Chapter 1389: Adjusting the Split

It's not telling you to rest, it's telling you to bring a few more people, train them into experienced hands, so that when the time comes there'll be a few more on the boat who can sail and give orders, and it'll save him trouble too, with people he can assign.

"Can't let you keep working forever either, when it's time to retire you retire, when it's time to play you play."

"You know it too, Old Pei is already enjoying the good life."

"Knowing and knowing are two different things, he is enjoying the good life, but I can't go find myself a stepmother…"

"You brat!" Ye Fu raised his hand to hit him, "What am I saying, what are you saying… the good life I'm talking about, what did you take it to mean."

Ye Fu was a bit flustered, there were so many people around, what if they heard and got the wrong idea, he still wanted to keep face.

The people around also burst into laughter.

"Old Pei's kind of good life, ordinary people can't really enjoy it, hahaha…"

"Hahaha, if you really want this kind of good life, it's actually simple…"

Ye Yaodong laughed and dodged his father's slap, then headed upstairs to check on the workers' progress.

Leave the professional work to the professionals, his boatmen were better suited to go fishing and earn more money, the work here would be left to the workers, let them see it through to the end, just finish up the last bit of work and it'd be done.

The crew he brought out from his own boat already counted as a good number, arranged properly, he only brought two extra people, plus the 4 he had brought up before, these 6 people were considered idle.

So he let these 6 people stay at the worksite watching as usual, after all they'd been watching for over two months, were a bit familiar with it, and incidentally stayed home to cook.

Meals for some 30 people, plus the miscellaneous matters at the worksite, was enough to keep them busy.

In case any worker got sick, couldn't adjust to the climate, or had some other matter, there'd be someone to step in, serving as rotating logistics.

After checking the progress, he called over his own workers again to arrange the matter of going out to sea at night.

At this point, he also remembered, this year was different from last year, there was an extra Ocean-Going No. 1.

Seeing the sun hadn't set yet, he figured there was still time, so he bought some cigarettes and alcohol, picked up two baskets of fish balls, and rode his bicycle to find Suren.

Originally he had planned to come over the next day, but now everyone was rushing to go out to sea at night, and this year there was an extra boat, so he had to go find the factory in advance, so that when the goods came back they could be delivered straight to the factory.

Who knew if he'd not delivered goods for over half a year, the factory might already have other middlemen or purchasers, this port had plenty of goods to begin with, without him someone else would step in right away.

It was his luck that Suren happened to be home these past few days, hadn't gone out to drive the big truck.

Originally the job of delivering goods to this factory was also arranged through Suren's connections, if he still wanted to deliver this year, he'd still have to ask Suren.

Suren was also surprised to see him come so early.

"I thought you'd wait until after September to come up."

"That was the original plan…"

He explained the reason for coming up early again, and also mentioned the purpose of his visit.

"Recently… it seems a bit hard to arrange, there's already someone fixed specifically delivering goods, the daily quantity needed now is basically quite fixed. Wait until September, when the fishing season for hairtail arrives and demand picks up, that won't be a problem, just a word from me…"

Ye Yaodong was a bit disappointed, "Then I can only figure something out myself."

"Later I'll ask around to see if any other factories have demand, I'll arrange some for you to digest as much as I can."

"Alright then, help me ask around, it's getting a bit dark now, I'll head back first, come back again tomorrow afternoon?"

"Sure, stay for a meal?"

"Not for now, just arrived last night, I've got a pile of things on my hands, the worksite isn't finished yet, today I've been running around all day too, wait till I'm freer, get these things arranged, once my hands are free I'll treat you."

"Alright, then next time then." Suren said while seeing him out.

"Then I'll head off first, come back again tomorrow afternoon."

When Ye Yaodong came out from inside, the sky had already gotten a bit dark, he sped up his cycling to head back.

The factory here couldn't be guaranteed now, he could only go to the trade association tomorrow to find Jin Laixi, or other merchants, and try to digest as much as possible.

At the very least he had to hold out for half a month, the rest could be sold at a stall without worry, if he really couldn't sell it all, he'd dry it himself and wouldn't lose out.

After September he wouldn't have to worry either.

Ye Fu knew what he'd gone out to do, seeing him come back he immediately asked: "How was it? Going to the factory now to ask, can the factory still take our goods?"

"It's saturated now, have to wait until next month when the fishing season slowly starts, then demand will pick up, adding our goods then won't be a problem."

"So that means, for at least this half month the factory won't take our goods?"

"Yeah, Suren said he'd ask around for me, see if other factories need to increase quantities, I'll go over tomorrow to hear the reply, there's plenty of demand for fish goods here, plenty of factories too."

Ye Fu was instantly troubled, "Then what to do? We really came up at the wrong time, they all have fixed supply sources, and they won't increase production before the fishing season either."

"I'll go ask at the trade association tomorrow, those merchants from last year can help me solve half of it, when I came up the first two months, I also went to chat with them."

"Right right, you go ask around that trade association, aren't you quite familiar with the people inside? You're even the vice president."

