Reborn in the Millennium: Building a Fortune from Fishing

Chapter 163 Harvesting Corn

After leaving the tobacco company, I went straight to the department store to buy a learning machine.

The F-15 is really cheap now, only 45 yuan with the controller, and I also bought a few game collection cards.

He was asked to remove the entire outer shell, as it took up space, leaving just enough space for the card slot.

The department store also sells walnut kernels, but unfortunately they are cooked. Qin Dahe has to ask someone if he wants to buy raw walnuts.

But no one grows walnuts here, so I went to the original supply and marketing cooperative and asked several people, only then did I find out that they are available at the vegetable market every morning.

It’s such a hassle. I have money but can’t spend it.

The wall of the supply and marketing cooperative had cracked, and he was afraid of falling down if he walked along the side. After passing the alley on this side, he saw someone selling a box-shaped net cage, so he went over to take a look.

"Boss, what can this catch?" He handed over a Double Happiness cigarette. He was not going to buy anything for himself today.

I picked up a net cage and looked at its structure carefully. The bag underneath was quite large.

"We can get eels and river shrimps, and in the summer we can even get some miscellaneous fish and lobsters."

"Lobsters aren't expensive, and they look pretty new to me."

I chatted with the boss about some meaningless things and took the opportunity to write down the structure of the net cage.

After he left, the boss was not angry, at least he got a double blessing.

As soon as he left here, he went to buy nets and wire.

I definitely can't bear to buy eel cages. They cost twelve yuan each, and twenty of them would be more than two hundred yuan. It would be much better to make them myself.

The eel cages currently used in rural areas are still traditional L-shaped bamboo cages with only one opening. To be honest, the efficiency of catching eels in summer is not very high, and they are not as good as those caught with ground traps.

If you put this kind of net-cage eel cage, you may also have a chance to catch snakes.

The snakes here are very valuable. Except for those that are too brightly colored, ordinary triangular-headed snakes and rat snakes can be sold at the vegetable market.

Especially the rat snake, the price was 120 yuan per catty last year. I wonder if the price has increased this year.

It was already three o'clock when he got home. Since he couldn't buy raw walnuts, he bought some cooked ones and roasted them on a charcoal stove.

"Mom, come and help me."

"what?"

"Making some eel cages. I just learned how to do that today."

When unloading the things from the tricycle, there was a pile of green fishing nets.

Yanyan knew that he had brought something, so she also went downstairs.

He handed the snacks and learning machine to Yanyan. My mother saw it but didn't say anything. Now I have to provide my daughter-in-law with whatever she wants to eat.

Before getting married, Qin Dahe promised Yanyan that he would stock up some snacks at home when he had nothing to do. Now he has to do it.

It gets dark later in spring, at least in three hours, so the mother and son plan to get out the nets first.

He began to fold the wire according to the patterns he had seen on the street that afternoon.

This new type of eel cage is square in shape, and can only be stored flat, like a parallelogram, by flattening it.

When lowering the net, just place two 20 cm skewers in the middle, but you need to weld two slots on top of them.

His family has a motor tricycle that can go to most places in the countryside. He will definitely use it to surf the Internet more often in the summer to make money.

He didn't plan to go fishing even though it was so hot during the day. He got really tanned last year.

"Mom, just follow this." First make a model and hand it to my mother.

"Okay, let's make it square, right?" Qin's mother nodded.

She is very experienced and she helped Qin's father make some of the fishing nets at home.

Yanyan went upstairs to pack up the things and then came down to help them. She was quite dexterous, but she needed her mother's guidance before she could do it.

He folded the steel wires and then started welding the slots from a distance.

Just weld a nut on it, two on each side will do, but be careful not to weld the wire through.

After finishing this, I started to prepare the lead sinker. There must also be something underneath to make it sink to the bottom.

"Brother, can you come and see it?" Yanyan finished one and held it up, asking him proudly.

"That's it, let's try to put it away."

"It's done."

I pressed it down and it flattened.

All nets must have storage function, otherwise if you put twenty or thirty nets at a time, not only a motorcycle tricycle, but even a large tricycle cannot fit them.

The three of them worked quite quickly together and finished twenty-five nets in an hour and a half.

"Are you planning to catch eels this year?" The mother looked at her son. Both father and son were quite good at catching fish and shrimps.

"Well, let's see if we can get some snakes or eels. These are better than bamboo cages, and there are four entry points."

"Indeed, but isn't the mesh too big?"

"It's not big. Small yellow eels are not worth much. It's very troublesome to clean up after bringing them back."

"As long as you have an idea, I'm going to have dinner. Your dad will probably be back soon." Mother Qin clapped her hands and went to work.

