Chapter 181: Test the Waters First

Chapter 181: Test the Waters First

Chapter 181: Test the Waters First
Chen Yongwei took out the refrigerator containing jellyfish brains, jellyfish lining and jellyfish blood, as well as two buckets.

"Brother, the boxes and buckets are full of them. Uncle Tang weighed them before putting them in."

Father Li smiled and nodded, "Ah Le, after blanching and draining, the jellyfish brain and jellyfish lining weigh 196 kilograms and 63 kilograms respectively. The jellyfish blood weighs 35 kilograms. It will be much lighter if dried."

"There aren't many of these!" Li Changle picked up the account book, and Brother Li stretched his neck to take a look. "Ah Le, how many did you collect in total?"

Li Changle pointed at the numbers that Ruonan had counted in the account book last week, "There are 115 items that cost three dollars each, and I spent thirty-four dollars and fifty cents.

Two hundred and forty pieces at two dimes each, for a total of forty-eight dollars, and three hundred and ninety pieces at ten dimes each, for a total of one hundred and twenty-one dollars and fifty cents."

Mrs. Li took it and said, "The big ones weigh about 33 jin on average, the medium ones weigh 24 or 25 jin each, and the small ones weigh 11 or 12 jin each."

Brother Li: "We were the first to fish, and we caught the most big ones. I estimate that there are at least more than a hundred of them, big and small, weighing about two to three thousand kilograms."

Chen Yongwei smacked his lips in amazement. "It's about 180,000 kilograms when calculated. After being buried in the sand and dehydrated, it only weighs 12,685 kilograms. It's really shrunk!"

"Yeah, you looked at me with pity when you were digging jellyfish." Mrs. Li looked at Li Changle, "Ah Le, can these things really be sold for one or two yuan per pound if we send them to the restaurant?"

"I'm not sure. I'll have to wait until I send it to you to find out." Li Changle pointed at the account book, "Including the 68 yuan for the water tank, the total expenditure is now 189.5 yuan."

He estimated that the brains and entrails of these jellyfish could make back the cost of collecting the jellyfish and buying the large tank.

"I still have some here!" Brother Li said as he took out two pieces of paper from his pocket, "Uncle Zhou Er bought the sea salt from us for five yuan a load.

We bought 15 dan of salt and 10 dan of alum, which cost us 195 yuan in total. The sea salt was not enough, as we still had to go fishing after pickling the jellyfish."

"Okay!" Li Changle wrote it down in the account. "Not counting the labor cost, I have already spent 384.5 yuan."

Brother Li nodded and said, "I'll give Ah Shui and his sister two dollars later."

Li Changle took over and said, "Anan and sister-in-law, as well as A'nan, A'ba, and Chen A'nan also need to be paid. They have to drop the work they are doing to help, but they still need to be paid."

"How much do you want to be paid for working for your own family?" Mother Li looked at him worriedly, "Ah Le, the capital is nearly four or five hundred, and that's not even counting your mother-in-law's rent. Am I worried about making money?"

Mrs. Li nodded repeatedly, "It's not a loss. I'm just worried that I won't be able to sell it and lose money."

"Sister-in-law, you needed tickets to buy anything before, but now you can buy anything you want without worrying about not being able to sell it."

"That's true. Some things are negotiable. Jellyfish won't go bad if it's pickled."

"A Le!" Brother Li looked at him with some worry, "I did this before when the village was doing sideline business, and even sent it to the cooperative to sell, but I ended up losing money in the end.

The cost of processing the jellyfish and other seafood we bring back is higher than theirs, and I am worried that I will end up in the same situation as them.

Ah Le, we have already taken it back this time. In my opinion, we will not do this business after this sale. We should just focus on fishing and fishing in peace in the future."

"Yeah, Alec, listen to your brother."

Father Li knew that his third son had always been ambitious since he was young and wanted to make a lot of money. He let him try once so that he would know that it is not easy to make money in business, and then he would settle down and work to earn money in the future.

Li Changle looked at his father and brother with a worried look on his face, "Dad, brother, let me ask you, were there many people working in the village before?"

Brother Li: "Of course there aren't many. Anyone who can work should work to earn work points. We also have to go out to sea to fish."

"So do you think the fields were planted faster then? Or after they were divided among households? Do we get more fish at sea then or now?"

"As for farming, of course it's faster to distribute it to households. We catch more fish now than before, but now we mostly use motor boats. In the past, we used to row boats, so the productivity is different."

"Dad, big brother!" Li Erge couldn't help but interrupt, "A Le means that in the past, there were many people who ate a lot, many who slacked off, and many who put the money in their own baskets. Few people actually did any work, so they lost money."

Mrs. Li nodded and said, "Anan said that jellyfish skin and jellyfish heads can be sold for a few cents per pound. We can sell more than a thousand pounds of jellyfish at any price without losing money."

Grandma Chen: "Working in the sideline team is different from working at home. The village took care of my family. I worked there for two years. When we finished work, everyone had to take some dried shrimp, dried fish, shredded squid, etc. home."

"Yes, everyone is taking it. If they don't take it, they will feel at a disadvantage. So they will put some back."

"When working in the back alley, Agen is the best at slacking off. He smokes a cigarette and pees after digging twice. After he goes back and forth twice, he starts blowing the end-of-work call."

"Yes, that guy did the same thing when he was transplanting rice seedlings. He sat on the rice seedling horse with a cigarette in his mouth and didn't move for a long time."

