After seeing the others off, Mingjing stood by the dock and called Dong Li, asking him to drive over and pick up the fish.

With too many goods on hand, Mingjing could only deal with the troublesome sea catfish first. It was too heavy and inconvenient to carry it home.

After hanging up the phone, several business owners, who hadn't even left yet, left messages for Mingjing asking for fish and saying they would definitely think of them for future collaborations.

"Bosses, once I open the purchasing station, you can have as much as you want. But today, I have to give this fish to Boss Dong. It's first come, first served."

"Why don't you come with me to Uncle Dong and divide everything up? That way I won't have to carry it all home."

The bosses looked at each other and agreed that they were right. They then carried the seafood to Dong Li's seafood restaurant.

Back at the store, Dong Li unloaded the goods and was momentarily surprised.

"So many squid! Did you cast your nets in the deep sea? How did you manage that if it weren't broad daylight?" Dong Li's mouth was practically crooked from grinning.

Squid are nocturnal and are usually caught by fishermen using large nets. Catching squid is also very hard on the eyes, which is why squid are generally very expensive.

"I found it, or rather, it was a gift from the Sea Goddess." Mingliang added, recalling the big tail, "Oh, right, I saw the Sea Goddess today."

Dong Li stared at Mingliang with a mixture of belief and doubt.

People had said they'd seen mermaids at the beach before, but there was no evidence, so everyone just listened for fun. Seeing Mingliang's serious expression, Dong Li also became a little suspicious.

“Uncle Dong, don’t listen to his nonsense, that’s a shark.” Mingjing changed the subject. “Uncle Dong, how much of these things do you want? Give me a little of everything.”

"I'll keep two of those sea catfish to braise, and one herring as well. I won't keep the red grouper. Who wants to offer a price?"

Mingjing took out the fish she wanted to keep, choosing the largest ones and throwing them into the bucket; she still needed to save them for cooking to earn points.

The red grouper was too expensive, so she couldn't bear to eat it herself and left a few shad at home. Ming Dahai would nag her for a while.

"I want the red melon seed-shaped ones, two hundred per catty," Song Renli said, raising the price as soon as he started exporting, and they didn't dare to raise it any further.

"I want all the herring, fifty catties of squid, and fifty catties of sea catfish," Xia Chang'an answered first.

The fishermen he worked with rarely caught squid, and this was the first time he had encountered so many squid. He couldn't miss out on anything else since he hadn't caught any grouper.

"I'll give you 70 yuan a pound for shad, 81 yuan a pound for squid, and 30 yuan a pound for catfish."

Xia Chang'an offered a high price, and the others didn't even have a chance to compete, complaining that he was stealing their business.

"Don't blame me, Mingjing didn't bring enough. I'll bring more next time," Xia Chang'an laughed, squatting down to weigh the fish.

The remaining fish, including sea catfish and mud snails, were reluctantly divided among the other owners.

"Wow, this is incredible! Such a big herring, and the red-spotted grouper isn't small either!" Dong Li exclaimed excitedly, sticking his head into the snakeskin bag.

He then picked up the largest herring, covered its gills, and nodded with satisfaction. "What beautiful fish! How many are there? These things aren't cheap."

"There are about four or five, I'll take one of the smaller ones."

Dong Li tossed aside the herring to examine it closely, then asked, "What's in that bucket?"

"There aren't many crabs. I'm thinking of taking them home to eat myself. You can have them if you want. There are also twenty or thirty catties of mud snails."

A bucket of crabs, sorted out, didn't amount to much. Mingjing planned to take them home and braise them, since she heard her nephew was coming over and she thought it would be a good idea to make a crab feast.

"No, that's too little. I'd like to order catfish and squid, and mud snails too."

As he spoke, Dong Li weighed the items one by one.

"Wow, so many squid? This is not easy to handle," a diner exclaimed in surprise as he walked over and looked at them.

Mingjing laughed as he recounted the story of the sharks chasing him ashore. He nodded and said, "When I used to fish at sea, these squid were incredibly cunning; we were practically blinded by their cunning."

"You're so lucky to have found so many. Old Dong, give me two pounds of stir-fried squid."

"Wait a moment, let me do the accounting."

Dong Li pressed the calculator in his hand, then squatted down again to start choosing the size.

Because they are packaged separately, there is basically no need to pick them out. Just sort them by size and then put all the dead fish in the freezer to freeze.

"Mingjing, I want 30 jin of squid, 30 jin of sea catfish, and 5 jin of mud snails at 3 yuan per jin. The price is the same as that of General Manager Xia and his team."

They were all business friends, and he couldn't very well offer a different price in front of everyone; if he offered too high a price, they would lose their friendship.

Even if the price is too low, Mingjing is unwilling.

Mingjing agreed with Dong Li's approach. She believed that Dong Li would not lie to her, and that he would not risk his own interests for short-term profits.

Even if the price is a little lower, it doesn't matter. She'll definitely have to repay Dong Li's kindness when she opens her own receiving station in the future. As long as it's respectable on the surface, that's fine.

Sometimes you can't be too serious when doing business, otherwise you won't be able to get many things done. Anyway, she's going to do big business in the future, so she can't be bothered by petty profits.

“Okay, whatever you say, I trust you,” Mingjing said with a smile, her eyes narrowed.

Dong Li's calculator clicked away, producing the number 8245.7.

Because they had left in a hurry, they didn't have much money on them, so they agreed to let Dong Li pay for it, and they would each give him change later.

"Keep the change," Mingjing smiled, took the money, counted it, and put it in her pocket after confirming it was correct.

"Please leave me your contact information. I will contact you once I have set up the purchasing station."

Mingjing asked for the phone numbers of several people, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then prepared to go home.

“It’s still early. Mingjing, you two siblings, stay for a meal. It’s on me. We can stew all of these and have a taste.”

After Dong Li finished speaking, he remembered Xia Chang'an's herring and asked, "Mr. Xia, would you like to try one?"

Hearing this, Xia Chang'an sneered, "What's wrong? You've had diarrhea lately?"

Dong Li chuckled, "Of course! I'm so busy I don't even have underwear to wear. Hurry up and get me some to mend myself."

Unable to stand Dong Li's persistent shamelessness, Xia Chang'an took the largest one.

"So righteous," Dong Li thought to himself as he went to the kitchen to cook fish.

At the dinner table, everyone was toasting Mingjing, but Mingliang, worried that she would drink too much, blocked a few drinks for her.

As a result, after a few drinks, he got so drunk that he couldn't recognize people and called everyone "brother." At the dinner table, he even brought up the fact that Mingjing was switched at birth.

"Mingjing, haven't you thought about going back to take another look?" Song Renli asked curiously.

"What are you looking at? Forget it, they kicked me out, why should I go back to them and fawn over them?" Mingjing took a sip of wine and frowned.

The local liquor has a sweet initial taste with a hint of spiciness, followed by the flavor of rice wine, with an occasional sourness from the grains. Mingjing doesn't really like drinking it.

"That's true. I always felt that Mingjing wasn't an ordinary child. Her temperament was different from ours. You've lived a life of luxury before. Can you get used to it now?"

"Never thought about venturing out into the world?"

"It's a habit. I've never earned this much money in mainland China. Besides, it's great here. The outside world is frustrating, not as good as this."

Several people agreed with Mingjing's words, nodded, and each shared their own bitter experiences. In the end, Dong Li concluded that no one had it easy and that everyone's life had its own hardships.