The Little Life of a Big Landlord

Chapter 76 Buying a Boat

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So, Wei Qingqing took Xiaobao upstairs, leaving Xiaobao to watch TV in the room. She then grabbed an electronic scale and a plastic basin from the kitchen and rushed downstairs. The couple then sold fish downstairs. This electronic scale was left behind by Mr. Zhang.

However, even by the sea, you can't always find fresh seafood. Some vendors sell inferior goods as superior ones, which has become an unspoken rule. Now, suddenly someone is bringing a truckload of seafood that has just been caught from the sea and selling it in the community at 80% of the market price. Not only do the residents of Wanghai Garden come to buy a couple of pounds, but residents from other communities also rush over to buy a couple of pounds to try.

By noon, only some shellfish and crabs remained in the entire truck.

"Wow, I didn't know fishing could be so profitable?" Wei Qingqing held a wad of cash in her hand, which contained at least seventy or eighty thousand yuan.

"In this world, if you can calm your mind, what can't you do to make money?"

"What about stock trading?"

"I'm referring to real industry..."

"How about we buy a fishing boat? Then when we travel here again, we can just go out to sea and fish. I've heard that a small fishing boat costs tens of thousands of yuan, a medium-sized one costs hundreds of thousands, and a large one is expensive, but we can afford it," Wei Qingqing said.

"We're not living here permanently, why would we buy that? That thing needs regular maintenance, otherwise it'll rot," Yang Ming said.

"What you said makes sense." Wei Qingqing nodded, then leaned close to Yang Ming's ear, "Does your car dealership sell boats? It's just a few gold coins..."

"Huh?" Yang Ming was startled by Wei Qingqing's reminder, but then he realized that this approach was feasible. So he immediately contacted Ya Ya. Sure enough, the trading system did sell boats, including fishing boats and cargo ships, but no warships. Moreover, these boats were generally not expensive. A large fishing boat that was 100 meters long only sold for 1000 gold coins, and some small fishing boats that were three or four meters long were only thirty or forty gold coins.

"How about it, do you have any for sale?" Wei Qingqing whispered.

"There really is one! A 100-meter-long fishing boat for only 1000 yuan, isn't that a great deal? And ten jin of soybeans too..." Yang Ming was a little stunned. The farm tools in this sales system were really too cheap.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's buy it..." Wei Qingqing's eyes lit up as she kept urging, "Today is the 5th, let's go fishing in the sea for half a day this afternoon, and then go out to play tomorrow and the day after... We spent over 600,000 yuan on this trip, and I'm starting to feel the pinch. We have to make up for it..."

"...Okay..." Yang Ming thought for a moment and decided that buying a boat wouldn't be a problem, so he instructed Ya Ya to buy a 100-meter-long fishing boat from the sales system.

"Bought it?" Wei Qingqing asked, her eyes widening as she sensed the return of life to Yang Ming's eyes.

"Yes!" Yang Ming nodded with a smile.

"Hehe." Wei Qingqing laughed excitedly.

So the young couple cleaned up the remaining shellfish and crabs in the car and filled a big basin... They'll be having boiled crabs for lunch today.

After lunch, Wei Qingqing and Xiao Bao'er watched TV in the living room, while Yang Ming went out to find a quiet place to retrieve the boat.

To be honest, Nandaihe, especially Tianma Fishing Ground and the entertainment center, is a bit lively. Other places are far behind. Also, the beach here is sloping, making it easy to lose your way and not be able to tell which way is which. Anyway, Yang Ming was facing the sea, walked to the coastal road, and turned to the right. This direction is towards the small fishing port.

After passing the small fishing port, Yang Ming walked for about two miles and felt that he was almost there. If he continued to walk in that direction, he would see signs of human habitation. After passing Yanghekou, he would be close to the golden coast of Changli. (Actually, I have only ever been to that small fishing port. I have never been further in that direction. So please don’t take any errors seriously.)

This area is mostly farmland, and by now the crops have long been harvested. There seems to be nowhere for anyone to hide. Besides, anyone who would hide here for no reason would be crazy.

One hundred meters may not seem like a long distance; Liu Xiang can run it in less than ten seconds. However, if we were to compare one hundred meters to the size of a ship, that ship would be enormous.

When a fishing boat a hundred meters long appeared before Yang Ming, he was completely stunned. The boat was enormous, but it seemed to be stranded.

It was a silver-white ship with smooth lines. Yang Ming estimated that the ship was at least twenty meters high and twenty-five meters wide. These figures made Yang Ming suddenly realize that he probably couldn't get on. Should he climb up? Looking at those smooth lines and that twenty-meter height... Yang Ming didn't think he had that ability at all.

"Huh?" Yang Ming was still stunned by the huge fishing boat, and only now did he realize that a cell phone had suddenly appeared in his hand. Of course, it was not a cell phone, but something similar to a cell phone. This thing was about the size of a palm, with a button on each side, one red and one green, which was the power switch for this little gadget. The front was a touch screen.

