“No, I can’t let it get away.” Huang Xiaoxiao made up her mind.
She refused to believe that she, armed with the ultimate weapon—Blast Beads—and her invincible storage bracelet, couldn’t deal with one little fish.
She took out several Blast Beads and held them tightly in both hands.
After giving herself a bit of encouragement, she finally let go of the tree she had been hugging and walked toward the little fish.
If it dared move, she would blow it up with the Blast Beads.
But the moment she relaxed her grip—
A tremendous force instantly yanked her forward.
“Ahhh!”
“Blast! Blast! Blast!”
“Store! Store! Store!”
The sudden movement scared Huang Xiaoxiao into screaming.
Her arms flailed wildly.
No one could tell what she was shouting.
In short, anyone watching would think she looked completely crazy.
Like she had lost her mind.
Fortunately, the trees blocked the view, so nobody noticed the hole in the ice.
…
Huang Xiaoxiao lay awkwardly on the edge of the ice hole and looked at the water just inches away.
So close!
Just a little closer and she would have been dragged into the water.
Thankfully!
She had her two great treasures.
She had finally dealt with the giant little fish.
Looking inside her storage space, she saw the enormous fish.
Several parts of its body were torn open, with fresh blood flowing from the wounds.
It probably wasn’t completely dead yet. Its tail was still twitching.
Hmph!
No matter how powerful it was, she had still stored it inside her space!
This discovery also revealed a new way to make money.
Just now, she seemed to have touched the fish for a moment, and then it had entered her storage space.
That meant she didn’t need to drag fish out of the water at all.
As long as she touched them, she could store them directly.
Her heart surged with excitement.
This was practically a ticket to wealth!
She immediately jumped to her feet.
She lowered her fishing net back into the water.
Unfortunately, her luck wasn’t as good this time.
She waited for quite a while without seeing a single fish.
That wasn’t right.
Huang Xiaoxiao frowned.
Wasn’t this river supposed to be full of fish and shrimp?
People said you could catch plenty just by opening a hole in the ice.
Then why hadn’t she seen even a shadow of a fish?
Her gaze shifted toward the other teams.
By now, more people had managed to break through the ice.
One fish after another was being hauled up.
Huang Xiaoxiao watched carefully and finally noticed something unusual.
Before fishing, they would scatter a packet of something into the water.
It was probably bait.
After waiting a short while, fish and shrimp would gather on their own.
So—
The reason she wasn’t catching anything was because everyone else had lured the fish away.
How shameless.
If they had any skill, they should compete fairly.
Using tricks like this was disgraceful.
Huang Xiaoxiao stood there.
Inwardly, she spent quite some time angrily criticizing everyone.
Unfortunately, it was completely useless.
Forget it.
She was a generous person and wouldn’t stoop to their level.
Wasn’t it just bait?
She slid toward Lin Ruiyang.
“Lin Ruiyang!”
Huang Xiaoxiao called out.
“Hm? What is it?” Lin Ruiyang was struggling to pull up a fishing net. It felt unusually heavy, which meant there were probably quite a few fish inside.
“Can you give me some bait?”
Only after they had pulled up the fish did Huang Xiaoxiao ask.
“Bait? What do you need bait for?” Zhuo Wenxuan glared at Huang Xiaoxiao with dissatisfaction.
Couldn’t she see how busy they were?
Instead of helping, all she did was fool around.
“I need it for something.”
Huang Xiaoxiao certainly wasn’t going to tell her that she planned to catch fish secretly by herself.
“It’s fine. We brought plenty.”
Afraid Zhuo Wenxuan might pick on Huang Xiaoxiao again, Lin Ruiyang quickly handed her a packet of bait and encouraged her to leave.
“Thank you!”
Huang Xiaoxiao thanked him.
When she caught some fish later, she would definitely share a few with him.
At least, that was her plan.
Holding the bait, she glided back toward the small grove.
Whoosh!
