Chapter 345 - 229: The Profit of the Large Yellow Croaker (2)

Chapter 345: Chapter 229: The Profit of the Large Yellow Croaker (2)

Gu Nan clapped him on the shoulder and joked, "Hold on, don’t thank me just yet. Last time, the purchase price was only thirty to fifty yuan lower than market value because the fish were small, not the larger yellow croakers. Today’s fish are big, so I can’t use the same pricing!"

Ye Jing nodded matter-of-factly. "Of course. If you priced the big ones like that, I’d be taking advantage. Just charge me whatever the proper rate is."

Seeing how serious he was, Gu Nan found it less amusing. "You’re still so formal."

Ye Jing just smiled at that, taking a drag from his cigarette without saying anything more.

He’d been hanging around An Jun and Gu Nan for so long that his way of speaking sometimes resembled theirs, but his fundamental personality wasn’t suited for joking around. He couldn’t change it, and he didn’t want to.

After they both finished their cigarettes, Gu Dacheng arrived in his pickup truck.

It was only a little past 5:40, so he’d even brought them breakfast.

"Not bad! You caught this many large yellow croakers last night?" Gu Dacheng opened the container and was surprised to see they were all quite large.

"We got lucky last night. No telling if it’ll happen again, so I plan to hold onto these fish and sell them during the Mid-Autumn Festival. We’ll take them to the new shop later and put them in the freezer," Gu Nan said while eating a steamed bun.

Gu Dacheng nodded. "Alright. We can head over there to pack today’s shipment and deliver everything at once. It’s been really busy these past few days."

After breakfast, they threw out their trash. Gu Dacheng drove ahead to the new shop in the pickup with the fish, and Gu Nan followed in his car with Ye Jing.

Once they arrived at the new shop, he calculated the value of Ye Jing’s catch.

For fish weighing around seven or eight *liang*, the gap between the market price and the purchase price wasn’t that large to begin with, so it was fine for Gu Nan to buy them for thirty to fifty yuan less than market value.

But he couldn’t do the same for fish weighing a *jin* or more. He bought the one-*jin* fish for 1,000 yuan each. The current market price for a two-*jin* fish had already risen to 2,300, and it was sure to keep climbing, so he offered 2,000.

Other buyers offered a much lower price mainly because they didn’t sell locally. They had to transport the fish to be sold in high-cost, first-tier coastal cities—primarily the two regions known for high yellow croaker prices: Zhejiang in East China and Fujian Province.

Fishmongers have to cover transportation costs and potential losses from spoilage, so a large price difference is normal.

Gu Nan, however, didn’t have those concerns. Plus, this was his buddy, so he didn’t mind giving him a better price.

He sorted the fish into groups of similar sizes and began weighing them one small pile at a time.

The final calculation came out to a little over 83,800 yuan.

He decided to round it up to an even 84,000.

Ye Jing stared at the number on his phone, grinning like an idiot.

He’d practically struck it rich overnight. How could he not be ecstatic?

Gu Nan stood to make a decent profit himself. Just from selling all of Ye Jing’s large yellow croakers, he could clear a profit of nearly 20,000 yuan.

In fact, the yellow croakers he had caught himself were even more numerous. Sold at market price, his own catch would likely fetch over 200,000 yuan.

The main reason was that he had five fish weighing over four *jin* each and one that was five *jin* and six *liang*. At market price, those few fish alone were worth over 100,000 yuan.

After helping Gu Dacheng load the truck and storing all the large yellow croakers in the freezer, Gu Nan locked up the shop. He and Ye Jing then went their separate ways to get some sleep.

Ye Jing slept like a log, but Gu Nan woke up at noon and went to the shop for lunch.

Coincidentally, he ran right into Wang Junhe.

"Well, look at you! There’s no typhoon today, and it’s not raining fish, either! What wind blew you in here, Brother Wang?"

Wang Junhe retorted good-naturedly, "I wish it would rain fish, but the heavens aren’t cooperating!"

"And you, you little rascal, aren’t very thoughtful, are you? I told you to contact me the moment you got any huge yellow croakers, but I still had to come running over myself?"

"If I hadn’t heard something was up last night and known you’d be out there chasing the action, I might have missed out on these fish today."

Gu Nan held up his hands. "You’ve got it all wrong. I didn’t get back to the docks until five this morning, and I went straight to bed. I could hardly call you at that hour, could I? Bothering you is one thing, but I wouldn’t dare wake up your wife."

Wang Junhe chuckled. "What do you mean, ’bothering you is one thing’?"

But he was just giving him a hard time; he wasn’t actually upset.

