Chapter 459: The Most Dashing Guy at the Market

The tractor rattled and swayed the whole way, with sharp turns and hairpin bends along the mountain road tossing everyone about, but it didn't dampen their cheerful chatter.

The young Zhou driving the tractor was Old Zhou's son; father and son often drove the tractor along mountain routes, so they knew the road like the back of their hands.

Because it was dark, relying only on headlamps and flashlights, the road conditions weren't very clear, and after swaying along for nearly three hours they finally entered the city limits, where the road flattened out.

Zhou Da pointed out the route and general direction; the scenery around them gradually shifted from barren wasteland to low-roofed houses, looking not much different from their countryside, except the roads were better and smoother.

Everyone couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed, having expected the city to be somehow different.

Zhou Da laughed and said, "We haven't reached the downtown area yet. Once it's light out, you lot will definitely gape."

Everyone neither agreed nor disagreed.

"How many more minutes until we reach the market? It's almost one o'clock."

"Ten minutes and we'll be there."

The road was flat and empty, so the tractor sped up.

Passing through the city, though the night was dim and murky, they still spotted several tall buildings; just as Zhou Da had said, they gaped and stared at the high-rises in wonder, shining their flashlights all around.

"See? I told you you'd gape once you saw it. These city buildings are tall, right? There are several buildings over a dozen stories here. They look gorgeous in the daytime, totally different from our countryside. The streets are clean too — our whole town can't compare…"

Zhou Da was spitting everywhere as he talked, excitedly telling them how tall the city buildings were and how bustling and lively it was in the daytime; the others played along nicely…

Ye Yaodong listened, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and felt a bit emotional too — just coming to the city, and everyone acted as if they'd traveled some enormous distance.

No wonder there's a saying: to get rich, first build the roads.

At this time the city hadn't expanded yet, and the downtown area was actually quite small. In less than ten minutes, they saw what looked like a huge yurt set up on an open field in the distance, with many flashlight beams gathered around it — quite a crowd, by the look of it.

Everyone excitedly stood up, staring into the distance.

"We're here, we're here."

"This is the place, right?"

"Finally here."

"So many people — this many even in the middle of the night."

As the tractor slowed, the noise of the crowd grew closer.

Many flatbed carts were parked on the open ground around them, piled high with goods, and people stood crowded around; there were also quite a few tractors.

Young Zhou found an empty spot and stopped first, letting them hop off and have a look around. There was no rush to unload the goods now — the other vehicles were also piled with cargo, though much of it was covered with cloth so you couldn't tell what they were selling.

Seven people hopped down from the tractor like dumplings being dropped into a pot, all looking somewhat unfamiliar with the surroundings. Because they didn't know the place, everyone looked around in silence after getting down, quietly listening to the people nearby chat.

Zhou Da, having been here before, volunteered to make small talk with the people around and gather information.

Learning the rules hadn't changed and entry still started at two o'clock, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Ye Yaodong listened to the chatter around him and roughly got the picture; he relaxed too and started chatting with the people nearby.

An old man whose flatbed cart was loaded with razor clams, seeing they looked like first-timers, gave simple answers to their questions.

As the time drew near, more and more flatbed carts appeared around them, and a few more tractors rolled in from all directions.

A long queue formed. Ye Yaodong casually pulled out a boiled egg from his cloth bag, sneakily slipped one to the old man selling razor clams, then returned to his own group.

The old man was surprised for a moment, then closed his hand around it, tucked it into his pocket, and came up to tell them they should try to find a stall near the merchants' entrance.

They were stunned for a beat, then caught on.

The entrance they were queuing at was different from the merchants' entrance — there were two openings.

When the time came, the rain cloth at the entrance of this giant yurt-like structure was rolled up to create an opening, and bright lights poured out from inside. All the people in line pushed their goods in one after another and began claiming stalls.

Once entry was allowed, Ye Yaodong and the others got excited too.

Because they had too much cargo to carry comfortably, and couldn't drive the tractor inside, they split into two groups: three people queued up to go in and claim stalls, while four stayed with the tractor. Once the stalls were secured, they'd borrow the market's flatbed carts to haul the goods in.

The inside of the market really was just as Zhou Da had said — the space was huge, but very crude. One table equaled one stall, each table marked with a number in red pen, and the goods they hauled in were piled behind the table.

If they didn't have enough baskets, or needed baskets, they could grab some from the corner — the market kept some on hand, specifically for holding goods to be weighed.

They had plenty of people, so they simply took two spots. The spots near the merchants' entrance had long been taken, so they could only pick somewhere a bit closer.

