Reborn in the Millennium: Building a Fortune from Fishing

Chapter 158 Copper Felt

Qin Dahe was also full of questions. He simply rinsed the two anvils and found they were exactly the same. The error should not exceed ten pounds.

"Wait a minute, I'll get the acetylene and try cutting it."

Among all metals, iron is the cheapest. There are rules for those who collect scrap metal. If you don’t recognize any metal, you will buy it at the price of iron and you will never lose money.

If this thing were something else, I would be losing a lot of money if I sold it as iron.

Fortunately, I have acetylene cutting tools at home, otherwise I would have no way of cutting it off.

Iron felts all have a sharp corner, which is used by blacksmiths as a pad for forging iron. Qin Dahe first cut off the sharp corner of the lighter felt to confirm that it was made of iron.

I cut open another one, and it went surprisingly smoothly. As soon as it was opened, a golden piece was revealed.

Everyone in the field's heart skipped a beat. It was so exciting. Pure gold?

"Brass? I thought it was something rare." Qin Dahe knew what everyone was thinking by looking at their expressions.

When he saw the melting point was low during cutting, he had some guesses. After all, he was an old craftsman with many years of experience and had cut so many things.

"I was so scared, I thought it was gold."

"Yeah, my mind went blank just now."

The old man had just had a lot of thoughts in his mind, and now his heart was pounding. It was so damn scary.

"Haha, it's really gold. This piece probably weighs half a ton. We can't lift it." Qin Dahe said with a smile.

Half a ton of gold, according to the current gold price, is worth three or four million. How dare you think about it?

"Copper is also valuable. What is the current price of copper?" Several people looked at him.

"I'm not an electrician, why are you asking me?"

"It's still around 7.5 to 8 yuan at the end of the year. If it were copper, it would be valuable." The old man said casually.

"Another two thousand dollars in revenue, haha, everyone can get more than a thousand dollars each."

After he finished speaking, everyone became happy because they could share a lot of money this time.

I didn't make much money from the black carp, but I made a lot of money from the soft-shelled turtles and felt. Those wild soft-shelled turtles are rare species.

"Mom, please send a ten-pound herring to Weimin Supermarket for me and tell them you've talked to my third brother about it."

"Okay, I'll do it." The old mother happily started to work.

I knew my son was capable and could make a lot of money just by running a fish pond.

She had not experienced the moment of opening brass, otherwise she might have fainted. When the felt was just opened, there were only a few men present, and their mental quality was pretty good.

The old man carried two big grass carps to his second uncle's house. His second uncle also made great efforts today.

Then we started to leave fish for those who borrowed diesel engines and water pumps. These people must use wild fish and cannot use farmed crucian carp to make up the numbers.

The whole family gave three pounds of fish, including crucian carp and bream, as a repayment of the favor.

The water pumps and diesel engines are very durable. There is no loss if they are loaned out for a few days. Everyone must be happy to have caught so many fish for free.

The remaining four families each kept some large crucian carp and took them home to raise for a few days. The soup stewed from them was fragrant and nutritious.

It was not until 4:30 that Qin Dahe used the phone to instruct the fish transport truck to come to the main road near his home. People got off to carry the fish, but the truck did not get off.

The car was quite heavy with both the fish and the water in it, and the slope at the entrance was steep. He was worried that other people's cars would not be able to go up after loading the goods.

Scar came here in person today. I guess the fishing boats can't leave the port and they are just bored.

"Scar Master."

"Haha, the roads in your village are quite convenient."

Scar came down with a smile on his face, took out a pack of Red Nanjing cigarettes and started distributing cigarettes to everyone.

When I got to the yard, I was stunned to see two large felt mats.

"You guys also collect scrap metal?"

"I fished one out of the pond. It was made of brass. I took it back and sold it." Qin Dahe carefully recounted the story of how he caught fish today.

Hearing that some people had made a fortune, even Scar was a little envious of their experiences, which were much better than his own life guarding the Frozen Street.

"Please help me weld the copper on and polish it. I will take it back to the store and give you a high price." Scar said happily.

Qin Dahe's eyes lit up. This was a real dog owner. "Okay, Dad, you guys weigh the fish. I'll go get the felt."

"it is good."

Qin's father began to direct everyone to catch the fish. As soon as they pulled them back, they threw them into the fish basket. No one knew the exact weight.

First, there are the big black carp, each weighing 1100 or jin, and three of them weighing jin. The price here is yuan per jin, so yuan.

There were 1950 jin of ordinary black carp, and the price was yuan per jin, for a total of yuan. The black carp alone sold for yuan.

