Chapter 633: Thirty thousand jin of lizardfish

"Did he call Dad to help move goods?"

"Don't know, didn't say. Dad just arrived at the door, and Uncle Pei ran to the door in a hurry, and I didn't hear what they were saying, so he went out again."

Ye Yaodong was confused and didn't care. Anyway, he would know when his father came back. Now he had to move the sticky nets to the flatbed truck first.

If his father came back late, he could only go around the village to see if A-Guang was at home. If he wasn't at home, he would have to call someone else to go put the nets. It required two people to work, and one person couldn't put them.

The old lady was also helping him organize the buckets and baskets there, stacking them up, muttering, "Can't see anyone at the critical moment, don't know what the in-laws called him for, when will he come back? Don't know what important thing there is, so hurried, didn't even eat, and ran."

"Should be something? If there was nothing, he wouldn't come over to call Dad."

"You go eat breakfast first, I'll organize it for you, this can't be put down."

"Fine, leave the heavy ones, I'll move them after eating."

When he finished eating and the sticky nets were ready, intending to go out and find someone else, his father came back in high spirits. The two bumped into each other at the courtyard door, nearly colliding.

"Ouch~"

"Dad?"

"What are you in such a hurry for, don't look at the road when going out."

Some shrimp skins were scattered from the basket in his father's hand, and a few dogs nearby ran up, lowered their heads, and licked with their long tongues.

"You're accusing me first, clearly you were in high spirits and bumped into me, I haven't even stepped over the threshold." Ye Yaodong felt quite wronged, "Where did you get the shrimp skins? And what else?"

"Go in and talk, go in and talk."

"What happened? Did Uncle Pei give you shrimp skins?" Ye Yaodong followed his father into the courtyard.

"Your Uncle Pei has a friend catching shrimp skins in Zhejiang Province. This is a good season for catching shrimp skins from autumn every year until the second spring..."

"So you want me to sell shrimp skins?"

"No, no, and yes..."

"What do you mean? One moment it is, one moment it isn't..."

Ye's father was in a hurry, "Can you let me finish?"

"You say, you say."

"Besides a few sacks of shrimp skins brought back at night, he also caught 30,000-odd jin of lizardfish on the way. Heard he encountered a large school of fish, one net went down and caught 2,000 or 3,000 jin, the boat was so full there was no place to pile them, so he had to kill them on the spot. Five or six people killed for a day and night and only killed a fraction..."

Ye Yaodong was surprised. Such a large quantity. If it were other fish, he would have made a fortune. The least valuable is lizardfish.

However, such a large quantity, if sold directly, would also be considerable, and could sell for several hundred yuan.

"They killed and hung them on the boat to dry. Fortunately, they docked last night, otherwise the whole fishing boat would have been hung full and there would be no place to dry. Then as soon as they docked last night, they temporarily called a dozen people to kill, and they are still killing..."

Ye's father turned over in the basket and took out a few pieces of lizardfish dried fish they hung on the boat to dry for him to see.

The wind at sea was strong. Although the few pieces he brought back were not completely dry, they felt soft, but they were also five or six percent dry. Ye Yaodong turned them over, touched them, and felt they were quite beautiful.

"So you want to sell the lizardfish dried fish to me?"

Otherwise he couldn't think of why he was specifically called to go.

"Yes, yes, they are worried about how to sell them, the quantity is so large. Your Uncle Pei heard about it

So that's how it is. Ye Yaodong rubbed his chin. If his shop didn't count the large shipments, he could sell two or three hundred jin a day, which would be seven or eight thousand jin a month. The current stock was only enough for him to sell for a month. If another few thousand jin of large stock came in, he estimated he would have to close the shop and rest after selling for a little over half a month.

If he could take over this batch of dried Bombay duck, that would be fine, but who knew when the weather would be suitable for going out to sea? It was almost spring, and the rain would be increasing again.

However...

"Why doesn't he sell directly to the buyers? That way, he wouldn't have to worry about having to gut and dry them himself, and then worry about not being able to sell them after drying. Although it's a bit cheaper, it wouldn't go to waste, and he could turn it into cash immediately."

"He can't sell it; nobody wants it. That Bombay duck is so soft. With over thirty thousand jin piled high, the surface at the bottom has been crushed a bit, so it doesn't look that pretty anymore. It doesn't matter if it's gutted and dried; you can't tell, and it doesn't affect it. But you can't sell it fresh. It was already dirt cheap to begin with, and with such a large quantity, the purchase price was only one cent. With the appearance being poor, who would want it? It has to be dried."

That made sense. Tens of thousands of jin, there was nothing to even pack it in, and it was piled all over the boat. It would be a miracle if the appearance was good.

"Is it fresh?"

"It's quite fresh. It was caught the night before last, or rather, early yesterday morning. The weather is cold now, and only a day and a half has passed. If it can all be gutted and dried today and tomorrow, that would still be fine."

"That works too. I was thinking that the few thousand jin in our place is only enough for the shop to sell for a month. If we run into that boss or the military unit from the other day again, it won't be enough to sell, and I'd have to close the shop and rest in a few days."

"Right, right. I was just thinking that your dried fish sells quite fast and is easy to sell. Having a few thousand jin more, it shouldn't be a problem to keep it there, and this fish is cheap too."

In this day and age, cheap equals easy to sell.

It already had an advantage in price, not to mention that when dried Bombay duck is stir-fried, the taste is top-notch—a perfect accompaniment to wine!

Usually, it's not easy to get such a large quantity of dried Bombay duck. Nobody thinks to specifically catch this dirt-cheap fish; it's all caught by trawlers, mixed in with some scraps in a large net. It's rare to have such a large volume.

