Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Chapter 349 - 159: Archery Can Be Used Like This?

Li Younan had already prepared the batter and eggs into a paste, just waiting for fresh ingredients to be added to the pot. Meanwhile, another small pot was already simmering with fresh crucian carp soup.

He brought two large bottles of mineral water and cleaned the freshly caught crucian carp meticulously. After finishing these tasks, Li Younan wandered over to watch Liu Yu fish, quite intrigued.

Well, it’s quite amusing to watch someone who is confident they can catch fish, but has to wait a long time without results. You can see they’re anxious inside, but they put on a calm and assured appearance.

Liu Yu glanced calmly at Li Younan and said calmly, "Have you got everything ready?"

Li Younan nodded, "Just waiting for your fish."

Liu Yu nodded silently and added, "Today’s wind direction might have a big impact on the fish conditions, but it’s no big deal." He paused and said seriously, "Fishing requires patience. Actually, a few small fish bit earlier, I could feel it with the rod, but I thought there was no need to catch them, just catch the bigger ones."

Li Younan almost burst out laughing. Alright, take your time maintaining that attitude.

Li Younan stood up, pulled out and took a folding chair from the trunk.

The clouds in the sky were now covering the sun, and a gentle breeze was blowing, making it very pleasant.

He then unfolded the folding chair beside the car, lay back on it, and played some soothing music on his phone, the only slight discomfort being the occasional mosquito flying around.

Li Younan took out a bottle of cologne he had with him and sprayed it a few times.

The scent of the cologne became less intense in the natural surroundings, having a unique fresh fragrance.

Li Younan remembered an interesting video he had seen before.

There was a quirky Chinese guy who took a bottle of Six God cologne to a professional perfume shop in France, asking a well-known perfumer to critique it. The perfumer seriously analyzed the Six God fragrance professionally in terms of top notes, base notes, and other aspects, eventually expressing his unabashed admiration for this mysterious Chinese cologne.

As he thought about this and that, Li Younan, lying on the chair, began to feel drowsy and fell asleep.

In a daze, he was suddenly woken up by an unexpected exclamation of surprise.

Li Younan rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked in the direction of the shout, only to see the tanned man who had been fishing.

He was excitedly dancing around like a child.

Li Younan stood up and, seeing the fish in the man’s hand, immediately understood why he was so ecstatic.

The man had successfully caught a red-tail fish.

Red-tail fish are as difficult to catch as the bighead carp; it’s an aggressive predatory fish that requires lure fishing techniques.

The red-tail fish was quite large, estimated to be about 30-40 cm long.

No wonder the man was so thrilled to catch such a red-tail fish.

Compared to Li Younan’s curiosity, Liu Yu frowned instead.

Li Younan looked over at Liu Yu, who let out a snort and continued fishing.

Li Younan stood up and slowly walked over to Liu Yu.

Although Liu Yu knew that Li Younan had come over, he didn’t look up, maintaining his fishing posture.

Li Younan squatted down to look at the fishing basket immersed in the water and blinked, "Hmm, it’s still empty."

This comment immediately annoyed Liu Yu. Liu Yu frowned and glared at Li Younan, "Fishing requires patience, don’t mess with my mindset."

Li Younan cheerfully stood up and glanced at the lake again.

He could see fish swimming about a dozen meters away from the shore.

Li Younan smiled and said, "Alright, then I won’t disturb you."

Originally, Li Younan intended to retrieve a bow and arrow from the car, but as he turned, the man was humming a little tune and wandered over, apparently also curious to see how Liu Yu’s fishing was going.

Li Younan greeted the man warmly, and the two exchanged a few amicable words.

The man’s name was He Gang, a seasoned fisherman in his 40s.

Driving his one-man Jiminy fishing vehicle, he had gone to all sorts of strange places to fish.

He particularly loved fishing near reservoirs, especially at Shengzhong Lake. It was an ideal spot to set up a tent and fish for days on end.

He came to Shengzhong Lake several times a year to fish. According to him, "When you’ve had enough of getting blanked while fishing in the wild and feeling defeated, come here to regain your confidence."

Li Younan curiously asked, "Is it easy to fish here at Shengzhong Lake?"

He Gang replied, "Absolutely, this place is known as an angler’s paradise. In my experience, there are only a few better fishing spots in the entire province. This year, the National Fishing Competition’s Sichuan final will be held here, scheduled around May."

The man also mentioned that he planned to register for this fishing competition, so he would be practicing more frequently at the lake this month. Subsequently, Li Younan congratulated the man on catching a relatively difficult fish and politely complimented him a bit.

This flattery brought a broad smile to He Gang’s face, while Liu Yu, sitting there, clearly wore a dark expression.

He Gang truly was a good angler and deserved to be called "seasoned."

In contrast, Liu Yu’s so-called "seasoned" status seemed somewhat unmerited.

He had been sitting at the fishing spot for quite a while, and besides the initial small crucian carp he caught, he hadn’t caught any more fish.

Li Younan asked He Gang, "Aren’t you going to fish anymore?"

He Gang nodded, "I’m going to take a rest for a while. I plan to do some night fishing here, so I’m not planning to fish for too long now."

