Reborn in the Millennium: Building a Fortune from Fishing

Chapter 124 White Eels Make Trouble
The next morning, Qin Dahe was woken up by his father in a daze and went to collect the shrimp cages with him.

It was still dark and the wind was blowing coldly.

Because they had put down thirty shrimp cages last night, the old man felt that they both had enough energy, so he bought ten more. When he came back from putting down the nets, he almost froze to death.

It's not so bad when it's being lowered, but it's troublesome to collect them. Adding the lead weights and water, thirty shrimp cages weigh about seventy or eighty kilograms, which is really annoying.

His hands were sore from catching only five, but it was not bad as he got two white eels.

"Dad, do you have any white eels over there?"

"There are four of them. The white eels are making trouble today. Haha!" The old man looked very happy. White eels are so damn valuable.

There have been cases of net explosions in previous years, mostly in winter, which happens to be the season when white eels emerge from the water.

Seeing that there were a lot of eels and they would easily run away if put in the bucket, Qin Dahe immediately went home and got a fish basket.

After collecting all the thirty shrimp cages, I had caught eleven white eels.

"This net was a real good choice. We've caught at least a thousand yuan worth of eels and river shrimp today."

There are a lot of river shrimps today. Thirty shrimp cages caught more than five kilograms of shrimps.

"Then why don't you just go to the city directly and don't pick up any passengers. It's not good for people to see you."

"Well, I'll go directly. You can see how many there are over there. We must have some over there when we enter the white eel."

Qin Dahe nodded. They all went down together last night, so the kids wouldn't be left out either.

They happily brought the catch home. My mother was very happy to see it and steamed osmanthus cake for the father and son.

At this time, the child came over with a very big lunch box.

You have to know that it is half past six and the sky is just getting light. He has to start collecting the nets at least at half past four to make it in time.

Qin's mother quickly invited everyone in to eat together. The child wanted to be polite, but Qin Dahe pulled him directly to the table.

The old man took a look at the boy's catch, which included eight white eels and more than three pounds of shrimp.

"Eat it first, and then let my dad take it to the city to sell it."

"Yes." The child nodded gratefully, and took out a pack of Double Happiness from his pocket and handed it to Father Qin. "Grandpa, here."

"Haha, kid, you finally got it." The old man accepted the cigarettes without hesitation. It was hard work to sell the goods by himself.

The kid just nodded foolishly. He bought a pack of Double Happiness cigarettes and three packs of Sheng Tang cigarettes at home. Every day when he was working with his master, he would give the cigarettes to his master whenever the master took a break.

He is not good at speaking and can only express his gratitude through this behavior.

Whether it was the old carpenter or the Qin family, they were all his benefactors, and buying a few packs of cigarettes was just a small expense.

He can now earn a lot of money online, and with two years of extra money he can get married.

"Son, this stuff of yours is worth at least six or seven hundred yuan. Did you not let anyone see it?" Mother Qin asked with concern.

The thing that is most common in rural areas is jealousy. Sometimes people do things that harm themselves and others because they are jealous of others making money.

"No, I'm just afraid. I'm jealous."

She felt relieved after hearing this. Her husband must have thought about this problem and sent the fish back early.

The osmanthus cake steamed with glutinous rice flour is very fragrant, and there are also some vegetarian buns, which are all made with flour ground by myself, which took a lot of effort on my part.

For them, preparing a meal made of flour is definitely a big job, and it must be accompanied by more dishes to be worth it.

There are also freshly fried salted beans on the table, with a little chili pepper, which gives it a salty and fragrant taste.

They opened another can of fermented bean curd, the white kind with a salty taste, and the four of them finished all twenty steamed buns.

Now we don’t have to worry about feeding the dogs at home. If there is no leftover food, we can just feed the fish food directly. It is both easy and convenient. The four little ones like it very much.

After dinner, Hanwaer said goodbye. Qin Dahe put on a thick coat and rode a three-wheeled motorcycle to the town.

I need to buy some scissors for cutting sheet metal and welding rods today. Once I’ve prepared everything, I’ll go pick up Erhu and the others to do their work.

It's cold now, so the work at the new dam won't start until at least eight o'clock.

"Be careful when welding aluminum. Aluminum alloys are good conductors of electricity and heat, so you need to have a steady hand."

At the construction site, around ten o'clock in the morning, the three of them finished cutting the iron sheets. Qin Dahe wanted to weld part of the equipment in advance, so he taught the two of them by the way.

"Before welding each time, use an angle grinder to grind the welded area because there is an oxide layer."

