had each found a good spot to cast their lines and started competing, Ye Qing silently moved next to Old Man Wu, quietly crouching down to observe the battle.

The old man really didn’t seem to have much skill in fishing. After a flurry of movements, he finally managed to cast his line.

Ye Qing didn’t know much about fishing either, and no one had ever taught her, but she still had a bit of common sense. You needed to bait the water to gather the fish first. The quality of the fish bite was the key to catching fish.

But clearly, Old Man Wu had no intention of baiting the water at all. He simply skewered half a worm onto the hook and cast his line.

Ye Qing secretly shook her head.

With poor skills, and not even using bait as an aid, it was no wonder this old man often ended up with nothing. It would be strange if he actually caught a fish.

Sure enough, Ye Qing crouched there for almost half an hour, and the float didn’t move a single bit, not even a nibble.

Ye Qing couldn’t help but facepalm, wondering how she could strike up a conversation with the old man in a more natural way.

Unexpectedly, just then, Old Man Wu couldn’t sit still anymore.

Although he was fishing, he had actually been keeping an eye on the other old men with his peripheral vision.

He had a clear view of everyone’s situation.

In the past half hour, two of them had already caught fish, and even those who hadn’t caught anything had seen significant movement on their floats, indicating that there were fish biting below.

Seeing this, Old Man Wu suddenly became anxious. He stood up abruptly, muttering to himself as if trying to save face.

"It must be that this spot isn’t good. I need to find a better position!"

With that, he abandoned his fishing rod and ran off, probably to find a new spot.

Ye Qing couldn’t help but twitch the corner of her mouth.

With such an impatient and hasty temperament, this old man was really not suited for a leisurely activity like fishing.

But looking at the rod left on the shore, Ye Qing felt a stir in her heart.

She glanced behind her and saw Old Man Wu wandering around the lake, picking and choosing. She then walked straight to the spot where Old Man Wu had been sitting and picked up the abandoned rod.

She didn’t do anything special. She just randomly pulled a piece of grass from the shore, removed the worm from the hook, and threw it away. Then she rolled the grass into a ball and hooked it on.

Of course, during this process, she secretly infused a tiny bit of wood-element energy into the grass.

After casting the line again, Ye Qing quietly gazed at the lake and began counting down.

Before she even reached thirty seconds, the float started to sink rapidly, with such force that it nearly dragged the rod out of her hand.

Even though Ye Qing had been mentally prepared, she was still startled by the fierceness of the fish.

Fearing the rod would slip from her grasp, Ye Qing struggled to pull the line back, the tension bending the rod almost into a semicircle.

Perhaps because of the commotion, the old man nearest to Old Man Wu’s spot noticed the unusual activity. He turned his head and saw what was happening. With a start, he rushed over.

"Hey, hey, hey! A fish is on the hook?! Judging by the force, this fish must weigh at least ten jin (jin is a Chinese unit of weight equivalent to 0.5 kg)!"

"Quick, quick, try to reel it in! Use some strength, but remember to reel in and let out the line alternately. Don’t drag it too hard all at once, or the fish might go crazy and snap the line!"

Excited by the catch, the old man was too eager to help to care about asking where Old Man Wu had gone.

The other old men, who had been crouching not far away, couldn’t have missed the commotion either.

By the time Old Man Wu finally found a new spot and returned, intending to move his gear, he saw a crowd gathered around his old spot, with his old friends squeezed inside.

Old Man Wu was puzzled and was about to ask what was going on when he heard a cheer erupt from the crowd. Then, Chen Youde’s loud voice came through:

"It’s up! It’s up! In all my twenty years of fishing at People’s Park, I’ve never seen such a big one!"

Old Man Wu’s heart trembled, and he pushed through the crowd.

There, Chen Youde was holding a landing net with a large, plump green fish nearly half a meter long.

The fish still had the hook in its mouth, and the other end of the hook was connected to the rod that Old Man Wu had left on the shore.

At that moment, the rod was being held by a young girl in her teens.

Old Man Wu was instantly dumbfounded. "What’s going on here?"

Seeing Old Man Wu return, Chen Youde, with a disgruntled expression, rolled his eyes.

"Hey, you’re finally back! What about our bet? You left your rod here and ran off. What kind of behavior is that?"

"This little girl was helping you fish while you were gone. Look at her skill! In just a short time, she caught such a big fish!"

