71: The ship is in sight

"Is the time set? Okay, we'll be there."

When Zhang Jun heard Yang Qi's formal invitation to dinner, he knew it must be for a "housewarming."

"Okay! I've got it."

Although Chen Tianming didn't know the specifics, hearing Zhang Jun's words, he knew he must be clear, so he could just ask him later!

After dinner, the group went their separate ways home.

The next morning, Yang Qi went to find Chen Tianming.

Two hours later, this 90% new Wuling Hongguang PULS belonged to Yang Qi.

Bidding farewell to Chen Tianming, Yang Qi drove the minivan slowly towards the main road.

He had learned to drive during his summer vacation in college, and although he had driven a few times since, he was still a bit rusty.

He needed to get familiar with driving again.

He drove back and forth on the coastal road from Qingshan Town to the city two or three times, finally regaining his confidence.

Yang Qi removed the rear seats of the car and put them in the storage room of his new house. (They would need to be reinstalled for vehicle transfer inspection.)

Then, he installed the extra-large live fish tank that Chen Tianming gave him in the back, where it fit perfectly. The accompanying set of high-power oxygen pumps was also installed.

He also put his fishing gear and some accessories, including the live fish tank, in the front passenger area. This way, he wouldn't have to load and unload his fishing gear every day.

The tricycle was now covered with a rain tarp and parked in the corner of the yard.

"Time to go fishing and make money!" Yang Qi thought to himself.

The small boat he was currently renting was still docked at the village pier, so he had to drive back to the village.

As Yang Qi's minivan just arrived at the village pier, he received a call from Zhang Jun before he even got out of the car.

"Yang Qi, what are you doing right now? You haven't gone out to sea, have you?"

"Not yet, I just arrived at the village pier," Yang Qi replied honestly.

"That's good! Don't bother going out to sea, come to the city immediately. I'll send you a location, hurry up!"

Zhang Jun finished speaking in one breath, his tone a bit urgent.

Yang Qi immediately replied, "Alright! I'll be right there."

Yang Qi knew that Zhang Jun usually didn't speak lightly, but he would never joke around when he was about to go out to sea.

It must be something important!

Yang Qi immediately turned his car around and drove towards the city.

"Maritime Safety Administration? What is Brother Jun doing here?" Yang Qi couldn't help but wonder as he parked his car.

Just as he reached the entrance, he saw Zhang Jun and a middle-aged man in his forties getting out of his Mercedes-Benz and waving at him.

Yang Qi immediately got out of the car and walked towards the two. "Brother Jun!"

"Yang Qi! You're here! Let me introduce you, this is Officer Zhang Long. My cousin, and also Zhang Fei's older brother."

"Big Brother, this is Yang Qi, one of my younger brothers."

Zhang Jun introduced the two to each other.

"Officer Zhang, hello! I am Yang Qi."

Officer Zhang smiled and shook Yang Qi's hand.

"No need to be so formal, A Jun rarely introduces me to his friends like this."

"It shows that your relationship is special. Besides at work, we don't need to use such formal titles when we meet normally. Just call me Long Ge!"

"Okay, Long Ge, I'll remember that."

The two followed Zhang Long to his office.

Zhang Long asked Yang Qi, "I heard from A Jun that you want to buy a fishing boat?"

"Yes, Long Ge, I'm just struggling with the fact that the fish hold space of ordinary fishing boats is a bit too small. I still want to go deep-sea fishing or even commercial fishing. But if the price is too high, I can't afford it."

Yang Qi honestly stated the problem he had been struggling with.

"Hmm, do you know that our Maritime Safety Administration auctions or disposes of some confiscated materials from time to time?"

Zhang Long said casually.

"Materials auctioned by the Maritime Safety Administration? Those must be for use at sea, right? Could it be..." Yang Qi's eyes lit up.

"Long Ge, I really didn't know about this! Do you mean..."

Zhang Long didn't answer, he reached out his hand and said to Yang Qi:

"Give me your phone, I'll download an APP for you, you can check it out yourself."

He took Yang Qi's phone and, with a flurry of taps, downloaded the app.

Then he opened the APP and said to Yang Qi, "Take a look yourself and see if there's anything suitable. If there is, sign up to participate in the auction."

"Judicial auctions are generally primarily online, combined with offline participation. After a judicial auction, our bureau is not responsible for the relevant procedures or road transportation; the successful bidder needs to pick up the goods themselves."

"Therefore, for large-value goods, the auction is still primarily offline, supplemented by online participation."

"There's an auction this afternoon, you can check the information first. If you want to buy a boat, just enter 'vessel'!"

"If you really bid successfully, I can help you a little with the paperwork!"

Yang Qi was overjoyed after hearing Zhang Long's words.

After entering "vessel" in the auction item bar, he clicked confirm.

A long list of various yachts, fishing boats, engines, accessories, and other vessel-related information appeared below.

Current auctions are very transparent; in addition to the item description, the ownership status of the lot, and any defects, are all explained one by one.

Cheaper items might have problems, such as being mortgaged or having been in an accident. Items without defects are not cheap.

Yang Qi also understood that for this kind of thing, although it was listed on an auction platform and even auction announcements were issued, if you didn't have inside information, probably few people would know.

Some items were even pre-selected by insiders. If Zhang Long told him, and he, being clueless, bought an item that someone else had already set their sights on, that would be a taboo.

So, Yang Qi was still very grateful to Zhang Long and Zhang Jun.

However, since Zhang Long mentioned it, there must be something suitable for him, and it definitely hadn't been pre-selected by anyone.

So Yang Qi looked through the information one by one and finally saw a strange boat.

The "storm," a JY660 type diesel deep-sea fishing vessel. It was 19.8 meters long and 6 meters wide. Its displacement was 28 tons.

(The above data, including the vessel model, are all made up by the author, please don't mind.)

It had a Weichai 400, twin-engine diesel engine, with an economic speed of 20 knots and a maximum speed of 25 knots.

With a 6000-liter extra-large fuel tank, it could cruise for over 1000 nautical miles.

The front and rear deck spaces were very large.

From the surface, this was a fishing boat with a flybridge deck.

However, apart from a lounge in the cockpit, this boat only had one rest cabin, which was very different from other fishing boats with three or four rooms.

Its space had been converted into a 5-meter x 5-meter large ice hold. A crane arm was installed inside, capable of lifting 1000 jin of heavy objects.

When not in use, it could be retracted and stored vertically behind the ice hold door.

At the stern, right next to the engine room, were two small ice holds and two large live wells side by side.

"Neither fish nor fowl" was Yang Qi's first impression of this boat.

Because this boat had too few rest cabins. Whether used as a yacht or a fishing boat, there would be a severe lack of passenger space.

Normally, who would drive such a fuel-guzzling boat out to sea for leisure or fishing with just one or two people?

Would a rich second generation take just one or two beauties out to sea for fun and expect him to do the work of driving the boat himself? Isn't that a joke?

Which fishing boat doesn't charge people to take them out to sea for fishing? Otherwise, just the fuel consumption of this boat would lead to huge losses.