Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 213 Competition? Don’t be afraid, you don’t understand my big picture!
Li Qingxia was still a little worried, so Li Long agreed to sell the fish in the county market the next day.

Because the market was close, it saved nearly an hour. When the two arrived at the morning market, it was just dawn and the sun would not come out for more than half an hour. There were not many stalls in the market.

Li Long and Li Qingxia found a relatively spacious place to set up their stall. Looking at the people coming and going, Li Long started shouting.

Although Li Qingxia had followed Li Long to sell fish three times, he still felt fresh and a little ashamed when he heard Li Long shouting about the aphrodisiac effects of ditch fish and loaches without any embarrassment.

Of course, the effect is still as good as always.

After calling people over, Li Long stopped shouting and started announcing the rules.

"Don't reach out to grab or touch the fish. Tell me which fish you want and I'll grab it for you. Don't worry, the scale will definitely give you a high score. If you mess up, everyone will suffer in the end. So please abide by the rules. I promise that everyone will eat fresh fish - here, two yuan for a ditch fish, the scale is high!"

After these words, everyone ordered their own fish consciously.

Many of them are old customers, and they would tell each other about the freshness and benefits of the fish, as well as Li Long’s rules, which were also new to others.

After a group of guests left, the number of fish in several basins decreased by one third, and one quarter. Li Long poured some more from the urea bag. The urea bag was originally filled with water, and although it was leaking all the way, the semi-sealed nature of the bag itself, plus the mucus on the fish's body to retain water, allowed the fish in the basin to maintain basic breathing.

When the sun came out, Li Long had sold half of his fish, and the old stalls in the market were almost full. This black market was originally placed on both sides of the road, and in theory it could extend freely for a long distance.

But further east is a fork in the road, and to the west is a public office compound, where it is generally not possible to set up stalls.

So the location is basically limited.

At this time, the stalls were already full and the number of people coming here to buy things was at its peak.

Li Long stood up and looked around when there were few people in front of the stall, and found that in addition to selling handicrafts, grains, and meat, there were also many people selling vegetables.

These vegetable stalls also have the most people.

Obviously, the state-owned vegetable stores in the county are currently unable to satisfy everyone’s dining needs.

Another group of people came over, and Li Long and Li Qingxia became busy again.

Wang Caimi and Meng Zhiqiang came over at this time.

They saw three stalls selling fish. One stall sold large fish, one stall sold small crucian carps, which must have been caught from a small river, and the other stall sold both large and small fish.

What surprised and excited them was that the prices of fish at these three stalls were very high. A kilogram of crucian carp could be sold for 90 cents, a big carp for one dollar and one ten-thousand yuan, and miscellaneous fish were also one dollar!

The two men looked at each other, and then saw the golden light in each other's eyes - this is a way to make money!
To put it bluntly, there are a lot of fish in the small lake. Even those who don't have a net can catch several kilograms of crucian carp and other fish every day as long as they swim in the big channel diligently.

If you sell it here, you can earn several dollars a day!
Who would have thought this fish would be so valuable!

No wonder Li Xiaolong now rides a bicycle, carries a gun, and also bought the Li family carriage... How can he not make money by selling fish every day?
Then they saw Li Long's stall.

Compared to the other three fish stalls which were a little deserted, Li Long's stall was crowded. They stood there for a long time watching Li Long and Li Qingxia taking bills, weighing fish, and calculating the bills.

After this group of people left, Li Long sorted out the bills in his hand and saw Wang Caimi out of the corner of his eye.

"Hey, Brother Dalu, Uncle Meng." Li Long greeted them with a smile, "Are you here so early today?"

"I came to see how your fish sales are doing." Wang Caimi knew he couldn't hide the truth, so he confessed, "I heard from others that you make money selling fish, so I wanted to come and see. If you really want to make money, I'll follow your path, what do you think?"

Wang Dalu laid out the road clearly, this was an open conspiracy.

If he pretended to obey here but actually went back to quietly get the net and catch fish, Li Long would look down on him.

Wang Caimi was also trying to guess what Li Long was thinking, wondering if Li Long would get angry and angry if he said that.

After all, catching and selling fish is so profitable. If it were me, I would definitely guard this road and not allow others to enter - of course, it is hard to say what method I would use to stop them.

"Sure, why not!" Li Long said with a smile, "There are so many fish in the small lake, it would be great if we could have a few more fishmongers in our team. There aren't many fishmongers now, and I've seen the fish on other fish stalls, they're not as good as the ones in our small lake.

