Rebirth 77: From Beachcombing to Becoming a Tycoon and Spoiling My Wife

Yang Bai nodded and said, "Yes, if the sardine order is placed, we estimate we'll make 30,000."

If you're just fishing, it would take a full five days.

A boatload of sardines can be caught in two days.

You don't even have to go through Widow's Sea; if the route is safe, you can catch sardines at night.

Thirty thousand yuan.

The entire village's income for the whole year is probably no more than that.

"Thirty thousand, after deducting miscellaneous expenses, there should be nearly fifteen thousand left. Add the savings account, and it'll be close to forty thousand. Yang Bai, you're amazing."

Zhang Ning felt as if she had been overwhelmed by happiness.

Forty thousand yuan—she had never seen so much money in her life.

It's estimated that very few people in the entire commune could have 40,000 yuan.

"Your husbands are good at making money, so you can focus on your own things."

Yang Bai had been adrift on the boat for two days and was already exhausted, both physically and mentally.

I quickly went to bed after taking a shower.

In the morning, Yang Bai ate a few bites of rice, grabbed two packs of cigarettes, and rode his tricycle straight to the brigade's courtyard.

Jiang Xinmin, the captain of the fleet, was thrown off the boat by himself, and a large number of people needed to be replaced. In addition, the second steel boat needed to be coordinated to catch sardines, and experienced people also needed to be found.

Everything was just beginning, and that was a time when people were in dire need of help.

Knock on the door of the brigade secretary.

Ma Houzheng was engrossed in his official duties when he saw Yang Bai approaching, and he stopped writing.

"Comrade Yang, please sit down. What brings you here today?"

Yang Bai sat in a chair and placed two packs of cigarettes on the table.

"Secretary Ma, Jiang Xinmin from the aquatic products company has been fired. I want to make some changes to the people in Dongsha Village, so I've come here to ask for their services."

Ma Hou's eyes widened in surprise. The fishing team in Dongsha Village was quite famous in the county.

Dongsha Village is also one of the top five villages in the county for fishery production.

Yang Bai actually managed to get rid of Jiang Xinmin, the leader of the fishing team in Dongsha Village.

He took a sip of tea and smiled.

"Yang Bai, your skills have really improved. This is beneficial to the village. I'll pass the word down immediately. How many people do you need?"

Yang Bai thought for a moment. There are currently 65 people in the village, minus those who repair nets and load and unload them.

There are only about forty fishermen who know how to fish.

Yang Bai planned to eliminate everyone on Jiang Xinmin's ship, including his long-time underlings.

"About ten to fifteen people."

"Sure, I'll have someone get it done right away. How much is the pay?"

Ma Hou asked.

Yang Bai held up four fingers.

"It depends on what they want, a fixed salary."

Forty dollars is the normal standard for seafood companies.

According to the needs of labor, it is still the same as in the village, and it is also paid for by the village collective.

The advantage is that you can catch fish in the places I provide, and I only need to pay you 20% of the profits.

Although it's not Widow's Sea, it's definitely more than what they could catch along the coast in the village.

Both of these were shipped by seafood companies.

That's just the difference; you have to start your own company, recruit crew members, and pay them a fixed salary plus commission.

All that's left is myself.

Since we can't start a company now, we have to split things up.

If anyone dares to embezzle, they will be guilty of misappropriating collective property and will be sent to work as a sewing machine operator.

"The place you gave me, could it be...?"

Ma Hou hesitated for a moment. The shrewd Yang Bai would not hand over the widow Hai without a reason.

Sure enough, Yang Bai immediately denied it with his next sentence.

"No, but it's second only to the Widow's Sea. If you work hard, you can definitely earn more than you do now."

Besides Widow's Sea, Yang Bai knew of many other places where he could catch a lot of fish.

"Okay. Xiao Wang, take Yang Bai to write down the recruitment criteria and announce it to the whole village via the loudspeaker."

Ma Hou gave the order.

