The latter half of the crab traps required Li Haochen to rest after pulling each one before continuing. His heart was racing, but it was for good reason; it was either blue lobsters or blue crabs, or grouper and spotted coral trout, or even spotted snakeheads and leopard coral trout. The sheer quantity made him wonder if he had used up his luck for the rest of his life.
The harvest was incredibly rich. If he sold everything from this haul, conservatively, it would amount to thirty thousand yuan. It was terrifyingly substantial.
Initially, Li Haochen's target fish for this trip were the red coral trout. He hadn't expected the storm to bring such a huge surprise. Now that he had the golden croakers, he no longer needed the red coral trout.
The blue lobsters and blue crabs were also among the main dishes for tonight. Fish, shrimp, crabs, chickens, geese, and sheep – now only the sheep was missing.
Li Haochen selected enough blue lobsters and blue crabs and put the rest into the aquaculture net cages after sorting them.
With this batch of fish, kept in these net cages, the annual appreciation rate was one hundred percent, or even higher. For instance, for those dozen or so golden croakers, the price differed with every additional tael of meat they grew.
He emerged from his special space at only 7:30 AM. At this time, he could still buy mutton at the wet market. It wasn't autumn or winter, the season for nourishing oneself, so mutton wasn't selling particularly fast.
He also brought along a prepared sand goby, not a large one, about 1.5 jin. Arriving at the duty room, he saw Wang Xiaoming staring blankly at a yellowed photograph.
Li Haochen's arrival didn't even register with him.
"Uncle Ming..."
Li Haochen called out three times before Wang Xiaoming finally reacted, carefully putting away the photograph in his hand.
"Uncle Ming, what are you looking at with such absorption?"
"Heh heh, nothing much. Come to get the car? I've already recharged it for you."
"Thanks, Uncle Ming. This is for you. It's good stuff. I'll get some medicinal herbs to stew it later, hehe!"
"Oh, what good stuff." Wang Xiaoming took the bag and looked at it, his face lighting up with joy. "It's a sand goby. This is truly good stuff. Then I won't be polite, hehe!"
"Then I'll head back now. Be careful tonight, hehe!"
"This kid!"
Wang Xiaoming smiled slightly and took out the photograph again. If Murong Yanran were present, she would surely be astonished. The person in the photo was her late mother, Li Sisi.
"Ah Si, why didn't you ever give me a chance back then..."
While Wang Xiaoming was lost in reminiscing, Li Haochen had already arrived at the wet market. At this hour, it was mostly old men and women buying groceries. Only they would come to buy food so early.
For a young man like Li Haochen to be at the wet market at just past seven o'clock was a rarity.
He had quite a few things to buy. Li Haochen first went to the stall selling "Yi Hao Tu Zhu" (No. 1 Native Pig). The name was quite grand, and the price was a few fen higher than ordinary pork. Whether it was truly native pork, however, was a matter of opinion.
Li Haochen bought a piece of pork for sacrificial offerings, along with a few jin of pork bones and two pig trotters. These three items alone cost over six hundred yuan – not cheap.
After paying, Li Haochen went to the seafood shop and bought five jin of oysters. For the evening's main course, he planned to make a dish called "Heng Cai Jiu Shou" (Money Comes to Hand).
After buying pork, of course, he had to buy mutton. Afterward, Li Haochen went to the vegetable stalls, fruit stalls, and the grocery store. Once he had bought everything, he rode his bike home.
Just as he reached his doorstep, Li Haochen received a call from his uncle. Due to the heavy rain last night affecting the roads, they only started their journey at six this morning and wouldn't be able to make it to help.
There was no choice but to handle everything himself. Five tables of food – that was a huge workload.
Murong Yanran and Xie Baolian couldn't be of much help. Washing vegetables or setting up tables and chairs was fine, but he would have to be the one to do the actual cooking.
Setting aside the freshly bought meat and vegetables, Li Haochen picked up his cleaver and headed towards the foot of the mountain. He was going to chop firewood.