Chapter 37 Part 3

More than anyone, he was terrified that a major accident would happen during the live recording. He had thrown down his loudspeaker to run over, only to rush so frantically that he slipped on the slick rocky beach and took a bad fall, smashing his backside. Half his body felt like it had shattered, and it took him a while to stand up again.

Bai Yong took William aside first to question him, while Lu Aotian continued speaking in his cocky manner: “After he pushed me down, I choked on some water. But it wasn’t bad. After I spat it out, I happened to run into a school of fish, so I scooped up a bit with my net pouch.”

Everyone present: …???

Only then did everyone’s gaze shift from the little dumpling’s delicate little face down to his fluorescent-yellow net pouch cloak, which had noticeably thickened.

The turn of events was simply too unexpected. When the child turned up alive, everyone had focused on whether he was injured and whether William had actually committed the malicious act, completely overlooking the possibility that the child might have brought back prey…

Lu Aotian’s gaze circled the crowd and quickly locked onto the staff member responsible for exchanging supplies: “I want to trade in supplies.”

The ponytailed young woman had been rubbernecking a second ago. When Lu Aotian suddenly called her out, she jumped in fright and hurriedly took the child’s net pouch over to the counter.

Although the amount didn’t look like much, it was enough to shock everyone on site, Ji Nuo included.

The viewers in the live stream were dumbfounded too:

[Huh????!!!!]

[The child getting pushed into the sea and swimming back by himself was already nuts, but he even brought back a bag of fish???]

[Is this not exactly Soldier King Cub at Three and a Half?!!]

[A ba a ba a ba…]

[Tbh it’s not a bag of fish, doesn’t look like much… Fine, even I—who grew up by the sea—find this insane…]

[Holy crap my mom’s asking why I’m kneeling while watching the kid variety show.]

[Ao’ao, you are my god!]

The ponytailed staff member was the first to snap out of it. Deftly, she removed the seaweed hanging from the net pouch. She had a job to do, and she was very curious what prey this amazing child had picked up while supposedly drowning.

The moment the fluorescent-yellow net pouch was pulled open, almost everyone on site crowded around. Jaws that had just barely closed dropped again in shock. What the child had so casually called “a bit” was actually eight different species!!!

Many guests, like Ji Nuo, had lived in inland regions for years and generally had no particular interest in marine life. Save for especially common species like the seahorse, which they could recognize at a glance, the rest they could only distinguish by color: black fish, yellow fish, colorful shrimp, spotted shell…

Weng Kai saw it and his immediate blunt assessment was that indeed nothing was large, but the variety was immense—each one was different, eight items of eight species.

Apart from the seahorse, he only recognized two that were the same as what he caught: one little moray eel and one little grouper, though even smaller than his. His at least counted as “child laborers”; Lu Ao’ao’s were entirely “baby laborers.”

Weng Kai, who had been watching the excitement the whole time, slapped his forehead: “Crap! I caught the same things! And I came ashore first…”

Lu Aotian, standing by the fluorescent-yellow net pouch, lifted his head at once, his grayish-blue peach blossom eyes exceptionally sharp: “The show’s rules are based on the time of trade-in.”

“…You’re right.” Weng Kai hunched his shoulders and leaned pitifully toward his wife. “Xiao Yu, comfort me, please.”

Ming Yu shot him a sideways glance, and Weng Kai very perceptively handed the little moray eel and little grouper to his wife, preparing to go back into the sea to fish again.

Bai Yong, who had gone and returned, arrived just in time to catch the scene of Lu Ao’ao exploiting a loophole in the rules. Originally, he’d wanted to question the child first since William’s mental state was too unstable, but he hadn’t counted on this divine plot twist.

Looking at the mini moray eel skinnier than a loach and the mini grouper smaller than his palm inside the net pouch, an instant headache throbbed in Bai Yong’s head.

Never mind whether they were even worth a bite—if the show dared to eat such tiny fry, netizens would definitely curse them to death.

He immediately patted his chest in self-consolation: It’s fine, just these two tiny fishes. The other six weren’t small. The child probably didn’t do it on purpose. If Lu Ao’ao was so freakishly cunning as to deliberately exploit this rule loophole, that would be absurdly monstrous…

Thinking this, Bai Yong hurriedly patched the flaw in the earlier material exchange rules on the spot:

“Other than the first batch of contestants who haven’t returned to shore yet, those going back into the sea won’t have catches that are too small count anymore. They must at least be medium-sized adults or larger! When the first batch returns, please pass this on to them immediately.”

