77: Swimming crab (Portunus trituberculatus)

Yang Qi looked at the crab in his hand.

"This looks like a Three-spined swimming crab!"

"This thing is a good catch!"

Three-spined swimming crabs are fattest in July. Since the fishing season hasn't opened yet, the price is also quite good.

Yang Qi actually knew about these crabs. Just two days ago, when he was at Chen Tianming's place, someone came to buy Three-spined swimming crabs.

Female crabs weighing four liang (200g) or more retailed for 350 yuan per jin (500g).

Male crabs of the same size retailed for 260 yuan per jin.

Yang Qi had asked at the time, and Chen Tianming told him that the purchase price for four-liang crabs was:

Female crabs: 280 yuan per jin.

Male crabs: 190 yuan per jin.

Of course, the larger the individual, the more expensive!

Yang Qi looked at the crab in his hand; it was a female crab, probably about half a jin.

"140 yuan in hand, definitely!"

Knowing they were valuable, Yang Qi started to catch crabs faster.

Yang Qi was experienced in catching crabs, having caught many river crabs when he was young. Although the crabs were different, the principle was the same.

Soon, the scoop net couldn't hold any more, not because it was full, but because the net was open and the crabs would crawl out.

He could only use his hand to hold the opening. Such a large scoop net could only hold six or seven crabs.

"Ugh! My equipment is too amateurish!"

"It seems I'm still lacking in preparation!"

There was no other way; he had to go up first and then come back down later.

Surfacing, he confirmed no one was nearby. Yang Qi first tossed the head of the scoop net onto the boat, then flipped himself aboard.

"Damn it!"

It turned out that as the scoop net head was thrown onto the boat, several crabs scurried around.

"It's just wasting my time!"

Helpless, Yang Qi could only catch them one by one and put them separately into the live fish tank he brought.

He dared not put these guys in the live fish hold, or they would tear the Groupers to shreds.

Yang Qi thought about it; going back and forth like this wouldn't work! It was too time-consuming!

He took out the scissors from his tackle bag and cut off the large scoop net head, turning it into a large net bag.

Then he took out a #5 leader line, threaded one end through the mesh at the mouth of the net bag, and clipped both ends of the leader line with a connector buckle.

Then, holding the leader line with one hand, he gathered the mouth of the net bag, and it became an open-ended, retractable net bag!

"Hehe! Now it's convenient! Let's go!"

A standard 305B, with hands wrapped around his knees, he entered the water, showcasing a combination of strength and flexibility.

He quickly dived to the bottom and found that the group of crabs, undisturbed, had started to forage in groups again.

Yang Qi caught them with precision, opening the net bag and stuffing them in one by one.

After catching about 20, Yang Qi surfaced. He was afraid the net bag wouldn't hold if it was fully loaded. He poured the crabs into the live fish tank and went down again to continue catching.

He only stopped when the live fish tank was full.

He quickly put on his clothes and steered the boat home.

He had to wear clothes; it was almost dawn. What if someone saw him?

What kind of decent person skinny-dips in the sea so early in the morning!

Upon reaching the village dock, Yang Qi first poured all the Three-spined swimming crabs into the large live fish tank in the van. He poured in enough seawater to cover the crabs and turned on the oxygen pump.

He locked the car door again and steered the boat towards the town dock. On the way, he called Chen Tianming, asking him to meet him at the dock to pick up the fish.

That's right, although the Three-spined swimming crabs were expensive, he didn't plan to sell them to Chen Tianming, so he didn't even mention them to him.

Chen Tianming usually stayed with a relative of his, a partner, who lived above the business. As soon as they heard Yang Qi was bringing another batch of Groupers, they were waiting at the dock early.

Under Chen Tianming's resentful gaze, Yang Qi held back 10 Tiger Groupers, each weighing four to five jin.

This time, Yang Qi ignored him, pretending not to see him.

After settling the accounts, these Groupers sold for a little over 90,000 yuan.

"Good fish still make good money!"

Yang Qi exclaimed again!

He was pulling the live fish tank, which contained the Groupers he had held back, and was about to cross the dock to board the boat.

Yang Qi saw three Mud Eels in a basin at a stall.

"These are good things! Great tonics!"

Yang Qi deliberately asked, "How much per jin for these eels?"

He had seen Mud Eels in the "Marine Organism Illustrated Catalog" and wanted to snag a bargain.

A man with a sun-darkened face, clearly a fisherman, sat in front of the stall.

The dark-faced man heard Yang Qi's words, looked up, and stared at Yang Qi with an expression like he was looking at an idiot.

"Young man, these are Mud Eels, not sea eels!"

He was also thinking internally, "You little brat, you think you can get a bargain from me?"

Seeing this, Yang Qi awkwardly asked, "How much are they, how much per jin?"

"Under half a jin is 500 yuan per jin, half a jin to one jin is 1000 yuan per jin, and one jin to two jin is 2000 yuan per jin."

The dark-faced man replied.

"What about two to three jin?"

Yang Qi asked.

"I don't have any over two jin here."

That tone! Yang Qi's quick temper couldn't stand it!

"Weigh them for me!"

"Huh?"

"I said I want all these, put them on the scale!" Yang Qi said, looking at the disbelieving dark-faced man.

"Expensive is expensive indeed! But good is good indeed! Next time I'll go get them." Yang Qi thought to himself.

"Brother, where did you get these?" Yang Qi began to probe the dark-faced man.

"The tidal flats north of the mangrove forest."

The dark-faced man was still bewildered because Yang Qi said he wanted to buy them all! He subconsciously blurted out.

Later, Yang Qi wanted to ask for more details, but the dark-faced man, having recovered, refused to engage in that topic no matter how much he was asked.

He regretted it. If he hadn't thought Yang Qi wouldn't buy the Mud Eels, he wouldn't have lost his composure and blurted it out.

Finally, Yang Qi paid 2586 yuan for three Mud Eels, plus half of the Mud Eel's origin.

"Let's go, home to make wine!"

The dark-faced man's face grew even darker when he saw Yang Qi put the Mud Eels into the live fish tank that still contained about ten Groupers.

"This guy is a master! Will he go and clear out my Mud Eel nest?"

Yang Qi didn't care what the dark-faced man was thinking. He had already decided to find time to go and dig for Mud Eels.

Yang Qi drove the boat non-stop back to the village dock.

He gruntingly moved the live fish tank off the fishing boat and pulled the tank to the front of the van.

Fortunately, he bought one with wheels, or he would have been exhausted today.

Yang Qi started the car and drove towards the city.

At the same time, he took out his phone and made a call: "Hey, Brother Jun, are you awake yet?"

Zhang Jun's voice came from the other end of the phone:

"Yang Qi! Yes, I'm about to eat breakfast! Calling so early, is something wrong?"

Yang Qi looked at the time on his phone. He exclaimed with some surprise:

"No way! Are you rich second-generation types this competitive now too? It's just past six o'clock.

"How can you do this to us working stiffs who are still sleeping!"

"I don't know about others, but my dad required me to get up at 5:30 AM to exercise since I was little. Now I'm used to it!"

Zhang Jun replied with a somewhat matter-of-fact tone.