Reborn in the Millennium: Building a Fortune from Fishing

Chapter 571 Opening the Blind Box
"Wow, that's so exciting!"

"Haha, you're so shameless." Awei laughed. Qin Dahe, that scoundrel, was openly staring at her, which made the girl angry.

"It won't hurt to take a look."

While we were talking, the fishing rod almost flew off the hook; apparently, a fish had taken the bait.

Ignoring the girl, I quickly started turning the wheel.

The gentle undulations of the sea were quite pleasant, giving me energy for fishing.

Soon a black grouper was pulled up, but it was a bit small. We'll stew it with the other fish when we get back.

"Not today, there's nothing valuable here," he said regretfully.

It would be great to be able to get some goods in the coral reef area, but since the coast guard said to let Li Ge and his crew go, that's fine.

"Not bad, I have at least three or four hundred yuan." Awei was quite happy and had a good attitude.

During the fishing moratorium, it's good enough if you can have some fishing fun. Once the fishing season opens, you'll have to go to work, and you won't have a chance to fish at all.

The thought of spending a long time adrift at sea made him feel irritable.

"Dahe, what do you think about me going into business? I'm thinking of getting my own fishing boat and registering it with a fishing club."

"Sure, doing business is better than working for someone else these days."

No matter what kind of business you do, even if you sell underwear at the night market, as long as you can stick with it, earning several thousand dollars a month is a piece of cake.

"I'll think about it some more. I'll go to the ship and get a few months' salary first." After thinking about his wife and children, Awei temporarily abandoned the idea.

His monthly salary is a little over five thousand, which is considered a lot for a technical worker these days. We'll see how it goes once he gets a job next year.

We'll give it a shot then; it would be awesome if we could get in touch with the Li family.

I fished until 11:30, when the sun was directly overhead, and that's when today's fishing officially ended.

We didn't catch any real grouper, and each of us even broke our lines once, so we were pretty unlucky.

The catch was pretty good, though. Qin Dahe gave two fish to Awei as payment for the boat, and then started packing.

I didn't expect anyone to come and buy fish.

"Hey handsome, do you have any grouper?" an auntie asked, her eyes lighting up as she saw their fishing box.

The fish in Shenzhen Bay smell of diesel fuel, and today I actually ran into two anglers with their catches full at Dameisha.

“It’s a black grouper, my friend got one, but it’s too small,” Awei chimed in.

Qin Dahe didn't know the prices, so he helped sell them.

"Give me a few rock jicama, just enough for one bowl, how about sixty yuan?"

The aunt was very satisfied to see the black grouper weighing just over six ounces. It really depends on luck to buy wild grouper during the fishing moratorium.

"Okay, I'll get you a stonefish; this price is very good."

Seeing that more people were coming, the two discussed it and decided to move to the security booth to sell their fish.

Qin Dahe even took out the cannonball fish and another type of filefish to give to the security guard so that he could have a bowl.

"The young man is kind-hearted, so he sells here."

"Thanks."

Fished right under our noses, it's guaranteed to be wild-caught, so people's desire to buy it is still very strong.

Dameisha is a free tourist area, so it gets quite crowded.

Because the catch was quite varied, the two decided to sell it together, and each kept a portion to take home.

The way they sell it is also interesting; they don't bring scales, they just sell it by the bowl.

Prices vary and are set by Awei.

"Where are the pufferfish?" a man in his fifties said regretfully.

"We don't sell those. We throw them away as soon as we catch them; they're poisonous."

"I'm a chef, I know how to handle it. How about you supply the restaurant in the future?" "I'll give you a phone number. There's a big shot in Shachong who supplies us every day," Qin Dahe said with a smile.

He'd be crazy to sell pufferfish. What if something goes wrong? Let Brother Li handle the arrangements.

The business is quite booming; the two of them can catch at least fifteen or sixteen bowls of fish with their fishing boxes.

Stone sea bream and black sea bream still make up the majority of the offerings, with a fair amount of yellowfin sea bream as well, all selling for 30 to 50 yuan per serving, with Awei in charge of pricing.

Upon hearing that there was no room for bargaining, the locals rushed to make their selections.

Occasionally, two out-of-towners would come to buy fish, wanting to add some other fish and haggle over the price, which Qin Dahe patiently dealt with.

"Handsome, three yellowfin seabreams for fifty dollars is a bit expensive. Could you add some rockfish to your toadfish and make a bowl for me?"

"Not for sale," he said bluntly. "No bargaining. If you don't like it, go away. You're crazy."

"How can you talk like that?" The newcomers were about to start a fight when several uncles and aunts actually began to speak up for the two of them.

"They've already said they're not selling anymore. If you don't have the money to buy, don't cause trouble."

"Exactly, these nice items cost almost a hundred dollars at the market, and you still complain that they're cheap."

Three yellowfin seabream weighing about 1.7 or 1.8 jin (approximately 0.85 kg) were sold for 50 yuan, and the customer complained that it was too expensive. That's outrageous.

Brother Li's purchase price is about right; that's a fish stall over there.

The two were quite happy to receive support from several local uncles and aunts.

Qin Dahe simply opened a package of Shi Jiugong's offerings and gave one to each person, ignoring those few scoundrels.

They wouldn't even give them the items when they wanted to buy them.

Many people are asking about toadfish; their bellies are bulging, so there must be something inside.

But the more he did that, the less he wanted to sell them. He would rather go back and open the blind boxes himself, or even just make soup with them.

In the end, Awei had no hair left; everything was sold out in just over ten minutes.

This also reveals a trend: locals may not necessarily be well-off, but they are willing to occasionally spend money on seafood to supplement their diet.

People from inland areas are used to eating grass carp and crucian carp that cost three to five yuan, so they can't accept the price of seafood all at once. It's not that they're stingy; everyone has different consumption habits.

If my mother were here, I'd probably have to haggle hard when buying it.

"Here's five hundred, I'll take three hundred and the toadfish, okay?" I was quite happy when we split the money.

“Okay, but don’t sell fish by yourself while I’m not around, it’s easy to get into a fight,” Awei reminded him.

"know."

When we first started selling fish, everyone's Mandarin was very broken, and many people spoke their local dialects.

If it weren't for Awei, we might not have been able to sell fish.

He plans to sell all the fish he catches in Shachong, since he's unfamiliar with the area and it's not worth doing business for a little money.

"I'm leaving." After packing his things, he went home.

It was past one o'clock when I finished rinsing the fishing gear in the garage; I had wasted a lot of time today.

But there was still a toadfish to process. I didn't even think about it because I was hungry. I excitedly grabbed a knife and prepared to cut the fish when I got home.

Yan Yan had just finished putting her baby to sleep and came over to watch as well.

"This one is so ugly. The fish in the sea are all weird."

"Hehe, we have some."

Cutting open its belly, you can see a large stomach inside, filled with fish and shrimp.

After cutting it open with scissors, an unidentified small red fish and several tiger prawns came into view, along with two Shi Chongs. "Haha, a successful catch, not small at all."

It's enough to make a whole pot, but I'll have to ask my aunt to handle it, since I don't know where the poison is.

(End of this chapter)