Chapter 495

Because its swim bladder is extremely thick, once dried it gets another name:

Fish maw!

Or called fish belly!

That is, the "belly" in the abalone, sea cucumber, shark fin, and fish belly dish often seen in Hong Kong movies.

So this fish is sold separately: the flesh is flesh, the belly is belly, and their prices are worlds apart.

Since it's a croaker, Ye Cheng wasn't polite, grabbed a knife, slit it open, took out the swim bladder, which was indeed very thick.

To be honest, Ye Cheng hadn't really eaten this before.

Just after killing this croaker, another of similar size came up the line, which Ye Cheng also killed and took the swim bladder from.

As for the flesh, leave it; see if anyone buys it, if not take it back to feed the crayfish.

Ten sets of lines yielded a total of 18 croakers; looking at the small pile of swim bladders, Ye Cheng didn't know how much they'd sell for.

"Uncle Duan, how much can this sell for?" Xiao Hu also looked puzzled.

Duan Chunsheng thought a moment, then said, "I recall someone got a few before, each over a hundred, but his were smaller; I'm not sure about this one."

No problem, we'll ask at Matou later; first let's set the fish traps.

Still, let Xiao Hu start the Boat, go to the Fish Trap area, where a large expanse of floats slowly appears.

Ye Cheng hooked the first one up; as it tipped out, his eyes lit up: "Lots of Pipi Shrimp!"

This fish trap holds at least 30 Pipi Shrimp, all large; Ye Cheng picked one up, it was longer than his palm—absolutely top grade.

"Wow, if each is like this, today we'll strike it rich."

Duan Chunsheng, unable to wait, pulled up the second fish trap as well—again half full of Pipi Shrimp, plus some Fragrant Snails.

With so many Pipi Shrimp, Xiao Hu quickly fetched a few baskets to sort them, soon filling one basket.

After all 50 fish traps were hauled in, they totaled 12 baskets, estimated at over 200 catties of Pipi Shrimp.

There were two baskets of Fragrant Snails and Flower Snails, and one basket of other small octopuses.

Overall this trip was decent; now we just need to see how much the shrimp can sell for.

Before heading back, the three of them put down what needed to be put down, then they started back.

On the way back, Duan Chunsheng picked up a Pipi Shrimp, looked at it twice, then pointed at its belly and said,

"Lao Er, this Pipi Shrimp still has roe; we need to sort it out—those with roe sell for more."

Ye Cheng had just been busy tidying up and really hadn't noticed,

"Still has roe?"

Duan Chunsheng pointed to the shrimp's belly; near the head it was clearly orange-yellow roe.

Ye Cheng immediately turned and cursed at Xiao Hu: "Damn it, Xiao Hu, you can't even see the roe."

Xiao Hu scratched his head: "Brother, I didn't notice either; you guys had too much going on, I just focused on work."

Ye Cheng snapped at him: "Good thing Uncle Duan is wily; otherwise we'd have taken a big loss."

Duan Chunsheng's old face darkened as he stared at Ye Cheng: "I feel like you're scolding me with that."

"Praising you! Absolutely praising you! The older, the more cunning—that's you."

"Get lost!"

On the way back, the two of them re-sorted the shrimp: of the 12 baskets of Pipi Shrimp, 4 baskets had roe, then 6 baskets were female shrimp, 2 baskets male shrimp.

Seeing this ratio, Ye Cheng gave Duan Chunsheng a strange look and asked mysteriously,

"Uncle, you said one male shrimp has to service five females—can he keep up?"

Duan Chunsheng's face froze; his gaze at Ye Cheng grew strange, and he gave a thumbs up,

"Lao Er, your thinking is pretty strange—I never would have thought of that."

The two men stared at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing.

This laugh was bewildering; Xiao Hu, up front, turned his head with a puzzled look, glanced at the two men laughing while squatting on the ground, shook his head, and said disdainfully,

"Childish!"

Just as they were walking normally, Ye Cheng's phone rang; he pulled it out and saw it was a message from Duan Yong.

Opening it, Ye Cheng's brows involuntarily furrowed.

"Lao Er, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

Ye Cheng held the phone, his face grave: "Nothing happened, it's a message from Duan Yong—he says the boss replied, the crayfish only sold 60 catties."

"So little, not even half sold?" Duan Chunsheng exclaimed.

Ye Cheng hadn't expected this result; he'd thought, being the only one in the city, it would surely be in demand.

How could it sell only half?

Has everyone forgotten this flavor?

Or is the price too high?

"What should we do? There are still plenty in the shrimp pond." Duan Chunsheng stared at Ye Cheng asking, although this is Ye Cheng's business, it's also his son's hard work, so he can't help but worry.

Ye Cheng rubbed his face, put the phone away, then turned to Duan Chunsheng and said calmly,

"Uncle, don't be so anxious; it's only been one day—wait another day and see, we agreed to sell for two days."

Duan Chunsheng looked at Ye Cheng's calm demeanor, still uneasy, he hesitated for a while,

"What if tomorrow it also doesn't sell?"

It's rare to see Duan Chunsheng so worried; it made Ye Cheng laugh: "Uncle, if it doesn't sell, I'll just find another channel—this stuff's good, you shouldn't worry about not selling it."

"You, just relax—there's definitely no problem."

"Really no problem?"

"Definitely no problem—you, just put your heart back in your belly."

To be honest, Ye Cheng is very confident about crayfish; rural leisure has only been popular for a dozen years, but crayfish has been a top-tier standard since it came out.

Besides night market stalls, later even those Western fast-food chains launched crayfish burgers; my little shrimp pond isn't even enough to fill the gaps between their teeth.

If I can't sell them this time, I'll wait until the rural leisure facility is built and sell them at my own rural leisure facility.

Put this matter aside for now; the three of them returned to the dock, and Ye Cheng directly shouted for Xiao Hu to go call Lao He over to collect, and by the way ask Lao He about this Kong Lao Ban.

"Move aside! Move aside!"

Just as they were waiting, an urgent voice sounded in Ye Cheng's ears.

He turned his head and saw Lao He's legs moving as if they had motors installed, swinging on the dock so fast they were almost smoking.

"Uncle, what's going on?" Ye Cheng looked left and right; everything was very calm, nothing happening, or maybe Lao He himself had something going on?

Ye Cheng stood at the boat's edge, watching blankly as Lao He rushed up to him, then grabbed him, sweat pouring down his face, panting.

"Giant... Giant Grouper?"

Ye Cheng's face stiffened: "Where did the Giant Grouper come from?"

"Huh? Didn't Xiao Hu say he got another Giant Grouper?" Lao He lifted his head, a big question mark written on his face.

"Xiao Hu?"

Ye Cheng looked up and saw that guy walking behind with a grin, carefree and nonchalant.