As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 124: Chapter 119 Unable to Sleep Due to the Heat at Night

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With money in hand, carrying the two fish, he returned home in high spirits.

But just as he got home and had moved the fish box into the kitchen, he saw the Earth Dragon inside the smaller fish box.

Only then did he remember he still had an Earth Dragon.

This… which one should we eat tonight?

As for the mud snails, he had cleaned them the night before and pickled them, and they were ready to eat today.

Chu Mingcheng opened the small fish box and found that the oxygen pump had stopped working due to a dead battery.

He picked up the Earth Dragon to check it, and it was still squirming, showing it was still quite lively.

“Ah, you’re almost gone, I bet you won’t make it till tomorrow, so let’s deal with you tonight!”

He looked at the fish and then at the Earth Dragon, but in the end, he felt the Earth Dragon “wouldn’t live long,” so he decided on the evening’s dish.

Chu Mingcheng took the oxygen pump of the small fish box to charge and then went back to the garage, drove to the market, and bought a local farm-raised duck.

As a result, when he returned to the neighborhood, just as he was passing by Jiang Luoluo’s front door, her door opened.

She was holding a garbage bag, clearly on her way to take out the trash.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on ṅονǤօ.сο

“Ah Cheng, when did you get back? Is that duck for… are you going to take care of that Earth Dragon tonight?”

Jiang Luoluo did not expect to run into Chu Mingcheng just as she was going out. When she saw the already slaughtered duck in his hand, she immediately guessed his plans for the evening.

“I just got back too. I was about to look for you, but then I realized the Earth Dragon was almost gone, so I hurried to the market to buy a duck.”

“The Earth Dragon is almost dead?” Jiang Luoluo looked doubtful.

Although she was not knowledgeable about seafood, she knew that eels were tougher than most sea fish and should not die off that quickly.

But seeing that Chu Mingcheng had already prepared the duck, she did not bother to question further, since after all, she was just an ordinary friend.

Since she couldn’t interfere, Jiang Luoluo’s other interest came forward.

“Ah Cheng, let me make the Earth Dragon soup tonight, okay?”

Chu Mingcheng could hardly resist her eager look and slightly coquettish tone and gave her the duck without much resistance: “I don’t know how, you do it!”

“Hehe, thanks!” Jiang Luoluo happily took the duck, then promptly tossed the trash bag back into her house, and instructed as she went inside, “Ah Cheng, bring the Earth Dragon over, we’re eating at my place tonight.”

“OK!”

Chu Mingcheng agreed, went back to get the Earth Dragon, and carried it over in a vegetable basin.

Entering Jiang Luoluo’s kitchen, he was surprised to find her arranging the spices in a straight line.

Because she had only done it once and her memory was foggy, she took out her phone and started following the steps in the video.

Chu Mingcheng leaned over to watch the video and was speechless: “I mean, I know you’re learning, but did you have to get a pot exactly like the one in the video?”

“It’s more accurate to get the same one!” Jiang Luoluo said as if it were obvious.

“…” Chu Mingcheng fell silent.

“Ah Cheng, help me kill the Earth Dragon while I start on the duck soup.”

“All right.”

Chu Mingcheng checked the hot water bottle in Jiang Luoluo’s house, found that there was hot water, and proceeded to bleed the Earth Dragon with a knife. After bleeding, he scalded it briefly with hot water — too much and the skin would break.

Then, he used a knife to scrape off the slime and rubbed it with coarse salt to get it thoroughly clean.

After cleaning, he used scissors to cut open the belly and removed the innards.

The Earth Dragon wasn’t large, and the innards were not edible, so they were discarded.

He snipped off the tail end and was about to cut it into pieces when he remembered Jiang Luoluo cooking it whole the last time, so he hesitated and refrained from cutting further.

He turned to look at Jiang Luoluo and became speechless again.

She had somehow procured a small electronic scale able to measure down to the gram.

Following the video, she precisely weighed each spice, then poured them into a paper cup.

At this rate, she was just shy of wearing a lab coat and donning rubber gloves for a scientific experiment — utterly ridiculous.

“Luoluo, are you sure this is cooking, not concocting some chemical in a lab?”

“Of course, I’m cooking. What’s the issue?” Jiang Luoluo retorted as if there were no question about it.

Chu Mingcheng’s mouth twitched: “No issue, it’s just… very meticulous.”

He decided to let her do her thing.

Chu Mingcheng sat down at the dining table chair nearby, and, after a thought, found her cooking rather amusing. He took out his phone and filmed a short clip.

An hour later, at five-thirty, Jiang Luoluo’s duck and Earth Dragon soup was ready.

As usual, she took out the tonic liquor…

Chu Mingcheng quickly intervened, exclaiming in panic, “We don’t need to add that, do we?”

“No way, the video included it!” Jiang Luoluo refused with a serious look.

“The person in the video is older; a little won’t hurt, but I don’t need it, really!” Chu Mingcheng stood his ground this time. Earth Dragon soup was already nourishing enough; with that addition, would he be getting any sleep at night?

“What does age have to do with it? It’s just a seasoning!”

“You don’t know what this tonic liquor does?”

“Of course I know, it’s for revitalizing… ” Jiang Luoluo began, then suddenly realized the implications. She hadn’t thought about it in a certain way before, but that doesn’t mean she, living in this era of information, was ignorant.

Her face turned a bit red; the tonic liquor in her hand, she didn’t know whether to pour it or put it away.

In the end, her OCD got the better of her, and she said in a weak voice, “I don’t think the effect of such a small amount of liquor would be that strong, right?”

“`

“Of course it can’t be that bad…” Chu Mingcheng knew that the effects of medicinal liquor couldn’t be that exaggerated, but he feared that one plus one might not equal two!