If we can get more fishmongers on our team and make a name for ourselves, we will definitely make more money in the future—as long as we don’t fight among ourselves and try our best to lower the price.”

"That shouldn't happen." When Wang Caimi heard that Li Long agreed to sell fish, he immediately felt relieved. He didn't have much idea about the brand effect that Li Long mentioned, but he was very confident that everyone would lower the price:

"Everyone wants to make money. As long as they can sell the fish at a higher price, who would want to sell at a lower price? Zhiqiang, don't you think so?"

"That's right." At this time, Meng Zhiqiang followed Wang Caimi's words in everything.

"It's hard to say..." Li Long shook his head slightly and said, "But you have to sell the fish early. If you come late, there will be fewer people here and the price won't be high. Also, try to keep the fish alive. Fresh ones are easier to sell..."

"Yes, yes, yes." Wang Caimi didn't expect Li Long to share his experience. This surprised him. If it were him, he would be lucky not to trip others up secretly. How could he possibly pass on his experience?

Li Long said a few words, and then someone else came to buy fish. Li Long interrupted the topic and started weighing the fish for the person.

Caimi Wang looked at the price that Li Long calculated when weighing fish for people, which was a little lower than the prices of the previous two stalls. He felt a little disdainful and thought, you sell cheaper than others, but now you are asking everyone not to lower the price, haha.

However, he knew the truth but did not say it out loud. Li Long had told him so much about his experience, but he did not stop him from catching and selling fish. As a "senior" in the market, he had to acknowledge this favor-seeking and money-grubber king.

"Uncle Li, Xiaolong, let's go buy a net, you guys go ahead and do your work." Wang Caimi watched for a while, seeing Li Long collecting bills non-stop. He calculated that Li Long's income for the day was definitely more than 30 yuan, and his heart was burning with excitement. He was in a hurry to leave and buy a net.

Li Long nodded, Li Qingxia waved happily, Wang Caimi turned and left, and Meng Zhiqiang hurriedly followed.

"Xiaolong, you say these two...will he listen to you?"

"Then I won't worry about it." Li Long smiled. "I'll sell fish in the county for two days, then I'll go to Shicheng. Let's go together, and you can rest assured, Dad. There are many people who want fish over there, so the price won't drop. There are many people in our team selling fish here, and given their problems, they will definitely lower the price, and then... it'll be a dog-eat-dog fight."

Li Long knew the nature of these "fishermen" in the team. He had no intention or obligation to care too much about them.

I want to make long-term money, and the long distance to Shicheng alone has already screened out most of the "fishermen". Even thirty years later, there are still old fishermen in the team who ride electric tricycles to sell fish at the gate of the community in Shicheng, and they are still very popular.

After all, the water system there determines that we cannot eat fish as freely as we can in our team.

Not to mention that place, even the county cannot do it, but the county is closer and the market is smaller, so a few large reservoirs can meet the demand.

So Li Long was not worried at all.

Wang Caimi left the market in a hurry and went to the department store first. When he didn't find any sticky nets, he went to the supply and marketing cooperative store.

He was again troubled when deciding what mesh size of net to buy.

"Dalu, do you want to ask Xiaolong?" Meng Zhiqiang asked in a low voice, "Xiaolong must know how big to buy..."

Wang Caimi shook his head and said:

"We can't rely on Xiaolong for everything." Actually, he has money, so it's no problem to buy eight or ten, but this thing has a cost-effectiveness problem. He is afraid that some of the mesh will be useless, and the few dollars will be wasted.

He is not Li Long, so a few dollars can go a long way!

After thinking for a while, and with the salesperson's contempt, I chose the three middle nets of three fingers, three and a half fingers, and four fingers.

Meng Zhiqiang didn't have that much money, so he took out his pockets for a long time and after counting the money, he bought a three-and-a-half-finger long net. Wang Caimi, remembering the favor he owed him for telling him this "information", lent him money and let him buy a four-finger long net.

The two of them left the supply and marketing cooperative holding the net and hurried home.

They didn't have bicycles, so they had to walk all the way back, and by the time they got home, it was already past lunch.

Only then did Wang Caimi realize that in order to sell fish, he needed to get up early in the morning, pick up the fish, and then walk all the way to the county town to sell the fish. Would the fish still be alive if he walked all the way?
But the net had already been bought, and there was no way they wouldn't do it. The two of them went home separately, had lunch, rested for a while, and then went to Xiaohaizi to cast the net.

