Chapter 23: The Young Daughter-in-law's Luck is Unbeatable

"Let Jiang Xia rest on the island for a bit."

Hearing this, Father Zhou fell silent and prepared to steer the boat toward the island.

But Jiang Xia was in high spirits; how could she possibly want to rest?

"No need to go to the island to rest, I'm not tired. I'll sort the fish on the boat. Keep casting the nets—let's take advantage of this good luck and cast one more net."

Father Zhou felt the same way. It was still so early; why rest now? It was rare to have such a sensible daughter-in-law, so he smiled and said, "Then let's cast one more. We can rest and eat when it's around noon."

"Okay," Jiang Xia replied with a smile, then turned to Zhou Chenglei. "Keep casting the nets."

Zhou Chenglei could only go to set the net, then joined Jiang Xia to sort the fish on the deck.

The fish were sorted by size; fish of similar sizes were placed into the same basket, with each basket holding about fifty jin.

Since these fish had been caught via trawl net, they were already dead, making them easy to sort.

Having done this many times, Zhou Chenglei could tell how heavy a fish was at a glance, sorting them quickly and accurately.

However, he never expected that Jiang Xia would be even faster and more precise, as if she had performed this task countless times before.

In her previous life, Jiang Xia had started following her grandmother to sell vegetables every day when she was just over three years old. Although she couldn't help much at first, by the age of four or five, she had learned to assist with small tasks. By the time she reached middle school, she knew exactly how much a jin weighed just by holding it in her hand.

Fast and accurate? It was nothing more than sheer practice.

The Spanish mackerel were relatively large; working together, the two of them managed to pack all the mackerel into baskets in just over an hour.

Then they sorted the shrimp and other fish, obtaining over ten jin of tiger prawns and over ten jin of miscellaneous fish. Among the miscellaneous fish were a few small red squid and flower crabs, perfect for tonight's meal.

By the time everything was sorted, more than two hours had passed. Father Zhou said, "A-Lei, we can haul in the net."

"Alright."

Father Zhou slowed the boat, and the father and son worked together to haul in the net.

This catch wasn't as heavy as the previous one, so they pulled it up with relative ease.

Zhou Chenglei emptied the fish out by himself.

At a glance, Jiang Xia spotted a Rose Grouper with spotted patterns.

It was quite beautiful!

Most importantly, despite being caught in a trawl net, it was actually still alive, which was quite rare.

Father Zhou saw it too and immediately picked it up, placing it in a bucket to keep it alive. Live fish fetched a higher price.

This catch consisted mostly of miscellaneous fish, but there were also over a dozen Spanish mackerel, large yellow croakers, and quite a few small red squid.

The quantity was small, but the variety was excellent.

Father Zhou smiled. "This net is good too. Hurry up and sort them."

It was now noon. Zhou Chenglei said, "Let's eat first."

Father Zhou agreed, "That works."

The meal had been prepared by Mother Zhou in the morning and packed in lunch boxes for them to take on the boat.

The food had gone cold, but it didn't matter in the summer heat.

Zhou Chenglei opened the lunch boxes to check them before handing one to Jiang Xia. This time, the contents of all three lunch boxes were the same; Mother Zhou hadn't practiced any favoritism.

The dishes were only steamed dried small fish and pickled vegetables. Mother Zhou hadn't been able to make much more in the morning rush, and since green vegetables turn yellow and lose their taste if left too long, she usually didn't prepare them.

In addition to the lunch boxes, Mother Zhou had prepared six boiled eggs for the three of them to eat if they got hungry.

Cold food wasn't as delicious, but the pickled vegetables were great with rice, and Jiang Xia was indeed hungry after working for half a day. She ate more than half a box, and Zhou Chenglei finished the rest.

After eating, Father Zhou wanted to go out for more trawling.

Whenever he went out to sea, he wanted to maximize his time trawling, wishing he could earn even more.

However, the sun was too fierce, so Zhou Chenglei wanted to take Jiang Xia to the island to rest.

How could Jiang Xia possibly rest?

There was a pile of work on the boat, and she wouldn't feel at ease until it was finished.

"I don't need to rest. Let's hurry and sort these fish." Jiang Xia picked up a large green crab that was trying to make an escape and handed it to him to tie up.

She didn't know how to tie them yet.

Zhou Chenglei couldn't argue with her; he took the crab and used grass to tightly bind its claws, legs, and body into a cross shape.

Jiang Xia watched his movements intently. Once he was done, she picked up a crab of her own and tried to mimic him.

