Beachcombing: The beach is full of amazing seafood, but my wife won't let me get out of bed!

The last basket of fish was unloaded from the boat and loaded into a refrigerated truck.

The crowd of onlookers not only did not disperse, but instead grew larger and larger, stretching from the unloading area all the way to the road outside the dock.

Lin Tao didn't dare to delay and immediately gave instructions to the driver.

"Stop dawdling, drive straight back to the recycling station. You guys, follow the truck, keep an eye on things ahead and behind, don't let anyone intercept us halfway."

Two refrigerated trucks, escorted by workers, slowly drove away from the dock.

Wu Sui stayed on the ship and, together with Wu Gang and Wang Dazhu, thoroughly cleaned the cabin and cold storage inside and out before locking the cabin door.

Chen Yang sat on the deck, watching the crowd at the dock gradually disperse, and let out a long breath.

"My goodness, this is terrifying!"

Wu Sui walked over and handed him a bottle of water.

"Today's incident is a lesson. If we catch something good again in the future, it's better to keep a low profile."

"If you really push these people too far, they're capable of anything."

Chen Yang nodded repeatedly, still feeling lingering fear, and downed half a bottle of water.

"Brother-in-law, let's try to come back in the middle of the night from now on. Otherwise, it's too scary to keep making such a fuss every day."

The others nodded in agreement, all agreeing that this was a good idea.

Go out to sea at noon, and take advantage of the fish rising to the surface to feed at night; you might be able to catch even more.

After packing up the fishing boat, Wu Sui led a few people straight to Lin Tao's purchasing station.

As soon as I got to the gate, I saw that it was tightly closed.

The owners of several purchasing stations in the towns were all at the door, making phone calls one after another.

"Yes, yes, a whole boatload of large yellow croakers. Name your price, and I'll go and negotiate."

"The goods aren't mine, but I can get them. Don't worry, really. As long as the price is right, anything is negotiable."

Wu Sui frowned and walked into the courtyard through the back door.

Lin Tao was directing the workers to unload the goods when he saw Wu Sui come in and quickly went to greet him.

"Ah Sui, how's the situation outside?"

"It's all over." Wu Sui pointed outside the door. "Liu the Bald is also at the door, seemingly trying to contact someone."

Lin Tao rubbed his hands together; his forehead was covered in sweat, but his eyes shone with undisguised excitement.

"Contacting them is pointless; I've already found the person, they should be on their way by now."

Before he could finish speaking, a "beep beep" sound came from outside the door.

Someone knocked on the back door, and Lin Tao gave a wink to the worker next to him.

Outside the gate, three cars were lined up and parked at the back door of the recycling station.

The car door opened, and several well-dressed middle-aged men carrying briefcases stepped out.

The leader, with his slicked-back hair and a cigarette dangling from his mouth, glanced up and strode inside.

Lin Tao recognized who it was and quickly grabbed Wu Sui's arm, lowering his voice.

"Ah Sui, get ready to receive the guests."

Wu Sui almost rolled her eyes.

What does it mean to entertain guests?

That's as if he should be holding a silk scarf and standing at the door soliciting customers.

Fortunately, the bosses from the city skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the cold storage as soon as they entered.

When they received Lin Tao's call, they thought it was at most a few hundred kilograms, and that they were lucky to have encountered a small school of fish.

But when the cold storage door opened and they saw the neatly stacked baskets of large yellow croakers inside, the owners, who were used to big scenes, were all stunned.

"This...is it all?" The boss, with his slicked-back hair, forgot to smoke and quickly stepped forward.

He reached out and brushed aside the top layer of broken ice, then casually picked up a strip.

First, he opened the gills to check the color of the blood, then used his thumb to scrape along the back of the fish to the tail, and finally stared at the golden belly of the fish, taking a deep breath.

"Just pulled from the water, not a single scale is missing, a genuine wild large yellow croaker!"

Upon hearing this, the other bosses couldn't sit still any longer and crowded over to open the boxes and inspect the goods.

After confirming that they were all top-quality items, the atmosphere in the cold storage room instantly changed.

The group of people who were just calling each other brothers now looked at each other with wariness.

"Boss Lin, let's not keep things to ourselves."

The man with the slicked-back hair spoke first, pulling a calculator directly from his bag.

"380 yuan per jin (500g). I brought my truck today, so please load up 1000 jin (500g) for me!"

"Old Li, that's not fair. You want 1000 jin for 380 yuan?"

