I Can Turn into a Fish

“Yi? Aren’t those sea cucumbers?”

“Oh, you’re right. All those boxes are filled with sea cucumbers, and they’re so big. F*** me! All of those things on that ship are sea cucumbers as well!”

“No way? Did they find a sea cucumber cave somewhere?”

“Sea cucumbers are some high class stuff. Maybe they didn’t go out to sea to catch fish but rather to find these quality ingredients. This many sea cucumbers must be worth at least a couple of million!”

“That sounds about right. Look at the size of those things. Heavens, they must have found a place that they grow, or else there’s no way that they would have found so many. Crazy! No wonder they didn’t bring back even a single fish; they only catch expensive things like these sea cucumbers!”

“Did you guys hear that a young man opened an aquarium store downtown. It’s super popular and is making a ton of money! Do you remember, the stones, jellyfish, corals and the other things this ship brought back over the last few trips? I heard that he sold an assortment of that stuff for ten to twenty thousand! It’s expensive enough to buy a cheap sedan!”

 “So fishing isn’t the only way to make money from the sea. I used to hear that this young man was a wastrel nouveau riche, but now it looks like he is very capable. I can’t help but admire him.”

The gathered fishermen had all spotted the sea cucumbers just as they were beginning their work, and everyone recognized the product immediately. They exclaimed and shook their heads with many feelings; they used to mock this man and think badly of him, but now it appeared they had all been frogs at the bottom of the well!

Chu Xian shook his head slightly at the quiet murmuring all around him. When he finally got access to his fish farm, he could dock the ship over there and then this type of work would be a lot more convenient in the future.

They transported all of the sea cucumbers to the villa, and this was also the first time Xiao Ying had visited the place. She walked around examining everything curiously.

“We will buy another one in the future. This villa is somewhat far away, and it’s not that amazing.” Chu Xian smiled and told Xiao Ying.

“There’s no need. I think where we live now is very good, and it’s close to school!” Xiao Ying shook her head.

Chu Xian and Xiao Ying lived in a high class compound neighborhood, and the decorations were all very luxurious, otherwise the rent would not be so expensive.

At around noontime, Grandpa Feng and Zhang Xiaohua arrived at the villa, and when they saw Chu Xian they were greatly surprised.

 “Boss, when did you get him? How was the trip?” Zhang Xiaohua looked at him and asked with curiosity.

 “Not bad, we have it all here.” Chu Xian smiled. “That’s right, how is the aquarium design going?”

“I’m done with more than half. There are some that I haven’t finished yet, but it won’t take long. At most they’ll take me three more days!” Zhang Xiaohua replied.

“En, then you guys take care of that. When you are done, we can prepare the opening of our new store in Jing Hai!” Chu Xian nodded. “How was business these past couple of days?”

“Quite good. In these five days that you’ve been away, we’ve had a million and nine hundred thousand rmb in sales. It’s falling everyday, and I’m estimate that in a month or two the Hai Qing City market will be saturated!” Zhang Xiaohua frowned slightly. “If we need to wait for the market to recover, we will have to wait two years!”

Chu Xian nodded as he started thinking. Aquariums were not disposable items, and the market in Hai Qing City was rather small. Many people had bought items in the opening days, and fewer and fewer people would buy as time went one. But their sea tanks would last two years at most, and customers would need to get news ones after those two years.

“Don’t worry. We can sell some little sea fish and sea shrimp at the store. These aquarium enthusiasts usually end up buying more things to add to their own aquariums, and we can make some money selling these little things.

“En, you’re right. These past few days many customers have returned to buy small fish and small shrimp!” Zhang Xiaohua nodded.

After talking with Zhang Xiaohua for a little bit, Chu Xian had formed a general idea in his heart. For lunch, Old Huang cooked sea cucumbers with vegetables; he’d already gotten a little tired of eating seafood for five days in a row.

That afternoon, Chu Xian brought the others to the goldfish store.

“Big brother, grandpa, big sister!” Pupu called out as they walked into the store, greeting them one by one with a face covered in smiles.

“En!” Chu Xian laughed.

The goldfish store was very stable. After the promotion with the Hai Qing City government, more and more tourists came to the shop. Since it was so easy to carry goldfish, some tourists bought some and brought them home.

The sales over these past five days were a hundred and fifty thousand rmb. Chu Xian put away the money and sat down for a while.

Xiao Ying walked across the street to the pet store and chatted with Tang Qiumeng; it looked like the two were on very good terms.

Pupu had tidied up the entire goldfish store, and had placed some books on the table, of which most were university textbooks. There were only two books of literature.

Chu Xian thought that Pupu looked less like a farmer and more like a student, and gave off a very calm and quiet feel.

The next day, Chu Xian took Xiao Ying downtown to check out the aquarium store briefly before walking over to the shopping mall nearby.

“I’m meeting my mother-in-law for the first time, what kind of things should we buy?” Chu Xian leaned over and asked Xiao Ying.

“Anything will do. My father likes to smoke and drink, so you can buy some cigarettes and alcohol. My mother loves to play mahjong, but you don’t have to buy that. Just buy some clothes for her!” Xiao Ying answered thoughtfully.

“Then we’ll buy some clothes and buy a little extra. You can choose for your mom, and I’ll deal with the cigarettes and alcohol!” Chu Xian nodded, and they shopped around in the mall.

He bought a couple outfits and shoes for his mother-in-law, and then he also bought some make-up products, and as for the cigarettes and alcohol, he spent tens of thousands on two boxes of alcohol and tow cartons of cigarettes!

Since he was visiting his future father and mother-in-law, he needed to behave well and let Xiao Ying show off.

After shopping around for most of the day, Xiao Ying looked at the things piled up in the car and laughed happily. “If we bring this over my parents will definitely say it’s such a waste. I don’t think my dad will bear to drink these thousands of rmb bottles of alcohol.”

Chu Xian laughed. Xiao Ying’s family was also from a small village, and village people tended to be like this.

When he had sent two million rmb back home a short while ago, his parents said that they would save it for when he married and had kids, and it was only after he spent a long time explaining to them that his parents finally agreed to spend some of the money.

“In the future your parents will by my parents. I’ll deposit two million in your bank account, and you can leave it for them to spend!” Chu Xian smiled.

“Thank you!” Xiao Ying replied in a greatly moved voice.

“Haha, you still say thank you. Just give the money to my mother and father-in-law. Tell them this is a little bit of a bride price from their son-in-law to look after their family!” Chu Xian smiled and he spoke.

“Heng, heng. Only this little bit of a bride price and you want to marry the little princess of my family. Don’t even think about it!” Xiao Ying glanced at him and laughed.

Chu Xian laughed happily as they drove to the bank. He opened an account under Xiao Ying’s name and deposited two million, and since they were already there he also sent five million rmb back to his family.