A light drizzle was falling from the sky. Mingjing had just returned to the village when the raindrops suddenly grew larger, and waves more than a meter high were churning up on the sea not far away.
Ming Dahai had just returned with his boat, wearing a black raincoat, and was carrying fish baskets off the boat.
"Dad, why did you go out to sea again today? It's so dangerous."
Mingjing stopped the car and went over to help.
"Hey, Xiaoyu's fine. I came back because of the big waves. I didn't find anything. You'll have to come with me."
Ming Dahai complained as he put down the wooden frame.
"It's okay, it's normal."
Mingjing glanced down at the fish basket, which was full of octopuses and anchovies.
"There are a lot of anchovies today. I don't know if it's because of the big waves, but a whole bunch of them have come up."
Anchovies look beautiful when they are alive on the seabed, and they taste tender. The price is generally around 34 kilograms. If you have two baskets of anchovies, you will definitely get more than 100 yuan.
The basket next to it contained only a few seashells and conches, nothing of value.
"I couldn't resist getting some fish traps and hooks today. And let me tell you, your new hooks are really good."
Ming Dahai brought out several large baskets of goods, all of them golden pomfret.
"Dad, these baskets of fish you have are quite good."
"Yeah, I think so too. The way you made that string of hooks, even the good rice is made of these things. It must cost several hundred dollars in total."
Golden pomfret is different from white pomfret; it doesn't taste good and isn't very popular locally. It's usually used to make fish feed or for sea fishing, and individual fishermen rarely buy it.
The price is similar to that of the sea waves, around seven or eight yuan per jin. Ming Dahai got seven or eight baskets, each weighing more than three jin.
The remaining baskets of fish were all blue crabs, five small ribbonfish that couldn't be sold and had to be eaten by myself, and a few pipefish.
The wind was strong on the shore, so Ming Dahai tied the small boat to the wooden stakes at the dock, waiting for Ming Jing to return and drive the tricycle to the collection point.
All the seafood was weighed. The golden pomfret weighed over 130 catties, the blue crab weighed 61 catties, the anchovies weighed 51 catties, and the other miscellaneous snails and fish were kept for retail sale.
It was windy, and several bosses drove over, took all the goods, and made a total of 2,300 yuan.
Because they heard there might be a typhoon soon, the bosses unanimously said they wouldn't be coming today, and that Mingjing would deliver the goods by car.
Mingjing is also unwilling to take risks and has no plans to go to sea anytime soon.
"Uncle, I'll have my mom bring you some rice, flour, cooking oil, and meat later. There's a typhoon coming up, so you shouldn't be open for business."
Mingjing was too lazy to run back and forth, so she simply gave them more so they could cook for themselves.
"No need, there are still plenty of snails and fish left, we'll cook them ourselves."
"That won't do. The typhoon will last for several days, and my aunt is in her postpartum period. She can't not eat well."
After saying that, Mingjing rode his tricycle home, filled it with rice, flour, and cooking oil, and gave Sun Yang a lamb chop, a pig's trotter, and a piece of pork belly before going home.
Sun Yunmei prepared a bowl of braised pork over rice, and Mingjing picked up the bowl and wolfed it down.
She didn't eat breakfast when she went out this morning, and it's almost four o'clock now. She's starving.
"Sister, this jade pendant of yours is quite nice," Mingyue said curiously, waiting to examine it.
"Xiaoyu gave it to me, saying it was made of glass."
Mingyue chuckled, "Sister, you actually believe that? This is clearly jade, can't you recognize it?"
Upon hearing this, Mingjing stopped what she was doing, took off the jade pendant, and examined it carefully in her palm. "Hey, it seems to be quite nice."
“My classmate’s family is rich. The jade she’s wearing is worth 30,000 yuan. Yours is about the size of a fingernail, so it must be worth 100,000 yuan.”
"That can't be," Mingjing said, looking down for a closer look.
She doesn't have a thorough understanding of jewelry and can't distinguish between glass and jade. Jade gambling is just starting out, and it's very popular in the border regions.
Many people are keen to go there to pan for gold and gamble on jade. Some people may never find a piece of jade worth 100,000 yuan in their entire lives.
Mingjing felt a heavy weight in her hand.
"Sister Li is so good to you," Mingyue said enviously, resting her chin on her hand.
