I Can Fish Up Everything!

Zhao Jiajia had no classes this afternoon, so she decided to leave school and hang out at her brother’s Japanese restaurant.

After enjoying a delicious Japanese lunch—her favorite—she was now sitting in the second-floor rest area, sipping a drink and flipping through some fashion magazines.

She was a sophomore at Baizhou Art University, majoring in fashion design.

Baizhou Art Academy was considered a very good university in the country, and since Zhao Jiajia didn’t want to study abroad, she chose this one close to home.

This way, when she found her family annoying, she could stay at the dorms. When she craved good food, she could go to her brother’s restaurant for a free meal. And whenever she felt homesick, she could go home anytime.

Finishing one magazine, Zhao Jiajia placed it on the table, took a sip of her drink, and picked up her phone to scroll through her Moments, feeling a bit bored.

As she scrolled, she saw that an old classmate had actually posted a selfie video. What was most surprising was that her selfie skills had improved immensely—at the very least, her angles were much better now.

She and Yi Chen were high school classmates. They never had any conflicts and were on decent terms.

This was mainly because back in their sophomore year, when she was being bullied, it was Yi Chen—who was a punk girl back then—who stood up for her.

At the time, Zhao Jiajia had actually wanted to be friends with her, but Yi Chen was aloof and didn’t seem interested in hanging out with a goody-two-shoes like her. So, they just remained friendly classmates.

’Is that a seafood shop in the background? Did Yi Chen open her own shop?’ She knew Yi Chen hadn’t continued her education after high school and had heard she’d been working various jobs ever since.

It seemed like she was doing pretty well for herself now.

She checked the location tagged below the video: Yangjiang Port Seafood Market. Her hometown was also in Yangjiang Port, which was very close to Bazhou City. Suddenly, Zhao Jiajia felt the urge to go take a look.

It wasn’t that she was thinking of finding a new supplier for her brother’s restaurant; it was just a spur-of-the-moment impulse.

To put it bluntly, she was bored and wanted something to do.

...

「Meanwhile.」

Gu Nan’s shop was facing a bit of trouble. Several people from a regulatory agency had suddenly appeared at the seafood market and were heading straight for his store.

He was checking his electric scooter’s battery level at the entrance when he saw them. He’d initially thought it was a routine inspection, but seeing them come straight for his shop, he knew someone was stirring up trouble.

The first person Gu Nan thought of was Ji Jinxin, but he had no proof. Business had picked up recently, so it was also possible some other sly old fox had gotten jealous and was making a move in secret.

Five people came in, all wearing uniforms and masks—four men and one woman.

The man in the lead saw him and asked, "Are you the owner of this seafood shop?"

"Yes, I am," Gu Nan nodded, his expression neutral, but he wasn’t nervous.

All his paperwork was in order, and there was nothing wrong with his scale. As long as they weren’t deliberately trying to find fault, he should be fine.

As a newcomer to the business, he was quite law-abiding. He didn’t do things like adding chemicals to his products; otherwise, he wouldn’t have struggled so much to stay afloat in the beginning.

Of course, if the regulators were truly determined to find fault, no shop in the entire seafood market would escape. But they wouldn’t normally do that without a good reason.

The lead man didn’t mention a report. Instead, he asked, "Is the seafood in your shop imported or domestic?"

"It’s mostly imported, with a small portion that I caught myself at sea," Gu Nan said truthfully.

"Caught at sea?" The lead man was surprised. "Which ones did you catch?"

"Fishing is my hobby, so I go out fishing often."

Gu Nan led them to the display counter. Yi Chen, who had never experienced something like this before, nervously came to his side.

He patted her arm reassuringly, then pointed at the dozen or so pomfret remaining. "These silver pomfret were caught yesterday morning from a friend’s boat. His boat has a voyage data recorder. If you need it, I can call him to bring it over."

"The two Sea Bass, the stonefish, and the black porgy next to them were also caught by me."

Hearing this, the regulators picked up a fish to inspect it and saw hook marks.

Besides, there were only a few fish he claimed to have caught, a very small quantity, so they didn’t press the matter.

However, the female colleague next to him suddenly asked, "You can go sea fishing during the closed season?"

Before Gu Nan could explain, another male colleague beside her chuckled. "You can. As long as you’re not using nets or cages and are just angling, it’s fine. The Maritime Safety Administration actually encourages it. I sometimes go out and cast a line myself when I have free time."

After clarifying, he turned to Gu Nan and added, "Don’t be nervous. This is just a routine inspection. Could you please show us your import documents, customs certificates, and so on?"

His attitude was much better than the lead man’s, which made Gu Nan feel more at ease. His expression softened considerably.

"Yi Chen, go get all the documents."

Yi Chen nodded and quickly went to retrieve the organized documents and various certificates from a drawer.

The lead man took the documents and began to examine them. He didn’t recognize most of the fish in the shop, so he asked questions as he inspected.

When the group saw the marlin in the container, they were all astonished. Even though they occasionally inspected seafood shops, it was rare to see such a huge catch. The one who was a fishing enthusiast even took out his phone to snap a picture.

After a thorough inspection, all the shop’s documents were in order, and they couldn’t find any issues for the time being.