Li Younan nodded in agreement.

He Gang, a bit curious, asked, "Aren’t you going to cast a line or two?" Assuming that Li Younan didn’t have any fishing gear with him, he added, "If you don’t have a rod, I can lend you a set."

Liu Yu, who was listening on the side, frowned slightly—he had several sets of professional fishing equipment.

However, Li Younan just shook his head and said, "For now... I don’t feel like fishing yet. I want to try out a different tool."

"A different tool?" He Gang looked at Li Younan with some confusion.

Li Younan went to the car, and after a while, he took out something from the trunk that left He Gang dumbfounded.

Li Younan was holding an American hunting bow in his hand, its carbon fiber body looking quite expensive.

This bow was larger than a regular American hunting bow, obviously indicating a higher draw weight.

He Gang’s expression became a bit strange.

Although he wasn’t skilled with a bow, he knew that in some places, it’s illegal to sell tools for shooting fish.

The most commonly seen illegal fishing tools are fish-shooting slingshots, and some poachers use crossbows to shoot fish. He hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Is this legal?"

Li Younan smiled and said, "The bow and arrow are legal, the fish are non-protected species, and I’m doing this in a legal area, so it’s legal."

Li Younan easily dispelled He Gang’s concerns and then took out his phone, saying, "Brother, could you help me shoot a video?"

He Gang nodded. Since the other party dared to ask him to shoot a video, it must be that this wasn’t illegal. Therefore, he felt it wasn’t a big deal for him.

Li Younan stood on the rock he had been using to observe the water.

At this moment, Liu Yu also turned his head to look at Li Younan.

The rock that Li Younan was standing on, he secured his left toe in a crevice, stretched his right leg back half a step, ensuring his stance was firmly anchored.

He Gang, holding the phone aimed at Li Younan, gradually looked more perplexed.

Can he really hit a fish?

Li Younan wound a fishing line around the tail of the arrow, tying a slipknot at the end—both to prevent the arrow from being difficult to retrieve if it lodged into the mud and to guard against the fish breaking free.

His gaze was already locked on.

A fish was right in front of him, 15 meters away, with seven or eight of them packed closely together. The two largest were side by side, heads left, tails right, their tail-moving rhythm almost identical.

With his archery skills enhancing him, his vision became exceptionally clear and precise when aiming at the target.

The hunting bow had no sights—everything relied on the eyes to estimate.

Li Younan knew that water is denser than air; an arrow drifting into it would veer upward. So, he couldn’t aim at the fish but rather 15 centimeters below their bellies.

Suddenly, another fish entered his field of vision, becoming two fish crossing one above the other from either side, converging at a single point.

Li Younan suddenly had a bold idea.

He drew the bow!

His sight was locked tightly on the gap between the two fish, first tensing his back muscles, then contracting his forearm until the bowstring touched his cheek. Before releasing, he precisely gauged their tail-wagging intervals, timing it perfectly to fit the arrow’s flight path.

The release was gentle, merely relaxing his fingers slightly.

The arrow shaft rushed out with a "whoosh," not on a straight trajectory but on a slightly downward arc—despite the high draw weight, the arrow was still subject to gravity and dipped at the 15-meter mark.

The first fish’s side gushed a bit of blood, and the arrow didn’t stop, piercing directly under the pelvic fin of the nearby fish. Both fish stiffened instantly, one diving into the deep water, the other leaping to the surface, the fishing line pulling straight and taut with a swish, causing the bow tip to wobble slightly.

Li Younan’s eyes lit up.

It actually worked!

The difficulty of this shot lay entirely in the precise correction for water refraction—light refracts when entering water, making the fish’s actual position shallower than it appears by several degrees, not to mention that shooting with a line requires the release force to be perfectly gauged: too forceful, and it would scatter the fish, too light, and the arrow speed would be insufficient.

The bow’s draw weight, the length of the fishing line, and the angle of the arrow entering the water each had to be calculated with exact precision in the blink of an eye.

Moreover, an American hunting bow inherently causes the arrow to "drift" more than a compound bow, and the lake’s edge was gusty with even a warm breeze blowing across the lake surface affecting the arrow’s path by a mere centimeter—a centimeter deviation would allow both fish to completely evade.

Of course, these intricate details were beyond the comprehension of the two individuals standing nearby who had no understanding of archery.

Li Younan pulled on the fishing line, lifting upward as the two fish continued to wriggle. The arrow shaft had penetrated through the side of the first fish and emerged under the dorsal fin of the second, with the arrowhead touching some mud, indicating it had hit the lakebed.

When Li Younan brought those two fish ashore, He Gang, who was filming beside him, was left utterly stunned.

But Liu Yu didn’t have such a strong reaction. He merely exhibited a fleeting surprise in his eyes, as if, in a way, he found Li Younan’s performance to be expected.

He had witnessed Li Younan’s astounding archery talents several times before, so when Li Younan showcased his godlike shooting skills this time, Liu Yu merely sighed with slight admiration for the kid’s archery talent, while thinking that the footage tonight would have more content for editing.

But soon, he returned more of his attention to the rods in front of him.

Damn it, the dead fish, the dead fish, why won’t they take the bait already.