Chapter 1268: Robbery

Ye Yaodong couldn't say exactly how much he'd catch each day. Right now the haul looked plentiful, but who knew when the catch would drop? There was no fixed income—who could guarantee the same amount every day?

But staying out at sea was definitely better than selling from shore.

What they were discussing now was the ratio that maximized everyone's benefit.

He also explained that he wasn't making any money transporting diesel, ice, fruits and vegetables for them—it was out of regard for everyone. Otherwise, other fresh-fish collector boats would charge for that too; this was his show of sincerity.

In the end, he said the purchase price for their catch would be calculated at a 70% rate for them. Originally it had been 60%, leaving him with 40%; now he'd only take 30%.

Based on the current catch volume, the fish sold would fetch a higher price than the past couple of days, and the total amount would be larger.

After giving up that 10%, the price he'd actually pocket was roughly the same as before.

For him, the change wasn't significant; for the other fishing boats, it was a benefit—less expense, more earnings.

This was something he'd thought over carefully yesterday—reasonably fair and a win-win.

Earning the same money as before wasn't really possible. After all, they weren't trawling now and were closer to shore, so the collector boat's fuel consumption had also dropped.

None of them were fools.

When their own interests suffered, they'd naturally switch to something more favorable, to earn a bit more.

If he kept buying their catch at the old 60% rate, they'd earn less than selling from shore—so they might as well head back to shore, which also counted as a rest.

As for the supplies that didn't earn him money, once they returned to shore they could replenish on their own without spending extra.

A modest 10% reduction made little difference to what he'd roughly pocket.

If the money in his pocket shrank, he certainly wouldn't go for it. Why should he?

He needed to make money too. Handing all the profit over to them, letting them take advantage—how could that be possible?

As long as his original profit wasn't harmed, he could afford to make appropriate concessions.

"In the first place, when I take everyone's catch, I'm also reducing your risk, right? You don't have to worry at all, don't have to wonder whether the goods will sell. I take it all on myself—if it doesn't sell, that's my problem. That's a cost too."

"And the seafood processing plant—that's my connection too. If you went to sell at the dock yourselves, how long would it take? And you'd be taking on risk."

"You know how risky it is selling at the dock, don't you? From morning to night there are all kinds of conflicts, brawls and fights. Plenty of people make money but don't live to spend it."

"Take our very first day here—we got dragged in without warning. Wouldn't it be better not to take that risk?"

"Not having to go ashore to sell, and only paying out a bit of profit—isn't that fair? When you're out at sea, all you need to do is fish."

"If the weather turns bad, you just head back—no loss. Relatively speaking, natural disasters aren't as unexpectedly dangerous as man-made ones."

"Come to think of it, these few boats are getting the better deal too. Sure, they gave up a bit of profit, but the extra time they'd have spent selling is now free of selling risk, and they can stay out fishing longer to earn more. The fishing boats are the ones benefiting."

"I figured we're all our own people, so earning a little less is fine. Otherwise, if you hauled it back to sell on shore, who knows if you'd come out ahead or fall behind."

"Just looking at the money paid out, in reality you can earn it all back on the sea—and even more—while taking on less risk."

"What do you think? The people on my end—not just the workers on the big and small boats, but also those at home and on the collector boat—all need to be supported, all need to earn."

"The profit that should be given out still needs to be given appropriately. You can't just think about letting others earn—in fact, you're earning too."

Old Pei kept chiming in, though he didn't dare argue.

What Ye Yaodong had broken down was plain truth—easy enough to take in.

They weren't fools either; they knew what was best for everyone.

Harmony brings wealth.

You good, me good, everyone good. The concessions given—in the end, the fishing boats got the better deal too.

"Right, right, you're right. Everyone making money is what matters most. If one side doesn't earn and the other does, it definitely won't last."

"Right? So let's settle on 70%. You have no objections, do you?"

"Fine, we'll do as you say. After the goods are sold, the fishing boats get 70%, you get 30%. Tomorrow you need to talk to the other two boats—I don't know if they'll have any objections."

"They won't."

If anyone had objections, it would be you—how could the others possibly have any?

Take the boat the three brothers were running together—could those two older brothers of his have any objections?

Zhou Da and his people certainly wouldn't have any objections. They depended on him for everything; they were the ones who came to him, asking to follow him out to sea, seeking his protection.

Although he earned more, when it came time to split the money, a quick mental calculation would naturally raise some objections. But since he'd already taken the initiative to make concessions, they'd know to quit while they were ahead.

