1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 100 Selling the sweetfish is really valuable
"You can actually catch two buckets of fish while standing on stilts. I didn't expect you to be so capable!"

Chen Xiangbei helped hold the set of trades, looking somewhat admiring.

"How powerful it is? Haven't you seen it a long time ago?" Liang Ziqiang laughed.

Chen Xiangbei took two seconds to come to her senses and wanted to throw the stilt fishing net and bamboo basket at him: "You are talking nonsense in broad daylight. You have no shame!"

After thinking for a while, she asked again, "By the way, I heard that all the fish are sold at the big dock. Why don't you go there first and I'll take these things home for you."

"I got a lot of good stuff today. I'll lose a lot if I sell it to him! I'll pick out the good fish later, and I'll take the ordinary fish to the big dock."

"Which ones are good fish?" She sniffed several times in succession. "No, there are no orchards near the sea. Why do I smell the same smell as the orchard at home?"

It seems that everyone has a different feeling about the smell of sweetfish. When it comes to her, it's like an orchard...

"Have you ever heard of sweetfish? It emits its own fragrance!"

"Fish can have their own fragrance? How can there be such strange fish? This is the first time I've heard of it!" Chen Xiangbei continued to wrinkle his nose, confirming that the source of the fragrance was really the fish in the bucket, and became more curious.

"Because they have a cavity on their back..."

The two of them talked non-stop all the way and returned home in a blink of an eye.

Liang Lizhi was sitting in front of the door shelling beans when she saw the little fur ball coming back from the beach happily. She was surprised and said:
"I was wondering where it went, and it actually ran off to the beach to play!"

Liang Ziqiang chuckled, "It didn't just go there to play, it helped with a lot of work!"

When he told them about how the puppy helped watch the fish, Liang's mother and Lizhi all praised the puppy as a "good dog".

"No, the puppy has been here for about a month, and you don't even give it a name? How can you keep calling it Little Maotuan? It sounds more casual than the name Dahuang!" Chen Xiangbei touched Liang Ziqiang and said.

Liang Ziqiang frowned and thought about it. He really hadn't considered this matter...

Liang Xiaohai suddenly appeared from nowhere and shouted:
"Second Aunt, it has a name!"

Chen Xiangbei responded, bent down and asked Xiao Hai: "What?"

"I usually quietly call it lychee, and it will respond!"

Sure enough, when Xiao Hai called out "Lizhi" twice, the little fur ball habitually came over to greet him, wagging its tail...

Liang Lizhi was so angry that she didn't want to live anymore. How could she know that Liang Xiaohai had been doing such a sinister thing behind her back?
She ran up and tried to twist Liang Xiaohai but failed, so she yelled at the puppy:
"Remember, your name is Xiaohai, Liang Xiaohai!"

Chen Xiangbei was overwhelmed by the two of them, so she looked at Liang Ziqiang and took the initiative to suggest:
"Generally, families would give dogs auspicious names. Others would name their dog Wangcai. How about we name our dog Laifu?"

After saying this, she was quite satisfied with her inspiration and looked at her husband expectantly.

Liang Ziqiang's forehead darkened for a moment, and he whispered, "Have you ever considered my father's feelings?"

Wife, are you sure you have really thought about it? Your father-in-law is called Defu, and we have a dog called Laifu. When this dog grows up, I will have to call it uncle...

Chen Xiangbei was awakened by his words, and said with embarrassment:

"Then you come and get it. I can't think of anything else..."

Liang Ziqiang thought about it for a while, and in order to prevent more strange names from coming up, he said decisively:
"I've thought about it, let's call it Duobao! It sounds loud and pleasing. Besides, we fishermen like turbot very much!"

Duobao is a very special fish. It is nice to call the dog in the fishing village Duobao.

Little Maotuan had no idea that his name had been decided just like that...

It's time to cook lunch. Liang Ziqiang put the bucket in front of Chen Xiangbei:
"We have mullet, sea bass, and goby. This is the first lunch for the small kitchen today. You can choose whatever you want. By the way, sweetfish smells good and tastes even better. It's not bad to take a few out to try!"

Chen Xiangbei looked into the bucket:

"Forget about the sweetfish. Didn't you say it was very valuable? How can you spend so much money on the first day? As for the other fish, pick out two of the cheaper ones!"

Liang Ziqiang thought about it and agreed. The sweetfish was delicious, but she would probably regret it for several days after eating it.

He was too lazy to choose, so he picked out two each of the sea bass, goby, and golden snapper and placed them next to him in water to serve as food for the next few days. In addition, he picked out a few crabs and, at most, some worthless hair shrimps.

