Ren Yuanyang immediately dismissed the idea. They’d had enough trouble getting a generator; if he broke it, he wouldn’t know how to fix it.
Even if he did know how, he didn’t have the right tools at the moment.
"Let’s just wait and see," Ren Yuanyang replied, resigned. "Bring that storage battery over, too. Let’s see if we can make use of it!"
The storage battery he’d gotten from his ex-girlfriend still had some charge, but most household appliances couldn’t run directly on the DC power it supplied.
Lu Jiamei nodded, stood up, and walked out. "Okay, I’ll go get it right now!"
Soon, she returned carrying the storage battery, her steps surprisingly light.
"Boss, that Evolutionary Crocodile meat is definitely improving our bodies. When I moved it from the small boat to the container last time, it felt incredibly heavy, but now it doesn’t feel that way at all!" Lu Jiamei’s voice was filled with pleasant surprise.
"An improvement is good. The stronger everyone is, the safer we’ll be!" Ren Yuanyang said, nodding with a smile. "You two can start eating more of the crocodile meat from now on."
"There’s only a limited amount of crocodile meat. You should have priority. Your special ability is the key to our survival!" Lu Jiamei was very clear on everyone’s role.
Ren Yuanyang waved his hand dismissively. "But we just caught a black fish, didn’t we? We’ll definitely be able to catch more Evolutionary Fish in the future. No need to be so frugal. Raising our strength is the most important thing right now!"
Lu Jiamei paused for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, I understand. Xin Wan, let’s go process that black fish now!"
"Okay!" Xin Wan picked up a cleaver and scissors and followed Lu Jiamei out.
The speedboat’s cabin was where they rested and ate, so Xin Wan would process the black fish outside before bringing it in. This would prevent splatters from getting everywhere, which would be impossible to clean up.
Of course, they couldn’t process it in the shipping container either. Ren Yuanyang still wanted a comfortable space to rest, after all.
They had processed the Evolutionary Crocodile inside the container before, but only because it was inconvenient to move outside. Besides, Ren Yuanyang had already done half the work by draining the crocodile’s blood, so he couldn’t be bothered to move it.
So, the small boat became the natural place to process the black fish.
The small boat at least had an awning, so they wouldn’t have to process it in the rain.
Ren Yuanyang used the bitter grass’s creeping stems to drag the entangled black fish to the side of the boat. From there, Lu Jiamei grabbed the stems and pulled the struggling fish aboard.
Even though it was out of the water, the half-meter-long black fish was still flopping around restlessly, trying to jump back into the water.
Lu Jiamei immediately grabbed the plastic bucket she had prepared and slammed it down over the black fish.
The black fish was too long and the bucket’s opening too small. It only covered the fish’s upper body, while its tail continued to whip back and forth rapidly.
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
HISS!
Lu Jiamei flinched back a step, but her hands kept a firm grip on the plastic bucket.
"This black fish is so strong!"
While exclaiming, she lifted her foot to check it; her ankle was bright red!
The black fish’s tail had struck her right on the ankle, as if someone had viciously whipped her several times with a ruler.
Xin Wan saw this and asked with concern, "Jiamei, are you okay?"
"I’m fine. Hurry up and get revenge for me!" Lu Jiamei shook her head.
"I need you to expose its head!" Xin Wan pointed at the black fish she was pinning down with the plastic bucket.
Lu Jiamei paused, then nodded. She grabbed a nearby board, used it to pin down the thrashing fishtail, and slowly shifted her position forward.
This evolved black fish was incredibly strong. Luckily, it wasn’t in the water; otherwise, Lu Jiamei really wouldn’t have been able to control it.
She carefully used the board to pin down the fish’s entire body before moving the plastic bucket away. The black fish’s head was finally exposed, its mouth still gasping.
Xin Wan immediately flipped her cleaver and brought the back of the blade down directly on the black fish’s head.
CLANG~
They thought they heard the clang of metal on metal, but the black fish’s head caved in on impact.
The black fish’s body convulsed violently once, then it stopped struggling.
"Alright, leave the rest to me!" Xin Wan gestured for Lu Jiamei to let go.
Only then did Lu Jiamei let go of the plastic bucket and rub her reddened ankle.
"Ouch... this black fish is really vicious!"
Xin Wan replied with a smile, "Black fish are a fierce, carnivorous species to begin with. It’s only natural they’d be even fiercer after evolving."
She spoke as she worked, her hands never stopping. Descaling, removing the gills, gutting, deboning, and slicing fillets—her movements were as smooth as flowing water.
Soon, the half-meter-long black fish was reduced to a fish head, a fish skeleton, and fillets.
The innards and other parts were placed separately into a plastic bucket.
Previously, when the bitter grass wasn’t highly enhanced and they didn’t have much of it, they naturally worried that schools of fish would come and destroy it.
With the bitter grass now at a higher level, and thanks to the new batch Xin Wan brought, they had a lot more of it. Now they could use the innards to lure individual fish or small schools—a different kind of fishing, in a way.
Of course, if they wanted to fish, they had to be more than ten meters away from the container. After all, dizzy fish grass was planted all around it, and the fish would not go near it at all.
Xin Wan returned to the speedboat and marinated the fish fillets. She planned to use the head and bones to make a soup. An Evolutionary Black Fish couldn’t be wasted!
Ren Yuanyang returned to the container and glanced at the rice he had planted. It was growing wonderfully.
’Looks like the rice planting is going smoothly,’ he muttered to himself. Then he collapsed onto the nearby bed, planning to take a short nap to restore his Mental Energy.
Most rice is self-pollinating, and the seeds Lu Jiamei had come by were no exception. They didn’t require artificial pollination, which was a great relief to Ren Yuanyang.
After all, he had never done any farm work and knew nothing about it. He felt completely clueless about where to even start, even with the relevant information in the system.
’It would be great if I could find a farmer to grow food for me,’ Ren Yuanyang mumbled as he rolled over.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before he slowly awoke to an immediate system notification.
[Host’s Mental Energy has reached the level required to enhance the buoyancy of Duckweed within a four-meter radius in a single attempt...]
Hearing this prompt, Ren Yuanyang was slightly stunned. His Mental Energy had actually doubled again.
’Could the Evolutionary Crocodile’s blood be more potent than its meat?’ Ren Yuanyang wondered.
Nothing special had happened today. The only difference was that he had drunk a bowl of crocodile blood congee.
’Looks like I’ll have to drink more of that gamey porridge in the future,’ Ren Yuanyang thought with some resignation. He immediately walked out of the container and performed a second enhancement on the nearby Iron Melon Tree.
[Enhancement successful.]
[Iron Melon Tree (+2): Fruit explosion power enhanced, fruiting speed enhanced, time from flowering to fruit ripening shortened to four days...]
After the enhancement was complete, dozens of flowers appeared on the Iron Melon Tree. It seemed that after every enhancement, the system provided a free bonus to demonstrate the effects.
It was a good thing there was a bonus; otherwise, Ren Yuanyang would have had to wait for the Iron Melon Tree to flower on its own.
He glanced at the detailed information. The Iron Melon Tree was pollinated by bats. Since there were no bats here, he could only follow the system’s instructions to pollinate it manually.

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