Soon, the brigade broadcast the message throughout the village as Yang Bai had requested.

I heard that the county aquatic products company commissioned Yang Bai to recruit people, and almost all the fishermen who could come did so.

Moreover, they had all seen how much money Yang Bai made in Widow's Sea. As long as he left a little soup between his fingers, it would be enough for them to live on for a year.

Yang Bai selected thirteen people based on their experience, age, and swimming skills.

Tell them to go back and wait until 1 p.m. to depart.

There's one more thing to do now.

It refers to recruiting captains who operate steel ships.

They were indeed skilled at fishing in the village, but all they knew how to operate was a wooden boat.

They knew nothing about steel boats, so how could they go out with him to catch sardines?

Yang Bai did have someone in mind.

He carried a small bottle of peanuts and a pack of cigarettes to the next village, walked through a grove of trees, and built a small flat-roofed house right next to the beach.

The small house was similar to Yang Bai's, built with long quartz strips, with a few windows and a large, rusty iron door.

This is the home of Chen Dahai, who attended the county's shipbuilding industry school.

He was one of the few people from the neighboring village who had completed vocational school, and he was admitted in the 60s.

In the 60s, getting into a vocational high school was considered as valuable as getting a bachelor's degree in 2020.

Only one or two out of ten junior high school students are admitted, and only those with the best grades can enter vocational schools.

Once a student passes the exam and graduates, they are guaranteed a stable job with a secure livelihood. For rural children, passing the exam means escaping rural life.

As for why Chen Dahai ended up having to return to his village, it was because his parents had cancer.

He resigned from his job as a captain on an ocean-going ship without hesitation and returned to his village to treat his parents' illnesses. He did not recover, but he fulfilled his filial duty.

He was deeply in debt, and whenever he went out to look for work, his creditors would block his door, so he simply went back home.

Five years passed in the blink of an eye.

He was thirty years old and still hadn't married or had children.

"Brother Dahai, open the door!"

Yang Bai shouted.

The iron gate rattled and was pushed open.

A disheveled man with a stubble and a smoky,颓废 (颓废 is a difficult word to translate directly, but it implies a sense of listlessness, decadence, or apathy) stood in front of him.

"Xiao Yang, what brings you here? Still gambling? Play a couple of hands with me."

"I can still play cards, but I quit gambling a long time ago. I've come to see you today because I need something."

He carried his things inside and placed them on the table.

Chen Dahai picked up a cigarette paper with one hand, placed the tobacco from the wooden box on the paper with the other, moistened it with saliva, rolled it up, put it in his mouth, lit a fire, and lit a cigarette.

Yang Bai took out a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes. "Brother Dahai, smoke some good ones."

"Daqianmen? You've struck it rich! What's up?"

Chen Dahai took the cigarette and smelled it.

Yang Bai briefly recounted the events of the past few dozen days.

"So I want to ask you to go and fish in a steel boat, sardines. If you succeed, a thousand will be enough for you to pay off your debt."

"A thousand? This is a big order for sardines."

Chen Dahai asked.

Yang Bai nodded.

"I secured this qualification through the county government. There are a total of 40,000 jin (20,000 kg) of fish, and I plan to harvest them all in two days."

Chen Dahai smiled.

"Two days? Even if you had that ability, do you know where to find sardines? You might end up losing your reputation instead of winning the battle."

As expected, he only graduated from a vocational school; he's not easily fooled.

Yang Bai continued.

"Even if you don't get any orders or catch any sardines, you still have two paths to take as a boat captain."

"You get a fixed salary of 80 yuan for each job, and I keep 20% of the profits from the job I designate. The company deducts the normal amount, and you can distribute the rest yourself."

"If you don't follow my route, you can distribute whatever you get yourself."

"Brother Dahai, right now I'm the only one who isn't afraid of you coming to collect your debts. Do you really want to just drift through life like this?"

In his past life, he was drinking heavily in the county town one winter when he slipped and fell into the river and drowned.

That year, his company was just starting out.