As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 130: Chapter 124 Making Poison

On their way back, the two headed straight to a 24-hour convenience store where they bought various seasonings to concoct the poison.

Of course, Chu Mingcheng provided the recipe for the seasoning.

In coastal areas, it is common to eat raw and marinated seafood; it’s just a matter of how much and whether or not it’s famous.

As for the bird’s eye chilies, cilantro, and green onions, Chu Mingcheng usually buys extra when cooking, so he happened to have them at home.

Once they had all the ingredients ready, the two went home and then to Jiang Luoluo’s house.

She took out a transparent plastic box used for holding fruit from her fridge and removed the two apples that had been there for two days.

Luckily, there were only two left, so they each took one and ate them.

“How many should we make?” Chu Mingcheng asked after finishing his apple, looking at the eighteen swimming crabs they had together.

Jiang Luoluo pondered for a moment, “Hmm… which is yummier for raw pickling, the female or the male crabs?”

“Obviously, the female crabs taste better. For the male crabs, I think they’re suited for a crab meat hot pot.”

“Then let’s separate the male and female crabs first and decide how many to prepare based on how many females we have.”

“Sure!”

After sorting the swimming crabs, they found there were more male crabs, ten in total, and eight female crabs.

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“Let’s prepare six female crabs, three each. We’ll freeze the rest in the fridge and decide how to eat them next time.”

“OK!”

Swimming crabs can’t survive on land for days like green crabs do; living for two days is already quite impressive, so it’s better to freeze them right away, as there won’t be much difference in the quality of the meat if eaten within a short period.

Chu Mingcheng picked out the six fattest female crabs and cleaned them with a brush together with Jiang Luoluo.

They then poured the white liquor they had just bought into a large bowl and offered it to the crabs to drink.

As the swimming crabs indulged in the liquor, Chu Mingcheng didn’t sit idle. Just as he was about to mix the marinade, Jiang Luoluo took the initiative and took over the task.

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it. Write me a list of the ingredients with the exact amounts needed,” she insisted.

Chu Mingcheng: “…”

To be honest, he marinated everything by feel; how could he possibly specify the exact quantities!

The previous marination of the mud snails turned out to be quite delicious, and the two finished it off last night with porridge.

But seeing Jiang Luoluo staring straight at him, Chu Mingcheng could only sigh and wrote out the proportions of the ingredients.

At least he knew roughly how much of each seasoning was needed. Later, after Jiang Luoluo finished her experiment, he would just give it a final check.

After he had written everything down, he let her do her work and started chopping the vegetables, such as the bird’s eye chilies.

After a while, Jiang Luoluo had also finished mixing.

She had used too little sugar, which needed to be increased to enhance the flavor, to somewhat counteract the bitterness of the salt.

This was also the reason why some sugar is added during regular cooking.

Jiang Luoluo didn’t know the reasoning behind this, but as a Southerner with a taste for savory and sweet flavors, she wouldn’t mind adding a bit of sugar.

Once the marinade was ready, Chu Mingcheng tasted it and found the flavor a bit too strong.

If they were only to marinate for four hours, then this intensity should be perfect.

But it was almost midnight now, and since they planned to eat it around noon the next day, he diluted it with some mineral water to lessen the taste.

Only when it felt right did he take out the drunken swimming crabs one by one, placed them in the cleaned plastic box, and drenched them in the marinade, submerging their bodies.

He covered the box with its lid, wrapped it in cling film, all done!

“Finally finished,” Jiang Luoluo yawned.

Dancing during the day and being dragged out fishing at night had kept her excited until she returned home; now that the pickling was done, the fatigue hit her all at once.

“Alright, you better wash up and get some sleep. I’m heading back too.”

“Okay, good night!”

“Yeah, good night.”

The next day, Chu Mingcheng didn’t go fishing but obediently went to school for his classes.

He arrived at school quickly and headed to the classroom address provided by the school’s coach.

