A pleasant male voice sounded from outside the door. Mingjing turned her head and saw Xie Junan standing at the door, who smiled and said, "Mingjing, this place of yours is not easy to find."
"Come in quickly," Mingjing said, noticing Xie Jun'an wearing a raincoat, and invited him in.
Following behind was Dong Li, who was also wearing a black raincoat. "It's raining and windy outside, so we're driving a bit slowly."
"It's alright, come in quickly."
Mingjing invited the two into the courtyard.
"How was the fruit last time? If you liked it, I'll ask my aunt to get you some more."
"That's a gift I brought for the Sea Goddess. She said it was sweet. I'll buy some from you next time I have the chance. Oh, by the way, I owe you five yuan from last time, I'll deduct it from the fish I buy later."
"No need, it's just a small amount of money."
Xie Junan smiled, revealing his eight pearly white teeth.
Seeing the two chatting so enthusiastically, Sun Yunmei couldn't help but scrutinize Xie Jun'an.
He is 1.85 meters tall, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, and regular features. He also has an upright demeanor. When he smiles, his eyes seem to sparkle. He looks like a good kid.
"Are you a seafood dealer? Come in and have a cup of tea."
Sun Yunmei invited the two of them into the house and poured them two cups of hot tea.
"This is my mom."
Mingjing explained.
"Hello, Auntie. My dad and I came to check. Mingjing said you found quite a few things," Xie Junan said, taking a sip of the hot tea.
At this moment, Ming Dahai's attention was entirely focused on the goods in the yard, and he did not notice anything amiss.
"Are these all there?" Dong Li stood in the courtyard, scanning the yard before finally coming to his senses after a long while.
"Hmm, what do you think?" Ming Dahai stepped forward and asked.
Dong Li picked up the abalone, weighed it in his hand, and examined its quality. "They're all wild, and they're so big. The appearance is also quite good."
"We did a quick selection; we kept the ones that looked good, and kept the ones that didn't look good for ourselves. If you want them, we'll sell them to you cheaply."
Mingjing came out and pointed to a basket of damaged and incomplete goods not far away.
"These sea cucumbers are so big? And there are conch shells too?"
At this moment, Dong Li looked like a country bumpkin who had never seen the world before, suddenly finding himself in a sea of seafood.
Putting aside everything else, just take the conger eel. A regular conger eel weighs only 80 or 90 pounds, but a conger eel as thick as two wrists from the East China Sea is much larger.
Gold in water, at least two thousand or more.
Dong Li was so excited he could barely stand. He turned to Mingjing and said, "Mingjing, you found all of this? It's worth a lot of money! What did you sell in the city last time? How much did it cost?"
Mingjing didn't hesitate. Honesty is the foundation of business, so he told her everything: "Oysters aren't worth much. I only made a few thousand yuan, maybe a hundred or two hundred jin."
This sentence made Dong Li look at Mingjing with more respect. "Mingjing, next time you come to me, I will definitely offer you more than you would in the city."
"good!"
Ming Dahai and Xie Jun'an, one on top and one on the bottom, carried the scale into the courtyard.
"I'll remove the frame and water from the sea cucumbers, and I won't charge you by the size. I'll just charge you a flat price of 100 yuan per jin."
Dong Li took out a notebook and pen from his waist and began to keep accounts.
After Ming Dahai confirmed that the weighbridge was working properly, Ming Jing felt relieved and watched them weigh the items step by step.
"Rounding up the odd amounts, 53 catties of conch, 85 catties of snails, 32 catties of whelks, 62 catties of mud crabs, and flower crabs..."
Xie Junan was responsible for reporting the weight, and Dong Li kept the books.
After calculating to the end, only some damaged goods remained. Mingjing didn't intend to give them away, and said, "Uncle Dong, there's no need to weigh the rest. We can use them as snacks with our drinks."
"good."
Dong Li was sweating as he did the math; with so much stuff, he was worried he wouldn't have enough money to cover it all.
"Brother Dong, young man, let's eat first. I've cooked for you. We'll settle the bill properly after we finish eating."
After weighing everything, Sun Yunmei, worried that Dong Li might change his mind, first pulled the group inside to sit down.
Xie Junan and Dong Li were also hungry, and during the meal they kept praising Sun Yunmei's cooking skills, asking her to help out at the seafood restaurant.
Sun Yunmei jokingly declined, and after they had eaten and drunk their fill, they began to discuss the price.