A slightly overweight shopkeeper next to him sneered and turned to look at Lin Tao.

"385, Boss Lin, pack me 1000 jin (500 catties)."

"390!" The third shopkeeper, wearing glasses, wasn't going to be outdone and immediately raised the price.

"However, I have one condition: for items weighing over two jin (1 kg), I want an extra 20%!"

Standing to the side, Chen Yang's head was buzzing, and he subconsciously tugged at Wu Gang's sleeve.

He originally thought these big bosses from the city would team up to drive down the price, but who would have thought that these people would start the bidding themselves in order to grab the goods.

Wu Gang frowned, leaned close to Wu Sui's ear, and whispered.

"Ah Sui, these people are raising prices so recklessly. If they mess up the market, it'll be hard for us to get goods in the future."

Wu Sui didn't say anything, she just looked at Lin Tao.

Lin Tao was surprisingly calm at this moment.

Having worked as a middleman for so many years, he knows exactly what he's doing.

He knew better than anyone how much this batch of goods was worth.

"Gentlemen, please stop for a moment." Lin Tao clapped his hands, interrupting the scramble.

"The goods are all here, they can't run away, but we can't sell them mixed together like this."

He pointed to the fish baskets on the ground: "We'll weigh the fish under one jin, those between one and two jin, and those over two jin separately, and price them according to their size."

"Want to take it all at a fixed price? No way."

The business owners exchanged glances, recognizing Lin Tao's shrewdness.

The slightly overweight boss gritted his teeth and stepped forward.

"Brother Lin, if you buy all the big fish weighing over two pounds, we can negotiate the price up."

"From now on, I'll prioritize buying your goods and I'll never try to lower the price."

Upon hearing this, Chen Yang's eyes lit up, and he wished he could nod in agreement on Lin Tao's behalf.

Wu Sui grabbed Chen Yang's shoulder and took a step forward.

"Brother Tao, let's do what we agreed on at sea."

"Divide the portions as agreed beforehand, and don't let anyone take more than their share, or it will damage the harmony."

The slightly overweight boss's face stiffened, and he sized Wu Sui up and down: "Brother, why wouldn't you make money?"

Wu Sui twitched the corner of his mouth: "I'm looking for a long-term solution."

"If today it's whoever offers the highest bid, and tomorrow someone else offers an even higher bid, then the rules become meaningless."

"It seems like I made a lot of money this time, but who will dare to do business with us in the future?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Tao naturally picked up the conversation.

"Yes, yes, bosses, let's not ruin our relationship."

"We'll divide it according to the proportions we agreed on over the phone today."

"No one should take more than their share, and there's no need for anyone to raise the price. Let's just go with the agreed-upon number. Is that alright with you all?"

Although the bosses were angry, they held back their anger when they saw the gleaming yellow croaker.

If you miss out on this rare find today, who knows when you'll get another chance?

For the next hour or so, only the sounds of counting and accounting filled the cold storage.

"Less than one jin, 320 jin."

"One to two jin, 1356 jin."

"Over two jin... 850 jin!"

After the final weighing, the total weight was set at 2526 jin (approximately 126 catties).

The average price, calculated based on different specifications, reaches 390 yuan per kilogram.

After the business owners paid and left with their refrigerated trucks, Lin Tao closed the door and slammed the ledger on the table.

"2526 jin (1253 catties), average price 390 yuan, totaling 985140 yuan, plus the filefish..."

Lin Tao looked up, his face full of smiles.

"Ah Sui, we've broken a million!"

The entire courtyard was deathly silent.

Chen Yang held the calculator, his fingers trembling like a leaf, repeatedly pressing the numbers, afraid that he might have missed a zero.

"Hundreds...millions?" Chen Yongqiang swallowed hard, his legs went weak, and he leaned against the door frame.

Wu Gang and Wang Dazhu stared wide-eyed, unable to utter a single word for a long time.

Lin Tao filled out the form and handed it to Wu Sui.

"Ah Sui, this time I'm just acting as a go-between. According to the rules, I'll take a 5% commission."

Wu Sui glanced at Lin Tao, feeling increasingly satisfied with this partner.

A person who can uphold the rules and not be greedy when faced with a huge sum of money is someone you can get along with.

"Okay, Brother Tao, same as always, 20,000 in cash first, the rest will be transferred."

After distributing the profits to Chen Yang and the others, Lin Tao kept Wu Sui behind to discuss the matter.

"Everything's ready in the compound. When would you like to hold the housewarming party?"