Ming Dahai smoked a cigarette, thought for two minutes, and said, "We don't know who's outside. You're just a kid and you're easily fooled. Where can you find a seafood restaurant that can afford to eat so much?"

"The seafood shop in town needs a lot of seafood. Dad, Mingyue and I went there last time. The owner is a nice guy, and I have all the prices here."

After thinking for a moment, Ming Dahai nodded, took a puff of his cigarette, and said, "Go ahead and do it."

Mingjing dialed the phone, "Boss, hello, this is the girl who asked you to sell her yellowfin tuna last time. I'm sorry to bother you now, but I picked up some shrimp, do you want them?"

The man on the phone mumbled, "Where's the address? I'll go check it out later."

Mingjing readily gave her home address, then asked, "How much is pine nut per pound?"

After a few seconds of silence, the other person said, "Shanlong? How many? If he's alive, maybe 110 or 120."

After agreeing on a time and place with the other party, Mingjing hung up the phone.

"How is it?" Ming Dahai asked anxiously.

"Shanlong, 112, will be here to pick up the goods soon."

Sun Yunmei was so excited she couldn't stop smiling. She looked at Shanlong and estimated, "At least 150 jin, worth 10,000 to 20,000!"

Ming Dahai smiled calmly, "The important thing is to have the money in hand. Let's wait for him to come."

With nothing else to do, Mingjing turned around and saw the blue shrimp in the wooden bucket, saying, "Dad, do you think these shrimp are worth anything?"

"Hmm." Ming Dahai glanced casually at the wooden bucket, nearly choked by the smoke, and coughed violently a few times.

Cough cough cough!

"Wow, is this a blue shrimp? Mingjing, where did you find it?"

Yesterday it was dark, and he didn't look into the mirror bucket, thinking it was full of lobsters, but it turned out to be blue shrimp.

Hearing the voice, Sun Yunmei and Mingyue both looked over. "What are blue shrimp? How much do they cost?"

"This creature originated in Australia and is entirely blue. It has been continuously bred and hybridized, and now we also have it on our islands, but it is a freshwater shrimp. A few years ago, someone caught one and sold it for several hundred dollars."

"Several hundred per animal? That's a fortune! There are two buckets of these! They're not dyed, are they?"

Sun Yunmei picked up a blue shrimp and rubbed its shell; it was a blue shrimp.

A few years ago, a foreigner brought some blue shrimp over, and since then, blue shrimp have appeared on this island. However, very few people have caught them, and as things become rarer, their price has naturally gone up.

Blue shrimp are not common on islands, but they have long been famous for their distinctive color and good taste. Islanders generally do not eat freshwater shrimp.

But some people from other places are curious and think that blue shrimp are special. Now that big restaurants are buying back blue shrimp at high prices, how could Sun Yunmei not be happy?

"This is a treasure, handle it gently." Ming Dahai treasured it, picked up an empty bucket, and said, "If you leave it like this, you'll definitely crush a lot of them. Pick them out and we'll eat them ourselves."

Ming Dahai is in exceptionally high spirits now. After careful selection, five of them died and six lost their pincers, but that didn't stop him from selling them.

“We’ll each have one. Mingjing, ask the boss how much the blue shrimp costs?” Ming Dahai said, beaming with joy.

"Dad, I want to send the blue shrimp to the city to sell, but the price there is definitely not cheap."

Mingjing believed that prices in the city were ultimately higher than in the town. The price of pine nuts was about the same no matter where you bought them, but blue shrimp was different. Things are valued for their scarcity, so naturally, things were more expensive in places where prices were high.

Ming Dahai suppressed his excitement, put away his pipe and said, "That makes sense, Yunmei. Bring out the steelyard balance from home, and I'll weigh these things."

"The scales in the city are all fake. Mingjing is young; don't let anyone fool you."

Sun Yunmei nodded, went inside, picked up the steelyard balance, and handed it to Ming Dahai.

The hand scale was only the size of a plate, with a thin, long beam marked with incomprehensible weights in grams, some of which had worn away. A five- or six-pound weight was hung on the beam.

Ming Dahai hooked the shrimp bucket with the hook of the hand scale, slowly lifted it up, the scale beam rose high, the weight pulled back, and finally it was level.

