"Brother Xu, hello, and thanks to everyone for today! Just watching a stream and I've already caused you so much trouble!" Xiao Wei thanked him very obediently.

"What trouble? Don't stand around outside, get in here, get in here! I've got a few chefs here who are pretty good—tonight I'll have them make something nice for everyone!"

With Old Xu's warm invitation, everyone filed grandly into the north wing of the main house.

The north wing was a three‑story small building, visually at least several hundred square meters. Walking in, there was a super‑large living room, a ring of Western‑style genuine leather sofas, and along the west wall stood a huge glass wine cabinet. Next to the cabinet there was also a bar counter at least four meters long. The overall decor leaned toward a Western bar vibe.

Obviously, before everyone came over, Old Xu had already called ahead and made arrangements. In the big living room, seating these twenty‑odd people was more than comfortable, and the table was covered with drinks, snacks, fruit and the like—everything was well prepared.

"Not bad, Xu, you've really set this place up for having fun, huh?" At this moment, a young man walking in front said with a grin.

Old Xu wasn't being modest either. He pulled two cartons of Soft Zhonghua out of a hidden cabinet under the bar and tossed them on the table, saying casually, "I don't really come here much. It's just a place to host friends and so on.

K‑singing, movies, tea tasting, dining, there are dedicated rooms for all of that. A couple of years back, when land was cheap, I just went ahead and bought it.

Don't let my age fool you, I can actually accept new things pretty well! Same old line: since you've come to my little patch of land here, that makes you my friends. Don't be too restrained—mess around however you like, whatever makes you happy!

Zhang Yang and Xiao Wei, your people are the same. I watch your streams quite a lot, and I've bought plenty of gear too, but the problem is, whenever I go out, I just can't catch fish!

Got any way to make me like you guys, catching more fish? Going out with friends and blanking is really embarrassing!"

Once it got to fishing, everyone's eyes in the room immediately focused on Zhang Yang.

When it came to eating, drinking, having fun and shooting the breeze, Zhang Yang definitely wasn't the most skilled one there, but when it came to fishing, he absolutely had the right to speak.

Zhang Yang grinned. "That's easy. I'll send you some of the stuff we use ourselves and let you try it later."

Hearing that Zhang Yang was going to give away his own stuff, the little group instantly got a bit too excited to stay calm.

"Don't just give it to Brother Xu! Split it half and half—let the brothers get a little benefit too! Am I right, everyone?"

"Exactly, exactly, whoever's here should get a share! We're all hardcore fishing nuts here! It's not every day we get to catch a pro offline—we all have to get a share!"

Zhang Yang wasn't the stingy type. "Sure, no problem. Everyone leave your address info with YOYO. When we get home, I'll mail each of you a set of our own products!"

"Now we're talking. Oh right, what secret weapon were you using in the match today? Watching the stream, you were dragging two‑ or three‑jin carp up to the surface, fishing on the top layer?"

"I've been dying to ask that too. Since we're all free now anyway, give us a little tech talk, yeah?"

Faced with a room full of fishing enthusiasts, once the topic shifted to fishing, whatever awkwardness they'd felt coming in vanished without a trace.

Aside from Zhang Yang's own team, every person here was either rich or powerful—either they'd built their own careers, or their families had status and influence. On a normal day, dealing with people out in society, they were definitely the type who looked at others down their noses.

But in front of Zhang Yang the fishing master, their eyes looked just like when they were kids staring at their homeroom teacher—full of expectation, awe, and a strong thirst for knowledge.

Asked about his area of expertise, Zhang Yang didn't stay low‑key. He smiled and said, "I'll be straight with you. This time I came to Jinghai Garden to compete mainly because of the title sponsor, Baoding Fish Bait Company.

This guy cracked the formula of our first‑generation Yellow Mix and has been undercutting our prices to grab market share, which has really hit our bait sales recently.

So, we developed a new generation of commercial‑pond black‑pit bait—Yellow Storm—and we're using this commercial tournament to boost its visibility."

"Yellow Storm? Got some on the car? Since none of us has anything to do right now, we might as well study with you properly, yeah?" Hearing the bait's name, Old Xu was interested too and went along with the idea.

"I do have it, but the place is so nicely done up. If we start mixing bait here with water splashing everywhere, that doesn't seem too great, does it?" Zhang Yang glanced around at the furnishings in the room, hesitating a little.

Old Xu waved his hand. "What's not great about it? After we're done, someone will clean up. I pay them a salary, they're here to work! I've got all the gear here. Whatever you need, I'll go get it. Float‑tuning buckets and all that—I've got several of them in the storage room. Just tell me what you need!"

"Uh, then get a float‑tuning bucket and fill it with water. I'll go grab the bait and additives from the car for everyone."

"Alright! We'll all follow your lead. From here on, you guys are not allowed to randomly film with your phones—this is Zhang Yang's livelihood and skill we're talking about. He's willing to teach us, so we should learn seriously. Only those of us here in person get a share!"

Old Xu even deliberately emphasized the confidentiality in a joking tone, and a few eager guys immediately put their phones away.

Soon, everyone started bustling around.

The drinks, snacks, fruit and so on on the big table were cleared to one side. Zhang Yang brought over several zip‑lock bags of Yellow Storm bait with different flavor profiles, and he also carried in his usual bait‑mixing basin, measuring cups, and his hook‑rig box.

After a few more minutes, under Old Xu's direction, someone moved in a big float‑tuning bucket about 1.2 meters high and fifty centimeters in diameter. The staff huffed and puffed bringing water over and filled the bucket.

Once everything was ready, Zhang Yang's offline bait‑sharing class officially began.

"Actually, when you guys go to black pits to fish, there are lots of reasons you don't do well. It's not just that you need good bait and strong additives to get results. Things like whether your spot is good or bad, and the weather, all have a big impact too.

Those things can't be explained clearly in just a few words. So today I'll mainly talk on site about how to mix bait and how to use additives."

After a brief setup, Zhang Yang entered his groove. He poured several flavors of the new Yellow Storm bait into the basin, and opened the bottles of different basic additives and herbal liquors.

"The living environment of farmed fish determines that most of them really like a highly atomized bait state. So in recent years, the 'Sanpao' style of bait state has developed very quickly.

Little Yellow Mix was the first hit product built on the concept of atomization for attraction. What we have in front of us now, Yellow Storm, is an upgraded version with better performance than Little Yellow Mix.

The factors that affect bait state are several: the ingredients used, the water‑to‑bait ratio, and your mixing and baiting technique.

Ingredients are something we think about during production. Add too much of some components and the bait gets sticky; add too much of others and it becomes too loose. You just need to understand the concept. It matters when we're doing R&D and production formulas, but for ordinary anglers like us, it's basically useless knowledge.

The most critical condition affecting bait performance in actual fishing is the water ratio!

Back then, Little Yellow Mix's water ratio was about 0.3 to 0.4. Our current Yellow Storm bait, because it's more puffed and more absorbent, can go up to about 0.5–0.6. It absorbs water better, is easier to put on the hook, and its state in the water is more ideal!

If you're not very confident in your usual bait‑mixing technique, use a measuring cup! Here, I'll show you all on site how we mix this bait. Watch closely—this is all about the details!"

After the brief introduction, Zhang Yang measured out six cups of bait and three cups of water using a 2‑2‑1‑1 ratio, and quickly started mixing on site.