"Alright then, that's settled. When your dad takes the collector boat out tomorrow to pick up the catch, you tell everyone. This works out well—one boat helping haul goods means everyone can stay out at sea longer, and you can earn money selling on your end too."

"Mm, then that's that."

Just as Ye Yaodong was about to hang up, Old Pei added, "You're the clever one, alright—figuring out early on to order a collector boat. Leaning on these few boats, you probably won't need a month to recoup the cost…"

Ye Yaodong pouted and said, slightly annoyed, "It's not just my collector boat making money off everyone—everyone's boats are also making money off mine. It was always a mutually beneficial arrangement. You make it sound like I'm the only one taking advantage."

"Normally, the discount on all kinds of fish, collector boats usually calculate at 50%. 60% is only for valuable stuff. I didn't make money on diesel or ice either—I've been generous enough."

"Everyone's boats benefited."

Old Pei laughed awkwardly on the other end. "That's… that's… mutual benefit, win-win for everyone."

"Besides, apart from Zhou Da's boat, the other boats all have my share in them. I should have some say, right? Zhou Da's boat is also willing to follow behind us for peace of mind, for some support."

"They didn't say anything about not trawling anymore, switching to radar nets, having more catch, whatever—they didn't say a word."

So stop going on about it.

"Anyway, since Uncle, you have objections, we'll discuss it—70% it is."

Old Pei hurriedly agreed, "Alright, alright, alright, I wasn't saying anything. That wasn't what we were discussing anyway…"

"Fine, I got it. We're hauling in the net."

Ye Yaodong hung up directly.

Could he not know the point of the call when it was made? Wasn't it about this very thing?

In any case, it was just giving everyone a sweet date—he wasn't really losing out.

Everyone was there to make money.

Picking up cargo every two days, earning three or four thousand to four or five thousand was a huge win for him.

So when his dad came out on the fresh-collection boat the next day, he had already received advance notice.

When he arrived, he swapped places with his dad.

He let his dad handle the boat's fishing work, while he took the fresh-collection boat around to gather from several boats.

He also took the chance to raise the purchase price a little, and personally went around telling everyone about lowering his own cut.

Their reactions varied. His eldest brother and Ye Ye Erge were both pleasantly surprised, happily saying they could earn a bit more money this trip.

Zhou Da just smiled. His brothers were indeed surprised too, and kept praising him for being generous—having him collect the catch meant everyone could earn more.

Ye Yaodong figured Pei's father had already tipped Zhou Da off, which was why he showed no surprise.

He didn't mind—as long as everyone was happy.

After all the goods were collected and the manifests recorded, he took the boat back to find his dad. A few hours had passed, and it was time to haul in another net of catch.

Ye Fu grinned. "Dongzi, didn't expect this radar net to be way more useful than a trawl net. It's great for catching hairtail."

"That's nothing. The hairtail really come out at night. Once it's dark, one net pulls up way more than during the day—it's all hairtail then. You barely see any hairtail in the daytime."

"Is that so? Well, that makes sense. Hairtail are active at night, so there really are fewer during the day. How about you take the boat to shore to sell the catch, and I'll handle things here?"

"Sure, just worried you might be too old to handle it."

"Just swapping in occasionally is fine."

Ye Yaodong figured that worked too—father and son taking turns now and then.

He also took the chance to tell his dad about adjusting the discount. Earlier when he'd come over, the two had only swapped places and hadn't chatted about anything else before going to collect the catch.

Ye Fu was surprised for a moment, thought it over, and figured his son really was making too much profit.

"Do what you think best. After all, you're the one earning the money, not me. As long as no one has objections and everyone's happy, that's fine. Originally they were earning extra thanks to the convenience you gave them, and your boat also needs them to make money."

"Reasonable concessions mean everyone can earn more. The risks here are big—if we earn about enough, let's head back early, alright?"

"These past two days at the dock I've seen over a dozen dead. I also heard there's a pirate boat pretending to be a fresh-collection boat, contacting fishing boats, getting close to collect cargo, then robbing the whole boat, killing the people and dumping them in the sea. Terrifying."

Ye Yaodong was surprised for a moment, but after thinking it over, figured it made sense. The place was so chaotic that pirate boats were very possible—after all, money was easy to make here, and robbing fishing boats was even easier.

Generally, people who run boats carry their wealth on their person. Being away from home, who could feel safe leaving money in a rented room?

Robbing just one boat earns more than ten thousand—faster than fishing, isn't it?

There are always people who want something for nothing, looking for shortcuts.

Thinking this way, he figured it was also normal that when Captain Xu's boat had drifted at sea for so long, no fishing boat had come nosing around. After all, things were too chaotic here.

