He forced me to sever ties with my family and sleep on a dilapidated boat, then turned around and be

Just then, a refreshing voice came from the back door.

"Boss, you want some lobster? I happen to have some. Can you finish both baskets? They weigh about forty pounds."

Everyone looked outside.

Sure enough, there was a young man standing at the door, peeking inside.

Boss Chen immediately snapped at him, "Are you trying to make fun of me? I just asked for some clay dragon, and you deliver it to my door, weighing about forty pounds. Are you asking for a beating?"

The person speaking was naturally Niu Bayi.

He was really annoyed.

"Seriously, you're such a bad boss. I came up to you out of kindness and asked if you wanted to buy some dragon fruit, and you started swearing at me. With you acting like this, I think this shop is not far from going out of business."

"If that person doesn't step in, your shop won't be able to stay open."

Clearly, Niu Bayi had overheard part of what the boss and chef had said earlier.

His words only made Boss Chen angrier.

"You brat!"

"If you said one or two, I might believe you, but forty pounds of mudskippers—do you know how many there are? Even a very skilled veteran would be quite impressive to catch two or three in an afternoon!"

"Are you raising earth dragons? Or are you just making a fool of me?"

Niu Bayi calmly asked, "What if I did?"

Boss Chen made a decisive offer!

"If you have it, I'll add a dollar per pound for you. If you don't, I'll slap you twice across the face to vent my anger."

Niu Bayi stopped talking and turned around as if he was about to leave.

Boss Chen immediately shouted, "Don't you have it? If you don't, then I'll slap you twice! Don't go! Hurry up!"

Mr. Chen was furious and felt terrible after being beaten by the important person in the private room. He wished he could take his anger out on someone else.

Niu Bayi just happened to run into his line of fire.

Who told this kid to mess with him when he was angry?

But then he saw Niu Bayi turn around and come back, carrying a heavy fish basket in his hand.

Boss Chen raised his hand to slap him.

Niu Bayi snapped at him, "You really want to slap me? You said you'd give me an extra dollar per jin, huh?"

Even if it weighs thirty or forty pounds, it can bring in an extra thirty yuan, which is considered a windfall.

Therefore, Niu Bayi was quite happy to have made this bet.

He placed the fish basket heavily on the ground.

Boss Chen looked down.

To prevent the earth dragon from escaping, Niu Bayi had casually picked up two stones of roughly the same size and placed them on top of the opening of the fish basket.

Boss Chen didn't see it and didn't believe it.

"You mean, this fish basket is full of mudskippers?"

Niu Bayi didn't reply, turned around and walked out, picking up the other fish basket.

They were placed side by side in front of Boss Chen.

He said casually, "Just take a closer look."

Mr. Chen was skeptical, so he picked up a stone and peered inside with the chef.

The two of them gasped in surprise.

"So many earth dragons! And...and even top-tier earth dragons!"

Sure enough, there were countless earthworms darting around and tangling in the fish basket.

As the stones were moved aside, light streamed in, and the earthen dragons began to wriggle restlessly.

Mr. Chen quickly removed the stone from the other fish basket.

Upon looking inside, he exclaimed in surprise again.

"There are more mudskippers in this second fish basket than in the first one."

Immediately, Boss Chen was overjoyed and quickly called the chef to bring over several plastic basins and place them next to him.

The two of them did it themselves, without Niu Ba even lifting a finger, they picked up the fish basket and poured all the mudskippers inside.

This earth dragon is incredibly resilient and still very alive. When it was poured in, it shook violently and thrashed its tail.

They smeared mud all over the faces of Boss Chen and the cook.

However, the two of them didn't care about anything else and kept shouting excitedly.

"So many earth dragons! So many earth dragons!"

"Damn it, this is the first time I've ever seen so many earth dragons, and the first time I've ever seen such big earth dragons!"

After shouting, Boss Chen suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with a mixture of surprise and delight as he looked at Niu Bayi.

