Chapter 69 - 70: Boss Chen, You’re Not Good Enough

Chapter 69: Chapter 70: Boss Chen, You’re Not Good Enough

"Boss Chen, this pond is something else — any chance you’re doing memberships? I want to be a regular here~"

Heavy Chummer had just reeled in over ten fish in a row, and now he was already lobbying for a membership.

He’d hit up several fishing grounds back to back, and Chen Yuan Fishing Ground was the only one that had finally broken his skunked streak. He’d seen the fish action with his own eyes — he had to get a membership and plant himself here permanently.

"Boss Chen hasn’t even sorted out a membership system yet. Even if he does launch one, there’ll probably be a waitlist — no way you’d be first in line."

"With the way you heavy-chum, Boss Chen might have second thoughts about letting you join at all."

The other anglers chimed in with their usual ribbing.

"Easy, easy — I’ll keep it clean~"

Heavy Chummer swore up and down he wouldn’t pull his heavy chumming nonsense at Chen Yuan Fishing Ground.

"Honestly though, the fishing here really is something else. If even Heavy Chummer is landing fish, I’d kill for a membership."

"Right? I posted that clip of the fish breaking the surface and my inbox blew up — buddies asking for the location, saying they’d grab their gear and head straight over."

"Boss Chen, get the membership program going — put it on the agenda!"

"Holy crap, Boss Chen just dropped a red packet and didn’t say a word — sneaky move~"

Everyone had been filming when the whole pond erupted earlier. Those clips hit WeChat Moments and practically served as free advertising. Combined with the Heavy Chummer effect, the fishing ground’s group chat blew straight past six hundred members.

Just a little something — a small token of appreciation.

"Memberships will absolutely be a thing, but right now the priority is getting the night sessions running smoothly. Once both sessions are stable, I’ll work on the membership program."

Chen Yuan slipped his phone back into his pocket with a chuckle.

He watched Heavy Chummer bait up and prepare to cast again, then quietly switched off the remote.

Once was enough.

You want more thrills? That’s going to cost extra~

Now it was time for the main event.

No more special options — only the Fish King was live now. Who’d hook it was pure luck~

"Zzzzzz~"

Not even half a minute later, that familiar, thrilling sound of line screaming off a reel tore across the pond again. This time the rod tip plunged straight toward the water — there was no lifting it at all.

In an instant, every angler on the bank went dead serious, all eyes snapping to the same spot.

"Holy shit — it’s Heavy Chummer."

"What kind of luck is this? He breaks his skunk streak and now he’s getting doubles — and it might actually be the Fish King? How does that even happen?!"

Everyone around the pond was stunned when they saw who was holding the rod.

Heavy Chummer — the Immortal of heavy chumming, the king of skunked sessions — was getting back-to-back bites.

And from the looks of it, there was a very real chance it was the Fish King.

The whole pond had been waiting all day without a single Fish King bite, and this heavy-chumming skunk machine stumbles into one on consecutive casts.

That made absolutely no sense.

Did landing that last fish somehow unlock his hidden potential?

"How is this even possible?"

Chen Yuan was just as baffled.

He was certain he’d deactivated all the other options and hadn’t assigned any specific peg — and yet Heavy Chummer had somehow hooked the Fish King. From a total skunk to back-to-back Fish King bites. Now that was a complete reversal.

"Ha! It’s finally my time to shine~"

Heavy Chummer froze for a split second, as if he couldn’t believe he’d actually hooked another fish — and a massive one at that, he could feel it. Then he let out a roar of pure, unstoppable excitement.

So what if he’d been skunked before? So what if he over-chummed?

That was just because he hadn’t found the right pond. Chen Yuan Fishing Ground was his lucky ground — this was the only place that could bring out the true angling skill he always knew he had.

"Come on, you beauty~"

Heavy Chummer dropped into a wide horse stance, leaned so far back he was nearly lying on the ground, and started yanking at the Fish King with pure brute force.

"Jesus — Heavy Chummer never changes. No wonder he gets skunked all the time. Trying to horse the Fish King like that? He’s either snapping his rod or going in the drink."

The anglers around him snapped back to attention and rushed to warn him.

That is not how you fight a fish this size.

Heavy Chummer’s technique was genuinely hard to watch — he made Qin Fen look like a grandmaster. At least Qin Fen never got skunked, and he’d even gone and learned the Eighteen Techniques of Taming Fish.

Heavy Chummer just knew one move: pull harder.

You think the Fish King is some Little Kalami you can just pop out with a flick of the wrist?

"Don’t worry — I came prepared. I picked this rod out specially. It can absolutely go toe-to-toe with the Fish King~"

CRACK~

The words weren’t even out of his mouth before the sound of snapping carbon fiber rang out. The tip of the rod shattered, and Heavy Chummer went down hard, landing flat on his backside on the bank.

"Son of a—~"

Heavy Chummer stared at the broken rod in a daze, then the next second he was on his feet and sprinting straight for the water.

That’s just the obsession of a true angler when it comes to a monster fish — even with a snapped rod, as long as the fish hasn’t thrown the hook, you still want to fight for it.

