"Okay then, I'll go out to sea with you tomorrow and teach you how to fish with longlines. I'll prepare the equipment first, you'll have to learn eventually."
"Damn, Uncle Duan, you're the most reliable one." Ye Cheng laughed.
"By the way, prepare 50 fish traps. We'll set them all together. We'll go out to sea this afternoon and collect them the day after tomorrow morning."
"Alright! I'll do whatever your Uncle Duan says."
To be honest, it's quite good to have an old fisherman like Uncle Duan. After all, Ye Cheng had only seen many things before, which doesn't mean he knew them.
Duan Chunsheng left, and Ye Cheng played games for a while before going to sleep. He had things to do tomorrow.
Ye Cheng got up early the next morning.
Let's go into town!
He needs to go into town to ask about something.
After entering the city, I first went to the market owner's place and had a bowl of noodles. This time, I didn't dare to ask for the chili peppers from her hometown, so I just got medium spicy and that was it. It was quite refreshing.
Actually, noodles and rice noodles are such delicious foods, but in later generations they have been labeled with the word "carbohydrates," which is a real waste of so much deliciousness.
After finishing breakfast, Ye Cheng checked the time; it was past 8 o'clock, time was about right.
He rode his motorcycle along the river all the way to the shipyard.
It's the shipyard where Ye Cheng bought the ship.
Upon arrival, he made a phone call, and soon, Xiao Fang emerged from the shipyard.
"Hello Mr. Ye, what brings you here today?" Xiao Fang greeted him with her usual sales smile.
"Oh, I'd like to take another look at the boat. A friend of mine wants to buy one too," Ye Cheng said casually. As for who his friend was, he didn't care.
"Sure, are you looking for new or used this time?"
“Then it can only be a second-hand one. How can ordinary fishermen like us afford to buy a new boat?” Ye Cheng said, offering him a cigarette.
"Look at what you're saying. If you were an ordinary fisherman, I would have eaten this boat. How could an ordinary fisherman afford such a big boat, let alone pay for it all at once?"
After exchanging compliments, Xiao Fang skillfully led Ye Cheng to see the boat.
It was still those secondhand ships, no different from when Ye Cheng came to see them last time.
"You haven't sold many ships in all this time," Ye Cheng joked.
"This is a big item, not something you'd find in a department store, how could it sell so quickly?"
Seeing that they had talked enough, Ye Cheng suddenly asked...
"I heard that boat fares have gone up?"
Xiao Fang was stunned for a moment.
"No, it's still the same price."
"Ah, many people from our village came to buy before, and they went back saying the price had gone up. They said the ones they bought cost tens of thousands more than mine!"
"Impossible. I've only sold two ships recently, both delivered at the dock in your township, and they were both worth 300,000."
Xiao Fang said this with certainty, and then he pointed to one of the ships.
"That's the one. They bought it and sold it back to us a few days later. It still looked new to me, so I only calculated the depreciation."
"That can't be right, can it?" Ye Cheng suddenly raised his voice.
"He told us that the people at the shipyard were really bad, trying to drive down the price. Wasn't it you who sold it, Xiao Fang?"
Xiao Fang panicked when she heard this.
"Damn it! I was so proud of myself for raising the price for him, and he still had the nerve to say that I was trying to lower the price. Damn it, I should have just lowered it."
"Really? That boat was bought with funds pooled together by dozens of families in our village. Every family lost a lot of money. Now people are talking behind your back every day."
"Fuck your ancestors! If I'm lying, may I be struck by lightning. You wait, I'll show you the contract."
Without waiting for an answer, Xiao Fang ran back to the office and quickly brought over two contracts.
"Look, this is the purchase contract. It clearly states 300,000 in black and white."
"And this is the sales contract; I gave him 270,000."
Ye Cheng took it and examined it carefully. The signature and fingerprint were indeed Chen Jinfa's. The characters were crooked and difficult to forge.
Sure enough, Chen Jinfa made a fortune out of it, and quite a lot of it.
The Chen family didn't say how much they sold, but he remembered clearly that they bought it for 320,000.
In other words, Chen Jinfeng made 20,000 yuan just from buying the boat. Add to that the money he skimmed off the sale, and well, no wonder he could come up with 40,000 yuan.
"I bought it for 270,000, that's not low," Ye Cheng said.
“It was already quite low, and I’ll have to repaint it when I get back. If he hadn’t been pleading his case and complaining about being poor, I definitely would have negotiated it down to 250,000.”
As Xiao Fang spoke, he said with great indignation,
"Brother, you have to put in a good word for me. I did something good, and it's so unfair that I'm being scolded like this."
"That's true. I'll take a picture and take it back, so I'll have some evidence. Damn it, how can I let myself bear this bad reputation?"
As he spoke, Ye Cheng took out his phone and took pictures of the price and signature. Although the phone's camera wasn't very high-resolution, it was still enough to take a picture of the words.
After filming, Ye Cheng chatted with Xiao Fang for a while, pretending to inquire about the current ship prices, and then rode away on his bike.
He had suspected Chen Jinfa had skimmed some money off him, and now it was confirmed. You bastard, you'll be sorry when you get back. You'll get what's coming to me for messing with my ship.
It was already noon when Ye Cheng returned to the village. He went straight to Li the Cripple's place and came out after a while, leaving Li the Cripple looking troubled.
He wanted Li the Cripple to spread the news, but the guy was hesitant at first, saying he was likely to get beaten up.
However, under Ye Cheng's coercion and enticement, they had no choice but to compromise.
After visiting Li the Cripple, Ye Cheng went to Xiao Hu's place and showed him the photos.
Little Tiger laughed as soon as he saw it.
"Damn it, bro, Chen Jinfa is doomed. Why don't you hurry up and put up a poster for him at the village entrance?"
Wow!
Ye Cheng thought about it for a moment and realized it was true.
Why didn't I think of that? I wouldn't have had to let Li the Cripple risk his life to do it.
"Little Tiger, you're pretty good. Spending time with me has made you smarter."
"Brother, I don't like what you're saying. I'm smart, okay?"
"Okay, okay, you're the smartest. Damn, I'll go print a few more."
Since he didn't have a printer, Ye Cheng had to rush back to the city. He couldn't print this in the countryside, because everyone there knew each other, and he'd be in trouble if they exposed him.
Ye Cheng printed more than a dozen copies. Damn it, let's see if you're done for.
After printing it out, Ye Cheng handed the paper directly to Li the Cripple and told him to find an opportunity to paste it up.
When Li the Cripple saw that the stickers had been turned into stickers, he was no longer worried. He could just sneak out at night when no one was around and stick them on; no one would notice.
Moreover, the posters are placed near the Chen family's house and at the village entrance, so you can't tear them down no matter what.
In the afternoon, Duan Chunsheng came to call Ye Cheng. He was riding a tricycle with five plastic basins on it. The basins contained a large ball of thread, and the edges of the basins were covered with fishhooks.
"Uncle, is this longline fishing? Why are you using a basin?"
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