The young couple went back upstairs, as there was still a learning machine that had not been installed.

"Brother, dinner will be ready in a while, let's play a game first." Yanyan said with shining eyes.

She played it with Erhu's wife Ah Mei, and it was quite fun.

"Which one?"

"Super Mario, let's jump mushroom together."

Qin Dahe picked up a card at random and plugged it in. Most game cards in the collection have this game.

After connecting the controllers, the two of them got a small stool and sat next to the TV to start playing games.

"Stupid, you didn't even eat a mushroom on your head."

"Who knew mushrooms could run so fast." The little girl pouted, still thinking she was a mean person.

The two of them played for quite a while before stopping because my mother called them to eat.

"Yan'er, what are we having for dinner?"

"Potatoes stewed with minced meat, and eggplant with mashed garlic. I picked the eggplant."

"Great, let's go and have some food."

It’s vegan again, Cena, your wife must have prepared something special for you!

After driving the car the next day, Qin Dahe turned around and went to Chenwan.

At this time, the old man was already weighing the goods, and he went over to help when he saw it.

"Finally here, there are so many goods to move." Father Qin rubbed his shoulders.

There are more than 10,000 kilograms of goods. It’s exhausting to do it alone. My wife hasn’t come with me today.

"Grandpa." Qin Dahe first greeted the owner of the corn.

"Haha, this must be the kid from the Qin family. He was very powerful last year, and the Huazi family has been well behaved for a long time." The corn seller was quite polite when he saw him.

"Haha, you're young and ignorant."

After saying a few words, he started to help the old man weigh the food.

Every time a bag is weighed, it must be recorded on both sides, and then the accounts must be reconciled together.

If there are a lot of them, this is the only way, otherwise I can’t remember them.

"78 pounds."

"81 pounds."

Before weighing each bag, you should shake it and check if there are any stones or other things at the bottom. Generally, if you see any, you will quietly take the stones out. You should not quarrel too often, as harmony brings wealth.

These more than 10,000 kilograms of corn need to be packed into nearly 200 bags, which is a huge workload.

But both the old man and Qin Dahe were very excited because the profit was five or six hundred.

When the weight reached four thousand kilograms, the old man began to take stones out of the bag.

He didn't say anything. Qin Dahe gestured with his hand, smiled at the host and continued working.

It’s different from last time. Last time, the Hanako family falsely accused them of being profiteers and wanted to blackmail them, so they got angry.

This kind of situation happens too often in normal business. As long as the profit is big enough, they will even pretend not to see it.

The guest's face turned red as he was exposed in front of others.

"I forgot about that. I put the stones that were used to press down the waterproof cloth in when I was drying the corn. Let me clean it up." He said awkwardly and started to take out the remaining stones in the bag.

"It's okay, everyone forgets sometimes. Grandpa is smoking." Qin Dahe handed over a Double Happiness cigarette with a smile.

After grandpa took out all the stones, his eyelids twitched. He had a really big appetite. He put at least more than twenty stones in the last batch of bags.

I weigh over 100 or 200 kilograms, damn.

If the father and son become more and more casual in their address, they might really be tricked.

Once the items are on the ship, it is impossible to get the money back.

"Dad, take a break. I can't work anymore." He wiped the sweat off his face. He had just weighed more than 8,000 kilograms, and there were about three tons of goods left.

"Okay, Lao Deng, you smoke too." The father and son smoked cigarettes as if they were free, and would pass one to the other whenever they had the chance.

He didn't even say anything about the stone incident. The price of corn is much lower now, and receiving so many goods is a pleasant surprise. How could he be angry?

Just sit on the corn bag, light a cigarette and take a deep breath, it feels great.

"Grandpa, how much corn did your family grow?"

"Five or six acres. The cotton was harvested early last year, so we continued with another crop. Unfortunately, the yield per acre is too low, and there are only so many in stock at home." Grandpa smiled. He was discovered putting stones there and spoke in a lower voice.

"Don't we all grow rapeseed?"

"The yield of seeds has not been high in the past two years, so we changed the crops. At least we can harvest more corn."

"Oh, this time we can earn several thousand dollars." The old man pointed at the mountain of corn with a smile.

The son contributed 3000 yuan for the corn harvest this time. The old couple couldn't afford so much. Their wallets haven't recovered since they got married during the Chinese New Year.

"It would have been better if it had been sold last year. The price was higher last year." The owner sighed.

The price difference is only a few cents. More than 10,000 kilograms is only five or six hundred yuan. Who can afford this?

But I have to sell it because I have to plant cotton soon and I still owe tuition for the children at home.

The unit price of rapeseed is high, more than two yuan per catty, but the yield per mu is too low. The seeds here can only produce less than 300 catties per mu of land. Excluding fertilizers and seeds, not much money can be made.