The lead man returned the documents to Gu Nan. He scanned the shop one last time, felt there was nothing more to check, and was about to leave when his female colleague walked over to the electronic scale.

"We need to check this scale."

"Okay. You can have someone weigh themselves to see if it’s accurate." Gu Nan said, taking the scale down and gesturing for them to test it personally.

Hearing him say that, the regulators knew the scale was fine, but they still had the female colleague step on it. What man weighs himself every day for no reason?

"It’s fine. The scale is accurate. It’s only off by about a pound from what I weighed this morning."

A person’s weight fluctuates throughout the day; your weight on an empty stomach in the morning is naturally different from your weight after lunch.

They all knew how a rigged scale worked. If there was a problem, a person weighing a little over a hundred pounds would register at least ten pounds heavier.

Someone who actually weighed a hundred pounds would show up as a hundred and ten at a minimum. And that was for a small error; the more exaggerated ones could push it to a hundred and thirty or even a hundred and fifty pounds.

Seeing this, Gu Nan stepped forward with a smile. "My business was just average before, but because I’m honest and don’t resort to any tricks, some customers have started coming to my shop instead."

"In fact, some customers have told me that other shops have problems with their scales. When they weigh their purchase at home, it’s always several ounces lighter than what they paid for."

The lead man hadn’t found any problems. After reviewing the documents, he also saw that the shop’s business was excellent and understood that this was likely a case of a jealous competitor filing a report.

He had been about to leave, but he hadn’t expected Gu Nan to say that.

Inspecting only his shop wouldn’t look good. Since they’d come all this way, they might as well get some results to show for it. So he asked, "Do you know which shops have issues?"

"I’m not entirely sure, but if you start with my neighbor and inspect your way down the line, I’m sure you’ll find plenty."

Gu Nan didn’t know who had reported him, but since his shop had been inspected, he figured nobody else should have an easy time either.

Therefore, Ji Jinxin, the one he had a conflict with, would be the first to receive his "repayment."

The lead man nodded, then led his colleagues to the shop next door, planning to conduct a few spot checks.

The fishing enthusiast patted Gu Nan’s shoulder and said in a low voice, "You were reported. With business being this good, it’ll probably happen again."

Then, he switched to a normal tone and said, "We’re both fishermen. Let’s go fishing together sometime!"

The man was just being polite, but an idea sparked in Gu Nan’s mind, and he immediately seized the opportunity.

He took out his phone, found a photo of himself with the blotched fantail ray, and said with a smile, "This is a blotched fantail ray I got lucky and caught yesterday morning while fishing for silver pomfret. I caught it at Tail Island. I’m getting my license now and planning to buy a fishing boat. We can go there when we have time."

"Holy shit! They have blotched fantail rays that big at Tail Island?" Xiang Shidong immediately swore.

Without another word, he took out his phone and added Gu Nan on WeChat. "Alright, let’s keep in touch on WeChat. We’ll go sea fishing together when we’re free."

After adding him, he said a quick goodbye and hurried over to the next shop. He was busy, after all, and couldn’t let fishing interfere with his work.

Seeing them leave, Yi Chen finally patted her full chest and let out a sigh of relief. "That scared me to death."

"It’s fine. As long as they’re not deliberately targeting us, there won’t be any problems. Now that I’m on good terms with that fellow fisherman, we’ll have even less to worry about as long as we follow the rules."

Gu Nan was actually quite pleased. This was a blessing in disguise. By getting to know someone from the regulatory agency and building a good relationship, he would likely get a heads-up before future inspections.

It wasn’t that he was afraid of being inspected, but the year-end "routine inspections" were always a headache. The level of scrutiny then was completely different from today; they’d find problems even when there were none.

With a contact on the inside, he shouldn’t have any issues.

"Mhm," Yi Chen hummed in agreement, then curiously went to the shop’s entrance to see what was happening with the other stores.

With the arrival of the regulators, the atmosphere in the entire seafood market had grown tense.

Some stood at their entrances to watch the spectacle, while others were secretly destroying "evidence."

Sure enough, as soon as the regulators left Gu Nan’s place, a nearby shop owner came over to ask for information.

"Hey man, what are they here to inspect today?"

"Just the import documents for the seafood, whether the scales are accurate, that sort of thing. A routine inspection, basically."

The owner who came to ask wasn’t on bad terms with Gu Nan; they would greet each other when they saw one another. Besides, he mainly sold abalone and oysters, so there was no direct competition. That’s why Gu Nan told him the truth.

Not all shop owners were corrupt. When this man heard what they were checking, he breathed a sigh of relief.

There was nothing wrong with his scale, and he didn’t really deal with walk-in customers anyway. He primarily supplied seafood restaurants and hotels; the only reason he had a shop here was because the rent was cheaper than in the other seafood market.

As the regulators swept through the market, some were happy, and some were worried.

Ji Jinxin was one of the worried ones. He had thought his shop was foolproof, but he never expected them to check the electronic scales this time.

Gu Nan next door was completely fine, yet his own shop was the one that got into trouble.

He hadn’t gone to watch the commotion earlier to avoid suspicion. If he had, he might have had time to hide the scale.

Now, not only would he face a fine, but a sign would also be posted outside his shop reading "Cheats on Weight."

With that thing there, how could he possibly stay in business?