Chapter 120 - 121: Three Stinky Cobblers

Chapter 120: Chapter 121: Three Stinky Cobblers

While Chen Yuan was absorbed in learning how to fish.

Little Fish King drove out of Yu City Village, but didn’t rush off. Instead, he pulled over to the side of the road, took out his phone, opened WeChat, and sent a photo of the broken rod straight to the owner of Fishing King Arena.

"How much is the rod? I’ll transfer you the money right now~"

The owner of Fishing King Arena turned out to be pretty decent about it — before Little Fish King could even say anything more, he immediately offered to cover the cost of the rod.

"No need for that. Just count the broken rod against the appearance fee. As for the rest of my pay, you can keep it."

"???"

The owner of Fishing King Arena fired back three question marks.

"Chen Yuan Fishing Ground has someone from the inner circle holding things down. I took on a competitive match, and I lost. The Fish King Daqing got hooked, but the rod snapped before I could land it. That’s where things stand."

He sent the message, and there was no reply.

The owner of Fishing King Arena seemed unable to process it.

Little Fish King actually lost a competitive match?

Was there really someone in Chong City who could outfish Little Fish King?

"Who?"

Half a minute later, that was all the owner sent back.

Nothing else.

There was no way Little Fish King was lying about this. For one thing, there was no reason to turn down good money. For another, his reputation was on the line. And besides, there had to be anglers there who witnessed the whole thing — anyone could ask around and find out the truth in no time.

The only thing he cared about was who was backing Chen Yuan Fishing Ground.

"Wang Heng."

Little Fish King sent back two words, then pocketed his phone and drove away.

He’d said what needed to be said to both sides. As far as he was concerned, the matter was closed.

...

The Chong City Fishing Ground group chat.

The Big Brother was sending out red envelopes one after another, tagging all the bosses to claim them.

"What’s going on?"

"Big Brother hit the jackpot today or something?"

Red envelopes had a way of flushing out the lurkers — everyone scrambled to claim theirs, joking that Big Brother must have come into some serious money.

"Like hell I did. Little Fish King failed. This is the leftover payment — I’m sending it back to everyone."

"What the hell, how did Little Fish King blow it? Isn’t fishing supposed to be his thing? How did he lose?"

The owner of Fisherman practically leapt out of his chair like a cat that had its tail stepped on.

He’d been lounging in the chair at his fishing ground’s little hut, half-dozing, daydreaming about the owner of Chen Yuan Fishing Ground getting wrecked and crying over the Fish King he never landed.

And now you’re telling me Little Fish King lost.

"What happened?"

"Little Fish King didn’t get bought off, did he?"

The other bosses in the group dropped the jokes and started pressing for answers.

If they’d even managed to deal with Little Fish King, then they’d seriously underestimated Chen Yuan Fishing Ground — and the more that was true, the bigger a threat it posed.

"Chen Yuan Fishing Ground has someone from that same circle helping them out."

The owner of Fishing King Arena kept it brief.

"I know Wang Heng — he’s from the Chongping area. Came and cleaned out my pond once, so I had him banned. Never figured Chen Yuan Fishing Ground would know someone like that."

"Sounds like you really can’t blame Little Fish King for this one."

The group buzzed with discussion.

There were only so many top-tier anglers in Chong City, and Wang Heng was a well-known name throughout the Fishing Realm — all these bosses had heard of him.

"So what now? Are we still going after Chen Yuan Fishing Ground or not?"

The owner of Fisherman didn’t care about anything else — all he wanted was to take Chen Yuan Fishing Ground down. If things kept going the way they were, his own place would be shutting its doors before long.

Right now, looking out across the pond, there were barely a handful of anglers still sitting there. Compared to Chen Yuan Fishing Ground packed to the brim, calling it dead quiet would be an understatement.

"Hell yes we’re going after them. We have to. Chen Yuan Fishing Ground has gone and set up a business group chat, and the membership is almost at thirteen hundred already. If this keeps up, he’s going to poach every customer in Chong City."

"If he really gets that operation off the ground, we’ll all be screwed~"

"The question is, how do we hit back?"

That was what it all came down to.

With Wang Heng backing them up, and after what happened with Little Fish King, it was unlikely any of Chong City’s top anglers would want to deliberately pick a fight — they all had their reputations in the scene to think about.

"If we can’t find someone in Chong City, we go outside the city. And besides, Wang Heng isn’t the owner — he’s just on friendly terms with him. He can’t be at the fishing ground every single day. And even if he is, as long as someone just takes a spot and keeps their head down, what’s he going to do, throw them out?"

Big Brother weighed in.

Little Fish King’s problem was that he was too full of himself. Going head-to-head in a competitive match on someone else’s turf — of course he was going to lose.

But if you just ignore all that and focus on fishing, what can anyone do about it?

"We’ll follow Big Brother’s lead. Same as always — we cover the appearance fee and the smokes and drinks."

The owner of Fisherman was quick to show his support.

The other bosses in the group fell in line, and the red envelopes they’d just claimed went straight back to Big Brother.

...

Chen Yuan was still lost in his own fishing world.

