"Okay, Dad. You can count on me," Lin Qiang said, patting his chest in assurance.
Lin Kunming nodded. Lin Qiang had been helping out at the restaurant these past few days, and his performance had been quite good. He felt at ease with the idea of handing the lobster house over to Lin Qiang in the future.
...
On the way back, Li Yang's fishing boat cast its nets a few more times, but all they caught were common fish and some ocean trash.
In reality, this was the norm. It was common for fishing trips to lose money; sometimes a single trip wouldn't even earn enough to cover the cost of fuel.
"The fishing boat's here!"
An unknown number of people had gathered on the shore, all watching with excited faces.
Besides people from the hotels and restaurants, others had heard the news. Word had spread, and they had rushed over to see the commotion.
A spectacle this grand was a rare sight.
The boat finally docked, and baskets of large yellow croakers were continuously brought ashore. The various restaurant owners pushed forward, looking extremely excited.
In fact, when they had called these restaurants earlier, they had already roughly settled on the quantity of goods and the approximate price.
The return trip had been long enough to sort out these details.
"So those are the large yellow croakers!"
"To be precise, they must be wild! There are plenty of farmed large yellow croakers these days, but the price is worlds apart."
"Oh my god, this is the first time I've ever seen so many large yellow croakers! And they're all so big. The largest one has to be seven or eight jin, right? How much could that sell for?"
The crowd chattered excitedly.
Lin Qiang was also in the crowd. He looked a bit chubby, but he was agile and squeezed his way to the front. His eyes first fell on the large yellow croakers, his gaze filled with envy.
'If only I'd been the one to catch these.'
His gaze then shifted to the crew members, and Lin Qiang froze for a second.
'Li Yang?'
He had actually spotted someone he despised on the boat.
He and Li Yang hadn't seen each other since the last class reunion. But after that gathering, his dislike for Li Yang had only grown, because Li Yang had made him look like a fool.
"Huh? Li Yang, what are you doing on the boat?"
"Are you a crewman?"
Next to Lin Qiang were two other people, who were also his classmates.
A lot of people had shown up, and Lin Qiang had run into these two classmates, so they stuck together. Now, these two also looked at Li Yang with a hint of curiosity.
After a moment of surprise, Lin Qiang burst out laughing. "Haha, Li Yang, so you're planning on becoming a fisherman now? Not bad, that's a pretty good job. Suits you well."
His face was all smiles, but inwardly, he looked down on the fishing profession. Fishermen had it really tough, sometimes spending long stretches of time at sea, exposed to the wind and sun. It was nothing but hard labor.
Li Yang glanced at Lin Qiang, his expression indifferent.
He remained calm, but Sun Datao, who was next to him, couldn't stand it. Sun Datao looked at Lin Qiang with a mocking smile. "A fisherman? Lin Qiang, you calling Brother Li a fisherman is the biggest joke I've ever heard."
Lin Qiang had noticed Sun Datao earlier, but his main focus was still on Li Yang.
Hearing Sun Datao's words, Lin Qiang immediately laughed. "Sun Datao, if Li Yang's not a fisherman, don't tell me he's the captain?"
He really knew nothing about Li Yang's family background. In high school, Lin Kunming would pick him up in a car, but Li Yang's parents had never once driven him.
In raising Li Yang, Li Guohai and his wife had focused more on cultivating his independence.
Just as Lin Qiang finished speaking, Zhang Houqiang walked up to Li Yang's side and said, "Boss, the price for the large yellow croakers has been settled."
"Okay." Li Yang nodded and walked toward the managers of the large hotels and restaurants.
From start to finish, he couldn't be bothered to acknowledge Lin Qiang, ignoring him completely.
Seeing this, Lin Qiang was suddenly stunned.
'Li... Li Yang is the captain of this ship?' He was completely dumbfounded, unable to believe what he was seeing.
In his mind, he had always stereotyped Li Yang as someone with good grades but an average family background, because he always wore generic brands and took the bus home.
'And now, he actually owns a fishing boat?'
The fishing boat before him looked like it cost several million yuan, at least.
After the initial shock, Lin Qiang's eyes suddenly fell on the large yellow croakers again.
'Li Yang owns this boat? Does that mean these large yellow croakers are his, too?'
At that moment, a cold shiver ran down Lin Qiang's spine. A multi-million-yuan fishing boat, and now these large yellow croakers worth at least ten million... 'How much money does Li Yang have?' He didn't dare to even think about it.
Beside him, his two classmates also had looks of utter shock on their faces.
"What? Li Yang's a captain now?"
"Those large yellow croakers belong to Li Yang, too?"
The two classmates were completely astounded.
...
Meanwhile, Li Yang was busy collecting money. Because the large yellow croakers were all big, they sold for a relatively high price.
In the end, all the large yellow croakers combined sold for a little over 20 million yuan! More than he had expected!
The largest one, weighing eight jin, sold for 160,000 yuan all by itself! That was a price of 20,000 yuan per jin!
Li Yang was overjoyed. With the help of his octopus clone, a single trip to sea was equivalent to finding three precious Rumphius's slit shells!
Of his small goal of 100 million, Li Yang had just achieved one-fifth!
"Great work, everyone. I'll send you your red envelopes on WeChat."
Having received this huge sum of money, Li Yang was in high spirits as he spoke to the crew.
Aside from First Mate Zhang Houqiang, who got a slightly larger bonus, he gave every crew member a 20,000-yuan red envelope.
Compared to his own earnings, 20,000 yuan was nothing, and Li Yang didn't hesitate to give it. In total, he had only given out 300,000 yuan.
"Thank you, Boss!" The crew members were all delighted when they saw their red envelopes.
They hadn't really done much; catching these yellow croakers was all thanks to following Li Yang's orders. Yet even so, Li Yang had given each of them a 20,000-yuan red envelope!
No one would think it was too little. After all, they had basically just been along for the ride on this trip.
In fact, they felt lucky. On other fishing boats, it was hard to earn over 20,000 yuan in a whole month.
"Brother Li, this is too much."
Sun Datao said, a little embarrassed, as he looked excitedly at the transfer from Li Yang.
He didn't know anything and had no experience. He had come along with Li Yang this time more for fun than anything else, so he never expected to get a 20,000-yuan red envelope too.