Yang Ming pressed the green button, and a white light flashed on the touch screen. A line of text appeared on the screen: "Welcome to the Lao Bu Jing brand fishing boat. Your encouragement is the driving force of our research." Below this line of text, there were two options: "Boat Operation" and "Fishing Operation".

Yang Ming clicked on the 'Ship Control' option, and a long row of options immediately appeared on the screen. He selected the 'User Manual' option and opened it to understand the ship's performance.

The vessel is 100 meters long, 25 meters wide, weighs 10 tons, has a displacement of 100 million tons, a deadweight tonnage of 15 tons, and a top speed of 400 knots when empty. It uses clean, pollution-free hydroelectric power and can automatically absorb water molecules from the seawater while sailing. It carries a built-in microwave detection system that can detect fish and also function as a navigation system with theoretically unlimited detection range. It features automatic driving, registration, avoidance, and shielding capabilities, and is equipped with various automatic and non-automatic nets and fishing gear…

There are many more functions, but Yang Ming couldn't bear to look at them. He only looked at the most basic usage methods and emergency measures in case of danger, and then clicked on the "Boarding" option and then the "Lowering the gangway" option.

Suddenly, a large gangway was lowered from the hull and placed right next to Yang Ming's feet. Yang Ming stepped onto the fishing boat.

The ship's deck was flat and smooth, but when people stepped on it, there was a kind of suction that prevented them from slipping.

The ship has two compartments: a fish storage room and a cockpit.

This fish storage room is enormous, taking up almost 80% of the entire fishing boat's space. It's used to store the fish that have been caught and is equipped with a quick-freezing device. Once the fish are stored inside, they will freeze immediately. However, once the frozen fish are thawed in warm water, they will still be lively and jumping around. The fish storage room also comes with a small cart. If the fish are caught manually, they can be hauled onto the deck and then transported to the fish storage room using the cart.

The cockpit is located at the very top of the fishing boat, extending from the waist to the stern. The interior space is not small either, with a height of three meters and an area of ​​about 1000 square meters. On the four walls of the cabin are huge LCD screens that, when turned on, can display the situation around the boat, giving people the feeling of... sitting in a basin of water.

In the middle of the cockpit are two rows of wide, horizontal seats, each row can seat ten people. The backs of these seats can be folded down, so they can be used as chairs or beds. The two rows of seats can be put together to form a large bed.

Next to the seats, there is a water outlet, which is the fishing boat's own water dispenser. The water flowing from this dispenser is pure water extracted from seawater and is safe to drink.

In front of the first row of seats was a small table resembling a control panel, with a groove on it that perfectly matched the size of the "cell phone" in Yang Ming's hand.

There was a monitor on the table, but the large screen was still black.

"What a hassle. If only Lao Yang were here..." Stepping into the spacious cockpit, Yang Ming suddenly missed Lao Yang. Lao Yang would definitely be able to operate this ship with ease. Thinking this, he put the 'phone' in his hand into the groove. The screen immediately showed the same picture as the original 'phone'. There was also a control lever similar to a steering wheel sticking out from the table. The control lever also had two buttons, one red and one green. These were the buttons for stopping and starting the ship.

As Yang Ming inserted his phone into the groove, images appeared on the screens on the four walls, showing half of the sea surface and half of the underwater scene.

"Start the boat..." Yang Ming pressed the green button on the control stick, and the screen immediately displayed various data bars: start the boat, stop the boat, adjust the direction, adjust the speed, etc. Yang Ming could operate these functions simply by using the control stick. As soon as Yang Ming gripped the control stick and gave it a slight pull, the speed data on the screen immediately rose to its maximum...

The entire ship immediately seemed to float away like a feather, shooting off with a whoosh and leaving trails of silvery-white waves on the sea.

"My god, it's too fast, speed, five knots..." Although the cabin was very stable, Yang Ming was still startled when he saw the scene rushing out on the display screen, and immediately slowed down the boat.

The boat finally slowed down, and Yang Ming's heart settled back into his stomach: "This won't work, it's too dangerous. Let's try it first, and if it doesn't work, we'll use autopilot..."

After operating it for a while, Yang Ming finally became proficient at it. In fact, this ship is highly technologically advanced and very easy to drive, just like driving a car. If there are reefs ahead, it will automatically sound an alarm and indicate the avoidance route.

So Yang Ming steered the boat towards the Nandaihe Pier, which is located below the cable car leading to the small island and is a popular spot for sea fishing.

Beautiful fishing boats were moored beside the pier, attracting the attention of tourists at Tianma Beach. Those traveling by cable car, either heading to or returning to the islands, also looked down in surprise.

Yang Ming had already called Wei Qingqing to tell her to bring Xiao Bao'er to the pier to meet him.