Some people are even too lazy to keep it and just dump it back into the sea. Taking it back requires cleaning, takes up space on the boat, and takes up baskets. Clearing out the space and baskets allows them to load other fish catches.

"Let's go, let's go take a look. Is it far? Let's ride our bicycles."

"It's not far, just in a nearby village. It'll take about ten minutes by bicycle."

"Then let's go take a look. If it's suitable, we'll wait for them to dry it and take it all. I've already organized these sticky nets and put them on the flatbed cart. Let's go out to sea after we get back. We'll be two hours late, but at worst, we'll just finish a bit later."

"Being a bit late is fine. There's no rush to set the nets; let's go see the Bombay duck first."

Ye Fu got on his bicycle and also told him about the dried shrimp, "They also brought back five or six sacks of dried shrimp, about four or five hundred jin. You just ate some too. Should we buy that as well and put it in the shop for retail?"

"That works too. It's just incidental anyway. We have to ask about the price. If we can earn some labor costs and travel expenses, that's fine. I see people in the city setting up stalls there, and dried shrimp sells very well."

This sells much better than dried fish. Every time someone carries a pole over to sell dried shrimp, every household will weigh out half a jin or a jin to take back. Sprinkle a handful in soup, sprinkle a handful in stir-fry, or let the children grab a handful when they're craving a snack—it's all very good. This is one of the best-selling seafood products, and it can be said to be the most liquid one at present.

Ye Yaodong listened to Ye Fu giving directions along the way and only then realized that the cargo on the fishing boat hadn't been unloaded at all. They just hired people to gut them right there on the pier, and once a basket was gutted, they would go back to the boat to load another one.

As soon as he arrived at the scene, he saw that the scene was extremely bustling.

The entire open space was filled with baskets of fish. More than a dozen women each occupied a small area, sitting sideways on stools, with another stool placed horizontally underneath in front of them, topped with a wooden board to make it convenient for them to sit and gut the fish. On their left hand side was the ungutted fish, and on their right was the gutted fish.

There were also many people coming and going, moving the fish that had already been gutted, presumably taking them back to dry.

The quantity of over thirty thousand jin sounded quite frightening. With a dozen or twenty people gutting them at the same time, it was hard to say if they could finish gutting them by tomorrow.

Just as he parked his bicycle in the open space nearby, Uncle Pei immediately brought over a strange, short, and thin middle-aged man.

The man's face was more weathered than his father's, if anything. At least his father, influenced by him, could occasionally apply clam oil or wear a mask, so his face wasn't peeling much now. He didn't know if this man had just returned from the sea, but his lips were dry, cracked, and purplish, and his face felt like it was peeling off in flakes.

However, his eyes gave the impression that he was quite shrewd.

That was also true. If he were a simple and unintelligent person, how would he dare to sail north to Zhejiang Province? He heard that this man had also run large boats with Uncle Pei before and had been to Zhejiang Province, which was why he was bold. Uncle Pei had originally bought a boat also wanting to go to Zhejiang Province together, but the boat he bought wasn't as big as the other person's.

Fortunately, he was dissuaded by Ah Guang. Ah Guang was also bewitched by Ye Huimei's beauty in this life and was unwilling to leave the village.

Everything was different now.

Everything was also getting better.

This friend of Uncle Pei was also particularly straightforward. He had only one point: as long as all these dried fish were sold off, the price given just needed to catch up to the fresh ones. He had to earn back the labor costs.

He had no choice; he had no capital to negotiate terms. Except for Ye Yaodong, no one would buy so much dried fish. He still had to sail the boat to catch fish and couldn't spend time retailing so much dried Bombay duck.

Not to mention, it wasn't certain how much could be sold in their local area.

One wanted to sell, one wanted to buy, one didn't have high requirements for the selling price, and the other agreed readily. It only took a few minutes to close the deal.

"Uncle, I have to say the ugly words first. This fish of yours must be fresh. If it's not fresh and you dry it, I won't take it. That ruins my reputation and my name."

"Definitely, definitely. I'm hiring more people. It must be gutted and hung up to dry before tomorrow. It's just that it's hard to call people at night, which is why I only hired a dozen or twenty. I just called someone back to the village to call people over to gut them."

"Fine, if it's fresh, I'll definitely take it all. You can also save yourself from hoarding stock."

"Good, good. With so much, I couldn't possibly throw it back into the sea. I was almost worried white-haired. I'll definitely have it cleaned up for you by then."

"That's fine. If the quantity is too large and there's no place to put it, you can notify me to come and take a batch away once you've dried a batch."

"Okay, okay. There really is no place to put it. You young man have great prospects and can do big things. Your father gave birth to a good son; he has hope for the rest of his life and can enjoy blessings in the future. If my four sons were as capable as you, that would be great."

"Ahahaha~ You praise me like this, and my father's mouth is crooked from smiling."

Ye Fu said with a smile, "This kid also opened up late, but fortunately, he still opened up. Don't talk about the rest of his life; I'm already counting on him now."

"Good fortune, good fortune."

The three old men were chatting there, and Ye Yaodong went around to take a look and also went to the boat to take a look. It really was a cargo hold bursting with fish.

But now it was his gain. The dried Bombay duck just negotiated was bought at fourteen cents, one cent cheaper than the price of miscellaneous fish. Who told him to have such a large quantity?

He didn't intend to swallow this one cent either; he was prepared to give it to Uncle Pei as a referral fee.

The other party wouldn't lose out either. After deducting labor costs, he could still earn a hundred or so more than with fresh fish.

It could be considered a win-win for everyone, making money together.