"It's not just their family. Many people in the village do this. Strong laborers get 10 points, weaker ones get 9 or 8 points, and women only get 7 points for mowing grass. No matter how much they work, they still get the same amount of food in the end." "That was in the past. After the households were divided, the husband and wife planted the rice seedlings in one acre of Agen's field in one day and even collected the early work."

Li Changle waited for them to finish speaking, "Right, you know that during the collective era, everyone was slacking off. Now we work for ourselves, and the money we earn is ours."

"As long as we are united and work together, it is just a matter of how much profit we make. It is absolutely impossible for us to make a loss."

Brother Li glared at him and said, "Need I say this? You are willing to lead us to do our business, but you are still thinking about other things. Are you still a human being?"

Brother Li also nodded repeatedly, "Even if you kill me, I will never do anything to let my brothers down."

"Big brother and second brother are right!" Chen Yongwei said to Li Changle with a simple smile, "Brother, I will do whatever you say. I may not be good at using brains, but I am good at using strength!"

Li Changle patted his shoulder and put his hands on his two brothers' shoulders. "I don't know our brothers' tempers. If you were that kind of people, I wouldn't have dragged you to do it together."

"We are just testing the waters with these jellyfish. If it works, we will have another way to make money, because we will all get old one day and it is impossible for us to drift on the sea forever."

After hearing this, everyone agreed. The rheumatic bone pain of the older boatmen in the village was getting worse. The better ones could still row their boats to fish near the coast for a living, but the more serious ones had trouble even walking.

"Okay, we'll all listen to you." Brother Li said, "You're smart, and the second brother's brain is faster than mine. From now on, the business will be left to you guys, and Awei and I will just do the hard work."

Brother Li smiled and said, "If Ah Le hadn't told me, I wouldn't have thought of these. I'll have to rely on him for advice in the future."

Father Li, Mother Li and Grandma Chen looked at them with satisfaction, "In the future, you should do things like we did today. No matter what you have to say, put it on the table and discuss it before doing it. This way, brothers and friends will not become enemies."

"Don't worry, we know what's going on." Li Changle said to them, "When I come back from selling the jellyfish brains and you buy the salt, we'll pool the money together."

"Okay, let's do it the same way as before. The three of us will each take two shares, and you will take four shares."

"Okay! Among the three things, jellyfish brain, jellyfish lining and jellyfish blood, jellyfish blood is the most expensive. I plan to keep half of it and sell the other two first. I think with those things, we can earn back part of our investment."

Zhou Ruonan took over the conversation, "Ah Le, I think if it sells well, it should be more than that. Dried jellyfish blood sells for more than ten yuan per pound! Dad said that after blanching and draining jellyfish blood, there are still more than thirty pounds, and after drying, there should be about twenty pounds."

"Yes!" Mrs. Li couldn't help but grin when she heard what she said. She looked at the contents of the bucket and said, "The jellyfish blood alone can be sold for more than 200 yuan. If you add the jellyfish brain and jellyfish lining, it will be at least more than 300 yuan."

After the two of them did the math, they suddenly realized that they had almost made back their money by selling these things, and even if it wasn't enough, it wouldn't be much different.

"That's right, the rest is profit." Li Changle said as he opened the refrigerator and saw that the cooked jellyfish blood looked a bit like boiled beef slices. He took out half of the jellyfish blood and put it in a bucket, then covered it with old cotton wool.

He also caught some jellyfish brains and jellyfish linings. "I'm tired after a day of work. I'll make some jellyfish blood to go with my wine at night. It can also replenish blood."

Just as Li's mother was about to speak, Zhou Ruonan interrupted her and said, "We'll have scrambled eggs and cabbage later, and boil jellyfish blood with ginger wine."

A-niang will definitely say that A-le is willing to eat everything. Isn’t the purpose of making money to eat? Frugality is a virtue, but one cannot be too frugal.

Besides, since Aledu had spoken, it was her own job to help maintain her man’s reputation.

Seeing her daughter-in-law speak, Li's mother didn't say much, "It's getting late. Ah An and Ah Wei are going to get some salt back home. Ah Le is going to the restaurant to sell goods. We're going to pickle the jellyfish."

Everyone started to act separately. Li Changle took the kettle, put the bucket on the tricycle, and pedaled towards Tuxia Bridge.

When we were almost reaching Pan Town, we were so tired that we rested for a while and continued forward. After more than an hour, we finally arrived outside the kitchen of Phoenix Restaurant.

Ah Sheng opened the door and saw that it was him. He glared at him exaggeratedly, "Damn it, Brother Ale, you are working too hard. A strong typhoon is coming. Do you want money over your life?"

"I want money and my life!" Li Changle smiled as he pushed the tricycle into the yard. "Is Uncle Kun here?"

"I just came back from delivering some fresh produce." Ah Sheng glanced at the bucket on the tricycle and said with a smile, "I know the prices of most things. Uncle Kun taught me."

Li Changle saw his smug look and handed him a cigarette with a smile, "It seems that Uncle Kun is planning to train you to be his deputy?"

"Uncle Kun saw that I was not good at cooking, so he took me to buy some several times." Ah Sheng pointed at the bucket, "It's so cold, what's in it?"

"Jellyfish brain, jellyfish lining, and about ten pounds of jellyfish blood."

"This thing is not common, I have to ask him to come and take a look!" After saying that, Ah Sheng ran away.

(End of this chapter)