Chapter 102: Chapter 96: Getting the License, Going Out to Sea

The written exam was even easier than Gu Nan had imagined. His decision to just grind practice questions on an app was clearly the right one.

’If you want to get a good score, you absolutely have to grind practice questions!’

After passing the written exam, he took the money and bought the fishing boat the next day. Gu Nan continued studying during the day and spent his nights fishing hard.

The practical courses that followed were even easier than he thought. After class during the day, he’d secretly take the boat out for a spin on the open sea at night.

It only took Gu Nan three days to pass all the assessments and get his license, incidentally breaking the club’s record for the fastest time to get one.

「July 2nd, the fifteenth of the lunar month. A spring tide.」

Gu Nan rode his electric scooter from the club back to the shop, walked up to Yi Chen, and whipped out a small booklet. “Ta-da! Look what this is!”

Yi Chen glanced over curiously, her face showing surprise. “Your license already came in? That was fast.”

’It really was surprising. Even the fastest process for a car license, from the written test to the final license, takes at least three months.’

’How long has it been for Gu Nan’s boat license? All told, it hasn’t even been ten days, has it?’

“Special circumstances. I paid a little extra, so I was able to get it this quickly. After all, now that I’ve bought the boat, I can’t just let it sit there.”

Gu Nan explained briefly, then made a suggestion. “We talked about having a get-together at the end of the month, but we’ve all been busy. Getting my license today is worth celebrating. How about we call An Jun and the others and take the boat out to an island for a cookout?”

Yi Chen was very tempted by the idea; it sounded like a lot of fun.

“What about the shop?”

“It’s fine to close for an afternoon. It’s Sunday anyway, so there aren’t many customers in the afternoon.” Gu Nan felt this girl was acting more and more like the proprietress.

’I’m the actual owner and I don’t even care, yet she’s worried about business. It can’t just be because of her commission.’

’Still, this is a good thing. The more she cares, the better she’ll look after the shop, and the less likely she is to leave in the future.’

“Okay, what do we need to prepare?”

“You watch the shop, I’ll prepare everything else.” ’I’ve already bought a fishing boat; how could I not have grilling equipment?’

Gu Nan first called An Jun and Ye Jing, told them about the cookout, and asked them to come to the shop.

Then he drove his three-wheeled cart out to do some shopping. He went to the wet market and bought some ingredients for the evening, like beef and lamb.

He also needed to buy bamboo skewers, a grill rack, a portable butane stove, a charcoal grill, a sun umbrella, and smokeless charcoal, as well as a folding table and chairs. If it got dark, he’d need a couple of outdoor lamps too.

After thinking for a moment, Gu Nan suddenly realized he hadn’t bought the most important things: an inflatable dinghy and a small motor. Without them, there was no way to land on an island from the fishing boat.

Even on Tail Island, which was relatively easy to land on, Wang Junhe had ultimately used an inflatable dinghy to get ashore.

In the days since buying the boat, Gu Nan had accumulated nearly 30,000 yuan in his account again. Although he was in debt, he wasn’t in a hurry to pay it back, so he bought a relatively high-quality inflatable dinghy with a small motor, which cost him 6,500.

The dinghy was 4.3 meters long, could seat four people at once, and had room for some gear. It was more than enough.

The motor’s horsepower wasn’t high; going too fast could easily capsize it.

Returning to the seafood shop, Gu Nan bought two abalones from next door for 1,000 yuan.

Then, back in his own shop, he picked out a large-eye seabream and a two-pound Tai Star Garoupa. The seabream was good for charcoal grilling, and he’d been wanting to eat the Tai Star Garoupa for a long time, so he took this opportunity to cook one up.

Yi Chen was flabbergasted when she saw how many ingredients Gu Nan had prepared. “Boss, we’re going out to sea. We might catch some fish ourselves. Why take some from the shop?”

“It’s fine. We can bring back whatever we catch to sell. Besides, it’s hard to catch fish in the afternoon. We can just go foraging on the beach later and get some small clams and sea snails.”

Gu Nan was already set on eating it; he wasn’t about to be dissuaded.

’It’s a pity the two large Sri Lankan mud crabs were bought by someone, and I haven’t caught any more since. Otherwise, I would have wanted one for myself.’

He put the two fish in a tank with an aerator to keep them alive. ’Why eat chilled fish when you can have them live?’

He put the other meats into a styrofoam cooler and covered them with some ice.

Considering they would be fishing in the afternoon and some fish couldn’t be kept alive, Gu Nan specifically prepared a whole cooler of ice and two empty styrofoam coolers.

’The boat can fit it all anyway, so I might as well be fully prepared.’

As for water, that wasn’t necessary. There were five large jugs of mineral water on the boat; he’d had them delivered yesterday.

With preparations complete, he loaded everything onto the three-wheeled cart just as An Jun arrived.

“What’s the occasion? A sudden cookout?”

Gu Nan pulled out his license and tossed it over. An Jun opened it, his expression exaggerated. “Holy shit, your license already came in? You didn’t just buy a fake one, did you?”

“The cookout is at sea? Are you sure you can handle a boat? Are we going to capsize…”

“Shut the hell up!” A vein throbbed on Gu Nan’s forehead as he snatched the license back. “Come or don’t, I don’t care!”

“I’m coming, of course I’m coming! Even if I’m buried at sea, I’ll be with you!” An Jun said, gazing at him with “deep affection.”

“Ew~”

Yi Chen couldn’t help but rub the goosebumps that had appeared on her arms, her face full of disgust.

Gu Nan added his own snarky comment, “Act normal. Even Yi Chen can’t stand it.”

’He, on the other hand, wasn’t bothered. He wasn’t grossed out at all, obviously used to it.’

An Jun glanced at her and stopped his antics.

