Li Haochen, having eaten instant noodles for three days straight until he was almost sick of them, was determined not to buy them again this time.
He arrived at the market. Even late at night, it was brightly lit. This was precisely the time when seafood was being transported, and the row of seafood stalls was already packed with long queues of people eager to snag some fresh catches.
Li Haochen, however, had no interest in these. He wouldn't be lacking in seafood.
He went to a vegetable stall. The variety was abundant, but the prices were truly not cheap. The vegetables were more expensive than meat.
Compared to supermarkets, the current market offered no price advantage; it was even slightly more expensive. The only benefit was the ability to pick and choose, unlike the pre-packaged offerings in supermarkets.
Li Haochen selected some cabbage and choi sum. He grabbed a head of cabbage and shook it vigorously. The water inside fell like rain, gushing downwards. Looking at the small puddle of water on the ground, he estimated it was about two liang.
He then marveled at the dozen bottles of water piled next to the vegetable stall, sighing that the stall owner must be making a hundred to a few hundred yuan a day just selling water.
A jin of cabbage and a jin of choi sum cost eleven yuan, which was indeed quite expensive. Of course, Li Haochen didn't bargain. He paid and left. He felt that the time spent haggling over fifty cents could be better spent going out to sea, where catching just one more fish could earn him over a hundred yuan or even thousands. It wasn't worth wasting a few minutes for such a small saving.
Li Haochen then went to a nearby grain and oil shop to buy some rice and flour, picked up a carton of eggs and two cans of fermented black beans with mackerel, and left the market.
The purchases weren't much, just two bags. After bringing them to the dock and loading them onto his boat, he went to an external convenience store to buy two packs of cigarettes and some drinks and chocolates.
Inside the security room, Wang Xiaoming was lazily watching a variety show featuring long-legged dancers, making appreciative noises.
Seeing Li Haochen approach, he quickly turned off the television and said, "Haochen, are you going out to sea?"
"Uncle Ming, I didn't expect you to have such a youthful mindset, hahaha!"
Li Haochen placed the cigarettes on the table, waved his hand, and said with a smile, "You should take care of your health. I'm off, hehe!"
"This kid... oh my, these legs, this chest, tsk tsk tsk!"
After refueling and topping up the water, with a "beep," the Xingchen Hao slowly sailed out of the dock under the cover of night.
As its speed increased, the bustling city lights behind it soon disappeared from view. About an hour later, Li Haochen checked the fish finder and, satisfied with the readings, dropped anchor.
He entered his spatial dimension and pried out quite a few mussels. He smashed them and put them into the bait box, then cast all his crab pots. Tomorrow, he would know the harvest.
Originally, Li Haochen had planned to go fishing, but upon seeing the silhouettes of many small mullet and striped bream under the lure light, he changed his mind.
Although mullet were not highly priced, they were an important fish species. Without them, larger predatory fish would lose a primary food source.
Ten minutes later, two large lift nets were installed. Li Haochen opened two boxes of mussel meat, placed them in the bait boxes, lowered the lift nets, adjusted the lure lights, and waited.
Li Haochen went into the cabin to wash his face, then brewed a pot of wild tea and took it out. This tea was a good thing; it was picked by his uncle from the mountains and roasted himself, far superior to the commercial teas costing hundreds or thousands of yuan.
He wasn't out in the deep sea, so the signal here was quite good. With his mobile phone as spiritual sustenance, boredom was no longer an issue. He enjoyed a sip of clear tea, read a novel, and occasionally went to the side of the ship to check the situation under the lift nets. It was quite leisurely.
Half an hour later, Li Haochen pulled in his first net, and the catch was quite pleasing. Over ten jin of fish, mostly thumb-sized mullet, with some striped bream and yellowfin seabream. These were common ingredients with high sales volume, and their value increased significantly as their population grew.
He changed the bait and lowered the lift net again. Returning to his recliner, he added some hot water to the now-cool tea.
A gentle breeze was blowing. The early winter night was already quite chilly. A sip of hot tea was perfect for dispelling the cold from his body. However, drinking too much tea meant more frequent trips to the restroom.
After another ten minutes, Li Haochen went to pull up the lift net again. There wasn't much change; it was still predominantly mullet, but this time there were a few small, transparent fish.
"I didn't expect to find whitebait at this time of year."
Whitebait, also known as silverfish, firecracker fish, and so on, was a fascinating type of fish. Its body was transparent, making it very difficult to spot in the water, as if it were invisible. When taken out of the water, it looked like glass, with only its large eyes being prominent. The rest of its body was transparent, earning it the nickname "fish without privacy."
The market for fresh whitebait was not large; most of it was used to make dried fish. Prices varied depending on size. The smallest grade cost between 12 to 15 yuan per liang, while the highest quality was about half the size of a fingertip. Larger ones were priced lower.
Dried whitebait was nutritious. Steamed with a bit of soy sauce, it was delicious and suitable for all ages.
After pulling up the lift net for the fourth time, Li Haochen decided to stop. The catches were diminishing, and continuing would be a waste of effort. However, the catches from these few nets were still quite good. He kept two jin of whitebait and threw the rest into his spatial dimension to be cultivated.
Having drunk so much tea, the lunch he had eaten was long gone, and he was now ravenously hungry.
Li Haochen took out some whitebait, washed it clean, chopped it into small pieces, added a few eggs, and then stirred in an appropriate amount of salt and chopped scallions. When the oil was at the right temperature, he reduced the heat to low and slowly poured in the egg mixture.
A sizzling sound immediately filled the pan. He turned the heat back to medium and slowly flipped it until both sides were golden brown.
Li Haochen also made a bowl of oyster sauce noodles to accompany the pan-fried whitebait and egg, which was fresh, fragrant, and very delicious.
After tidying up the dishes and resting for a while, Li Haochen went out, put on his gloves, and began pulling up the crab pots. The water here was shallow, so he pulled them up quickly. The first crab pot was out in over ten seconds, and the catch was quite substantial. There were at least thirty to forty fish in the pot, and the varieties were good, including grouper, red grouper, and rockfish. Unfortunately, they were all at the age of still needing to be fed, with the largest being no more than half a jin.
He poured the fish into a plastic bucket and continued to pull up the second pot. It was similar to the first one; the quantity was there, but the weight was lacking.
All eight crab pots were like this. Although there were no large catches, Li Haochen was still very happy with such a quantity of seafood, as his internal spatial dimension needed more inhabitants, and this suited him perfectly.
The crab pots and eel traps were also pulled out shortly after. There were no great surprises, but his spatial sea gained two new members: sand shrimp and blood eel. Both were good things, especially the blood eel, which had a very good price, fetching 150-200 yuan per jin. However, these eels were small, with dozens of them weighing only one jin.
Li Haochen was quite satisfied with the night's harvest on the calm sea, as it had significantly increased the population in his spatial sea.
"Soon, once the fleet is established and the Yanran Hotel has no worries, I can focus wholeheartedly on developing my spatial sea."