Who knew if those fishing boats were something sinister—putting on an act to lure fishing boats close for a robbery?

Luckily he'd been alert enough. At the time he'd observed and asked several times, only approaching once he was sure it really had broken down.

"Ah!" Ye Yaodong slapped his thigh. "Dad, you came too late! You should have come earlier!"

Ye Fu was dumbfounded for a moment.

"If you'd come earlier, you could have spread the word to them, let them know how treacherous people can be. Apart from my fresh-collection boat, would they dare trust anyone else's?"

"But they could just go ashore and sell the catch themselves, earn a bit more, no need to sell to a fresh-collection boat—then they wouldn't easily run into this kind of thing…"

Huh?

Seems like that's true too.

"But I'm a trustworthy insider, their backup too. When there's a lot of catch—like during the fishing season, going back to sell is such a bad deal. Staying at sea, how much more can you catch? How much more can you earn?"

"Besides, when the fishing season comes, won't the whole dock be full of hairtail? Is it really that easy to sell? You still need connections to sell well. Without connections, it'll just sit in your hands and rot."

Ye Fu shook his head. "Hard to say what the situation will be. Anyway, whatever we can earn now, let's get it in our hands. Earning a bit less doesn't matter—what matters is there's money to be made. Once we've earned enough, let's head back early."

"Got it. Anyway, it's already settled, no loss."

"Mm, only when everyone earns together can it last."

"Then you stay here. I'll take the fresh-collection boat back to Huigang to sell the catch. While it's still light, I can find a good spot at the dock."

Ye Yaodong had estimated—setting aside other people's catch, just the fish on the Dongsheng, the volume really had been huge these past two days.

At 25 kilograms per basket, his boat's harvest over these two days had nearly 20,000 jin of hairtail alone, over 6,000 jin of small yellow croaker, plus a good amount of pomfret, eel, sargassum fish, mai dong, yellow croaker, and so on. The overall yield was impressive.

But likewise, with such a large seafood output here, the price definitely couldn't compare to back home.

The more abundant the supply, the fiercer the competition at the dock, and prices tended to be pushed down.

Buyers weren't worried about not getting goods. If you wouldn't sell, someone else would, eager to offload their catch quickly even at a lower price.

So this also showed how valuable Zhang Rensu's arrangement was—delivering straight to the factory. There was a fixed purchase price, no worry about price wars, just ship it over there.

Although it might be a tiny bit lower than the dock price, at least there was no need to get dragged into a price war, and it saved time and hassle—a lot less trouble.

Ye Yaodong figured that once the fishing season came, he couldn't lower the price any further—he had to make this money.

When the time came and there was even more catch, if anyone had objections, he could let them go sell at the dock themselves and see how easy that money was to make.

Ye Yaodong swapped with Ye Fu. Back at the dock, he only unloaded part of the catch to sell, leaving the rest on the boat—most of it was what the factory needed.

The hairtail factory had dedicated assembly lines—for salt-cured, dried fish, canned, everything.

On his boat, hairtail made up half. The four boats had a full 80,000-plus jin, plus other items the factory needed. He left them all on the boat, and once the other fish were mostly sold, he'd deliver the boat's cargo to the factory.

This was the goodwill he'd built with the boss surnamed Su—promising him next year's kelp volume in exchange for the back door on this year's seafood.

Anyway, their seafood processing plant collected from whoever; collecting from relatives and friends might even get them complained to about prices being lower than the dock, or having a cut taken by procurement or middlemen. His side would only be grateful.

He sold catch at the dock until deep into the night, and by the time he'd delivered the rest of the boat's cargo to the processing plant, it was already past midnight.

Hairtail plus the other goods came to a full 100,000 jin—he had to hire two large trucks to haul it all.

By the time he finished settling accounts at the factory and collected the money, dawn was about to break.

He set off with his ten men, chatting and laughing, thinking since they hadn't slept yet, they'd stop by the morning market on the way back to grab some meat and bones.

Who would have thought a group of people would suddenly rush out from the alley—some with knives, some with clubs.

"Hand over all the money on you, or none of you are leaving."

"Be smart about it, or we'll have all your lives left right here."

Ye Yaodong and the others were startled, their skin taut with tension.

"Damn it, a robbery?"

"Boss, what do we do? Holy crap, they're robbing us…"

"Dong-ge, good thing you took precautions—when we got off the boat, you hid a gun in the basket…"

"Take 'em out! Grab the weapons!"

Ye Yaodong's group was startled, but after the initial shock, they all started cursing, rolling up their sleeves, and quickly pulling weapons out of the baskets.

