Chapter 44: Seashells
“Brother Shao, no one wants these shells, what should we do now?”
“We also borrowed two taels of usury, but we didn’t make any money. How can we pay it back when we go back?”
The voice was very impatient, and the man was circling around impatiently at the same time.
There were four men on the fishing boat, their faces were dry and sallow, they were wearing rough and coarse clothes, and the clothes on their bodies smelled of fish after staying on the boat for a long time.
These few people come from remote villages. Their village is close to the sea so there are not many fish from the sea in their village, but there are a lot of shellfish. No one wants the shells do they when they caught them before, they usually threw them back into the sea. Recently, their village has been flooded.
For the villagers whose livelihood is fish, the shells flooding them meant that there were fewer fish around. The villagers’ livelihood was already difficult before, but now it is even more difficult.
Zhang Shao from the village saw that there were some shellfish so he also tried to open the shellfish and found that they were edible. He thought that someone would buy them if they sold them in the market.
Most people don’t know how to make new things and they also aren’t sure if they could be eaten so no one bought them.
Zhang Shao thought that the people from the county would have more knowledge than them and if they sold it to the county, where the people were well-informed, they might be able to find a way to sell it.
Unfortunately, they can’t go to the county town by foot otherwise their products would’ve already spoiled by the time they get there.
There are many fishing boats in the village, but these fishing boats are not big. If they use them then it’ll take at least two days before they can reach the county town. The fishing boats in the village are not good enough so they must rent larger boats.
Several good brothers in the village knew of his idea and thought it was feasible. If he could sell these shells then the livelihood of the village would not be so difficult.
Their families are in a difficult situation so they have no money and decide to borrow usury loans, they lease a cargo ship, and transport things to the county town to sell. The people in the village knew that the idea was good, but if they couldn’t sell it, they would have to lose all their wealth, so no one was optimistic about it.
Zhang Shao didn’t care about their opinion so he sent the goods by sea. The idea was good, but the reality hit him hard. The sea fish they brought in were all sold but the remaining shells, sea squid, and sea prawns cannot be sold, even if they are sold cheaply. Squid and other types of seafood were also sold in the county, but very few of them were actually sold so since others couldn’t sell these, how could Zhang Shao?
The money from selling sea fish is not enough to repay the usury, and the four men don’t know what to do.
They already went to the county pier yesterday, and if they couldn’t sell the remaining seafood today, they had to throw it away. The rental fee is calculated on a daily basis, and the usury interest is also calculated on a daily basis. If they stay for one more day then they will have to pay for one more day. They must return today.
The four of them lowered their heads and their faces were gloomy.
“If we can’t sell these then I’m going to sell the house.”
Zhang Shao is the backbone of several people. He proposed it at the beginning so he would bear the consequences. The other three men felt uncomfortable when they heard this, and the impatient man said in a low voice, “Brother Shao if you sell your house, where will you live in the future?”
Zhang Shao said calmly, “I’ll find an uninhabited place in the village, and go to the mountains to chop wood and build a simple house to live in.”
“If you sell the house, can my sister-in-law’s family agree to marry my sister-in-law to you?”
The impatient man’s words made Zhang Shao’s throat hoarse as his originally calm expression showed his struggle.
They all know that Zhang Shao has a ger whom he insists on marrying and that his ger’s family wants him to pay two taels of silver for a bride price before they are willing to marry him. He used the money he saved up for the bride price and that was why he had to borrow usury.
The other three men have family members. Unlike Zhang Shao’s parents who died in an accident in the sea while his relatives and elders didn’t care about him so he raised himself alone.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
If you are single, then you should sell your house as soon as you can to pay your debt. Being homeless is better than being in debt to usury. The daily interest is not something poor people like them can afford. But if he sells his house then he will definitely not be able to marry the person he likes.
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All three bowed their heads sadly. The conscience of the three couldn’t live with themselves.
Under a gloomy atmosphere, Wei Cheng finally noticed their boat.
Wei Cheng didn’t notice Zhang Shao’s boat at first as he started looking from all the way from the front and found that they were all small fish and shrimps that were about to be thrown back into the sea, none were as big as a finger, as well as seaweeds and some small shells.
When Wei Cheng came over and saw more than a dozen baskets of seafood on Zhang Shao’s boat, his eyes lit up as he finally found what he was looking for.
“How much are these seafood?”
The four of them who had lowered their heads with their faces ashen ashes suddenly raised their heads.
They… heard right? Did someone ask to buy some?
“You…do you want to buy it?” The four of them snapped back to their senses and asked in trembling voices, with disbelief on their faces.
Wei Cheng walked in and looked at the baskets of seafood. He was very satisfied, and he didn’t care about the people being stunned. “Yes, how much are they?”
