Chapter 137 - 138: Waving the White Flag and Admitting Defeat

Chapter 137: Chapter 138: Waving the White Flag and Admitting Defeat

"Cut the crap. I just want to know one thing — how do we counter what Chen Yuan Fishing Ground just pulled? What’s our move?"

The owner of Lone Angler asked in the group chat.

Lazy Fisher: "Counter? How exactly? They dropped hundreds of thousands on this thing. What are you going to counter with? Go ask Shorty and Old Wang if they managed to hold their ground."

Shorty: "..."

Old Wang: "..."

The two of them were already hurting, and now someone was poking at the wound. This was rubbing salt in it.

"What are we supposed to do then? My group chat was an absolute disaster this morning — anglers wouldn’t stop tagging me, shoving that Chen Yuan Fishing Ground event announcement in my face over and over. I couldn’t take it anymore and just collapsed the whole group~"

The owner of Lone Angler vented.

Lazy Fisher: "Same here. And every angler who showed up today got in my face demanding I run some kind of event — something to match Chen Yuan Fishing Ground’s carnival. Are you out of your minds? You want me to blow hundreds of thousands just so you lot can have a party?"

"Ugh, my group’s the same. They’re threatening to leave for Chen Yuan Fishing Ground if I don’t put something together."

"At least yours are just threatening. Half the guys in my group are openly asking if anyone has contacts at Chen Yuan Fishing Ground to get them added to that chat. I booted every single one of them~"

"Tell me about it. Everyone’s trying to migrate over there. I got tired of kicking people out — at this rate I might as well just rename my group the Chen Yuan Fishing Ground fan club."

The whole chat was one long string of complaints.

The Anglers’ Carnival that Chen Yuan Fishing Ground had launched was absolutely demolishing them. There was nothing left standing.

Fight back? With what?

Money was the only weapon, and nobody was about to throw hundreds of thousands at a fishing event.

But if they did nothing, Chen Yuan Fishing Ground would slowly devour every last one of their customers. Closure was just a matter of time — or worse, they’d limp along on life support indefinitely.

"Honestly, you can’t really blame the anglers. I saw the event details and even I was tempted. Who wouldn’t want a piece of that? It’s just insane money~"

One of the fishing ground owners said what everyone was thinking.

Of course anglers were rushing to Chen Yuan Fishing Ground. Anyone who wasn’t at least a little tempted would be the weird one.

"What if we all go and fish there ourselves? Give it a go, at least."

One of the owners floated the idea.

Lazy Fisher: "Fish there? Give me a break. They threw hundreds of thousands into this carnival and hired multiple pro anglers to fish for them. You think they’re scared of you showing up?"

Lone Angler: "That’s a drop in the ocean, it won’t do a damn thing. We’d better focus on how to just stay afloat."

"Who’s got hundreds of thousands to throw around anyway?"

"Let them burn through it. Overfeeding your customers isn’t necessarily smart. Once the carnival wraps up, the hype dies down on its own — and they might end up torching hundreds of thousands for nothing."

Nobody had a real answer. Even the heavyweights in the group had gone quiet.

Unless someone was willing to spend big and go head-to-head.

"With how deep Chen Yuan Fishing Ground’s pockets are, the hype is probably going to keep rolling in waves. I don’t see it dying down anytime soon."

The owner of Lone Angler typed out a sigh in the group.

They were just on a completely different level.

If they could turn a bathroom into something that rivaled a hotel suite, money was clearly no object.

God only knows what they’d cook up after the carnival wrapped.

Sitting around and waiting was as good as a death sentence.

"So what do you suggest?"

Someone tagged the Lone Angler owner.

What do I suggest?

If I had any ideas, I wouldn’t be here venting in a group chat, would I.

"Shorty, you and Chen Yuan Fishing Ground are both in the same area — any thoughts? And Old Wang, you’re right next door. What’s your read on this?"

Lone Angler tagged them both in the chat.

Those two had the most to lose right now, after all.

Shorty: "Don’t tag me. Do whatever you want. I’ve already waved the white flag."

"I give up."

Old Wang was equally blunt.

He typed those three words, tossed his phone onto the table, and pulled out a cigarette in frustration.

"My read? I’m sitting in the stands watching. Who in their right mind would step into that ring — you’d be walking into a beating and kissing hundreds of thousands goodbye."

That was that.

Keep the fishing ground open as long as it could last. If it couldn’t survive, the market would sort it out. Either way, he wasn’t dropping hundreds of thousands on some event.

Not a chance. Absolutely not.

"Old Wang, can I get a bottle of water?"

A regular customer strolled over, cracked open the bottle, took a few long gulps, then added, "Old Wang, you’ve got a real heavy hitter out there today."

"Oh yeah? Who?"

Old Wang stood up, craning his neck to see.

