As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Overnight Dried Fish

Upon learning the price was so cheap, Chu Mingcheng immediately began to pick out all the Mackerel over 35 centimeters from his basket.

Eighty yuan for ten jin, I may as well keep some more to make small dried fish to tease my cat.

Having selected all the bigger ones, he sold off all the rest.

Then he took out his green spot, and the fishmongers’ eyes immediately lit up.

But their highest offer was only forty yuan per jin, which clearly was not a good deal for him.

Actually, this buying price was normal; the fishmongers bought from the fishermen and then sold to the stores.

The stores then sold to customers, and that was the market price, which was eighty yuan per jin.

Chu Mingcheng originally wanted to ask the big spenders in the group chat if they were interested, but then a passerby who was just watching the commotion wanted it and bought it for one thousand and fifty yuan, which worked out to be about eighty-one yuan per jin.

In the end, for this period of time in the evening, he made over 1,200 yuan—wasn’t this more comfortable than going to work?

Carrying his fish and fishing gear, and after bidding farewell to Zhao Jun, Chu Mingcheng squeezed out of the pier and took out his phone to call Zhang Wei.

“Where are you, what’s your location?”

“I’m at the pier, over by the railings.”

Chu Mingcheng looked around and finally spotted Zhang Wei, who was still casting his line, not ready to leave.

He went over to check out Zhang Wei’s catch and estimated that it was only half of what he had caught, and they were all small fish.

“Still fishing? The fish have long since gone, what are you still trying to catch?”

“I was waiting for you!” Zhang Wei said, glancing at Chu Mingcheng’s catch, and when he saw that all the fish Chu Mingcheng held were large, he was slightly surprised, “You found such a good spot that you got all big fish?”

“I used a sinking minnow to fish at the bottom; the bigger Mackerel are in the lower layer, so naturally, the ones I caught were all big.”

“Not bad, you’ve only been fishing for a few days and already know so much!” Zhang Wei said as he reeled in his line, then looked over to the nearby fishmonger and asked, “Aren’t you going to sell them?”

When it came to the price, Chu Mingcheng was somewhat speechless; this must’ve been the cheapest fish he’d ever come across.

“The small ones go for four yuan per jin, the big ones just eight. I’m not going to bother selling them. I’ll keep the fatty ones for myself to eat, and I plan to make fish jerky out of the skinny ones; I can eat those myself or give them to the cat as snacks.”

“Haha, cheap is cheap, I had my fun fishing anyway,” Zhang Wei said, not caring about the price—he wasn’t fishing for a living.

However, after comparing his own catch to what Chu Mingcheng had, he displayed a sly smile.

“Ah Cheng, all the fish I got are so small, they probably don’t taste that great. Yours are so big, why don’t you give me a couple to try?

“Sure thing!”

Chu Mingcheng had been willing to give away the green spot and Lianyong before, but that was with a purpose. Zhang Wei, on the other hand, was an old friend; a few Mackerel were nothing to feel reluctant about giving away.

If it had been Zhang Wei who wanted the green spot before, Chu Mingcheng would definitely not have asked for money.

But a true friend wouldn’t let him suffer a loss, so Zhang Wei wouldn’t suggest such a thing, and with something cheap like Mackerel, it didn’t matter.

“You go sell your fish first, it’s still some money at least. After you’re done selling, I’ll pick a couple of fat ones for you.” @@novelbin@@

“Alright.” Zhang Wei nodded and went to sell his fish first.

After a little while, he came back cursing under his breath.

“Damn, I thought it would be more, but it didn’t even add up to one hundred.”

Chu Mingcheng struggled not to laugh: “How much did you sell them for?”

“Ninety-five yuan and seven cents, that crook wouldn’t even give me the 70 cents, just rounded it down.”

“Alright, let’s head to my place first! Later, I’ll tell Chen Yang that I’ll treat him to a late-night snack.”

“Wow, a late-night snack, not bad, not bad.”

Both of them drove back separately. When Chu Mingcheng got home, he checked the weather forecast and, knowing that the weather would be good for the next couple of days, decided to separate the Mackerel that needed to be dried into fish jerky, keeping only those nine especially fat ones in the freezer, including the two he intended to give to Zhang Wei.

