Chapter 380: Ten Thousand Wood

Not troublesome, how could it be troublesome? Young people, career is important, family is also important. You're in your prime now; if you don't look now, are you going to wait until you're 30?

Ye Cheng gave Lao Wang a strange look—how did this old guy suddenly become so enthusiastic? He never asked about this before.

Suddenly, he felt something and looked toward Xiao Rou.

Xiao Rou happened to be looking at him too; their eyes met, and they instantly understood what Lao Wang meant.

"Damn! Lao Wang, I sincerely treat you as a brother, and now you want to be my dad—do you think that's okay?" Ye Cheng shouted.

Lao Wang:...

"We're not brothers at all—I'm about the same age as your father."

Xiao Rou had wanted to scold her father a bit, but Ye Cheng's sentence made her laugh so hard she spit out clams.

"Ye Cheng, you... you're toxic, you're going to laugh me to death—you call my dad 'big brother' and me 'little sis', so doesn't that make me and my dad siblings too? Hahaha."

Lao Wang took a deep breath, sternly warning himself: blood-related, blood-related.

"Damn, today's young people are really hard to communicate with—each one is crazy."

"Never mind, never mind."

"If I keep meddling, I might end up making myself a junior."

But in the end Lao Wang still couldn't help saying,

"Well, if you two are interested, I don't really mind—give it a try."

"Dad! What are you saying?" Xiao Rou's face flushed instantly at hearing that; she's usually bold, but that doesn't mean she isn't shy.

Ye Cheng also quickly lowered his head, pretending to drink tea—damn it, couldn't you avoid making this so socially deadly?

Xiao Rou is fine, but I still have Yang Liu, too.

Hmm, the word "still" is used well.

Still? So that makes two?

Ye Cheng's thoughts began to wander—what man doesn't want a few more close female friends? If they both flew up together, sigh, that's a bit... hahaha, indescribable, indescribable.

Just as he was enjoying the thought, suddenly Ye Cheng's head was struck hard.

"Ouch, who was that?" Ye Cheng covered his head and shouted.

He looked up and saw Xiao Rou glaring at him fiercely: "Ye Cheng, what's that expression? It's obviously something lewd."

Caught in the act, Ye Cheng's face turned serious—this is no time to admit anything,

"How could it be? I'm thinking about the impact of tariffs and currency exchange rates on future economic trends, the effect of polar ice melt on humanity, and whether there are more advanced life forms in outer space—all major issues concerning human survival. How could it be something lewd?"

Xiao Rou looked at him doubtfully; those things sounded weird, and she didn't know if Ye Cheng was telling the truth or not.

Anyway, Ye Cheng's expression was just like that of a dead pervert on TV.

After lunch, the vehicle Lao Wang summoned arrived—a large truck with a crane, since lifting it by hand would be difficult.

The village saw such a big vehicle, and naturally the villagers gathered to watch the spectacle.

After watching for a while, they saw the truck pulling a piece of wood from Ye Cheng's house, this log tightly wrapped, making everyone find it strange.

"People nowadays are so strange, coming to our fishing boat to haul wood."

"Probably some special shape, I heard some bosses just like wood carvings and such."

"We can't understand the world of the rich."

"But Ye Lao Er is impressive too—he can make money from a single log, though we don't know how much."

"How much can wood sell for? I think a log this big would top out at a thousand bucks."

Seeing off Lao Wang, Ye Cheng counted the over 90,000 dollars in his hand; finally, this ebony log under 1.5 tons worked out to over 90,000—after all that hassle, damn, it's only this much.

"Was I being scammed by Lao Wang? This guy feels even more deceitful than me."

"Just wait—if I find out I've been scammed, I'll chase after Xiao Rou and then dump her."

But thinking about Xiao Rou's long legs, if I dumped her I'd feel a bit reluctant.

Of that 90,000, Ye Cheng gave 10,000 to his older brother, 20,000 to Xiao Hu, and kept 60,000 for himself.

That works out to savings of 250,000, external debt of 30,000, and a mortgage of 300,000.

This money feels like it could never be spent.

This ebony also boosted the points a lot—points have reached 9,300; a little more and we can upgrade the advanced breeding system.

In the afternoon, with nothing to do, Ye Cheng went to the shrimp nursery and saw that the pregnant female shrimp had given birth to baby shrimp, which Duan Yong had moved to the adjacent tank.

Looking at a tank full of tiny crayfish, Ye Cheng felt relieved—this was the first step.

In the breeding tank, another dozen or so female shrimp were pregnant; everything was on track.

The only thing not yet ready are the two breeding ponds—can't do it quickly, as they require a lot of earthwork and also need to add a water diversion system; it won't be fast.

Moreover, Duan Yong said that Chen Zhangfu's two ponds over there have already been dug—one big, one small.

The smaller one has already been stocked with breeding crayfish; as for the details, I don't know.

Meanwhile, Yuan Jiansheng's purchase price for crayfish has risen to 3.2, increasing quickly; town folk are gradually accepting crayfish, sales are surging, but raw materials are starting to dwindle due to seasonal reasons.

Regarding sales, Ye Cheng also discussed with Boss Qian, raising the price by one dollar—there's no choice, otherwise profits would be too low.

If this continues, Ye Cheng estimates that when his first batch of shrimp hits the market, he might be able to sell them for five dollars per catty, or even higher.

Because it's farmed crayfish, other farmed seafood is cheap, but crayfish are different—farmed ones are expensive because they're clean.

Village affairs are mostly settled; Ye Cheng made an appointment with Duan Chunsheng to go out to sea together tomorrow.

Earlier, there were so many blue crabs in the mangroves on the island that we haven't finished catching them—it would be a shame not to go again.

Bringing Duan Chunsheng along is also because that area is sizable; an extra pair of hands would finish the job sooner.

The next morning early, Ye Cheng checked the system:

Luck Value: 70+20

Points: 9300

Savings: 250,000, External Debt: 30,000, Mortgage: 300,000

Hmm, it's moderate, but enough.

Duan Chunsheng had already been waiting for them at the village entrance; seeing Ye Cheng approach, he hurriedly greeted them,

"What's up, you're heading out today, planning to cast a few nets?"

"No, Duan Shu, we're going out to gather seafood today, to catch blue crabs."

"Huh? Gather seafood?" Duan Chunsheng stared for a moment, still thinking they were going to cast nets.

"Uncle, just come with us, we'll definitely not let you lose out." Xiao Hu spoke up.

"Alright, I'll go!"

Ye Cheng glanced at the tools in Duan Chunsheng's hands, then had him go back to fetch a pair of iron pliers, and only then did they set off together.

Since they were gathering seafood, there was no need to launch two boats; they just used Ye Cheng's own boat, with the three of them on one boat, saving some fuel money.