When Wei Qingqing and Xiao Bao'er arrived, Yang Ming immediately took control of the gangway and guided them aboard.

"Wow...so beautiful..."

Grandma Liu visits the Grand View Garden... Grandma Wei, dragging her somewhat timid little Bao'er, crawled into the cabin. When she saw the screens on the four walls, she couldn't help but open her mouth in surprise.

"Come sit over here..." Yang Ming excitedly waved to the mother and son.

"Daddy, whose boat is this? It's so beautiful..." When Xiao Bao saw Yang Ming, his timid expression vanished, and he excitedly ran towards Yang Ming, burying his head in his arms.

"This is ours..." Yang Ming said, letting her sit on his lap. "We're going out to sea to fish right away..."

"Hmph, we're on this boat... it doesn't feel like anything anymore..." Wei Qingqing sat down next to Yang Ming. "It feels like we're on a yacht, not as fun as sitting on a small, beat-up boat casting nets to catch fish..."

"How about we return the boat and get a smaller one?" Yang Ming winked at Wei Qingqing.

"No need to change it, let's just buy another one, I'm rich... This one can be used as a yacht..." Wei Qingqing said, putting on an air of wealth and power.

"I never realized you were such a spendthrift..." Yang Ming muttered to himself, then steered the fishing boat away from the harbor.

The sea and sky were a deep blue, and a huge, silvery-white fishing boat rested quietly on the surface of the sea. Although the boat was very light, it was very stable.

A large apple with a few bites missing floated on the sea; it was the same one Xiao Bao'er had dropped into the sea that morning. Wei Qingqing, holding a large net, was happily carrying out her fishing operations. Each cast brought in over 300 pounds of seafood. Normally, Wei Qingqing wouldn't be able to pull such heavy fish, but the fishing boat did have a net puller. This puller was similar to a winch; the rope was wound around an axle, and when the switch was pressed, the axle rotated, pulling the net up.

Little Bao followed her godmother barefoot, watching with great excitement as her godmother displayed her prowess. After her godmother brought the fish up, she pushed the little cart to the fish storage room. The cart's wheels were extremely smooth, making it easy to push; even a small child could push it all over the deck.

"Sigh! I never expected Ms. Wei Qingqing to be so diligent. How many times has she cast her net? Is she going to wipe out all the fish in the sea?" Yang Ming, holding a fishing rod, sat cross-legged at the stern of the boat, fishing. He listened to Wei Qingqing and Xiao Bao'er's cheers and shook his head slightly.

Yang Ming knew in his heart that the fish Wei Qingqing caught were just a drop in the ocean compared to the vast number of marine creatures, but watching her keep catching fish net after net, he couldn't help but feel a little worried.

As the sun set and the sky gradually darkened, the shimmering waves, bathed in the glow of the setting sun, turned a deep red, like koi carp leaping on the sea's surface.

"Haha, I cast over a hundred nets, and it's almost 40,000 catties! Honey, we've made a fortune..." Wei Qingqing ran happily to the stern of the boat, hugged Yang Ming's arm, and laughed foolishly.

"Aren't you going to fish anymore? We should go back..." Yang Ming's legs had gone numb from sitting for so long. Because he was distracted, he hadn't caught a single fish all afternoon. Wei Qingqing's frantic fishing was really frightening and made him feel a little uneasy. On the other hand, Xiao Bao'er kept shouting and cheering for his godmother.

"Honey, this is amazing... We sold 75,000 yuan worth of seafood out of our 2,000 jin. That's 1.5 million yuan! I made a profit! Aren't I awesome, honey?" Wei Qingqing was so excited that she was almost incoherent.

"Ahem, Ms. Wei, don't get too excited yet. When are you going to sell 40,000 catties of seafood?" Yang Ming solemnly poured cold water on Wei Qingqing's enthusiasm.

"..." Wei Qingqing had never really thought about this question, and was speechless for a moment.

Little Bao'er came running over, pushing his stroller, his brow beaded with sweat, and said in a cheerful voice, "Mommy, mission accomplished! Give me a reward..."

"Little Bao did a good job, you can help Mommy now... Mommy will reward you with a big peach..." Wei Qingqing pinched the little guy's nose.

"Oh..." the little guy cheered.

The prize isn't the most important thing; children crave recognition from adults.

On the way back, Yang Ming was a little worried. Where should he moor such a big ship? He had really oversimplified things at first! Reluctantly, he decided to head back to the pier first…

By the time they returned to the pier, it was completely dark. Yang Ming took the "phone" out of the slot, and then placed a gangway on the pier. The three of them went onto the pier. Wei Qingqing pulled Xiao Bao'er ahead, while Yang Ming pressed a few buttons on the "phone." Suddenly, the fishing boat started and turned around, heading into the deep sea.

