The fat man chuckled and said, "As long as you work diligently and maintain the same mindset as before, there won't be any problems." He then pointed to the fishing boat on the shore. "The boatmen here go out to sea three or four times a month, basically once a week for two or three days each time. Occasionally, they also fish in the open sea. Fishing in the open sea is usually done in winter when the fish population is low. In spring, summer, and autumn, they mostly fish in the nearshore waters. When you're not fishing, you can rest. How about that?"
Zhou Xuan was overjoyed and immediately agreed. If it was about hiding one's identity, the best place would be at sea, where no one could find him. Besides, he would spend more than half his time at sea and stay at home during his rest time, making it very difficult to track him down.
"Yes, sir, are you the owner of this fishing boat?"
"No, the fishing boat belongs to the Yu family in Fushou Village. The boat is led by the second uncle of the Yu family's concubine, named Yu Jinshan. There are four other people on the boat. There were originally five, but one just left. If you go, you can make up the numbers."
Zhou Xuan nodded and then asked, "When do I start working? If I'm going to start working right away, I need to go buy some personal items."
The fat man waved his hand and said, "You don't need to buy anything. The ship's storage room has everything you need: towels, toothpaste, blankets, everything, even underwear."
Zhou Xuan looked around. It was getting dark, and he didn't even have a place to stay. It would be better if he could get on the ship now, at least he would have a place to stay.
"When do you start work?"
Zhou Xuan asked the question again.
The fat man took out his phone, waved his hand, and said, "Wait a minute, I'm making a call."
After dialing the number, the fat man said, "Second Uncle, when are we going to sea?... Oh, I'll find you someone, quite young and reliable, very strong, but he might lack experience... Okay, we're going to sea tomorrow morning? Sure... I'll have him guard the boat with Fugui."
Upon hearing the fat man's words, Zhou Xuan felt relieved; it seemed the work matter was settled.
Sure enough, after hanging up the phone, the fat man smiled at Zhou Xuan and said, "Xiao Hu, do a good job. We're going out to sea early tonight... You and another person will be on watch for the first half of the night. That person will be here soon."
Zhou Xuan nodded and then waited on the shore. The fat man looked at the way they came, and after a short while, a light flashed and a sputtering sound came from the light. It was a motorcycle.
As Zhou Xuan got closer, he could see clearly that there were two men on the motorcycle. The rider was wearing a helmet and looked very young, probably only in his late teens. The man sitting behind him was about the same age as Zhou Xuan, but very strong. After getting off the motorcycle, he was half a head shorter than Zhou Xuan, about 1.6 meters tall.
The fat man pointed at Zhou Xuan and said, "Fugui, this is Hu Yun, Little Hu. Take him to the boat and familiarize him with the area. We're preparing to set sail at dawn."
Fu Gui glanced at Zhou Xuan, then gestured and said, "Get on the boat."
Zhou Xuan said to the fat man, "Thank you, I'm boarding now."
The fat man nodded, waved with a smile, and then got on the young man's motorcycle and drove away.
Fu Gui walked in front, and Zhou Xuan followed behind. They were already familiar with the area after unloading the cargo, but after crossing the deck, they didn't venture to the other side.
This fishing boat is indeed quite large, much larger than any Zhou Xuan had seen before. While most fishing boats are only a dozen meters long, this one is almost twenty meters long. There are two-story steel-framed houses at the bow. After entering the cabin...
Fu Gui pointed to the front and said, "That's the cockpit... over here..." Then he pointed to the four small rooms on the left and said, "These five rooms are for the five of us, the three opposite rooms are for Captain Yu Er and First Mate Lao Jiang, the other room is the food room, and the warehouse is downstairs."
Fu Gui pointed to the last room on the left and said, "This room is yours. After Lao Jiang boards the ship, we'll give you your daily necessities. There's a quilt in the room; it used to be the one that wrapped Er Mao. Just make do with it."
Zhou Xuan nodded, walked to the last doorway, and gently pushed it open.
It's more like five large drawers than five rooms. The room has a single bed that's about two meters high, but only about 1.3 meters wide. The steel frame cabin at the front of the boat is only seven or eight meters long. Besides the steel mast, the hull is equipped with a mechanical net caster that can cast and catch fish, though it still requires manual operation. Modern fishing boats are all mechanical, but this is different from the manual net casting of the past. Moreover, this net can cover an area of five or six hundred square meters at the smallest, and a depth of seven or eight hundred meters. The fishing net is made of nylon rope that is not much smaller than chopsticks. Of course, the mesh size of the net is generally designed to catch fish weighing at least two kilograms; smaller ones will slip through.