Even though his course schedule was accelerated to hasten his learning, he wasn’t the only one in the class.

The school had still gathered all the recent candidates who had passed the written test to teach them together.

When he walked into the classroom, he saw that there were already more than a dozen people seated, all males.

Based on their appearances, their ages varied, but even the youngest seemed to be around twenty-five.

In coastal regions, some people’s families own boats or are involved in this field, or they want to work in fishing companies or rent boats for business, so it’s essential to get a driving license.

The classroom was relatively quiet; most people were playing with their phones, as not many suffered from the compulsion to socialize.

After a while, a middle-aged man walked into the classroom and approached the podium.

“Hello everyone, I’m your practical training coach. My surname is Ye, so you can call me Coach Ye.”

“Today, we’re not going to practice just yet. First, let’s get acquainted with the boat’s operating system.”

The coach turned on the projector and displayed a PowerPoint presentation.

Theoretical knowledge is always dry, but Chu Mingcheng still listened attentively.

Without sufficient knowledge about boats, even a minor mistake in extreme weather at sea could lead to a fatal crisis.

He wasn’t going to assume he knew everything about boating just because Wei Jiaguo had taught him some techniques.

The first day of classes passed quickly for him, who was serious about his studies.

And then he went home to taste the cured crab and ended up visiting the bathroom multiple times throughout the night.

Having not eaten it for a long time, the taste was so good that he couldn’t control himself and finished off all three crabs, which his stomach couldn’t bear, and it protested almost immediately.

The next day was for learning simulation lessons… He endured until the end of class.

Chu Mingcheng, looking a bit pale, returned home, but first, he had to check on Jiang Luoluo, who was also resting at home with a similarly unhealthy complexion.

This girl’s situation was almost the same as his; she had also suffered from stomach troubles during the night.

“You knew we had to shoot a video tonight and you still weren’t careful. Can you handle it with your condition? Or should I postpone it a day and shoot it tomorrow instead?”

Zhang Ruomei had also just arrived that day, and upon seeing Jiang Luoluo’s condition, she immediately felt both angry and distressed.

The two had been working together for several years, and without any particular interest involved, she had long since come to see Jiang Luoluo as her little sister.

Jiang Luoluo curled up on the couch, and upon hearing her suggestion to cancel today’s shooting, she quickly shook her head.

“It’s okay, Sister Mei, the lighting engineer has been booked in advance, it wouldn’t be nice to suddenly stand someone up. Ah Cheng bought me some stomach medicine, I’m much better now, it won’t interfere with tonight.”

Zhang Ruomei still wanted to say something, but just then, Chu Mingcheng happened to knock on the door. She frowned and went to open it, and upon seeing him, she directly pulled a face and didn’t show any warmth.

Chu Mingcheng wore a wry smile, not surprised by her reaction; after all, he too knew that Jiang Luoluo had a video shoot that evening.

But due to their greediness, they didn’t consider the “poison” that would result from overindulging, not expecting that both of them would truly “get poisoned.”

This wasn’t really a big deal, they would recover after resting for the day; it was just that the timing was not well arranged.

Because the shooting would begin after dark, and Jiang Luoluo needed to dance, she hadn’t eaten dinner and planned to eat after the shooting was done.

Therefore, Chu Mingcheng had specially cooked a pot of pumpkin and millet porridge, which had a warming effect on the stomach.

He suggested that Jiang Luoluo drink a few sips to warm her stomach, then packed some in a thermos to take with them, to give her after she finished dancing.

Of course, Chu Mingcheng also ate a big bowl himself. The heat from the millet porridge warmed his stomach and indeed made him feel a lot more comfortable.

They first went to Chen Wan Ying to get their makeup done and then set out for the filming location when the sun was in the west but hadn’t set yet.

The location for Jiang Luoluo’s shoot tonight was on a mountain, which was part of the setting.