The lazy farmers only plant two or three acres of land, and then take the rapeseed to the oil press when they harvest it. After all, harvesting rapeseed is really tiring.

After resting for a while, the father and son continued to work, and the owner of the house also came over to help keep the accounts.

After taking a total of count, I found that it was more than 13,700 kilograms, which was really a lot.

"Grandpa, is the weight correct?" Qin Dahe handed over his own notebook.

The old man across the street was also doing the math, so I lent him my calculator.

He pressed the button twice before nodding. With so much corn, he had to be careful. If he missed one bag, he would lose dozens of dollars.

"The total is 6427, 6430 will be charged to you. Is the price okay?" The old man continued to smoke.

"Take it, haha." Grandpa felt much better when he saw the price.

The livelihood for the year is taken care of. After planting a crop of cotton this year, we will be able to recover next year.

The old man counted out the money, the other party counted it again, and then wrote a receipt.

"Help me move 10,000 kilograms onto the boat first, and you take the rest to the feed factory." The father and son whispered beside the cargo.

"It's still early. Why don't I make a trip now and deliver it again in the afternoon?"

"No, the price of corn is low right now, so don't touch these 10,000 pounds."

"Ah."

The old man meant to stock up for a while and see if the price goes up, so he can make more money.

After the father and son finished discussing, they started to move the goods. The river was still more than 70 meters away, so they went to the owner's house to borrow a cart to transport five tons of goods.

After loading 10,000 kilograms of cargo onto the boat and filling up the tricycle, it was already past eleven o'clock.

This morning, Qin's father came to start collecting at around six o'clock, and Qin Dahe came to help at half past eight, and it still took more than three hours.

There is no other way, we have to check them one by one, otherwise it would be much faster.

Most of these farmers are honest, but occasionally there are two dishonest ones and they have to check them all.

"Go back and eat first, I'll send you over after dinner."

"Okay, I'll go first." He took the car keys, cranked the car, and then set off.

He had to be careful when loading two tons of cargo on a three-wheeled vehicle, and he tried to maintain a constant speed when going uphill.

Once the speed is too fast, the car will tilt over. If it is too slow, it will not work either. If you cannot rush up, the car will inevitably slide. When the car slides uphill, no matter how hard you try to brake, the result will be tilting over.

When we arrived at the county road near his house, we didn't dare to get off the car, so we went down to eat.

"Brother, do you need to make another trip this afternoon?"

In the room, Yanyan was eating.

She gets hungry very easily during this pregnancy. She is greedy to begin with, and now she eats even more. In order to prevent the pregnant woman from going hungry, Qin's mother can only let her eat the special meal first.

"Well, Dad will be back soon. I'm exhausted today." Qin Dahe wiped the sweat off his face. "Mom, last time you harvested over 10,000 kilograms of bran, I didn't see you guys looking this tired."

"Bran costs a few cents per pound. Those people are too lazy to cheat, and we are too lazy to look for it." Qin's mother said with a smile, and then went to the kitchen to serve the dishes.

"Oh, I see." No wonder the bran was collected so quickly. All they had to do was weigh it and tally the bill.

He went to the backyard to wash his hands. The old man came home about ten minutes later than him, and the father and son began to eat voraciously.

Receiving goods is really tiring, with weighing and carrying, all of which are heavy physical work.

After dinner, he rowed the tricycle again and went to the feed factory near the county town.

"Manager, corn is 52 cents, right?" When he arrived at the factory, he started distributing cigarettes as usual.

"Well, it's not your dad who's delivering it this time." The manager took the cigarette with a smile.

He was particularly impressed by the father and son in this family. Nowadays, there are really no people delivering food in large tricycles. Most people use small trucks.

"I'm busy in the fields too."

After taking off his coat, he started to move the goods. The manager thought about it and actually asked the workers in the factory to help unload the goods and weigh them.

It will be done soon. The bill will be settled soon.

3750 kilograms of corn, at 1950 cents per kilogram, which is yuan, and the gross profit is more than yuan.

It’s hard to make money from driving a sports car now. After deducting the oil, you can only make about 20 yuan a day. You can earn a lot more by delivering goods.

"Qin kid, come here and have a cigarette." The manager smiled and pulled the man aside.

The money had already been paid at this time. Here, payment is made on the spot when receiving the goods. Qin Dahe counted it twice.

"Thank you manager."

"Haha, we're all acquaintances, no need to be polite, just call me Grandpa."

The two chatted for a while, all about family matters. Qin Dahe could sense that the manager was busy and couldn't help but feel curious, since he was just a deliveryman.

(End of this chapter)