Chapter 282: Chapter 182: A Sea Turtle Delivers Ingredients

With the big fish stowed away, the sun had yet to reach its zenith. The two cast their lines and resumed fishing.

Gu Nan chatted casually with the old man, trying to trigger his “settings” and “mechanism.”

Lin Zhijian understood, too. But sometimes, even when he didn’t want to be deliberate, his mind couldn’t help but steer the conversation toward fish.

Being too deliberate, however, seemed to prevent them from getting any bites. As a result, by nearly two in the afternoon, Gu Nan had only caught a few small black sea bream. The fishing was slow.

He finally understood. Forcing the conversation just made the old man act unnaturally, which prevented the mechanism from triggering.

So, he fell silent, waiting for the right moment to catch him off guard.

Time trickled by. Soon, the cabin’s shadow no longer offered much protection, and the sunlight was about to reach the hands gripping their fishing rods.

“Hey, I’ve got a big one!” Gu Nan suddenly exclaimed.

Lin Zhijian quickly turned to look, but seeing Gu Nan’s rod was completely still, he was speechless. “What fish? Are you messing with me…?”

ZZZIIING~

The fishing rod bent violently. A fish was on the line!

Gu Nan chuckled and quickly yanked the rod to set the hook.

Lin Zhijian: !!!∑(ﾟДﾟノ)ノ

’Holy crap, has he already figured out how to trigger the bug?’

Gu Nan felt the pull on the line and smiled. “Not bad. I’d guess it’s ten or so pounds.”

“Maybe my complaint wasn’t harsh enough?” Lin Zhijian wondered aloud, stroking his chin.

Gu Nan was exasperated. ’Looks like I can’t use that trick again for a while,’ he thought. ’He’s just like one of those Saints; you can’t use the same move on him twice.’

A fish of around ten pounds was reeled in quickly, taking only a few minutes. A brownish-yellow fish with the body of a sea bream was pulled onto the boat.

Lin Zhijian scooped it up with a landing net first, then asked, “What kind of fish is this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.”

“This is a blue-spotted snapper. Don’t be fooled by its size—even at only ten pounds, its total value is comparable to that big red snapper from earlier,” Gu Nan said with a chuckle, helping to lift the fish aboard.

Blue-spotted snappers are quite rare, and one weighing over ten pounds? You probably wouldn’t see many of those caught in the coastal waters of Yangjiang Port in a whole year.

’This thing sells for over two hundred yuan a catty. The old man’s mechanism hasn’t lost any of its power!’

’Lin Zhijian was happy to hear that. Now that we have two big ones, it wouldn’t be too out of line for me to ask for one,’ he thought.

’Still, it’d be better to catch a few more. That way, he’d feel less embarrassed about taking one of the big fish. He wasn’t that thick-skinned, after all.’

“Sir, let’s take a break for a bit. We can come back out to fish once the sun starts heading west,” Gu Nan said, placing the fish in the livewell and closing the lid.

By now, there was almost no shade left on the boat. Just a few seconds of exposure to the sun felt scorching.

Even he couldn’t take it. A little longer in this sun, and even if he didn’t get heatstroke, his skin would be burnt to a crisp.

Lin Zhijian nodded in ready agreement. He reeled in his line and led the way into the cabin.

THUD…

Just then, a sudden impact sent a jolt through the boat, startling both Gu Nan and him.

The fishing boat had clearly shuddered. Something had run into them, and it had hit hard.

Gu Nan scrambled toward the source of the sound. If the boat was damaged, he’d probably be stranded until another angler came by.

Lin Zhijian, also realizing the gravity of the situation, hurried after him.

The two of them reached the port side of the stern, only to find a sea turtle the size of a large millstone.

It was a full size larger than Gu Nan’s thirty-pound Emperor Crab, stretching over a meter in length. It was massive.

From the looks of it, Gu Nan figured it was probably a green sea turtle, a Class I nationally protected freeloader.

Green sea turtles aren’t as famous as hawksbill turtles, but they are the most common and widely distributed species of sea turtle in the country.

Due to a combination of human hunting, destruction of their nesting grounds, being accidentally caught in fishing nets, and marine pollution, their population has declined sharply, which is how they became protected freeloaders.

However, sea turtles are quite intelligent creatures. They’re known to actively seek out humans for help removing barnacles and even coral.

Now that they’re protected freeloaders, they’ve gotten quite bold about it!

Gu Nan had seen the occasional video of a sea turtle asking a human for help, but he never thought it would happen to him.

When Lin Zhijian saw the dense cluster of volcano barnacles on the turtle’s shell, he understood what it wanted.

“Well, would you look at that. This turtle’s pretty considerate. Knew we were a little short on ingredients for dinner and decided to deliver itself right to our door!”

Gu Nan jumped in alarm. “Sir, you can’t eat sea turtles! It’s illegal, even if no one is watching.”

“What are you thinking!” Lin Zhijian rolled his eyes, exasperated. “I’m talking about the barnacles on its back. Now *that’s* good eating!”

Gu Nan had to agree. The barnacles, which resembled little volcanos, were indeed also called volcano barnacles.

They were cheap, only ten-some yuan a catty, and usually grew on the stone pillars of docks, ports, and under bridges.

But not many people went to the trouble of harvesting them to sell these days. At most, people would gather some for themselves to have a taste.

Unfortunately, they were a huge pain to eat. Their delicious flavor was their only redeeming quality.

Since they had nothing to do in the cabin anyway, the turtle had given them a perfect way to pass the time.

Gu Nan grabbed the sling from the small crane on board and widened the loop. They’d have to lift the turtle onto the deck to properly remove the barnacles.