First, they arrived at Gulang Island, then they drove to Wanshi Mountain, the location for today’s shoot was on this mountain.

The scenic area was open from 6:30 am to 6 pm, but Jiang Luoluo probably often came here for shoots and was a familiar face, so the timing was not restricted for her.

After the shoot, they just needed to let the person in charge of the scenic area know.

Throughout the journey, Chu Mingcheng admired the surrounding scenery, but after looking around, he somewhat understood the reason Jiang Luoluo said she was indifferent to it.

The scenery was just average, but climbing the mountain for some exercise was indeed good.

They quickly arrived at the destination for tonight’s shoot.

Chu Mingcheng discovered that two women had already arrived early and had set up the lights at the mouth of a peculiar rock cave.

On the mountain wall next to the cave entrance, there were two large red characters—”Xiaoshi” (Laughing Rock).

Chu Mingcheng looked at the circular boulder above with a large crack resembling a smile; indeed, it looked like it was laughing, but it also reminded him of a video game from his childhood—”Pac-Man.”

At this moment, Zhang Ruomei took out a large piece of cloth from her backpack and handed it to the two lighting engineers.

Then she came over to Chu Mingcheng, took a few cameras that were hanging on him, cleared her throat, and said, “Don’t you think you should step aside? Luoluo is about to change.”

Chu Mingcheng was startled, “Change here?”

“Where else? We’ll use that cloth for privacy, but it’s still not very appropriate for a man to be standing by, right?”

“Uh, I understand.”

There was no place to change clothes here, and since Jiang Luoluo needed to change into two dance outfits, they really had to make do.

Actually, she had already put on her inner clothes earlier; there really wasn’t much to see, at most exposed shoulders and long legs. It was just that having a man present felt somewhat odd.

As for tourists, it was already past six o’clock, and everyone had left.

Afterward, Chu Mingcheng walked back and kept his distance for a while.

A little later, he heard Zhang Ruomei’s shout, indicating that Jiang Luoluo had finished changing, and he could come up.

Upon seeing her again in a white dress, Chu Mingcheng thought she still looked so beautiful.

Jiang Luoluo gave him a slight smile, and when one of the lighting engineers played the music, she immediately got into the groove, holding a white paper umbrella, her gaze and expression emotionless.

Zhang Ruomei stood in front of her with the camera recording, while two other cameras were set up on tripods to record from both the left and right sides.

With her beauty and the dance so pleasing, Chu Mingcheng looked forward to the edited video’s effect.

However, the dance wasn’t completed in one go because there were a few transitions in the video. So, they danced a bit, assessed the effect, found it satisfactory, and then continued with the next part, just like filming a movie.

When the white dress portion of the dance was all performed, Chu Mingcheng conscientiously walked back down because it was time to switch to a red dress.

By the time the video recording ended, it was already nine o’clock in the evening.

There were no mishaps due to feeling weak from the stomach troubles, and no cliché scene where Chu Mingcheng heroically carries Jiang Luoluo to the hospital.

Yes, everything was normal.

Even after the dance was over, Jiang Luoluo seemed reenergized. Had she seen a ghost or what?

“We’ll have our usual supper tonight,” she said to the two lighting engineers, and with her long legs, she quickly approached Chu Mingcheng. “Thanks for helping me carry things today, I’ll treat you to a feast tonight.”

“So, are you still going to drink this porridge?” Chu Mingcheng lifted the thermos he had been holding all along.

“Drink, of course. I’m actually quite thirsty!” Jiang Luoluo snatched it away, opened it, poured it into the lid, and gulped it down. Since it had sugar added, it wasn’t hard to drink at all.

Chu Mingcheng took the rest and drank it; he knew they might go for supper later, so he didn’t pack much.

Since both of them shared it, it didn’t spoil their appetites for the late-night snack.

Soon, everything was packed up, and as they were leaving, Chu Mingcheng found himself with an extra bag containing lighting equipment.