Chapter 803: Chapter 547: Drawing the Sword (Part 2)

"Who’s this Zhu Wenbin, which team does he belong to, any tech stats?"

Upon hearing Zhang Yang’s question, Liu Zi immediately started flipping through his notebook and quickly said, "I have it, I copied the tech stats released by the TV station’s live stream, but it’s not very complete!"

Han Mocheng also said, "This guy doesn’t seem like a team angler; if I’m not mistaken, he should be a loner!"

"I checked the list of competitive fishing masters earlier when I had some spare time, and he’s not even a third-level competitive fishing master... just like you, boss, a layman!"

"What the heck, layman! Why does that word sound so awkward to me?" Zhang Yang scratched his head irritably, not very satisfied with Han Mocheng’s choice of words.

"Hahaha, isn’t it because we’re used to watching stuff in our free time?" Han Mocheng grinned, and the other brothers immediately burst into laughter.

"Alright, as long as we have stats, once today’s competition is over, let’s pack our stuff and head back!" Zhang Yang called out.

Hearing the team leader speak, everyone stood up together and started heading toward the parking area.

Just coming out from the backstage rest area, they saw Huang Zheng wearing a slanted cap, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, followed by two little followers, walking over to Zhang Yang.

Upon seeing Huang Zheng, Han Mocheng and Meng Fan, who were chatting and laughing just a second before, immediately changed their expressions.

"Yo, everyone’s here! Congrats on making it into the top four, Zhang Yang Master!" Huang Zheng said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Zhang Yang also put on a fake smile: "Same to you, same to you, it’s truly an honor to make it into the top four alongside Teacher Huang Zheng!"

Zhang Yang remained quite calm, however, Han Mocheng, who was a bit brash, wasn’t having it.

Han Mocheng stared blankly at Huang Zheng: "What now, Huang Slippers, are you here to stir up trouble intentionally? Got cheap and still acting smart, huh?"

Huang Zheng, with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, said: "No, Teacher Han, you’re wronging me! Didn’t win a little prize unintentionally today, just came to say hi to Master Zhang Yang and everyone. No plans tonight, right? Let’s have a sit, have a drink? My treat!"

"Treat us to drinks? I don’t drink, better skip it!" Zhang Yang refused without hesitation; with someone like Huang Zheng, Zhang Yang just couldn’t see eye to eye.

"Right, right, weasel presenting hens with presents, no good intentions!" Han Mocheng snarked.

Huang Zheng’s gaze lingered momentarily on Meng Fan and Han Mocheng’s faces, finally turning to Zhang Yang: "Look at that, directly refusing me, huh! When I lost to you last time, I didn’t get mad, yet you all seem united against me! Makes me unsure of what to say next!"

"Forget about the drinking; if there’s anything else, just say it!" Zhang Yang continued.

"Having made it into the top four, I’m really not satisfied with losing to you last time, how about placing a bet on tomorrow’s match again?"

Huang Zheng finally revealed his intent after such a setup; this guy wasn’t accepting the loss and was here to issue a challenge to Zhang Yang!

"Alright, how big are we talking? You weren’t fair today; played the provocation tactic to win over two of our team members, all the prize money I earned before isn’t enough to cover it, the bet isn’t big enough, I won’t play, I need to help my brothers win back!" Zhang Yang agreed without hesitation.

What a joke, Zhang Yang, always known for not missing an opportunity to fleece others, now that he’s really lost, there’s no way he’d let it go.

If Huang Zheng hadn’t come by, Zhang Yang would definitely have approached Huang Zheng about the side bets by tomorrow before going onstage.

"Fifteen thousand?" Huang Zheng asked tentatively.

"Fifteen thousand isn’t satisfying, winning only breaks even, make it a round figure—how about twenty thousand?" Zhang Yang said.

"Alright, I agree! We’ll definitely have one match in the four-to-two tomorrow, let’s stick to that?"

Zhang Yang nodded: "Alright, let’s go with that! If we’re lucky and both of us make it to the championship face-off, if you have any ideas then, we can arrange an extra match!"

"Settled! Negotiating with Master Zhang is swift! Then it’s a deal; I’m off, see you tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow!"

