Chapter 86 - 87: Fishing Ground Closed

Chapter 86: Chapter 87: Fishing Ground Closed

"Order your meals, order your meals — don’t forget to put in your lunch orders, gentlemen."

With the bait situation sorted, Chen Yuan reminded the anglers to place their meal orders.

Not that he really needed to — the regulars all knew the drill at Chen Yuan Fishing Ground. The moment nine o’clock rolled around, they fired off their orders without being asked and went right back to focusing on their lines.

Chen Yuan grabbed his little stool and settled back down in the shade of the umbrella on the slope.

"Once that gets built, I’ll actually have somewhere proper to sit."

He took a drag of his cigarette and squinted at the foundation on the slope. Wang Tao’s design included a proper rest area — that’d definitely beat sitting under a parasol all day.

Too bad he didn’t have enough points yet. Construction would have to wait a few more days.

It was still early, no need to rush the Fish King into action. With nothing better to do, Chen Yuan pulled up the system panel.

Host: Chen Yuan.

Fishing Ground: Chen Yuan Fishing Ground (Level 0, Upgrade Progress: 3.67%)

Fish Stock: Silver Carp 356, Bighead Carp 347, Bream 213, Grass Carp 198, Crucian Carp 701, Common Carp 12, Soft-shell Turtle 3, Fish King 1.

There hadn’t originally been any common carp in the pond, but when Liu Fang pulled that whole mess of a stunt, she’d dumped over two hundred pounds of fish in — carp included.

Facilities:

This section had quite a list going — remote control, aerator, parasols, life jackets, mosquito coils, and all sorts of other odds and ends.

There was even an entry for: Restroom (Under Construction)

Anything related to the fishing ground got logged under Facilities, no exceptions.

Items that hadn’t arrived yet didn’t show up — the bait and bait buckets, for instance, were still invisible for now.

"The upgrade progress is moving pretty slow."

Chen Yuan stared at the pitiful percentage. The ground had been open for several days, and yet the number was still this low — though to be fair, there were still a few things that hadn’t been counted yet.

Unspent points, construction not yet underway, deliveries still in transit — but even factoring all of that in, the progress was still crawling.

"Thank god for the night fishing sessions, otherwise there’s no way I’d be clearing one session a day to meet the quota~"

Chen Yuan smoked leisurely, unbothered.

Sure, the ground had been open for a few days, but the first two days barely moved the needle. Day one was just Mr. Qin and Qin Fen, day two had God of Wealth and his crew — neither brought in much revenue.

Even after reservations filled up, factoring in the meal boxes, drinks, and cigarettes, total turnover barely scraped past seven thousand. The real money only started flowing once the night fishing sessions opened up.

Add up the session fees, meal boxes, drinks, and smokes — that was pulling in around fifteen thousand a day.

Keep it steady, and the upgrade bar would start shooting up before long.

"The crucian carp count is taking a hit."

Chen Yuan eyed the fish stock entry. Crucian carp were easier to catch than most, and yesterday’s lively session had burned through at least a hundred or so.

Beyond crucian carp, grass carp were also getting depleted at a decent rate — mainly because some customers wanted sauerkraut fish, and all the grass carp for that were pulled straight from the pond.

Bream were getting close to down a hundred too. The bighead and silver carp were the least affected. As for the soft-shell turtles, those things almost never bit, so the count there hadn’t moved at all.

"Most of these guys are here chasing the Fish King — they couldn’t care less about the Little Kalamis. Otherwise, with a mixed-stock pond this dense, running at full capacity session after session, you’d clear it out — or at least put a serious dent in it~"

Mr. Qin, God of Wealth, Wang Heng — almost all the serious anglers were only interested in the Fish King. Anything else they reeled in got tossed straight back.

So right now, there was absolutely no rush to restock.

It seemed the Fish King’s effect went beyond the obvious — it was indirectly keeping overall fish consumption in check too.

"Fish King usability is still at ninety-six. No need to worry about maintenance yet."

Nothing else stood out in the panel. Chen Yuan dismissed it with a wave, then pulled out his phone to check for any messages.

"Holy shit, Old Pond just shut down — no more fishing over there~"

He hadn’t even opened WeChat yet when someone at the pond let out a startled shout.

The anglers around them all perked up immediately, pestering for details as they whipped out their own phones to check.

Chen Yuan tapped straight into the fishing group chat.

"What a letdown — only open for a few days and already calling it quits."

"That owner had no staying power~"

"Ha, what do you expect when you lot absolutely wreck the place? Everyone who went came back loaded — what’s the owner supposed to do against that?"

"That’s on him though, isn’t it? No life jackets, no umbrellas, didn’t even hand out straw hats, the meal boxes were absolute slop, and on top of that he was sneaking fish out of our catches. You’re telling me he didn’t deserve to get cleaned out?"