Watching what others were doing, they copied them — pouring a bit of their goods into a basket so that the wholesale buyers passing by could see what they were selling.

By now everyone could also see what the people around them were selling.

It really was an eye-opener. Deep-sea goods that were rare at their usual dock were everywhere in the market — deep-sea tiger-tooth fish, pollock, horsehead fish, large ribbonfish, mantis shrimp, all kinds of sea bream, blue and red oilfish, groupers, tuna by the basketful, and several baskets of gleaming large yellow croaker laid out on one stall. Expensive, cheap — everything you could want.

Everyone was looking around; some, while the merchants hadn't arrived yet, wandered about checking out other people's stalls.

Ye Yaodong's group also took a basket for each of their goods and poured a bit out in front of the table, then took turns going out for a stroll, stopping by the trading point to check the current scallop market prices, and chatting a bit with stall owners when something caught their interest.

When they came back, every one of them had a gleam in their eye, all very excited.

"Turns out the scallops at the wholesale market are 3 to 5 fen pricier than at our buying station. The pretty ones are going for 3 mao 6, the slightly lesser ones 3 mao 2, and the small ones only 2 mao 8. It's worth more here."

"Can't think of it that way — they've got to make a profit flipping it, otherwise wouldn't retail be better? But retail takes more effort and sells slower. You have to leave room for others to earn. It's just this stuff — hard to catch, a bit rare — otherwise shellfish aren't worth much. Didn't that old man just say his razor clams only fetch 1 mao?"

"That's true."

Everyone was rubbing their hands in excitement, feeling this trip was worth it — they could sell for more money and broaden their horizons to boot.

"Really gotta walk around and look everywhere — there are so many kinds of fish we haven't even seen before. They just brought in some kind of fish over there, huge one, looks really rare."

"Yeah, that fish is huge and flat, kind of like a flounder."

"I saw it too — must just be a big flounder. That one must weigh several hundred jin, scary. Feels even bigger than the giant grouper Ah Dong caught before."

"That must be some deep-sea monster. No idea how they caught it — landing a fish that size."

"Jackpot — a fish that big must sell for a fortune. Tsk tsk tsk, this market really has some good stuff…"

Ye Yaodong had gone wandering earlier and had somehow missed the fish they were talking about. He quickly asked, "Where did you say that fish is? I didn't see it when I went out earlier."

"Stall 158, that direction. Go over and see for yourself."

"I'll go take a look, broaden my horizons."

The surrounding stalls were all talking about that fish too, as if it had already stolen the show at today's wholesale market.

Before he even got close, Ye Yaodong could see the enormous flounder in the distance.

That's right, that one is a flounder; although it is huge and two meters long, even if it turned to ash it would still be a flounder, just a different variety; this is an Atlantic halibut.

Although more people crowded around the stall, blocking part of the view, its fish body was long enough that he still saw it; he quickened his steps to approach, listening to the others' discussions along the way.

"There are indeed many big fish in the high seas! This flounder is truly huge."

"I have never seen such a big flounder in my life."

"I have never seen such a big fish! It must be two meters long, right? Have you measured it?"

"It is definitely longer than me."

"We measured it; two point one meters."

"Lin Mu, that big?"

Listening to the others' discussions, Ye Yaodong also knew this fish was caught in the high seas; he observed the fish carefully: both eyes were on the right side of its body, while the left side was smooth and white.

By all rights, this fish should have appeared in the European market or the Russian market; who knows why it actually appeared here.

He looked around; other people were still continuously hauling in basket after basket of goods, all piled on the other side of the stall next to that fish.

Seeing more and more people crowd around him, he watched the spectacle for a while before heading back; but as he walked, a sudden idea struck him: wasn't that flounder an obvious live advertisement?

It was currently the brightest star in the market; those of them selling goods found it rare; wouldn't all those merchants and fishmongers, hearing there was a flounder over two meters long in the market, come over to take a look and have a gander?

Wouldn't the stalls right next to it then benefit?

He hurriedly walked back a few steps, spoke with the others, and quickly used his flatbed cart to swap goods and exchange stalls, taking advantage of the empty spot diagonally opposite the flounder while it was still available.

After all, no rule stated that occupying a stall meant one couldn't swap again, so he exploited this loophole.

The others figured it out too and hurriedly swapped positions where they could, but the spot at the entrance was still the best.

Not long after they finished swapping positions, people started coming in for wholesale one after another; many rushed to stock up before the local market's morning session opened; these seafood items had to be wholesold while fresh.