"Sea cucumbers are 100 yuan per jin, whelks are 9 yuan per jin, conch are 30 yuan per jin, whelks are 51 yuan per jin, and mud crabs are 91 yuan per jin..."
Dong Li also wanted to keep this money-making machine in check, so he offered a price much higher than the city's, and his calculator kept clicking away.
A moment later, the calculator produced a number that made Dong Li gasp in shock.
"The total is thirty-eight thousand seven hundred and twenty-three dollars and two mao."
Mingjing spoke up with a smile, "Uncle Dong, forget the change, just give me 38,700 yuan. It's not easy for you to come all this way."
"Okay, okay." Dong Li opened the wallet at his waist, took out a stack of red bills, counted them, and then took out another stack and handed it to Ming Jing.
"You count first."
Dong Li rummaged through his wallet, pulled out the remaining change, and said somewhat embarrassedly, "Mingjing, I didn't expect you to have so much stock. I didn't bring enough money; I'm still eight thousand short."
"Okay, let's write an IOU, and when we get back, my son will bring you the money."
Mingjing counted the money, then nodded helplessly, "Alright then."
After saying that, Dong Li tore off a piece of paper, wrote an IOU on it for Mingjing, and handed it to Mingjing after both parties signed it.
"Dad, can you help me load the things onto the car? Uncle Dong probably didn't bring many buckets, and we can't mix things up. So don't bother with the baskets; I can get them from town."
Ming Dahai, thinking about doing business with him for the long term and knowing his home address, agreed.
Several people helped move the goods, which attracted the attention of the villagers. They knew that Mingjing was going to sell the goods, and they whispered to ask how much money he had made.
Xie Jun'an didn't reveal his true identity; he simply told the public that he was a seafood buyer in town and had goods to sell, and he even lowered the price by half.
Even though the price was lowered, everyone was still happy. They usually sold their goods at Old Zhao's house at very low prices, so they were naturally pleased to have a customer who offered a higher price.
"I have some at home, why don't you come over and take a look?"
"I just found a big geoduck clam, go check it out and see how much I'll pay for it?"
The villagers surrounded Dong Li, urging him to come to their house to check out the goods.
Mingjing saw a business opportunity. The island was isolated from the world, and apart from Lao Zhao, there were really no people in the surrounding villages who bought seafood. If they set up a new purchasing point there, wouldn't they make a fortune?
Before Mingjing could speak, Dong Li refused first, "Everyone, please wait a moment. My truck is already loaded too much, and there's really no more room. Besides, the weather is bad, so it's quite troublesome to make the trip. I'll come over if you have any large shipments, but please don't bother with loose cargo."
The few scattered goods weren't even enough to cover his gas money. More importantly, he was out of money. How was he going to pay them?
"You're a strange person. We have goods but you don't want them. Did Mingjing give you some benefits to prevent you from accepting our goods?"
"Our goods are just as good, why do you do business like this?"
Dong Li seemed to ignore everyone's accusations and continued moving goods.
After packing everything, Xie Junan said goodbye to Mingjing and drove away.
A group of people gathered in front of Mingjing's house, teasing him, "Mingjing, how much money has your family actually made?"
"Not much, the price was too low. If it weren't for him coming to my door, I would have gone to the city because of the bad weather," Mingjing said, feigning reluctance.
Sun Yunmei greeted, "Uncle Wang, come in and take a look. We have a lot of mixed vegetables at home, and we can't finish them all. You can take them back and make soup for your wife and children."
"It is all thanks to the protection of the Sea Goddess that Mingjing is where it is today."
"Forget it, I have something to do at home, I'll go back first."
Old Wang glanced at the bucket in the yard, which contained a bunch of crabs with broken legs, kelp, mussels, and the like, then shook his head and headed towards the beach.
After everyone had left, Mingjing looked at the empty courtyard with great satisfaction. Gazing at the remaining seafood, she began to plan a seafood feast.
However, the remaining food was too small and tasteless, but she was too lazy to go to the beach to collect it. Firstly, the people there didn't welcome her, and secondly, there wasn't much good stuff on the beach.
Judging from yesterday, her luck wasn't on the beach anymore, but she couldn't say exactly where it was.
"Mingjing, I think that young man is quite nice. Are you two very familiar with each other?" Sun Yunmei walked over and grabbed Mingjing's arm to ask.
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