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

Chapter 92 Making another fortune before the New Year

Chen Wenjun chuckled vaguely, "We'll have to go back and settle the accounts to find out. It was just a coincidence that I managed to get my hands on a tin boat this time. I was thinking of seeing how far it could go, and it ended up in Nangang."

Zheng Guoxing suddenly realized.

The Tanka people here all live in five-sailed boats; I've never seen anyone use a tin boat. Chen Wenjun is quite capable.

After settling the bill, Chen Wenjun received a pile of money and had another idea. He whispered to Zheng Guoxing, "I plan to make another trip on the morning of New Year's Eve, but I guess the seafood will be more expensive that day. I can bring it for you if you want."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Zheng Guoxing nodded frantically, his excitement making it seem as if he was about to rush up and hug Chen Wenjun tightly at any moment.

After discussing it, Chen Wenjun took the money and Lin Qin pushed the cart back to the vicinity of Xiatian Village.

Lin Yi remained on the tin boat.

Upon seeing the two return, his eyes lit up, and he hurriedly went to help.

The three returned to the gap.

As soon as the door opened, Lin Qin immediately shouted at the top of her lungs, "Ping An, Ya Ya!"

After a while, the two children ran out of the yard and rushed towards them.

Lin Qin breathed a sigh of relief and patted the two children's heads, "What have you been playing with while the adults are not home?"

Ping An excitedly clenched his fist and bounced strangely, saying, "Ya Ya and I drew pictures, played with turtles, and picked grass and flowers to play house."

Ya Ya dragged Lin Qin to see their work.

In one corner of the yard, there were a few bricks and broken tiles, some sand piled up, and a lot of weeds neatly arranged.

Lin Qin immediately laughed, "Not bad, not bad, as long as you don't play with fire or do anything dangerous, you can play by yourselves!"

As they were talking, the two children went back to playing house, while the three adults went to the second-floor hall.

Chen Wenjun poured out all the money he had earned that day. Lin Yi was excited to see so much money and came over to help count it.

The three of them counted for about twenty minutes.

Lin Qin told them the final amount: "It totaled 538.92 yuan. We only brought 200 yuan with us this time. After deducting the cost of diesel, we made about 300 yuan."

Lin Yi gasped, "It's so profitable! We won't need to fish anymore; we can just profit from the price difference of seafood."

Lin Qin nodded with a smile, "This business can be done long-term. At least for now, no one should be competing with us for business. But who knows what will happen in the future?"

Lin Yi was quite optimistic. "Then let's hurry up and make as much money as we can. Let's save up our savings first, and we can worry about the future later."

Chen Wenjun was surprised by Lin Yi's open-mindedness. "Dad! You're really amazing. I thought you would worry about the future!"

Lin Yi laughed heartily, "We have so much land on this island. If we can't do business here, we can still farm. What's there to be afraid of?"

Lin Qin found it amusing; it seemed that this land was what gave Lin Yi his confidence.

Having tasted the sweetness, the couple took a shower and went back to their room to sleep soundly until evening. Chen Wenjun didn't go to set the trap until then.

The next morning, after putting away the traps, I went to set up my stall.

As soon as I arrived at the market, I was surrounded by a group of people.

"Do you have seafood today? Like those small yellow croakers from yesterday?"

"I want to buy some more razor clams to keep for the Chinese New Year."

"Squid is also good; it's so fragrant when stir-fried with scallions!"

"Boss, can you get some saltwater shrimp?"

Chen Wenjun was surrounded and explained until his throat was dry. Only after his repeated assurances did everyone leave satisfied.

On the afternoon of the 29th, the couple once again took food to Nangang.

Lin Yi also specially prepared several cooked sweet potatoes for them.

When they arrived at Nangang, it was just evening. At this time, fishing boats were docking, and the couple went to check on them. They discovered that there were also fishing boats that had just returned to port. They were all scattered, but the catch was good and the prices were cheap.

This is understandable. After all, seafood that arrives at the port in the early morning can be sold at the morning market, while seafood that arrives at the port in the evening can only be frozen or sent to various restaurants. If no one wants it, it can only be sent to the morning market the next day and won't fetch a good price.

If someone is willing to buy the goods at this time, the price is negotiable.

Lin Qin pulled Chen Wenjun aside and whispered, "I think we can order a batch of goods now and send them to Zheng Guoxing's place immediately. We can come back again at dawn and deliver them to Xiatian Vegetable Market when they arrive."

Tomorrow is Lunar New Year's Eve, so we can sell it for a higher price.

Chen Wenjun nodded repeatedly, "Let's do it that way. That day, Zheng Guoxing said that his small yellow croaker was quite popular, as were stir-fried squid and razor clams. These dishes sold very well. In addition, he also wanted to sell oyster omelets and asked if we could get him some more fresh oysters."

He actually wanted other seafood as well, but he could buy more of these.

With a goal in mind, the couple split up and took action.

After visiting several nearby ports, they finally managed to buy two large baskets of small yellow croaker, one large basket of squid, two large baskets of razor clams, one basket of clams, and half a basket of abalone. As they walked into the fishing village, they saw many families opening oyster shells.

The two men bought two large barrels of [something] in the village.

I spent all five hundred yuan I brought with me before setting off back.

It was almost nine o'clock when they arrived in the city.

Guoxing Hotel closes around 9:30 or 10:00 PM.

There weren't many people eating at the moment; most were just drinking. The waiters were cleaning up.

Seeing Chen Wenjun and Lin Qin pushing a large pile of things over, they quickly went to the kitchen to call Zheng Guoxing.

Upon seeing the people, Chen Wenjun immediately shouted, "Seafood, all of it has been delivered!"

Zheng Guoxing's eyes lit up, and he jumped out, grabbing at Chen Wenjun's cart.

Do you have small yellow croaker?

Lin Qin, who was standing nearby, immediately pointed to the two baskets of small yellow croakers, "They're all here, everything you want, plus fresh oysters."

Zheng Guoxing slapped his thigh hard. “Great! My restaurant is fully booked for tomorrow. Everyone said they wanted to eat seafood. With these oysters, we can make oyster omelets tomorrow. Perfect timing. You guys probably haven’t tried them yet! Stay and taste the dishes for me. I’ll make them right away.”

As he spoke, Zheng Guoxing quickly called the waiter over to help.

The oysters were weighed first, while Zheng Guoxing was busy making oyster omelets.

Chen Wenjun and the waiter weighed and recorded all the seafood, then sorted and put it into the freezer.

The first oyster omelet is now ready.

After tasting it carefully, Lin Qin said, "It would taste even better with some sweet chili sauce or garlic sauce, but it's fine without it, it's quite fragrant."

Chen Wenjun nodded, "The main reason is that the oysters are fresh enough."

Zheng Guoxing took a bite and wholeheartedly agreed.

The customers drinking outside soon smelled the aroma of the oyster omelet and ordered one as well.

Zheng Guoxing, who was originally planning to close his shop, has become busy again.

By the time he finished his work, Lin Qin and Chen Wenjun had almost finished eating.

Zheng Guoxing hurriedly took the receipt and paid Chen Wenjun.

Seeing the unit price above, Zheng Guoxing was somewhat surprised. "Has the price not increased?"

Chen Wenjun honestly said, "We went to the port to collect the seafood in the evening. At that time, the seafood is not much more expensive. If it were early morning, the supply would be insufficient and everyone would be fighting to buy it. There would be no way to bargain, so it would definitely be more expensive."

Zheng Guoxing looked relieved and paid the money very readily, even making up the difference.

(End of this chapter)