After being jilted, the entire neighboring village was filled with deep regret.

He then struggled to lift a large yellow croaker weighing seven or eight pounds, and exclaimed, "Putting everything else aside, the color of this fish is really festive, golden yellow, and the scales are shiny. It's so beautiful!"

He was almost mesmerized by it.

Fortunately, we're on land right now. If we were in the water, he would definitely be paranoid again.

Su Tai smiled and said, "So this fish is also a symbol of wealth and good fortune. More importantly, it's delicious, especially fresh and delicious. Just put some scallions and ginger in a pot, steam it, drain the water, add some sauce, and drizzle some hot oil on top. It's incredibly delicious!"

The men were so hungry they were practically drooling, and they worked even more carefully.

Because the fish are too big, a winnowing basket can only hold one or two at most before it's full.

Fortunately, it started snowing, and the fish froze quickly after being put outside.

Shen Yi brought out the boxes he had prepared in advance and started loading the goods with another person. Seeing that they were almost getting the hang of it, he told Su Tai to go home and rest first, and then he would ask Shen Zhuang and Shen Mu to come and help.

Su Tai turned and left.

The river is frozen over now, but it's not thick enough, so it's safer to walk on the bridge.

She drove the donkey cart across the bridge back to the village, first going to the wool processing workshop to call out Shen Mu and Shen Zhuang.

"Second Uncle, Uncle Mu, there's a job we need your help with. We need to go to Dahe Town, and the pay is double what we get here. Can you go?"

The two exchanged a glance and agreed without asking any questions.

After telling their families, the two of them ran off in the direction Su Tai had indicated, without even mentioning taking an oxcart or anything like that.

The wind and snow howled over the Daxun River.

The two old men who were watching over the bridge sat in a mud-brick house next to it, warming themselves by the fire and drinking tea. There was also a plate of snacks beside them. When they got excited, their voices rose higher and higher.

Seeing Shen Zhuang and Shen Mu crossing the bridge, he let them go up without saying anything.

The two stood on the bridge, listening to the sound of ice floes cracking on both sides, feeling particularly at ease.

"This bridge is really well built! In previous years, during the month when it started to snow in early winter, no one dared to go across the river, but Shen Yi dared to row his boat across the ice."

"Now we can cross the river whenever we want."

The two chatted happily and soon reached the other side. Following Su Tai's directions, they walked for quite a while before finally seeing the large courtyard.

Shen Mu looked on in surprise, "Shen Yi is getting more and more capable. He didn't even utter a word about when such a big courtyard was built."

Shen Zhuang nodded in agreement, "Don't even mention you, I didn't know either. But that kid has a big family now, and he's a town official, so he can't possibly tell the village everything."

As they spoke, the two arrived outside the courtyard and knocked twice.

Shen Yi opened the door and immediately led them inside.

The two were stunned when they saw the yard full of seafood.

"Ayi, what are these? Did you catch these fish from the Daxun River?" Shen Zhuang swallowed hard, his voice trembling.

Shen Mu was even more bewildered, "No, no, no, are there really that many big fish in our Daxun River? I've lived most of my life and never seen one!"

They say even if you've never eaten pork, you've seen pigs run; they've never even heard of them, let alone seen them.

Shen Yi began to fabricate a story with a straight face, describing the hardships from the icy plains to Qiongzi, and then to the sea, exaggerating the difficulties as much as possible. The two were indeed completely fooled, losing all their thoughts and only able to sigh in amazement.

"Ah Yi! Why did you go through all that trouble to catch so many big fish? There aren't that many rich people around here!"

Shen Zhuang spoke Shen Mu's true feelings.

Shen Yi laughed heartily, “Second Uncle, these fish are going to be sent to the capital. Seafood is different from freshwater fish and shrimp. In this kind of weather, if you freeze them, they can last for several months without spoiling. You can’t see such rare things in the capital. A large yellow croaker like this can sell for ten taels of silver. I’m not going to do business at a loss.”

"Hiss!" Everyone gasped in unison.

There are about six or seven hundred of these large yellow croakers. Each one weighs ten taels, so that's six or seven thousand taels. There are also pomfret and prawns. These things alone are worth more than ten thousand taels.

The two were so shocked that they remained speechless for a long time.

Shen Mu was the first to react, "What did you ask us to come here for?"

Shen Yi said, "I still need to go to the town government office. We need someone to keep an eye on things here and lend a hand. Can you take care of it?"

"No problem! It's a piece of cake!" Shen Mu agreed without hesitation.

He thought it was something big, but it was just helping with packing and supervising other people's work, which was easier than working in a wool processing workshop.

Shen Yi grinned and poured the basket of prawns that hadn't frozen yet into the snow, saying, "Xiao Tai said that it's warm inside, so we can't move the fish and prawns out before we sort them out, otherwise they'll be hard to sort after they freeze. You can dump everything onto the snow in the yard. Put the palm-sized prawns together, the medium-sized ones in another pile, and the small ones separately. We won't send the very small ones to the capital."

Everyone nodded to show their understanding.

After Shen Yi left, the group of people hurriedly cleaned up the shrimp that Shen Yi had fallen down.

Shen Mu picked up a shrimp longer than his palm with trembling hands. His eyes were wide open and his voice was shaking as he spoke, "Look, look, one of these shrimp would be enough to fill you up! I wonder if it's any good. How much does Shen Yi plan to sell it for?"

Shen Zhuang nodded in approval, "You can buy some and try it. Your daughter is now a prince's concubine, and your son is a merchant. You're not short of money."

Several villagers from Zhangjia Village looked at Shen Mu in shock. A prince's concubine? Had a noble person appeared in their village?

Zhang Youfu inquired out of curiosity, but Shen Mu remained modest and didn't say much. It was Shen Zhuang who kept showing off.

Now that Zhang Youfu and the others knew that Shen Mu was the father of the prince's concubine, their attitude towards him immediately changed. They became even more careful in their work and dared not have any ulterior motives.

Everyone worked until evening before sorting, collecting, and packing all the seafood.

Before they had even rested for a short while, Shen Yi arrived right on time. After checking on everyone's work, he smiled with satisfaction, settled their wages in person, and then gave them some of the shrimp, which were about the length of a middle finger, to take away.

This was an unexpected delight for the villagers of Zhangjia Village, and the group kept saying auspicious words before they left.

After they left, Shen Yi packed some small fish, shrimp, and octopus, and also got a few live blue crabs for Shen Mu and Shen Zhuang to take back.

"Second Uncle, Uncle Mu, blue crabs are perfect for making porridge. Add some ginger, and it'll be incredibly delicious. If you don't know how to cook them, you can just steam them. They're seafood, so they're salty. I've heard they're quite nutritious, but some people can't handle them and get rashes. But if you can eat river crabs, you should be able to eat sea crabs too. Take some back and try them. I'll send the rest to Jixiang Inn and to Master Pu later. I think he'll want some too."

Since it's impossible to send mud crabs to the capital, the best way is to sell them within Zhaohua County.

Now that the living conditions of the people here have improved, they can sell their goods for a good price.

Shen Mu and Shen Zhuang couldn't refuse, so they had no choice but to accept the gifts.

After they left, Shen Yi drove the carriage to deliver the remaining blue crabs to restaurants and eateries in town. (End of Chapter)