Chapter 35 - 36: Feeding the Fish

Chapter 35: Chapter 36: Feeding the Fish

"What do you mean?"

Chen Kingdom looked genuinely puzzled, and Chen Jun and the others were just as confused, all of them staring at Chen Yuan trying to make sense of it.

"I collected the meal money today — the bento boxes with sides came to eight hundred altogether. I can’t be bothered calculating the actual profit, so let’s just split the gross. You guys supplied the chickens, so you should get a bigger cut."

He’d promised to split the earnings at the end of the night, and Chen Yuan hadn’t forgotten. Out of the eight hundred, he handed five hundred over — after all, his uncle’s family had provided two whole chickens.

"Kid, what are you doing handing this over? Keep it yourself."

Chen Kingdom pushed the money back.

"Besides, the chickens we raise — you’ve all got a share in those too. Tonight’s money is yours, all of it."

Now Chen Yuan was the confused one. What did he mean, they had a share in it too?

It took his dad explaining before he finally understood.

Turned out the dozen-odd acres of vegetable fields they farmed included land that belonged to his uncle’s family, as well as plots left behind by his grandparents and his second aunt.

His grandparents had passed away, and his second aunt had long since married out. The land was originally split evenly between the two brothers, but after his uncle got hurt and couldn’t handle the heavy work anymore, Chen Jun had taken over managing it all.

At the end of every year, Chen Jun would set aside a share of the profits for his uncle.

His uncle, meanwhile, raised plenty of chickens and pigs on top of running the fish pond. His aunt would come by the vegetable fields every day to collect the lower-grade leaves to use as feed, and each year his uncle would give them a portion of the chickens and pigs in return.

Put simply, the two families operated almost like partners — his uncle handled what he was able to, and Chen Jun’s family took care of everything else.

If they weren’t on genuinely good terms, there was no way an arrangement like that would work. It would’ve fallen apart in arguments long ago.

But as far back as Chen Yuan could remember from his past life, he’d never heard of any real friction between them. The two families had always gotten along well.

That put him even more at ease about handing part of the fishing spot’s operations over to his parents and his uncle’s family.

"Alright, then — we split tonight’s money evenly. Going forward, Mom handles collecting this side of things, and you two can work out among yourselves how to divvy up the profits."

Chen Yuan pulled out one bill for himself and passed the rest to his uncle.

"Just take it, big brother. We’ll do things this way from now on."

Chen Kingdom looked ready to refuse again, but Chen Jun just grabbed the money and pressed it into his hands.

"Alright then, I’ll take it."

Chen Kingdom thought it over and didn’t push back anymore. The main room filled with laughter and easy chatter.

"I figure someone should keep an eye on the fishing spot at all times. We don’t really know much about running the business side of things, so your focus should stay on the fish pond — leave everything else to us."

Chen Jun fished out a pack of cigarettes and passed one to Chen Kingdom, then tossed one over to Chen Yuan.

"Sure."

Chen Yuan cupped his hands and caught it.

"Oh, and if you need to buy anything, just let me know. I’ve got a supplier lined up — they deliver straight to the door, good quality, cheap, and easy."

If he could pay with points, there was no reason to spend actual cash.

And doing it that way would speed up the fishing spot’s upgrade progress too.

Time was short, and there was a lot to get done.

Without thinking, he pulled up the system panel in his mind and glanced at the pitiful upgrade progress bar.

"What the hell."

He wished he hadn’t looked.

He remembered burning through all his points that morning — even after the express delivery surcharge, he’d still had 4,200 points left, which translated to 0.42% fishing spot progress.

Add in the progress boost from the equipment arriving on-site, and the total upgrade progress should have been 0.58%.

And it had been 0.58% — he’d checked right after the delivery was unloaded. So why was it sitting at 0.57% now?

Chen Yuan went back over the numbers carefully. Even if his elementary school math had been taught by the PE teacher, there was no way he’d gotten something this simple wrong.

What was going on.

Had the damn system eaten it?

"Points spent by the host must be applied toward fishing spot development, including service infrastructure. Any materials used for personal consumption or for purposes unrelated to the fishing spot or its customers will have their corresponding upgrade progress deducted."

The system offered its explanation inside Chen Yuan’s head.

Chen Yuan’s mind went blank.

So that’s how it worked — upgrade progress could actually go backwards.

So if he smoked a cigarette, drank a bottle of water, lit a mosquito coil, or put up a sun umbrella for himself, all of that would get docked from his upgrade progress?

Are you freaking kidding me.

