Reborn in the Millennium: Building a Fortune from Fishing

Chapter 522 Underwater Camera Sample
The next morning, Uncle Biao's truck and Master Ruan's semi-trailer arrived; they were going to deliver goods to four agents that day.

First, pack up the bait from Hubei for Uncle Biao, 22,000 jin, of which 2,000 jin is a rebate. Adding the other goods, the total is 13 tons.

The distance is about 400 kilometers. Qin Dahe offered a freight rate of 2200 yuan, but this time Uncle Biao has to find a way to transport the goods back himself.

Brother Qiang's lobster supply chain is already established, and he has his own vehicles for delivery.

When Hubei province ordered 20,000 jin of goods, Qin Dahe was quite surprised, as it had surpassed Shanghai to become the largest distributor in terms of order volume.

Even during the peak season in August, the other three distributors only handled 15,000 jin of goods.

If he hadn't given the Anhui market to Lao Xu, Nanjing might not have had such a large order volume.

The Qin family home was even more lively today, with more than twenty shirtless men moving goods.

Thirteen tons of goods were shipped from Hubei, and twenty-five tons from Nanjing, Shanghai, and Shaoxing. All of them had to be handled manually, so we had to call in people to help.

Since it was too early to give money, Qin Dahe decided to give everyone a bag of Heisong cigarettes.

If you don't want to smoke, you can exchange it for nineteen yuan at the convenience store, which is a great deal.

Uncle Biao's cargo was loaded quickly, and then the semi-trailer entered the site.

There are three unloading points on the east side, with a total of 50,000 catties of goods. Some of the fishing boxes take up a lot of space and can only be transported by semi-trailers.

"Master Ruan, can we get 25 tons of goods onto the dike?" Qin Dahe was a little worried, as half of his new house was going to be emptied this time.

If half of it doesn't hang up, it might crash down and the old house would collapse.

"This is nothing, don't worry," Master Ruan said with a smile. "At worst, I'll just take a running start to pick up the speed."

"Okay, you're experienced, I'll listen to you."

Master Ruan also took off his clothes and helped move the goods with the passenger in the front seat.

The Qin family paid him well, so he was happy to help with the work. Although the goods were unloaded in three different places, the freight cost for the 400-kilometer trip reached 4,000 yuan, which was the highest possible price.

We set off during the day, and by around 7 p.m., the cargo had been unloaded at three different locations, allowing us to have a peaceful meal.

More than twenty shirtless men were busy at work, while the two little ones stared wide-eyed. It was quite a lively scene.

"Dahe's business is really booming."

"Yes, a single shipment can empty an entire warehouse."

Everyone looked on with envy; who wouldn't want mountains of gold and seas of silver flowing into their home?

However, they were all self-aware enough that no one thought of making their own bait at home.

This thing is sold through distribution channels; no matter how much you produce, it's useless if you don't have a sales channel.

Twenty-five tons, that's only two or three thousand kilograms per person, so it's quite fast to finish.

After the goods were loaded, Mr. Ruan began directing the semi-trailer to turn around.

Most semi-trailers are for two people, or even three; they do this for long-distance trips.

Seeing that it was half-hanging on the embankment, Qin Dahe finally felt relieved.

"I went too."

Qin's father gave a shout and set off in his Santana. He was going to deliver the goods and also take a trip to Shanghai.

If no one is accompanying the truck, unloading can easily become chaotic, and you can't expect someone else to keep an eye on things.

This was arranged last night. Qin Dahe had originally planned for him to bring someone along, as it wouldn't be safe for him to go alone.

But the older man was skilled and daring; he'd been a highway robber before, so why was he being so cautious?

Next, things will get busy at home.

Who could have predicted such a surge in sales in July and August? The original stock of 160,000 catties of silver carp and bighead carp bait has already dwindled to only 21,000 catties by August 1st.

With the rebate and the purchase of 55,000 jin of goods, the inventory was cleared out instantly.

These 21,000 jin are only enough to meet the needs of those small shops for one month. If the four distributors need to replenish their stock, it definitely won't be enough.

Because they need rebates, they replenish their stock in increments of 5,000 jin each time.

After distributing cigarettes to everyone, Qin Dahe began preparing to stock up on goods.

All the brothers sprang into action. Erhu drove his three-wheeled vehicle to the grain station to haul grain, corn and soybeans, old or new.

My wife is a leader at the grain station, which is very convenient, as only the grain station can supply such supplies.

If we go to collect them from nearby, it's too much trouble, as they're often carrying tens or even hundreds of tons of goods.

He took the simpleton to the city to haul away soybean residue, and then borrowed Mr. Wu's factory to produce it.

After Erhu brought the grain home, he started up all three of the family's flour mills.

