Let's go back to 2008, starting with a recreational fishing park.

Not long after I sat down, the office began to receive a stream of visitors.

Jiangxia quickly became busy.

Although there are many more people on weekends now than when the store first opened, Jiang Xia can handle the money collection by himself because they only accept whole hundred-yuan bills, so there's no need to give change or check the penguin likes.

Everyone else, however, had time to busy themselves with other things.

Around 11 o'clock, Jiang Xiaobo rushed over.

"Brother, someone caught a fish with a float."

"The fish that costs 500 yuan?" Jiang Xia asked in surprise.

When Su Qing and I caught a big grass carp, to liven up the atmosphere at the fishing spot, we set up a system where the first three big fish were free to fish and a 300 yuan reward for catching a marked fish.

Although not many tourists have caught big grass carp over the past few years, the prize of the first three grass carp has already been won by the tourists.

But the fish that was offered a reward of 300 yuan has remained uncaught for a long time, probably because of its large size and the fact that there was only one of it.

Hearing that someone had won the fish bid, Jiang Xia couldn't help but be surprised.

"Yes, sir, he's a regular customer. Would you like to go check him out?" Jiang Xiaobo nodded and asked.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Xia immediately stood up and walked towards the door:

"Let's go take a look."

He was very curious about which regular customer was so lucky to have caught the fish. He had only released this one into the reservoir, which covered more than ten acres.

As he stepped outside, he called out towards the kitchen, "Mom, I'm going to check on the fishing spot. If any tourists come, please entertain them."

From the kitchen, Wang Guifen poked her head out: "What are you doing over there if you're so busy?"

"Someone caught a big fish, I'm going to check it out."

Upon hearing this, Wang Guifen waved her hand: "Go ahead, go ahead, you just love joining in on this kind of fun."

Jiang Xia chuckled and led Jiang Xiaobo toward the fishing area.

On the way, Jiang Xiaobo excitedly said, "Brother, you have no idea what it was like when he caught it. Almost all the tourists went over to join in the fun. It's just that you were too busy at the time, otherwise I would have definitely come and called you to go and see."

Jiang Xia handed him a cigarette and said with a laugh, "You little rascal, you only came to call me after you'd had your fill of the excitement. Next time, don't worry about whether I'm busy or not, just come and tell me first. When the fish is landed, I'll have to go take a look no matter how busy I am."

"Haha, I'll definitely do it next time..." Jiang Xiaobo took the cigarette and laughed.

Soon, the two arrived at the fishing spot. The spot where they caught the floated fish was fishing spot number 26. Jiang Xia went over to take a look and, sure enough, it was an old acquaintance.

This fisherman was none other than the tourist who had caught a 20-pound grass carp but accidentally got off the hook on the first day of his business.

Even now, Jiang Xia still remembers his name: Li Hao.

At this moment, Li Hao was surrounded by a number of fishermen, who all greeted Jiang Xia when he arrived.

"Boss Jiang is here."

"Boss Jiang, this is the first time you've caught a fish with a tether. You should give him a reward today."

“…………”

Jiang Xia nodded to everyone in turn, and then came to Li Hao's side.

"Boss Jiang." Li Hao, his face flushed, nodded to Jiang Xia.

Even though seven or eight minutes had passed, his body was still trembling slightly. This was a consequence of his body being overly excited and experiencing an excessive secretion of adrenaline.

"Wow, bro, I really didn't expect you to catch this fish!" Jiang Xia praised him with a smile.

"Hey, Boss Jiang, I was just lucky..." Li Hao actually became shy upon hearing the praise.

Jiang Xia waved his hand and smiled:

"Brother, you're not just lucky. I caught this fish the first time. It weighed nearly 30 pounds. Without skill, it would be almost impossible to pull it up."

After saying that, he recalled the scene when he caught that fish. He had to admit that Li Hao must have some skill, while he himself was just pure luck.

Hearing Jiang Xia praise his skills, Li Hao was modest on the surface, but in his heart he was admiring Jiang Xia's good judgment.

No one knows what they felt when that 20-pound fish ran right under their noses that day.

From that day on, Li Hao never missed a fishing trip on his days off.

Even on normal working days, he wasn't idle; he would spend his free time watching various fishing videos and learning fishing techniques on different fishing forums.

He works at a bank, where the benefits are quite good, but the salary itself isn't very high.

For some time now, Li Hao has been saving money to go fishing.

Fortunately, hard work pays off. After more than a month, Li Hao was finally standing in the center of the crowd again, enjoying the praise from fellow fishing enthusiasts. And this time, he caught a fish that no tourist had ever caught before since the fishing grounds opened.

Looking at Jiang Xia's smiling face, Li Hao wanted to pull him aside and tell him how he had been spending his time.

Feeling Li Hao's gaze, Jiang Xia suddenly shuddered inexplicably. Why was this guy's gaze so...?

Not daring to delve any deeper into the matter, Jiang Xia quickly asked:

"Where's the brother fish? Is it in the fish basket? Quickly take it out and take a picture."

Upon hearing this, Li Hao snapped out of his thoughts, nodded, and took his fish basket out of the water.

As soon as the fish basket was brought ashore, Jiangxia saw the big fish.

The big fish was inside the enclosure, but because the space was too small, it couldn't move its body freely and appeared rather quiet.

Of course, it's also possible that he exhausted his strength during the process of being fished up by Li Hao and hasn't recovered yet.

Li Hao poured the fish out of the fish basket. Jiang Xia looked at the red card pinned to the fin and confirmed that this was the marked fish.

"Come on, bro, let's take a picture together while hugging this big guy."

Jiang Xia didn't mind the dirt and simply reached out and hugged the big bluefish.

Seeing this, Li Hao quickly stood beside Jiang Xia and held the fish's tail with his hand.

Immediately, Jiang Xiaobo picked up the camera hanging around his neck and started taking pictures of the two of them.

After the photo was taken, Jiang Xia took out 300 yuan in cash from his pocket and handed it to Li Hao.

"Brother, this is the prize money for the winning fish, 300 yuan. Please keep it."

Taking the cash from Jiang Xia, Li Hao said politely, "Thank you, Boss Jiang."

"You deserve it," Jiang Xia said with a smile.

Then Jiang Xia picked up the big fish from the shore and shouted in front of the group of fishermen who were still watching the excitement:

"Brothers, the payment for this fish has been settled. Now I'm going to put it back in the water."

He held the large fish, slowly turned around so everyone around could clearly see the giant creature, and continued shouting:

"This fish has been put back into the water. The rules remain the same: whoever catches this fish next time will also receive a reward of 300 yuan."