Chapter 199 - 180: Nothing Can Stop an Angler’s Determination to Fish

Chapter 199: Chapter 180: Nothing Can Stop an Angler’s Determination to Fish

Summer storms come out of nowhere, and this one was only getting worse.

Chen Yuan and the others scrambled into the three-wheelers to take cover.

"This rain isn’t letting up anytime soon. Maybe we should give the customers a heads-up — if it turns into a full-on storm when they’re trying to leave, it’ll be a mess, and they’ll be absolutely soaked."

Chen Nan, who had been doing his rounds of the pond, rode over on his three-wheeler and suggested as much.

"No rush just yet."

Chen Yuan checked the time — still about twenty minutes to go. Besides, the anglers over at the pond hadn’t budged an inch. Wind, rain, it didn’t matter — their floats weren’t moving, and neither were they.

Chen Yuan knew exactly how obsessive fishing fanatics could get. Nothing could stop them when they had a line in the water — not wind, not rain, not even a graveyard.

Give one of them a rod, some bait, and a patch of water, and they’d show you what true dedication looked like.

And right now, they were already sitting at their spots.

The only thing that would make them reel in was the clock running out.

"If it keeps raining like this, they’re going to get absolutely drenched when it’s time to leave. People are going to catch colds," Chen Li said from the driver’s seat of one of the three-wheelers.

Luckily, all the three-wheelers had canopies over the front cab to keep off the rain — but the cargo beds in the back were completely open. Anyone sitting back there would be soaked through in minutes.

"Go home and grab all the straw hats you can find."

Chen Yuan thought it over — there wasn’t much else they could do right now. Whether or not to rig up some kind of cover for the cargo beds was a problem for later. First things first.

He unclipped the walkie-talkie from his hip and radioed his dad and the others, telling them to get hats and umbrellas ready and try to keep the customers from getting too soaked.

The staff rushed home, grabbed every straw hat they could find, snagged some umbrellas as backup, and threw on their rain ponchos.

Zhou Lin hopped on his ride and headed home too.

By the time everyone got back to the pond, it was just about time to wrap up. The staff went around handing out straw hats to the customers.

"Whoa, they even had straw hats ready for us — Boss Chen’s service really is something else."

"I’ve got my own umbrella, I’m fine."

"No worries, you guys keep making runs — I’ll wait for the next one~"

There weren’t enough hats to go around, but the anglers didn’t seem to mind. They took their time packing up at their spots, happy to wait their turn.

Straw hats and umbrellas weren’t perfect, but they made a real difference — at least the customers who made it onto the vehicles weren’t completely drenched.

The whole process took a lot longer than usual though, and by the time the last customer was sent off, it was nearly one in the morning.

"Brother Wang, why don’t you guys just stay over tonight? It’s miserable out there to be driving in."

Wang Heng’s group was the last Chen Yuan saw off.

Normally, Wang Heng’s group would be among the first to head out — go back, shower, get some rest. But today was the last day of the event, and then the storm rolled in on top of it all. Wang Heng’s group told Chen Yuan not to worry about them and to take care of the other customers first. They’d go last.

"Ha, it’s just a short drive. We’ll be fine."

Wang Heng and the others had made up their minds to leave.

Chen Yuan didn’t push it. He just told them to drive safe.

"Get some rest, Boss Chen."

The two groups got into their vehicles, said their goodbyes to Chen Yuan, and drove off into the rain.

"Everyone head home and get some sleep. No need to rush in the morning — wait for my word. If there aren’t any customers, just take the day off~"

After seeing off Wang Heng and Little Fish King’s crew, Chen Yuan said his goodnights to Chen Nan and Chen Hongjun, who had come along, as well as Chen Dequan and his wife from the small pond side.

Nobody lingered. Everyone headed straight home.

"This rain, I tell you — you could call it lucky, since it didn’t mess up the Old Pond event. But you could just as easily call it bad luck, since the storm hit the second the event wrapped up."

Chen Jun hung up his straw hat back home, patted at his soaked clothes, and shook his head with a rueful smile as he stared out at the downpour.

