I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 287: Chapter 187: The Eve of the Opening of the Sea

"What kind of grouper is this?"

The blush on Yi Chen’s cheeks still hadn’t faded by the time she got from her house to the shop. The rosy flush added a touch of cuteness to her innocent features.

She hadn’t gone into the shop with Gu Nan, having stopped to buy a few things, so she arrived a moment later.

The moment she arrived, she saw the three-wheeled cart by the entrance. A massive grouper, the likes of which hadn’t been there in a long time, was displayed on top.

"It’s a Pearl Dragon Grouper, a type of hybrid. It probably escaped from a fish farm. Don’t let its size fool you; it won’t sell for a high price."

Gu Nan patted the fish’s body as he spoke.

He saw plenty of big fish these days, but catching a huge one from local waters with his own hands still made him want to show it off. It was an angler’s instinct—one he couldn’t change and had no intention of changing.

Hearing this, Yi Chen knew he had run off to go fishing again last night.

But she didn’t mind that her boyfriend often ran off to fish. She was a content person; her boyfriend treated her well and had no other bad habits or unhealthy hobbies. It was just fishing, so what was there to object to?

Yi Chen herself had always hated how her father used to boss her around and control her life, so she would never impose the same thing on Gu Nan.

She then ran into the shop to see the rest of the catch.

She found a large number of black sea bream and scorpionfish, along with a few parrotfish, Yellowfin Gidai, and others.

The thirty-pound Red Friend Fish was especially eye-catching, but there was a dark black fish and a brownish-yellow sea bream that she didn’t recognize.

"Ah Nan, what are these two fish, and how much are they?"

"The black one is a black rudderfish. I weighed it—five point two pounds. It can sell for seven hundred a pound. The other one is a blue-spotted snapper. Just sell that for two-thirty a pound, but if they haggle, you can drop the price a bit!"

Yi Chen nodded, making a mental note of the prices.

By now, she completely understood how Gu Nan’s seafood shop operated, and she knew exactly what he meant.

That "a bit" was a flexible term. A new customer might get a discount of five or ten at most, while old regulars would get a much better price.

Gu Nan didn’t rip off his regulars, which set him apart from many other shop owners.

Because of this, once regulars figured out how he did business, they became even more loyal.

Early that morning, thanks to the big guy on display at the entrance, foot traffic was significantly higher than it had been the past few days.

Gu Nan didn’t even have time to continue teasing his girlfriend and had to help sell fish.

He wished his parents would hurry up and get here to take over the shop. Then he and Yi Chen wouldn’t have to wake up so early or be this busy.

The new shop would be high-end, which meant there wouldn’t be as many walk-in customers.

Of course, Gu Nan wouldn’t mind handing the new shop over to his parents, but he knew what they were like.

They probably wouldn’t be able to sit still; they’d prefer being busy and watching the money roll in, transaction by transaction.

"Boss, that Pearl Dragon Grouper is huge! How much is it?" After more than two hours of solid work, someone finally asked about the big grouper at a little past nine.

"Four thousand. Take it if you want it." Gu Nan didn’t even bother to weigh the Pearl Dragon Grouper.

For this type of fish, the bigger they get, the cheaper they are per pound. A farmed one this size would be twenty per pound at most. He was only asking for forty per pound because it was wild-caught.

It was like the large yellow croakers. Nowadays, the ones in the East Sea were basically all hatchery-released.

But good-quality ones still sold for several hundred to a thousand per pound, unless they were in very poor condition.

In the markets to the south, the smaller ones went for thirty to fifty a pound. Those were all the wild-caught leftovers that were in poor condition, and you almost never saw one over a pound.

But for a regular family just wanting a fresh meal, buying those was perfectly fine; they were definitely much tastier than the farmed variety.

Too bad Gu Nan couldn’t buy them in Yangjiang Port even if he wanted to. Here, even the large yellow croakers from offshore farms cost two to three hundred a pound. The curse of geography!

The customer frowned, clearly thinking it was too expensive.

"This expensive? When I buy from the fish farms, the ones over thirty pounds are only ten or twenty a pound. This one of yours can’t be more than a hundred pounds, which works out to forty a pound."

"How about this: I’ll give you two thousand for it."

Gu Nan shook his head and refused. "Can’t do it. This one is wild-caught. I got it last night out on the sea. There’s a big difference compared to the farmed ones."

"Alright, let’s both compromise. How about three thousand?"

Gu Nan smiled and took out his pack of Hua Zi cigarettes, offering one to the man. "Sorry, my friend. If you really want it, take it for thirty-eight hundred. Come by my shop in the future, and I’ll give you a good discount."

"But really, forty a pound for this fish isn’t expensive. I bled it on the boat right away, so the quality of the meat is perfect. And it’s fresh, caught just last night."

These days, a few thousand wasn’t a big deal to Gu Nan, but you couldn’t just scowl and bluntly refuse a customer when the price wasn’t right.

"Even a wild one isn’t worth that much. Go a little cheaper." The customer took a drag from his cigarette, clearly wanting to haggle more.

In truth, both of them knew what it was worth. It was just that at thirty-eight hundred, the customer wouldn’t make a profit reselling it, so he wanted to push the price down further.

The customer assumed Gu Nan was like any other business owner—that getting the money in hand was all that mattered.

Unfortunately for him, he was dealing with an exception to the rule. Gu Nan just shook his head, a faint smile on his face, and said nothing. Clearly, thirty-eight hundred was his bottom line.