"Young man, I'm sorry, I misunderstood you. You...you're really amazing! How did you manage to get two whole baskets of mudskippers?"

Niu Bayi said, "Don't worry about where I got them, I just caught them. You know that earth dragons can't be farmed, they're purely wild, so name your price. Remember what you said before, add 1 yuan per jin."

Mr. Chen nodded repeatedly.

"Alright, alright! Earthworms are good stuff. How about I add a dollar per pound? Can I buy all of these earthworms?"

He looked at Niu Bayi cautiously, his face showing a hint of pleading.

I'm just worried that the little brother won't sell him all the earth dragons.

He can eat so many earth dragons!

Earth dragons are difficult to catch, but they are also very resilient.

Then we'll hang a sign at the store entrance saying that we've received a large quantity of local dragons and welcome all customers to try them.

I guarantee that all the earth dragons will be sold within two or three days.

Niu Bayi said, "It's so late, of course I'll sell them all to you, but you should offer a more reasonable price."

After thinking for a moment, he added another sentence.

"I won't sell to you at wholesale price."

Indeed, the wholesale price is more than half cheaper than the retail price.

Therefore, fishermen who actually fish often don't earn that much money, while middlemen earn much more.

Mr. Chen was taken aback; he had originally intended to buy it at the wholesale price.

So many earth dragons.

In fact, he used to collect earth dragons, but at most he had only collected three at a time, and he always sold them at the retail price.

There are more now, but even if you buy at the retail price, it's still a good deal.

He readily agreed: "Okay, let's figure it out!"

Then, he and the two chefs sorted the earthworms into categories.

They were divided into three categories, with one plastic basin for each category.

None of these earthen dragons weigh less than one jin (500 grams); they all weigh more than one jin.

One to one and a half pounds, in a basin.

One and a half to two pounds, in one basin.

Those weighing over two pounds each, in one basin, there are four of them, totaling nine pounds.

This top-quality local dragon costs 8 yuan per jin (500g), so 9 jin would cost 72 yuan.

There are nine of them, weighing between one and a half and two pounds each, totaling fifteen pounds.

It costs 5 yuan per jin, which is 75 yuan.

The rest were all between one and one and a half pounds, totaling a full twenty pounds.

It costs 3 yuan per jin, which is 60 yuan.

This weight is far beyond Niu Bayi's estimate. He guessed it would weigh at most forty jin, but it turned out to be a full forty-four jin.

That's interesting!

Mr. Chen was also very generous, patting his chest and saying, "Young man, I made a bet with you before. If you really have that many earthworms, I'll give you an extra dollar per pound."

"It weighs 44 jin in total now, I'll give you an extra 44 yuan."

"So, the total is 251 yuan. Count it, right?"

This 251 yuan is equivalent to the daily catch of many fishermen, without having to pay for diesel fuel.

Of course, for Niu Bayi now, this amount of money is nothing.

Now he can earn several thousand yuan on a single trip to sea.

But even a tiny mosquito is still a piece of meat.

He said cheerfully, "That's right, 251 yuan. I won't round it down, otherwise the number won't look good."

Boss Chen laughed heartily.

"Don't erase it! Don't erase it! 251 it is!"

He quickly pulled out a wad of banknotes from his pocket, counted out twenty-five ten-yuan bills, added one yuan, and stuffed them into Niu Bayi's hand.

"Young man, what's your name?"

Niu Bayi reported it.

Boss Chen said, "Brother Niu, if you catch any more sea bream or anything like that in the future, just send them to me. Other sea fish are fine too. I'll buy them from you at retail price. Let's be friends."

Niu Bayi counted the money, stuffed it into his pocket, and nodded with a beaming smile.

Just then, a loud shout came from inside the store.

"You son of a bitch, Chen! Did you get me any earth dragon or not? Hurry up! I'm telling you, if I don't get you an earth dragon within an hour, I'll chop off your fingers and gnaw on them!"

The voice was drunk.

The person shouting was clearly quite drunk; he looked menacing.

Niu Bayi immediately recognized the voice!