It hadn’t affected the event, which kept the fishing ground’s momentum going.

But now that the event was over and they’d adjusted the fishing ground’s rules — just when it was time to start making real money — a rainstorm like this was going to hurt business badly.

And looking at how hard it was coming down, if it kept up, there probably wouldn’t be a single customer tomorrow.

"Nothing we can do about the rain~"

Chen Yuan shrugged helplessly. Sure, he had the system as a safety net and couldn’t really lose no matter what — but that didn’t mean he could conjure good weather out of thin air.

"Complaining about it won’t help anyway. Let’s just think of it as the universe giving us a day off."

Tang Ying shook out her umbrella and hung up her rain poncho.

She’d been out helping tonight too.

"Mom’s right — we’ve been running nonstop. A bit of rest is exactly what we need~"

Chen Yuan told his parents and his sister to go get some sleep. He headed upstairs himself, grabbed a change of clothes, took a shower, then stood by the window watching the storm rage outside.

After a moment’s thought, he posted a message in the group chat.

Due to the heavy rain — circumstances beyond our control — anyone who booked a spot for tomorrow and can’t make it is welcome to a full refund~

It was past one in the morning, and not many people in the group were still awake. Chen Yuan spammed the message a few times, tagging everyone, then climbed into bed and crashed.

The storm raged through the night. It eased up a little at some point, but by early morning it had come roaring back, hammering the roof in a rapid-fire clatter that sounded almost like hail.

Chen Yuan had figured there’d be no customers today — who in their right mind would come out in weather like this? So when his alarm went off in the morning, he didn’t bother getting up. He just rolled over and went back to sleep.

But then a phone call yanked him out of his drowse.

"Immortal~"

It was Heavy Chummer. Chen Yuan assumed he was calling to get a refund on his booking — but the very first thing Heavy Chummer said knocked him sideways.

"Hey, Boss Chen, I’m here — are you not open today?"

What the hell~

Chen Yuan bolted upright, instinctively glancing out the window. Still a raging storm out there, with occasional flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder. His brain wasn’t quite keeping up.

Is this guy out of his mind?

He knew fishing fanatics were a special breed — there was nothing they wouldn’t do for a day on the water, no fire or flood that could stop them. But to come out in weather like this? That was a whole new level of unhinged.

And then he looked at the time.

It was only six-freaking-ten in the morning.

Not only had he shown up — he’d shown up even earlier than usual~

"Nothing in this world can stop a fishing fanatic from fishing. Nothing."

Chen Yuan shook his head with a wry smile. He could hear Heavy Chummer going "hello? hello? hello?" on the other end of the line, so he jumped out of bed.

"Be right down."

He hung up, threw on his clothes as fast as he could, didn’t bother washing up, and clattered downstairs in his slippers.

"Holy shit~"

He’d barely made it to the bottom of the stairs when he saw Chen Jun yank open the front door, let out a startled yell, and stumble back several steps like he’d seen a ghost.

Outside, Heavy Chummer was shaking the water off his umbrella — and the sudden shout from Chen Jun gave him a fright too.

"Uncle, it’s me~"

Heavy Chummer quickly called out.

"You came out in this weather?"

Chen Jun patted the droplets that had flicked onto him and let out a breath. He’d genuinely been startled — he’d assumed nobody would show up in a storm like this, so he’d let himself sleep in an extra half hour.

He certainly hadn’t expected to open the door and find someone standing right there, swinging a wet umbrella that nearly smacked him in the face.

Not only had someone come — they’d come earlier than usual.

All that for fishing. Was it really worth going this hard~

"Heh, it’s just a bit of rain — it’s not like it’s raining knives~"

Heavy Chummer grinned.

"How are you up this early?"

Chen Yuan came downstairs, reached into his pocket to offer a cigarette — and realized he’d left his pack upstairs in his rush.

Not a problem though. The house was never short on smokes.

He grabbed a carton off the cigarette rack, cracked it open, and handed one each to Heavy Chummer and Chen Jun.

"The rain seemed to ease off a little just after five, so I figured I’d head over. Got here and found you weren’t open yet — thought maybe you were closed today."

