"Brother, what do you want to do?"

Judging from this attitude, Ye Cheng was quite satisfied; he was just afraid of those who were greedy to the extreme.

“Shrimp, do you remember?” Ye Cheng said.

“I remember, I made some for you and Brother Hu last time, but you said you wanted to eat them yourself,” Chen Zhangfu said.

"I need more now, 200 jin first. I'll buy it at 2 yuan per jin. Whether you buy it or catch it yourself is up to you. You need to give me at least 20 jin every day. What's the purpose?"

After Ye Cheng finished speaking, he slowly sat down, lit a cigarette, and waited to see the two men's attitudes.

Buying at 2 yuan per kilogram is actually a bit of a deliberate underpricing, but there's no other way; if you want this business to last, you have to keep the price of raw materials low.

However, Ye Cheng's act of being profound didn't last long before Chen Zhangfu immediately exclaimed with delight, "Brother, only 20 jin a day? We can make 100 jin a day!"

Cough cough—

These words left Ye Cheng breathless.

He quickly gestured, "100 jin is too much. Give me 40 jin a day first, that'll be about 400 jin in 10 days. Can you handle that?"

"Why would we need to collect them? We can catch them ourselves," Chen Zhanglong said confidently after being silent for a long time.

“Alright, I’ll give you a deposit of 400 yuan first. Then you can either collect it yourself or pick it up yourself, and deliver 40 jin to Widow Zhang every day.”

Chen Zhangfu looked at the four large bills, rubbed his hands excitedly, and took them a little embarrassedly, "Brother, you're paying me first for the work?"

"Then why didn't you give it to me first? Why are you giving it back to me?" Ye Cheng said irritably.

"Well, we've already given it all, so if we want to take it back, we'll need to pay some of our costs, right?" Chen Zhangfu said with a smile as he quickly collected the money.

Ye Cheng didn't say much, but before leaving, he instructed, "Don't publicize this. If anyone asks, just say someone in your family likes to eat it. Don't drive up the price of mantis shrimp, understand?"

"Okay, bro, it'll be a secret then." Chen Zhangfu gave an OK sign, then lowered his voice and said in a cheeky tone, "Don't worry, bro, we definitely won't tell anyone about you and Aunt Zhang."

Ye Cheng casually hummed in response, but immediately realized what she meant and turned around to curse, "Damn it! What do I have to do with her? I'm just taking pity on Xiao Liang and letting her earn some hard-earned money. Don't talk nonsense."

"I understand, brother, I understand, don't worry."

The matter was settled, and Ye Cheng didn't say anything more before heading back.

Chen Zhanglong watched Ye Cheng's retreating figure, then turned to his brother and asked, "Brother, why do you think Brother Cheng likes Widow Zhang? She's so old and has a child."

Chen Zhangfu's lips curled up slightly, "What do you know? People have already said that older people know how to care for others. Brother Cheng's parents died early, so he probably likes this kind of thing."

"Sigh, Brother Cheng is so pitiful."

Ye Cheng was walking down the street when he couldn't help but sneeze. Damn it, he wondered which bastard was cursing him.

...

For now, this project is considered up and running. If any problems arise later...

Those in charge, let's get started first.

It means we have the resources, and we have the cost of trial and error.

This time, I spent several hundred yuan on spices, but the shrimp cost less than a hundred yuan because it was an experiment.

Then they bought Widow Zhang some large pots and pans, which cost a total of six or seven hundred yuan.

On the third day, Ye Cheng took Widow Zhang and brought two basins of crayfish into the city.

Ye Cheng considered for a long time where to sell this product, and finally decided to start in the city.

There are several reasons. One is that everyone in the village knows this, and if you sell it to them for 10 yuan a pound, they will scold you for being greedy for money.

But city dwellers are different; many of them don't recognize it. You tell them it's a crayfish.

Lobster, even though it has the word "small" added to it, is still much cheaper, isn't it?

That's how the gimmick came about.

Another reason is that ten yuan per kilogram is not cheap, and not many people in the village are willing to spend that much money.

As for where to sell crayfish, it will be at the vegetable market where he and Lao Wang used to sell vegetables together.

Xiao Hu didn't come with us this time. There wasn't enough room, so Ye Cheng pulled Widow Zhang along and brought two large basins with over 40 jin of spicy crayfish.

Seeing so many people, and knowing she had to hawk her wares in front of them, Widow Zhang felt a little nervous.

"Ah Cheng, these...these are all strangers, are we just going to call them that?"

"Auntie, you'll get used to it. Just think of them as people who came to give you money. Wouldn't you be happy if they brought you money?"

"Of course the person who gave the money is happy," Widow Zhang said, still a little nervous.

"Well, since they're already giving you money, just smile and greet them. Besides, we're selling things, not scamming people. If they don't want to buy, that's fine. And think about Xiao Liang, he's still waiting for you to raise him."

Upon hearing Xiao Liang's name, Widow Zhang's expression immediately hardened. She bit her lip and secretly resolved to sell the goods well.

The saying "A mother's love makes her strong" is no exaggeration.

Often, a mother can do many things for her child that she couldn't do before.

Widow Zhang helped Ye Cheng carry the things down, and they found an empty spot to set them up, then placed a cardboard sign on top of it.

Spicy crayfish, 10 yuan per jin, limited to 2 jin per person.

Advertising is all about creating a buzz, just like clearance sales, rock-bottom sales, or last three days of rent left – it's all about grabbing attention.

Ye Cheng deliberately wrote the words "limited to two jin" in large letters to arouse people's curiosity.

Sure enough, the first fish took the bait.

A somewhat rugged-looking man glanced at the sign as he passed the stall, then unconsciously stopped, muttering to himself.

"Limited to 2 jin per purchase."

"These days, there are still purchase restrictions on buying things. It's like going back to the 1970s when we had to use meat coupons, isn't it?"

After complaining, he stopped and pointed at the crayfish, saying, "What are these things? I've never seen them before."

Ye Cheng nudged Widow Zhang, signaling her to go and do something.

Although Widow Zhang was determined, she was still nervous. After stammering for a while, she finally began to introduce herself.

"This is... spicy crayfish, do you... want some?"

The elder brother had never seen a vendor so nervous before, and he almost burst out laughing, making Widow Zhang blush with embarrassment.

Taking the first step wasn't easy, so Ye Cheng didn't press Widow Zhang to continue. Instead, he took over and said...

"Brother, we offer free samples. Have one, and if you don't like it, you don't have to buy it."

As he spoke, Ye Cheng picked one up and gave it to the older brother. Afraid that the man wouldn't know how to eat it, he even took one himself and demonstrated.

The older brother was just joking around, but now that people were offering things for free, he felt embarrassed. He imitated Ye Cheng, broke open the shrimp, and then put it in his mouth with some hesitation.