Chapter 652: Expertise

Meanwhile...

"Fishing is... boring." Hugo sat on the yacht’s deck, his face melting into his palm. "Dad, Uncle Haines, why?"

Charles and Haines, lounging in their chairs, turned to Hugo. Both men couldn’t help but wear sympathetic expressions, as it seemed Hugo had expected more from fishing.

"What kind of fishing were you expecting?" Charles snorted. "Doing it by the river and using sticks to catch one?"

"Exactly."

Haines chuckled at Hugo’s response. "Today’s a little slow, but I’m sure the fun will come soon."

"How soon?" Hugo mumbled, propping his hand on the other side of his jaw. "We’ve been here for hours now."

They had left home before dawn and arrived here after over an hour’s drive. All they had caught were small fish that wouldn’t even feed a child. With five adult men on the boat, Hugo was starting to feel hunger pangs in the scorching heat.

"Mom should’ve prepared more snacks." Sitting near Hugo, Slater gazed at the cooler near their father. "Dad, can I have some more snacks? I’m hungry!"

Charles clicked his tongue as he glared at Slater. "If you’re hungry, do a proper job and catch us something!"

"Huhuhu!" Slater harrumphed, setting his eyes on the waters surrounding them. "Why did I even come with you?!"

Surely, this wasn’t the fun they had been expecting. They should’ve known that the meaning of fun for Charles and Haines had changed as they had grown older.

"Tch." Charles clicked his tongue in irritation, feeling some regret about taking his sons along. It felt more like he was here to babysit than to relax. Shaking his head, he noticed Zoren standing by the deck, his focus was on the ocean.

Charles’s right brow arched slowly as he studied Zoren’s figure, which hadn’t budged for a long time.

"He didn’t have to be this diligent," he mumbled, tempted to call Zoren over and tell him to sit down. After all, even if Zoren stared at the water for hours, the fish wouldn’t magically surround them.

"Haha. Let him be," Haines chuckled, knowing Charles was tempted to tell his son-in-law to relax. "He wants to win his father-in-law’s favor. Don’t break his spirit."

Charles faced Haines, shaking his head in disbelief. The two of them slowly turned their eyes back to Zoren, wondering if he had passed out while standing. Just then, Charles’s fishing rod started to move.

"Oh!" Charles saw his reel pulling and, without thinking twice, grabbed the fishing rod. "I think I got one! A big one!"

Stepping back with the fishing rod, Charles began to reel it in. At the same time, Haines also noticed that his fishing rod was starting to move.

"Another one!" Haines exclaimed, nearly jumping out of his seat. But unlike Charles, he remained much calmer.

As the two men got to work, Hugo and Slater slowly raised their brows. Slater even jumped up, watching how intensely Charles and Haines had suddenly transformed their actions.

"Oh, oh!" Slater rushed to them, cheering for his father and uncle. "Dad, you can do it! Is it heavy?!"

Hugo also approached them, but instead of cheering them on, he moved closer to the railing. Looking over, he couldn’t see anything beneath the water despite Haines and Charles reeling in their catch.

"Wow..." he muttered, glancing at his own fishing rod. The moment he saw the reel moving, he quickly sprang into action, mimicking his father and uncle.

"Wow... I didn’t know it would be this heavy," Hugo muttered to himself, finally understanding why Charles and Haines seemed to be exerting more effort than he had thought necessary.

With that, the three men reeled in their dinner with determination.

"Second Brother, use more—" Slater paused when he felt his fishing rod move as well. He turned, but as he did, his face contorted as his fishing rod flew over the yacht. "Wait—ah, damn it!"

"I got it! I got mine!" At the same time, Hugo cheered happily as he finally pulled out his catch. As soon as he did, he looked at it and grinned, holding the end of the hook as he faced his father. "Dad, look what I got! It’s so big!"

When he turned to face his father and Uncle Haines, the two men had also reeled in their catches. What Charles had caught was not as big as he had expected, while Haines caught a much smaller fish. Seeing their catch, the corner of Hugo’s mouth curled into a triumphant smirk.

"Hehehe...." Hugo chuckled mischievously. "I guess I had the biggest catch!"

Charles wasn’t pleased, staring at his own catch in dismay. "Hugo, yours is longer, but I’m sure mine is heavier. There’s no way it felt that heavy if not because of that."

Haines nodded in agreement. "But even so, it’s good that we got something to cook later."

"Hehehe." Still, Hugo felt proud and wanted to tease more. However, before he could start bragging about his achievement, he heard Slater gasp.

"Holy—is that a shark!?"

Everyone turned to Slater, only to find him standing near Zoren. When they shifted their eyes to Zoren, they saw the gigantic fish he was reeling in before he dropped it on the deck.

"..."

For a moment, Charles, Haines, and Hugo were stunned into silence. They glanced at their catches and then back at Zoren’s, which was three to five times larger than theirs.

"I believe it’s not a shark," Zoren casually remarked to Slater. "Is it enough for all of us?"

Slater pressed his lips together and looked up at him with teary eyes. "Can we cook it now? I’m really hungry."

"As long as it’s edible." Slowly, Zoren turned to his father-in-law, then to his second brother-in-law, and finally to Haines. He smiled genuinely. "That was fun."

Charles squinted and leaned closer to Haines. "Haines, is he mocking us?"

"I don’t think so. The kid seems very happy."

Unlike the two, Hugo unhooked his fish and put on another bait, planning for a bigger catch this time.

That was how the men spent their day. After preparing their first catch for a late lunch, they continued fishing. The only one who didn’t catch anything was Zoren, as he had run out of bait. He had been tossing his bait into the ocean earlier to lure more fish around the yacht.

Fortunately, Slater was there to give him some bait and hype him up, so they wouldn’t starve, having grown complacent with Zoren’s "expertise."