After confirming that Wei Cheng wanted to buy some, the four of them were ecstatic, but in the next second, they thought that the person in front of them would maybe buy a few catties to eat, a few catties are not worth much at all.
The look of joy was gone again.
It was still Zhang Shao, who knew that no matter how much the customer bought they would sell- regardless of whether they sold more or less, it was still money being earned.
“Honored customer, the big seafood with shells costs five wen a catty while the smaller seafood with shells costs five wen a catty, the sea squid costs five wen a catty, the prawns cost eight wen a catty… how much are you gonna buy?”
The seafood with shells have shells on them that add a certain weight, so the price is very low. This price was quoted by Zhang Shao after careful consideration.
Wei Cheng: “…”
He had an indescribable expression.
All right- cheap is cheap, when at Rome, do as the Romans do.
“I want them all. Can you deliver them outside the county? The delivery fee will be paid separately.”
“You…will… have everything…?” The four of them were shocked, and then they replied in ecstasy, “Deliver it! We can deliver it, and you won’t have to pay for the delivery.”
The whole ship of seafood had shells weighing thousands of catties, squids weighing hundreds of catties, and sea prawns…To send those to the outside of the county, they’ll have to rent a cart. Wei Lei was familiar with the pier, so he looked for a cart.
There is a place to rent carts at the wharf, and they can also help deliver goods for a few pennies a trip, Wei Cheng does not need the people who sold him the seafood to deliver the goods.
Wei Cheng settled the bill and gave them more than ten taels as Zhang Shao took over their transaction. The three of them looked at Zhang Shao’s hand full of silver taels, and rubbed their eyes in unison, fearing that this might be a dream.
Wei Cheng then told them, “If there is still this kind of seafood, I will take the quantity today and you can ship it to me again in half a month. If there is other seafood that can be shipped as a sample, I will accept them if it suits me.”
The four of them were stunned by this surprise, but Zhang Shao was more stable, he recovered and agreed immediately.
Zhang Shao asked, “What can I call this boss? I will deliver the goods when the time comes. Where can I find you?”
“My name is Wei Cheng.” Wei Cheng said, “You can go to the wharf where people eat at the food stalls. You can ask anyone where Wei Ji’s stall is, almost everyone knows it. If you go to Wei Ji’s stall and look for the owner of that stall then you can find me.”
Wei Cheng paid them a deposit and left.
Zhang Shao and the other three with him felt that they were dreaming, and after taking this trip, after deducting the principal cost and two taels of usury plus interest, they would’ve earned five taels of silver, and they also had the deposit for their next trip.
The boss, Wei Cheng, also asked them to deliver him goods for a long time.
If so then there is no fear that the seafood in the village will not be sold.
Looking at the money in their hands, the eyes of these tall men turned red.
*
When Wei Cheng came back from buying a bunch of seafood, everyone’s jaws dropped in shock. They were all shellfish. What did he buy them for? Wei Hu was about to yell this question but Wei Cheng stared at him and he shut his mouth instantly.
Zhou Yuan asked, “Husband, why are you buying these things?”
Wei Cheng asked Wei Lei to go to the market to invite people. The seafood had to be processed on the same day, and he also asked Xiao-Liu to call Aunt Yang and the others over. After ordering Wei Cheng, he walked to Zhou Yuan and explained, “There is a drying room in the workshop at home. Don’t just think of these as seafood with shells, the meat inside can be made into scallops, which are very delicious to eat, and squid and sea prawns can also be made into dried goods.”
Zhou Yuan seemed to understand but at the same time, did not understand.
Wei Cheng smiled and said, “You’ll know when I make it.”
Wei Cheng held his wife’s hand, and the two entered the grocery store and walked through the backyard. The backyard of the store was connected to the workshop. On the side of the workshop was a row of living rooms, all of which were used for the employees to live in.
There is still a large open space between the backyard and the workshop, and a shelter is built in the open space to facilitate work when it rains. There is a well in the open space, which is used for cleaning things, and all the sea goods were transported here.
When everyone arrived, in addition to the invited people, there were long-term workers from the grocery store and employees of the food store in the county town who were being trained, including Wei Cheng’s servants, and they all started working together.
In addition to the scallops, this batch of seafood also includes conch and mussels. The conch is very big. Wei Cheng kept some for extra meals on the day while the rest were made into dry goods. When the time comes, the dry goods with good quality will be sold in the restaurant.
After the stall closed, Wei Yuan’s family and Yang Dashan came to help on the way.
As for the extra meal that day, except for Wei Cheng, it was the first time for everyone else to eat such a meal. With Wei Cheng’s guidance, the chef cooked the meals taught to him. At first, he wondered why Wei Cheng bought shells and sea squid, but after eating, he was convinced of his good decisions.