"For this kind of thin-skin welding, we can't make a bevel. We can chamfer the weld behind the seam." He spoke carefully to the two of them, and began to operate steadily with his hands.

He used this second-hand, broken welding machine very steadily, more skillfully than the two people's new welding machines.

The two nodded frequently and memorized the techniques taught by Qin Dahe.

Xinba's accountant, Erhu's uncle, was watching with envy. His nephew was lucky to have met such a good master.

It is really not easy to learn a skill in the countryside nowadays. The rural market is so small that every additional person who learns the skill will take away some of the business. Qin Dahe's selfless teaching is rare.

In ancient times, it was said that teaching an apprentice would lead to starvation to the master. This was the case. In some areas, business was fixed.

But Qin Dahe doesn't care about these things, there is no end to making money.

"You must remember that all means of making money are based on safety. Don't try to save time and effort. The better your skills, the more careful you should be." Finally, he gave another reminder.

Just like electricians, the more skilled they are, the more they adhere to safety procedures. These are lessons learned the hard way.

"It's time to eat, Master Qin." The factory director came over with a smile.

"Haha, just call me Xiao Qin or Da He, you're welcome."

The three of them went to eat boxed lunches together. There was no canteen here, so the food was supplied by a small shop at the entrance of a nearby primary school. They would prepare it and then deliver it to them.

Each person took two boxed lunches and found that the food was not as good as that at Cangtou's, but they didn't care.

This is a small factory, so we try to save as much as possible, and they understand.

While they were eating, the director and his team went to see Qin Dahe's welds. The welds on the shell were very beautiful and didn't even need to be polished.

After welding some knives, there are weld beads and weld pits all over them, which looks ugly.

"This kid from the Qin family has good skills."

"Well, I almost want to send the kid over there to be an apprentice."

"I don't know if he'll accept it. I'll ask him tonight."

Several people didn't hold out hope, they could only say that it would be better to let the children learn a skill if there was a chance.

We all farm and understand that farming is not a way to make money. Learning a skill is currently the most desired thing for rural people besides going to college.

"Grandpa, they said your child was admitted to university this year?" Qin Dahe chatted with the factory director while eating.

"Yes, I went to Harbin Institute of Technology. This school is really troublesome. Someone even called the village to ask about my background." Although the factory director mentioned the troubles, he could not hide the pride on his face.

"Fuck." He almost choked.

"Harbin Institute of Technology? Someone's still asking about the ingredients?"

"Yeah." "Awesome." Qin Dahe gave a thumbs up. Erhu and Tiedan were just envious of him for getting into college, but they were also stunned when they saw his expression.

"What's wrong? Is this school more awesome than Tsinghua University or Peking University?"

"Haha, it's a national treasure. They even asked about my family background. It's likely that it will be handed over to the state in the future." Qin Dahe sighed, "Grandpa, be prepared to see your son once a year or even several years."

"What's wrong?" asked the factory director in confusion.

"It's likely to be like this in the future. I guess it's still a confidential profession." Qin Dahe continued, "There's a guy in Xu Village who graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology two years ago and hasn't returned to the village. When he got married, people from the north came to pick up his parents, but none of his relatives went with him."

This incident caused quite a stir at the time, and even his house was built with money from the big town.

The factory director frowned, but felt relieved when he thought that his son was working for the country.

"If I don't want to come back, then I won't come back. The country will definitely take care of me."

"Of course. My wife has been assigned a job, and the city household registration and house are all prepared." Qin Dahe laughed.

"No wonder. I told him to transfer the money, but he said it was not necessary and the school would pay for it." The factory director said with a wry smile.

"From now on, just use Huabei when you earn money. Your son will definitely never lack anything in his life."

It’s not that there is no shortage of money, but there is no shortage of emergency funds. Whether it is illness or children’s education problems, the country will cover them.

"Are you a Party member?"

"Ah."

"No wonder, I guess his major is very special."

The factory manager was in no mood to eat at this moment. He didn't know whether to be happy or sad.

His son would likely see him less often in the future, and as a Party member, he certainly couldn't harbor resentment. He was also happy that life would improve, and the next generation would be directly urban residents.

Erhu and the other man were stunned when they heard this. Not only could one get a salary by getting into university, but one also had to have a Party member in the family. That was really awesome.

"The Xu Xiangqian from Xu Village is from Harbin Institute of Technology, right? I was wondering how he built the house when his family was so poor." Tiedan often goes to Xu Village and must have known about these things.

"Yes, his house was built with government funds." Qin Dahe said enviously.

In recent years, many college students have emerged around them. There are none from Tsinghua University or Peking University, but there is one from the University of Science and Technology of China, and two from Harbin Institute of Technology and the factory director's family.