"I have to run. I’ll take the fish now. Let’s go out on the water together sometime soon."

"Sounds good. Oh, by the way, Brother Wang, I’m getting engaged during the National Day holiday. Don’t forget to come."

"I won’t. Old Guo and I have already cleared our schedules for it."

Wang Junhe gave a wave and left with the fish.

"How many did Brother Wang take?" Gu Nan asked, sitting down at the dining table and accepting the bowl and chopsticks Yi Chen handed him.

Yi Chen sat down next to him. "He took all the ones over four *jin*—seven in total—plus the one that was five *jin* and six *liang*. The total came to 142,000 yuan."

"I tried to give him a bit of a discount, but he refused and insisted on paying top price. I figure what he paid is probably what they’ll be going for on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival anyway."

"If he’s willing to pay, we’ll take it. It’s not like he’s short on cash." Gu Nan was quite satisfied with the price; it was about what he had expected.

"By the way, did you transfer the money for the engagement to my mom?"

"I did. I used the card with the shop’s earnings. If I’d known we were going to make so much from the yellow croakers today, I would’ve used the card with the fish sale profits."

After she finished, Yi Chen seemed to want to say more but hesitated, clearly troubled by something.

Gu Nan, who was in the middle of his meal, happened to look up at her after taking a sip of soup and noticed her expression.

He couldn’t help but ask, "What’s wrong?"

"Ah Nan... should we maybe wait to get the marriage certificate?" Yi Chen finally said, steeling herself.

Gu Nan froze, and his tone soured. "You don’t want to marry me?"

"No, no..." Seeing his expression change, Yi Chen shook her head frantically. "That’s not what I mean."

"Then what is it?" Gu Nan’s expression softened. ’Since it’s not an issue with getting married, it probably isn’t anything major.’

"I’m just worried about my grandmother. If we get married, we’ll be living together, but Grandma is a bit stubborn and won’t move in with my dad. I was thinking... maybe we could get the certificate and move in together after the wedding banquet at the end of the year. The whole family will be here then, and we can all try to persuade her together," Yi Chen explained cautiously, afraid of making him angry.

There were some things she left unsaid. After living with her grandmother for so many years, certain secrets were hard to keep.

Yi Chen had known for a long time what her grandmother was thinking. She knew her grandmother hadn’t followed her beloved grandfather in death because she couldn’t bear to leave her behind.

But she hadn’t realized that the house itself was also a way for her grandmother to remember her grandfather. When her parents’ offer to have her move in was rejected, Yi Chen had assumed her grandmother just didn’t want to be a bother.

It was only on her most recent trip home, when she found her grandmother crying over an old iron box, that she finally understood.

Both families had already agreed that they would get engaged and register their marriage now, with the wedding banquet to be held at the end of the year.

By then, all their relatives and friends would be back home for the holidays, making it the perfect time for a banquet without inconveniencing anyone with taking time off work.

The two of them currently planned to rent an apartment to live in for now. Once their debts were paid off, they would start saving up to buy a house.

Yi Chen was afraid that if she moved out, her grandmother’s health would deteriorate from loneliness and missing her grandfather. She’d been agonizing over what to do.

She had considered asking Gu Nan to move in with her, but she was afraid he wouldn’t want to, which left her stewing over the problem for the past couple of days.

In the end, all she could come up with was the terrible idea of just delaying things for a few months.

Gu Nan was stunned. He hadn’t expected that to be the reason.

He was rendered speechless and gently tapped his girlfriend on the head. ’She’s usually so smart, how could she be so silly about this?’

"Isn’t that an easy fix? We can either rent a place near your grandmother’s house, or I could just move in with you for a while."

"Huh? You’d be willing to move into my place?" Yi Chen covered her forehead where he’d tapped her, a dazed look on her face that made her seem endearingly foolish.

As for renting a place next door, the thought had never even occurred to her.

Gu Nan suddenly broke into a wicked grin. "I’ve been wanting to sleep in your bed for ages. I only held back because your grandma was there, and it wouldn’t have been right. Soon it’ll be perfectly legitimate, so why on earth wouldn’t I move in?"

"You’re impossible~" Yi Chen pouted, stomping her foot before turning with a sway of her hips and leaving the kitchen, her heart fluttering with a mix of embarrassment and delight.

Gu Nan had another reason for agreeing to move in with her.

He would be going out to sea from time to time, and when he did, Yi Chen would likely stay at her grandmother’s anyway.

A rented apartment would be empty for half the month. It was better to save that rent money for now.

After all, he wouldn’t want to rent a shabby place, so this arrangement could save them tens of thousands of yuan a year.