"What the hell—~"

Chen Yuan nearly lost it.

This is a fishing ground, not a damn swimming pool. Stop jumping into the pond at the drop of a hat — if something goes wrong, who the hell is going to take responsibility for that?

"Throw the life rings! Now~"

Chen Yuan scrambled down the embankment and shouted the order. Anglers all around the pond started hurling life rings into the water.

Any person going into the water was no small matter. You could never be too careful.

Heavy Chummer could swim, and he had his life vest on, so he ignored the life rings bobbing everywhere around him and made a frantic beeline straight for the broken rod.

"Oh SHIT~"

The moment he grabbed the snapped rod, the Fish King took off and dragged him along with it. His cry was half panic, half pure screaming adrenaline.

On shore you fight the fish. In the water, the fish fights you — because you have nothing to brace against. The water is the fish’s kingdom, and this was a hundred-pound Fish King.

Fortunately, the Fish King threw the hook not long after. Heavy Chummer let out a long, gutted groan of defeat, tossed all the life rings back, and swam to shore.

"Get up here."

Chen Yuan grabbed the broken rod and held it out over the water, hauling Heavy Chummer back onto dry land.

Before Chen Yuan could even ask if he was alright, Heavy Chummer was already staring at him wide-eyed, face flushed with manic excitement, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Memberships, Boss Chen — get the memberships going, I am making this place my permanent home~"

First he’d broken his skunk streak landing a silver carp and bighead. Then back-to-back bites and a hook-up with the Fish King had hit him with a rush unlike anything he’d ever felt. And then the snapped rod, and being dragged through the water by the Fish King himself.

That whole sequence — that perfect storm of highs — was absolutely lethal to someone who got skunked more often than he ever landed a fish.

"Memberships aside for now — let’s talk about you jumping in the pond."

Chen Yuan let out a relieved breath once he confirmed Heavy Chummer was in one piece, then turned to address everyone around the water.

"Gentlemen, this is a fishing ground, not a swimming pool. Please look out for your own safety. And besides — one person jumping in stirs up this whole two-acre pond. How is anyone supposed to fish after that?"

The surface was still churned up. Fish spooked like that weren’t biting anything for a while.

"For the safety of all our guests, Chen Yuan Fishing Ground is hereby banning pond diving effective immediately. Anyone who violates this rule will receive a warning. Three warnings, or a single serious incident, will result in a permanent ban from the grounds. I hope everyone can understand."

Chen Yuan clasped his hands and gave a respectful bow to the crowd.

"Boss Chen, hold on, that’s not right~"

Heavy Chummer wiped the water off his face and started wringing out his life vest and shirt.

"You planning to jump in again?"

Chen Yuan looked at him with a half-smile.

"No, no, no — Boss Chen, don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking about the jumping in. I’m talking about the rod length restriction. A 6.3-meter rod — it’s just really hard to land the Fish King with one."

Heavy Chummer waved his hands frantically.

"The one I just had — Handing Threaded Series, top of the line for 6.3-meter rods. Marketed as rated for over a hundred pounds. And it still snapped in no time. Rod snapped, fish still on the hook — of course you try to salvage it. What else are you supposed to do, just watch it go? That’s why you end up jumping in."

"So that’s the root of the problem. A 6.3-meter rod just can’t handle the Fish King. Even a 7.2-meter probably can’t cut it. You’d need at least an 8.1-meter monster rod to even have a shot."

The anglers around him nodded in agreement.

A hundred-pound Fish King is no Little Kalami. With a 6.3-meter rod, an average angler would be lucky to bring in twenty-odd pounds.

Even with top-tier fighting technique you might manage fifty-plus, but a hundred pounds? That’s a whole different wall. You’d need one hell of a rod.

If they didn’t know Boss Chen was the real deal, they might’ve suspected the rod restriction was deliberate sabotage.

"But someone did land the Fish King, didn’t they."

Chen Yuan was genuinely puzzled.

He’d talked it over with Wang Heng before — he didn’t know much about rods himself — but both God of Wealth and Qin Fen had successfully landed the Fish King on 6.3-meter rods, so it was clearly possible.

Besides, the rod length restriction existed because of the pond’s physical limitations. Two acres didn’t leave a lot of room.

"Those rich kids have money to burn — who knows where they got custom rods made."

One of the anglers laughed.

Custom rods.

Chen Yuan felt something click into place.

"Alright, I’ll sort this out. I’ll say it plainly — the Fish King is in that pond to be caught. I will find a solution that lets everyone actually land it without snapping their rod."

Chen Yuan swept his gaze across the pond and made the promise to everyone there.

"We take Boss Chen at his word."

"If there’s anyone worth trusting around here, it’s Boss Chen."

The anglers broke into applause.

"Building a great fishing ground takes everyone’s input. If any of you have suggestions, bring them up — anything I can fix, I will fix. Let’s build something we can all be proud of together."

Chen Yuan’s face was completely sincere.

Then he glanced at the water, still rippling from the chaos, thought for a moment, switched the Fish King off, and pulled out his phone to send Qin Fen a message.