I Can Turn into a Fish

Chapter 234: Gene Cultivation of Precious Fish

Chu Xian left and headed to the harbor, not knowing what Qin Dahai and the others were planning.

“Grandpa Feng, do you know where I can buy or catch large yellow croakers and Chinese Bahabas?” Chu Xian asked.

“Chinese Bahabas are very rare; finding them will depend on luck. As for large yellow croakers, I hear that you can always buy some at the fish market. Good fishing locations? I don’t think anybody really knows.” Grandpa Feng shook his head as he replied.

Chu Xian nodded slightly. There were a lot more large yellow croakers than there were Chinese Bahabas and were not that rare, but if he wanted to go catch them himself, the probability was too low. No one knew where these precious fish bred.

Chu Xian parked the car outside the fish market, and Grandpa Feng led the way into the Fish Treasure Market.*

Chu Xian had been to this Fish Treasure Market twice before, and he was not completely unfamiliar with the place. That ornamental fish seller Old Wang still sat by his store.

“Xiao Xian, look. This store sells precious and rare fish.” Grandpa Feng pointed.

The decorations inside the store were all higher quality, and it did not look like a shop that sold fish. The sides of the store were lined with wild sea bass, wild groupers. Every fish was around a hundred rmb, and they were all alive.

Chu Xian often encountered these fish at sea. The difference between a frozen fish and a live fish resulted in completely different prices, so a hundred rmb per cattier was not expensive.

There were many different salt water fish throughout the store, and in the center of the place was a glass box filled with ice for various frozen fish.

“Xiao Xian, I heard before that this store sells wild, large yellow croakers. Maybe they have some today.” Grandpa Feng explained before turning to one of the staff attendants. “Excuse me, do you have wild large yellow croakers?”

“We have large yellow croakers, how big do you want?” The attendant nodded and immediately replied.

“Anything, as long as it is a wild large yellow croaker.” It did not matter if it was a three catty wild large yellow croaker or a one catty wild large yellow croaker, they would all be the same species. He was not interested in weight, but in the genetic code.

“Then come with me and take a look. We have three large yellow croakers, two over two catties, and one over three.” The staffer led them over to the ice box in the back.

“Frozen ones?” Chu Xian asked as he was led to the ice box.

“Yes. It’s difficult to raise large yellow croakers, and it is not easy to buy living wild ones. The last time I saw ones that were alive and wild was at the Jing Hai International Fishing Exhibition. It will be very difficult for you to buy a live on if that’s what you are after, but you can go to the harbor and test your luck.” The staffer replied.

Chu Xian frowned a little, and looked at the three large yellow croakers in the ice box.

The three wild yellow croakers had clearly been frozen for a long time, and Chu Xian could not see any trace of their status. If they did not have a status, then he would not be able to extract genes from them.

“It looks like a deaf fish really won’t work.” Chu Xian shook his head slightly. Now he was unsure of why he had been able to get the genetic code from the blood of the Dunkleosteus – perhaps it had been because of the abundance of energy in the creature’s blood, or because it had been sealed in a special container.

“Is the harbor the only place to buy wild large yellow croakers?” Chu Xian asked the staffer, not willing to give up.

“There is a place, but it’s quite far from here. Their large yellow croakers are farmed, but are basically the same as a wild large yellow croaker. There actually is a large yellow croaker fish farm here in Hai Qing, but their croakers are only a some tens of rmb per catty, and can’t really be considered large yellow croakers.” The staffer thought out loud.

“Oh? Where is this place? Are there really people who farm large yellow croakers?” Chu Xian asked curiously.

“Of course there are. There’s a fish farm along the coast of Hai Qing, I think. And there’s also one in the South Ji Islands. That one is a natural blue farm, and they have a large yellow croaker farm. There’s only a few croakers there, but they are very similar to wild fish. They aren’t cheap though, and they cost around three hundred rmb per cattie.” The staffer replied.

“A fish farm in Hai Qing City? South Ji Island?” Chu Xian frowned a little. He could go to the fish farm in Hai Qing City, but the South Ji Island was over two thousand kilometers from the South Sea, and was very far.

“Then do you know where I can buy Chinese Bahabas?”

“I don’t know of any. Some fishermen occasionally catch some and you might be able to buy it from them, but if there is a place that sold them the police would have busted them already. These are endangered protected animals, and Chinese Bahabas are extremely rare. If you want to buy some, you could only try your luck here or go to Burma. A lot of Chinese Bahabas are purchased from shops in Burma.” The staffer replied.

“Alright. Thank you very much.” Chu Xian nodded to the man and left the fish market with Grandpa Feng.

“Xiao Xian? Why are you looking to buy such expensive fish? Do you want to eat them? Grandpa Feng asked curiously.

“To farm them.” Chu Xian chuckled.

Grandpa Feng paused, but did not ask any more.

“Let’s go. We’ll take a look around the harbor.” Chu Xian brought Grandpa Feng to the harbor, and they wandered around asking people but did not find any large yellow croakers, let alone a Chinese Bahabas.

Chu Xian also asked about the fish farm that sold large yellow croakers, and inquired about the information the staffer had passed on to him.

Much later that night, Chu Xian and the others arrived at the seaside fish farm. The fish farm was not all that large, and with a brief thought, Chu Xian’s vision expanded to cover the entire fish farm, and large yellow croakers appeared in his vision.

