Chapter 46 - 48: High Demand at the Nightclub

Chapter 46: Chapter 48: High Demand at the Nightclub

"Mr. Qin, there’s something I need to talk to you about."

Chen Yuan brought up the whole ugly business with Liu Fang. He’d already mentioned it to his parents inside and they hadn’t objected, but he still wanted to consider how Mr. Qin and the others felt about it.

"Actually, your village secretary already filled us in."

"We don’t have any objections — handle it however you see fit, Chen."

The two elders said this with easy smiles.

No wonder Chen Wenbin had lingered by the fish pond for a while — he’d been there to smooth things over on behalf of Chen Dequan and his wife.

"The way you’ve handled it is fine. After all this mess, and given your village secretary’s attitude, the villagers shouldn’t be able to kick up much of a fuss. Still, you ought to tighten up the rules at the fishing ground, and it’d be best to get some security cameras set up around the pond."

Mr. Qin offered his suggestions.

Chen Yuan filed it all away mentally. The cameras were non-negotiable.

He’d get them the moment he was back.

"Did that Ye Zhi girl really land the Fish King?"

The moment he stepped back into the courtyard, Tang Ying poked her head out from the kitchen and asked.

"She hooked it, but all six of them had a hand in reeling it in."

Chen Yuan headed over to the sink to wash his hands — the Fish King had left them covered in slime.

"Still impressive, though. I could see she had real strength pulling that Fish King in. A girl like that must be a hard worker too."

Tang Ying said this with a wide, warm smile.

Chen Yuan was a little baffled.

What did that mean?

How did landing a fish have anything to do with being a hard worker?

Then he caught that look on his mom’s face — that classic matchmaker grin — and thought, she’s not actually starting to get ideas, is she?

He shook his head and walked into the main room, flipped open the cooler, and pulled out a bottle of cola, twisting off the cap.

"Ahh, nothing hits like an ice-cold drink in summer."

He knocked back two big gulps and felt the heat melt away instantly. Then he hooked a stool over with his foot, plopped down beside the cooler, stuck a cigarette between his lips, and started scrolling through his phone.

His phone had been buzzing non-stop. He was dying to know what kind of impact the Fish King’s catch had made.

He’d been so busy netting the thing and handing out the prize money that he hadn’t had a single moment to check. Now that he finally had a breather, there was no way he wasn’t looking.

"Whoa."

The second he opened WeChat, Chen Yuan spotted the red notification dots lighting up his contacts.

He tapped in and started scrolling.

Holy hell — at least forty or fifty friend requests.

He was absolutely thrilled.

Any angler adding him was almost certainly thinking about coming to fish — or at the very least, curious enough to check it out. Every single one of them was a potential customer.

Calling on the thumb speed he’d honed through over twenty years of single life, he blazed through every last request in no time.

"Boss Chen, any spots open?"

"Boss Chen, any chance I can jump the queue and book a spot for tomorrow?"

"Can I do a night session? I can head over right now~"

Anglers through and through — every one of them had the same agenda. Fishing spots. Some of them were even ready to drive over tonight for a night session. The Fish King had clearly sent shockwaves through the community.

Chen Yuan excitedly replied to each one, and the moment he went back to the main screen, more red notifications had already popped up.

"This is blowing up way more than I expected."

Chen Yuan was practically bouncing in his seat, grinning from ear to ear. As long as the anglers kept rolling in, business at the fishing ground was as good as guaranteed.

He took a satisfied drag of his cigarette and kept accepting requests. It took over ten minutes to get through them all — he’d added at least seventy or eighty anglers by the end. He couldn’t stop smiling.

He went back to the main screen and opened the fishing ground group chat. Messages were still flooding in — in less than an hour, the unread count had long since hit 99+.

But what really caught Chen Yuan off guard was the member count displayed next to the group name.

members!

Over a hundred new people had poured in just within this short stretch of time!

Though it wasn’t hard to figure out why — after all, he’d already gotten seventy or eighty friend requests. This was only to be expected.

All he could say was, these anglers were something else.

He scrolled up to the top of the messages and started reading, thoroughly pleased with himself.

Fishing videos and photos kept coming in one after another — close-up shots of the Fish King from every angle, all accompanied by the group going absolutely wild.

"That girl is incredible — she actually landed the Fish King!"

"I’m so jealous I can’t even put it into words anymore."

"Let’s get an interview — what’s everyone who went today thinking right now?"

"Hahaha, a whole crew of grown men got shown up by a girl — and a beginner at that. Do you still have the nerve to call yourselves experts?"

"Beginner’s luck is real, folks."

"Excuses, excuses. That’s all losers have."

The anglers were having a field day. When someone posted a photo of the fat stack of prize money in the group, the envy hit critical mass — everyone who hadn’t managed to snag a spot that day was seething with regret.

If it’d been me, there’s no way I’d have lost to some girl.

Those guys were just sitting on a gold mine and doing absolutely nothing with it.

"Serious proposal — everyone who fished today should be banned from booking tomorrow’s spots. Step aside and let the rest of us show you what real skill looks like."

