80: Chapter 80 I Can't Drive

"You drive the boat."

"Why don't you?"

"I don't know how!" Zhao Jian stated his incompetence with total confidence.

The Young Married Woman laughed out of sheer exasperation.

She clicked her tongue, took a deep breath, and asked:

"Then if I hadn't come, how were you going to drive after paying the deposit?"

If you hadn't come, I'd just wing it.

But that wasn't something he could easily say out loud.

Zhao Jian pondered for a moment before saying, "If you hadn't come, there would naturally be other ways."

The Young Married Woman tossed her Wolf-cut hair; she understood what he meant.

She sneered, "So you mean you'd just improvise since no one would be watching?"

Heh, you guessed right.

Zhao Jian gave a chuckle but didn't say anything.

He saw the woman lightly tapping the armrest of her seat.

She was thinking.

After what seemed like a long time, she made up her mind.

She stood up and walked toward the stern.

Zhao Jian wondered if this meant the rental was off.

But it didn't.

The Young Married Woman simply grabbed two life jackets from the stern and tossed one to Zhao Jian.

She put the other one on herself.

"You drive."

"I'm telling you now, I can swim, but I can only guarantee I'll stay afloat. If you flip the boat, I really can't save you."

She didn't trust his skills, yet she was still willing to accompany him?

Those 200 yuan were well spent!

Zhao Jian knew how to swim himself.

Just like the Young Married Woman, he was capable of self-preservation but lacked the ability to rescue others.

He set the life jacket aside without putting it on.

Driving a boat on White Lake was no different from driving a car in the desert. How could it possibly flip?

He fumbled around for a bit and quickly managed to start it with the help of his phone's AI.

He successfully steered the boat out from the dock.

The rest was easy.

Following the coordinates he had memorized beforehand, he moved slowly across the lake.

It was already afternoon.

White Lake in winter already looked somewhat desolate, and the afternoon light only added a sense of fading twilight.

Zhao Jian immediately felt like composing a poem.

However, the few poems generated by the AI didn't suit his taste.

Forget it.

The Young Married Woman, however, wasn't affected by the bleak scenery; she was having a blast taking photos and posting them to her social media feed.

She even filmed short videos for Douyin when they passed by some withered lotus leaves.

Following the coordinates, it took Zhao Jian three hours to finally reach the destination.

On the water's surface, a large Large Green Carp that seemed to still be breathing was doing the backstroke.

It looked quite comfortable.

"Wow, what a big fish! It looks sick. Can we save it?" The Young Married Woman also spotted the carp.

She happily snapped photos of the fish.

However, there was no dip net on this boat.

Besides, a fish weighing over a hundred pounds wasn't something a normal dip net could handle.

Zhao Jian actually wanted to just kill the fish directly.

Then he could leisurely pull the gold seal out from its belly.

Safe and hassle-free.

But there were no handy tools on the boat either.

After thinking it over, he still had to get the fish onto the boat.

"You grew up around here, do you have any ancestral methods?" He looked at the woman.

Presumably, residents by the water would have some inherited knowledge of catching fish and shrimp; even a girl should have some experience from what she'd seen and heard.

"No, I'm an outsider who married into this area. I don't know anything."

The woman looked a bit embarrassed.

Her parents-in-law had discussed fishing techniques at the dinner table—things like how to yield and take up slack, or how to use clever force to pull the net.

At the time, she was only focused on eating and playing with her phone.

She couldn't remember a thing.

Besides, she would never need to catch fish in her life.

Even taking the boat out to bring tourists into the lake didn't require her labor; this time, she had just wanted to take the opportunity to film short videos and had followed along on her own initiative.

Asking her was worse than asking the AI.

Zhao Jian nodded upon hearing this, not particularly disappointed.

He hadn't held much hope anyway.

Actually, getting the big fish up wasn't entirely impossible.

It was just that the process wasn't very elegant and could easily lead to a misunderstanding with the Young Married Woman.