Mingjing was annoyed. She hadn't intended to make money off Li Xiaoyu, but this back-and-forth had cost her tens of thousands of yuan. It was really annoying.
"Keep it safe, don't break it. Return it to her when you have the chance."
Mingjing put the mirror in his pocket and continued eating with his head down.
"Third Aunt, give it to me, I'll take it to school to show off to my classmates, I promise I won't lose it..." Ming Lei stood to the side, pleading pitifully.
"You little brat, you're trying to give something to a girl, aren't you? You dare to covet something this expensive?"
Mingyue poked his forehead with her finger.
"This kid gave the girl some of the family's pearls. Luckily I found out, or he would have suffered a great loss."
Mingjing turned his head and grinned foolishly, "Don't just think about girls, kid. Isn't your second uncle miserable enough? Learn from him."
"Pshaw, you guys don't understand at all. Jiajia is a good girl."
Ming Lei put his hands in his pockets, made a cocky expression, and ran out on his own.
A group of people watched Ming Lei's retreating figure and burst into laughter.
The braised pork rice bowl was so delicious that Mingjing mixed the remaining broth with rice and finished another big bowl.
After dinner, Mingjing told everyone about buying the boat.
“We need to operate in the deep sea. Big ships carry big cargo. A 50-meter ship is just right. The deposit is 50,000, and at most 300,000.”
"Three hundred thousand? That's too expensive."
Ming Dahai smokes, but he can't bear to part with the money in his pocket.
"Actually, it's not expensive. The main problem is that we're short on cash. We can talk to the boss about paying in installments, or if that doesn't work, we can take out a loan. We can bring in more goods on each voyage and break even after a few trips."
The group looked at each other, remained silent for a moment, and then nodded in unison.
Mingjing hadn't expected things to go so smoothly; she had prepared a lot of things to say but hadn't yet.
"A deposit of 50,000 is no problem, the key is to get the boat and set sail as soon as possible."
"With the typhoon these past few days, even if we get the boat, we can't go out to sea. We need to pay the money first, otherwise it will be troublesome if the boat is booked by someone else."
Ships are expensive but easy to find now. If we have to wait for ships to be built, that would take too long, and Mingjing can't wait that long.
"That's true, but can't we wait a little longer? The house is only half built now, and it will cost a lot of money in the future, hundreds of thousands is not a small amount."
Your dad's fruit tree saplings are still...
"Mom, we're definitely going to make a lot of money in the future. There's really not much cargo in the shallow sea. Even though we can earn tens of thousands at a time, resources are limited."
“If we went to the deep sea, we could definitely earn more, hundreds of thousands wouldn’t be a problem. Boats are still relatively cheap now. But in a few years, when everyone starts buying boats to go to sea, we won’t be in demand anymore.”
Ming Dahai thought for a moment and concluded that Mingjing was absolutely right. "That makes sense. Yunmei, give the money to Mingjing and let her buy a boat."
He didn't want to spend his whole life stuck on this small island. The small boat at home was too small and seriously affected his performance. With a bigger boat, he could earn more.
With Mingjing's recent good fortune, even if he buys a boat, he can break even in one or two tries. Making money always involves risk, and the greater the risk, the higher the return.
With the Sea Goddess by his side, he feared nothing.
With the approval in hand, Mingjing began to think about taking the captain's test.
The Maritime Safety Administration stipulates that all captains of ships over 20 meters in length must have a captain's certificate. Mingda is too old to learn, so Mingliang wants to work as a crew member for a large company.
She's the only one in the family who's not doing anything else, so she definitely needs to get this certificate.
“Then go buy it. It would be best if you could negotiate the price. It’s too expensive.” Sun Yunmei still felt the pinch, as if she were cutting off hundreds of thousands of yuan.
"Then I'll find an opportunity to talk to the shipyard owner and try to get a cheaper price."
Mingjing hadn't expected things to go so smoothly. She still had so much to say to persuade this family, but now she had nothing left to say.
After dinner, Mingjing was washing the dishes when Minglei came over and muttered something.
"Third Aunt, I'm out of erasers and pencils. Can you take me to buy some?"
Children's erasers and pencils are the easiest to lose. Mingjing remembers that when she was in elementary school in her previous life, she would lose things every now and then, and the most common thing was erasers.
When we arrived at the convenience store, Old Wang was tidying up the tables and chairs by the door. During the day, several people would play cards and drink there.
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