mijobooks Chapter 45: Selling tuna by the kilogram – a fortune indeed!
Chapter 45: Selling tuna by the kilogram – a fortune indeed!
On the half-submerged speedboat, Zhou Zhen covered his forehead, warm blood seeping through his fingers and smearing his face.
He watched the silhouette of the Pioneer recede into the shadows of the night reefs and disappear, leaving only the echoing sound of its engines reverberating in the sea breeze.
"Damn it. Come back here. Get back here right now."
He roared at the top of his lungs, but the only response was the sound of seawater constantly rushing into the cabin.
The ship beneath his feet was sinking rapidly, the seawater already above his ankles, and a sense of panic made his heart pound.
"Telephone. Yes, telephone."
Zhou Zhen frantically pulled the expensive satellite phone out of his waterproof pocket.
This was specially provided to him by Zhao Deding, who claimed it could be used to make contact in any sea area.
He dialed the number with trembling hands, but only a line of small print appeared on the screen.
No signal
How could that be?
He stubbornly dialed again, but the result was the same.
This place seems to swallow up all signals.
One of his men, dragging his broken leg, was howling in pain in the water.
"Brother Zhen...save me...I don't want to die here..."
Zhou Zhen looked at the face contorted with fear, then at the malfunctioning phone in his hand, and his face turned deathly pale.
……
The Pioneer circled around and returned to the same area of water.
Lin Chen's attention was focused on the sea in front of him.
The effects of the fish attractant hadn't worn off yet, and undercurrents were surging beneath the surface.
More than a dozen enormous black shadows, each over two meters long, were frantically moving about, each turn creating churning waves and silvery scales.
Sun Heizi lay on the gunwale, his eyes wide open and his mouth agape for a long time.
"Good heavens...this...this is a bluefin tuna?"
The men behind him had similar expressions, all staring intently at the sea, forgetting even to breathe.
A man asked, stammering.
"Brother Chen... how much does one of these cost?"
Lin Chen didn't turn around, only uttering two words indifferently.
"By weight."
Sold by weight.
These huge creatures, weighing several hundred pounds each, are sold by weight?
Sun Heizi and the others felt a chill run down their spines, and their gazes towards the dark figures instantly changed.
Lin Jianguo stood at the bow of the ship, silently inspecting the specially made high-strength nylon netting.
His face was expressionless, but his hands, which moved swiftly through the fishing nets, betrayed the turmoil in his heart.
"Dad, Hei Zi."
"Offline."
Lin Jianguo, Sun Heizi, and the others sprang into action instantly.
The massive, high-strength nylon fencing was quickly thrown into the sea by the combined efforts of several people.
The sinker crashed into the water with a whistling sound, and the huge buoy quickly marked out a section of the sea.
"receive."
Lin Chen gave the order again.
Sun Heizi pressed the winch start button hard.
"Crunch—Squeak—"
The winch instantly emitted a piercing scream of unbearable strain, the arm-thick steel cable stretched taut and vibrating with a buzzing sound.
The entire ship tilted slightly due to the enormous pulling force from underwater.
"Holy crap. Is there a cow hanging down there?"
Sun Heizi gripped the winch lever tightly, feeling as if the entire machine was groaning in agony.
"Don't stop. Increase the power."
Lin Chen roared.
When the first net was slowly pulled out of the water, everyone gasped.
Three.
Three massive bodies, each over two meters long and muscular, unleashed tremendous power within the net.
Their tail fins thrashed wildly, each time slamming heavily onto the deck with a deafening "boom. boom!", causing the entire Pioneer to shake violently.
Sun Heizi and the other construction workers had never seen anything like this before. They had never witnessed such primitive and vibrant violence, and they were all stunned by this terrifying power, their minds blank.
Lin Chen's sharp shout jolted everyone awake.
"What are you standing there for?"
"Bleed out, remove the internal organs. If you don't want this hundreds of thousands to go down the drain, then get to work."
"Temperature is the lifeblood of tuna."
Sun Heizi was jolted back to reality by the words "hundreds of thousands".
With red eyes, he grabbed a specially made bloodletting knife and tried to rush forward.
"etc."
Lin Chen grabbed him, picked up an even longer knife, and jumped directly into the fishing net that was still thrashing violently on the deck.
He regained his footing amidst everyone's horrified gazes.
Faced with the raging, struggling behemoth, Lin Chen did not hesitate at all.
Start.
The knife fell.
The specially made long knife pierced the back of the tuna's head at a tricky angle, instantly destroying its nerves.
Then, with a swift turn of the blade, it sliced open the tail artery.
The entire movement was perfectly executed, without a single unnecessary step.
The giant tuna, which had been incredibly ferocious just moments before, suddenly stiffened, then twitched slightly a few times before becoming completely still.
Sun Heizi and the others were stunned.
Brother Chen... you can do this too?
This technique is even more skillful than those master craftsmen on TV.
"Do you understand?"
Lin Chen drew his sword, shook off the blood, and looked at Sun Heizi.
"Go to the spot I just came from, quick."
"Okay...okay."
Sun Heizi nodded quickly, and following Lin Chen's example, led his two brothers to rush towards the other two.
Although his movements were far less precise than Lin Chen's, he managed to complete the bloodletting and internal organ removal amidst the chaos.
"Push it in."
Lin Chen pointed to the two huge white refrigerated containers on the deck.
The box door opened, and a burst of white, frigid air at minus sixty degrees Celsius gushed out, causing the surrounding air temperature to drop.
With their combined efforts, the group dragged and carried the massive 300-pound object into the biting cold.
boom.
The heavy box door was closed.
Cast the net, retrieve the net, bleed the fish, and freeze it.
This process was repeated for a full three hours.
Everyone on board the Pioneer was exhausted and on the verge of collapse until both refrigerated containers were full and no more fish could be squeezed in.
When the last box door was locked and Lin Chen announced that work was done, Sun Heizi and the others almost simultaneously collapsed onto the deck, panting heavily.
They were soaked to the bone, indistinguishable between sweat and seawater, their bodies covered in fish blood and scales, looking utterly disheveled, yet each of them wore an excited smile.
Tears welled up in Lin Jianguo's cloudy old eyes.
Sun Heizi struggled to get up, walked to Lin Chen's side, and handed him a bottle of water.
He opened his mouth, the word "Brother Chen" was on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it back.
Finally, he simply patted his chest heavily and said, word by word.
"Boss Lin Chen, from now on, my life, Sun Heizi's life, belongs to you."
The men behind him also stood up, their eyes filled with admiration and gratitude.
With a boss like that, you'll never have to worry about not having food to eat.
This isn't rice, it's dragon meat!
Lin Chen smiled, unscrewed the bottle cap, tilted his head back, and took a big gulp of water.
He wiped the seawater off his face, looked at the fully loaded ship, and a huge weight was finally lifted from his heart.
"Dad, Heizi, get ready..."
He hadn't finished speaking.
[A special opportunity has been triggered: the host's large-scale fishing operations have unexpectedly caused drastic changes in deep-sea benthic currents.]
[In the heart of Devil's Reef lies the remains of an armed merchant ship that sank over a century ago, its external physical shelter (reef and silt) eroded away by ocean currents.]
[High-value sealed metal reaction detected!]
[Consume system points to initiate a deep scan of the shipwreck ruins?]