Heavy Chummer took the cigarette and lit up.

"Well, you’re already here, so of course we’re open. But are you sure you want to fish in this?"

Chen Yuan peered out at the downpour. The raindrops were fat and relentless — stepping out into that would actually hurt.

"Absolutely, positively, one hundred percent yes. Boss Chen, give me a ride to the pond~"

Heavy Chummer was itching to get a line in the water.

"You booked Old Pond?"

Chen Yuan asked.

"Old Pond, Old Pond~"

Heavy Chummer nodded eagerly.

If it had been the small pond, he wouldn’t have bothered calling Chen Yuan at all — he’d have just parked and walked over with his umbrella. But Old Pond meant he needed Boss Chen to take him.

"Alright, I’ll take you over. Old Pond’s got bait and gear on-site, and the fish go back into the pond anyway, so you won’t need a fish bucket. Just ride with me on the three-wheeler."

Chen Yuan grabbed the three-wheeler keys and pulled his rain poncho off the hook and threw it on.

"Where should I park my car?"

Heavy Chummer asked, following behind him.

"Park out front of the guesthouse."

Chen Yuan had originally planned to say just park outside his house, but with fishing fanatics, you never knew — more customers might still show up. Better to leave the spot in front of the guesthouse free since no vehicles were stationed there, and that way Heavy Chummer’s car wouldn’t need to be moved to Old Pond either.

"Got it."

Heavy Chummer opened his umbrella, parked his car, then waited until Chen Yuan pulled up with the three-wheeler before getting out. Instead of hopping in the back, he squeezed into the front cab alongside Chen Yuan.

There was absolutely no way anyone was riding in the open cargo bed in weather like this~

They reached Old Pond in no time. Even from a distance, you could hear the sounds of construction coming from the building site — which honestly surprised not just Heavy Chummer, but Chen Yuan too.

Still hammering away in a rainstorm? These guys were running around the clock, going absolutely all-out to stay on schedule.

"Holy shit, holy shit~"

The moment they pulled up to the pond, Heavy Chummer spotted the rows of fully installed fishing chairs at every spot and shot straight to his feet with a shout.

"Sit your ass down~"

His sudden lurch nearly tipped the three-wheeler over. Chen Yuan grabbed him and yanked him back down.

"Boss Chen, you actually went and got the fishing chairs sorted out."

They pulled up to the members-only section. Heavy Chummer popped open his umbrella and hopped off the three-wheeler — and immediately noticed that each parasol had a set of curtain-like drapes hanging all the way around it, with only a gap about half a person’s width left open facing the pond.

Wind and rain could do whatever they wanted outside. In there, you wouldn’t feel a thing.

"Members deserve the VIP treatment~"

Chen Yuan stayed on the three-wheeler. He told Heavy Chummer to get settled and start fishing, and to give him a call if he got a bite. Then he swung the three-wheeler around and headed straight back home.

"Sure~"

Heavy Chummer ducked through the curtains and took a good look at the members-only spot. The chair was upholstered in leather — the kind you’d see in a high-end lounge.

He dropped into it and leaned back. Soft, cushioned, seriously comfortable.

"Nice chair. This really is the VIP experience."

Heavy Chummer gave a satisfied nod. Setting everything else aside, this was a massive step up from sitting on a tackle box — at least his backside wasn’t going to go numb.

"Oh, there’s a control panel."

He noticed the right armrest had a cover that flipped open. He sat up and opened it — and his eyes went wide. He was both stunned and delighted.

"There’s a rod holder built in."

There weren’t many buttons — just three in total. The first one was for the rod holder. Almost on instinct, Heavy Chummer pressed it, and a rod rest arm extended smoothly out from inside the armrest.

There was even a groove at the far end to lock the rod in place. Even if he dozed off, he didn’t have to worry about some massive grass carp dragging his rod into the water.

"Solid design."

Heavy Chummer pressed the button again and the rod holder retracted automatically.

He moved on to the second button. This one was a hand-washing function — the front end of the left armrest opened up and water began flowing out of it just like a tap~

Heavy Chummer let out a loud "holy shit~"