The Legend of the Fishermen of Sicily

Knowing yourself and your enemy is the key to victory in every battle.

Bianchi is confident, not blindly so.

He was not blindly optimistic, but rather exceptionally meticulous and serious.

Leo would take fish to the fish market to sell every day.

It's not difficult to find out the amount of fish he brought and the transaction amount.

Bianchi wanted to use these numbers to deduce Leo's efficiency in diving and hunting fish, that is, his strength.

The fisherman replied:

"We sold over 5 on the first day, 15 on the second day, 18 on the third day, and 20 today. It's increasing every day, which is quite frightening."

Bianchi continued to ask:

What kinds of fish did he bring?

The fisherman thought carefully for a while before answering:

"Let's not count the first day. On the second day, he brought a box of sea bream and a box and a half of sea bass..."

Having recounted everything he knew, the fisherman asked Bianchi curiously:

Why are you asking these questions?

Bianchi grinned:

"Tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock, I will have a fishing competition with Leo."

"Huh?" The fisherman's mouth was so big that the cigarette fell out.

......

One data source was not rigorous enough.

A dozen minutes later, Bianchi appeared at the home of an old fisherman.

"Let me think," the old fisherman said, deep in thought. "I think I got back around 8:10 p.m. yesterday because they were showing the opening credits of a TV series, which is my favorite show. I can't be wrong."

Bianchi continued to ask:

"So, when you came back at 8:10, the wooden boat on the beach had already been pushed back?"

The old fisherman nodded:

"Yes, they're back. They look like they just got back, no more than 10 minutes ago. There are drag marks on the beach."

"Okay, I understand." Bianchi said goodbye and left.

The old fisherman brought it out and asked:

"Why are you suddenly interested in Rosalia's ship?"

Bianchi turns back:

"I'm not interested in Rosalia's boat, but in Leo, who borrowed it. Tomorrow morning at 7 a.m., I'll be racing him!"

"A competition?" Two heads with pigtails, one big and one small, popped out from behind the old fisherman.

.......

Rosalia was sitting on a bench by the door, sorting through the fish Leo had brought back that morning.

Bianchi squatted down beside her and watched for a while, then frowned and muttered:

"The quantity is incorrect."

It was much less than the number he had calculated.

We definitely need to collect more data.

Rosalia looked at him coldly:

"You've been watching for a long time, what do you want to see?"

"I'm assessing Leo's fishing skills," Bianchi said without hiding anything.

"Very strong," Rosalia replied calmly.

"I know, that's why he's qualified to be my opponent." Having gained nothing from this, Bianchi got up and left.

He needs to continue preparing for tomorrow.

After taking two steps, Rosalia behind him asked:

"You want to compete with him in fishing?"

Bianchi stopped and kindly said:

"That's right, he doesn't have many friends in Marzamemi. You can go and see."

Thanks to his "promotion," many people will surely go to watch the fishing competition tomorrow.

Bianchi is a local, while Leo is from out of town, so you can imagine how different the size of their respective cheerleading squads would be.

Rosalia lowered her head and sighed silently.

What a pitiful child.

......

Around 7 p.m., Bianchi, shirtless, appeared in a spot near the shore.

A fishing boat was moored on the sea not far from him. Aurelio counted the fish on the ground and said to Bianchi below:

"An hour has passed, that's enough for Bianchi. He's much more efficient than Bilio."

Bianchi collected a large amount of data, and according to his rigorous calculations, Leo caught about 12 fish per hour.

He climbed wearily onto the boat:

"Leo is stronger than I thought."

Before going into the water, Bianchi was very confident. He had loved fishing since he was a child and was very talented at it. Although he had never seriously calculated the efficiency or made money by fishing, he felt that the number of 12 fish was nothing.

However, diving is an activity that tests one's breath and physical strength, and the consumption of breath and physical strength does not decrease at a steady rate, but rather increases exponentially, becoming more and more difficult as you go on.

In the first ten minutes, he could make his second dive after 20 seconds on the surface.

Fifteen minutes later, after adjusting for two or three minutes on the surface, I still felt breathless. Even if I thought I had recovered, it became visibly difficult to move underwater, and my once-proud accuracy was greatly reduced.

He took two long breaks after boarding the ship before he could finish the hour.

"Tomorrow you won't be hunting for an hour," Aurelio told him. "It'll be decided in 20 minutes, so it'll be a test of skill and luck."

"Father said that when luck comes into play, you have to crush it with even greater strength." Bianchi lay on the deck, his chest heaving. "Don't go back yet, I'll rest for a while and then go down."

"Going again?" Aurelio thought he had misheard. "You've been preparing for a whole day."

"Leo improves every day." Bianchi closed his eyes to rest. "I'm going to include his daily progress in that calculation."

"This is insane," Aurelio said, shaking his head.

Bianchi laughed twice:

"Tomorrow I'll show you what real 'madness' is. I'll give it my all and win without holding back."

Aurelius advised:

"Don't push yourself too hard."

Bianchi opened his eyes and said seriously:

"I can't lose! And do you think Leo won't fight back? He's definitely somewhere preparing seriously for tomorrow morning's match!"

......

"Andrei, if you were to teach art, you might gain even more honors."

Having promised to come to Andrei's house for dinner tonight, Leo made a point of coming home two hours early today. He had been so busy making money at sea the past few days that he hadn't spent much time with this "empty-nest elderly man."

The last time Leo came over for dinner, there was only a bowl of salad and a few slices of bread on the table.

Today, not only were the dishes more plentiful, but the plates were also arranged more beautifully.

Andrea is seriously working on the 'artistic design' of his pasta:

"Little fox, look at the edge of the plate. Should we put some cherry tomatoes on it, or slice some lemon?"

Leo tried his best to make the old man happy:

"Why didn't I think of putting more things here? Why don't we both try it?"

Andrei went to wash the tomatoes and lemons, while Leo, on the other side, eagerly picked up a knife, ready to learn how to carve flowers from Andrei.

Andrei turned and glanced at him, then smiled and said:

"You're having a fishing competition with Bianchi tomorrow morning, how come you're still in the mood to help me set the plates today? Aren't you nervous at all?"

The match tomorrow morning has already become the talk of the town in Marzamemi, and all the old men in the coffee shop are talking about it.

Leo replied in a relaxed tone:

"Don't be nervous, fishing is something I do every day."

Andrei continued to ask:

Are you excited?

Leo took a look:

"It doesn't seem like it; I feel very calm."

Andrei returned with tomatoes and lemons:

"I've heard a lot of rumors about you lately. Some say you're a master fisherman, some say you're exceptionally talented, and some say you were born to be in the sea."

Leo laughed and said:

"I'm just an ordinary person who wants to live a better life; I haven't thought about anything that complicated."

The eyes behind Andrei's reading glasses gleamed with wisdom:

"But how could someone who receives so much affirmation be ordinary? You just haven't discovered your own uniqueness yet, little fox. Today I'll tell you a story about the 'Child of the Sea'."

Legend has it that more than two thousand years ago, a young man came to Sicily from afar. He considered himself an ordinary person, until one day when he sailed into the Mediterranean Sea, his heart began to beat faster, and his blood began to boil...