Chapter 17: The Special "Sea Earthworm

The tabby played around for a while before it picked up the half corpse of the mouse and left leisurely, less wary of Chu Mingcheng now.

However, it left behind traces of mouse blood and some organs, which he had to clean up himself.

Chu Mingcheng felt slightly helpless— the cat wasn't even his, yet he had already become its cleaner.

After cleaning up the front courtyard, he took a shower and returned to the bedroom, where he continued to learn about fishing and the crucial maintenance of fishing rods.

His recent fishing experiences had taught him that there was much to learn in this field.

As a beginner wanting to quickly become an expert, all he could do was watch and learn more!

After studying for two hours, Chu Mingcheng shut down his computer and lay in bed, ready to sleep, when he suddenly remembered Jiang Luoluo asking him to help increase her video views.

Driven by curiosity, he pulled out his phone, opened Bilibili, and searched for "Yue Yao".

The profile picture was of a beautiful female dressed in Hanfu, heavily made up and with a beautifying filter, but Chu Mingcheng could barely recognize that it was indeed Jiang Luoluo.

After clicking in, Chu Mingcheng found that there were many videos posted, arranged in a long list and categorized.

One of the categories was labeled as original treasure dance, which piqued his curiosity and he clicked on it.

The first video had only been posted a day ago, showed a run time of just over fifty seconds, and was titled: "Gossamer Lights, Moon In Tow."

The background music was "Xian Yao".

The video was quite short; he looked at the length of some subsequent videos and realized that this was actually a preview.

Chu Mingcheng wasn't very familiar with ancient-style songs, he was only familiar with the golden age of Huaxia music. After its decline, he seldom listened to new songs.

Having watched Jiang Luoluo dance during the day, which differed from the slow-paced classical dance he had imagined, her movements integrated strength and softness, and the dance naturally flowed with the music, pleasing to the eye.

Some of the moves were actually quite difficult and could not be gracefully executed by a non-professional dancer.

Curious about the content of the videos, he clicked on the first video.

[As if Yue Yao brought the moon with her]

[Filling the void of earthly heartbeats]

In the moonlit dance of light gossamer, that moment of ethereal grace had Chu Mingcheng instinctively clutching his skipped heartbeat.

What happened to filling the void of earthly heartbeats?

It had taken his heart away completely, making him fall helplessly in love.

In gossamer fine and beauty divine, Yue Yao born of lotus steps.

During the day, Jiang Luoluo was just a stunningly beautiful woman with a graceful figure, but the video elevated her charm by several notches.

The gossamer in her hands seemed alive, her dance moves enchanting.

In a blink, a brief fifty seconds passed.

After coming back to his senses, Chu Mingcheng quietly clicked on the three dots at the top right of the video, then set the playlist to repeat this single song.

Yes, he was hooked!

...

"Damn, it's already ten o'clock!" The next day, Chu Mingcheng unsurprisingly overslept.

Last night, he didn't even know when he had fallen asleep, only that he had dozed off while the video was still playing.

He pulled up Jiang Luoluo's WeChat and sent her a message: "I was increasing your video views last night and ended up oversleeping this morning. I think you owe me a little something."

After waiting a minute or two with no reply, Chu Mingcheng got out of bed, freshened up, and drove to East Yue to dig for sea earthworms.

Collecting sea earthworms didn't require any special equipment, just a short-handled hoe would do.

Wild sea earthworms aren't as abundant as before, but they are now massively farmed domestically.

However, Zhe and Fu provinces are rich in sea earthworms, and with some diligence, one can still gather many wild ones.

Seeing that it was nearly eleven o'clock after crossing the sea bridge, Chu Mingcheng simply stopped at a fast food restaurant and ordered braised pork, having an early lunch.

Today was manual labor, and he had to eat some meat in the morning or he was afraid he wouldn't have the strength in the afternoon.

Moreover, he even bought a sandwich and a bottle of date milk, fearing he might get hungry later.

It was during lunch that Jiang Luoluo finally replied to the messages.

"Sorry, I didn't check my phone this morning."

"Did you watch my video? How was it? Give me some feedback!"

"Also, how do you want me to make it up to you?"

She replied to three messages in a row, and Chu Mingcheng felt that her fondness for him was still pretty high. She had probably gone to Yanshan in the morning and wasn't deliberately leaving him hanging without a reply.

"Isn't oversleeping the best compliment I could give your video?"

"It's no fun if you let me decide the compensation. Shouldn't it be you who takes the initiative?"

Far away in Yanshan, sitting in a farmhouse and waiting for the meal, Jiang Luoluo read the reply and couldn't help but smirk.

If her video led to him oversleeping, didn't that mean she had captured his interest?

However, thinking of compensation, Jiang Luoluo felt a bit troubled and pursed her lips. Then her eyes twinkled, and she replied.

"How about I treat you to a meal when I get back from Yanshan?"

Seeing this message, Chu Mingcheng smiled.

Most women possess a skill: they turn men they just met into their obedient followers, serving their needs.

If he agreed outright now, he would fall into an inferior position.

Perhaps some women are straightforward and less convoluted, but this is also a passive skill; if men voluntarily act submissive, they wouldn't mind an extra follower.

So, when the other person is not yet a girlfriend, interact with her as one would with a man: refuse when necessary, be busy when required.

"Meal depends on my schedule. You know I'm quite occupied right now, might not have the time. We'll see when you get back from Yanshan."

He neither agreed nor refused outright but postponed the matter to see how things would unfold.

After chatting a bit more, Chu Mingcheng took the initiative to end the conversation and went to eat lunch before driving to East Yue Beach.

The car couldn't go further in; so, he parked outside, donned a conical hat, sun-proof clothing, and changed into waterproof boots.

Then, he took the bag with the sandwich and date milk from the trunk, added a bottle of mineral water to it, and began walking towards the beach with a short-handled hoe and bucket in hand.

It was not a short walk; it took him over twenty minutes to reach where one could dig for sea earthworms.

This being Chu Mingcheng's first visit, he did not know where to find sea earthworms, but since people were there every day, following them would lead him to the right spots.

Digging for sea earthworms was tough; it wasn't a job for those unaccustomed to physical labor.

Yet, those capable of doing it actually made a good amount of money. With years of saving, one could have amassed a couple of million.

Zhang Wei's father had been doing this for years, and Chu Mingcheng learned from him that his family had saved over a million, intended for Zhang Wei's wedding and house purchase.

Chu Mingcheng randomly picked a spot near the water, found some small holes, placed his bucket beside him, and began digging with his right hand wielding the short-handled hoe.

He turned over a clump of soil to check – nothing. He dug deeper.

Initially, one could dig vigorously to remove the soil, and then gently follow the holes to excavate more carefully.

When digging, one must use finesse. The hoe should be inserted slightly, then pulled back to turn over the soil lumps; otherwise, digging too deep might directly harm the sea earthworms, leading to a loss.

Finding sea earthworms mainly involved looking for matchstick-sized holes.

Chu Mingcheng was grateful for the information era. Without online resources, his spontaneous digging trip would have likely ended with nothing but physical strain.

His chosen spot turned out to be quite good. Following the holes, he quickly uncovered a sea earthworm the size of his index finger.

The sea earthworm looked intriguing – half as thick as a finger, and the other half much thinner, almost like a matchstick.

However, after a while, he unexpectedly dug up an unusually long "sea earthworm."

A sea earthworm nearly 20 centimeters long?