Because the chaos here was something they'd seen plenty of, and on the first day they'd arrived they'd even suffered a big loss.

So from then on, they not only kept weapons on the boat, but whenever they went ashore to sell goods—whether at the dock or out delivering—they'd stuff a sack of clubs, and even brought two guns along, just in case.

They didn't do anything illegal, but they definitely needed to defend themselves—otherwise, if they got dumped in an alley, there'd be nowhere to cry about it.

In this place, every few days in the morning, they'd hear about another few half-dead bodies being carried out of some alley.

"Damn it… Super rookie… robbing has come for Lin Bei…"

They quickly divided up the weapons, cursing as they stood beside Ye Yaodong to face off against the other side.

The other side looked like only eleven or twelve people; they also had ten, so the gap wasn't big. Ye Yaodong still had a gun—one shot, one kill, and the gap was gone.

When he pointed the dark muzzle of his gun at them, they were even more nervous than he was.

Staring at him, they even took a step back and tentatively said: "Su… Super rookie…"

Ye Yaodong: "!!!"

He widened his eyes and glanced at the workers beside him; everyone exchanged uneasy looks.

The other side said again: "Damn it…"

Everyone: "!!!"

Ye Yaodong frowned, his expression complicated, and said a line as well: "What the hell?"

The other side: "Suzuki motherf***er…"

Ye Yaodong irritably cursed: "Suzuki lazybones, robbing has come for 'Lin Bei'—where are you from?"

"Hahaha… misunderstanding, total misunderstanding, bro, let's put the guns down, it's a misunderstanding, haha, we're all family here, all of us are family… we're all family…"

"Who the hell is 'family' with you, Suzuki motherf***er?"

"The great flood washed into the Dragon King's temple—no fighting, no knowing each other, we're all family haha, we failed to recognize a great man, hehe, misunderstanding, it's nothing, it's nothing…"

"Where are you from?"

"We're from Taocheng County… my name is Hu Sijun, they're all from our village."

Dammit, isn't that just the county next to theirs?

No wonder they spoke the same dialect and could pick up on each other.

"You're all perfectly fine, with hands and feet, why not find some honest work instead of specializing in robbery here?"

"Bro, you should know how chaotic this place is, we had no choice. We were originally boat runners too, but the boat boss got killed off, and the boat was gone too—we were lucky to escape fast. But there are plenty of outsiders here, what work can we find? Even doing hard labor we get bullied and wages withheld—we're just doing this to scrape by…"

"Get lost. If you rob me again, I won't care if we're from the same place or not."

"Bro… could you take us in… just bring us home, that's all…"

"Don't even think about it. Get lost, get lost. If you don't know what's good for you, my gun barrel doesn't have eyes."

Hu Sijun stood in place watching them for a long time, then let out a heavy sigh and led his men back into the alley.

Ye Yaodong and the others kept their weapons ready, watching warily. Only after the figures vanished did they continue forward, but they didn't dare let the weapons leave their hands for a second, afraid of being hit with a sudden counterattack.

"What trash, daring to ask me to take them in."

"Dong-ge, didn't expect to see folks from our side here. Taocheng County is still pretty close to ours."

"Don't care where they're from—who knows how many lives they've got on their hands? They can rob us today, which means they've robbed plenty of passersby before, they're that smooth at it. If we didn't all have guns, would they be trading code words with us and trying to cozy up?"

And they still wanted him to take them home?

Do they think he's stupid? Taking in just anyone.

Inviting wolves into the house—he might not even make it back before he was done for.

Don't count on people like that having a conscience. Being from the same hometown doesn't mean they're family—more often than not, the ones who screw you over are exactly these "family."

"True enough. Their boat boss and boat are both gone, so they must have been surviving by robbing."

"This place is way too chaotic—people from all over are here, and we still ran into folks from our neck of the woods. Thought it was just us."

Ye Yaodong shouldered his gun and said calmly: "Isn't that normal? When Uncle Zheng and the others were running boats, didn't they come here too? Otherwise, why would they see that Wenzhou wasn't making money and think about coming here to take a gamble?"

"This is making money with no life to spend it."

"Who knows how many boats and people have been left here forever—maybe their families back home don't even know, and there's not even someone to collect the bodies."

At the thought of this, everyone's desire to talk dropped again; they just felt it was truly miserable, and wondered if it might one day befall them.

Ye Yaodong soothed: "Don't overthink it. Bring more weapons when you go in and out, don't go off alone, pay more attention to safety, and go out less."

"Dong-ge, when are we heading back?"