"Shame though, the fish were actually decent over there. I even skipped work thinking I’d get a couple more days of fun in — and then the owner folds just like that. Total buzzkill~"

The group chat was buzzing.

One topic, and one topic only: Old Pond had announced it was closing, done with anglers for good.

"That’s it? Already?"

Chen Yuan had half-expected Zhou Jianming to pull some new stunt. Instead, the man had just straight-up announced he was shutting down.

He’d known Zhou Jianming couldn’t keep it going with all his shady moves — ten days, two weeks tops, and it’d be a miracle. Or so he’d thought.

Turns out three days was all he had.

Three days — and he hadn’t even made it through the third one.

"With me right here as a model to copy, I figured you’d at least keep imitating me, or come up with something else. Didn’t expect you to just wave the white flag this fast."

Chen Yuan shook his head with a quiet laugh.

He’d overestimated Zhou Jianming.

He’d assumed the guy would try to tough it out somehow.

Like secretly netting fish at night to sell them off, keeping the pond sparse so fewer fish would bite — or overfeeding in the evenings to kill off their appetite and reduce the catch rate.

Or maybe continuing to copy him — finding a supplier to bring in some big fish, setting up catch-back rewards to lure customers in.

None of those were real solutions, but they might’ve bought him some extra time.

Instead, it was over the moment he said it was over. Faster than anyone could’ve predicted.

"Damn. He went down before I even had to do anything. Didn’t put up a single bit of resistance~"

Chen Yuan had never considered Zhou Jianming a real competitor to begin with. With the kind of nonsense he’d been pulling, closing up was always just a matter of when.

Just didn’t expect it to be this soon.

Then again, thinking about it more — Wang Heng, Blond Punk, Xu Bai had all gone over there, and there were almost certainly other heavy hitters from their circle showing up today too.

The other anglers might not have been in the same league as Wang Heng and the crew, but anyone willing to sit out under the blazing midsummer sun to grind Old Pond wasn’t exactly lacking in confidence.

It’s not like people enjoy roasting alive for fun.

Under that kind of relentless assault from top-tier anglers, who could hold out?

"Holy shit, this owner’s something else — he won’t even let us keep today’s catch. Just refunding the session fees and calling it a day."

"I mean, we weren’t even fishing for two hours, but the haul was still solid — probably worth a hundred-something easy. That bastard owner actually won’t hand it over."

"Can’t handle the heat~"

"Ours is nothing — there’s one guy out there who pulled at least three fish over fifteen pounds in under two hours, plus five or six under ten pounds. That’s easily seventy or eighty pounds of catch."

"Holy shit, that’s gotta be worth seven or eight hundred at least."

Strangely enough, reading all this, Chen Yuan found himself almost feeling sorry for Zhou Jianming.

Look at these anglers — under two hours and they’re all walking away loaded. The big guns pulled seventy or eighty pounds off you alone. With guys like that cycling through one after another, even a trust fund kid would go broke.

No wonder Zhou Jianming couldn’t hold on. Bleeding money like that every single day — who in their right mind would keep going?

And on top of that, running this pond had taken him out of the workforce entirely. Zhou Jianming was a skilled tradesman — he could’ve been making upward of two hundred a day working in the city. When you ran those numbers, it stung.

Safe to say this morning was when he finally, completely snapped.

Snap all he wants — but the fish these anglers caught are theirs. You don’t get to just decide they’re not. Walk away with some dignity and everyone moves on clean. Try to pull something underhanded, and the anglers sure as hell aren’t going to let you off easy.

These are heavy hitters. They’ve worked plenty of ponds and they’ve definitely dealt with owners trying to weasel out before. Handling a situation like this? Second nature.

"Uncle Bin~"

After a moment’s thought, Chen Yuan found Chen Wenbin’s number and called.

"I know~"

Simple as that. But it was enough.

He hung up, and Chen Yuan’s mood soared.

Old Pond — barely even worth calling a competitor — had just collapsed on its own. All he had to do now was wait for Chen Wenbin’s call, and Old Pond would fall right into his lap.

How could he not be in a great mood?

He almost wanted to buy the whole pond a round of drinks~

But he held himself back. Nothing was signed yet — celebrate when it’s done.

"What’s Boss Chen over there grinning about?"

Chen Yuan hadn’t even realized his laugh was loud enough for the anglers to hear.

"Haha, a competitor just announced they’re closing down — why wouldn’t I be happy?"

"Speaking of which, Boss Chen — it’s a pond in the same village. Now that bastard owner’s gone under, why don’t you take it over and keep it running? That’s a big water surface — imagine fighting the Fish King in there. The experience would be twice as good~"

"That’s a great idea, I’m all for it~"

"We support Boss Chen opening a second location~"