Seeing his silence, the customer felt this guy was a tough nut to crack. He exhaled a cloud of smoke and said, "Alright, how about thirty-two hundred? That’s not a low price. Boss, you can’t be so rigid in business. Cash in hand is what really matters."

Gu Nan ran into customers like this every day and didn’t want to drag it out any longer. The shop was busy, so he just shook his head in refusal and went to help another customer.

They stayed busy until almost eleven o’clock, and the Pearl Dragon Grouper was finally sold.

It wasn’t sold to the haggling customer, but to a buyer from a hotel for the full price of thirty-eight hundred.

The buyer also took the large Red Friend Fish, the blue-spotted snapper, and the black rudderfish. The four fish together came to a total of thirteen thousand, roughly what Gu Nan had expected.

Yi Chen was the one who handled the sale, so she had a pretty good day in terms of performance.

After a busy morning, the two of them only started preparing lunch once the shop was empty of customers.

Soon, a simple meal of two dishes and a soup was ready. The two of them sat down at the table with their bowls of rice and began to eat.

Gu Nan snuck a glance at his gorgeous girlfriend, and the memory of the beautiful scene—and the sensation—from that morning made his heart flutter, though he kept his expression neutral.

"Chenchen, you haven’t been over to my place yet, have you? Want to come check it out? You can learn the way."

Yi Chen paused in the middle of a bite. If it weren’t for this morning’s "sneak attack," she might have happily agreed. Unfortunately, that incident had revealed a certain man’s true nature to her.

’If I go over there, won’t I be a lamb walking into a wolf’s den?’

She immediately rolled her eyes. "I’m not going!"

Gu Nan hadn’t expected such a blunt refusal. He didn’t want to give up, but there was nothing he could do.

Moving in together was out of the question. Yi Chen wouldn’t feel right leaving Zhao Chunlan to live alone, and he hadn’t even considered it himself.

In fact, after they got engaged, Gu Nan might even move in with Yi Chen to help take care of her grandmother.

He had no problem with that. The woman he was marrying had been raised by her grandmother, so it was only right that he help take care of her.

Therefore, his best chance was to trick Yi Chen into going out to sea with him for an overnight trip.

Once he figured this out, Gu Nan was no longer in a rush. His parents should be able to take over the shop in another couple of days.

But the new shop wouldn’t be renovated and ready to move into until around September third or fourth, which left a convenient gap in their schedule.

He could borrow or rent a more luxurious fishing boat then and spend a few nights offshore.

Yi Chen gave Gu Nan’s calm expression a suspicious look, finding it a bit strange.

’He was so shamelessly persistent this morning; how could he be so quiet now?’

She had no idea that Gu Nan had already hatched a new plan. Instead, she assumed he would try another "sneak attack" tomorrow morning and secretly resolved to lock her bedroom door from now on.

That afternoon, he took Yi Chen to the club to practice diving. He was already highly proficient himself. According to Song Chengdong, he was ready to start practicing with a speargun.

So, he spent the afternoon practicing his aim. Not only did his accuracy on static targets reach over 80%, but his breath-hold time also increased to three minutes without him even realizing it.

Yi Chen didn’t have a cheat system, so she couldn’t practice in some game-like map. After an afternoon of learning, her swimming skills had improved a lot, and she could stay underwater for over a minute.

After leaving the club, Gu Nan didn’t go sea fishing that night. Instead, he and Yi Chen went to look at a few apartments.

Gu Dacheng and Zhao Suying were still at home packing, so the task of finding a rental fell to him.

Gu Nan didn’t bother looking at privately built houses or old complexes, heading straight for the quieter communities with better environments.

They looked at three places that evening and settled on a nicely furnished two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment.

It was on the ninth floor and had a balcony, which was convenient for drying laundry and bedding.

The annual rent was thirty-five thousand, plus utilities and management fees. Since it wasn’t a serviced apartment, he wouldn’t have to pay exorbitant electricity rates.

It was just a rental. Gu Nan couldn’t be bothered to hunt for the best deal; comfort was more important, so he settled things quickly and decisively.

When Zhao Suying heard her son had found a place for thirty-five thousand a year and had already signed the contract, she nearly dragged Gu Dacheng over to teach him a lesson.

Yangjiang Port was hardly a first- or second-tier city. A rent of thirty-five thousand for a two-bedroom apartment was considered extremely high there.

In their minds, the annual rent shouldn’t have exceeded twenty thousand, but their son had gone and paid nearly twice that.

For the next two days, Gu Nan was busy helping them move and clean. Fortunately, he didn’t get another lecture.

It wasn’t that Zhao Suying didn’t appreciate her son’s good intentions. Lecturing him once over the phone was enough. Scolding him again in front of his future daughter-in-law, who had come to help, would just be unreasonable of her.

In between moving and cleaning, Gu Nan also found time to take the Emperor Crab, some lobsters, and a few ornamental fish to the club.

The ornamental fish were placed in the club’s aquarium to add a bit of color.

The Emperor Crab, of course, was meant to be eaten. The group ate until they were stuffed and still hadn’t finished a third of it. In the end, it was only with the "help" of the club’s employees that every last bite was polished off.

As he was leaving, Guo Xiao and Wang Junhe were puzzled to see that the Hua Zi cigarettes and mineral water he had left in the office were still there.

’We didn’t see him drinking, so how could he have forgotten to take them?’

Of course, Gu Nan hadn’t forgotten them. He had simply changed his approach.

In the future, whenever he had a big catch, he wouldn’t need to bring it to them. They would probably come knocking on his door on their own.