The Familiar

“Can we sell it?!” When Keke learned that this red fish in front of her could fetch seven or eight thousand, her eyes lit up.

“Seven or eight thousand each, catching a few dozen would be hundreds of thousands, right?”

Tang Keke counted, and after confirming she hadn’t miscounted, she immediately tugged at Ye Shuang, “Brother, we’re rich!”

“It’s not as easy to catch as you think.” Ye Shuang sounded a bit helpless right now. “If the catch rate were really like that, everyone would probably go become fishermen.”

With that, he glanced at the shoreline fading away in the distance and continued, “People should still hold some reverence for nature. The accident rate among fishermen isn’t low—ask anyone whose family has been out to sea, and they’ve likely lost someone.”

“If the waves get big and you slip without your footing, sometimes you’re just gone.”

After hearing Ye Shuang say that, Tang Keke looked at the bottomless sea surface and shrank back a little.

For the rest of the time, just as Ye Shuang had said, aside from some worthless small sea fish, they basically didn’t see any valuable big fish.

As for the red ruby they had just pulled up, Chen Hai had already taken it to turn into sashimi.

“Ye Shuang, the head and bones go into soup.” Chen Hai called Ye Shuang over to help while he worked a filleting knife through the meat of the fish.

“There’s food on the boat?” Ye Shuang went over to the fridge and took a look inside, finding ginger, scallions, and garlic, with a fully stocked set of seasonings in the kitchen.

“Hey, catch it fresh, eat it fresh.” Chen Hai said with a grin.

Ye Shuang looked at the fish head and bones in his hands—the meat on them had already been mostly scraped off by Chen Hai.

“Wow, so extravagant.” Tang Keke watched from the side. If it were her, she would definitely keep it to sell.

That could pay for a whole new PC tower.

Soon enough, the fish head soup and sea fish sashimi were ready, taking only about half an hour. And the fish was large, so everyone there had plenty to eat.

“I don’t think I’m used to eating raw food.” Zhixia looked at the slices of raw fish on her plate, but after remembering how expensive it was, she hesitated for a moment before taking a bite anyway.

The combination of scallions and wasabi soy sauce with the rich, fatty fish made Zhixia’s eyes light up in an instant.

“Wow, this trip was totally worth it.”

“Fishy, so good!” Ducky, on the other hand, was the most at home eating this, making exaggerated expressions while slapping her thighs in delight.

Seeing the girls enjoying themselves so much, Ye Shuang picked up a large plate and headed to the helm.

“Here, sea fish sashimi and fish head soup.”

Anshi Yi was sitting on the couch gripping the steering wheel, while An Shiyu lounged against the backrest playing on her phone. The two fish seemed to be taking turns at the helm.

“Oh, what kind of fish?” Anshi Yi glanced over.

“Sea fish.”

“How lazy of you.” Anshi Yi said, then opened her mouth without hesitation. “Feed me.”

“You can do it yourself, can’t you?” Ye Shuang set the sashimi down on the small table, which already had some snacks on it.

“I’m working so hard to steer the ship, and I don’t even qualify to be hand-fed?” Anshi Yi lowered her head. “Let’s just find a boat to crash into and die together…”

“Don’t say such terrifying things?!!!”

Ye Shuang had no choice but to pick up his chopsticks, dip the piece in soy sauce, and feed it to Anshi Yi. She took a bite and began chewing happily.

“Could be better. If you aged it a bit, it would be even better for a fatty fish like this.” Anshi Yi said, shaking her head slightly.

“No conditions to age it here.”

“Uncle, I want some too.” An Shiyu spoke up at that moment.

“Memi is steering, that’s one thing, but can’t you eat by yourself?” Ye Shuang asked.

“I was the one steering the whole time before. My arms are too tired to even lift now.” An Shiyu said, wiggling her arm. “Look.”

Ye Shuang: “…”

“Sigh, no motivation to steer anymore… if only we ran into a small boat…”

“Fine.” Ye Shuang stopped fussing and fed both fish a few slices each before turning and heading back to the lounge area.

By the time Ye Shuang came back, the fish slices had all been cleared.

“Looks like it tasted pretty good.” Ye Shuang smiled a little when he saw that. He hadn’t really eaten much himself, but he wasn’t all that concerned as long as everyone else was happy.

“Ye Shuang.”

A voice came from beside him. He turned to find Bai Yuyou standing next to him, holding a plate. “There’s one more plate.”

“Oh?” Ye Shuang looked a little surprised. “Not tasty?”

“It’s very tasty. But Ye Shuang hasn’t eaten yet.” Bai Yuyou said, even though her eyes were locked on the sashimi in her hands.

“Let’s eat together.” Ye Shuang gave a gentle smile.

“Alright.”

Though that was what he said, Ye Shuang ended up feeding most of it to Yuyou instead.

…

“Man, that was satisfying. All we need now is some lobster and scallops.” Chen Hai said. “Once we get to the island, I can just buy some from the locals.”

“Not afraid of getting ripped off like a bunch of suckers?”

“No worries, I happen to know some friends around here.”

“Oh? Friends everywhere you go?”

“Yeah, right.”

Soon, the yacht pulled up to the shore. Judging by the fishing boats at the dock, it was clear that there weren’t many residents here. Even looking around, there were only a few buildings.

“This island has very few people.” Ye Shuang looked around.

“Well, it’s not a tourist spot, so even during summer vacation, there are no visitors.” Chen Hai said as he got off the boat to chat with the islanders. After a moment, he came back carrying a large crate.

“Give me a hand!”

Seeing that, Ye Shuang quickly walked over.

“What’s so heavy?”

“Seafood!” Chen Hai said. “Man, those bastards really tried to charge me like I was a fresh fish. These seafood sellers are something else.”

“Then why did you still buy it? I thought you had friends?” Ye Shuang was speechless.

“Hey, I haggled.”

Ye Shuang didn’t bother pressing further. They chose a secluded beach and set up tents in a shaded, wind-sheltered spot. Though the girls didn’t really know how to pitch tents, it wasn’t that hard, and with so many hands, the tents went up quickly.

The tents were for four people each. But since Ye Shuang and Chen Hai were the only men, they shared one together.

“Hey, brother, how do we handle showering?” Keke asked at that moment.

“You can shower on the yacht.” Ye Shuang replied. Besides, the dock wasn’t too far away, so they could just shower and come back.

“Oh?”

Perhaps because it was far from the city, the seawater here looked especially clear and blue. The girls chattered away, quickly changed into swimsuits, and ran off to play in the water with giggles.

Ye Shuang sat on a chair by the shore, wondering whether to go fishing or build a sandcastle, when he suddenly noticed two fish passing by.

Especially when he caught sight of Anshi Yi’s swimsuit bottoms, he noticed there was a clock on them.

Ye Shuang: “…”

There it was again.