Rebirth of Fishing Village: Starting from Hua Axiang in Jiehu Village

Chapter 1552 Just give up when you’re ready
"Why is business so good? So many people are coming here to sell crabs!"

Huang Jintao glanced at the crowd gathered around the shop entrance; they were all there to sell crabs, each weighing either a hundred or two hundred jin (50-100 kg), or even several dozen jin (30-40 kg).

It may not seem like much, but when you add up a lot of people, it really is a lot.

"Is there any need to say more? The prices here are better than elsewhere, much better. Not to mention, thirty yuan per jin is the lowest price. If the pieces are larger, the price will go up even more."

"The large fishing boats have regular buyers, but the small fishing boats will definitely be sold to whoever offers the highest price."

"Once the news gets out, everyone will definitely come here!"

Zhong Cuihua had a big smile on her face.

I really didn't expect this business to be so good, but now it seems that the business is not only good, but extremely good. The most important thing is that this is something I never thought would happen. I never expected that all the people who went out to sea to watch the sea would catch crabs.

Normally, if so many crabs return to the dock, the price wouldn't rise but would fall, sometimes even significantly.

These fishermen aren't stupid; they definitely know what's going on. As soon as they heard that the prices here were higher, all these small fishing boats flocked here.

"I never expected business to be this good!"

Huang Jintao was overjoyed. The competition among the shops here was fierce, and she had thought it would take a long time before she could survive and make a profit. But now she had suddenly made a breakthrough, and she was really lucky.

"Correct!"

"The business looks like it's going to be done now."

Zhong Cuihua nodded.

The main reason I, Huang Jintao, am here today is to let everyone see how the business is doing, and also to see if any kind of people will come to cause trouble.

If someone really comes to cause trouble, these Zhong Cuihuas can play an even greater role than Ding Chongshan.

Another reason is that it's a common custom in the village that when many shops open, an elderly person from the family is needed to oversee the business.

"quick!"

"Hurry up! Hurry up!"

Yang Qin parked the speedboat, and Ding Ailian impatiently called to the other workers on the speedboat to hurry up and get on to the shop.

Yang Qin tied the speedboat to her idol and went to the dock. She saw that Ding Ailian and several other people had already run to the shop entrance and started working immediately.

Yang Qin quickly walked over and took a look, and found that the total weight of all the crabs collected exceeded three thousand catties.

People kept coming by with baskets to see what was going on; they had all received the news and were rushing over to buy crabs.

"Is business that good? If that's the case, those small fishing boats that came back from the dock today must have made most of the money from the crabs they caught!"

Yang Qin was extremely surprised. She had only gone to the fish raft to ask Ding Ailian to arrange for someone to come and take the harvested crabs back to the raft to keep them, but she hadn't expected so many crabs to remain in less than half an hour. At this rate, harvesting ten thousand or even more crabs today would be no problem at all.

Yang Qin didn't have time to think too much. Business was booming and they were short-handed, so she immediately started helping out.

Basket after basket of crabs were collected, and in the blink of an eye, Ding Ailian brought back the fish rafts and put them into the net cages.

Ding Jie led his men to the dock and was surprised to see that the shops were doing very well.

"What are you standing there for? Your dad is waiting for you at the dock. Hurry up and go there. Sometimes the crabs from the big fishing boats have to wait for you to weigh them."

"All the crabs we harvested will be sent to the fish farm to be kept alive!"

When Zhang Li saw Ding Jie trying to walk over, she immediately shouted loudly and pointed in the direction of the dock.

Ding Jie didn't have time to say anything, he nodded and immediately led his men quickly toward the dock.

Two o'clock in the afternoon.

Ding Xiaoxiang, Yang Qin, Zhang Li, and Chen Miaomiao were all panting heavily.

I've been busy since early morning, and it's only now that I've finally finished harvesting all the crabs.

"mom!"

"sister in law."

"You guys sit down and rest for a bit. I'll go order some food from the food stall, and we can just grab something to eat."

"I never expected to harvest so many crabs today. I didn't expect to be this busy. If I had known, I would have prepared more manpower."

As Ding Xiaoxiang spoke, she pointed to the shop. She said that she had been busy collecting fish, shrimp, and crabs since early this morning, and she was so busy that her feet were practically smoking. She never expected to collect so many crabs.

Zhang Li and Chen Miaomiao nodded and went into the shop. They sat down on the stools and couldn't get up for a moment. They were really tired today, mainly because they didn't expect business to be so good and so many people to come and sell crabs.

Ding Xiaoxiang called Yang Qin inside to see the flowers her grandmother had planted and the golden peaches her second grandmother had grown. They had already returned to the fish farm by speedboat around noon.

"Xiao Xiang".

"We must have collected about 15,000 jin of crabs today, right?"

Chen Miaomiao glanced at Ding Xiaoxiang, who had been busy all morning and hadn't paid much attention to how many crabs they had collected, but she estimated that it must have been quite a lot.

"It's definitely more than 15,000 jin, I estimate it's at least 20,000 jin!"

"There are just too many people going out to sea from Shijiao Village Wharf, and these fishing boats are catching far too many fish, shrimp and crabs."

"It's easy to imagine how much money can be made at this dock."

Ding Xiaoxiang shook her head. The number of crabs collected must be around 20,000 jin. This shows just how profitable it is to collect fish, shrimp and crabs at the Shijiao Village Wharf.

"Correct!"

“It’s definitely worth at least 20,000 jin. The Shijiao Village wharf is a really lucrative place. Your father and I have been eyeing this wharf for a long time, but we never had the chance to open a shop here. Now we can finally start doing business here.”

Zhang Li was exhausted, but extremely happy.

