Ye Chen paid no attention to the doubtful gazes of the few old men, walked to the other side of the mountain forest on his own, found an ideal spot, and began fishing.
The river was home to the grouper, and Ye Chen was confident he could catch one and win this fishing competition.
"Hmph, he can just wait for his doom!"
Old Liao couldn’t help but sneer when he saw Ye Chen actually sitting there fishing.
The other two middle-aged men felt the same way, completely disbelieving that Ye Chen could beat them.
Although they didn’t understand the technique of fishing, they knew some of the rules. In a fishing competition , the winner would receive a generous prize.
What Ye Chen was doing now was simply courting disaster.
Very soon, three to four minutes passed, but Ye Chen hadn’t even seen the shadow of the grouper, let alone any catch.
On the contrary, the little fellow next to Ye Chen seemed to be in high spirits, as if it had eaten its fill.
This made the three old men shake their heads, feeling sure that Ye Chen was destined to lose.
Only Ye Chen remained composed, still maintaining the same posture and motions as before.
Finally, another half quarter of an hour passed, and Ye Chen’s fingers trembled slightly, evidently exhausted.
This result had been expected.
Old Liao and the others sighed internally, feeling Ye Chen was far too arrogant.
But suddenly, Ye Chen’s eyes lit up brightly, and the fishing rod in his hand instantly tensed, while at the hook, a lively big fish was wriggling vigorously.
To his surprise and delight!
This fish was twenty centimeters long, hefty in size, with an inky black body and open mouth revealing sharp teeth. It was undoubtedly a carnivorous creature, most certainly a grouper!
This time, Ye Chen used all his strength to drag the grouper onto the shore.
Afterwards, Ye Chen eagerly unhooked the grouper and began to closely examine it.
The grouper was huge, weighing in at six to seven jin!
To think, the three of them combined hadn’t caught six jin of fish!
"Ye Chen, congratulations!" Old Liao said with a smile, feeling very satisfied that they had finally turned the tables.
"Hehe... It’s just good luck."
Ye Chen said with a smiling face, showing no pride at all for having beaten them.
To the old men watching, this was enough to roll their eyes. How could this guy be so shameless?
"Alright, let’s continue. I refuse to believe I can’t catch a single fish today," Old Li waved his hand and said.
"Ha ha... You three might as well save your effort. The grouper here are cunning; they’re not that easy to catch. Just obediently hand over the reward to Brother Ye Chen as compensation," Old Liao laughed heartily, intentionally teasing them.
They were naturally aware of how difficult the grouper were to deal with. Every year, thousands participated in the fishing competition, but only a very few could manage to catch them successfully.
"Heh... then let’s wait and see."
"I refuse to believe that Brother Ye Chen can keep beating us."
Old Li and the others were not convinced, and they began to speak one after another, meanwhile changing the subject: "Ye, are your fishing baits well-prepared?"
Ye Chen nodded and said: "Certainly well-prepared. And the bait is all bought from the seafood store, guaranteed fresh."
Hearing this, all three of them from Old Li’s group nearly fainted!
Fishing bait from a seafood store, what madness is this!
All three of them were expert fishers, and they naturally knew how precious fishing bait could be, given that fishing bait was quite expensive. Yet Ye Chen, this guy, actually used fishing bait bought from a seafood store to fish.
You have to understand that the seafood from seafood stores is very coarse in texture and terrible in taste, definitely not as good as proper fishing bait!
But considering Ye Chen’s special status, they didn’t feel like saying more; after all, the man had money.
"Then let’s get started."
Old Liao took out his fishing gear and got ready to fish.
"Hold on, give me the stuff first."
At this moment, Ye Chen extended his hand and took over everyone’s fishing gear.
"This... Are you sure you want to use this?" Old Liao asked in surprise, feeling that Ye Chen was being too impulsive.
"I’m quite sure," Ye Chen confidently stated and then hesitated no longer.
Old Liao and the others, helpless, shook their heads and handed their fishing rods to Ye Chen while speaking, "Since you’ve decided, we won’t try to persuade you. We just hope you won’t regret it later!"
"Hehe... don’t worry, I certainly won’t regret it." Ye Chen smiled mysteriously and then started to fish.
This time, Ye Chen chose a direction where the aquatic plants were more luxuriant, the area where fish were more concentrated and mostly of smaller species, where the effect of the fishing bait should be stronger.
"Eh, it seems the fishing float has changed."
Soon, Ye Chen noticed a moving fishing float and was immediately surprised.
Hearing this, Old Liao and the others all looked up and indeed saw a grouper slowly surfacing.
They were shocked. Could it be that Ye Chen was incredibly lucky? Did he catch a fish so effortlessly?
At this point, Ye Chen successively caught three to five fish, which thoroughly astonished Old Liao and his companions.
"Ye, how come you’re so lucky? Did you secretly learn how to fish?" Old Li asked excitedly.
Ye Chen smiled awkwardly, "Cough cough... Uncle Li, what are you saying? If I were good at fishing, would I even be fishing here? I was just guessing."
"Pfft..." Old Li couldn’t help but retort, "If you’re just guessing, then am I blind?"
The surrounding villagers, hearing this, couldn’t help but burst into laughter, amused by Ye Chen’s words.
"Alright, no more jokes, let’s hurry up and fish. If we don’t catch something soon, it’ll be dark," Ye Chen coughed and changed the subject.
"Sure, let’s hurry up and start, aiming to catch a fish before evening," Old Liao took a deep breath, calming his emotions and said earnestly.
Ye Chen did not waste time either, starting to fish and specifically choosing the habitat of groupers. Once a fish bit the hook, he would immediately cast the rod.
In just about ten minutes, Ye Chen had caught three groupers one after another!
This scene made Old Liao and his companions so astonished that they were speechless – the speed was a bit terrifying.
"My goodness, how can this kid be so lucky!" Old Li murmured, feeling incredibly depressed.
He couldn’t figure out why Ye Chen’s luck had become so good!
Old Liao, witnessing Ye Chen’s performance, had a thought. After pondering for a while, he spoke up, "Young friend Ye Chen, your luck indeed is incredible, but... your luck does not mean you are doing it right. Perhaps we should change our strategy!"
"Hm?" Ye Chen raised an eyebrow.
The other two elders also turned their attentive gaze.
Only to see Old Liao stroking his beard and slowly saying, "We should stick to the method we agreed upon earlier. Even though this way of fishing is the most efficient, the dense school of fish makes it difficult to catch. I suggest we adopt a queuing method, which can save time."