Chapter 24: Sold Out

Si Ge also came prepared, bringing a handheld electronic scale with him.

The bream weighed 18 pounds, and the crucian carp weighed 15 pounds.

Lin Yang also rounded down and collected 1000 yuan from him in total; all the fish were sold. Glancing at the time and seeing it was already half past one, he began to pack up his gear to go home.

He still had to continue delivering parcels and preparing bait in the afternoon.

Seeing Lin Yang start to pack up, the surrounding anglers all began to disperse and leave.

"Folks, I'm going to end the stream now, goodbye." After saying that, he turned off the livestream, packed up his things, and walked toward the shore.

"Hey, brother, wait up."

Hearing someone calling him, Lin Yang stopped and turned to look. He saw a young man in a gray fishing suit and sunglasses walking over.

"Hello, my name is Wang Feng." The young man said as he extended his right hand.

"What's up?" asked Lin Yang.

Wang Feng said, "It's like this, Brother Yang, I'm a bit presumptuous to ask, but are you interested in entering a competition?"

"A competition?"

Wang Feng: "That's right, the day after tomorrow, there's going to be a fishing competition in Binjiang District of our city. It's a two-person team competition, and I'm still missing a partner so..."

Having heard what he said, Lin Yang laughed, "Haha, you've got the wrong guy. I'm just a casual angler. As for the formal competitive events, I don't even know how to compete."

Wang Feng hurriedly explained when he heard this: "It's not a competitive match; it's a reservoir fishing competition at Binjiang Reservoir... oh, right, I'm also a fan of yours. I've watched your past few streams, and there's absolutely no issue with your skills."

"Reservoir fishing?"

"That's right. It lasts a total of six hours, and in the end, the weights of the catches are tallied. There are rewards for the top three teams, with the top team winning a prize of ten thousand yuan, and there's also a bonus of 10 National Competitive Fishing Points."

Hearing about a first prize of ten thousand yuan, Lin Yang's eyes sparkled, although he pretty much ignored what was said about the National Competitive Fishing Points.

However, he did have a bit of understanding about these competitive fishing points.

It's about acquiring points in various official competitions, then entering the rankings and receiving titles like Grand Fishing Master and First-class Fishing Master based on one's standing.

But he wasn't interested in those points; it was the one hundred thousand yuan prize that was of interest to him. After all, in today's society, who would refuse money?

Moreover, the reservoir was rich in fish species, and if he fished there, he would undoubtedly unlock more aquatic species, which could also gain him more points and experience.

Thinking this way, Lin Yang replied, "You've only seen a few of my livestreams, and you trust me this much? You're not afraid I'll hold you back during the competition?"

Wang Feng smiled in response: "I also watched the tips you shared in the livestream. If you didn't have the knowledge, you couldn't share those fishing experiences. So, I have absolute confidence in you."

Hearing Wang Feng's praise, Lin Yang blushed slightly, but thinking about the prize, he agreed: "All right then, just give me your cell phone number, and we can keep in touch for the competition."

Wang Feng got excited upon hearing Lin Yang's words.

He had only just found out about the competition not long ago, and all the anglers he knew had already paired up. He had thought about giving up, but then he saw Lin Yang here today and decided to give it a try; to his surprise, it actually worked out.

"All right, thank you, Brother Yang. Next time you livestream, I'll definitely send you some gifts."

Lin Yang: "Haha, there's no need for that, alright, I'm off."

Saying that, after exchanging cell phone numbers, the two both went their separate ways.

When he got home,

his dad had taken some temporary work delivering goods and wasn't there, leaving only his mom in the yard cleaning up.

"I'm back, Mom."

Mrs. Lin looked at the figure entering and chided, "What time is it? You have no sense of time. Every time you come back from fishing it's this late. Aren't you afraid of ruining your health from hunger? There's still some hot rice in the electric cooker, go eat."

"Hehe, don't worry, it won't happen again," Lin Yang said as he put away his fishing gear and washed his hands before heading into the kitchen.

"Wow, Mom, did we have guests today? There's quite a feast here," he said, looking at the several small dishes of meat and vegetables left for him on the table.

"I invited Aunt Li to have lunch at our house this morning."

"Matchmaker Li? What did she come for?"

"Hey, you little rascal, how can you be so disrespectful? She's your elder, and you just call her by her nickname like that." His mother's stern voice came from outside.

"Isn't it you who always calls her Matchmaker Li? I'm just copying you," said Lin Yang, pursing his lips and mumbling under his breath. He didn't even need to think to know why his mother would have invited Matchmaker Li over—it was definitely to arrange another blind date for him.

It was not surprising, though. Ever since his mom found out he could earn tens of thousands of yuan in a day, her spirits had lifted when walking around the village.

Back when they lacked money, his mother wanted him to find someone to marry sooner rather than later. Now that money wasn't an issue, she was even more preoccupied with the matter day in and day out.

Actually, upon reflection, Lin Yang wasn't particularly averse to the idea of blind dates.

He was reluctant to go on blind dates before because his own and his family's conditions were limited; he didn't want to be under too much pressure.