"Seconded."

More people piled on, and then the @’s directed at Chen Yuan started rolling in, quickly falling into lockstep.

"Bookings open at five. First come, first served. May the best angler win."

"For the sake of our pride, someone has to catch that Fish King."

"And the prize money~"

Sure, the girl had already claimed the double reward, but the unlimited thousand-yuan strong-pull bonus was still on the table. You could look at every fishing ground across all of Chong City — none of them came close to being this generous.

Setting the bonus aside, a hundred-pound Fish King was a prize every angler had to conquer just on principle. A beast like that was a challenge to your pride as much as anything else.

Nobody was giving up their spot willingly. It was every angler for themselves.

"Looks like I need to set up some kind of booking system. Handling reservations manually is a pain, and if people can’t get a spot, I don’t want them thinking I’m playing favorites."

Scrolling through the messages, Chen Yuan spotted a detail worth improving.

No point waiting — he pulled up the system right then and had it build a booking mini-program, then went ahead and ordered the security cameras while he was at it.

Luckily, cigarettes and drinks had sold well earlier in the day, with the God of Wealth picking up a few hundred yuan’s worth, so he had several hundred points in the bank. Otherwise, he’d have been stuck waiting again.

"Looks like opening a night session might actually have to happen."

With points running tight, the idea of launching night sessions was growing harder to ignore.

"Holy shit, I can’t believe Chong City has a fishing ground this insane. I saw it on Brother Wang’s feed — that fish has got to be over a hundred pounds easy."

"Drop the location!"

That was where the group’s explosive growth had begun.

The anglers who’d taken photos had, of course, posted them on their feeds. Any angler scrolling through their contacts who laid eyes on those pictures — there was no way they could just scroll past.

They’d messaged directly to ask, and then gotten pulled straight into the group.

Good thing Chen Yuan hadn’t enabled join confirmation — within no time, the group had surged to 349. Wait, it was already at 356 now.

And still climbing.

"Check the group announcement."

The members who’d invited them reminded the newcomers to read the pinned announcement. Once the new arrivals read it, they came back absolutely losing their minds.

"Holy shit — a thousand yuan for a strong pull?! Boss, drop the address, I’m on my way right now."

"I am done with this garbage job. A thousand bucks per cast? Screw it, I’m calling out sick. Boss, send the location!"

"Let’s gooo~"

A hundred-pound Fish King. A thousand-yuan strong-pull bonus.

Those two things alone were enough to send every angler into a frenzy — they were ready to drop everything and race over immediately.

"Calm down, you lot. Chen Yuan Fishing Ground is packed solid every single day — spots are like gold dust. If you want in, be ready to fight for a booking. Reservations for tomorrow open at five."

The veterans sat back and watched the newcomers lose their minds with great amusement.

They’d been exactly the same yesterday.

"No way — it’s the middle of summer."

The screen filled with shocked reaction memes.

Blazing summer heat, temperatures in the mid-thirties, hitting at least forty degrees at midday — barely a soul to be seen outside — and a fishing ground was packed to capacity. Truly unbelievable.

One of the veterans casually snapped a wide shot of the fishing ground and posted it. The newcomers were absolutely floored.

Chen Yuan Fishing Ground was really that packed?

Were anglers really out here that hardcore?

"All I can say is, Chen Yuan Fishing Ground won’t let you down. Come once and you’ll never be able to look at another fishing ground the same way again — that is, if you can actually get a spot."

"And if I can’t get one?"

"When’s the night session starting?"

"Strongly calling for a night session to open up!"

"Now that would be something."

In an instant the whole group fell into perfect unison, everyone rallying behind the same call: open the night session.

"That’s a lot of demand."

Chen Yuan scrolled to the end of the messages, reached for a cigarette without thinking, lit it, and sat there mulling over the idea of opening night sessions.

The thought had already been nagging at him more and more, and now the anglers were practically begging for it.

Maybe he should just go for it?

"But I don’t have enough hands."

Chen Yuan wasn’t the type to make snap decisions. If he was really going to open night sessions, there was still a lot he hadn’t figured out yet.

The staffing problem was the biggest one.

Right now it was just the three of them plus his uncle and aunt — five people total, which was manageable for one session a day.

But adding a night session wasn’t just doubling the workload. They’d need to get up even earlier in the morning, manage the changeover between sessions, see the night crowd out, and on top of all that, the night guests would need food too.

When he added it all up, five people running back-to-back might not even cut it.

And even if they could pull it off for a while, it wasn’t sustainable long-term.

He’d already run himself into the ground in his past life. Now that he was back in the village, he had no intention of killing himself with work again — and there was absolutely no way he was dragging his parents down that road with him.

"Maybe those two could actually be useful here."

Chen Yuan had left Chen Dequan and his wife in limbo, still unsure what to do with them — but now an idea was taking shape in his mind. He’d need to talk it over with his parents first before moving forward.

Turning it over in his head, Chen Yuan popped up in the group chat.