Yanyan actually had good grades in high school, but she didn't seem to perform well in the college entrance examination, so she went to Jiuzi to study at a normal school.

As for this normal school, he is already considered a favored child in the surrounding area, and many people would envy those who marry him.

After dinner, several people continued to cut iron sheets. Today's work was to prepare for tomorrow.

Qin Dahe has also cut the required aluminum alloy parts and will set up the production line tomorrow. Now that all the welding is completed, it will be too troublesome to wait until tomorrow to install them.

The large iron sheets are easy to cut and can be directly attached to the wall in 2x2 pieces. Today the workers are pouring the foundation for support and it will be put on the wall tomorrow.

Some of the work on the corners is the most difficult. Qin Dahe asked them not to cut it yet and do it when the time comes.

"Welding and cutting are crude skills. If you really want to master this craft, you must be able to draw."

"No, my head hurts when I see the drawings." Tiedan said helplessly.

The same situation applies to Erhu. Every time Qin Dahe takes out the blueprints, they can follow them just fine, but when he makes the drawings himself, he makes all kinds of mistakes.

"How can you know if you can do something unless you push yourself?" He took a sip of tea and continued, "Otherwise, you can only be laborers, and whether you have work or not depends on other people's moods."

The two of them nodded immediately. They already knew how good Qin Dahe's craftsmanship was. It had only been a few months since he returned home, and everyone started asking him to modify their cars. This time, he was even contracted to do the welding in the factory.

After finishing the work at hand, he would hold his teacup and watch the two of them work, occasionally walking around to the side.

This is what a master chef is like. He does everything himself and there is no chance for the apprentice to get ahead.

They withdrew around four o'clock in the afternoon.

Contractors are different from other people. They don’t have to stick to a deadline to get off work. They just need to do their job well.

There was a motorcycle tricycle picking me up and dropping me off, and it wasn't even five o'clock when I got home.

When the car drove into the yard, I saw my mother helping him feed the fish.

"Mom, how much did Dad sell it for this morning? Whose car is this?" Qin Dahe looked at the motorcycle in the corner. It was so broken.

"My family sold it for 950. I heard that the price of white eels has dropped sharply. My son sold it for 620. I'll give it to you later." The mother said with a smile.

So much money, who would have thought it would suddenly go viral on the Internet.

"Your second uncle spent a thousand dollars to buy this motorcycle, and he just threw away eight hundred dollars. You have to fix it. If anything goes wrong, I'll beat you up."

Qin Dahe nodded. His second uncle's car must be modified to be more beautiful, and the money had been paid in advance, so he had no room to refuse.

"But this car has to go slower. I can only do it when I have time."

"I know. It's very cold now. He won't care." The old lady got off the boat and rubbed her hands to warm them up.

This crucian carp pond that my son has rented is really troublesome. If he doesn’t make any money next year, he won’t put any fish in it and will just use it to store fish.

Qin Dahe carefully observed the motorcycle tricycle and felt that it was a shame to buy it for a thousand yuan.

Except for the engine, nothing was working properly, even the brake and accelerator cables were rotten.

"Mom, my second uncle's car was stolen."

"What?" I was shocked.

"There's nothing on this car that doesn't need replacing except the engine, and even the engine I'm not sure is good enough."

"He rode here." Qin's mother said blankly. A bike that can be ridden is a good bike.

Qin Dahe: “??????”

Can this bike be ridden over here? He sat on it in disbelief, then turned the accelerator and listened to the sound. Hey, this engine is pretty awesome, the sound alone is worth a thousand yuan.

Looking at the tire again, there are many cracks, but it is still turning.

"Doesn't Second Uncle go crazy when he rides? The cracks in the tires are big enough to give birth to a child."

"Go away, go away, how can you talk like that? Change it."

"I know, this is just a try."

I went back to investigate and found that although the brake cable was rotten, the core was still good.

But this wire also needs to be replaced, and the beam needs to be repaired with steel sheets and re-welded.

Add to that various problems with the headlights and front wheel steering, and it's really hard to earn these 800 yuan.

Fortunately, the car belongs to my second uncle, and he insisted on making the car look beautiful to make his mother proud.

Ever since my second uncle was old enough to understand, he always gave me two portions of New Year's money every year. He handed over the big one and kept the small one to buy firecrackers and candies. What a nice person he is.

In his previous life, he followed suit and would give double portions of New Year's money to any good relatives or friends he visited during the Spring Festival.

At this time, the old man came back with a few new plastic buckets, which were very high. The white eels almost crawled out in the morning, so he immediately prepared the new buckets today.

(End of this chapter)