"Twelve catties!"

Then he hooked up another bucket of shrimp, squinted, and said, "Thirteen pounds and three ounces!"

The fish caught shrimp, and the empty bucket weighed 2.4 jin (approximately 1.2 kg).

Mingjing couldn't understand how such a small steelyard could support such heavy objects with such precision.

"The whole pine tree weighs 85.2 jin, and the five wooden buckets weigh a total of 10.5 jin."

Mingjing nodded. "Understood."

"Quick, the congee is ready. I also boiled some eggs for you. When we have money, we'll have meat buns and drink milk every day." Sun Yunmei went into the kitchen, ladled out rice porridge, placed it on the table, wiped her apron, and went to the bright room.

Sun Yunmei frowned when she saw that there was no one in bed.

It's only around 4:30, where did they go?

"Mom, stop looking. My brother and second uncle are discussing how to go to Hong Kong. He even said he wants to try Bao Zhu's cooking skills," Mingjing said, slurping her porridge.

Upon hearing this, Ming Dahai's face stiffened. "If he dares to go, I'll break his legs!"

"How could I have given birth to such a son!" Sun Yunmei sighed and sat down.

Mingjing slurped up a mouthful of congee when the cell phone on the table rang. "Young lady, what bad luck. My car broke down, and I haven't had a chance to get it fixed yet. Could you perhaps deliver it to me when you have some free time? We can discuss the price later."

Upon hearing that there was room for negotiation, Mingjing naturally agreed.

Besides, she still has stocks tied up in the market, which she'll have to check on sooner or later.

"Okay, okay, big brother, I'll go after I finish eating."

After hanging up the phone, Mingjing looked up and said, "Dad, the seafood boss's car broke down and he can't come over. I have to go to town and ask Uncle Huang to come over."

"Okay, I'll go after I finish eating."

Ming Dahai slurped up two mouthfuls of rice porridge, got up, and put two lobsters in his basket. "Bringing two lobsters over will make things easier."

"Mingjing, don't take them all. I want to leave a few for your uncle."

Sun Yunmei remembered that her eldest brother's family still lived on the other side of the island, and they lived a difficult life. She hadn't visited them in a long time.

uncle?

Mingjing rummaged through her memories of her uncle.

On the other side of the island lived the Sun family. The Sun family were landlords who were sent to the island for labor reform more than ten years ago. Later, they had twins.

The island was harsh, and Sun Yang, who was proud and had been down on his luck for many years, gradually became introverted and didn't like to interact with people. Eventually, he also lost contact with the Ming family.

Sun Yunmei would occasionally visit him with gifts; Sun Yang never came on his own initiative.

"Take another pound of blue shrimp with you." Ming Dahai bent down and grabbed another handful of blue shrimp from the bucket and put them into the empty bucket.

"Oh dear, this is too expensive, I can't afford it," Sun Yunmei said reluctantly, putting the blue shrimp back into the bucket. "It's such a waste to give away something so expensive."

"Mom, my uncle's family is large, and we haven't given them anything good over the years. Let's take this to them to try."

Sun Yunmei insisted, "No need, they can't eat such expensive things. I'll just take two more spruce dragons."

After saying that, she picked out three small, thin cypress dragons from the bucket and put them in the empty bucket, then added some seawater that she had brought from the seaside of Minghai.

"Mom, take some more blue shrimp. Maybe there will be a time when Uncle can help us out. He's family, and I'll visit him in person when I get back," Mingjing said with a smile.

"Forget it, I'll go by myself. Your uncle is stubborn. Have you forgotten how angry you made him when you visited him last time?"

Sun Yunmei sighed, recalling what had happened last time.

"Then I must apologize even more. Once I've made some money, I'll buy some nice things in the city and go to my uncle's place in person to apologize."

Mingjing recalled what the original owner had done and felt that the original owner had gone too far. But since she was now the original owner, it was only right that she apologized.

At this moment, Mingliang came in from outside, his face sullen. Upon hearing that Mingjing was going to the city, he shouted, "I'm going too! I'll give some of the money I make this time to Jiu'er. I want to marry her!"