Super Zoo-Chapter 387 - 383: The Arrogant Thief

The area of the Huating Reservoir is thousands of times larger than that of Shuijun Lake, and the part of the reservoir used for fish farming alone is over a hundred times larger than Shuijun Lake. It is almost impossible to keep it completely under watch.

In the past, when Zhou Jin raised fish in the reservoir, he adopted rather extreme measures, keeping a bunch of thugs who would beat up anyone coming to fish, adding a ’fine’ on top of a beating, and for those who were actually stealing fish... well, if they beat up those who were just fishing, the fate of the real thieves was even worse.

Suming once asked the bald guy, who had supposedly ’gone straight,’—at least he appeared to have on the surface— and he spoke hesitantly about breaking legs, detaining people, and demanding a ’compensation’ from the thief’s family.

However, there are many fishing enthusiasts in Yangchuan City, and with such a vast area of the reservoir, it was impossible to stop everyone with violence alone; the old man, Zhu Chenggui who came to fish, was a case in point. No matter how strictly Zhou Jin guarded it, there were always people who would secretly fish around the reservoir.

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Suming, rather than attempting to plug each leak, allowed the dam to overflow; while raising fish in the reservoir, he also opened it up for fishing businesses, at prices equivalent to the market price of fish. Most people who had the leisure to fish didn’t lack those few small coins and were just after some fun; in this way, ’illegal’ fishing was essentially eliminated.

Even if there were a few who still snuck in to fish, using a rod, they wouldn’t be able to fish away much. What he really feared were those who stole fish, the type who came armed to the teeth, specifically for the catch, even resorting to extreme methods that harmed the environment, stealing hundreds of pounds to a ton at a time.

These people, whether under the regime of Zhou Jin before or Suming now, were severely cracked down on. It was no different from a thief entering a home; there were consequences if caught.

The reason Suming had come to the reservoir was not entirely on a whim; Liang Shi had reported to him more than once that after the reservoir gained some fame, gangs often came to steal fish. Liang Shi and his team had tried several times to catch them but never succeeded. It was a helpless situation; with such a large reservoir, it was impossible to be completely guarded against theft—it wasn’t the thievery itself that was feared, it was the fixation of the thieves.

What Suming saw now was someone stealing fish!

Below, on the surface of the water, was a simple rubber dinghy; calling it a boat was perhaps not quite right, as it was more accurately a simple man-made floating device: a few large tires cobbled together, hastily connected by wooden boards, looking like a floating platform on the water with a large net trailing behind it.

From the helicopter thirty meters above, the big net dragged by the rubber dinghy below was bulging, already filled with fish.

There were two men on the boat, wearing long rubber boots; one bent down scooping out granular substances that resembled feed from a large bucket, casting handfuls into the water.

Fish kept surfacing around the water, as the other man used a large scoop net to catch them.

"Oh, sir, are they feeding the fish? But those fish don’t seem quite right," even Tony, a foreigner who knew nothing about fisheries, could tell something was off.

Feeding my ass! Suming’s eyelids twitched with anger; the stuff the people below were feeding was not fish feed at all but a chemical with strong narcotic effects. After consuming it, fish would become unconscious and float to the surface.

If it were just this, it might not be too bad, but the worst part was that this chemical substance would dissolve in the water and affect the water quality of the reservoir, causing fish to become ill! If it were in a water body as large as Shuixie Lake, a few barrels of such chemicals could cause the entire lake’s fish to belly-up and die off by half!

"Tony, descend, I have to use the loudspeaker!" Suming grabbed the communication device in the helicopter.

The helicopter slowly descended, almost hovering above the water’s surface, the airflow from the propellers rippling the water below.

A dozen meters away, the makeshift rubber dinghy, too, was rocked by the wind, and the two fish thieves stopped what they were doing and crouched in the boat, looking towards them.

Suming opened the aircraft cabin door, revealing half of his body, and shouted with a megaphone, "Who allowed you to fish here? Get on shore and submit to inspection!" Panda Yingying squeezed over from the adjacent seat, poking out its head and baring its teeth at the two people, making a fierce display.

The two seemed honest enough, and Suming thought they were local farmers, but it turned out you can’t judge a book by its cover. One of them, seeing the helicopter door open, actually picked up a large fishing harpoon from the rubber boat and gestured at the helicopter with a menacing look, shouting loudly.

Carried by the wind, one could faintly make out the other party shouting, "Mind your own business... I’ll kill you..."

This person clearly had no idea who was in the helicopter or their connection to the fishery company and must have thought some nosy passerby was interfering.

"Is there no law anymore?!" Suming almost laughed in anger. Caught red-handed stealing fish and still so arrogant, were they preparing to rob instead?

If it had been a military helicopter, that person definitely wouldn’t have dared to be so bold, but the Hummingbird 206 was a standard civilian aircraft with no weapons on board. Even though it looked impressive, it was virtually powerless against the shoddy little rubber boat on the water. The other party had recognized this fact and thus dared to be so brazen. Suming obviously couldn’t jump from the aircraft into the water to catch them.

"Tony, are there any weapons on the aircraft?" Suming asked.

"No weapons, but I can maneuver the helicopter to fly sideways over the water surface. The propeller is the most powerful weapon; it can shred them and their boat to pieces! Of course, the law and my conscience don’t allow me to do that."

"Then you’re just talking bullshit!" Suming gave him the finger. Using the helicopter propeller to kill... what a ridiculous idea he had come up with.

Though the people on the small rubber boat were yelling, they hadn’t completely lost their minds. The helicopter couldn’t do anything to the shabby boat, and the boat was even less a threat to the helicopter. Having been discovered stealing fish, they naturally greased their heels and hurried to escape. One person continued to curse at the aircraft while paddling the boat toward the shore; another took out a phone and started making calls, likely to gather accomplices for a pickup. They couldn’t carry the stolen fish by themselves.

From their ’retreat’ path, it was clear that these people were seasoned pros with a plan in place! A few dozen meters away was a remote wetland, filled with dense trees. Once their boat reached shore, they would be able to escape with the fish, and the helicopter might not even be able to catch them. The fishery company’s few boats were just small yachts; the water in the wetland was too shallow for them to dock. Even if the fishery company’s people spotted the thieves, they wouldn’t be able to catch up and could only watch helplessly as they got away.

Suming quickly called Liang Shi and asked him to alert the police and bring over a yacht, then directed Tony to keep up with the Hummingbird.

The Hummingbird kept hovering about ten meters above the rickety boat, the propeller wind rocking it violently.

But that was just it, ’rocking violently.’ Besides messing up the hairstyles of the two thieves, it achieved nothing of substance.

The little boat moved slowly but steadfastly toward the wetland. The two thieves even had the audacity to flip the bird at the sky, boldly laughing and taunting the people inside the aircraft!

"You’re courting death!" Suming suddenly pulled the helicopter cabin door open.

————Separator————

They say 2K a chapter is good for mobile reading, so let me give it a try!

Of course, the total word count won’t be less.