"Making a rich fish broth to cook the rock tripe seems like a good idea. But to keep it from being fishy, you'd need ginger, scallions, or some high-proof alcohol. Obviously, none of that is available around here."
"If I can't neutralize the fishiness, I'll just have to add other ingredients to make the broth more flavorful."
He stopped there, deliberately leaving his audience hanging.
He covered the cleaned rock tripe to prevent it from getting contaminated again.
Lin Chen picked up his Engineer Shovel, pulled on his rain boots, and waded into the icy river without a moment's hesitation.
He had barely stepped into the river when the previously calm surface instantly erupted into a frenzy.
Countless crimson figures leaped from the water, scrambling over one another. The school of fish thrashed wildly, each one desperate not to be the unlucky one left behind.
Lin Chen stared in awe at the magnificent spectacle before him, murmuring, "I've only ever seen anything like this in documentaries. This is incredible. With this many fish, who needs to hunt? You could probably just stick your hand in and grab one."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a huge, red figure launched itself from the water by his feet, tracing a graceful arc through the air that was perfectly captured by the camera.
The Red Salmon's beautiful body stood in stark contrast to its ugly head. As it flew through the air, it twisted and writhed, its scales scattering the sunlight like dazzling jewels.
Before Lin Chen could even process the beautiful sight, a powerful force slapped him hard across the cheek several times.
SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP—
SPLASH!
"What the hell?"
He stared, completely dumbfounded, at where the culprit had vanished back into the school of fish. Wiping the water from his face, he could only feel the stinging, fiery sensation on both cheeks.
'Did I just get ambushed by a fish?'
Meanwhile, the live stream chat was exploding with laughter.
"Hahahaha, oh my god, is this guy a comedian?"
"Ow, my stomach, I'm laughing so hard I'm getting cramps."
"I called it. Chefs only know how to process ingredients, not how to hunt. With all those salmon right in front of him, not only has he caught nothing, he actually got slapped in the face by one. We've got our highlight reel moment for the season."
"Interesting. I'm curious to see what other surprises this contestant from Great Xia has in store. This is way more entertaining than the usual grim atmosphere of survival shows."
Some quick-fingered viewers even recorded the moment and immediately posted it online.
"I was just trying to record the magnificent Red Salmon run, but I accidentally caught this dramatic scene instead."
"A chef in the wild getting schooled by his own ingredients. Does it get any more ironic than that?"
"What's the big deal? That's completely normal. The crews who fish for salmon in the rivers go through this every year."
All the buzz further boosted the show's popularity, and more and more viewers started flooding into the official *Wild Survival* live stream.
"Boss, our viewer count is skyrocketing!!"
On a mountaintop not far from the contestants, inside a spacious, temporarily constructed wooden cabin, a member of the production staff shouted in excitement.
"At this rate, we'll be close to half a million soon! The Great Xia chef's stream alone has almost a hundred thousand viewers!"
"Put his feed front and center! Make it bigger!"
At the command, the mosaic of contestant feeds on the main page was adjusted. Lin Chen's window was moved to the top-left, expanding to occupy a third of the entire screen.
By now, Lin Chen had raised the Engineer Shovel high and brought it crashing down on the water's surface.
WHOOSH—
Water sprayed everywhere.
The shovel's impact stunned two unlucky fish, which immediately went belly-up.
With lightning-fast reflexes, he jammed his hand into the gills of one, grabbing it by its massive head and hoisting it up.
It was an adult female, weighing around two kilograms. Although stunned, its mouth was still opening and closing.
As for the other one, by the time he looked down for it, it had already been swallowed up by the thrashing school.
"Red Salmon are about this size. They're also known as sockeye. They're quite different from the common salmon you see in markets. Those are typically much larger, about the length of your thigh."
"Before a Red Salmon changes color for the spawn, its flesh looks a lot like rainbow trout. The fat lines aren't as distinct as on regular salmon, and the color is a deeper red."
If he'd caught this in the ocean, he would have definitely cut it open for some fresh sashimi on the spot.
But this is an inland freshwater river, so for safety's sake, it's best to cook it first.
He tossed the Red Salmon onto the bank, caught another, and immediately began to gut and clean them by the river.
The smell of fish is one of the most powerful scents in the wild and can attract hungry predators from kilometers away. He had no intention of leading trouble back to his camp.
His sharp knife slit open the fish's belly, and its bright red entrails spilled out with a gush of blood.
With a few deft movements of his knife, he quickly separated out three of the organs.
"This is the heart, this is the gallbladder, and this is the pancreas. You don't normally eat these three, as they contain a lot of bacteria and toxins. The liver of most fish is also inedible."
"However, we're in luck. Salmon liver is one of the few that are edible, and it's extremely rich in nutrients."
"Also, the intestines are actually edible, but they have to be cleaned thoroughly. Most people just throw them away because the cleaning process is so tedious."
Only after quickly rinsing away the guts and blood from the belly cavity, scraping the scales, and removing the gills could the real prep work begin.
He angled the tip of his knife in just behind the gills, then turned the blade flat and slid it cleanly along the spine all the way to the tail.
He flipped the fish over and removed the other fillet.
His movements were incredibly fluid; he had filleted both fish in the blink of an eye.
He chopped the remaining fish carcass into small sections and split the head in half.
He turned one of the fillets so the white belly portion faced him, then, reversing his grip on the knife, he carefully cut along the edge, tracing the line of bones.
The belly only had one row of large bones; once they were removed, the rest was edible.
He didn't discard the strip of belly bones he'd removed, instead placing it with the head and carcass.
This part is rich in oil, a vital resource for survival in the fat-scarce wilderness.
After dealing with the belly, he ran his fingers up the fillet from the tail end, feeling against the grain of the flesh.
He would stop every so often, and his other hand would move in to precisely pull out a pin bone.
"Sockeye are relatively small, so their pin bones aren't too thick and you can pull them out by hand. For a larger salmon, you'd need tweezers."
Even while deboning the fish, he didn't forget to explain his process for the camera.
This display of meticulous skill left the viewers in the live stream completely stunned.
"As expected of a chef. I could barely follow his hands, and he'd already broken down two forearm-length salmon?"
"On *Wild Survival*, they usually skip over most of the food prep. Even when they don't, the contestants' work is pretty crude. This is the first time I've ever seen such meticulous technique."
"He's actually trying to teach us how to butcher a fish out in the wild. Oh my god, this is incredible!"