Chapter 364 The Fishmonger

Chapter 364 The Fishmonger

Chapter 364 The Fishmonger

"Brother," Li Changxi pointed at Boss Sun, "this guy sells seafood across the street. We just opened the shop and he is talking to Uncle Chen and these two bosses.

He came over to take a look and said that our family’s big ship didn’t have any good or big goods, and all we sold were rotten goods. Ah Le asked him to pick out a piece of rotten goods, but he couldn’t pick one out, so Ah Le got angry and beat him up.

After hearing this, Chen Yongwei and Li Erge's eyes bulged out of their sockets with anger. What makes fishermen most angry is when people say that their catch is not fresh.

Now, the freshly caught goods are said to be rotten goods. And they are from the same industry, they are clearly troublemakers, deliberately looking for trouble and causing bad luck.

The two of them were getting angry, and they rushed forward and punched him, cursing, "How dare you say my fresh food is rotten!"

"Ah!" Old Sun raised his hand to block Brother Li's fist, but failed to block Chen Yongwei's. He just felt such pain in his shoulder that he couldn't even lift it up, and couldn't help but groan.

Boss Zhou didn't expect that these two people would do the same as Li Changle and start fighting without saying a word. He quickly grabbed Li Erge and said, "Old Li, talk to him nicely, talk to him nicely!"

"Second brother! Awei!" Li Changxi was worried that he might hurt the man, so he stepped forward to stop Chen Yongwei.

"Ah Le has already beaten him. Now we just want him to pick out the bad stuff. If he can't, we can talk about other things."

Old Chen and Boss Xu also stepped forward to stop the two men. "An, Wei, what Ah Xi said is right. Let's deal with the matter and let Boss Sun give an explanation. There is no need to make a big deal out of it."

"Yes, we are all doing business on the same street. We will see each other if we look up or down. Harmony brings wealth, harmony brings wealth!"

"What the bosses said is right!" Li Changxi carried a basket of silver pomfret and placed it in front of Boss Sun. "Tell me, are these silver pomfret fresh or rotten?"

Chen Yongwei held a basket of golden thread fish in one hand and a basket of hairtail in the other and placed them in front of him, "You idiot, if you pick out one that's not fresh today, I'll give them all to you!"

When Old Sun saw him carrying a full basket of goods in one hand like a bowl of rice, he couldn't help but take a step back; his arm began to hurt again.

Boss Zhou hurriedly pulled him aside and whispered, "Old Sun, we are old neighbors, and we are selling fresh goods together. Let me be fair. You were wrong in the incident today, so you can't blame others for attacking you."

Boss Sun didn't expect that the Li family was really as Lao Chen said, that they were all reckless people. He regretted it so much now. If he had known this would happen, he would not have listened to Zhou Achang and come here to bring bad luck to others.

"I admit that I said the wrong thing first, but they shouldn't have just started..."

"You came to me and told me that the stuff I sold was rubbish. I didn't beat you to a pulp because of Uncle Chen, Boss Zhou, and Boss Xu."

Li Changle pointed at him and said, "Apologize!"

Old Sun pointed at his cheek and pulled his hit arm, grimacing in pain, "Three of you beat me up, my mouth is bleeding and I can't even lift my arm, what else do you want?"

"A Le, Lao Sun has already admitted his mistake. For our sake, let's forget about this matter today!"

Old Chen pointed at two women squatting in front of bamboo baskets carrying hairtail fish and said, "Look, the business is booming. Go sell the fresh products quickly."

"Boss Ale, harmony brings wealth. Today is the first day of business, and business is booming!" Boss Zhou and Boss Xu dragged their grandson away.

Old Chen patted Li Changle on the shoulder and said, "Forget it. He has already admitted his mistake. Just let him go."

Li Changle smiled and handed him a cigarette, "Thank you, Uncle Chen!"

"We are from the same village. Awei and I are relatives. We should take care of each other. If you are busy and don't know the price of that kind of fish, just come and ask me."

After saying this, Old Chen hurriedly walked towards his shop. In the past, he felt somewhat uncomfortable about the fact that Li Changle's family opened a shop opposite his home.

Now I think that their business seems to be doing pretty well, the Li brothers are of one mind, and no matter the shipping route, they can catch all the big and good goods that others cannot catch.

Get along well with them, and in the future when you all do business on the same street, you can take care of each other.

After seeing off the few people, Li Changle, Li Erge and Chen Yongwei helped fill the bamboo baskets with ice, while the women over there selected the fresh produce they wanted to buy.

"Who is the boss? How much is a pound of hairtail?"

"Hairtail is 60 cents per pound." Li Changxi said with a smile as he walked forward holding a beam scale.

The woman held up two hairtail fish and said, "Aren't they both 50 cents a pound? Why are yours so expensive?"

"The 5-cent one is a little smaller. Look at how fresh and white my hairtail is. Others sell it for 60 or 70 cents a pound, but my new store only sells it at this price."

"Weigh it and see how heavy it is?" the woman said, adding, "Make sure the scale weighs enough! If not, I'll ask you to pay for it!"

"Don't worry, if you're one ounce less, I'll compensate you one catty!" Li Changxi tied up the hairtail with a hemp rope and hung it on the scale hook. "Look, the scale bar is tilted high, one catty and two ounces more, not less. Seven cents and two ounces, I'll give you seven cents for opening today."

Seeing that two cents were missing, the woman handed over the basket with satisfaction, "Put it in the basket."