Ten years ago, he and Ding Chongshan had been eyeing the Shijiao Village wharf, but they hadn't had a good opportunity. Now, they finally had one, and today, just as they opened for business, they received so many crabs. "I really didn't expect things to go so smoothly today. We'll need to arrange enough manpower here tomorrow; I reckon there will be even more people selling crabs here tomorrow!"

Ding Xiaoxiang thought about it for a moment and realized that more people would definitely come here to buy crabs tomorrow.

"That's right! There will definitely be more people selling crabs here tomorrow, but the amount of crabs received tomorrow is likely to be less than today's. I estimate that we'll be lucky to get 10,000 jin, or even only 5,000 jin tomorrow."

Zhang Li smiled and nodded. There will definitely be a lot of people selling crabs here tomorrow, but in terms of quantity, it will definitely not be as good as today.

"I didn't expect that most of the fishing boats that went out to sea this year would catch crabs."

"Some of the people who can catch fish, shrimp and crabs have returned today, and more will return tomorrow, but probably not as many."

"There are definitely people selling crabs, but there are definitely not as many as today."

"I wonder how many crabs my dad and brother collected from the big fishing boats at the dock!"

Ding Xiaoxiang looked curiously toward the dock. There were many large fishing boats moored there, most of which had just returned from fishing, and many people were busy on them.

"Should we go over there and take a look? Maybe we'll need to help, or maybe we can talk to the captains of the other big fishing boats and buy crabs from them."

Chen Miaomiao glanced at Zhang Li, then at Ding Xiaoxiang. The business here was finished, and there wasn't much else to do. Ding Chongshan and Ding Jie were busy at the dock; they could go and help them out.

"No need."

“One of them is the captain of these large fishing boats. We are not very familiar with him and do not know which one is which.”

"Another thing is that we've almost finished collecting all the crabs from our small fishing boats today. The other fish, shrimp and crab collectors at the dock have seen this, and we can't just open for business and eat up all the meat."

"If that's really the case, these people will definitely have opinions about us, and very strong opinions at that."

Zhang Li initially really wanted to do that, but after thinking it over carefully, she felt that she absolutely couldn't do it. If she really did it, it would likely anger all the fish, shrimp, and crab buyers at the dock, which would cause public outrage. She absolutely couldn't do such a thing; at least for today, she had to know when to stop.

"We have received more than 20,000 catties of crabs here today alone."

"This number is really too much. Some of them are quite large. Although they are not very big, they are still medium-sized fishing boats that have caught crabs and sold them all to us."

"We really need to know when to stop, lest we incur everyone's anger."

Ding Xiaoxiang wholeheartedly agreed with her mother Zhang Li's words. At this time, it was really not a good time to show off anymore, as they had already received enough fish, shrimp, and crabs.

After careful consideration, Chen Miaomiao realized that she had been thinking too simply. In business, sometimes you have to make as much money as you can and compete with others, but sometimes it's about human relationships and knowing when to back down.

“We have never been involved in the business at the dock. We really don’t know what the situation is like there. Every big fishing boat here catches fish, shrimp and crabs that are closely related to the big buyers behind them.”

"This is something we can't control right now, so let's just leave it alone."

"Your dad and the others can collect as much as they can. There's no need to rush. They don't have to collect a certain amount of fish, shrimp, and crabs here to make a certain amount of money."

Zhang Li thought about it carefully again and felt that she, Ding Xiaoxiang, and Chen Miaomiao didn't need to get involved in this matter.

Only Ding Chongshan can handle this matter properly.

Ding Xiaoxiang and Chen Miaomiao both nodded; they knew that was indeed the case. At the Shijiao Village wharf, especially the large fishing boats, there were numerous fish, shrimp, and crab buyers of all sizes, and the relationships and interests involved were extremely complex.

If you don't understand the relationships involved, it's really difficult to handle this matter properly.

"Chen Miaomiao".

"Starting tomorrow, the fish soup business will officially be run by the two of you!"

"I need to help out here for a while and see what the situation is like."

“Your dad definitely can’t manage this place by himself. He’ll probably have to go to the docks and deal with the boat captains.”

Zhang Li turned her head to look at Chen Miaomiao.

Even though Ding Xiaoxiang is your daughter and hasn't married Zhao Dahai yet, she's no longer considered part of the family.

Although Ding Xiaoxiang, Yang Qin, and others have shares in the business, it is actually a family business.

From any perspective, this is something that I have to do myself. Ding Xiaoxiang only comes here to work when she has time, or she doesn't even need to come here to work at all.

This is a matter of one thing at a time.

I really can't always rely on Ding Xiaoxiang to help me here every day.

Chen Miaomiao nodded. She and Zhang Qi had already taken over the business in town and were very skilled at it. The two of them would definitely be able to handle the workload.

"Ding Xiaoxiang".

"We've collected so many crabs, we definitely won't be able to sell them all at once."

"Wouldn't that pose a significant risk? And in the next few days, even more crabs will be returning to the dock. Should we continue to buy them at today's price?"

Yang Qin took a sip of water. She was very happy and excited when she was collecting these crabs. But when all the crabs were harvested, especially after hearing that 20,000 catties of crabs had been collected today, and that this was only from the shop, if Ding Chongshan collected them at the dock, it might be as much as 30,000 catties.

If we can still harvest crabs, we might be able to harvest 50,000 or even 60,000 jin of crabs in three to five days.

The fishing moratorium has just ended, and there are plenty of fish, shrimp, and crabs everywhere. There are issues with both price and quantity, and the pressure to sell these crabs will be immense.

"Yang Qin".

"What's there to worry about?"

"Or rather, if it were someone else, they would definitely be worried, but if it were us, there's nothing to worry about."

"The current situation is actually very good for us!"

Ding Xiaoxiang shook her head.

(End of this chapter)