Liu Ruolan arrogantly cast her fishing net, her movements skilled and practiced. In just a few swift motions, she had everything set up.
By contrast, Su Jinhui fumbled clumsily at the side, looking as though even lowering the net into the water was a struggle.
“If you can’t do it, then hurry up and admit defeat! Go back to wherever you came from! I just can’t stand the smug faces of you capitalists!” Qingju spat viciously, glaring as if she wanted to tear a piece of flesh from Su Jinhui with her eyes.
Su Jinhui didn’t even look up, focusing intently on studying the net. It took her a full half hour before she finally managed to lower it into the water.
They agreed to meet at the shore at three in the afternoon to haul in the nets. Su Jinhui simply went back to catch up on some beauty sleep.
In her dream, she entered the jade pendant space. An unfamiliar notification sound informed her that the space system was upgrading and about to unlock new skills.
The progress bar moved slowly. With no other option, she could only wait.
Su Jinhui sat cross-legged on the ground, waiting until she was nearly moldy, before the system notification finally announced, “System upgrade nearing completion. Please unlock new skills.”
Just as she was about to take a look around, she faintly heard someone calling her name.
“Su Jinhui! Losing isn’t shameful—hiding inside and refusing to come out is! Coward! Su Jinhui, get out here!” Liu Ruolan pounded hard on the door, nearly smashing it down.
The progress bar inside the space suddenly reset to zero, and Su Jinhui jolted awake from her sleep.
She glanced roughly at the clock. The hour hand pointed to four—she had slept for that long. Rubbing her temples, she got up and opened the door.
“I knew it—she chickened out! She doesn’t even have the courage to face reality. Disgusting!” Qingju blurted out.
Their eyes met. Su Jinhui shot her a cold glance. “I just overslept. But you all really went to the trouble of staging such a fine drama for me.”
Outside the door, it wasn’t just the three of them. Many people from the family compound had come out to watch the excitement, a dense crowd packed together.
Qingju rolled her eyes. “Stop pretending. Don’t cry later when you can’t catch even a single fish. That’d be embarrassing.”
“Oh, don’t forget—she’s from a capitalist background. How could we compare? Someone like Sister Lanlan, with good class background and real ability, is truly rare.”
Their flattery was slick and well-practiced, and Liu Ruolan clearly enjoyed it.
Su Jinhui had no interest in watching their performance. She grabbed a jacket and headed toward the beach. “Don’t celebrate too early. Who wins isn’t decided yet.”
The onlookers were instantly intrigued. Many of them followed along eagerly to watch the spectacle.
Liu Ruolan was the first to haul in her net. It was packed full—twenty-three fish in total, big and small.
Seeing the plump, lively fish, people couldn’t help but drool with envy.
“Sister Lanlan, you’ve broken your record again! These fish are so fat and big—how can she possibly compete?” Qingju called out loudly, as if the result had already been announced.
“That girl from the Liu family grew up on fishing boats. There aren’t many who can match her skills. I’d say this Yan family’s future wife is in trouble.”
“In trouble? I think she has zero chance of winning. There’s no suspense at all—what’s the point of competing?”
The crowd buzzed with discussion, their voices just loud enough for everyone involved to hear.
Liu Ruolan glared at her provocatively. “Admit defeat, loser.”
“So confident?” Su Jinhui also began pulling up her net. Halfway through, she sensed something was wrong.
The net was torn! Just from the lightness in her hands, she could tell there was a huge hole below!
She instinctively looked at Liu Ruolan, her gaze sharp with caution.
Liu Ruolan slowly walked over and whispered in her ear, “Now how are you going to beat me?”
So it really was her doing! She must have tampered with the net while Su Jinhui was asleep!
Even though Liu Ruolan’s chances of winning had already been far greater, she still resorted to such underhanded tricks.
“Well? What’s the matter? Don’t tell me you didn’t catch even a single fish and don’t dare show it to everyone?”
“Su Jinhui, you’ll have to face reality sooner or later. I suggest you stop dragging things out!”
They wore expressions of gleeful anticipation, waiting for her to embarrass herself.
“My net is really too heavy. I’ll have to trouble you all to help me,” Su Jinhui called back calmly.
Qingju looked at her with amusement, as if to say: Go on, keep acting. Let’s see how long you can keep it up.
“I didn’t realize you had talent for acting on stage!” Liu Ruolan shot Ruonan a look, and Ruonan immediately stepped forward to help.
Though Ruonan was a woman, she was tall and strong, with tremendous strength. Whether Su Jinhui was pretending or not, she could handle it.
She grabbed the rope and yanked—nothing moved.
She pulled harder. More of the net surfaced, but before she could rejoice, it was suddenly yanked back into the sea, as if some unseen force below was pulling against her.
“Quick, come help! There’s something alive down there fighting me!” Ruonan cried out.
Liu Ruolan’s expression turned serious. She knew Ruonan’s strength well—could it be that Su Jinhui had really caught something?
The spectators who had been watching the show jumped onto the boat to help. After exhausting all their strength, they finally hauled it up. Blue-gray scales embedded with tiger-like patterns shimmered like a natural ink painting.
“Tiger grouper! That’s a tiger grouper! The last time I saw one caught was in my grandfather’s generation!”
“This fish has to weigh over thirty pounds! Just this one alone beats more than twenty of Liu Ruolan’s fish!”
“How can you compare them? Liu Ruolan’s fish are common. This tiger grouper isn’t something you can just catch whenever you want!”
“Look—the net is actually torn! Tiger groupers are famously clever, yet it was caught by a broken net. This really is fate!”
One comment followed another. The outcome was clear.
Liu Ruolan’s face looked as bad as if she’d swallowed a dead fly. She had wanted to take the edge off her rival, but instead ended up helping someone else shine.
“I lost! I’ll do as agreed!” Liu Ruolan threw out those words and strode away, not giving anyone a chance to speak.
Su Jinhui released the tiger grouper back into the sea, then distributed Liu Ruolan’s fish among everyone before leaving.
Of course, the tiger grouper hadn’t offered itself willingly. When she first pulled up the net, it really had been empty. She had simply taken advantage of a moment when no one was paying attention to toss a green crab from the boat into the net, then used a special fragrance from her space. She hadn’t expected to catch such a massive creature.
Liu Ruolan did indeed deliver fresh fish as promised—but Su Jinhui wasn’t the only one who received them.
Every household she had dealings with received fish.
When mouths are fed and hands are filled, gossip naturally follows.
Wherever Liu Ruolan went, she told people that Su Jinhui was a domineering, willful capitalist young lady who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals. She claimed Su Jinhui had used her reputation to force Yan Li’an into marriage; otherwise, with his bright future, he would never have married a woman of such bad class background.
When some people didn’t believe her and countered with the fact that Su Jinhui had rendered great service by helping destroy the enemy spy nest, Liu Ruolan immediately spread word that Su Jinhui must have been involved with those spies. Otherwise, how could no one else have discovered them, yet she did as soon as she arrived?
It was obvious, she said, that there had been collusion.