She wasn't used to it at first and got pinched by the claw, but since she was wearing gloves, she was fine.

Zhou Chenglei watched her perform the task with slight clumsiness, yet she managed to tie the crab perfectly without a single mistake.

At that moment, he had only one thought: *She is so skillful!*

She was truly intelligent and a quick learner.

Once Jiang Xia finished tying hers, she even tied a little bow and admired it. She then held up the crab toward Zhou Chenglei. "Does it look good?"

Zhou Chenglei took a look, thinking the bow was entirely unnecessary and actually in the way, but he still nodded. "Mm."

Leaving her to it, he went to set the net, planning to return and sort the fish after the next haul.

Jiang Xia set the crab aside, intending to find more crabs to tie. As she raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead, her gaze swept across the sea, and she seemed to see a flash of red light on the surface before it submerged back into the depths.

Jiang Xia immediately pointed ahead. "A school of fish! There's a school of fish ahead! It's red!"

Hearing this, Father Zhou immediately increased the throttle, and the fishing boat sped forward at full speed.

Zhou Chenglei stopped setting the net and looked over.

After the boat had traveled for a short while, they saw the patch of red that Jiang Xia had spotted.

"Red Sea Bream! It's a school of Red Sea Bream! Hand nets! Chenglei, get the hand nets ready!" Father Zhou shouted excitedly while steering the boat to give chase.

What was happening today? Why were there so many schools of fish?

Zhou Chenglei had already picked up the hand net.

Jiang Xia hesitated for a moment before also picking up a hand net.

Watching them throw the nets a few times, she felt she had learned how to do it.

As the boat approached the school of fish, Zhou Chenglei threw the hand net.

The net unfurled in mid-air and fell into the sea, trapping a group of Red Sea Bream underneath as they thrashed violently.

Zhou Chenglei hauled the net up!

Jiang Xia followed Zhou Chenglei's lead, casting the hand net forward. Her net didn't spread as wide as his, but it still managed to trap quite a few fish when it hit the water.

It was much more than she could have caught with a hand scoop!

She pulled on the net with all her might to bring it onto the boat.

Father Zhou also rushed over, his movements practiced and efficient as he cast the net.

In total, the three of them cast six or seven nets before the school of fish dispersed.

The deck was filled with lively, jumping Red Sea Bream.

The bright red color looked incredibly auspicious!

Father Zhou's dark face broke into a grin so wide his teeth showed.

These were Red Sea Bream.

Like large yellow croakers, they were quite valuable fish.

Nowadays, it was becoming increasingly difficult to encounter schools of large yellow croakers or Red Sea Bream, and their prices were rising.

In all his years of fishing, he had only ever seen others encounter a school of Red Sea Bream; he had never encountered one himself. He had heard that some people were researching the artificial farming of Red Sea Bream, but he didn't know if it was true.

Seeing that these Red Sea Bream were quite large, likely weighing about one to two jin each, Father Zhou's smile grew even brighter.

They had struck it rich!

His young daughter-in-law's luck at sea was incredible!

Father Zhou said, "Let's head back early today. It's a good day; since it's still early, let's drive the boat to the city pier to sell them."

The buying prices at the city pier were slightly higher than the collection points at the village pier. Usually, there wasn't much stock, so villagers wouldn't bother with the fuel costs to go to the city; after all, the cost of the round trip was almost equal to the extra profit.

But today they had a large amount of high-quality goods, so they naturally had to go to the city.

Zhou Chenglei agreed. "I'll set the net down and drag one more net on the way back."

"Alright." Father Zhou went to steer the boat.

After setting the net, Zhou Chenglei and Jiang Xia worked together to quickly sort the fish and pack them into baskets.

Now, Jiang Xia's eyes and speed at sorting fish were even faster!

She was so quick that Zhou Chenglei couldn't help but steal glances at her.

The afternoon sun was scorching. Wearing a straw hat and long-sleeved clothes, she was covered from head to toe, and tiny beads of sweat were forming on the tip of her nose from the heat.

She did this simply because she was afraid of getting sunburned.

Just looking at her made him feel hot; he marveled at her endurance!

However, her skin was fair, and whenever she looked up to wipe her sweat, her skin looked dazzlingly white under the sunlight.

Two hours later, the fishing boat docked at the city pier.

It was still early, only around four o'clock. There weren't many returning fishing boats at the pier, but there were still quite a few.

Many people were already selling fish at the pier, and wholesalers were waiting for the fishing boats to return to collect their goods.