Chapter 37 - 38: Wronged Soul, Something Has Happened

Chapter 37: Chapter 38: Wronged Soul, Something Has Happened

"You have no idea how many mosquitoes I swatted waiting for those guys to leave. I was genuinely scared they’d fish through the whole night."

Liu Fang was scratching at her hands and feet, and even in the dark you could make out little smears of blood — all from slapping mosquitoes.

"You’ve worked hard tonight, Aunt Liu. Once this is done, I promise you won’t be shortchanged."

Zhou Jianming smiled reassuringly.

"Say no more, say no more. Let’s get these fish over there quick — they won’t last long out of water. We don’t want them going belly-up the moment we put them in the pond."

Liu Fang’s eyes gleamed with excitement.

"Right, right."

Zhou Jianming and his wife divided the fish into three woven sacks, heaved them onto their backs, and crept quietly off toward the lower pond.

No way were they riding the three-wheeler.

It was dead silent in the middle of the night — any noise could wake someone up, and if they got caught, the whole plan would fall apart.

The three of them were suffering for it though. The fish thrashed around inside the sacks, smacking against their backs with every step, and they couldn’t make a sound — just gritted their teeth and bore it.

About ten minutes later, the three of them reached the edge of the small pond. They ducked around a corner and set the sacks down on the ground, all of them catching their breath in hushed gasps.

Exhausted, yes — but nervous too.

"I’m going to release the fish now. Get your phone cameras rolling — this is evidence."

She didn’t dare rest long. Once Liu Fang had her breathing under control, she dragged the sacks to the water’s edge and waited for Liu Jianming to get his phone ready before releasing the fish one by one.

She repeated this over and over, keeping every movement soft and deliberate.

"How did it look? Did you get it all?"

Once the last fish was in, Liu Fang crowded up next to Zhou Jianming, and all three of them huddled together to watch the footage.

The more they watched, the more pleased they were.

"Perfect. Send me the video — then sit back and enjoy the show tomorrow."

Liu Fang picked up the empty sacks, and the three of them slipped away as quietly as they’d come. On the way back, Zhou Jianming forwarded her a copy of the video.

Chen Yuan had no idea any of this was happening. He’d gone home, washed up, and by the time he’d gotten everything sorted it was nearly midnight. He figured he’d wait for Mr. Qin and the others to return and get settled before he finally turned in for the night.

He lay in bed, pulled up the system, and went straight to the shop.

"Hey, you damn system — the fish in the pond need feeding. Can the cost of that be converted into upgrade progress?"

Chen Yuan put the question to the system. He refused to believe it would just leave him hanging on this. If it did, he’d wash his hands of the whole thing — let the fish starve and see how the fishing spot was supposed to run. Was he supposed to just rely on the anglers to feed the fish themselves?

Then they’d end up with nothing but hopeless amateurs like Qin Fen showing up.

"The host may purchase an all-in-one aerator. It not only maintains oxygen levels in the pond but also monitors water quality and fish conditions, prevents fish loss, and meets the nutritional needs required for fish growth."

Chen Yuan shot upright.

He’d just been thinking about replacing the aerator and trying to figure out how to work the system into covering the fish-feeding costs as upgrade progress — and here it was, solving everything in one go.

That called for a cigarette.

But what exactly was an all-in-one aerator?

And how could one thing do all that?

Whatever — it came from the system, so it had to be reliable.

One word: buy.

But when Chen Yuan saw the price, his jaw dropped.

"What the hell — two thousand points? That’s highway robbery."

A regular aerator on the market ran maybe a hundred yuan or so. Based on the exchange rate between the system shop and real-world prices, two thousand points was basically ten thousand yuan in purchasing power.

A hundred-yuan item, and you’re charging me ten grand.

Even the greediest capitalist isn’t this shameless.

But there was nothing he could do — the damn system didn’t negotiate. No matter how much he complained, the price didn’t budge.

That said, the aerator really did sound impressive.

He steeled himself and bought it.

"But how am I supposed to explain it? If Mom and Dad find out, they’ll say I’m throwing money away — they might even try to return it."

Chen Yuan muttered to himself as he smoked.

The pond already had an aerator, and it wasn’t broken either. Swapping it out for new equipment would look like pure waste to his thrifty parents.

