Chapter 154

Ye Cheng nodded and said, "These 8-head ones at 40 each, you won't lose, right?"

8-head abalone is relatively small; previously, the farmed abalone of over ten heads sold at the market for 5 yuan each, practically cheaper than pork.

So selling 8-head abalone for 40 is a bit expensive.

"Not making money, but also not losing—mainly we profit from the four-head and six-head ones." Boss Qian didn't hide anything from Ye Cheng, "Moreover, the smaller ones have their own advantages: more people eat them, you can sell seventy or eighty and someone will try them fresh, while large abalone needs big customers to afford it."

Now life has improved, many ordinary people also want to try this high-end ingredient like abalone, but if it's too expensive they can't afford it, so being smaller might better match everyone's consumption habits.

Besides the abalone, for three conchs, Boss Qian gave 2,800 yuan according to size.

The blue crab and swimming crab together sold for 400 yuan, while sea cucumber, being less, sold for only 200 yuan.

Plus that spotted grouper, 180 yuan.

After calculation, Ye Cheng's first seabed gathering sold for yuan, not bad.

After leaving Boss Qian, Ye Cheng went around Donghai Shi looking for a store that professionally sells diving equipment.

But unfortunately there wasn't one; the industry segmentation isn't that advanced yet.

Finally he went to a sporting goods store and bought two pairs of diving goggles, a headlamp for underwater lighting, and a diving suit; after going in the water this time he felt itchy all over, not knowing what dirty thing caused it, and if possible that kind of waterproof would be better.

He originally wanted to buy an underwater dagger, but none were sold, so he could only go to a fishing tackle shop and buy a spear; after shortening it back home it could be used makeshift, and this is for dealing with danger.

Buying all this stuff cost Ye Cheng a little over a thousand yuan.

After the big shopping, Ye Cheng also bought some braised dishes, tofu skin, a few jin of mutton, and then cumin chili, which he planned to use for barbecue that evening.

After returning, Ye Cheng went straight to his older brother's house, told his sister-in-law about coming over tonight to eat barbecue together, then went home and started getting busy.

This time the money was split, giving Xiao Hu 2,000 and Ye Cheng keeping 10,000 for himself.

Adding it up, his savings now total 110,000, plus the borrowed money comes to about 120,000.

Xiao Hu borrowed a barbecue grill from the village; this thing is simple to make, many households have one, after adding some charcoal it can be used for barbecue at night.

Today's main dish is that sea bass, plus mutton skewers.

Ye Cheng personally grilled the sea bass: first he killed and cleaned the fish, then marinated it with spices and cooking wine, and finally placed it on an iron grill to roast.

The fish meat was fragrant; after a while the skin turned golden yellow, oil slowly seeped out from the meat, and Ye Cheng slowly turned it over so both sides became nicely browned.

"Brother, what's different about your grilled fish? Isn't it just grilled fish?" Xiao Hu sat aside, began threading the pre-cut mutton skewers, and watched curiously.

"Don't rush, rest assured, it's definitely different from ordinary grilled fish."

Because he would later simmer it on low heat, Ye Cheng didn't grill the fish too dry, just cooked it to about 50% done and then set it aside to stop grilling.

Then he found an iron tray, laid out sliced tofu skin, potato slices, bean sprouts and other side dishes underneath, placed the grilled fish on top, added water and broad bean paste, and began to simmer on low heat.

Actually each household's grilled fish has its own secret sauce, but that's secret; Ye Cheng can't make a secret one, so he can only use the generic broad bean paste.

"Brother, does the grilled fish still need to be stewed?" Xiao Hu looked at Ye Cheng curiously.

"Later you can eat it or not, quit all this talk."

There wasn't much water in the iron tray to begin with; it boiled quickly, the broth bubbled up, infusing the fish meat with flavor; after finishing the side dishes, adding a handful of noodles would be perfect.

"Brother, where did you learn all this? I don't think they sell that in the city."

Nonsense, you don't need to study anything; in later times, night market stall owners would kill and grill fish right in front of you, and after eating a lot you'd just pick it up by watching—except you can't tell Xiao Hu.

"Learned it online."

"You can learn this online too? When will you teach me to go online? They say you need a URL and such to go online, I don't know either."

Speaking of which, back then you really had to memorize URLs to go online, and only after some degree search engine appeared could you find webpages via search.

Initially, Ye Cheng remembered that he always went to New Blue first because its URL was easiest to remember, then he'd navigate from there.

While chatting with Xiao Hu about how to go online and stringing meat skewers, not long after Jiang Yunxiang arrived with Dou Dou.

Upon seeing the barbecue, the child got overexcited and shouted that he wanted to grill one himself.

Ye Cheng handed him a mutton skewer and let him go grill it on the barbecue rack for fun.

"Sister-in-law, hasn't older brother come back yet?"

"Yeah, older brother should be around 5:30; I called him, he'll come over himself later. I came over first to help—anything else not done?"

"Yeah, there are still some potato slices and such that need threading, and the braised dishes haven't been cut." Ye Cheng pointed to the back kitchen.

Preparing a meal isn't easy either; it's eaten quickly, but the preliminary work is still considerable.

"Oh, sister-in-law, I don't have enough bowls and chopsticks here; why not get some more from you?"

Ye Cheng, a bachelor, only has four bowls; tonight he also needs to drink alcohol and beverages, which is far from enough.

"Sure, I'll go get them in a moment."

Jiang Yunxiang responded while looking at the iron tray on the stove, curiously asking, "A Cheng, what are you doing? Stewing the fish?"

"Sister-in-law, my brother said it's grilled fish, grilled first then stewed, and said it's delicious." Xiao Hu had learned to chime in.

"There's such a cooking method? I've never heard of it before."

"That's right, this is what my brother learned online; he said you can learn anything on the internet."

Xiao Hu said this proudly, as if Ye Cheng's knowing it meant he knew it too.

The three of them busied themselves for a while; with Jiang Yunxiang, a skilled homemaker, helping, they soon finished.

She then went back to fetch the bowls and chopsticks, just as Ye Guowei arrived together with her, and Chen Jinshui also brought some earthen pot (stew).

Ye Cheng lifted the table into the courtyard, a table of people sat down, and they just had a BBQ without a lawn.

"Come, come, the grilled fish is here." Ye Cheng carefully brought up the child steaming with broth grilled fish.

The whole grilled fish steamed hot, the sauce-colored broth continuously bubbled, the aroma of broad bean paste perfectly blended with the fish and side dishes, making people involuntarily swallow a mouthful of saliva.

Dou Dou nibbled on his slightly charred mutton skewer while looking at the grilled fish, his eyes full of novelty.

"Come, have a taste." Ye Cheng indicated everyone could eat.

Xiao Hu was the first to move his chopsticks, picking up a piece of fish meat; upon eating, his eyebrows instantly rose.

"Wow, brother, it's really delicious; this grilled fish has the aroma of grilled fish, plus the flavor of the sauce, very tasty."