Li Changxi packed the hairtail fish, and there were customers over there who wanted to buy hairtail fish and pomfret. Li Erge and Chen Yongwei took hemp ropes and net bags to help.

"Ah Le, please take the money."

"Okay!" Li Changle agreed and quickly handed a handkerchief to the woman who bought the hairtail fish, "Sister, wipe your hands!"

"Hey! That's right!" The woman wiped it on the handkerchief, took out a small bag made of floral cloth, took out the money and gave it to him. "Just put a handkerchief. In the past, I had no place to wipe my hands after picking fresh food, and it smelled fishy when I wiped it on the handkerchief!"

"We will prepare them later!" Li Changle took the seven cents handed over by the woman and said with a smile:

"Sister, this weather is perfect for drying dried fish. All the seafood in my house was caught last night. Do you want to buy some big white pomfret, mackerel, and conger eel to dry? We can even help you chop them!"

After hearing this, the woman looked at the pomfret and mackerel beside her and was a little tempted. "Help me cut them. What if I weigh less?"

"We have both a beam scale and a platform scale at home. If you're not sure, you can use both scales to weigh it. If you're still not sure, you can take it to someone to re-weigh it. If there's a difference of one or two ounces, we'll compensate you one kilogram."

The woman felt relieved after hearing this and pointed at the small white pomfret, "How much is one pound of that kind?"

"50 cents a pound!" Li Changle picked up a fish and broke open its gills. "Look how fresh it is! My family has a big boat, and fishermen act according to their conscience. They won't sell you bad fresh fish."

"Do you catch fish yourself and sell them?" The woman put the selected silver pomfret into the bamboo basket he handed over.

"We are from Shatou Village. Four brothers go fishing together. We sell the fish we catch to my sister." Li Changle helped her pick a few. "Take the ones you like."

The woman took a look and said, "Weigh them. The pomfret is six catties, and the conger eel is also six catties. You have to help me chop them!"

"Don't worry, I guarantee you'll be satisfied with the dried fish I split and dried." After weighing it, Li Changle took out a beam scale to show it to her.

The woman nodded in satisfaction, "Hurry up, I still have to go to work."

"Okay!" Li Changle called Li Erge and Chen Yongwei, went to the backyard to get two benches and a chopping board, took out the fish knife attached to the back waist, and started working.

He chopped an eel and proudly held it up to show the woman standing there watching, "Sister, look at the eel we chopped. It was cut all the way to the end with one cut. The cut was smooth and even, without any minced meat."

The woman was very satisfied after seeing it, "It's quite good, much better than what I chopped."

"When you take it home to marinate, pour some white wine into it. The dried fish heads will be more hygienic and look whiter when they are dried in the sun."

"Ok!"

It didn't take long for the three of them to chop more than ten pounds of fresh food. The woman pointed two fingers and turned over the chopped pomfret and conger eel. Seeing that the black film in the fish's belly had been scraped clean, she became more and more satisfied.

He nodded happily and said, "That's right. Next time I'll come to you to buy some mackerel and shrimp to dry at home."

"Okay! Take care!" Li Changle took the money. Li Changxi brought over another ten kilograms of mackerel. "Mackerel heads are for drying."

Seeing that they chopped the dried fish heads quickly and well, several other fish buyers also followed suit and weighed five or ten kilograms of swordfish, pomfret, eels, etc. and went back to dry the dried fish heads.

People buying vegetables on the street saw that the shop was crowded with people, and they all went over to see what was new. When they heard that the fresh produce sold in this shop was caught by the family and that the shop also helped to chop and kill the fish, many people started to pick.

For a while, people who were chopping and killing fish were queuing in front of the shop.

After Old Chen and Boss Zhou finished their business, they saw that there were still many people waiting in front of Li's shop to buy fresh goods. They were all craning their necks to look across. They asked the people who were carrying the fish out and found out that they were also helping to kill the fish and chop the fish.

"How come this guy is so lucky? When he was a fisherman, he often caught big fish. Now he's a fishmonger and makes more money than those of us who have been selling fish for a few years."

"It looks like we will have to help kill fish and chop dried fish in the future."

……

It was past ten o'clock when the four of them finished their work. The military bag that Li Changle was carrying was filled with a bag of banknotes.

While no one was in the store, I went to the backyard to count the money and found that I had sold more than three hundred and sixty pieces.

Brother Li nodded happily, "Not bad! After deducting the ice, expenses, and losses, there is still a 40% profit."

"We still have to deduct the interest on the principal!" Li Changle calculated, "There is more than 30% net profit, and we can make a profit of 120 to 130 yuan in this morning."

"Really?" Li Changxi was delighted after hearing this. "More than a hundred yuan is already very good. Your brother-in-law doesn't need a day's work. He needs to work for a month to earn that much."

"Sister Xi, is there anything to eat? I'm starving."

"I'll heat up some dumplings for you." Li Changxi said, then quickly washed his hands and went to the kitchen to light the fire. He heated up the dumplings and bean flour that had been steamed in the pot early in the morning and took them outside.

"Eat some dumplings first to fill your stomach. I'll go buy some meat and steam it into dumplings."

"No need!" Li Changle picked up a dumpling and stuffed it into his mouth. "We still have to go to the dock and sail to Zhangjia Pier to install the winch."

Brother Li took over and said, "It's past ten o'clock, you're not busy here anymore, let's go home and help pickle the fish!"

Seeing that they were all busy, Li Changxi had no choice but to agree.

(End of this chapter)