"Right there, straight ahead. Less than two hours in and he’s already pulled dozens of pounds out of your pond easy. Every single cast gets a bite, landing doubles left and right — I’ve just been standing here staring~"

The angler nodded toward the pond, his face a mix of awe and envy.

He’d never seen anyone fish for crucian carp like that. Barely a single blank cast, double catches too many to count. It was enough to make anyone jealous.

"Looks kind of familiar."

The figure looked vaguely familiar to Old Wang, but he couldn’t place any angler that skilled in Chong City.

Then something clicked.

He quickly pulled up WeChat, rewatched the video a customer had sent him earlier, confirmed the silhouette matched, then scrolled through his WeChat payment records.

"Holy shit~"

Old Wang’s eyes went wide and he let out a yelp. The angler beside him, mid-sip, got startled so badly he choked and started coughing.

"What is wrong with you, Old Wang? Scared the hell out of me."

The angler shot him a glare.

"Sorry, sorry — here, have a smoke. And thanks for the heads-up~"

Old Wang sheepishly grabbed the pack off the table, offered one to the angler, stuck one in his own mouth, and dropped back into his seat. He picked up his phone and messaged Shorty.

"I think the owner of Chen Yuan Fishing Ground just showed up at my pond. What the hell is this? Shouldn’t he be home running his own carnival? Instead he’s here cleaning me out while I’m restocking?"

"He came to your place too?"

"What do you mean ’too’?"

"He wiped me out for hundreds of pounds yesterday~"

Holy shit~

Old Wang nearly dropped the cigarette right out of his mouth — it fell and almost burned a hole in his pants.

He jumped up and shook out his trousers, then pointed his phone at the pond and snapped a photo of Chen Yuan.

"Is this him?"

"That’s the one. Good luck, Old Wang~"

Old Wang picked the fallen cigarette butt off the ground and took several long, slow drags, his face twisted into a helpless grin.

What in the hell was going on.

Was this payback? Just because they’d sent people to fish him out, now he was working his way through them one by one?

"Fine. Whatever. Fish all you want."

On any other day, Old Wang would have been fuming — probably would have stormed out there, refunded the fishing fee, and kicked the guy out. Not a regular customer, so no real fallout to worry about.

But after getting steamrolled this morning, all the fight had drained out of him.

He couldn’t win a head-to-head, so he might as well just lie flat and let it happen.

...

The sun climbed higher and the temperature started to rise. The fish activity seemed to be dropping off, so Chen Yuan called Wang Heng to ask about adjusting tactics, and to check in on things back at the ground.

"Everyone’s landed, Boss Chen! All sixty spots, every single angler brought something in. You’re going to get absolutely milked today~"

Blond Punk’s voice came through the phone.

"Now that’s what I like to hear."

Chen Yuan nearly jumped out of his seat.

A hundred percent landing rate meant the full catch value would convert, plus an extra ten percent bonus on top.

He had just one thing to say.

Keep it coming. Everyone fish harder. Drain me dry, bosses~

"Dad, the event has a landing bonus — everyone gets twenty percent off their fishing fee. Can you go through and refund twenty yuan per person? Do you have enough in WeChat, or do you need me to transfer some over?"

Chen Yuan dialed Chen Jun.

Might as well cash out the event reward right now while things were rolling.

"That’s nothing~"

Hah — the old man was feeling flush. Twenty yuan didn’t sound like much, but sixty anglers added up to twelve hundred.

Under normal circumstances, that would’ve made his dad wince like he’d been stabbed.

"Must’ve been quite the wake-up call~"

Chen Yuan hung up, shaking his head with a smile.

Every angler in the pond had been hauling fish in nonstop, rods flying one after another. God only knew how many fish had already been pulled out — Chen Jun had probably gone numb watching it all. In that context, twelve hundred yuan really was pocket change.

"No point dragging out the Fish King — it just gets in the way of the anglers landing fish and slows down my points. I’ll step out mid-session later and give it a little lap, just enough to confirm it’s still in there."

Chen Yuan muttered to himself, then told Wang Tao to get the grass carp ready to be introduced.

Before long, three o’clock rolled around, and right on schedule, the system’s voice chimed in his head.

"Session one of the Anglers’ Carnival has concluded. Calculating results~"

"Total catch for this session: 1,326 fish, combined weight 7,982.7 jin, valued at 63,861.6 yuan."

"All sixty fishing spots recorded a successful landing. Catch value has been converted to store points at 100%, with an additional 10% bonus, totaling 70,247.76 — rounded to 70,248. Points have been credited to your account."

The string of notifications went off like a barrage in Chen Yuan’s head, leaving it buzzing — but his face broke into a wide, almost delirious grin.

Over seventy thousand points. The biggest single haul he’d ever earned.

Converted into store purchasing power, that was worth hundreds of thousands of yuan in real money.

And with a windfall like this, the Old Pond was about to get activated real soon~