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

"Three thousand catties of yellow croaker? Are you kidding me? Do you know how rare yellow croaker is now? Even catching just one or two is extremely rare. Do you think this is from ten years ago?"

"A 3,000-pound yellow croaker, how big of a fishing season would it take to catch one?"

The other fisherman nodded in agreement.

"That's right, you must have made a mistake. It's impossible to have caught a 3,000-pound yellow croaker. Besides, there's no yellow croaker season at this time of year. Could you have caught a yellow croaker instead?"

"Yellow croaker looks a bit like large yellow croaker, but the price is much different. The purchase price is only five or six cents per pound, so it's not worth much."

Upon hearing this, both the fishmongers and the fishermen nodded in agreement, indicating that it was impossible for Niu Bayi and He Zhenzhen to have caught so many large yellow croakers.

Three thousand catties! If you told anyone, not even a ghost would believe it.

It's no wonder they say that; large yellow croakers are indeed very rare these days.

Whoever goes out to sea and accidentally catches a large yellow croaker is like finding a treasure, let alone three thousand catties.

What does that even mean?!

He Zhenzhen became unhappy and put her hands on her hips.

"You don't believe we caught three thousand catties of giant yellow croaker?"

One fishmonger said, "If you caught a few fish, or even just a dozen or so, we might believe you, but three thousand pounds? You can't fool anyone."

Some people made malicious speculations.

"I'm saying you wouldn't mistake a yellow croaker for a large yellow croaker and sell it, would you? Or do you recognize it and think we don't know, trying to sell a yellow croaker at the price of a large yellow croaker?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

He Zhenzhen got really into it, and put her hands firmly on her hips.

She said arrogantly, "Fine, we won't sell our big yellow croakers to people who don't believe we can catch them, we'll only sell them to those who do believe us—you guys!"

She pointed at a group of fishmongers.

"My husband and I have won a prize of 3,000 catties of yellow croaker. Anyone who believes me, step forward. I will only sell to them. Anyone who doesn't believe me, go away and stay somewhere cool."

The group of fishmongers looked at each other and whispered among themselves:

"Judging by how confident this woman seems, could she have actually caught a 3,000-pound yellow croaker?"

"This is no joke! If she said 30 or 40 jin, I might believe her, but 3,000 jin? It's 1984! Can you still catch 3,000 jin of yellow croaker?"

"Yes, let alone this year, even last year's large yellow croaker season saw over a dozen fishing boats working together, and they only managed to catch less than a thousand catties!"

"The large yellow croaker is almost extinct these days, so saying it weighs 3,000 jin is definitely an exaggeration!"

……

Niu Bayi also supported his wife's opinion, and gave a cold laugh.

"My wife is right. We only sell the big yellow croakers we catch to people who trust us. Those who trust us can get on the fishing boat directly, and those who don't trust us can just watch from the sidelines."

Everyone stared at each other in disbelief.

Suddenly, someone raised their hand.

"Okay, I believe Boss Niu can catch the big yellow croaker, I'll go up."

This was a short, stocky man.

With that, he jumped onto the fishing boat.

A third person stepped forward.

In the end, only five people believed that Niu Bayi and He Zhenzhen had caught a large yellow croaker, and they all jumped onto the fishing boat.

He Zhenzhen nodded in satisfaction.

"Alright, it's the five of you then. Thank you for your trust. The three thousand catties of yellow croaker will be divided equally among you."

The people below the boat burst into laughter.

"You bunch of fools, you're just asking to be ripped off if you get on board!"

"Even a fool could see that a 3,000-pound yellow croaker is absolutely impossible!"

"They might have some kind of trick up their sleeve, so those who board the ship should be careful. Don't get scammed and end up crying for your mother!"

……

He Zhenzhen was too lazy to argue with those who didn't believe her, so she strode over to the water tank, squatted down, and opened the cover.

She shouted, "Come and see!"

Five fishmongers walked over and looked in that direction with some skepticism.