Since there's nowhere to dock, we'll just drift in the sea. Anyway, this boat has autopilot, registration, avoidance, and shielding functions. Although it's not as agile as a human driver, it can still dock in the deep sea. Other fishing boats won't be able to move it even if they encounter it. This thing can't be started without a 'cell phone,' which is equivalent to the boat key.

Back home, Xiao Bao'er was exhausted after playing all afternoon. They heated up the leftover crabs from lunch, and after the little guy ate two, he went to his room to sleep. Yang Ming and Wei Qingqing, however, sat on the large sofa in the living room discussing something. Wei Qingqing looked worried: "Honey, what should we do? All my hard work this afternoon..."

How can we bring back 40,000 catties of seafood? Seafood is a completely different matter from freshwater fish and shrimp. Freshwater fish that people usually eat costs at most ten or so yuan per catty, while seafood... Sea crabs alone can sell for thirty or forty yuan per catty. If they are of good quality, they can easily cost one or two hundred yuan per catty. If you are in a hurry to eat a meal of boiled crabs, it will cost at least a thousand yuan. And crabs are not even the most expensive seafood.

Selling 40,000 catties of various seafood for 1.5 million yuan might be a bit of a stretch, but selling it for 1 million yuan would be no problem at all. That's no small sum of money.

"There's a freezing device in the fish storage room, so the fish won't spoil. We can sell them slowly..." Yang Ming said.

"Well...when will we have time?" Wei Qingqing pouted. "We're going to play tomorrow and the day after, and we're leaving the afternoon after tomorrow...Oh dear, I'm so worried. I should have known better than to catch so many fish..."

"Don't worry, we have good stuff, why would we have trouble selling it? I'll call Aunt Zhang right now and ask if she wants any seafood. Our seafood will never thaw unless it's soaked in warm water, and it will still be fresh when it gets to the inland." Yang Ming said, taking out his phone to call Zhang Yingning.

After a phone call, Zhang Yingning readily agreed to the acquisition. However, the specific price would be discussed after the hotel's purchasing department arrived. Moreover, Zhang Yingning implied in his words that Yingning Hotel intended to enter the Qinhuangdao hotel industry.

"All done..." Yang Ming turned off his phone and tossed it onto the sofa. "Aunt Zhang has some business in Qinhuangdao, but it's not a big business. She's just doing market research. In a little while, people from the purchasing department will come here to inspect the goods. You stay home with Bao'er, and I'll go get all the seafood."

Hearing Yang Ming say this, Wei Qingqing breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Go quickly and come back quickly..."

Forty thousand catties of seafood, while not a small amount, is definitely not a large amount either. It could all be transported here using Transformers-branded transport trucks.

Yang Ming went downstairs and drove to the beach.

"Hmph, I can make money too..." Wei Qingqing watched Yang Ming drive away from the window and couldn't help but smile smugly. She sat back on the sofa, picked up the Qinhuangdao tourist map she had bought yesterday from the coffee table, and said, "Let's see what's fun to do. I'll take a good look around tomorrow, take some photos, and... I should wear Hanfu when I take the photos..."

Sure enough, 40,000 catties of seafood sold for 1 million yuan. Initially, the purchasing agent was hesitant to buy so much seafood, which was frozen solid. Seafood is only valuable when it's lively and jumping around! However, when Yang Ming soaked a large white fish in warm water, it recovered and actually came back to life. Judging from its wagging tail, it was just like it had been caught. The purchasing agent, quite surprised, took several other types of fish and put them in warm water to test, and they all came back to life. Only then was he relieved... After passing the inspection, the hotel's trucks hauled away all 40,000 catties of seafood overnight.

The next day, the morning mist had not yet dissipated, and the sea breeze, carrying a slightly salty smell, blew in, invigorating the spirit.

The three of them got up very early, carrying large backpacks, and came out of the building. The backpacks contained Hanfu (traditional Han clothing), food, and drinks. The Hanfu was for taking photos, and the food and drinks... well, they were going to play all day, and they were hungry. They couldn't very well go home for dinner, could they? ...Speaking of which, the food sold at tourist attractions is always expensive and terrible...

Since they had their own car, they didn't need to squeeze onto the bus. So, the three of them drove slowly out of the residential area.

"Today we'll go to Pigeon Nest Park, Lianfeng Mountain, and Tiger Stone. Tomorrow we'll go to Yansai Lake, Jiaoshan Great Wall, Jiangnv Temple, Wildlife Park, Shanhaiguan, and Laolongtou... If we have time, we can also visit Zushan..." Wei Qingqing said, holding a tourist route map.

"Let's forget about Zushan; there was an accident there a few years ago," Yang Ming interjected as he drove.

"Okay! Safety first, then we won't go..." Wei Qingqing nodded seriously.

P.S.: Please recommend and add to your favorites...

(End of this chapter)