It was almost dark when the Rising Sun returned to the waters outside Dongtou Village.
However, they were not the last to return.
The days are short and the nights are long.
The fishing boats return quite late, usually arriving at the shore close to dark.
As they approached the dock, the nearby boats were calling out to each other, asking about their day's catch.
Seeing the bamboo baskets piled on the bow deck of the Rising Sun, everyone smiled and flattered Feng Ye.
On the way back, Feng Ye sorted all the catch and carried it onto the deck.
"There's a lot of fish, but they're all toadfish and mullet, not worth much!"
Despite saying that, Feng Ye was actually quite satisfied with what he had accomplished that day.
Although they are all cheap goods, there are many of them, so they can still be sold for a good price.
Besides, there was also a large Chinese spiny lobster.
This is a rare item; it's sure to fetch a good price.
"We're in a similar situation. Lately, our trawls have been mostly flounder and mullet, so it must be the fishing season. There are also quite a lot of flounder and mantis shrimp..."
"It's good that the flood season is here. Although the prices are low, the quantity is high, so we can still make a lot of money."
"That's right. Besides, thanks to you, Ah Ye, we can keep the toadfish to dry and make a little more money."
"Take advantage of the low rainfall in winter to dry as much as possible, because once spring comes, there won't be any time to dry it."
"We're willing to post more photos; nobody wants to turn down money. We're just worried that if we post too much, you won't want it."
"No, we need as much as we can. We need to stock up on some goods, otherwise we won't have anything to sell in the spring."
"Then we can sunbathe without worry."
"Let's show off, the more the merrier..."
The Rising Sun slowly docked. Feng Ye secured the boat and, together with A-Can, unloaded baskets of goods from the boat, transferring them to Feng Jiafa's shop for weighing and sale.
The mullet weighed 485 jin (approximately 242.5 catties), and the price per unit remained unchanged at 9 mao (0.9 yuan), totaling 436.5 yuan.
The smaller toadfish were kept to be dried, so only the large ones were sold. They weighed 176 jin (83 catties) and were very cheap, only 4 mao (0.4 yuan) each, for a total of 70 yuan and 4 mao.
The price of halibut varies greatly depending on the type, ranging from a few cents to several dollars.
They caught several kinds, and I won't go into the specific price per unit, but they sold them for a total of 163.3 yuan.
Mantis shrimp come in different sizes; the larger ones are 2 pieces, weighing 58 jin (24 catties) and costing 116 pieces.
The smaller ones cost 1.5 yuan, and even though there were fewer of them, they still weighed 37 jin (18.5 catties) and cost 55.5 yuan.
The other miscellaneous items, plus the parrotfish, sold for a total of 40.6 yuan.
The main attraction was the Chinese spiny lobster.
Because of its large size, it took Feng Ye a lot of persuasion to get a price of 8 yuan per unit.
After the abacus beads clattered for a while, Feng Jiafa said, "943 yuan and 1 mao, can you check if there's any mistake?"
"Uncle Fa, we trust you, so we don't need to look at it. Forget about the one cent, just give us 943 yuan."
Having dealt with them so many times, Feng Jiafa still has a good reputation with Feng Ye.
"I wasn't planning on giving it to you."
After Feng Jiafa finished speaking, he took out money from the drawer, counted out the correct amount, and handed it over.
If there's a calculation error, you can come back and check it again.
However, if the amount of money is wrong, the family will not acknowledge it once they leave the house.
Therefore, after receiving it, Feng Ye counted it very carefully.
"The number is correct."
He nodded and then said, "Uncle Fa, we're leaving. Oh, by the way, can I borrow your cart for a moment?"
Feng Jiafa waved his hand: "No problem, you can use it. Just remember to send it back as soon as possible. I'll send you some fish later."
They loaded the baskets onto the cart, and the two pushed it back to the side of the Rising Sun.
The baskets were put back on the boat, and the fish left to dry were unloaded from the boat and loaded onto a cart.
There was also a used, dirty, and messy adhesive net that was placed on another cart.
"Ah Can, you take the fish to the workshop, and I'll deliver the nets to Grandma Lan Hua's house."
The workshop was too busy to tend to the sticky nets, so they had to spend money to clean and dry them.
"good."
"Also, tell your dad and my dad to buy a roller and 50 sticky nets when they come back tomorrow."
"Huh? We need to buy a sticky net too?"
"Yes, the netting is profitable, I plan to use more."
"I thought you would ask Lan Hua Nai to help us knit."
"We'll ask her to knit some too, but it takes time. We'll buy some to use in the meantime. Anyway, the mesh is easy to break and needs to be replenished frequently. We can just keep the extras at home as spares."
The two pushed their carts and went in opposite directions.
Ah-Can went to the workshop, while Feng-Ye pushed a cart loaded with sticky nets towards the village.
...
The next day, when they returned from their sea voyage, Feng Jiaqing and Feng Jialing had already bought the rolling wheel and the netting.
When Feng Ye heard that this simple machine cost five hundred yuan, he was a little surprised.
He knew that using other fishing gear was very expensive.
However, the profits from trawls are greatly reduced in winter, so this is still an unavoidable practice.
Moreover, it's really impossible without machines; with just 10 sticky nets, he and Ah-Can were exhausted yesterday.
What's more, another 50 were added.
However, the machine is not a consumable like the sticky net and can be used for a long time.
Moreover, once they have the large ships and no longer need them, they can sell them to others.
Therefore, it is still worthwhile in the long run.
Nowadays, most fishermen are very hardworking and rarely use machinery. They are reluctant to spend the money and would rather work hard themselves.
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