"Let's steam the sea bass first today. Sea bass tastes delicious when steamed!"

Things are different now. In the past, he would hesitate for a long time before eating a sea bass, and he was worried about being scolded by his mother. Now, at 40 cents a pound, sea bass is no longer considered a valuable commodity. In his eyes, it is almost as cheap as goby and white mullet.

On the first day of cooking, they ate sea bass. He also picked out all the sweetfish and kept them in water, planning to take them to the city to sell tomorrow.

The remaining sea bass, luncheon fish and the like were all brought to his mother, asking her to pick some fish to cook as well.

My sister-in-law Kuang Haixia happened to be there, so I asked her to help me choose as well.

They are just some of the most common fish. Just share them when necessary. There is no need to be fussy about such trivial matters.

The two of them each took two fish. Over there, Chen Xiangbei had already started burning firewood, and smoke was rising.

Because there were not enough kitchens, Liang's father built two adobe stoves under the shed beside the house for the eldest and second sons to use. Now Chen Xiangbei cooks in front of one of the stoves.

I didn't expect that the first time I ate the sea bass steamed by Chen Xiangbei, it tasted really good. The couple ate with relish. During the meal, Lizhi came over and asked for some food, saying that the fish cooked by my second sister-in-law was different from that cooked by my mother...

After dinner, Liang Ziqiang took some sea bass, luncheon fish, shrimp and other fish to the big dock and asked Zheng Liu to sell them to him.

In terms of weight, these accounted for the majority of today's catch, but because they were all worth only 40 or 50 cents, they were only sold for a total of more than 19 yuan.

Of course, in the eyes of most fishermen, nineteen yuan is actually a lot, it’s just that Liang Ziqiang has been particularly lucky recently.

While selling fish, he heard Zheng Liu muttering that several fishermen each caught four or five valuable sweetfish in the morning and brought them to him to sell.

Seeing that Liang Ziqiang didn't respond, Zheng Liu asked directly:

"Qiangzi, others have caught a few sweetfish, but you are usually so lucky, how come you didn't catch any? Uncle Zheng will give you a price. I will give you 1.2 yuan per catty of sweetfish, which is the same price as the best red crab and three times the price of sea bass! To be honest, if I sell it at this price, I won't make a dime!"

Liang Ziqiang guessed that Zhang Baomin might have told Zheng Liu about his catching a lot of Xiangfei fish, which was why Zheng Liu asked him this.

But he doesn't care. If he knows, then he knows. He can't sell it to you at a low price just because of a few words from you.

He didn't believe a word of the so-called "only making a dime".

Liang Ziqiang said calmly:

"Then they are luckier than me today! Luck is unpredictable!"

He stopped talking to Zheng Liuduo and turned around to go home.

Early the next morning, he went to the city again, carrying the sweetfish.

There may seem to be a lot of sweetfish, but it doesn't feel heavy at all when carried on the shoulders. The main reason is that the fish are too small, about two taels each, so even if there are more than a hundred of them, how heavy can they be?
It's just because I added water into the bucket that it seems a little heavier.

"What did you pick up this time?" Du Ziteng asked as soon as they met.

Because it wasn’t long ago that they had just sold a batch of chicken claw snails and three-headed abalone. If it was the same goods, Yuehai Restaurant would not be able to digest them in a short time.

"Take a look first..."

"Ayu? This is the first time I've seen you bring this kind of fish here! It looks pretty good, and has a strong fragrance. Don't worry, we'll buy it, but the price is definitely not comparable to that of chicken claw snails and grouper!"

"How much, Brother Teng, tell me?"

"Seven dollars a pound! Actually, it's not low."

Seven yuan, Zheng Liu gave 1.2 yuan, claiming to "only make 1 cent". What a big 1 cent...

Of course, the prices of middlemen and restaurants are definitely different, which is normal, but the difference is really big. This proves once again that middlemen are really ruthless when it comes to rare seafood.

Of course Liang Ziqiang had no objection to the price offered by Du Ziteng.

I went to weigh them right away. Although the fish were small, there were a lot of them, and they weighed 21 kilograms.

I went to collect the money and got one hundred and forty-seven dollars!
Compared to the cost of casting a net out to sea and then exploding when encountering a school of fish, this hundred bucks may not seem like much, but after all, it’s just a fishing net in shallow water not far from home! Even the diesel fuel is saved.

In his many years of experience in stilt fishing, he was indeed far ahead of others and set a new record in income.

There are so many places that require money to do things recently, and a hundred or so can make a big difference...

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(End of this chapter)