Chapter 28: Entering the High-Income Group

Another day had passed, and National Day was just a few days away.

Today, Chu Mingcheng was going to sell fish first; he moved all of yesterday's catch onto his truck and then headed to the dock.

Fishermen had to lift their nets early in the morning, so fishmongers would be at the docks early waiting, followed by gourmets who came on purpose.

You have to trust the gourmets of Wen City, they would definitely make a special trip early in the morning to buy fish.

From his last experience selling spicy snails, Chu Mingcheng thought that if he wanted to quickly sell his catch at a high price, he still needed to find elegantly dressed gourmets.

Fishmongers, who dealt with their catches all day long, couldn't possibly come in nice clothes.

So he carried two buckets down without making a fuss, but first observed the people on the dock.

There were six clean-dressed middle-aged men and two middle-aged women in skirts and sunglasses.

Chu Mingcheng, carrying the buckets, walked towards the middle-aged man closest to him, and directly ignored the two women.

It wasn't out of disrespect, but because women naturally love to bargain, and he preferred to sell to straightforward men.

Of course, that didn't exclude the chance of encountering men who were also nitpicky.

"Boss, do you want wild Crab Tiger, Green Crab, sea eel, and sea bass?"

The middle-aged man, who was already curious about what was inside Chu Mingcheng's buckets, immediately became interested upon hearing about the Crab Tiger and sea eel.

"Brother, did you catch these yourself?"

"Yes, I fished all night and brought them over to see if anyone wanted them."

Chu Mingcheng intentionally came down with his fishing gear to make everything sell well.

This gave people the illusion that the catches in his bucket were all fished up, purely wild.

Nowadays, with better living conditions, people have become more particular about their food; they would definitely opt for wild over farmed.

People come to the dock for fish just for that taste, right?

However, these gourmets were not easy to fool; if he tried to pass off farmed as wild, getting scolded on the spot would be considered mild.

Chu Mingcheng set down the buckets and let the middle-aged man take a look for himself; since they were genuinely wild, he naturally didn't need to worry about anything.

After looking, the middle-aged man decided to take everything.

This scene immediately caught the attention of others; those two women came over and upon seeing the goods, immediately said, "Ah Qing, there are so many Crab Tigers here, share some with us!"

Chu Mingcheng was astonished by this and didn't expect that the two women knew the middle-aged man.

The man called Ah Qing immediately refused, "Ah, I barely have enough for myself; it'll be gone in one sitting with friends over drinks. Maybe next time, I'll let you have some if there's anything good."

The two women wouldn't give up and insisted on buying some, making it impossible for Chu Mingcheng to do business for a while.

Feeling helpless, he finally said, "I still have four or five pounds of sea earthworms on my truck; if you want them, I'll go get them for you?"

The two women's eyes lit up: "You have sea earthworms?"

"Yes, I dug them up yesterday. I was going to sell them somewhere else, but if you want them, I'll sell to you first."

"Definitely, we want them!"

The middle-aged man wanted some too, and this time, it was his turn to let the women share.

How exactly the three of them divided everything, Chu Mingcheng didn't know; after all, he sold all of yesterday's seafood, and at market price too.

And the gourmets at the dock all added his contact information, asking him to notify them whenever he had good stuff in the future.

Chu Mingcheng simply created a group and added the three people who bought seafood from him today.

As for the other few, let's just leave them for now, since he had not dealt with them before and didn't know how decisive they were in purchasing. Indecisive buyers were not the kind he felt like entertaining.

Back in the car, Chu Mingcheng calculated yesterday's earnings.

Three sea eels, totaling 4.3 pounds, priced at 100 per pound, sold for 430.

Two sea bass, both not very large, just over two pounds, rounded down to two pounds, sold for 80.

One Green Crab, sold for 90.

A total of 5.6 pounds of sea earthworms. Chu Mingcheng hadn't expected there to be so much, given he had spent three hours less digging than before, yet the amount he dug up was about the same as previous times.

The original price for the noodle shop owner was 55 per pound, but he managed to sell it here for 60 per pound, making a total of 336 yuan.

Lastly, the Crab Tiger Fish, he had fed over a pound to his cat Xiao Mi, leaving 16 fish weighing 5.2 pounds.

This thing was expensive, at two hundred per pound, sold for 1040.

Zhang Wei had a little more than him, selling for 1280 yuan.

After transferring this money to him, Chu Mingcheng's own earnings for yesterday totaled 1976. Since it was a mobile transfer, there were no discrepancies with small change, which indeed felt good when selling to these wealthy folks.

He believed these people didn't bargain, also wanting him to consider them first when he had good items to sell.

Besides, his pricing was fair, unlike at the docks where they knew people liked fresh tastes and overcharged accordingly.

During this period, he had spent nearly five thousand on fishing rods. Although he made money chartering the boat yesterday, he actually ended up spending an extra one thousand.

In the past few days, he earned nine thousand fishing for Alligator Gar, plus two thousand today, and including the sporadic fish sales before, nearly two thousand.

As a result, his current savings had reached thirty thousand, and this didn't even include the seven thousand salary due on the tenth.

Twenty-eight years old with a savings of thirty-seven thousand, his life seemed somewhat unsuccessful!

Chu Mingcheng immediately drove to buy shrimp bait, then continued to Dongyue.

Fishing Crab Tiger was so profitable; although sea earthworms didn't earn much, they at least provided steady income—better to exploit this area completely before moving on.

...

Time passed quickly, and it was almost October 8 when he had to go back to work. During the remaining days of the National Holidays, Chu Mingcheng spent all day at Dongyue digging sea earthworms and fishing for Crab Tiger.

Yet that wasn't enough; at night, he would head to the reservoir to continue fishing, causing his daily income to be at least two thousand, and on better days even reaching three thousand.

Not including the salary, his savings had just surpassed forty thousand, still far from buying a boat, but at least it was increasing constantly.

However, Chu Mingcheng didn't plan to come here anymore starting tomorrow. The main reason was that though the Crab Tiger was increasing in grade, the size of the fish caught was getting smaller, with fewer large ones left.

The grade of the Crab Tiger Fish had now risen to level nine. Unfortunately, Golden Finger isn't useful in a place devoid of fish.

Crucian Carp had also reached level twelve, but he did not plan to continue fishing at the reservoir either; maybe he could reconsider if he felt like it in the future!

The sea earthworm had the highest grade, reaching level twenty-eight, the highest among all his aquatic products.

The effect of digging sea earthworms was indeed much more noticeable than at the beginning; every day he only needed to dig for four to five hours to get around five to six pounds, sometimes even reaching up to ten pounds with good luck.

Today his parents returned from Dongting Island. Chu Mingcheng didn't continue fishing in the evening, but brought home two large Green Crabs that he was lucky to catch, as well as half a pound of sea earthworms.

He first fed Xiao Mi the Crucian Carp he caught yesterday, then locked the door and drove back to his place in town.

The moment he entered, An Xiuwen immediately noticed her son, but as soon as she saw him clearly, her original smile was replaced by astonishment.

"Son, where have you been this past week? Why have you gotten so much darker?"

"Darker a lot?" Chu Mingcheng looked at himself and realized he had only gotten slightly darker, a healthier shade actually, and somewhat speechlessly replied, "I've just been going to the sea for fishing. It's not as exaggerated as you say!"