At those words, looking at the mini moray eel and mini grouper in the net pouch, the guests couldn’t help but laugh.

[Hahahaha the production team tried to screw them over but got screwed instead. Nice, nice!]

[I’m dumbfounded… Eight species… Is this something you can do just by “running into a school of fish”? That’s ridiculous. Lu Ao’ao, are you really only four?! I still couldn’t swim at four!]

[Wait, I think that black ugly one looks familiar, like I saw it in some science ed thing…]

[To be fair, I was a great swimmer when I was a kid too. There’s this theory that babies who float in amniotic fluid are born swimmers, they just gradually lose the skill after birth from lack of environment.]

[Am I the only one who thinks it’s just okay? Eight types of seafood didn’t hit me as hard as that million-dollar Melo pearl /weak smile.jpg]

Following procedure, the ponytailed staff member first placed Lu Aotian’s eight kinds of seafood from the net pouch into a glass tank to photograph and register.

Although she could only recognize the moray eel, grouper, and seahorse, the others were clearly different species. After confirming the count, she couldn’t help but praise him: “Eight different ones, none repeating. Little friend Ao’ao is truly amazing! Here, Little Teacher Ji, these are sixteen supply vouchers for you.”

In addition to rice, flour, grain, and oil, there were also salt, soy sauce, vinegar, cooking wine, spices, and so on. Each category had different quantities per serving. The sixteen supply vouchers Lu Ao’ao traded in at once were enough for their little family to get through the remaining day and a half beautifully.

After Ji Nuo took the sixteen slips of paper, the staff member continued, “You can choose to exchange them now, or wait until you need them. However, the production team’s spice supply is relatively limited, so we recommend exchanging early.”

Ji Nuo nodded in thanks. Since the staff had said so, he naturally wanted to head to the exchange point first. The cub in his arms, of course, raised both hands in agreement.

He’d already secured this much. It shouldn’t be a problem to leave the rest to Han Cheng, right?

In truth, when Lu Aotian had gone into the water, Han Cheng had been not far from his position. Only after making sure he was safe did Han Cheng dive deeper. The two had agreed early on: Lu Aotian would be responsible for material supply, while Han Cheng would catch more of what they could eat.

When Han Cheng came ashore with a full net pouch, the staff was still photographing and trying to identify the seafood Lu Ao’ao had brought up.

Because the identification software wasn’t working well, Bai Yong called over some local native performers for help, and after a round of searching, they finally figured out the other five species: Chinese Horseshoe Crab, Chinese Bahaba, Humphead Wrasse, Ornate Spiny Lobster, and Black Star Cowrie.

Apart from the Chinese Bahaba, including that earlier seahorse, all were nationally protected second-class animals. As for the Chinese Bahaba, it was a nationally protected first-class animal…

Little did Bai Yong know, ever since the last time he’d given Lu Aotian a hard time over the giant clam shell, Lu Aotian had proactively looked up all the protected animals in this area in advance.

Once Bai Yong heard they were all protected animals, he turned pale with shock and immediately told the lifeguards to hurry and send these little ancestors back to the sea.

He had thought using their size to exploit a loophole was the limit. He never imagined Lu Ao’ao could precisely target protected animals…

Rationally, Bai Yong felt it shouldn’t be this ridiculous. Even if you said it, no one would believe it. But his gut told him Lu Ao’ao had done it on purpose!

Bai Yong was nearly driven to breakdown by this sly young child. Drained physically and mentally, his head buzzing, he felt his own state was no better than William’s, who could only hold his head and deny everything. Reaching into his pocket, he groped for his cooling balm and agonized: Was Lu Ao’ao exacting deliberate revenge on him, or did the kid just want to piss him off to death?

Eight species… and not a single one could be eaten, and for free they’d gotten sixteen supply vouchers from them. Wasn’t this too absurd?!

Han Cheng, who had deliberately come back late, had already “learned” from Ji Nuo that their child had been nearly killed by William and immediately sought out Bai Yong.

Bai Yong still hadn’t recovered from the “surprise” Lu Ao’ao had given him. After listening to Han Cheng, he nearly threw his cooling balm: “What? You’ve already called the police?!”