Truth be told, fishing wasn’t all that hard — as long as you had the patience to learn it step by step, you’d always get something out of it.

Sure enough, following what Blond Punk and the others had told him, Chen Yuan made use of the baited spot Little Fish King had left behind. He cast his line, and within minutes the float dipped sharply under the surface.

"Whoa, it’s a grass carp too. You’ve got some serious luck, Boss Chen."

Blond Punk let out a surprised whistle when he saw what broke the surface.

From the way Boss Chen had baited the hook and made his cast, it was clear he could fish — but his skill level seemed about on par with your average weekend angler.

Landing a fish this quickly, though? That was genuinely good luck.

"This is nothing."

Chen Yuan chuckled to himself.

He was just warming up in his own pond right now. Once a system quest activated and stacked another thirty percent onto his luck, that was when the real magic would start.

"If beginners could hook fish this fast, the fishing scene would have a much easier time keeping people hooked."

Blond Punk picked up the landing net, scooped out the grass carp, and tossed it back into the pond without a second thought.

"So what was that you were saying earlier about the sliding lead rig and adjusting the float to change up the technique~"

Chen Yuan asked as he threaded on more bait.

"That’s for when you’re feeling out what the fish are doing, or when the bites have gone quiet and you need to switch things up. If the fish are active and hitting well, just keep fishing the same way~"

Blond Punk set down the landing net, stuck a cigarette between his lips, handed one each to Chen Yuan and Wang Heng, then launched into a thorough explanation.

"Another thing — before you even cast, you need to know what you’re targeting. Different fish, different ponds — the rod, the line setup, the float, the bait, it all changes. You have to know your target before you can pick the right gear."

Blond Punk set down the landing net and dropped down beside the fishing spot with a thump. With the sun umbrella overhead, it was actually cool enough to sit — out in direct sunlight, you’d practically scorch your backside on the ground.

Chen Yuan listened to Blond Punk talk, letting it all click into place alongside the fishing experience he’d carried over from his past life. He was getting a lot out of it.

Then he asked, "Have you ever been to Fisherman?"

"Of course I have. Pretty much every fishing ground in Chong City — I’ve done a lap through them all."

Blond Punk tilted his head back with a smug, shit-eating grin.

What he meant by "doing a lap" was obvious — he’d successfully cleaned out each one at least once.

Just the once, of course.

"Tell me about Fisherman. And the best fishing grounds across all three districts and eight counties in Chong City."

Know yourself, know your enemy, and you’ll never lose a battle. The system quest required him to clean out every single one of them — he couldn’t afford to leave any of the big names off the list.

"Boss Chen’s thinking about taking the fight to them?"

Blond Punk paused for a moment, then his eyes lit up with a sharp gleam and he was suddenly wide awake.

Wang Heng caught on too and leaned in, eyebrows raised.

"Heh, it’d be rude not to return the visit after they came knocking at my door, wouldn’t it?"

Chen Yuan said it in a low voice, a grin spreading across his face.

"Ha! Now that’s what I’m talking about. I love that attitude, Boss Chen. Shame I’ve already hit all those spots — they’ve got me banned at every one of them, otherwise I’d be right there with you."

Blond Punk was buzzing with energy.

Just imagining rod in hand, working his way through every fishing ground in Chong City — and on top of that, Boss Chen had that whole underdog-strikes-back story going on. That made it even more satisfying than anything he’d pulled off before.

Too bad he couldn’t get through the door at any of those places.

"Who says you have to be there in person? That’s what phones are for — we can run a video call and go in together. We’ll split the catch three ways afterward."

Chen Yuan’s eyes lit up the moment the words left Blond Punk’s mouth.

With a couple of experts calling the shots from behind the scenes, this could be way more than just landing a few fish — the system rewards might go through the roof.

"Now we’re talking~"

Blond Punk jumped to his feet like someone had just opened a door to a whole new world, face lit up with excitement. "Master, this idea of Boss Chen’s might actually be better than anything we came up with when we were taking on apprentices."

Wang Heng’s expression brightened as well.

Sure, calling the shots through a screen wasn’t as convenient as being there in person, but they’d both fished every ground in Chong City — none of it was unfamiliar water. And Boss Chen’s bait had a ridiculous ability to draw fish in.

Add to that the fact that Boss Chen wasn’t exactly a novice — he had a solid foundation to work with.

It was absolutely worth a shot.

"Let’s work out a proper plan~"

Wang Heng pulled out a pack of cigarettes and passed them around. The three of them sat there fishing and scheming about how to take on the other grounds, all at the same time.

Time has a way of flying when you’re buried in something, and before they knew it, the session was wrapping up. The three of them still hadn’t had their fill.

But they’d hammered out most of the plan anyway.

"Brother Wang, I’ll drive you guys out in a bit."

Chen Yuan started handling the end-of-session crowd.

Two hours, and the haul had been impressive — over a dozen fish all told, covering nearly every species in the pond. It left Chen Yuan feeling genuinely pumped about the system quests ahead.

"Huh, that many missed calls."

Once he’d sorted out the session changeover, Chen Yuan pulled out his phone and found a string of missed calls waiting for him.