Li Long and Li Qingxia finished selling the fish and looked at the time. It was about the same time as they finished selling the fish in Shicheng yesterday.

"Dad, this is your money." Li Long gave ten yuan to his father. He decided to give his father ten yuan no matter how much he sold it for.

Li Qingxia didn't have that much money. He wasn't stupid, and knew that this was a gift from his youngest son, so he happily took the money and put it in his inner pocket.

"Come on, Dad, let's go to the market." Li Long poured out the water in the basin, packed up his things and put them on the bicycle, and said, "Let's see if there are any good things. Let's buy some to take back."

"Okay." Li Qingxia had money in his pocket, so he nodded generously and walked in front.

The fish stalls were still there, and some fish had been sold, but there was still a lot left to be sold out.

Li Long took a quick look and saw a stall that surprised him a little.

The stall owner had cleared a clean area on the ground and spread a black cloth on it. On the cloth were placed a pile of silver dollars, a snuff bottle, two porcelain bowls, a few small jade ornaments, and a gold sword made of copper coins tied together.

If it were put aside twenty years later, Li Long would naturally know that this was definitely a "work of art" and he would not even look at it.

But now, in this place, no one is cheating, right?
Then it must be true.

Li Long pushed his bicycle to the stall, propped up the bicycle, squatted in front of the stall and asked:
"Boss, how much is it?"

"I dare not call you boss." The stall owner was startled and waved his hand hastily, "Comrade, which one do you like?"

"Ask them all." Li Long understood the stall owner's caution. Although these things were sold these days, a major event had just passed not long ago, and some memories of that era still remained in everyone's minds.

"Silver dollars are three yuan each, snuff bottles are ten yuan, porcelain bowls are fine products from the late Qing Dynasty folk kilns, eight yuan, and the copper coin sword, although it is made of copper coins, it is quite old, ten yuan. The remaining pieces of jade are five yuan each."

The quality of the jade handle was very ordinary, and the carving was also ordinary, so Li Long put it aside first. He didn't know much about silver dollars, so he didn't touch them. He took the porcelain bowl to look at it first, and it was indeed from a folk kiln, so he smiled and said:

"It's from a folk kiln, how dare you ask for eight yuan? Now if you go to a cultural relic store, it only costs eight yuan, and you can buy something from an official kiln."

"That's the capital." The stall owner didn't expect that this person was a connoisseur of goods, and said with a wry smile:

"So what's your offer?"

"If the price is right, I'll take them all." Li Long said, "Two silver dollars, this porcelain bowl with winding branches, three dollars? The snuff bottle is made of one piece of jade or one piece of agate, five dollars each... Copper coin sword? There's nothing wrong with hanging this thing in your home, right? You can see for yourself that the quality of these pieces of jade is just so-so, just give them as a bonus?"

Li Long's offer was also very high. The few terms he used were learned from the treasure appraisal column in his previous life. Although those treasure appraisal columns were mixed, they at least let ordinary people like Li Long know some basic knowledge about antiques.

Of course, most of the time it’s just learning a few words.

The stall owner actually didn't expect a high price, after all, he had been putting the items out for the whole morning and no one bought them. Nowadays, people are not well-off and even food and drink are a problem. Who has the spare money to buy this?
In the end, Li Long spent 40 yuan and bought everything on the stall.

He remembered hearing someone say on a video platform in his previous life that there were a lot of cheap antiques in the national cultural relics stores at that time, but it was a pity that ordinary people couldn't buy them. Otherwise, he could really be impulsive and take the money to Beijing or Shanghai to buy some things to store.

Of course, just thinking about it.

Li Qingxia came over with two bundles of vegetables. Seeing Li Long happily packing these things—the stall owner even gave Li Long the cloth—he hurriedly said to Li Long:
"Xiaolong, why did you buy this? You can't eat or drink it. Can you return it? Return it quickly. There are plenty of these in my hometown... It's not worth the money!"

"If there really is any in my hometown, I will bring you some money when you return, and you can help me collect more." Li Long said with a smile, "This thing will be valuable in the future."

"What's the value of this? It's all junk." Li Qingxia raised the chili, eggplant and celery in his hand and said, "This is still the most economical!"

Of course, it was just talk. Li Qingxia knew that his youngest son was decisive. Since he had already decided to buy it, he naturally would not return it.

The two men left the market.

(End of this chapter)