I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Bank Balance Breaks 20,000

A little after ten, Jiang Tengming finally arrived. Just like Kang Ye, he walked into the shop holding his phone, filming and talking to himself.

However, he was stunned the moment he entered and saw Yi Chen. He suspiciously stepped back out, checked the address to make sure he wasn’t in the wrong place, and then re-entered.

”Hello, how can I help you?”

The moment Yi Chen saw him, she guessed that this person was probably Gu Nan’s friend.

”Um, is Ah Nan here?”

Thinking the pretty girl before him might be Gu Nan’s girlfriend, Jiang Tengming’s manner became more polite, and he even put his phone down.

”The boss just went to the restroom. He should be back any minute,” Yi Chen replied with a smile.

The little shop didn’t have its own restroom, but the seafood market had a public one that was kept quite clean by dedicated staff.

’The boss...’

Jiang Tengming realized he must have misunderstood. But that only made him more surprised—a girl so young working at a seafood shop was a rare sight indeed.

In fact, it was the first time he’d ever seen it.

”I’ll wait for him then!”

”You must be the boss’s friend, right? He told me this morning that you were coming for the marlin. Why don’t you take a look? I can show you,” Yi Chen said, guiding him further into the shop toward the iced seafood display.

”Whoa, this marlin is huge!” The moment Jiang Tengming saw the fish, his attention shifted completely from the pretty girl.

”This is an Indian marlin. It’s 1.53 meters long and weighs seventy-three jin. The species can grow up to 4.65 meters and weigh over eight hundred jin, so this one’s only considered small to medium-sized.”

”Because of its high fat content, its flesh is white, which is why the Indian marlin is also commonly known as the ’white-fleshed marlin.’”

As she spoke, Yi Chen lifted the marlin’s gill cover, revealing the bright red gills inside.

”See? The gills are still very fresh, which means the meat is good for sashimi right now.”

As a seafood vlogger, Jiang Tengming could certainly tell whether a fish was fresh. He’d spent a small fortune developing that very skill.

After a careful inspection, he could see the fish was incredibly fresh—not at all what you’d expect from an import.

He then examined the fish’s mouth and saw it was line-caught, which pleased him even more.

He didn’t stop filming, keeping his camera aimed squarely at the fish.

”Not bad. Just as Ah Nan described last night. How much is it per jin?”

After looking it over, Jiang Tengming decided to buy it. His view counts had dropped significantly over his last few videos, and he knew it was because they lacked a good hook.

A marlin like this might not make the video go viral, but the numbers would definitely be a lot better than before.

”Since you’re the boss’s friend, I’ll have to ask him about the price. Would you mind waiting a moment?” Yi Chen was clever enough not to quote a price on the spot.

’To be honest, she was worried he would balk at the price, which would be several thousand yuan for a single fish.’

”Didn’t Ah Nan tell you the price?” Jiang Tengming asked, puzzled.

Yi Chen put on a troubled expression. ”Well, he did mention it... The list price is one hundred and twenty yuan per jin, but friends of the boss always get a discount. I just don’t know the exact amount.”

”Oh, I see. In that case, let’s wait!” Since only a fool passes up a discount, and he was already bracing for a hefty expense, Jiang Tengming was happy to lower the cost. Otherwise, the seventy-three-jin marlin would set him back nearly nine thousand yuan.

”You’ve got quite a few fish here. Why don’t you give me a tour while we wait?”

”Of course!”

”Um, would you be willing to be on camera? I’m a seafood vlogger, and I came today to buy fish and do a little promotion for Ah Nan’s shop. The video would probably be even better if you were in it.”

”I can do that!”

When Gu Nan returned to the shop after taking care of business, he saw Yi Chen introducing Jiang Tengming to the various fish on display.

”Yo, you made it! What do you think of the seafood here? Anything catch your eye?”

”This place is amazing! So many kinds of imported seafood.” Jiang Tengming couldn’t be more pleased. He’d never filmed any of these imported varieties before—it was all prime content!

”So, which one are you taking today?” Gu Nan asked.

”I’ll take the marlin. You mentioned it last night, and I just saw it—it’s incredibly fresh,” Jiang Tengming said, pointing to the fish. He then voiced his confusion, ”Where did you import it from? How is it so well-preserved?”

Normally, even for a line-caught fish, it takes time to get it from another country. It would have to be flash-frozen, so how could it possibly be this fresh?

Gu Nan shook his head. ”I’m not entirely sure myself. Some of my fish come from East Africa, others from small countries in Southeast Asia.”

”You know how tough the seafood business is. I was on the verge of going out of business before—got scammed hard by some dealers.”

”Then, I met this enthusiast while playing a game. He told me he had a channel to import fish, so I gave it a shot with some of the cheaper stuff.”

”Who knew his fish would be not only cheap but also incredibly fresh and lively? And now, business is booming, and I’m able to stock more and more varieties.”

This story Gu Nan spun wasn’t entirely false. His fate had indeed been changed by an ”enthusiast”—only it was a game, not a person.

”I see.” Jiang Tengming feigned a look of sudden understanding. It wasn’t his place to pry further into a new acquaintance’s business secrets.

Just then, the ever-perceptive Yi Chen chimed in, ”Boss, you were out earlier. How much is the discount for the marlin?”

Gu Nan paused. ’Didn’t I already tell her the price?’

But he understood in the next instant. A discounted price quoted by an employee felt completely different from one quoted by the boss himself.

If an employee offers the discount, a customer might think it’s just a sales tactic—that the fish listed at one-twenty and discounted to eighty was really only worth eighty all along.

But with the groundwork Yi Chen had laid, when he announced the discount himself, it would make the customer feel like they were genuinely getting a special deal.

”Haha, Ah Ming is my friend! I can’t be making a profit off you. Let’s say eighty yuan a jin!”

Jiang Tengming was stunned, not expecting such a steep discount. He immediately waved his hands in refusal. ”No, no, that’s too cheap! How can you make any profit? The air freight and taxes alone must be a fortune.”

”It’s your first time here, so I have to show some goodwill. Besides,”

Gu Nan said, flipping the marlin over on the display counter and pointing to a scuffed patch of skin.

”My enthusiast friend told me they accidentally dropped it while moving it ashore. It got banged up right here, which might affect the meat quality, so he sold it to me for cheaper as well.”

’Even with the discount, the marlin would still cost 5,800 yuan. And having just returned from a trip to Southeast Asia, his funds were indeed tight.’

Seeing that the fish was flawed, Jiang Tengming didn’t protest any further.

Having made the sale, Gu Nan retrieved the large, long foam box he had bought that morning. He shoveled a layer of crushed ice into the bottom and then placed the marlin inside.

It was a good thing the marlin was only a little over 1.5 meters long. If it had been over 2.5 meters, he wouldn’t have been able to find a foam box large enough.

’I’ll have to see what the elite boss and the second map’s boss are like,’ Gu Nan thought. ’If they’re all this big, I’m going to need to get a dedicated walk-in freezer.’

After seeing Jiang Tengming off, Gu Nan checked his bank balance. It had surpassed twenty thousand yuan. In a few more days, he could go look at some boats.