Now that the livestreaming and bait sales are on the right track, life was bound to get better and better, so naturally, he was no longer resistant to the idea of finding a partner—after all, who doesn't want to find an attractive and capable mate?

But such things couldn't be rushed; it was still a matter of fate.

After lunch, Lin Yang checked the phone for orders and found that in just one morning, more than two hundred bottles of bait had been ordered.

It seemed that the morning's livestream had indeed had some effect, boosting the sales of the bait.

Therefore, the number of packages that needed to be shipped that afternoon was nearly five hundred—a rather significant workload.

Since he had arranged for the local express service owner to pick up the goods in the afternoon, Lin Yang stayed home and waited.

Around three in the afternoon, the owner of the express service arrived on an electric tricycle to pick up the goods. Lin Yang helped load the vehicle while verifying each shipping address one by one to ensure there were no errors before the other party left.

Before long, a Shunfeng Express truck came, not to pick up but to deliver the 3000 bait containers Lin Yang had ordered online.

Lin Yang had bought not only containers but also a small sealing machine and a bunch of labels, which had been custom-ordered with "Xiao Yang Bait" printed on them, along with anti-counterfeit marks.

For the millet used in the bait, he had already called his dad to ask him to buy a thousand or two thousand pounds from the city on his way back.

By evening, the courtyard of Lin Yang's home was filled with a refreshing scent, and even Mrs. Lin rolled up her sleeves and joined the bait-filling duty.

They worked until it was dark, and with the help of lights, worked for another hour before finally completing the task Lin Yang had set, with three thousand bottles of bait neatly arranged throughout the courtyard.

After dinner and a wash, lying in bed, Lin Yang pulled out his phone to check it.

Despite having anticipated it, he was still somewhat surprised to see the bait had sold out.

In just over two days, a thousand bottles of bait were snapped up, and he did some quick calculations on his phone to find that this batch of bait alone had earned him nearly thirty thousand yuan in profit.

In addition to today's reward of 1500 for catching a Bream, 1000 for selling them, and over 500 in tips from the livestream, the total income for the past two days had broken thirty thousand yuan.

Because the bait in the little yellow cart had sold out, there were many private chat messages in the phone's backend from viewers who hadn't been able to grab the bait, all asking various questions.

And there were comments left under the video posted earlier.

"The host's little yellow cart is out of stock, hurry up and restock."

"Came here on a friend's recommendation, why is the little yellow cart empty, is this hunger marketing?"

"Nonsense hunger marketing, I ordered 10 bottles this morning, they're already en route."

"There were a few hundred bottles left during the livestream this morning; I didn't expect them to be all gone by the time I got home. Running home in tears."

"Host, next time you edit videos, can you include more of your face?"

Lin Yang quickly glanced through the comments and got to work without dawdling, adding today's completed bait to the little yellow cart. However, he didn't add all of it; he just put a thousand bottles up for sale first.

He figured that might last for a day or two. Glancing at the time, he saw it was already half-past nine.

Just like the previous nights, the last task before going to bed was to edit and upload the videos he had recorded during the day's livestream to his platform account.

One video featured traditional pole fishing for Big Plate Crucian Carp in grassy holes with short lines, and the other was about using traditional techniques to target underwater leviathans like the twenty-pound Big Carp.

After posting two videos, Lin Yang checked his follower count. Thanks to a video that made it to the popular list the previous night, his follower count had grown by several thousand throughout the day, breaking 15,000.

After a busy day, Lin Yang couldn't help feeling that he might need to find an assistant. Managing alone was becoming a bit too much.

Morning livestreaming for fishing, preparing bait in the afternoon, editing videos before bed, and wrapping up a day's orders.

He really was a bit overwhelmed on his own, and his parents had limited capabilities... and this was just the beginning. When the number of fans and orders increased later on, he might really be too busy to cope.

Although he thought about hiring help, he knew that couldn't be rushed either and would have to continue on his own for now, keeping an eye out for the right person.

...

The next morning at six o'clock, Lin Yang was woken up by the alarm clock.

He hadn't managed to secure a good spot yesterday, so today he got up a few hours earlier to avoid having the best spots near Hua Jian taken by others.

After a quick wash and breakfast, he rode his electric scooter at full speed and soon arrived at the riverbank.

As Lin Yang was slowing down to park, he saw a silver-gray Wuling Hongguang van stopping nearby, and a man in his thirties got out.

Lin Yang wasn't expecting others to come early to nab a spot like he had.

He instinctively glanced at the fishing spots near Hua Jian and felt relieved; nobody was there yet.

Seeing this, Lin Yang's tense nerves relaxed. With only two people there, the best spots near Hua Jian were numerous, and the choice wasn't critical.

However, the middle-aged man who got out of the van seemed quite anxious upon seeing Lin Yang arriving on his scooter. He quickly grabbed his fishing box from the vehicle and hustled towards a spot, securing the location before doing anything else.

Watching the man's defensive reaction, Lin Yang just shook his head slightly.

It was just the two of them, and there were more than one prime fishing spot near Hua Jian. Was all this tension necessary? He found the man was making a fuss over nothing.