...

Sending Huang Zheng off, once he was far enough, Meng Fan pulled on Zhang Yang’s sun-protective clothing.

"Bro, still going up against him tomorrow? Shouldn’t we play it safe?"

Upon hearing his good brother’s slightly worried reminder, Zhang Yang’s heart warmed, and he asked with a smile: "What’s up, don’t have confidence in my skills?"

"Not exactly lacking confidence, mainly because, in case you don’t perform well, and he wins, we’ll be thoroughly put down! I’ve researched Huang Zheng’s performance in this FTT event; his total ranking currently is second, though his rations are slightly fewer than yours, the gap is incredibly small! Especially in the last few matches, the scores between him and you are nearly identical; this match isn’t stable!" said Meng Fan.

Hearing Meng Fan’s opinion, Han Mocheng beside him said: "Damn! Xiao Fan, if it were usual, I wouldn’t say anything about your words, but today, I really can’t hold back! I’d say we should go against him! Li Yunlong said, face the enemy by showing your sword! Even if we lose, we can’t chicken out, I’ll pay for tomorrow’s stakes, if we lose, it’s on me!"

Zhang Yang shook his head with a smile: "What’s this, no confidence in me? It’s just the start; we beat him in the first match, and tomorrow we’ll win the stakes!"

"Stop fussing, get in the car, before heading back to the hotel, let’s find a spot, I need to research something!"

Hearing Zhang Yang say he needs to research something, everyone immediately stopped fussing, obediently got in the car, then drove out of the Daily Fish Fishing Center’s gates, straight onto the main road.

Once on the road, Zhang Yang didn’t take everyone back to the hotel right away, instead, he opened the phone map navigation and found the nearest small river ditch with water.

"Boss, why are we here? It’s almost dark, are we wild fishing at the river ditch?" After getting off the car, Meng Fan glanced around the environment, not knowing what Zhang Yang was planning.

Not in a hurry to explain, Zhang Yang took out two sets of fishing gear from the tackle box, and also took out two bobbers with different lead capacities from the bobber box.

One was the 1.6g lead capacity bobber used in today’s competition, the other was a larger one, with 2.3g lead capacity, chosen by Zhang Yang based on his experience.

"You feel, from the data stats, that my level with Huang Zheng is about the same, not high winning odds, right? Let’s give him a project!" Zhang Yang, holding up the rod, gestured a bit, quickly starting to find suitable water depth.

The water depth at the Daily Fish competition pond was roughly about 1.9 meters.

Arriving at the wild river ditch, Zhang Yang found a spot with the same depth, after switching places for testing repeatedly, he quickly found a region with similar water depth.

Having solved the issue of water depth, Zhang Yang then continually adjusted the setting numbers and catch numbers of the fishing rigs, comparing them side by side.

After a series of tests, Zhang Yang quickly found the reasonable bobber adjustment range he deemed suitable.

The 2.3g hybrid bobber had a tip diameter of 0.8mm; its shape was short and thick at the top body, with the lower section resembling a jujube kernel shape, adjusted to three marks and fishing around five marks.

Compared to the bobber used today, the newly tested bobber by Zhang Yang clearly had a faster turnaround speed, with Zhang Yang’s subtle intentional adjustments; the same bait, same cast, the bobber’s touchdown time was about three seconds faster than the other.

"Alright, done! Pack up, let’s head back!" Having reached his testing aim, Zhang Yang, in a good mood, waved his hand to pack up and head back to the hotel.

When Zhang Yang was constantly testing adjust numbers and details, everyone didn’t know what he was up to; Liu Zi and Xiaobao asked a few times, Zhang Yang just smiled without answering.

Once in the car, Meng Fan, unable to hold back, continued to ask: "Bro, what are you doing? Why come all the way out here to adjust bobbers? Isn’t there a bobber adjustment pond at Daily Fish?"

Zhang Yang shook his head and explained: "The large bobber hits down faster, saves part of the invalid trip time when casting, this is something I learned from Zhao Heyi during the PK today; it’s for dealing with Huang Zheng tomorrow! As long as the fish situation tomorrow doesn’t differ much from today, we’re good tomorrow!"