Chapter 210 - 187: The Route to Datang

Chapter 210: Chapter 187: The Route to Datang

The anglers were pretty confused — nobody could figure out who this guy was. But one look at his clothes and the way he carried himself made it obvious he was some kind of official. Nobody dared crack any jokes; they all answered carefully and kept their tone respectful.

"So you’re the owner of this fishing pond, young man?"

The middle-aged man did a slow circuit around the building, eyeing it with curiosity for a few seconds before turning his gaze toward Chen Yuan, who had just stepped out of the office.

"That’s right, sir."

Chen Yuan smiled and nodded.

"Not bad at all. Not many young people think about their hometowns these days, and even fewer actually come back to start something. But the resources in the countryside are every bit as good as the city’s — don’t sell yourself short. Keep at it, son."

Textbook official-speak — a compliment, some encouragement, and a little carrot dangled just out of reach, enough to get your blood pumping, but with absolutely nothing concrete behind it.

"Thank you for the kind words, sir. I’ll do my best to give back to my hometown and live up to your support and guidance."

Since Chen Yuan couldn’t get a read on who this man was or what he was like, he kept it short — just enough flattery to be polite and no more. Besides, he’d noticed that Chen Wenbin was hanging back in silence without stepping forward to make any introductions.

That said plenty about the nature of their relationship.

"Good kid."

The middle-aged man flashed a broad smile, didn’t linger long, did a quick walk around the pond, exchanged a few words with Chen Yuan, and then left with Chen Wenbin and the rest of the entourage in tow.

"Gave me a scare — thought fishing had been made illegal or something."

"He even asked what I thought about things. Like my opinion matters. Since when do government people actually listen to what we have to say?"

"Boss Chen, who was that guy? He had some serious presence."

Once Chen Wenbin had escorted the officials away, the atmosphere at the pond loosened back up. The anglers chatted in small clusters, all curious about the identity of the middle-aged man.

"No idea. All I know is he’s somebody from the county."

Whether it was his past life or this one, Chen Yuan had never been plugged into these official circles — he’d never really had a reason to deal with them. Knowing a few names was about the best he could manage.

"Doesn’t matter who he is. He just came down to check on the village renovation work. It’s not affecting the fishing, so everyone carry on."

Chen Yuan cleared the air and waved his guests back to their rods.

By that afternoon, when he was heading over to the Old Pond to handle some reward exchanges, one of the anglers had already dug up the man’s identity — turns out he was the Deputy Secretary of the County Party Committee for the Yinma area. Not exactly a nobody.

Third in command for Yinma, no less.

But whatever rank he held, as long as he wasn’t messing with the fishing ground, Chen Yuan couldn’t care less.

After wrapping up the reward exchanges, the daytime session wound down to its final stretch. Chen Yuan walked the last batch of guests to the parking lot, then turned around to welcome the night fishing crowd as they came in.

"I’m here, baby~"

A familiar face — Qin Fen had actually shown up.

"Where’s Mr. Qin?"

Chen Yuan was genuinely pleased to see him, but as he watched Qin Fen climb out of the car alone, he glanced inside — no sign of Mr. Qin.

"Grandpa’s tied up today. But I’ve got a membership, so I can book a spot whenever I feel like it."

Qin Fen stepped out and held out a cigarette.

He wasn’t wrong, either. With the ratio of members to reserved spots, any member who wanted to come could almost always get a booking — it was just a matter of day session versus night session.

"Come on, come on, let’s go — get me to the Old Pond. I’m landing a monster grass carp today~"

Qin Fen hauled an armful of streaming gear out of the car and hopped onto Chen Yuan’s three-wheeled cart.

"Hold on tight~"

Chen Yuan tucked the cigarette behind his ear in one smooth move, twisted the throttle to low, and they shot off toward the Old Pond.

He loved having guys like Qin Fen around — live-streaming a fishing session brought in viewers and gave the fishing ground’s upgrade progress a massive boost. He was already wondering how much the red upgrade bar would climb today.

Before long, the night session was fully underway. Following the usual routine, the Lucky Angler draw came first.

"Ha! Finally, it’s my turn~"

The angler who got drawn was barely keeping it together, practically already picturing himself reeling in a hundred-pound grass carp and living the high life.

"Don’t get too excited — this is just step one."

"Exactly. I saw in the group chat that the lucky angler last session had his first fish come in at barely over ten pounds and it still snapped him off. It was a total emotional rollercoaster."

"Ha! With my skill level, nothing under sixty pounds counts."

"Well, aren’t you confident."

"Watch yourself, Boss Chen — the way he’s talking, sounds like he’d deliberately lose a Little Kalami just to hold out for something over sixty."