"Want to go back?"

"A little. It's too dangerous out here."

"We just got here. Just be more careful, we'll be fine. We don't go out usually anyway, only when we're selling goods."

The bold die of overeating, the timid die of hunger.

Among his workers, some wanted to earn more money, some wanted to go home.

But that wasn't up to them—it was up to the few boat bosses to decide.

But the ones making money were the boat bosses; people are greedy.

Ye Yaodong said: "Next time we get off the boat, bring a few more guns. When I wake up I'll go ask around, see if I can get a few more."

When he woke up, he'd go ask the worldly fellow.

He's local, and he has the guts to travel all over the place — he must have connections to buy them.

Get a few more guns. It doesn't matter if there aren't many of us; just give each person one.

"If there are guns, that'll do — with guns, I can rest easy."

Ye Yaodong added, "Let's go, let's buy more groceries. When we get back and wake up, we'll have a good meal to settle our nerves."

"Brother Dong, next time we sell goods, let's have the truck not leave first. Wait until we're done selling, then have it give us a ride back. At most we'd pay for one extra trip, and it'd be a lot safer."

"Sure, that was my oversight. By then everyone will have guns and weapons on them, so we won't have to worry about anyone daring to block the truck, or the driver getting any funny ideas."

"Mm, mm, this way we won't have to worry."

Today they were lucky enough that the bandits they ran into were a poorly equipped ragtag bunch without even guns.

If they'd run into an organized group, they really could've been done for.

Money really is hard to earn.

High returns mean high risk.

Ye Yaodong and his group carried the stacked empty baskets toward the market. As they walked, they gradually saw more people on the road, and felt safer.

They also put away the weapons in their hands first, wrapped them in burlap sacks, and hid them inside the baskets.

It was only because the processing plant was in such a remote location that this happened. Otherwise, by the time they came out, the sky would've already been light, and there would've been people on the main road.

They bought a pile of fruits, vegetables, and meat. Ye Yaodong also bought a case of everyone's favorite instant noodles — just boil them when they got back to fill their bellies and sleep, and to settle their nerves.

After waking up, he immediately went to find Boss Zhang Rensu.

Zhang Rensu, hearing that he wanted 20 guns, was so startled he stood straight up from his stool.

"Are you robbing a bank? Or robbing a gold shop? 20 guns — you could just clean out my whole place."

Ye Yaodong chuckled, "No 20 then, do you have 10?"

"What kind of joke is that? No. You think I'm in the arms trade? I'm a fish seller too."

"Then how about 5? It's just for self-defense..."

Ye Yaodong told him about what had happened to them that morning.

"So, you could still give the right countersign, and then the other side just left?"

"How could that be? They were already robbing us — would they care if we're fellow townsmen or not? They were deterred by the weapons in my hands. They were just stray bandits. Next time if we run into a well-equipped group, I'd really be done for. It's too chaotic around here."

"It really is chaotic, but as for guns..."

"Just 5, that should be simple, right?"

"Can't get them."

Ye Yaodong knew the man had no obligation to help him. The backdoor on the direct-sales deal itself was already a way of thanking him for finding the truck keys, and also a trade for next year's resources.

Now he would definitely have to offer something in return before the man would help him get them.

He thought it over, then said, "How about I trade you for it with some information?"

Zhang Rensu raised an eyebrow. "What information?"

"Have you ever thought about setting up a refrigerated transport chain for seafood? The port here has unparalleled advantages—what kind of seafood don't you have? If you had a cold chain, you could ship fresh seafood all over the country. Wouldn't that print money?"

Right now resources are scarce across the country. In some places goods are flooding the market, in others people can't even get a bite to eat no matter how much money they have.

"Do you know the technology?"

"I don't, but don't you have overseas Chinese here? The government agencies have to court you all — just ask the government agencies. They must have people researching it. If you can get it, wouldn't that make a killing?"

"What kind of information is that?"

Ye Yaodong cleared his throat dryly. "Then have you ever thought about building a seafood trading city — a big one, the largest seafood trading city in the whole country? Such a huge port, and there's not even a proper protected place to trade."

"You know what the docks look like. Build a dedicated trading city, cut down on the brawls, and I'm sure plenty of ship bosses and fish peddlers would be willing to trade inside, under protection."

Zhang Rensu frowned and thought it over, then shook his head.

"You're thinking too idealistically. It's impossible. Building a trading city — is that something ordinary people can do? It'd have to be the government."

"Right, so you get the government to do it, then you buy up a patch of stalls for yourselves. Wouldn't that be raking in money by the day?"