Production is in full swing.

Mid-August is approaching, and the Taihu International Fishing Invitational Tournament is underway, with the second round of semi-finals just around the corner.

The three contestants from Dahe Fishing Tackle didn't perform particularly well. Although they all passed the qualifying rounds, their results were mediocre, considering that hundreds of contestants participated in this qualifying round. Surprisingly, silver carp and bighead carp bait became incredibly popular, with almost all the contestants who advanced being seasoned silver carp and bighead carp anglers. Only one bass fishing expert remained, but he was ranked at the bottom.

Apart from one or two manufacturers that develop their own silver carp and bighead carp baits, the contestants they sent to the competition used their own baits, while everyone else used Silver Carp and Bighead Carp No. 2.

The name "Silver Carp and Bighead Carp No. 2" was given by Qin Dahe in 2002. It is a 2.0 version with added ethyl maltol and special flavoring.

Da Liu was a little disappointed. When he first participated in the invitational tournament, he won second place in the finals with silver carp and bighead carp bait. He probably wouldn't make it this year.

When everyone uses silver carp and bighead carp bait in natural waters, even the most skilled master cannot guarantee that he can win the championship.

If you sit on the wrong side, you might end up spending the whole day on credit.

Fortunately, this competition is being held in Wuxi, where there is a familiar competition venue that can ensure the density of fish in the water.

"When are you coming? Damn, I doubt we'll even make it to the top three this time." Over the phone, Da Liu urged Qin Dahe to come to Wuxi to meet up.

"Damn it, five more fishing tackle shops joined us in August. I need to stock up." Qin Dahe scratched his head.

This is truly mind-boggling. Not only have we gained five more fishing tackle shops as partners, but the other thirty-three, including four distributors, are all reporting booming sales.

The Taihu Lake competition was just a signal; almost all other non-designated fish competitions eventually turned into bighead carp and silver carp fishing contests.

Sales exploded immediately.

"When are you coming? The semifinals are going to be tough."

"I can't do anything about it. If it were a fish farm reservoir, I could think of a solution."

"Is there really no other way?"

"There's definitely no chance this year, but there's hope next year," Qin Dahe said uncertainly, glancing at the black box beside him.

This box is a sample of the underwater camera; you need to connect the camera to a laptop.

"What hope?"

"I'll keep you in suspense for now, I'll come find you at Taihu Lake later."

"Alright, you definitely have to come to the finals. A lot of bosses have already arrived early."

After hanging up the phone, Qin Dahe began to examine the camera again; Xiao Liu was in the yard.

A fully enclosed plastic box, with a large amount of glue applied to the area where the thread ends could be pulled out.

Directly in front of you is a glass panel, through which you can see the camera lens.

"I had a friend deliver the glass; ultra-clear glass is really hard to find these days." Xiaoliu began demonstrating by plugging a webcam into her laptop.

Qin Dahe pondered for a moment and then asked, "Won't there be water vapor blurring the lens inside?"

The temperature at the bottom of the water is very low, and water droplets can easily condense inside this type of glass, causing lens contamination.

"We took that into consideration. We added a small fan to the lens area, which starts working every time the camera is powered on."

The webcam was plugged into the laptop and the image appeared immediately, but it wasn't very clear because of cost constraints; it only had two million pixels.

My uncle helped me buy many of the electronic components, and the total cost was around five thousand yuan.

"Can it withstand a water depth of eight meters now?"

"I don't know either. I'll bring it over for you to try first. It's eight meters deep and less than two atmospheres of pressure, so it should work." Xiao Liu was quite hopeful.

This is his first project since returning to the electronics industry. If it goes well, he'll have to start his own business.

Now that Nanjing is cracking down on piracy, it looks like his Jiuzi workshop won't be able to stay open for much longer.

"Okay, let's give it a try."

The production was still in full swing in the yard. He had finally managed to take a break today, but he would have to continue processing soybean residue tomorrow.

After greeting a few aunties, I went to the warehouse to get some bait.

Since we're going to give it a try, we definitely need to see fish first.

I brought silver carp and bighead carp bait and fermented corn.

The warehouse was now overflowing with stuff, and he was having a hard time carrying it all.

"Mom, where's my fishing rod?"

"They're all in the attic, go find them yourself," Qin's mother said impatiently. She had been incredibly busy lately. "Go to the big lake and feed the crabs while you're at it."

There are also a large quantity of broad beans in the warehouse, which are used to feed the crabs.

"Oh."

He casually grabbed a bag and told Xiao Liu to wait while he went upstairs to look for something.

As we accumulate more and more stuff at home, even two large houses aren't enough, it's really frustrating.

(End of this chapter)