"Natural dried fish!" The speaker didn't pay much attention to his words, but his listener did (1).
Dried fish's primary characteristic was actually its long shelf-life, and the texture and taste were only secondary, despite how delicious it was. It was just like dried meat, filling the whole mouth with heavenly flavors, lingering in the mouth long after being swallowed.
But the dried fish only kept part of its original nutrients and lost all the rest, and in the process of drying, the fish was also exposed to bacteria, thus it normally wasn't served in large restaurants.
But Chu Ming's dried fish, Chu Xian thought with confidence, was definitely just as delicious as any shark fin or abalone, and maybe even better.
"Uncle, is a natural dried fish the kind of fish that has high density and little water content in its body?" Chu Xian asked with an air of casual curiosity.
"Haha, I just said it randomly. I've never heard of any kind of fish like this!" Chu Ming replied with a laugh.
"I've seen something like this before. Some fish have really compact meat, and other than their belly, their whole body doesn't have much water. Will dried fish made from this type of fish be tasty?"
"Of course! If I could steam this kind of fish and add my spices, none of the taste or nutrition would be lost and it would definitely match up to any rare delicacy in the whole world! I've never heard of this kind of fish though, can you get me some?" Chu Ming said.
"It's a type of saltwater fish. There might be some in the Yangtze River, but it's very rare."
"Oh? It really exists? I wonder if I'll have a chance to try some!" Chu Ming said with an expectant look.
Chu Xian smiled silently and drank deeply from his cup.
The trio polished off the bottle, and all the alcohol from the morning and afternoon knocked out Old Man Chu. Chu Xian also collapsed in weariness after driving the whole morning.
When he woke up from his nap, the sun had set. Chu Xian got up and played with his niece for a little then ate dinner and left the house with a fishing rod.
During the summer in his hometown, the main pastime at night was fishing, and every year during this season, many middle-aged and older men would fish from the river bank.
Chu Xian went to the river during the night many times and his family had no worries. After driving ten minutes by car, he arrived at the river.
The river supported generations of families stretching back to time immemorial. Every year and day, there were always fishermen coming to the river, fishing for their lives and livelihood. Even now, when men no longer came to satisfy basic needs, the river was still home, and the water still carried the lifeblood of the land, a constant flow and witness to the lives of men.
At the bank, Chu Xian looked out at the different enthusiasts and lovers of fish; their fuzzy silhouettes were like ephemeral glimpses of life, shrouded in the dull glow of flashlights reflecting off the water, revealing dreamy images of the flowing water and the men who accompanied it.
Chu Xian joined the fishermen and women with flashlight and fishing rod in hand. He had more than ten people in his immediate vicinity, all settled in their separate positions.
Chu Xian came up to the water and shone his flashlight into the water.
The size of the Yangtze stretching through Chu Xian's hometown was three to four kilometers wide and very deep, up to seventy or eighty meters in the center. The area had a good amount of fish largely undisturbed by the occasional cargo ship passing through. On lucky days, fishermen could catch a fish weighing five or six kg or even heavier.
When Chu Xian was still in high school, someone in the village caught a Chinese Sturgeon that weighed more than 50kg and was longer than a meter, but as a first-class national protected animal, it could only be set free.
Chinese Sturgeons were increasingly rare, and poachers often tried to catch and sell these sturgeons using any method possible to make huge profits, but in recent years, there had been an increase in farmed supply.
Chu Xian took out the fishing rod, and without preparing any bait, swung it into the water.
"Great-grandfather Chu is fishing, volunteers take the bait!" Chu Xian laughed.
Fishing in the Yangtze River challenged a person's skill. You first needed to make a nest to attract fish in the wild river, but Chu Xian didn't even make one and was like a blind cat catching a dead rat.
But he was even stronger than a blind cat - he didn't even put bait on his hook.
"Control!"
Chu Xian thought in his heart. The ability was already level seventeen, and he could control all the fish within seventeen meters. A God's eye view appeared, and he willed in his mind and looked out at the water in front of him.
The fish in Yangtze River were mainly carps, crucians and grass carps. Wild carps and grass carps were way more expensive than farmed ones and tasted much better as well.
Within the seventeen meters of his vision, he could see three carps over 2.5kg and many smaller grass carps.
"F***, there are less fish each year!" Chu Xian saw the fish and cursed.
The pollution of the environment and overfishing caused the fish population to decline in the Yangtze River. His hometown already banned large-scale fishing two years ago. In the years when he was a freshman in college, some factories opened on the other side of the river, and their garbage dumping into the river almost wiped out the entire fish population in the area.
Chu Xian moved his mind and a carp swung out its tail and swam over to the hook. It willingly opened its mouth and hooked itself onto it.
"Ah, this is too cruel!" Chu Xian laughed as he caught the carp easily.
Chu Xian looked at the over 2kg wild carp and smiled before putting it in a fishing net and swinging the hook out again. His hometown sold wild carps at fifteen RMB per half kg. In a big city, they could be sold at thirty to forty per half kg.
Using the same method, Chu Xian caught another carp easily, laughing cheerfully.
"Eh? That carp already escaped my area of control. F*ck, if I knew it would do that, I would've just controlled it!" Chu Xian looked at the last carp disappearing out of sight and he touched his head speechlessly before taking the rod and walking away.
Chu Xian walked to the right to a weeded place with no people.
Turning off his flashlight, Chu Xian disappeared completely into the dark, but with his Control ability, he could see all the creatures clearly within seventeen meters.
Chu Xian shook his head speechlessly at the small fish in his area of control and continued walking to the right.
"What the f*ck! What is this?" In his control view, a large fish appeared for a moment before flashing out of sight.
"Chinese sturgeon, I saw a Chinese sturgeon. Wow, I can't believe this big guy is in this area. How rare!"
Chu Xian exclaimed in his heart. It was too bad that it disappeared while he was stunned. If he reacted faster and controlled it, although he couldn't take it home, he could still let it swim to the bank so he could take a closer look at it - after all, he hadn't seen a wild Chinese sturgeon many times in his life.
"What the fuck! This is?"
Suddenly, at this moment Chu Xian's heart jumped, and he stared wide-eyed at the river!