There are rules to fishing; you can't catch juvenile fish, otherwise you're cutting off your own livelihood.
Although the room was small, Zhou Xuan thought it was quite nice. He turned on the light, and the blankets on the bed smelled slightly of sweat. There were several clothes hooks attached to the ceiling, which were specifically for hanging clothes.
Zhou Xuan sat on the bed and tried it out. It was a steel-framed bed, and although it swayed a bit, it was enough to support him. There was a glass window about half a meter in size facing outwards, and when he looked out the window, he could see lights dotting the distance.
The sky had completely darkened.
Zhou Xuan was indeed a little tired. He lay down on the bed fully clothed. Just as he lay down, Fu Gui knocked on the door and poked his head in.
Zhou Xuan sat up abruptly and asked, "Is something the matter?"
Fu Gui blinked and said with a grin, "Want some fast food?"
Zhou Xuanxuan paused for a moment, then rubbed her stomach. After eating that boxed lunch at the snack shop, she had worked hard for an hour and was indeed quite hungry.
He immediately nodded and said, "Okay, I'm hungry too. A little something will do." Then he said to Fugui, "Brother Fu, it's my treat. We can't afford a proper meal, but a fast food meal is no problem."
Fu Gui was taken aback, then immediately burst into laughter, laughing so hard he couldn't straighten up and tears streamed down his face. He kept crying out, "Ouch, ouch!"
Zhou Xuan quickly helped Fu Gui sit up on the bed, then used his left hand to nudge Fu Gui's lower back. With a quick flick of his supernatural power, Fu Gui finally stopped laughing. He wiped away his tears, but his face was still filled with barely suppressed laughter.
Zhou Xuan didn't know what he was laughing at, but thinking about what had just happened, Fu Gui had only said one sentence to him, which seemed to be asking if he wanted to eat fast food, while he himself said he was hungry, wanted to eat, and offered to treat him. Was that really so funny?
Seeing Zhou Xuan still looking dazed, Fu Gui couldn't help but laugh and said, "Do you know what I mean by fast food? You're saying you eat whenever you're hungry? That's hilarious..."
Zhou Xuan noticed the strange expression on Fu Gui's face, and suddenly blushed, immediately understanding what Fu Gui meant by "eating fast food."
Volume 1, Chapter 440: Ghostly Cries
Chapter 440 Ghostly Howls
"Never mind, I'd rather not... not eat it..."
Zhou Xuan blushed and quickly shook his head as he spoke.
Fu Gui laughed heartily, "Little Hu, you seem like a straightforward and reliable person. Let me treat you, do you want... to eat?" As he said "eat," he stared at Zhou Xuan, chuckled, and added, "Actually, it's not expensive, just a hundred for acquaintances."
Zhou Xuan was now certain of Fu Gui's meaning: to do *that* kind of thing. Here, it might be called "having a quickie." Just as he was wondering why it was called a quickie, Fu Gui laughed and said, "We have to go out to sea at dawn, so we can't stay overnight. Actually, what I like most is staying overnight. I can do it as many times as I want. A quickie is just once; we're done and I'm out."
Zhou Xuan then understood what Fu Gui meant by "eating fast food." It turned out that staying overnight was called "overnight stay," while doing it once was called "eating fast food." Perhaps he had invited an old acquaintance, which was why he was confident in telling Zhou Xuan that it was cheap because they were friends.
"You... do as you please, I'm too sleepy, I'd better go to sleep." Zhou Xuan didn't want to argue with him about these topics anymore, so she quickly lay down again, ignoring the hunger in her stomach. So what if she was hungry? She wouldn't starve to death in one night.
Fu Gui smiled, then got up and went to the room across the street to get instant noodles and canned meat, saying, "If you don't want that, have this. Come to my place and get an electric kettle to boil some water."
Zhou Xuan thanked him, took the noodles and canned food, and then went next door to get an electric kettle. He then asked, "Brother Fu, would you like one too?"
Fu Gui waved his hand and said, "No need, I just ate at home. You do your thing, I'll go next door to make a call and ask someone to come over." As he walked outside the door, he turned back and said, "Just let me know if you need anything. Once we're on the ship, we're like brothers, there's no need for so many formalities."