Wei Cheng also deliberately asked the chef to make a seafood hotpot for Wei Hu to send to Tai Fu Luo. After Yan Yi learned about it, he went back to report and took away a lot of open-shell meat. Yun Chengfeng’s mansion has an ice cellar for storage, and he is not afraid of the shell meat being damaged if it is taken away.
As for Yun Chengfeng’s personal thoughts, Wei Cheng didn’t know.
They dried goods, from morning to midnight, and there was seafood porridge served in the middle of the night.
In the middle of the night, Wei Cheng asked his wife to rest in the attic in the backyard of the store, where their bedroom was located. Those who had to work the next day were asked to go back to sleep while the others worked for a few more hours.
It took a day and a night to make all of the seafood into dry goods, and the oven had been baking for a whole day.
There are drying rooms and cellars for dry goods, but if they are to be stored for a long time, they must be vacuumed. In ancient times, there was no plastic, and oiled paper bags were used together for manual vacuuming, which can be stored for a long time.
On the third day, Yun Chengfeng came and insisted that Wei Cheng sell him the seafood hotpot recipe. The seafood he brought back couldn’t even be made into a decent dish by his chefs.
Seafood hot pot is the food of Wei Cheng’s restaurant so the recipe will definitely not be sold to Yun Chengfeng.
Yun Chengfeng: “…”
Yun Chengfeng had no choice but to rest his mind, and then ask Wei Cheng to cook the seafood hotpot again. Wei Cheng simply cooked it himself and in addition to making the seafood hotpot, he also made a delicious meal with the dried seafood.
After listening to Yan Yi’s report, Yun Chengfeng knew that dried seafood was something for sale, and he didn’t care at first, but now, Yun Chengfeng asked once again for cooperation.
It was okay to cooperate with Yun Chengfeng but he can’t afford to do it now, so he didn’t want to agree for the time being.
Yun Chengfeng was not happy when he heard that Wei Cheng disagreed. In order to get Wei Cheng to agree, he drew a picture of dried seafood that would definitely become the only rare product in the Dajing Dynasty after their cooperation, and they could even monopolize the entire market.
He also said that there are more seafood varieties in Fucheng and with the power of his family, he can monopolize the source of these goods and open shops all over the country. Most importantly, if they agree to cooperate, Wei Cheng will definitely have a place among the imperial merchants.
Well, Wei Cheng was moved.
It’s just that they’ll have to wait for his food shop to open and the business to become stable before they can cooperate.
How could Yun Chengfeng wait? When he signed the contract that day, Yun Chengfeng was so generous that he even gave him 40% of the profits, with direct management authority, not just dividends.
Wei Cheng didn’t even know why Yun Chengfeng was in such a hurry that he gave him so much profit.
Yun Chengfeng saw the monopoly of the market. Compared with the sauce workshop cooperation, he didn’t pay much attention to it. He only paid attention to dried seafood as his own truly independent industry. He didn’t plan to tell his elder brother about it, which was impressive, because if he told his elder brother then his elder brother would definitely be impressed with him.
That was why he acted so vigorously.
Yun Chengfeng was still working on the idea of having the seafood hotpot, “We have cooperated so can the recipe for the seafood hotpot be revealed now? I won’t use this recipe in the county and in the prefecture- I will use it in other restaurants.”
Wei Cheng directly refused, “No!”
Yun Chengfeng: “…”
Wei Cheng told him “You have no source of goods so what’s the use of taking the recipe, if you want to eat some then come to my restaurant to eat.”
Yun Chengfeng: “…”
His family owns a restaurant but he was being asked to patronize other restaurants!?
t/n: Hello guys, thanks once again for reading and for all your love, and we have an announcement today. Starting this week, we’ll only be updating our stories once a week instead of twice, this will be until the end of January, our finals are coming up and we’ll all be clutching for our grades and after finals, we will be going home to our respective provinces before the next semester starts. We are also giving time for our new and dearest, proofreader and editor, aprilmayaugust, to go through our already uploaded chapters so she can edit and put the necessary translators notes for all the stories. Thanks for your understanding and support, bonus chaps, if there are any, will still be uploaded on Sundays and are avaliable in our Ko-fi page. Thanks!
Welcome aprilmayaugust! 🥳🥳
Good luck with finals!
Thank You for the new chapter ( ˘͈ ᵕ ˘͈♡)˚๐*˟ ♡ Welcome new member on the board! ❤ And good luck with Your studies! Wishing You the best marks~ o(^◇^)o
Thanks for the chapter! Good luck!
Good luck with the finals, study hard but sleep well. Don’t get too exhausted or you’ll lose the ability to focus. 🧠
Good luck with your finals and enjoy the upcoming holidays!
Welcome aprilmayaugust!
Thank you & good luck. I love when they spread the wealth.