313: Officials

Yang Qi took the new car keys from Liu Yao, waved goodbye, and drove onto the main road.

After Bai Xue and Yao Shanshan said goodbye to Liu Yao, they drove the BMW, following the pickup truck.

The three returned to Yang Qi's mother's place for dinner and told her they had guests coming tomorrow night and needed her and the others to help cook.

Everyone discussed and decided on a rich dinner menu. They later learned that Yang Qi had bought another car and was planning a trip.

They all rushed out to see the tall and mighty pickup truck.

"You bought a 1.2 million car just to haul fish later?"

Hearing Yang Qi's plan, his mother rolled her eyes repeatedly.

"Forget it, I won't bother with you. The van will be parked here from now on, and we can use it to haul fish. I don't have the good fortune to use a million-plus car to haul fish."

Yang Qi agreed immediately, knowing it was better to be compliant at this moment.

When the three of them returned to the Sea View Villa, they went to the studio again. Yang Qi continued melting gold bars, while the two women continued making jewelry.

If the results weren't good, they would melt it and start over. Anyway, the gold was theirs, and the molds bought from Pinduoduo were plentiful.

That night, when they went to bed, whether Bai Xue was compensating Yang Qi or simply letting loose her nature, she acted as the 'knight' all night.

Yang Qi's entire body and mind were sublimated, exhausted yet happy!

The next day, when the two woke up, groggy-eyed, they found it was already past nine o'clock.

They went downstairs and ate the breakfast Yao Shanshan had prepared. The people from the housekeeping company, contacted through the property management the day before, also arrived.

They had agreed when they bought the house to hire someone to clean once every half month.

If they did all the cleaning themselves, it would take a whole day. Besides being tiring, they wouldn't necessarily do as good a job as professionals.

The property management contacted the housekeeping company. At one hundred yuan per hour, three people spent three hours cleaning the house thoroughly.

In the afternoon, Zhang Long and Zhang Jun brought four friends to Yang Qi's house, arriving just as Yang Qi was dismembering the 180-jin Bigeye Tuna.

Yang Qi had entrusted Chen Tianming to buy this set of specialized Tuna butchering knives; there were many blades, long and short, wide and narrow.

Yang Qi packaged the fish meat from different parts separately. The remaining half—the fatty belly and the medium-fatty belly—were placed in several sashimi platters, layered over crushed ice.

The lean meat was prepared as seared sashimi, braised Tuna eyes, pan-fried fish fillets, and fragrant stewed Tuna head.

According to Zhang Long's introduction, the four people were: his superior at the Maritime Safety Administration, Deputy Director Liu; Deputy Director Wang from the City Committee Office; Deputy Director Luo from the Public Security Bureau; and Deputy Director Chen from the Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Yang Qi shook hands with everyone. These were all figures in officialdom, experts in social etiquette and human relations.

Zhang Jun seemed quite familiar with them, so he took them on a tour of the villa. Yang Qi, meanwhile, continued processing the Tuna.

Everyone came to the large fish tanks and couldn't help but sigh in amazement at the vigorous Grouper inside.

Even if these people weren't local coastal residents, they were all very familiar with these top-quality seafood items.

When they saw the live, premium seafood being kept in the large fish tanks—the Large Yellow Croaker, East Star Grouper, Mouse Grouper, Red Grouper, three-knife fish, and so on—they were all astonished.

They had eaten plenty of this premium seafood, but usually, it was served on restaurant plates. Seeing them kept so freely in fish tanks was truly rare.

After Yang Qi finished processing the Tuna, he rushed to the scene, just in time to hear Deputy Director Wang from the City Committee Office mention that Mayor Tan also kept some nice-looking marine fish at home.

He immediately stated that the next time he went to the South China Sea, he would definitely bring back a few good-looking fish for the Mayor.

Finding it novel, a few of them even took videos of the fish and posted them in their family chat groups.

Unexpectedly, their phones immediately began ringing and vibrating non-stop, making them frown. They instantly regretted uploading the videos.

Zhang Long inquired and realized that it was the daughters or nieces of the men who had taken a liking to the ornamental fish.

This put them in a difficult position. Given their status, they couldn't possibly ask Yang Qi, whom they were meeting for the first time, for these ornamental fish.

However, they couldn't resist the pleading of their daughters and nieces. These men were all in their forties, and honestly, at their age, there was still a great chance for them to strive and get promoted.

Therefore, they were very protective of their reputation and understood the benefits of maintaining good relations with the local business behemoth, Shenglong Group.

That's why they had come to dinner with Zhang Long, with whom they usually had good relations.

But asking Yang Qi for these small ornamental fish was hard to bring up.

Zhang Long inadvertently saw a message on Deputy Director Liu's phone and immediately understood why they were so awkward.

"Oh, come on! What's so difficult about this? Yang Qi and A-Jun treat each other like brothers. I've always treated him like a younger brother, too. We're all family."

"These ornamental fish aren't worth anything. Since Mengmeng and the others like them, just take some home to keep."

Yang Qi immediately chimed in:

"Exactly, exactly! I'm just a fisherman. I caught all this stuff myself in the South China Sea. They're not worth anything; I just keep them for fun."

"I caught these the last time I went to the South China Sea, near the Xisha Islands. There are so many of them there, like common minnows in a reservoir."

"Because I have too many at home, I didn't catch a single one last time I went. They really aren't worth anything."

"At worst, I'll just go catch more next time."

Seeing how sincere Yang Qi was, the men exchanged glances, thanked him profusely, and agreed to take a few fish home when they left.

"I suggest we don't wait until you leave. You don't know exactly what kind of fish they like, so why not just call them to come over and choose for themselves now!"

Zhang Long suggested this because he knew the families of these men lived in the The City.

The men considered it briefly and agreed. After all, the favor had already been incurred.

Subsequently, all four men took out their phones and made calls.

Yang Qi immediately told Bai Xue to go buy four or five air pumps and fish boxes.

Less than half an hour later, several cars stopped at the entrance of the Sea View Villa; the families of the leaders had arrived.

After introductions were made, Bai Xue and Yao Shanshan took the several beautiful, seventeen or eighteen-year-old girls to catch fish, while the others entered the living room to drink tea.

Deputy Director Chen of the Administration for Industry and Commerce touched the solid wood sofa and then noticed several antique decorations.

He showed a surprised expression and said:

"Yang Qi, are these decorations of yours real antiques?"

"Director Chen has a sharp eye!"

Yang Qi said admiringly. He had only learned that these items downstairs were genuine after he invited The Expert at Qiaozuiquan to appraise them.

"In that case, your living room, plus this mahogany furniture, must be worth quite a lot of money."

"Oh, Old Chen, how so?"

Deputy Director Luo of the Public Security Bureau seemed less knowledgeable about antiques and asked curiously.

"Just looking at the sofa and decorations in this living room, I'd say it's worth no less than 8 million."