It was more than half an hour later when they returned to the Rising Sun.

By then it was completely dark, and the streetlights on the dock came on, dispelling the darkness.

However, the number of people and boats on the dock did not decrease; on the contrary, it increased.

In the distance, fishing lights twinkled on the sea, with fishing boats heading towards the dock and others returning to the fishing grounds after selling their catch.

The cargo on the ship next door is still piled up on the deck, and no owner has come to collect it yet.

However, the father of the young man named Su Yongliang was not on the ship; he had probably gone ashore to see his boss.

Feng Ye and A-Can told Feng Jialing what they had found out at the dock, and then waited patiently.

Anyway, they weren't in a hurry to go back to the fishing grounds. They could take a nap first and go out in the early morning.

Although the price was lower than what I found out from Su Yongliang, there was nothing I could do but accept it passively.

Fishermen don't have the power to set prices.

It's not some rare, high-quality item that would attract such fierce bidding.

Another half hour passed before Su Yongliang was seen boarding the boat next door with someone.

The three of them looked on hopefully, and Ah-Can asked excitedly, "Isn't that the boss following behind?"

"I'll go ask."

After telling A-Can and Feng Jialing to wait on the boat, Feng Ye walked over to Su Yongliang, offered him a cigarette, and asked in a low voice, "Brother, is the fishmonger your dad brought over?"

Su Yongliang nodded: "Yes, this is the fish buyer, surnamed Jiang. We've been selling our fish to him these past few days."

Feng Ye tentatively asked, "Could you do me a favor and get this Boss Jiang to take over the cargo on my ship as well?"

"I'm sorry, I can't help you with this."

Su Yongliang shook his head and said, "If you want to sell it to Boss Jiang, you'll have to ask him yourself."

"It's okay, I'll go and talk to them myself."

Feng Ye smiled, turned around and walked over, as usual, offering a round of cigarettes.

Everyone else accepted, but Boss Jiang waved his hand and said in perfect Mandarin, "I don't smoke."

"It's good not to smoke..."

Feng Ye smiled politely and put the cigarette back in the cigarette case.

Boss Jiang looked Feng Ye up and down, then suddenly said in Hokkien, "Are you from Fujian Province?"

Feng Ye's eyes lit up, and he switched to Minnan dialect: "I'm from Yan'nan County in southern Fujian, and Boss Jiang is also from Fujian Province."

Although both of them spoke Hokkien, their tones were slightly different.

However, it doesn't affect their communication; they can understand each other.

"Yes, I'm from Meizhou Island."

Mr. Jiang's tone became much more friendly.

"It turns out that Mr. Jiang is from the hometown of Mazu. Last year, when we expanded the Mazu Temple on our island, we made a special trip to visit the ancestral temple."

When the topic of Mazu came up, the two immediately found common ground.

However, Feng Ye had a question in his mind: wasn't the dialect spoken on Meizhou Island the Putian dialect?

How come Mr. Jiang speaks Hokkien so fluently?

Of course, he wouldn't delve into the details.

After chatting for quite a while, Feng Ye finally brought the topic back on track.

"Mr. Jiang, could you perhaps accept some of the cargo from our ship as well?"

"Are you a fisherman too?"

"Yes, I heard there are many small yellow croakers here during the flood season, so I came here to try my luck."

"So how was your harvest?"

"It's alright. There are about 4,000 catties of small yellow croaker, as well as some other fish, shrimp and crabs."

Boss Jiang waved his hand and said, "Alright, since we're from the same hometown, I'll take your goods."

Feng Ye was overjoyed: "Thank you very much, Boss Jiang."

When you're away from home, no matter how far apart you are, as long as you're from the same province, you're a fellow countryman.

"However, I can only buy at the market price. You have to understand, the price of small yellow croakers here is not as good as back home. Today the price has dropped to 58 cents."

“I understand, we are already very grateful that they accepted our goods.”

"Okay, get your goods ready. I'll collect yours after I finish collecting theirs."

"Okay, my ship is the one next door."

...

Back on the Rising Sun, Feng Ye told A-Can and his son about the situation.

"Great! Now we have a solution for our goods, and we don't need to go to the boss anymore."

Ah-chan said excitedly, a long-lost smile appearing on his face.

"Yes, we can sell our goods to Boss Jiang in the future. We're from the same hometown, so it'll be easy to communicate with him."

Feng Jialing glanced at the boat next to him and saw that they were carrying baskets of goods to the stern.

"Let's get ready quickly, it looks like we'll have to move all the cargo to the stern."

Feng Ye guessed, "Maybe Boss Jiang came by boat to load cargo?"

"Whether it is or not, we'll just do it."

As Ah-Can spoke, he bent down, picked up a basket of small yellow croakers, and walked towards the stern of the boat.

Feng Jialing and Feng Ye also acted quickly.

Before they had all finished transferring, a small boat, about seven or eight meters long, sailed over from the sea and stopped at the stern of the boat next to it.

Two people on the boat carried a scale onto the adjacent boat to weigh the baskets of goods.

The ship next door also had a lot of cargo. It took more than an hour to weigh all the cargo and load it onto the small boat.

Then the small boat sailed away.

However, the scale was left behind, and Feng Ye and A-Can went over and carried it over.

Boss Jiang followed them to the stern: "Let's weigh your baskets first, so it'll be easier to peel them later."

Everything is ready.

Feng Ye pointed to the five empty baskets placed next to him.

He had observed the cargo receiving process on the neighboring ship and naturally made preparations in advance.

Mr. Jiang glanced at it, then compared it with the basket containing the fish, before nodding and saying, "It's acceptable."

I put all five baskets on the scale, weighed them, and then took an average.

Then, they began lifting baskets of fish onto the scale to weigh them.

There was a lot of goods, nearly eighty baskets, and it took more than an hour to weigh them all.

After weighing the item, Mr. Jiang took out a calculator and quickly calculated the total weight and price.

Calculators were available by then, but they were quite expensive.

Most people are reluctant to buy one and are still using an abacus.

The calculator was being pressed incessantly, and the three of them, including Feng Ye, were all eagerly waiting.

"Skinned yellow croaker: 4126 jin, 2393 yuan; jujube croaker: 227 jin, 193 yuan; sea bass: 78 jin, 117 yuan; swimming crab..."

After reading it aloud, Mr. Jiang frantically pressed keys on the calculator and said, "The total is 2978 yuan."

Upon hearing this, Feng Ye's lips curled into a wide grin, a truly radiant smile.

Ah-Can and his son were overjoyed.

He earned nearly 3,000 yuan in one day. If he did that for a month, wouldn't he have made almost 100,000 yuan?

They knew the price was likely to drop further, but no matter what, they could still make tens of thousands, right?

Another point is that they arrived at the fishing grounds quite late today and only managed to haul in five nets.

If I had gone out earlier and made a couple more hauls, my income would definitely have increased even more.

I just hope the price doesn't drop too drastically all at once.