Immediately, everyone froze, their eyes wide open.

And those people at the dock, whether fishmongers or fishermen, were nowhere to be seen.

Immediately, someone jumped up and down, asking, "Hey, what are you all looking at? Why...why are you all stunned? It's not a giant yellow croaker, is it? It's fake!"

The fishmongers on the five boats turned their heads almost simultaneously and shouted excitedly.

"We're rich! We're rich! Real big yellow croakers! So many big yellow croakers, the entire tank is full!"

One of the fishmongers, unable to contain his excitement, suddenly knelt on the deck and reached into the live water tank.

He was very experienced and quickly grabbed a large, still-living yellow croaker.

Then, he straightened up, raised it high, and showed it to the people below the dock.

"See that? This is definitely a large yellow croaker, not a yellow croaker. I've been buying fish for over ten years, and I can tell the difference between large yellow croaker and yellow croaker. This isn't a scam; it's a wild large yellow croaker!"

In an instant, the people on the dock fell silent, staring in disbelief at the large yellow croaker held up by the fishmonger!

The golden yellow croaker must weigh at least four or five pounds, and it is plump, strong, and quite powerful.

In the fishmonger's hands, it kept wagging its tail.

Suddenly, people started shouting:

"It's a really big yellow croaker, not a yellow croaker! It's a huge yellow croaker! I've never seen one weighing four or five pounds before!"

"No, no, it's just a big yellow croaker. Even if it were real, so what? That woman said it weighed three thousand catties. How could they possibly have claimed it to be three thousand catties!"

"Yes, maybe that's the only one, nothing more!"

……

Upon hearing this, the other four fishmongers all knelt on the deck, reached into the live water tank, grabbed a large yellow croaker, and held it high.

The smallest weighs three or four pounds, and the largest weighs almost seven or eight pounds.

They were in the hands of five fishmongers, their tails thrashing wildly in the sunlight, gleaming like gold and looking incredibly tempting.

The five fishmongers shouted excitedly.

"They really are all large yellow croakers, the entire live water tank is full of them!"

"This cabin alone must weigh at least a thousand pounds!"

"Hahaha, we're rich!"

……

Niu Bayi and He Zhenzhen simply opened the cover of the other end of the freezer compartment and went down.

Before long, a spacious square was taken out and placed on the deck.

There were seven or eight huge yellow croakers inside, swaying their heads and tails, darting around in a somewhat chaotic manner.

The people on the dock were stunned once again.

This one compartment of yellow croaker must weigh forty or fifty pounds.

Niu Bayi and He Zhenzhen turned around and went into the freezer again, working together to pull out the large yellow croaker from the second compartment.

They also told the five fishmongers, "Go into the freezer, take out the big yellow croakers, and then see if we should divide them equally, or how we should divide them."

The five fishmongers rushed into the freezer compartment.

Before long, their incredibly shocked shouts came from inside.

"They're all big yellow croakers! So many big yellow croakers! There must be at least two thousand pounds here!"

"Every single one of the large yellow croakers was still lively and jumping around; they were incredibly energetic!"

"Strange, there's no ice in this freezer, no refrigeration, yet these large yellow croakers are still so alive and well. This is the first time I've ever seen such lively yellow croakers!"

……

The large group of people on the dock were completely stunned.

Quite some time later, someone finally shouted.

"Who said that just now? Who didn't believe they couldn't get three thousand catties of big yellow croaker? They made me say it was impossible too, it's infuriating! If I had believed Boss Niu and his crew, I would have already been on his fishing boat!"

"I can get quite a few large yellow croakers too!"

"Who's spouting nonsense here? I'll beat him to death!"

Suddenly, the fishmongers who had just been clamoring that they didn't believe Niu Bayi and He Zhenzhen could catch three thousand catties of yellow croaker and were unwilling to board the boat were all wailing incessantly.

Painful!

I beat my chest and stamp my feet in frustration!