"I'll get up early tomorrow to go ask."

"If no one takes some of it, just selling at a stall there, how long would that take? And it's summer now, the weather's hot, seafood won't keep."

"We'll see, worst case I'll cover the bottom myself, I can handle it, hire a few local women to come dry it."

"That's such a hassle, goods all piling up in hand."

Ye Yaodong spread his hands, well there was nothing he could do about it.

The goods from those trawlers were always sold by the boat captains themselves when they docked, he didn't need to bother with those people's goods.

But the goods from the fresh-purchase boats, he had to solve, he himself relied on the fresh-purchase boats to make big money, all along, the goods from their few larger fishing boats were all handled by him going out in the fresh-purchase boat to meet them, he definitely had to cover the bottom.

And he could cover the bottom.

At most he'd just have to hold out for half a month, the goods wouldn't all go unsold, just the volume was large, had to sell slowly, take a bit longer to sell.

This year the fishing boats the fresh-purchase boat was connecting with also had Ah Zheng's two small boats, plus the volume from Ocean-Going No. 1, the quantity was even more massive, easily over a hundred tons.

That's why he was a bit worried, at first when everyone said going out to sea at night, he didn't think much when responding, later when arranging his own fishing boats, he remembered there was still the volume from Ocean-Going No. 1, only then hurriedly thought to arrange it in advance.

Otherwise just the goods from one fresh-purchase boat wouldn't be a problem at all.

"Wait till I go to the trade association tomorrow to ask, this year quite a few merchants have developed, some of them are doing even better business, I'll go around and ask, luckily I'd kept in touch before."

"Then how about I still not go out to sea tomorrow? Wait till you've asked around tomorrow first?"

"Does it make a difference? One day or so won't matter, besides the workers are already brought out, not working and just sitting there still counts as wages."

"That's true, then I'll still take them out to sea. At least I can fish up some goods and bring them back to sell for money. I won't lose money on it—at worst the goods sit in hand, and we dry them ourselves and cover the loss."

"See, even selling slowly we won't lose. They all have profit built in. Whatever doesn't sell, we dry, and in October we load up a few boats and haul them back."

"Alright."

Hearing his son comfort him like this, Old Ye wasn't so worried about having too much goods and no buyers.

Just now, when he heard the factory side was saturated, his heart had leapt into his throat.

Selling retail every day and leaving it to luck—how could that compare to having a fixed buyer and shipping straight to the factory? It was so convenient. Who knew whether they'd run into a few big bulk buyers that day or not.

If you wanted to run a fresh-goods procurement boat, you needed the capital to back losses, plus factories with fixed partnerships. It wasn't something just anyone could do on a whim.

Ye Yaodong thought for a moment, then discussed with his father: "Didn't we change our cut to 37 last year? In a bit I need to bring it up with them—change it to 46. This year there are more boats and more goods, and the pressure on us to sell is greater too."

Old Ye thought it over and nodded. "That's fair. Now that the factory won't take them, we can't keep giving them such a high cut. Usually fresh-goods boats buy at 50%, the pricier stuff at 60%, and the top-grade at 70%."

"Mm, we'll standardize it at 60%. That's already looking after our own people."

Last year, the moment he saw how much money the fresh-goods boats were making, and with the factory backing them up, selling goods had been easy and simple for him.

A single boat's cargo sold off, and in one day the fresh-goods boat alone could net three or four thousand—let alone his other boats. That was why, when Old Pei brought it up, he'd thought of family ties and agreed.

Anyway, he hadn't earned less himself, and he still held a 30% stake in their boats. By the reckoning, he'd only given up a small portion of profit.

He hadn't expected that he'd end up feeding their appetites, letting them get cocky and push their luck.

You have to remember, last year when they ran into the dried-shrimp team, when he later took their goods, it was at 50%.

It's just that the supplies he carried on his boat he hadn't raised the price on—he still sold to them at the shore price, and even so they were grateful enough to cry.

A bushel of rice given in need earns gratitude; a peck given in plenty breeds resentment.

Compared with the market, he'd already given everyone a great sense of security.

Giving the goods to him was far less of a gamble on character than them having to screen other fresh-goods boats.

"Then tell everyone now. Strike while they're still ashore—settle this before they head out. Say it early, so we don't wait until they've gone to sea, caught their haul, and come back, only to spring it on them at the last minute. Even if they wouldn't dare complain, they'd still feel sour about it inside."

"Mm, that's exactly what I was thinking—tell them in advance."

Telling them ahead of time—even if there's a gap in their hearts, it won't come to actual resentment.

On its own, it was already far more favorable than the market.

On top of that, right now he really couldn't find a factory to buy from on short notice, and this year there were several more boats, making selling even harder. Goods would pile up, and the risk wasn't comparable to last year—they'd surely understand.

After Ye Yaodong finished coordinating with his father, seeing that mealtime was almost here and everyone had gathered and sat down together, he cleared his throat and spoke up directly.

"Everyone's heading out to sea tonight—there's something I need to tell you all."