"This afternoon, second round, total weight! Put two packs of Huazi on it!" Seeing Zhang Yang agree so爽快, Huang Zheng directly named his stake.

Putting two packs of Huazi on it means adding two extra packs of Huazi as the prize pool; in competitive pit-fishing, that's already not a small bet.

Hearing this proposal, the corners of Zhang Yang's mouth lifted in a faint smile, his face full of disdain: "Just two packs of Huazi? I thought you were some big shot! You guys usually fish for money and only play this small?"

Zhang Yang's disdain stunned Huang Zheng and the two guys following him. Two packs of Huazi are already over a thousand yuan, not exactly small. Judging from his tone, how did it end up being despised by Zhang Yang?

Before they could react, Zhang Yang continued, "If we play, we play big. Ten packs, I'll spar with you! Dare to take it?"

Huang Zheng had never been challenged like this. His brain heated up and he agreed on the spot: "Fine, ten it is! A gentleman's word!"

Zhang Yang: "One lash to the fast horse!"

"So it's settled, once the afternoon match is over, we wait for each other right here, don't leave till we meet!"

"Deal, whoever doesn't show is a little dog!"

"Let's go!" Huang Zheng nodded, turned around with his people and left.

Once Huang Zheng was far enough away, Han Mocheng pulled his gaze back from Huang Zheng's retreating back and complained discontentedly, "Fuck this, is that Huang Zheng always this cocky?"

Zhang Yang shook his head: "No idea, but who cares! On fresh-mouth mixed pond, I'd still be afraid of him my ass!"

Right then Liu Zi muttered in a low voice, "It's all my fault, letting them laugh at us!"

Zhang Yang glanced at Liu Zi and said with full-on swagger, "Listen to the bullshit coming out of your mouth! At home we can talk about mine and yours, but once we're out the door, we're one team, one whole! You're my little brother, they laugh at you, that's laughing at me!

I don't care how badass this Huang Zheng thinks he is, I don't give a damn about him. He jokes at your expense, then we'll go fuck him up, let things happen however they happen!

All that hardship we eat on the regular, what's it for? Isn't it so that when we're out we don't get pushed around by anyone? If someone's unconvinced, then we go all-in with him, knock him flat and see if he still dares not服!"

To be fair, Zhang Yang's attitude at this moment was extremely rousing. After hearing his bold words, the other few in the team all felt a surge of hot-bloodedness in their chests, and their sense of belonging to the team shot up at least another notch.

...

On the other side, after leaving the shade where Zhang Yang and the others were resting, Huang Zheng took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to a friend.

"According to your plan, I've called Zhang Yang out. The kid's got guts, shouting for ten packs of Huazi. I agreed!"

Soon the other side replied: "Alright, if you lose, the prize is on me."

Huang Zheng: "Damn! You have so little confidence in me? I checked Zhang Yang's score from this morning. The fish situation in H District where he was is way better than B District where I was. His final total catch was only 1.5 kilos more than mine. As long as the draw doesn't screw me, I'm confident I'll surpass him this afternoon!

But that aside, I really don't get why you're arranging this. I haven't fished-for-money against strangers in ages. You've got me feeling like some hot-headed kid in his early twenties again! What's going on, you got beef with him or something?"

"Consider it me owing you a favor."

Seeing this last message, the ever-curious Huang Zheng didn't keep digging. Since the other party had already promised him a favor and still didn't want to explain, pushing for more would be inappropriate.

...

At 1:50 in the afternoon, the loudspeaker again blared the notice for all competing anglers to draw lots and enter the venue.

Hearing the announcement, Zhang Yang and the others opened the draw page on the WeChat mini-program on their phones and quickly tapped the draw button.

Group D, peg 03!

The 64-into-32 round was still divided into groups of eight, for a total of eight groups.

The rules for the second round in the afternoon were exactly the same as the first round in the morning, just with fewer anglers on the bank.

Objectively speaking, judging the fish situation in Mixed Pond No. 1, after the previous round of fishing and releasing, the bite in the second round would definitely be a bit worse than in the first. After all, quite a few fish that got hooked are in poor condition and it's hard for them to start feeding again in a short time.

However, there were 168 people fishing at the same time in the morning, and only 64 left in the afternoon. The number of anglers clearly dropped by almost two-thirds, so the density of biting fish per person in the pond didn't decrease; on the contrary, it might even increase.

With this overall fish situation as the background, Zhang Yang was very confident about the afternoon's fishing.

Now that the draw was done—Group D, peg 3—another spot on the north bank near the northwest corner. The overall catch rate there in the morning was good; within the mixed pond it counted as a relatively better "fast-fish zone." That made Zhang Yang even more confident.

Full of confidence, Zhang Yang shouldered his seat box, carried his gear into the venue, found his peg, and started preparing for the afternoon match.

The overall mixed-fish situation hadn't changed, so his basic bait-mixing approach naturally wouldn't undergo any major adjustments. Zhang Yang only made minor tweaks to the water ratio and specific gravity of the "Black Pit Feast" bait.

On the original yellow-meal puffed bait base, Zhang Yang added a bit of "Activator" ingredients, and at the same time kept the overall water ratio at roughly 1:0.4.

With a small amount of state bait added into the yellow meal and the water ratio almost unchanged, the result was that, on top of the original standard loose-feeding mix, the bait's dispersion and clouding effect in the water would become even better.

At the same time, the algae components in the Activator had extra attraction for half-grown carp in this autumn season.

Details like this in bait composition and pairing are things most anglers can hardly notice, but as a seasoned practitioner who runs his own bait factory, Zhang Yang had it all crystal clear in his mind.