You’re charging me for every little thing I eat and drink, but what about the vegetables from the garden, the chickens and pigs we raise at home — I don’t see you covering any of those costs. And you’ve got the nerve to act like you’re gonna take me to the top. What a load of crap.

Ugh~

"What’s going on with you?"

Chen Yuan’s sudden outburst startled everyone in the room. They all turned and stared at him wide-eyed.

"Nothing — it’s just that Qin Fen and the others are fishing morning and evening, right? That freed up four spots and I almost forgot — that’s four hundred yuan right there."

Chen Yuan pressed a hand to his chest and sat back down, his heart quietly bleeding.

This rotten system — not a single loophole to be found anywhere.

"Then go do what you need to do. Get in touch with your customers, and I saw you still need to number the fishing spots — get your dad to help you later. Don’t stay up too late doing it all by yourself."

Tang Ying was feeling two things at once — thrilled that the fishing spot was doing so well, and worried sick about her son, who hadn’t had a single moment’s rest since the crack of dawn.

"You guys stay home and handle your end — I’ve got to go feed the fish anyway. Yuan and I can take care of it together."

Chen Kingdom stubbed out his cigarette and got to his feet.

They’d rested a bit after dinner. Might as well get the remaining tasks done and turn in early.

"We have to feed the fish too?" Chen Yuan asked, caught off guard.

"You know well enough when it’s time to eat — you think the fish don’t? If your uncle hadn’t been keeping up with the feeding, who knows how many fish would’ve been pulled out of that pond by now."

Chen Jun shot his son a look.

Didn’t think to feed the fish. Didn’t think to run the aerator.

Look at how hot it’s been — wasn’t he worried about the fish going belly-up?

His son had a decent head for the big picture when it came to running the fishing spot, but without them watching the small stuff, there was no telling what kind of mess the pond would be in.

"Heh, I’ll go reach out to the customers first."

Chen Yuan grinned sheepishly. There were things he genuinely hadn’t gotten around to — honestly, hadn’t even crossed his mind. He had the system, after all, so he wasn’t too worried about the anglers cleaning out the pond.

They all got up from the table and went their separate ways.

Chen Yuan started contacting the fishing regulars. Going down the list of who’d sent red packets, the four who had just missed out on booking a spot were over the moon when they got his message.

Once that was done, he pocketed his phone, headed to the kitchen, and dug out two half-burnt pieces of firewood from the storage cubby beneath the stove door. He grabbed them and headed off toward the fishing spot.

Using half-burnt wood to mark out the spot numbers was admittedly pretty rough, but it would do for now. Tomorrow he’d say the word to Uncle Bin and get the embankment paths paved in concrete.

All the fishing spots could do with a proper overhaul while they were at it.

"And the aerator — that has to be replaced with a new one. It’s fishing spot equipment, so it should count toward upgrade progress. Feeding the fish might count too, actually. I’ll ask the system later tonight."

Chen Yuan was anxious to push the upgrade along — he’d happily pour points into every corner of the place if he could.

And with how good the deals in the system shop were, completing the full upgrade would take something like five million points. What kind of jaw-dropping setup would that even produce?

Funny feeling, having more resources than you know what to do with~

"Uncle Guo, do the fish in the pond actually eat this stuff?"

They’d barely arrived at the pond when Chen Yuan spotted Qin Fen gathering armfuls of grass and tossing them into the water, looking genuinely curious.

"Oh, they love it — grass carp especially. They’ll grab hold of a clump and just tear off with it. Voracious little things."

Chen Kingdom laughed.

Mr. Qin and the others watched on with quiet appreciation. No wonder the fish tasted so good — this pond might technically be farmed, but the way it was raised, the fish were practically wild.

Chen Yuan set down his firewood and pitched in, gathering up a fistful of grass to throw in.

"Don’t throw it too far out — just along the bank. And don’t pile it all in one spot. Enough for them to eat is plenty."

Chen Kingdom directed Chen Yuan and Qin Fen as the three of them worked their way around both sides of the pond, scattering grass along the edge in a wide arc.

In the moonlight, the grass glimmered with a soft silver-green sheen. Now and then a fish would snatch a clump and drag it through the water — it was like something out of a painting, beautiful and still. Chen Yuan pulled out his phone and snapped a few photos to capture the moment.

"So you’re using these to number the spots, huh."

After the feeding was done, Chen Kingdom picked up one of the pieces of firewood.

"Just making do for now."

Chen Yuan smiled, picked up the other one, and started writing numbers. Chen Kingdom headed in the opposite direction from where Chen Yuan left off, starting from sixty and working his way down. They were done in just a few minutes.