“Call Ye Jing and ask when he’ll be here.”

Gu Nan said, then turned to check the things they needed to bring.

Seeing that everything had already been moved into the three-wheeled cart, he closed the shop door.

Just then, he noticed that Ji Jinxin’s shop door was closed. ’I wonder what’s up with that.’

An Jun took out his phone to make a call. When he heard that Ye Jing had gone to pick up his girlfriend, he immediately blurted out, “Holy shit.”

’Ye Jing is bringing his girlfriend, and Gu Nan has Yi Chen with him.’

He suddenly had a bad feeling. Hanging up the phone, he said quickly, “You guys go on ahead, I’m going back to pick someone up. Ye Jing is also picking up his girlfriend; they’ll go straight to the wharf.”

An Jun left in a hurry. Seeing this, Gu Nan drove the three-wheeled cart with Yi Chen to the wharf first.

His boat was docked at Fisherman’s Wharf. The berth cost 3,600 yuan a year. There were about twenty other fishing boats nearby, with many empty spots, presumably because the boats were out at sea.

On the other side were the fishing vessels, a dense crowd of what looked like several hundred boats, almost all of them docked.

Fisherman’s Wharf gets very lively after the fishing season opens. Every morning and before dusk, fishing boats return to sell their catch, and many customers drive over specifically to pick out seafood.

As for the prices, people who don’t know what they’re doing can easily get ripped off, but those in the know can usually buy things here cheaper than at the market.

Most importantly, it’s fresh and hasn’t been treated with chemicals.

“The boat is a lot bigger than I imagined!” Yi Chen said, tucking back her hair that had been tousled by the sea breeze.

The clean white boat looked quite new. Its design wasn’t as stylish as the more expensive fishing boats, but it was decent enough.

His boat was made of aluminum alloy. Generally, fiberglass boats had more stylish designs, but they were also more expensive.

“But on the open sea, it’s still a small boat. Let’s get our things on board first!” Gu Nan couldn’t say he loved this boat. It was mainly just a transitional vessel, but it would have to do for a good long while.

The two of them moved their things onto the boat and waited a little while. Ye Jing arrived first with Xu Zhina.

“Hello! Long time no see.” Xu Zhina greeted them enthusiastically, then looked at the boat and laughed. “Ah Nan, looks like your shop’s business has been good lately! It hasn’t been that long and you’ve already bought a boat!”

“Business has gotten a bit better, but I also borrowed a lot from Ah Jun.” Gu Nan was habitually modest, and he had Yi Chen take her aboard to look around.

Then he noticed that Ye Jing looked a bit haggard, as if he hadn’t been sleeping well.

’Of course, his mind didn’t go in *that* direction. If it were An Jun, maybe. But Ye Jing and Xu Zhina had been together for so long and had no immediate plans to marry or have kids, so how could they possibly have exhausted themselves to this degree?’

Xu Zhina also looked a bit haggard, though her makeup mostly concealed it.

“What’s up with you? You look exhausted.”

“Too many stray cats and dogs lately, I’ve been busy.” Ye Jing looked slightly exasperated. “Some people don’t spay or neuter their pets, and when they have too many kittens or puppies, they just dump them at my pet shop’s door because they don’t want to raise them.”

“I can’t just let these puppies and kittens die outside, can I? So I have to take them in for now and do my best to find reliable people to adopt them.”

“Speaking of which, do you want to adopt a couple? Help share my burden?”

“…” ’If I had known, I wouldn’t have asked. Kittens and puppies are the biggest hassle.’ He had to refuse. “Count me out. Dogs are too smelly. And cats… It’s not suitable for someone who runs a seafood shop. I’m afraid all my fish would get stolen.”

“If you’re under so much pressure, you should stop taking them in. If things get really bad, I can catch you some fish to help you make cat food.”

’Adopting one or two wouldn’t do much to relieve Ye Jing’s pressure. To really lighten his load, he needed to learn to harden his heart and refuse.’

’There are surveillance cameras at the pet shop’s entrance. If he really wanted to find out who was dumping them, he definitely could. If he reported it to the police afterward, people would stop leaving baby animals at his door.’

Ye Jing wasn’t bothered by the rejection and moved on. He looked around and asked in confusion, “Where’s Ah Jun? He just called me and said he was with you guys.”

“You brought a girlfriend, I’ve got a pretty shop assistant here… how could he stand being the odd man out? So, he’s off to bring his new girlfriend over.”

As he spoke, Gu Nan saw an Audi A4 pull up to the wharf. A man and a woman got out—it was An Jun and his new girlfriend.

’You had to admit, he always did have a nice ride.’

After some quick introductions, the group boarded the boat. Gu Nan went to the helm, started the fishing boat, and set off.

He planned to head over to Tail Island to have a look. The reefs there had plenty of good stuff.

The tides were different everywhere, so Gu Nan had specifically subscribed to a tide chart channel on his phone.

Today, the fifteenth, was a “live” spring tide. “Live” meant it was a good day for fishing, and “spring tide” meant it was good for beachcombing.

It also recommended specific time slots. For example, today, the best time for beachcombing was from 1 AM to 5 AM, followed by 1 PM to 5 PM.

As for fishing times, the morning window had already passed. The afternoon window was from 3 PM to 5 PM, and the evening one was from 8 PM to 10 PM.

With this, Gu Nan would now know when the fish were biting well and could prepare accordingly.

For example, when the fish were biting well, he could just use bait and fish normally. When they weren’t, he could use his daily guaranteed catch chances.

It also showed information on wind and waves, so Gu Nan could use the displayed weather and sea conditions to judge whether he could go out on a given day.

Fortunately, his fishing boat had a decent wind and wave resistance rating, so he could go out as long as the weather wasn’t especially bad.

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