Lin Zhijian didn’t stay idle. He brought out a large sun umbrella from the cabin and opened it. Otherwise, while they might endure being baked by the sun, the sea turtle couldn’t.

Gu Nan preferred to deal with it outside if possible. He didn’t want to bring the turtle into the cabin and make a complete mess.

The green sea turtle had come seeking help, so when Gu Nan looped the sling around its body and began to lift, it didn’t panic in the slightest.

The pair of bright black eyes in its head looked quite intelligent. There were certainly benefits to a long life.

After gently placing it on the deck, the green sea turtle looked around curiously. Spotting the shade under the umbrella, it actually crawled over on its own, then lay down and became still.

Lin Zhijian chuckled at the sight. “This turtle really is smart. If it weren’t illegal to keep them, I’d be tempted to take one home.”

“What’s the use of this big lump? Sir, you must have too much money and time on your hands. Why not let me spend some of it for you?”

Gu Nan’s merciless comeback made the old man huff in frustration.

But the next moment, a fish knife appeared in front of him. After muttering, “In your dreams,” he took the knife and started working on the turtle’s barnacles.

Even though it was their first time helping a sea turtle, a task like this was nothing for two grown men.

It was just that the barnacles were stuck on incredibly tight, making the process rather time-consuming.

This turtle had probably been tormented by the barnacles for a long time. Each one was huge, and you could tell just by looking that they would be plump and meaty.

There were also a ton of them, covering the turtle’s entire shell.

It took the two of them a good forty minutes to finally scrape off all the barnacles.

Gu Nan grabbed an empty plastic crate and put the removed barnacles inside. He then brought out an electronic scale to weigh them. Holy crap—a little over thirty-six pounds.

That meant the turtle had been living its life dragging around an extra thirty-plus pounds of weight every day. It must have seriously affected its swimming speed.

Not only would it have been unable to catch slightly faster fish, but it also wouldn’t have been able to escape from predators!

Thankfully, there aren’t many sharks in the coastal waters these days. Otherwise, this green sea turtle definitely wouldn’t have survived this long.

Once the barnacles were gone, Gu Nan simply picked up the sea turtle himself.

It weighed a little over a hundred pounds, but for him, it was an easy lift.

With a loud SPLASH, the turtle was unceremoniously tossed back into the sea by Gu Nan, sending a spray of water high into the air.

The green sea turtle swam a joyous circle. It had been years since it had felt so light.

The green sea turtle poked its head out of the water and stared at Gu Nan for a moment, as if memorizing his face, before slowly diving beneath the waves and leaving.

With his hands behind his back, Lin Zhijian watched with a cheerful smile as the turtle disappeared from sight.

’This trip was well worth it,’ he thought. ’Not only did we catch some small black sea bream, but we even got a visit from a sea turtle asking for help.’

“Sir, how do you plan on eating these barnacles?” Gu Nan asked, pointing at the crate.

It might have been over thirty-six pounds, but most of that weight was shell and muddy seaweed.

After shucking all of them, it would be a question if they could even get three pounds of meat. Two pounds would be a pretty good yield.

“This stuff is best when it’s Steamed. How else would you cook it?” Lin Zhijian retorted.

“We could take some and make a steamed egg custard with them. I happened to buy some eggs today; I was originally planning on making seafood egg drop soup anyway,” Gu Nan suggested.

Hearing this, Lin Zhijian looked at the barnacles, then nodded. “Good idea, good idea. It would be a waste to have them all Steamed.”

“Alright. The fishing isn’t great right now anyway, so let’s shuck a batch and get the meat out.”

As he spoke, Gu Nan went to get a small hammer and a spoon for him, while he used his fish knife.

The fish knife was thick and heavy, so he could use the back of the blade to easily crack the barnacles’ shells.

And so, the two of them sat under the sun umbrella and got to work. After cracking open the shells, the barnacle meat revealed itself to be as translucent as lobster meat. It looked delicious.

They worked quickly, cracking open the barnacles, and the plate of meat was soon nearly half full.

In reality, however, they hadn’t even gotten through a fifth of the pile. There were far more barnacles than he had expected.

“That’s enough. This is plenty for the steamed egg custard.” Since it was just the two of them, and they had other food, Gu Nan didn’t plan to shuck too many.

’Whatever they couldn’t eat tonight, he and the old man could take home for their families and friends to try.’

Lin Zhijian put down his hammer and stretched his wrist. Seeing that the sun was now in the west and shadows had begun to stretch across the deck again, he picked up his rod and moved to a shady spot to resume fishing.

Gu Nan didn’t join him. He threw the empty barnacle shells back into the water, then used a pair of tweezers to remove the entrails from the meat before giving it a thorough rinse.

If they wanted to enjoy their meal tonight, this tedious prep work was essential.

Once it was all prepped, he wrapped the bowl in plastic film and set it on the coffee table inside the cabin.

The air conditioning in the cabin was running, so the meat wouldn’t spoil if left out for a couple of hours. He then repositioned the fishing boat, turning it so that one side faced west, which would be better for fishing soon.

When he came out of the cabin, he saw that Lin Zhijian had already moved his fishing spot to match the boat’s new orientation. However, it seemed the fishing conditions weren’t great, as he hadn’t gotten a single bite after all that time.

Gu Nan wasn’t concerned. The water was still warm, so of course the bite would be slow. If he had a speargun, he’d definitely be in the water trying his luck at spearfishing.

But since that wasn’t an option, he decided to use the downtime to prep the rest of the ingredients he’d bought at noon. It would save him the trouble of doing it when he cooked dinner later.

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