She had already mastered skating on the ice.
She moved surprisingly fast.
There was even a smile on her face.
Anyone watching would think she was just playing around.
People shook their heads and sighed.
What a spoiled spendthrift.
Even children helped out.
Yet she, a grown adult, was happily playing by herself.
Fortunately, she wasn’t part of their family.
Otherwise, they would have beaten some sense into her.
Huang Xiaoxiao had no idea that, in just a short time, everyone’s opinion of her had dropped to rock bottom.
As she approached the ice hole, she even hummed a tune.
“Bait, go do your thing!”
She opened the packet and casually scattered a handful into the water.
Then she crouched beside the hole and waited quietly.
The bait was surprisingly effective.
Within only a few minutes, more than a hundred fish had gathered.
Excited, Huang Xiaoxiao plunged her hand into the icy water.
“Hiss!”
“So cold!”
She shivered violently.
But for the sake of the fish, she gritted her teeth and endured it.
The moment her hand touched a fish, she activated her storage space.
One fish after another disappeared into it.
Only when the cold became unbearable did she quickly pull her hand back.
“Huff… so cold! I’m freezing!”
Huang Xiaoxiao hugged her hands and jumped around in place.
After a long while, she finally felt a little better.
Looking at her reddened hands, she frowned.
This couldn’t continue.
At this rate, she wouldn’t catch many fish before ruining her hands.
No.
Absolutely not.
Her hands were meant for artifact refining.
She couldn’t afford to damage them.
Huang Xiaoxiao shook her head vigorously.
She stood there thinking for quite some time but couldn’t come up with a better solution.
It seemed that, other than telling Lin Ruiyang and the others, she had no good options.
After standing there for a while longer, she let out a long sigh.
Looks like trying to shine all by herself was harder than she thought.
“Lin Ruiyang!”
“Lin Ruiyang!”
Huang Xiaoxiao leisurely skated across the ice.
“Huang Xiaoxiao, what do you want now? If there’s nothing important, stop bothering us. We’re busy.”
Zhuo Wenxuan was the first to snap at her.
Her dissatisfaction with Huang Xiaoxiao kept growing.
This woman simply had no sense of social awareness.
Someone like her would only embarrass their family.
“I wasn’t calling you!”
Huang Xiaoxiao shot back unhappily.
Honestly, Zhuo Wenxuan seemed to appear everywhere.
“You—”
Zhuo Wenxuan was furious.
Lin Ruiyang rubbed his forehead with a headache and quickly stepped between them.
“Sister-in-law, what’s the matter?”
“Oh, nothing major. I opened another hole over there, and there are a lot of fish underneath. I can’t handle it alone.”
“What?!”
Lin Ruiyang was stunned.
Another hole?
Was she serious?
Zhuo Wenxuan looked equally shocked.
Lin Hai, Xu Jingtian, and the others all turned to look.
“Come with me and see for yourself.”
Instead of answering directly, Huang Xiaoxiao motioned for them to follow.
She felt that seeing it with their own eyes would be far more convincing than any explanation.
“Wait, I’m coming too.”
Zhuo Wenxuan refused to believe it.
She had to verify it personally.
The two followed Huang Xiaoxiao toward the riverbank.
After passing several trees—
“There. Right here.”
Huang Xiaoxiao pointed at the water below.
“It’s real!”
Lin Ruiyang was overjoyed.
“It’s real…”
Zhuo Wenxuan’s expression changed.
The commotion quickly attracted attention.
If it had only been Huang Xiaoxiao, nobody would have cared.
But since Lin Ruiyang had gone over, it was a different story.
“Brother, what’s going on? Need a hand?”
One curious man approached.
Though he spoke of helping, the look in his eyes suggested less honorable intentions.
He wasn’t the only one.
Several nearby groups were already making their way over.
Huang Xiaoxiao grew anxious.
She looked at Lin Ruiyang.
What were these people planning to do?