It was hard to bring up.

"Do you have an idea? Tell me."

"Oh, come on, tell me."

The Young Married Woman saw Zhao Jian hesitating to speak.

She guessed he had a plan.

Driven by curiosity, she kept pestering him.

Zhao Jian felt it was useless to keep wasting time here, so he stated his method:

"Take off your clothes."

The Young Married Woman: "Huh?"

She quickly took two steps back, staring at Zhao Jian looking weak, helpless, and pitiful.

"I mean, take off your life jacket and put it on the fish. We'll use the life jackets as a fishing net and pull it up together."

Zhao Jian's explanation made her heave a massive sigh of relief.

The Young Married Woman had been so scared just now she'd held her breath.

Now that her mind was at ease, she took several deep breaths.

Then, instead of taking off the life jacket she was wearing, she grabbed a few more from the stern and tossed them over.

This boat had six seats and usually carried eight life jackets.

Zhao Jian picked up two.

He slipped one over the fish's head and another over its tail.

When the Young Married Woman came over, he handed her the one looped around the tail.

He said, "I'll count to three, and we'll pull together. Stand firm and don't fall in."

If the fish doesn't come up, we can try again.

If a person falls in, they might just meet their end.

The Young Married Woman nodded.

She got her hands ready and held her breath expectantly.

As Zhao Jian finished his count of three, they both pulled with all their might!

The Large Green Carp was lifted up.

It looked like they were about to pull it onto the boat.

Who would have thought this mindless beast would twist its body, nearly dragging the Young Married Woman into the lake.

Fortunately, Zhao Jian grabbed her collar in time and pulled her back.

But the big Large Green Carp fell back into the lake.

The method was correct, but if the carp didn't cooperate, its thrashing made it very hard not to let go.

Zhao Jian was fine; he had great strength and weight.

But the Young Married Woman was petite, weighing only around 80 pounds.

She didn't have much strength.

As long as the carp struggled, she would either have to let go or risk being dragged into the lake.

Zhao Jian was so frustrated he wanted to give the carp two solid punches!

Just kill the damn thing and be done with it!

The two of them rested for a while, finally recovering from the heart-pounding moment.

At this point, the carp was belly-up again, floating on the water's surface.

"Is there any rope?"

Zhao Jian wanted rope to try and restrict the big fish's ability to move.

That way, its thrashing would be minimal once it left the water, and perhaps it wouldn't threaten the Young Married Woman.

"Yes, I'll go get it."

The boat had life jackets and lifebuoys, so naturally, it had matching rescue ropes.

They weren't very long, but definitely enough.

Following his plan, Zhao Jian first used the life jackets to cradle the fish again.

Then he used the rope to tightly bind the life jackets.

He made sure the two life jackets were pressed tightly against the carp's body.

This time, its ability to move was restricted.

"One more time. If it still doesn't work..."

"What if it doesn't work?" The Young Married Woman looked at Zhao Jian curiously.

"Then I'll just drive the boat and ram it to death!"

This time, it was exceptionally smooth.

The big Large Green Carp didn't move an inch and was easily hauled onto the boat.

Zhao Jian didn't have tools.

To get the gold seal out of the fish's belly, he could either perform a painless surgery—killing the fish and then gutting it—

Or he could just reach in and pull it out by force.

The former required driving the boat back, while the latter would yield results immediately.

He didn't like waiting.

The big Large Green Carp was very cooperative, so he pulled the gold seal out quite easily.

Having obtained what he wanted,

Zhao Jian began the return journey.

The big Large Green Carp wasn't worth much; he couldn't be bothered with it.

The Young Married Woman, meanwhile, kept taking photos with the fish.

After taking a dozen or so, she finally said to Zhao Jian, "Can you sell this fish to me?"

"It's yours. Take it home and eat it."

"Huh?"

Hearing about eating it, the Young Married Woman froze for a second.

She began to think about it seriously.