After his constitution improved, his energy levels greatly increased. If he accidentally hit the tipping point with the medicinal liquor, he would have trouble falling asleep at night.

But in the end, he still didn’t stop himself, feeling a bit like he was making a mountain out of a molehill—after all, they were about to eat Earth Dragon; a bit of alcohol probably wouldn’t hurt.

Once the soup was ready, the two began their meal.

“Wow, this taste is just amazing!”

After taking a sip of the soup, Jiang Luoluo found that despite the same meticulous cooking method, the flavor was on a whole different level. This was the power of good ingredients.

“Of course, if it didn’t taste good, Earth Dragon wouldn’t be so famous in Southern Fujian,” Chu Mingcheng said with a smile.

He realized that while Jiang Luoluo’s cooking methods might be unconventional, they were indeed fantastic.

However, for the soup that evening, he restrained himself from eating too much, and the two were full before it was all gone, leaving half of it behind.

They decided to let it cool down before putting it in the refrigerator, planning to eat the rest the next day.

In the evening, as usual, he accompanied Jiang Luoluo and took the opportunity to review practice problems.

Late into the night, when he went to sleep, Chu Mingcheng encountered a serious problem.

He grew hot under the covers after just a short while.

Without the covers, the lowered night time temperature made him feel cold.

Only covering his belly left his hands and feet so cold that he couldn’t fall asleep.

Even trying to cool down with the air conditioning didn’t seem to help.

Eventually, he spent the night tossing and turning and only managed to doze off when dawn broke.

The next day, it was still raining outside, and for the first time, Chu Mingcheng overslept, waking up groggily at noon.

Looking at the time, he felt helpless.

Today was quieter—Jiang Luoluo hadn’t come to find him, and Uncle Wei hadn’t asked him to go fishing either.

In fact, Jiang Luoluo was in the same boat as he, her body burning up the night before, struggling to sleep, and only managed to drift off once it was light. Even now, she was half-awake and still dazed!

As for Uncle Wei, in his enthusiasm over the dry flat beans the previous night, he had boasted about catching a fifteen-pound True Sea Bream, as if he had battled a little monster for three days and nights.

Then, before he knew it, he had drunk too much with his friends.

Today he was feeling terrible too, suffering the after-effects of heavy drinking—not in any shape to go fishing!

Chu Mingcheng had caught up on sleep all morning and now felt less tired.

He got up and checked on the fish; they were still doing well after having the oxygen pump changed the previous night.

But now it was noon, and the oxygen pump had stopped for a little while. He replaced it with a fully charged one to continue aerating the water.

It was only two fish in a spacious tank; otherwise, without oxygen, the fish might not last long.

After that, he changed his clothes and went to the kitchen to prepare something simple for lunch.

Opening the refrigerator, he took out two eggs and some milk to make a comforting egg and milk porridge.

Once the porridge was ready and left on the table to cool, Chu Mingcheng went to Jiang Luoluo’s place to call her over.

The door opened after two knocks; she was combing her hair, clearly having been up for a while.

“I made some porridge for lunch, just to tide us over. We’ll have a good dinner tonight.”

“No problem, I’m good with anything!” Jiang Luoluo nodded, then showed a slightly embarrassed expression, “You got up so late today; didn’t you sleep well either?”

“Just felt a bit hot last night and couldn’t sleep.”

“Me too…”

“Haha~”X2

The two shared a laugh, feeling a bond over their shared discomfort.

For young people with robust health like them, the Earth Dragon soup certainly packed a punch, and the internal heat was impossible to fend off.

“So what do we do with the leftovers?” Jiang Luoluo asked with a bit of concern after they stopped laughing, not wanting to experience last night’s discomfort again.

“We’ll finish it at lunch. It might make us warm in the afternoon, but by evening it should dissipate,” Chu Mingcheng reasoned.

Wasting food was out of the question, and as long as it wasn’t consumed in the evening, it shouldn’t pose a big problem.

Jiang Luoluo agreed, nodding. She returned to her apartment to retrieve the leftover Earth Dragon soup from the fridge and then headed over to Chu Mingcheng’s place for their meal.

While eating, an idea struck Chu Mingcheng about the dry flat beans Wei Jiaguo mentioned. He still didn’t know how they were supposed to be eaten and asked, “Luoluo, you’ve lived here for quite a while, do you know what dry flat beans are?”

Jiang Luoluo nodded: “Of course, how come you know about it after being here for only a few days?”

“Wasn’t I called out by Uncle Wei to go fishing yesterday? Then he took two fish and left me the rest, telling me to use the fish for dry flat beans.”

“Oh, the uncle you met seems really nice to give you all the fish like that.”

“He’s a very nice man, just a bit like a big kid, quite amusing,” Chu Mingcheng agreed, nodding. Uncle Wei was indeed good to him and quite caring.

“By the way, I also brought back one True Sea Bream and one sea red spot. How about we prepare some dry flat beans this evening?”

Jiang Luoluo gladly agreed, “Sure, leave it to me. I know how to do it.”

After their meal, both of them continued with their respective tasks.

Chu Mingcheng didn’t go fishing that day, having completed a week’s worth of practice problems. He would finally be able to schedule his exam tomorrow.

In the afternoon, he finished adding subtitles to his edited video and let Jiang Luoluo, who was tired from dancing, add the audio before posting two videos on his account.

With a new account, there were few videos and not many people watching them. After posting, Chu Mingcheng didn’t concern himself with it further.

In the afternoon, he received a call from his mother, who informed him that his pet had given birth. The three kittens were healthy, and she even sent him photos.

To his surprise, Chu Mingcheng discovered that not one of the three kittens resembled their mother.