Seventy kilograms of wild crucian carp. There are actually quite a lot of these in Xinba, but they are too difficult to catch. They burrow into the mud and you can't find them. The wholesale price is only four yuan and fifty cents.

Scar Grandpa offered good prices for other fish like carp and bream, even grass carp and silver carp, which he usually did not buy.

He just pulls the fish back and gives it to others, and the surrounding fish stalls all give him face.

"There are a few more turtles, please take a look." Erhu said politely.

"The current market price of soft-shelled turtles is 65, which is not high. We are not trying to cheat you, but at the end of the year, farmers are clearing their ponds, and many wild soft-shelled turtles are flowing into the market." Scar said seriously.

Although fish are farmed in those ponds, turtles are not. People must have searched their own ponds carefully, and it is normal to find dozens of kilograms of wild turtles in one pond.

When the weather gets warmer, people become more aggressive in fishing for soft-shelled turtles. The skilled ones can catch seven or eight in a day. The price of soft-shelled turtles is higher during this period of autumn.

Everyone had no objection to Scar's price, and the price of the previous fish was very fair.

On the other side, Qin Dahe quickly welded the corner that had just been cut, then brushed it with a steel brush, and then took an electric drill with sandpaper to start grinding.

When I encountered some gaps that were difficult to grind, I just used an angle grinder to grind them smooth. By the time the fish was done, he hadn't finished yet.

"Dad, please help me turn it over."

The two of them turned the copper felt over and he continued to polish it. It now looked golden and shone brightly when the light shone on it.

Those who don't know much about it can really mistake it for gold. It looks so much like gold that even Qin's mother is reluctant to sell it.

There is no place to buy such a big piece of brass.

I guess it was melted from the heirloom of some blacksmith's family. Copper was a precious metal before the Republic of China, and it has only become cheaper in the past two years.

Qin Dahe didn't know the exact price, but Scarface paid eight yuan per pound, which was definitely enough.

While the fish were being loaded onto the truck, the old man invited Scarface to have dinner at his home.

"Next time you get more goods, call me. I'll come over in the morning and have a meal, haha."

"Okay, I'll let Dahe and the others help you carry the blanket."

The golden copper felt in the store is rarer than anything else like a lion. The more Scarface looks at it, the more he likes it.

The three hundred kilograms of weight was directly loaded onto the three-wheeled motorcycle, and then transported to the fish transport truck by bike.

He directly added three hundred yuan to the remaining piece of iron, and the four young men began to settle the accounts.

"We burned 3100 yuan of diesel and 700 yuan of electricity. These are the costs. There's no need to calculate the rest. We don't need to calculate the wages for our family members either. We collected 6000 yuan, and there is still 1200 yuan in cash and 1000 yuan in diesel left." The main force of catching fish is still our own group of people, so there's no need to calculate the wages for this.

My second uncle's family brought some fish over; they were all relatives, so there was no need to calculate too much. "Well, I didn't expect it would cost so little to pump out a large pond," Tiedan said excitedly.

"Haha, who knew that the pond was so fragile." Qin Dahe took out the money with a smile.

"The soft-shelled turtles here are sold for 500, the other fish are sold for 5300, the copper felt is 2400, and the iron is 300." There is a lot of wear and tear on the copper due to washing and polishing, but Scar's price was quite high.

"Just do it this way. It's just a small amount of money, so I won't say anything more." Everyone nodded.

The Qin family didn't even have to pay for the tricycle and the boat, but no one wanted to calculate the details and give him extra money, as it would be embarrassing.

"The total harvest from the pond is eight thousand five hundred, plus the remaining twenty-two hundred, which makes ten thousand seven hundred."

"Diesel can be converted into money directly. My family wants it. It will be useful for driving boats and tricycles in the future." Everyone nodded in agreement.

Since we don’t irrigate the fields now, all the diesel we bring back will just sit there.

The theoretical cash on hand now is 10700 yuan. Let's divide it among ourselves first. Each person will get 2675 yuan, and the money in hand will almost double.

"Damn, I really made some money. I'll go find a pond and smoke some later." Erhu was very excited. Now that he was married, he could keep the money he had for himself.

With this money, he became more confident and could even talk to his wife about buying a second-hand motorcycle and asking Dahe to help convert it into a three-wheeled one.

Everyone was also talking about it, wanting to dig another pond to catch fish. It would be so cool to make money and catch fish at the same time.

"We'll wait and see. When the weather warms up, we can go and play in the small pond. The big pond must be looked after by our own family."

After sorting out the money owed by Erhu and Tiedan, my brother-in-law started to return 800 yuan to him.

He didn't even pay the 1500 yuan for pumping the pond; it was paid for by Qin Dahe. After deducting the money for the electric pump, my brother-in-law made more than yuan on this trip.

