The next morning, after dropping off her child, Fu Wan went to the fish farm for a walk. Jiang Wanghai and Fu Jian had already taken a small boat to observe the area, and when he saw Fu Wan arrive, he quickly told her about the situation over the past two days.
"Comrade Xiao Fu, these fish are adapting quite well. A very small number died, but it's still within my budget."
Fu Wan boarded the boat and inspected the area. Jiang Wanghai scooped up the fish and shrimp that couldn't adapt to the sea with a hand net, fearing that leaving them in the sea would affect the other fish.
Other live fish and shrimp were nowhere to be seen, but scallops and oysters could be seen hanging in the sea.
With Jiang Wanghai and Fu Jian looking after the farm, Fu Wan felt relieved.
On her way back, she ran into Fu Liang, who was carrying a net back. Fu Wan couldn't help but ask in surprise, "Brother Liang, you... went out to sea?"
Fu Liang laughed and said, "Haha, after I came back last night, I heard from others that there were a lot of oysters in the near sea. Ah Ming and I went out and hauled in a few nets in the early morning, thinking we could earn some money to add some vegetables to our family's meals!"
Oysters are at their plumpest during this season. Besides the occasional oysters brought ashore by the sea, there are piles of oysters on the seabed.
These oysters live on the seabed and feed on plankton and seaweed. However, oysters are not as sweet as fresh oysters and are not as expensive.
Fu Liang didn't intentionally keep the oysters from Fu Wan; he just knew she wouldn't even consider such cheap oysters.
He suddenly had the idea in the early hours of the morning, then called Fu Ming, and the two brothers drove the Xiangqianhao out to fish for half the night.
Although he was feeling very sleepy, Fu Liang was extremely happy.
Because, in addition to oysters, they also caught a large bucket of sea cucumbers!
Oysters are worthless, but sea cucumbers are!
However, there were quite a few people on the road, so Fu Liang could only whisper to Fu Wan about their harvest as they walked.
When the oysters are harvested, there are always some rocks along the way, so Fu Ming is still on the boat dealing with them, while Fu Liang plans to take a few axes over while he's back to set the fishing nets.
Fu San accepts oysters, but he won't accept those with stones attached.
Since she had nothing else to do, Fu Wan simply went back and told Ye Xiaocui before heading to the dock as well.
The pier was still very lively at 9 a.m.
Fu Ming sat on the deck on a small stool, intently using an axe to remove the stones from the oyster shells.
Fu San was collecting sea cucumbers on the boat next door. Fu Wan went over to take a look and, to her surprise, these sea cucumbers were indeed very plump.
"Third Uncle, what's the price of sea cucumbers now?"
"Sea cucumbers, 20 heads per pound, six yuan; 40 heads per pound, around 60 heads per pound, three yuan per pound; less than 60 heads per pound..."
Fu San rattled off a string of words like an announcer, but before he could finish, he suddenly realized something and turned around to see Fu Wan's smiling face.
"Hey, Wan, what brings you here?"
"I heard from Brother Liang that they went out and harvested some oysters, so I came to take a look."
Fu San dismissed this, saying, "Oysters aren't worth much; it's just that A-Liang and his group brought back a lot of them."
Ah Wan, you wouldn't believe it! When I first saw the Xiangqian returning, I thought you'd gone out to sea last night!
When he looked around, he found only the Forward-bound ship and was immediately disappointed.
Fortunately, Fu Ming's group also had about 30 to 40 jin of sea cucumbers, mostly around 60 heads each. This meant that besides the oysters, Fu Ming and his group earned over 100 yuan just from the sea cucumbers.
Compared to the vast ocean, this number may not be high, but this voyage was undertaken by Fu Liang and Fu Ming alone, so they were quite satisfied.
Upon hearing his younger sister's familiar voice, Fu Ming looked up and searched through the crowd for a while. When he spotted Fu Wan, he couldn't wait to wave to her.
"Ah Wan, come here quickly!"
"They're here!"
Fu Wan responded and then stepped onto the deck.
The deck was covered in oysters, and the mud and sand on it were a real pain to walk on.
Fu Ming was wearing thick gloves, and in front of him were oysters that had already been processed.
Fu Wan picked one up and weighed it in her hand. Wow, each one weighs at least half a pound.
She had just glanced at it and saw that Fu San had also bought oysters from others. Oysters in their shells were cheap; Fu San bought them for one cent per pound.
"Brother, you guys went out to sea secretly without telling me?"
Fu Ming was a little embarrassed, "Hehe, it's just that it was too late last night, and we were afraid of disturbing your rest!"
Moreover, they didn't go very far; the place where they harvested oysters was only a few hundred nautical miles from the dock.
Fu Wan wasn't really blaming him; looking at the dark circles under Fu Ming's eyes, she knew he was exhausted.
Upon learning that Fu Ming hadn't eaten breakfast yet, she ran to the breakfast stall next door and bought him two meat buns and a cup of soy milk.
Fu Ming was deeply moved and was about to say something when Ye Xiaocui, Jiang Chunlan, and the others arrived.
"Amin, weigh these processed oysters first, and we'll handle the rest."
As soon as Ye Xiaocui boarded the boat, she began to give orders. She had only learned from her old friends that her son had gone to harvest oysters that morning. She had been worried that Fu Ming hadn't informed the family, but seeing so many oysters waiting to be processed, she forgot all her worries.
"Ah Wan, Ah Wan! Come with me to see the refrigerated cargo ship, the guy who loads the cold storage is here!"
Fu Ming shouted from below the boat, and Fu Wan quickly responded.
"They're here!"
After saying that, she turned to Ye Xiaocui and the others and said, "Mother, I'm going to go take a look."
"Okay!"
Jiang Chunlan was unaware of the matter concerning the fish boats, and upon hearing this, she was filled with doubt. Ye Xiaocui explained it to her while she was working, and Jiang Chunlan and Wang Cuiping listened with great admiration for Fu Wan.
No wonder they make so much money if they can even think of something like this!
The conversion of the refrigerated cargo ship will take about a week. All the trawling equipment on board will be dismantled, and then the cold storage will be expanded.
Fu Wan discussed it with Fu San and decided to change the net-hauling machine into a crane, so that if they encountered heavy fish that they couldn't move by hand, they could use the machine.
It cost a thousand to buy the boat, and another thousand to modify it.
If this business hadn't been in the works, Fu Wan would have simply ordered a large ship directly from a shipyard.
After agreeing with the boat conversion company owner to deliver the goods and pay the final payment a week later, Fu Wan took the oysters that Ye Xiaocui had picked out and went home.
Before she even got home, Wang Xiuer, who had come looking for her, stopped her again.
"Awan, the village committee has your phone number!"
"Auntie, did they say who it was?"
Wang Xiuer wiped the sweat from her forehead and tried hard to recall, "It seems like they were from the cannery, saying they wanted to talk to you about something!"
Cannery?
Fu Wan's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that what she told Wang Jianmin yesterday had come true?
Fu Wan threw the bucket of oysters on the ground and then quickly went to the village committee.
As expected, Wang Jianmin's laughter came through the phone after the call was connected.
"Haha, Factory Manager, come quick! The food processing plant is really going to sell itself, and the land where the Six Star Canned Food Factory is located is also rumored to be for sale!"
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