He also made some ice water, so that when he brought the fish for the late-night snack later, it wouldn’t be without ice and start to smell.

Mackerel is a type of fish that spoils and deteriorates easily, so you either eat it quickly or make it into fish jerky.

“Ah Wei, come over and help me kill the fish. I’m going to air-dry them tonight.”

Zhang Wei had already messaged Chen Yang, and was amusing the kitten with a Mackerel at that moment!

However, the kitten was well-fed tonight and lost interest after sniffing the Mackerel.

Hearing Chu Mingcheng asking for help, Zhang Wei didn’t refuse and went to the kitchen to start working with a knife in hand.

The kitchen was well-stocked with knives, and Chu Mingcheng was already handling the fish guts with a cleaver.

Instead of slicing open the belly, he cut into the fish from the back, splitting the Mackerel into two halves, but leaving the belly untouched, so the fish was still whole.

He removed the innards and gills, then threw it into a basin to work on the next one, and quickly, the two of them processed the sixteen fish.

Chu Mingcheng washed the fish clean with water and then used paper towels to dry them as thoroughly as possible.

He didn’t intend to make the fish jerky too salty, so he rubbed the fish lightly with coarse salt and let it sit for three minutes.

Then he prepared a basin of saltwater, adding a bit of white liquor, which has a sterilizing effect and removes any fishy smell.

The white liquor was a gift from relatives and friends during the New Year; his family didn’t drink much, so it just sat at home.

Not just at the old house here, but at home in town, they had even more bottles of white and red wine.

After soaking for half an hour, he picked the fish up, used paper towels again to absorb the moisture, then strung them up with a rope and took them to the second-floor balcony to let the night sea breeze dry them out.

His drying method was called overnight drying, different from the traditional sun-drying method, and the fish jerky produced this way was usually not too hard.

The Mackerel needed to be air-dried for 16 hours, and if you wanted it a bit softer, you would just air-dry it for a shorter time.

Chu Mingcheng didn’t plan on drying them too long; he purposely soaked them in salt water so that later he could add some seasoning and bake them in the oven, which would make them very tasty.

Once the kitchen was cleaned up, Chen Yang arrived by car.

Chu Mingcheng was a bit surprised to see him: “Ah Yang, what brings you here?”

“Just idling at home, might as well come hang out for a bit. I heard from Ah Wei that you quit your job; how about coming to help me out?” Chen Yang wasn’t particularly handsome, just average-looking.

But he was about the same height as Chu Mingcheng, with a slightly baby-faced look that made him seem tender, and with a bit of family wealth, he always lived comfortably.

Chu Mingcheng did not reply to the question. Instead, he smiled mysteriously, “Do you know how much money I’ve made from fishing and sea foraging this past half month?”

“How much can you make from fishing and sea foraging? Ah Wei told me you made nine thousand with the Alligator Gar, but that was just luck, right?” Chen Yang couldn’t imagine how much one could earn from sea foraging and fishing. When prompted to guess the income, he immediately thought of what Zhang Wei told him about catching the Alligator Gar.

“Besides the nine thousand from the Alligator Gar, guess again!”

“This…” Chen Yang, rubbing his chin, hesitated, thinking that Chu Mingcheng must have made quite a bit based on his demeanor. Being conservative, he voiced what he thought was a high amount, “Five thousand?”

Zhang Wei scoffed at the guess: “Are you silly? Ah Cheng makes about that much just from digging sea earthworms every day. Not to mention fishing at night and other stuff, I think it could be eight thousand.”

“Eight thousand that much?” Chen Yang was astounded. If it was eight thousand in half a month, that’s over sixteen thousand! Even if the income was unstable, following this trend, making over ten thousand a month definitely wasn’t a problem. He couldn’t offer such a high salary, and the thought of having Chu Mingcheng help him promptly fizzled out.

Actually, his store wasn’t short of people; he just felt like it was good to pull a brother up.

Once Chu Mingcheng became familiar with his products and built up some customer base, he could actually go independent, and Chen Yang could offer him business.