The anglers laughed and ribbed each other.

This crowd of fishing fanatics was actually a pretty decent bunch. Nobody pulled any sneaky moves — after all, Boss Chen played it straight with them, so they weren’t about to be the ones to lower the bar.

With the Lucky Prize, whatever size your first fish was, that was your fish. Nobody was going to pretend they lost it on purpose just to fish for something bigger.

Not that trying to cheat would’ve done any good, anyway — Chen Yuan had his remote, the ultimate cheat code. If anyone wanted to play tricks, good luck topping that.

"Lines in, everyone~"

The anglers fanned out quickly.

"Shame I didn’t draw lucky angler. Guess that leaves just one goal — I’m bringing in a hundred-pound monster~"

Qin Fen stood outside for a bit with his phone raised, covering the lucky angler reveal, then headed back to his own spot. He locked his phone mount into position at the right rear, angled to face the water directly from alongside the peg.

Then he baited his swim, clipped on his bite alarm, and cast out.

He switched on the rod pod, secured his rod onto it, then flopped back lazily into his chair and hit the massage button. A long, contented groan escaped his lips.

"What the hell was that sound?"

"I’m still at the office, man — I open the stream and that noise comes blasting out, suddenly everyone in the room is staring at me. So goddamn mortifying."

"Ha, that’s nothing. I’m literally on a blind date right now — you have no idea the look that girl gave me when that fat bastard’s moaning came through my phone. I wanted to dissolve into the floor."

"Would a crack wide enough for one finger do the trick?"

"Hold on — are we still talking about the floor here?"

"Going in hands-first or head-first?"

"Which head?"

Qin Fen never expected that one instinctive moan of comfort would send the chat into a total frenzy. The stream peaked before it even really started — a couple of viewers nearly reported him, half-convinced they’d stumbled into the wrong channel entirely.

"Wait, is this Chen Yuan Fishing Ground?"

"Pretty sure there wasn’t any of this stuff last stream."

"Did he seriously move a sofa out to the fishing ground? Isn’t that kind of... out of place?"

The chat gradually settled back to something normal, but everyone was still blown away by the fishing chair.

A sofa at a fishing ground — sure, call it a fishing chair, but no matter how you looked at it, it just seemed wrong.

This wasn’t some resort or club. What was the point of all this?

"Actually, it doesn’t feel out of place at all. I’ve been to Chen Yuan Fishing Ground — that’s the members-only section. Only members get access to that. It really does elevate the whole membership experience."

"Little secret for you — you can pay a premium to get a member to book the spot for you, and you’ll get to use the chair too. The massage function is genuinely incredible~"

"No way, I just ran into a fellow Chen Yuan Fishing Ground regular here~"

Quite a few people in the stream had apparently visited Chen Yuan Fishing Ground before, and the fishing chair was getting nothing but praise — ever since the place opened, there had barely been a single bad review.

When Boss Chen does something, you know it’s worth it.

"It’s just a chair though. Is it really worth paying extra to book a spot?"

Most viewers were skeptical — or at least thought it seemed unnecessary.

"Heh, you just don’t get what the membership is worth."

"Set everything else aside — when you’ve got a proper comfortable chair, who the hell wants to sit on a tackle box digging into their ass for hours? And you can fish and relax at the same time. The rod’s locked in on the pod, so you’re not even worried about a runaway bite."

"Bottom line: the membership at Chen Yuan Fishing Ground is the most premium membership I’ve ever seen at any fishing ground. Bar none."

"Holy shit, look at the water — float’s gone under~"

Right in the middle of the chat, every message suddenly became some variation of "float’s gone." But Qin Fen was deep in massage-chair bliss and had completely missed it.

Fortunately, the rod pod held firm — the rod got dragged but didn’t fly off, and the vibration was enough to register through the chair.

"Holy shit~"

He snapped his eyes open. The rod was trembling. He looked at the water — the float had completely vanished. He lunged to his feet, ripped the rod free, and hammered the strike.

Whhrrr~

The line screamed through the air, sharp and urgent.

Because he hadn’t struck in time, Qin Fen couldn’t get the rod upright — it was nearly parallel to the water’s surface, and he stumbled forward a step, almost going face-first into the ground.

"Don’t run, don’t run, don’t you dare run — let me get you up~"

Qin Fen was losing his mind. Given his size, something that nearly dragged him off his feet was absolutely not a Little Kalami. He threw everything he had into pressing the butt section down against the ground, desperately trying to lift the rod.

But it wasn’t working. The line kept screaming, urgent and relentless, like a battle cry that set the blood racing. All around him, anglers were turning to stare in disbelief.