Chapter 164 - 1158: A 10-Minute Chat
After the young man’s sincere apology, Xu An and Li Xindong forgave his innocuous blunder. Then, Xu An, despite being a total rookie himself, put on the airs of a seasoned veteran and began instructing the student on how to catch Jumping Fish.
How should one put it? Some talents are simply innate. Take Xu An, for example. Under Li Xindong’s meticulous tutelage, he had only managed to catch seven pitifully small Jumping Fish in over an hour. This student, on the other hand, under the guidance of Xu An—an amateur even among rookies—caught three plump, prime-quality Jumping Fish in just ten short minutes...
And so, this rather talented student happily went about catching Jumping Fish under Xu An’s direction, netting nearly a *jin* in half an hour. And, without a doubt, every single one of those Jumping Fish ended up in Xu An and Li Xindong’s baskets.
Since the young man had provided the ingredients, Xu An invited him over for a meal, but he was refused. Before they left, Professor Yu had given them clear instructions: they were not to stray from the group, not to accept gifts from the villagers, and absolutely not to go to a villager’s home for a meal.
Since that was the case, Xu An didn’t press the issue. He just felt it was a shame. ’Such a delicious local specialty, and he won’t get to try it.’
Although there was a nearly five-year age gap, they were close enough to be considered peers. Xu An had also attended university in his past life, so they had no trouble communicating. In the less than half an hour they spent catching Jumping Fish, Xu An had already gotten the full scoop on the guy.
The student’s name was Huang Yan. He loved the ocean, so when it came time to choose a university after the college entrance exams, he applied to one specializing in marine sciences. During his undergraduate program, he was working on a project that happened to align with Professor Yu’s research. He had the cheek to ask the professor for guidance, and after a while, they grew familiar with one another. Professor Yu was very pleased with his academic aptitude and, upon learning that Huang Yan planned to go to graduate school, asked for his thoughts and took him on as his own student.
Li Xindong listened from the sidelines as Xu An and Huang Yan chatted. He grew more and more astonished the longer he listened. When they finally finished their conversation, Li Xindong couldn’t hold back any longer. "You’re studying marine aquaculture? Is it easy to find a job with that major? Is the pay any good?"
"Easy to find a job? Of course! Let’s put it this way, the graduate students my professor supervises are hot commodities every year. Most of them have jobs lined up before they even graduate." Huang Yan said, glancing around before pointing to a tall, thin young man. "That’s my senior. Just two months ago, he signed a contract with the fisheries department back in his hometown. He’ll go straight to work there after graduation, primarily providing technical support to local aquaculture farmers."
"And that one over there is our eldest senior," Huang Yan said, pointing to a good-natured man who was chatting and laughing with a fisherman. "He decided to join our professor’s research team during his master’s program, and now he does research alongside him."
Huang Yan ran through the career paths of the other three students, then chuckled. "Even though I’ve only been studying under our professor for a year, I’ve already been contacted by several large companies hoping I’ll come work for them after I graduate. There’s a huge shortage of talent in the marine aquaculture field right now. The ocean is so vast—if we could cultivate it like we do the land, it would be a truly inexhaustible resource that could benefit generations to come!"
Xu An was also moved by the sentiment, but he wasn’t particularly interested in marine aquaculture, and he knew his future career wouldn’t be focused in that direction. So, after listening, he simply thought it was an admirable idea and left it at that.
But for Li Xindong, hearing those words was like being hit by a Category 5 hurricane that shattered his entire worldview. He lived by the sea, was in constant contact with it, and even made his living from it, but he had never imagined that a field of study like marine aquaculture even existed...
"Huang Yan, is marine aquaculture considered a liberal arts or a science field? And what’s the required entrance exam score for a school like yours?" Li Xindong asked, though he felt a little embarrassed to do so.
"It’s mostly science-based, though there are a few liberal arts tracks. As for the score cutoffs, this year it was 601 for liberal arts and 598 for science," Huang Yan replied after a moment of thought.
HISS! Even Xu An couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath at those scores.
He knew Professor Yu and his four students were impressive, but he’d never imagined they were *this* impressive. With admission scores like that, their university had to be a "Project 985" or "Project 211" school! More than likely, it was both—a "Double First-Class" university.
’Those scores... ahem. My apologies, I’ll see myself out.’
Xu An was well aware of his own limitations. Unless he had managed to memorize the answer keys for every single subject on the college entrance exam before his rebirth—and memorized them perfectly—he could never have achieved such a score, not even if he squeezed his brain dry for two lifetimes.
When Li Xindong heard that score, his face fell. Based on his own results from this year, he was more than 150 points shy of 601. That was an entire major subject’s worth of points!
After a bit more small talk, Huang Yan saw it was almost time to meet up as Professor Yu had instructed. He exchanged contact information with the two of them and then left. Xu An and Li Xindong went back to catching Jumping Fish, chatting idly as they worked.
Perhaps some of Huang Yan’s luck had rubbed off on the hoe, because Xu An had a much easier time catching Jumping Fish after that. At the very least, the ones he caught were now a normal size.
After a busy afternoon lasting nearly three hours, Xu An had managed to harvest 1.8 *jin* of Jumping Fish. One *jin* had been caught by Huang Yan; the remaining 0.8 *jin* represented Xu An’s true skill.