41: Fishing boats return

Deep in the night, the originally exhausted and starving group was mostly re-energized after finishing a hot, fragrant bowl of fish porridge.

Everyone expressed their gratitude to Yang Qi, the several crewmen who provided the Grouper, and the chefs!

“Yang Qi, have you contacted a buyer for your catch yet?” Zhang Jun asked Yang Qi.

“Not yet! I was just about to ask you, how do you usually handle yours?” Yang Qi replied.

“This… me?… Well, usually I just take it home to eat! Or give it away!”

Zhang Jun said, a little embarrassed.

“Ah~!” Yang Qi thought he had misheard and turned to look at Zhang Jun in surprise.

He secretly thought to himself, “Do your family members like eating fish that much? With so much fish, when will they finish it all?”

“This… well, I usually don’t catch as much as this time!”

Looking at the stammering Zhang Jun, Yang Qi suddenly understood.

“Air Force Commander” Zhang Jun was not called that for nothing!

“What do you mean giving it away? You don’t even know if there’s enough for your own family? Hahaha!”

Chang Jianqiang, who was listening nearby, burst out laughing and immediately pulled the rug out from under Zhang Jun, decisively selling him out.

“What are you laughing at? How are you any better than me? Which time did you not go to the market to buy fish?”

“Oh, these two old guys have a story!” Curious baby Yang Qi immediately adopted an eager-to-learn attitude, humbly asking for an explanation!

It turned out that when the two of them went fishing, they often came back empty-handed, so they would go to the seafood market to buy some fish to take home.

The two were indeed meticulous people; they even knew to buy different types and sizes of fish.

They would tell everyone that they caught them while sea fishing. Their relatives and friends also believed them without a doubt.

Unlike some simple-minded people who buy fish from the market, where all the fish of the same species are roughly the same size. It’s obvious they were bought from the market.

Yang Qi also laughed heartily as he listened to his two old friends bickering.

However, both of them caught a lot of fish this time. It was certainly a great thrill for them.

“It still has to be fishing with Yang Qi; his fish luck is too good ＼(^▽^)／!” Zhang Jun exclaimed.

“Our catch this time is very large, and Yu Dafu’s restaurant can’t possibly take it all, and he only wants some high-grade ones. The remaining catch will be hard to deal with,” Zhang Jun said.

“I have a cousin who opened a seafood trading company in your Qingshan Town, and he’s quite capable. As long as there’s good quality product, he should be able to take it all, and the price definitely won’t be worse than others.

And in the future, if you catch fish, you can also sell them to him nearby, provided, of course, that he can afford the price.”

“Okay! I don’t know your cousin, but I trust you! You contact him then!” Yang Qi thought for a moment and said.

“Old Chang, do you have any connections?”

“I’ve never really sold fish before, so where would I get connections? Just sell mine to your cousin too!” Old Chang said nonchalantly.

“I heard from other fishing enthusiasts that the captain of this boat usually partners with a buyer and will contact them to buy fish, but the price isn’t very high. Everyone has some complaints.”

“I won’t meddle in others’ business, and I can’t do anything that would cut off someone’s livelihood. I’ll just ask the few of us who are close,” Zhang Jun said.

Both of them nodded in agreement.

Sure enough, they immediately saw the captain quietly chatting with a few other fishing enthusiasts.

When he saw them, he walked over to them and asked:

“Hello, gentlemen! You had a great harvest on this sea fishing trip! I have a friend who has a sales channel; I wonder if you’re interested.”

“Sorry, Captain, we have our own channel. My brother is a buyer. We won’t trouble your friend!”

Zhang Jun politely replied to the captain.

The captain was stunned, apparently not expecting such an outcome. “Alright then! If the price from your brother isn’t suitable, you can always come back to my friend!”

The captain then left them and went to contact other fishing enthusiasts. After all, he received a commission on this business, so he needed to be attentive.

The few of them didn’t bother to care who the captain was going to talk to about selling fish anymore.

They returned to the sleeping cabin, lay down, and slept soundly.

By the time Yang Qi woke up, it was already past two in the afternoon. Zhang Jun had woken him up, saying it was time to divide the fish.

Yang Qi found that there was no one else on the bed. He followed Zhang Jun out of the sleeping cabin and onto the deck, where everyone was present, presumably preparing to sort their respective catches.

According to Zhang Jun, they were first going to sort the fish in the freezer compartment. Based on the different colored zip ties, each person’s fish would be separated and then placed into their respective foam boxes according to the fish species. Once a box was full, crushed ice would be spread on top, then the lid closed, and their name written on it before being stacked together.

The large fish that couldn’t fit into the foam boxes were first separated by zip tie color and temporarily kept frozen in the freezer compartment.

“Sorry, Brother Jun, I was sleeping too soundly!” Yang Qi scratched his head.

“It’s fine, go quickly eat something in the restaurant. Once we get busy, you might not have time to eat. I’ll keep an eye on things here for you.”

Zhang Jun said nonchalantly.

“Okay, then I’ll trouble Brother Jun. I’ll go grab a bite!”

After Yang Qi finished speaking, he walked towards the restaurant.

A bowl of rice with half a piece of some unknown fish, topped with thick gravy. He quickly devoured it.

It still felt like something was missing, so he had two more bowls of fish porridge before returning to the deck, satisfied.

A large waterproof tarp was spread on the deck, and a huge pile of fish was dumped on it. Everyone separated the fish according to the different colored zip ties and then packed them into boxes according to the different fish species.

When a box was almost full, someone would shovel crushed ice onto it, then have someone seal the box and write their names on it.

Basically, picking fish, shoveling ice, and sealing boxes were all handled by different people, which minimized the occurrence of theft.

After Yang Qi came out, he also joined the fish-picking team.

It took about an hour to sort all these fresh fish.

Yang Qi had a total of 26 boxes, plus a Yellowfin Tuna weighing about 400 pounds, one Yellowfin Tuna around 200 pounds, three Yellowfin Tuna around 100 pounds, and three more weighing forty to fifty pounds, all lying in the cold storage.

As for Grouper, there were two Grouper weighing thirty to forty pounds, and two weighing over ten pounds. These few had died because they were brought out of the water too quickly, causing their swim bladders to burst. Most of the other Grouper were still alive and well in the live fish tank.

One forty-pound Red Seabream.

Two Big Vermilion Snapper weighing over thirty pounds.

One Beltfish weighing seven to eight pounds.

5 boxes of regular Beltfish.

Zhang Jun also did well, with 18 boxes of packed fresh fish.

Lying in the freezer compartment:

One Yellowfin Tuna weighing around 200 pounds,

Two Yellowfin Tuna weighing 50-100 pounds,

One Big Vermilion Snapper weighing over a hundred pounds,

One twenty-pound Grouper.

Zhang Jun’s grin, which reached the back of his head, could no longer be contained.

He immediately grabbed Chang Jianqiang, “Old Chang, let me tell you something!…”

Then he grabbed Wang Hu, “Old Wang, let me tell you something!…”

Then he grabbed another fishing friend, “Old Chen, let me tell you something!…”

This made everyone try to keep their distance when they saw him coming, but he didn’t mind at all, continuing to grin widely and push forward.