But when he took a careful look at the croakers, Chu Xian frowned. “Their energy only grows up to a hundred or so, and their names have changed from large yellow croakers to small yellow croakers. No wonder they are so cheap, shit, they’ve been farmed to this extent that even the genes have begun to change. Fuck.”

“Go out to sea to find some? Forget it, in the vast sea the probability of finding this fish is too low.” Chu Xian sat back in his car and shook his head.

“Maybe I should take a trip to the East Sea?” Chu XIan thought for a moment then made a decision. Since that staffer had said there were farms for large yellow croakers infinitely similar to wild large yellow croakers at the South Ji Island, and hopefully their genes had not deteriorated.

If he could find live Chinese Bahabas or large yellow croakers and extract their DNA, he would have the ability to cultivate and raise these two fish in the future, and it would be extremely beneficial to the development of his fish farm.

Back at home, Chu Xian told Xiao Ying that he needed to take a trip to the East Sea for two days, and she complained a little and they messed around roughly that night.

The next day, Chu Xian stretched comfortably and watched Xiao Ying drive away before walking to the entrance of the compound.

“Boss!” Sword Two and Sword Three called out from their position at the entrance.

Chu Xian nodded, and headed to the airport, hopped on a plan, and flew over to the South Ji Island.

The South Ji Island was an island tourist attraction about fifty nautical miles from the Warm Mountain City.

The South Ji Island was considered a natural ocean protected zone under the world protection network of the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization. There were many natural and ocean resources in the region.

As a protected area, fishing was heavily restricted, and one need not even mention trawl fishing. The environment was beautifully preserved.

As soon as Chu Xian stepped onto the island, he was struck by the beautiful view, the golden beach and green plants, and the white clouds, blue sky and wide ocean. It would a good tourist attraction.

“Let’s go eat first.” Chu Xian looked around. He was somewhat hungry, so he took a few minutes to find a small diner.

The facilities on South Ji Island were somewhat lackluster, but the local food was not bad, and he ordered some seafood and sat down to eat with Sword Two and Sword Three.

“Ah Xiu, Ah Xiu, come and look. Look what I’ve caught!” At that moment, a man rushed over, bucket in hand, shouting excitedly.

“Did you catch something good?” Ah Xiu replied, the female owner of the diner. She smiled at the topless man.

“Look, such a huge abalone. This is very rare.” The man held up the abalone he had stored in his bucket and announced happily.

“Oh? You really found one, Han Cheng, your luck is pretty good.” The proprietress took the abalone and hefted it, speaking happily.

“I didn’t think I would catch it! I swam under a rock and just happened to spot this guy.” The man answered excitedly.

Chu Xian chuckled. A huge range existed in the price of abalone, and while farmed abalones might go for a couple rmb per, this wild abalone was worth upwards of a thousand rmb.

“Maam, if you don’t mind, are there people here who farm large yellow croakers?” Chu Xian asked.

“Large yellow croakers? There are, on the south side of the island there is a fish farm that farms large yellow croakers, groupers, pomfrets, abalones, and all kinds of other fish. We’re going to sell this abalone to them. If you want to come along, we can bring you with us later.” Han Cheng replied.

“Alright, thank you very much, big bro.” Chu Xian nodded.

After finishing lunch, Chu Xian and the others followed Han Cheng and walked to the southern part of South Ji Island.

“Are you guys here to buy large yellow croakers? The fish at this place aren’t cheap?” Han Cheng asked as they walked.

“En, I want to buy some live large yellow croakers. I just don’t know if their farmed croakers are very different from wild large yellow croakers.” Chu Xian replied.

“There are some differences. They sell large yellow croakers for about 300 rmb per cattie, and each fish is typically around a catty in weight. There aren’t any large croakers, and the taste is somewhat worse than that of a real wild croaker.” Han Cheng replied, apparently very familiar with the fish farm.

“En.” Chu Xian nodded. One catty of a wild large yellow croaker went for about seven to eight hundred rmb, and ones that were over three catties could reach four thousand rmb. The pricing of this fish farm was about half that of the price of wild catch, which was normal to the standard of farmed fish. (A/N Author looked up prices on Baidu [Chinese Google], and admits they might not be accurate).

“We’re here. It’s this place over there. You guys should go inside and look for their staff, I’ll go first and sell this abalone.” Han Cheng smiled at them and departed.

“Hello auntie, can I ask where I should go to buy large yellow croakers?” Chu Xian walked over to a woman and asked.

“Large yellow croakers? Of course, are you looking for frozen and living?” The woman was a staff member and easily replied.

“I’m looking for living ones.” Chu Xian said.

“En, follow me.” The woman nodded and led him inside the building.

South Ji Island was not as famous as other tourist attractions, so it was not too developed. The woman brought Chu Xian and his men to a pool behind the house.

“Manager Zhao, someone is looking to buy large yellow croakers, living ones.” The woman called over to a middle-aged man.

“A customer wants to buy large yellow croakers?” Manager Zhao replied and turned, and paused when he saw Chu Xian and the two suited bodyguards. “Little bro, are you looking to buy large yellow croakers? If I may, how many are you looking to buy?”

“I’m just looking for two to eat.” Chu Xian smiled and replied.

“Two?” Manager Zhao replied with some disappointment, but quickly recovered. “Alright, if you’ll wait here, I can bring two here for you.”

“Big bro, if you don’t mind, can we follow you to your fish farm?” Chu Xian asked.

“Of course, but it’ll be a bit of a walk.” Manager Zhao nodded.