Back to 1984: Earning Money, Raising Kids, and Keeping the Household Busy

Chapter 60 Spending money like water

Early in the morning, Guoxing Hotel was already open for business.

Breakfast is quite simple, like fast food, with all the dishes prepared in a standardized way.

With no one ordering food, Zheng Guoxing could finally settle down the accounts.

I had only calculated half of the account when I caught a glimpse of Chen Wenjun out of the corner of my eye.

Zheng Guoxing looked surprised. "Brother! You don't need to work so hard so early in the morning! Did you catch fish all night?"

Chen Wenjun beckoned to him, "Come over and take a look, see if you're satisfied. If not, I'll sell it at the vegetable market!"

"What's all this secrecy about?" Zheng Guoxing said as he walked out.

When Zheng Guoxing saw the large fish weighing over ten kilograms on the cart, he jumped up and shouted excitedly, "It's so big!"

The diners in the restaurant all looked over curiously, and when they saw the large fish weighing over ten kilograms, they instantly became excited, scrambling to get a closer look.

Some people even asked about the price.

Zheng Guoxing was startled and quickly said, "This fish has already been ordered, I'm sorry!"

He kept apologizing and coaxing the customers back, afraid that someone would come over and ask about the price again. He immediately wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and had someone carry the big fish to the kitchen.

"What are the others?"

Chen Wenjun opened them all. "These are all river eels. I specially picked the big ones to send to you. I still have quite a few at home. If you want them, I'll send them to you here. If you don't want them, I'll have to ask other restaurants. I caught too many this time, so I have to sell them quickly."

There are still several buckets of river shrimp at home, so I can't bring them all at once.

"Hiss!" Zheng Guoxing gasped. "You've raided the entire eel colony! Send me another cartload of eels! And all the river shrimp too! Let's weigh them first, and settle the bill together when the next batch arrives, how about that?"

"no problem!"

Chen Wenjun worked very efficiently. After weighing all the eels, they weighed fifty-six jin (24.5 catties). The big fish weighed sixteen jin (3.6 catties) net. Zheng Guoxing took the receipt, wrote down the weight, and gave the receipt to Chen Wenjun.

Chen Wenjun immediately returned to Nanxi, first loading two large buckets of river shrimp and two large buckets of fish, and only on the third trip did he deliver the river eels.

These things were piled up in the kitchen of Guoxing Restaurant, and even the waiters were extremely envious.

"Boss, who says life is hard for the Tanka people! I think Chen Wenjun makes money way too easily! He's saved up more than ten years' worth of my salary in just a few months!"

Zheng Guoxing looked away and shook his head. "That's because you didn't see the hardships he endured behind the scenes. Look at his legs, they're almost rotten from being soaked. And he's working so hard just to buy land and build a house, which isn't even in sight yet!"
"You have fields and land, why envy others? Besides, he's the only skilled fisherman I've ever seen among the Tanka people. Other Tanka people would starve to death just by fishing!"

The waiter chuckled and touched his nose, realizing it was true, and immediately stopped being envious.

Zheng Guoxing muttered a couple of things before going to the cashier, registering the last batch of eels, and then giving Chen Wenjun a cigarette.

"Let me see that big fish weighs sixteen pounds. This thing can definitely make a splash. I can even promote it a bit. How about forty yuan?"

Chen Wenjun nodded, "Okay!"

"Great!" Zheng Guoxing secretly breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "There are a total of 102 jin of river eels, all quite fat. At the supply and marketing cooperative's price, it's 2.6 yuan per jin, totaling 265.2 yuan; 83 jin of river shrimp, that's 150 yuan; and the other fish, that's 85 yuan."

That adds up to five hundred yuan and forty yuan and two mao. Do you agree?

Chen Wenjun had been watching Zheng Guoxing do the accounting, so he naturally had no doubts. "That's how it is."

After settling the bill, Chen Wenjun said to Zheng Guoxing, "Please tell Mr. Zheng that I need ten tons of cement and a batch of red bricks, and I need them tomorrow."

“No problem! I’ll tell him when he comes over that I’ll deliver it to Nanxi this afternoon. You’ll have to figure out how to get it to the deserted island yourself.” After the two agreed, Chen Wenjun took the large sum of money and rushed home.

When he got home, Lin Qin also returned from the market.

He hurriedly led Lin Qin to the back cabin, asking, "How are sales today?"

Lin Qin didn't say anything, but directly opened the money bag. "Yesterday there weren't many people setting up stalls at the market, but today it's packed with people! There are many fish sellers, but also many buyers. All the fish I brought are sold out. Here's the money. And you? How much did Boss Zheng take?"

Chen Wenjun took out the five hundred yuan and forty yuan and two mao. "That big fish sold for forty yuan, the river eel was about one hundred jin, the river shrimp was over eighty jin, and there were other miscellaneous fish. I bought them all. The total is five hundred and forty yuan."

I asked Boss Zheng to pass on the message that the cement and bricks will be delivered this afternoon, and we can start work tomorrow.

Lin Qin was taken aback for a moment, then quickly said, "In that case, we'll have to go to Shanglin Village and have Uncle Qingxiang find a skilled worker. We can't handle the rest of the work!"

Chen Wenjun nodded; that was his plan too.

After Lin Qin finished calculating the accounts, the two of them had earned a total of 607.36 yuan in half a day.

Although this is a lot of money, it has to be spent immediately once the cement and bricks arrive in the afternoon.

Lin Qin said self-deprecatingly, "Wouldn't you say we're spending money like water these days?"

Over six hundred! And it's not even warm yet!

Chen Wenjun laughed heartily, "It's alright, there's bound to be rain in the middle of summer! Next time there's a big flood, we'll go set up the netting again, and we'll definitely make another fortune."

Lin Qin shook her head regretfully, "When will that be? I guess I'll have to start helping with cooking in about ten days!"

"Cooking will only take half a day, it won't affect anything!" Chen Wenjun made sure Lin Qin understood the situation perfectly.

The couple put the money away and went out to eat.

The afternoon sun was particularly strong.

It's as if the heavy rain from yesterday and the day before never happened.

With nothing else to do, Lin Qin decided to go and collect another batch of wild duck eggs.

She really made the right choice this time; the pile of rocks was full of wild duck eggs, and she managed to fill a bucket and a half.

While she was pleasantly surprised, she couldn't help but worry. Back on the fishing boat, she muttered to Lin Yi, "I wonder if these eggs have been ruined by the rain?"

"Let's crack two eggs and see! Perfect for frying eggs for the kids!" Lin Yi said happily.

Lin Qin was somewhat surprised, "Dad! When did you become so generous?"

Lin Yi's expression changed with displeasure. "What nonsense are you talking about? When have I ever been stingy? If I wasn't worried about you struggling to make ends meet, would I need to be so frugal?"

Liu Yaya whispered, "Mom, Grandpa is being so generous because construction is starting tomorrow!"

Lin Yi, annoyed that the little girl had seen through him, glared at her and said, "Are you going to eat or not? If not, I'll eat it myself!"

"Yes, yes, yes! Grandpa is the best! I love Grandpa the most!" Liu Yaya's little mouth immediately became as sweet as if it had been coated with honey.

Lin Yi had no choice but to turn around and pick up two duck eggs, then crack them into the bowl.

Seeing that the duck eggs were good, he hesitated for a moment and then knocked down two more, so that Lin Qin and Chen Wenjun could also have some.

(End of this chapter)