Super Zoo

Chapter 172 There Is No Love Without a Reason

Who says foreigners lack personal connections, who says they are always completely impartial and selfless?

There's no such thing as a cat that doesn't crave fish, and just as crows are universally black, capitalist crows are especially dark!

Mr. Seibel indeed possesses world-class culinary skills and offers very objective critiques on food, enjoying a good reputation.

But that does not mean Mr. Seibel lives in a vacuum, completely detached from social intricacies.

Zhao Yun, as one of the Guinness Asia Region's certifiers, has numerous international connections and various prestigious titles, naturally leading to acquaintance with Mr. Seibel.

To ensure the plan was foolproof, before making this news story, Suming had first asked Zhao Yun to host a dinner, inviting Mr. Seibel over for a meal that featured nothing but fish from Shuijun Lake.

Mr. Seibel, faced with a table full of fish, was of course quite puzzled. Zhao Yun explained that these fish were raised by a friend using a "special method," inviting Mr. Seibel to taste and assess them.

So, the segment that is now airing on the Yangchuan food show was actually "pre-performed" at Zhao Yun's home several days earlier. The surprise Mr. Seibel showed after eating those fish at Zhao Yun's was exactly the same as what was shown on television.

Of course, Mr. Seibel's professional integrity is solid. It was precisely because he had tasted these fish earlier and approved of their flavor that he agreed to help Zhao Yun, or rather, to help Suming put on this act. If the taste of the fish was subpar or just average, Mr. Seibel wouldn't have agreed to ruin his reputation even with his connection to Zhao Yun.

Suming had initially considered slipping Mr. Seibel a card or something, but then thought better of it, as the way foreigners think can be quite different from our own. It might backfire, so instead he gave Mr. Seibel his business card, offering a thirty percent discount should Mr. Seibel wish to buy fish from him in the future.

"Isn't this tantamount to toying with public opinion?" Nangong Yan, who was also watching TV in the pavilion, holding a pregnant cat, scratched the cat's ears and asked with a smile.

"Can't you find a healthier way to entertain yourself!"

Suming lifted the pregnant cat from her arms and placed it in the nest, then pulled out a sleeping fellow and placed it in Nangong Yan's arms before saying, "How could this be considered toying with public opinion? At most, it's called dress rehearsal! Doesn't your TV station have dress rehearsals for programs? And those reality shows, aren't they all arranged in advance according to a script?"

"You know this too?" exclaimed Nangong Yan with wide eyes.

"The audience knows it, do you think they're stupid? It's all for a bit of fun. The celebrities play their parts on screen, the audience laughs below; everyone is in the know, it's a symbiotic relationship. True friends understand without pointing it out."

Suming stood up, put on his coat, and headed out, "Enough talk, I'm off to arrange the fish at Shuijun Lake. There's food in the kitchen, heat it up and eat if you're hungry."

"It sounds odd, there isn't a formal wedding or anything, how come it seems like you already started living together?" Nangong Yan rolled her eyes.

Before the food show was aired, Suming had already received a call from the manager of the Fish Joy Park supply department, hoping to place an order for a batch of fish with him. After the show was broadcast, several hotels and restaurants Suming had supplied fish to previously also called in quick succession, hoping to further cooperate and placed orders for fish with Suming.

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Such demand necessitated large-scale fishing; small catches like last time definitely wouldn't suffice. Just the large orders from these hotels required the first delivery to be about a dozen tons, and if the sales were good, they would need to deliver weekly.

Shuijun Lake had already been half-closed off, its surface partitioned with floating barriers to keep recreational boats away, while the other half was dotted with temporarily retrofitted fishing boats, and a group of workers on the shore sorting out fishing nets.

Fishing is a skilled job, with nets consisting of countless threads, a slight lack of attention can result in them getting tangled, and too much tangling can render a net useless. There was also a technique involved in casting the nets for fishing; without it, the fish could easily get injured, and even if they didn't die immediately, they wouldn't last long.

"Mr. Su, want to give it a try?" Liang Shi dragged a large net over and asked Suming with a smile.

"Nah, I can't handle this thing properly," Suming quickly waved his hand.

Suming had tried fishing with nets as a child, but being rather clumsy, he would mess with a few meters long net for ages and still get it tangled before it even hit the water. After that, he never touched fishing nets again. Besides, standing around wasn't as good as lying down; it was better for the workers to do this kind of physical labor, while he could enjoy the view from the shore.

Several boats started moving simultaneously, dragging nets from the shore toward the opposite side of the lake, causing large swirls of water to surface, stirring like boiling water wherever they passed. The ripples glistened, and fish of all sizes were alarmed, darting everywhere. This darting action made them stick to the surrounding nets; some fish even jumped out of the water in panic, and from the shore, it looked as though the fish were willingly leaping into the nets.

Liang Shi had previously asked whether they should drain some water from Shuijun Lake to facilitate fishing, but the lake was far too large for the volume of work involved in draining it to be feasible. Suming, having nothing better to do, decided to use his spiritual power to delve into the lake waters, guiding groups of fish living in the middle and lower reaches to swim upward, falling into nets of their own accord.

Over half a year, the bighead catfish had grown to an extravagant weight of over ten pounds each. Although they weren't as fierce as the black carp, as Suming's direct subordinates, the bighead catfish were much more intelligent than other fish and even had the power to 'lead their minions.' Currently, all crocodile gars in the lake were under their command.

Following the standards provided by Suming, the bighead catfish, along with the crocodile gars, herded all the larger-sized black carp in the lake to the other side to avoid catching them.

There was a reason behind leaving these large black carp: one aspect was for breeding the following year, and another was that the 'food' for other fish in Shuijun Lake consisted primarily of the feces from the black carp. The larger black carp produced correspondingly larger feces, and keeping them was meant to facilitate large-scale manure production for the following year.

Although using black carp feces as feed for fish wasn't unhygienic but rather quite eco-friendly, the idea was quite off-putting, so Suming didn't tell anyone other than Liang Shi.

By evening, they had caught nearly twenty tons of fish, which were sent to various hotels in several batches. Early the next morning, Suming's cell phone kept chirping with message alerts—he received several bank deposit notifications. They were payments for the fish from the various hotels. When Suming finally awoke and calculated the total, it was close to 290,000 yuan.