"Hey system, can you just slip it in directly — and make it look similar to the original aerator while you’re at it?"

Chen Yuan had no choice but to ask the system.

Besides, judging by how fast the points were getting spent and how massive the upgrade costs were shaping up to be, he was clearly going to be buying a lot more stuff down the line. He needed to figure out how to explain where the money was coming from.

"Possible. Service fee: one hundred points."

What the hell — this thing was robbing him blind.

When it escorted the Fish King into the pond back then, there was no mention of any service fee.

The system offered a one-line explanation: that was a new-user benefit. It followed up with a take-it-or-leave-it, which was just a fancy way of saying it didn’t give a damn either way.

"Fine."

Chen Yuan clenched his jaw and forked over a hundred points.

"Alright, system — feeding costs are sorted. What about the food I provide for the anglers? What’s the deal with that?"

You already bled me for two thousand points plus a service fee — I need to claw something back.

And if fish-feeding costs counted toward progress, there was no reason meal costs shouldn’t too. If the system was going to be stingy about it, he’d just shut down the whole meal service and let the damn thing figure it out on its own.

"The host may purchase vegetable seeds from the shop. This system will provide cultivation techniques. Crops can be grown year-round, outperforming greenhouse production, with minimal effort required."

Oh?

Chen Yuan’s eyes lit up.

That actually sounded pretty good.

At least it meant his parents wouldn’t have to work themselves to the bone.

He quickly browsed through some of the vegetable seeds — and thankfully they were all reasonably priced. Well, reasonably priced by system shop standards, anyway.

He thought it over and decided not to rush into buying anything. He’d need to talk to his parents first and see what they actually needed.

Between the points converted from pre-booked fishing fees and the two hundred Qin Fen had transferred, he’d had six thousand two hundred points in the shop. Now he was down to four thousand one hundred, and he wasn’t planning on spending any more for now.

He’d talk to Chen Wenbin tomorrow — and even then, those points might not be enough.

It was already past one in the morning. Chen Yuan set an alarm, rolled over, and was out cold within two minutes — a talent for falling asleep that fast was genuinely rare.

He’d expected to sleep until seven or eight. Most of the anglers had been here the day before and knew the drill by now.

And even if the early birds showed up ahead of schedule, Mr. Qin and his crew were already out there fishing and could keep an eye on things.

But just after six, Qin Fen’s call dragged him out of sleep.

"What is it?"

Chen Yuan squinted and fumbled for his phone, pressing it to his ear.

"Buddy, something’s happened."

The urgency in Qin Fen’s voice snapped Chen Yuan wide awake in an instant. He threw himself upright in bed.

"What happened?"

His heart hammered. Had someone hooked the Fish King and fallen into the water? But he hadn’t triggered the remote yet.

Or had one of the old men taken a tumble?

Whatever it was, for Qin Fen to be calling this frantically, it wasn’t something small.

"Buddy, are all your permits and paperwork for the fishing spot in order?"

That response left Chen Yuan more confused than alarmed.

"What do you mean?"

"We got up just after five, washed up, and got to the pond by six. Barely had our lines in the water when someone came up demanding fishing fees. She’s saying the pond is a village collective asset, that she stocked it with fish too, and that anyone who wants to fish has to pay her."

Chen Yuan felt the knot in his chest loosen considerably.

He’d been terrified one of the old men had gotten hurt. At their age, any kind of accident could turn into a serious situation.

"Say something, would you? The anglers are going to start showing up any minute. This needs to be dealt with now, or it’s going to be a huge problem."

Behind Qin Fen’s anxious voice came a wave of shouting.

"Don’t give me that crap. This pond doesn’t belong to that little shit Chen Yuan alone. You want to fish, you pay. You don’t pay, you pack up and get out."

Chen Yuan recognized the voice immediately — that was Liu Fang.

There were others chiming in around her too, though he couldn’t tell who.

So the jealousy had already gotten to be too much for her to handle?

Chen Yuan had seen this coming. He knew exactly what kind of people some of the villagers were, which was why he’d gone to the village committee ahead of time and signed a contract.

Precisely to guard against this sort of green-eyed nonsense.

Well, if she’d caught the jealousy bug, it was time to treat it.

"Give it to her."

Chen Yuan said just four words into the phone.

On the other end, Qin Fen was completely dumbfounded.