"I just weighed it. This fish is probably around seventeen or eighteen jin!"

"But this fish doesn’t count towards your total. Our bet was that only the fish you catch yourself count, not ones caught by others!"

Chen Youde quickly clarified, afraid that Old Man Wu might try to wriggle out of the bet.

But at this moment, Old Man Wu wasn’t concerned with the bet anymore.

His eyes were fixed greedily on the fish in Chen Youde’s net. Even his old friends and the surrounding crowd were all staring at the fish, swallowing hard.

It couldn’t be helped. These days, every household was short of meat. Everything at the market required ration tickets.

A green fish this big? Even if it were available at the market, buying it whole would require a whole stack of ration tickets.

So at this moment, this group of people had their eyes fixed on the girl, all thinking about how they could get the fish from her at a bargain.

"Girl, do you want this fish or not? If not, I'll trade something for it!"

Old Man Wu was the first to speak up.

As soon as he opened his mouth, Chen Youde immediately voiced his displeasure. "Hey, hey, hey, Old Man Wu, that's not fair. I just helped this girl catch this fish. If anyone's going to trade for it, it should be me. It's not your turn to speak first."

Old Man Wu was about to retort when the other anglers grew anxious and joined the fray to snatch the fish.

Ye Qing was here to make some quick cash, and with so many people clamoring for the fish, she was more than happy to oblige.

She quickly calmed the red-faced old men bickering in front of her and said with confident assurance, "Uncles, stop arguing for a moment. You want to trade for the fish, right? Give me a little more time, and I'll catch a big fish for each of you. I guarantee you'll all be satisfied, how about that?"

"But this fish of mine won't come for free. You'll have to trade something according to the market price."

The old men were all stunned by Ye Qing's words.

They all looked at her skeptically, clearly not believing her bold claims.

"Young girl, don't get cocky just because you got lucky and caught a fish. We've been fishing in People's Park for many years, and it's widely known that the fish in this lake are hard to catch. It's not as simple as you think!"

Ye Qing smiled and said, "Give me half an hour. If I don't catch anything, I'll give you this carp for free, how about that?"

The old men looked at each other and thought the deal was worth it.

If she didn't catch anything, they'd only waste half an hour, but they'd get a seventeen or eighteen-pound carp for free. Anyone who didn't agree would be a fool!

"Alright, we'll give you half an hour!"

The old men immediately agreed.

Ye Qing smiled, raised her fishing rod, and said to Old Man Wu, "Old Man Wu, I'll need to borrow your fishing rod again. If I catch a fish, I'll give you a discount!"

Old Man Wu waved his hand indifferently, signaling Ye Qing to go ahead.

He was just tagging along with his friends and being there was just for fun, so it didn't matter to him whether his rod was borrowed or not.

With permission granted, Ye Qing sat down at Old Man Wu's fishing spot.

Chen Youde and the others didn't rush back to their spots; they stood next to Ye Qing and watched quietly.

Their thoughts were simple: they wanted to see if this girl was just bluffing or if she actually had some real skill.

But the next moment, the old men were confused by Ye Qing's unorthodox methods.

After sitting down, the girl didn't bother with baiting or using earthworms; she just pulled some weeds from the shore, hooked them, and cast her line. The whole process was simple and rough, with no technique involved.

What kind of wild method was this?

The old men looked at each other, their faces full of question marks.

Mainly, they had seen the unknown weeds the girl had used, and it was clear that carp didn't eat them. How could this possibly catch a big fish?

Moreover, from the way the girl had baited and cast her line, it was evident she was a novice, probably hadn't fished more than a few times.

An amateur rookie, less skilled than Old Man Wu, and yet she dared to make a bold promise to them?

The old men were almost too amused to be angry, and their looks towards Ye Qing were as if they were looking at a fool.

Chen Youde had lost interest in watching.

He didn't mind getting a free carp, but he didn't want to waste any more time on this clueless girl.

He instinctively turned to go back to his spot.

But after just a few steps, he heard a shout from behind, "Hey, hey, hey, it's bitten!"

"Wow, that was fast! It bit so hard; it must be a big fish!"

Chen Youde stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at the water in disbelief.

Not far away, Ye Qing's float had sunk beneath the surface, and within seconds, the fishing line tightened, bending the rod to its limit!

The scene was eerily familiar, just like when the big carp had surfaced earlier, leaving Chen Youde and the others stunned!