Chapter 246: with translation of chapter title

"Yes, Uncle Chen, it's a total of 135,000." Ye Cheng said calmly.

Seeing Ye Cheng say tens of thousands so easily, a few people couldn't process it.

"You, you have tens of thousands?" Chen Jinhai said incredulously, knowing Ye Cheng had made money but not that much.

Tens of thousands might not be considered rich in the city, but in the village that makes one the richest.

When did this village loafer, this petty thief who steals chickens and dogs, this troublemaker I used to quarrel and fight with, actually become the richest?

Ye Cheng nodded; they didn't know he had also bought a house, otherwise they'd surely be even more unable to take it.

"135,000, Lao Er, you're this rich." Chen Jinli was also startled.

Chen Jinshui was fine; he had no concept of money, didn't worry about it, but he also kept clicking his tongue.

Over 130,000, plus before buying the boat, basically Ye Cheng's Savings were spent.

This was also thanks to the previous offshore salvage that earned a big sum, plus the Meile Pearl; otherwise, relying only on selling fish and crabs couldn't have made this much.

"How about it? No problem, right? If no problem, let's sign the contract?"

"No problem, I agree!" Chen Chunfu was the first to raise his hand; he could already imagine the village account breaking six figures, his joy at counting money.

Chen Jinhai also had no objection; Ye Cheng was willing to be the fool, who wouldn't be happy? "I agree too, but according to regulations we need village collective approval, so I still need to seek the opinions of the other villagers."

This opinion-seeking is mostly a formality; moreover, Ye Cheng's price wasn't low, the village committee members all agreed, so the villagers certainly had no objections.

After leaving the village committee, Ye Guowei still hadn't recovered.

"50 mu, 50 mu—what should we raise to earn it back?" Ye Guowei said, dazed.

"Brother, don't worry, with 50 mu just starting we'll raise clams, the free-range kind; that should be enough for you and your sister-in-law, and we can also set aside 5 mu to raise Blue Crab."

"Once we're familiar, we'll gradually increase the Blue Crab volume; that yields high returns, and later we can raise other things—intensive farming—if two people can't handle it, we'll hire help."

Hearing Ye Cheng's brief plan, Ye Guowei felt much more at ease.

"Then you really have over 130,000?"

"Yes, brother, I can even buy a boat—don't worry."

Seeing Ye Cheng's confident demeanor, Ye Guowei finally put his mind at ease; though he still felt unsure about such a big matter, he pulled Ye Cheng home to find Jiang Yunxiang.

Jiang Yunxiang was washing shrimp, holding a toothbrush and scrubbing them one by one; when she heard her husband say he'd contracted 50 mu, she was so startled she threw the shrimp away.

"A Cheng, 50 mu? Do you know how big that is?"

"I know, sister-in-law. First we'll buy a batch of clam seedlings, raise them freely—that's easy—then we'll do intensive farming; don't worry, even if we don't raise them, later transferring the contract will still make money."

"How come I suddenly feel like I've taken on so much debt? You still have two apartments to pay off the mortgage."

Jiang Yunxiang felt a bit worried—so much money, so much debt.

"Sister-in-law, don't worry—I also bought a boat; going out to sea a few times these days will earn it back; you don't know how much I make when I go out to sea."

Thinking about Ye Cheng's earnings from going out to sea, each trip makes several thousand, so it seems fine.

After finishing lunch at his older brother's house, on the way back Ye Cheng saw that the village entrance had already posted the notice of his beach tideland contract, with a crowd gathered discussing it.

Seeing him approach, they all gathered around and started asking.

"Lao Er, you contracted 50 mu? For 30 years of tideland?"

"That much, and paid in full at once—how much money is that?"

"How much should 50 mu earn per year?"

"You didn't borrow from a loan shark, did you? I heard that's very costly."

Ye Cheng was speechless—how did they bring up loan sharks?

"Uncles and aunts, don't overthink it—my older brother is getting older, the work at the Matou won't last much longer, so we want to run some aquaculture in the village to earn a little money.

Just raise clams, left to nature—it'll only earn a living."

Ye Cheng brought up Ye Guowei as an excuse; this reason is fairly sufficient, working at the Matou is hard.

Moreover, the clam farming Ye Cheng mentioned isn't unprecedented; it indeed doesn't earn much.

Thinking this over, the crowd's minds eased a lot; nowadays, especially in the village, one must never flaunt wealth, otherwise people will envy.

"Then you'd better watch closely—if a big wind or wave comes, the clams could get swept away."

"Yeah, uncle, that's why we just want to earn a living, be more stable."

In the crowd, Wang Defa's wife was also watching; after a while she left with a dark face, and Ye Cheng didn't mind.

Today my Luck Value isn't high, and I wasn't planning to go out to sea, but I need to go to Wang Defa's first to transfer the Boat over.

After a nap, Ye Cheng took the money, rode his motorcycle to find Wang Defa, intending to take him to the city to handle the paperwork.

As soon as he entered, he saw Wang Defa's wife sitting there with an unhappy expression.

"Hey, auntie, what's wrong? Who upset you?"

Wang Auntie saw it was him, didn't speak, and went straight into the room.

"Hey, is this giving me a dirty look?"

Ye Cheng walked into the room and called out, "Second Uncle, are you in? I came to find you to handle the transfer."

Wang Defa sat in the chair, glanced at Ye Cheng with an aloof attitude, completely unlike yesterday when he sold the boat.

"Second Uncle, what's wrong? Did I offend you?" Ye Cheng sat down casually.

Wang Defa glanced at Ye Cheng, tapped his pipe, and said sideways, "Lao Er, this price—I think it's still too low."

"Right, it's low." As soon as Wang Defa spoke, his wife beside him also chimed in.

Seeing this, Ye Cheng instantly felt a bit angry—are they trying to back out?

He suppressed his anger and said, "Second Uncle, the price was what we agreed on yesterday; I already gave the deposit—now you say it's low, isn't that a bit inappropriate?"

Wang Defa showed no embarrassment at all; he didn't care what Ye Cheng said, "Lao Er, your aunt just saw—you just contracted 50 mu of tideland, over ten thousand, and you're still haggling with me over price."

"Exactly, we've painstakingly earned a few bucks—yesterday you used our boat, went out once and made several thousand, yet you still have the nerve to haggle? If you want the boat, stick to the original price—40,000, not a cent less."

The Wang Defa couple are also like that—full of pettiness and greed; it's no wonder Xiao Hu and the others don't want to deal with them—who would want such relatives?

Ye Cheng let out a cold snort, "40,000? You don't even look at how many years your boat has been; to tell you the truth, the price of 33,000 I still, for Xiao Hu's sake, would accept; otherwise it's just 30,000."

That's the truth, Ye Cheng wasn't exaggerating.