The eldest sister was quite unhappy when she knew that her husband earned so much money. How could he bring back so much money when he came to visit her parents?

"Just take it. Although we didn't pay for pumping out the pond, the risk was still not small. That's it." Qin Dahe hurriedly pushed his sister over to eat.

It's already six o'clock now, and I have to send people back after dinner.

He himself didn't lose much money. The iron felt was still at home, as well as the diesel and large electric pump. If you counted the money, he'd lost several hundred yuan.

But iron and diesel are both hard currencies, and you can make money by selling them. It only takes a few words for me to buy a large electric pump.

They say that you can’t just buy things whenever you want, you have to think about it first.

Qin Dahe did not refute. The young couple looked at each other and smiled.

He also talked to Yanyan about buying an electric pump. The little girl fully supported him and gave him the money for pumping the pond without saying a word.

This electric pump is still useful at home. It will be so fun to go pump the pond when you have nothing to do in the future.

After dinner, Qin Dahe drove his brother-in-law and others to the town. It was already past eight o'clock when they returned.

The little girl lit the charcoal in the stove early, placed dried fruits on it, and poured him a glass of wine and placed it on the balcony.

"Brother, go wash up first. I'll warm up the wine for you."

"Yeah." This girl really has him in her grasp.

After a quick wash and changing into pajamas, the couple sat on the balcony to eat.

"This wine tastes very strong. Did your grandfather send it to you?"

"Didn't you move it?" Yanyan said with a smile.

Qin Dahe remembered that this was snake wine, and it also contained medicinal herbs.

"From what tank did you get it? The dog gun hasn't been soaked through yet."

"I know, it was taken from the tank that was never soaked. You've worked hard these days." Yanyan came behind him and massaged his shoulders.

"It's comfortable, right? There's a medical college next to our university, and I attended several classes there."

"You should take care of yourself these two days. You can't come here all the time."

"Also, it's cold now. I prepare a vest for you every morning. Remember to wear it."

The little girl was a new wife, so she told the prince everything.

Qin Dahe didn't care how strong the wine was and drank it in one gulp. No matter how strong the wine was, it couldn't compare to his wife at this moment.

He stood up, hugged the little girl who was still mumbling and started biting her.

"No, you take two days off."

"No, I'm getting excited."

The atmosphere suddenly stopped. It turned out that the little girl had her period.

"Why are you giving me this to drink now that I'm here?" Qin Dahe said aggrievedly.

"That's not a strong medicine, it's a slow-acting tonic. Just drink it for a few days." Yanyan hugged his neck naively.

There's really no other way. She can use other places. Anyway, the brother is so bad.

"Oh."

Both of them behaved themselves and continued to sit on the balcony and eat.

The room was warm, and the glass sliding door was only open a crack, so the occasional cool breeze that blew in was quite comfortable.

"Let's go out and have fun tomorrow, and take a bath at the same time. It's too uncomfortable to take a bath at home." From the day they got married until now, neither of them has ever taken a bath.

Taking a bath in the countryside in winter is really torture. Even hanging a cover is not enough. The plastic cover sometimes sticks to your body and is very cold.

"Well, we have finished eating the dried fruits at home and we still have to buy some more. The Lantern Festival is coming soon." Yanyan said embarrassedly.

Both of them are big gluttons. They show off their dried fruits and snacks every day, but no matter how much they eat, it is never enough.

"When do you start work?"

"I don't know. The stationmaster knew I was married, so he told me to rest at home for a month before telling you."

The main function of the grain station in the town is storage and transportation. They are not responsible for the seeds sown in spring and have almost no work throughout the spring.

"When do they officially start work?"

"There's a meeting on the 25th day of the first lunar month, and I need to go and sign my name." She looked at Qin Dahe: "What's the matter?"

"Nothing, just needing to prepare some candy and other things to hand out. Getting married is such a big thing, I can't forget my colleagues."

"Yeah, I almost forgot."

"We also need to go to Uncle Wu's and Uncle Zhang's house for dinner. Please write all this down. I will definitely forget."

The little girl nodded quickly. As the head of the family, she had to be able to handle these things.

"So, will we go fishing after the Lantern Festival?"

"What the hell are you trying to do? It's so cold, do you want to freeze your man to death?" Qin Dahe scratched her nose.

"My mother always says that men should be the head of the family and should make money after the Lantern Festival."

"I do welding, right? Someone called me these days with some special modification orders. I asked them to deliver the car on the 16th." He said easily.

Ever since he started helping people widen and lengthen their tricycles, many people have been thinking about trying it themselves. It just means a little higher fuel consumption, and they can make some money.

　Please give me some more monthly tickets, just to avoid falling off the list.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)