I Can Turn into a Fish

For lunch, Li Zhonghua called Ge Wenqing and Jin Sen and they left their respective jobs at the government department and the Gold Dragon Resort. Together, they went out and had a good meal.

They all sighed in amazement at the current Chu Xian. You couldn’t look at a scholar the same way after three days of separation. He was already rich, and they definitely had to take advantage of this rich brother, so they ordered all kinds of things.

Chu Xian laughed cheerfully. He had been so busy lately and rarely had time to hang out with his peers.

In the following days, Chu Xian started his great plan of reforming. Since he still hadn’t even sent out thousands of online orders, he received complaints every day.

Reforming, shipping. He was busy the whole day, and the number of pending orders gradually decreased. As long as he didn’t advertise heavily in the future, his demand to supply ratio might even out again.

“How annoying. After secretly reforming the whole day, I can still only reform goldfish. I still can’t take out any of the precious fish in large quantities. It looks like I need to make some plans for the future.”

Building a foundation was important. He sold goldfish for over a year, and although the large sales volume might attract some attention, it still wasn’t a problem. It was a whole ‘nother story with Arowana and koi fish. If he sold those, any casual search would turn up things he couldn’t hide.

“It looks like I should also buy some more ordinary fish farms and put in all kinds of young ornamental fish for camouflage. After a year or two, I can re-enter the ornamental fish market with no worries and face everyone publicly.”

Chu Xian made this decision, and the next day, he started buying the fish farms next to the ones he already had and found someone to do the renovations.

The third morning, Chu Xian got a sudden call from a nervous Pupu.

“Big brother, something happened to my grandpa. I need to go home to him!”

Chu Xian agreed immediately. “Alright, no problem. Just close up, and if there’s anything big brother can do to help, just let me know.”

“En. Big brother, can I have my salary in advance for the next few months?” Pupu asked after some hesitation.

“How much?” Chu Xian asked directly.

“Ten thousand… ten thousand should be enough,” Pupu said hurriedly.

“Okay, take it from the store!”

“Thank you! Thank you, big brother!”

[Pupu’s grandfather is a fisherman. What happened?] Chu Xian thought as Pupu hung up in a hurry. After some hesitation, he decided to drive over to Pupu’s house.

Something happened to her grandfather; she was still young and might not be able to handle it. With Pupu’s personality, she might not go to him if she thought it was too much of a burden on him, so he had to be a good boss and proactively offer his help.

Chu Xian knew where Pupu and her grandfather lived, but when he arrived, they weren’t there.

“En? Why aren’t they at home? Are they where her grandfather works?” Chu Xian guessed and called Pupu.

“Pupu, where are you right now?” Chu Xian asked.

“Ah, big brother? I’m on the bus to where my grandfather works!” Pupu answered in a surprised voice.

Chu Xian paused. Apparently, he drove faster than the bus. “Tell me where you are and I’ll wait for you there.”

“Big brother!” A weak voice came from the phone. “In the fish market. Thank you, big brother.”

“Okay, I’ll wait for you at the entrance of the fish market!” Chu Xian nodded and drove over.

Because Pupu lived near the fish market, Chu Xian got to the entrance in three minutes.

About fifteen minutes later, an agitated Pupu walked over.

“What’s going on, Pupu? What happened to your grandfather?” Chu Xian walked over.

“I’m not sure, but apparently my grandpa broke something and now his boss wants to fire him and we have to pay some compensation!” Pupu said worriedly.

“Broke something? Let’s go in and see!” Chu Xian followed Pupu inside.

“Inside here!”

Pupu’s grandfather worked in the harbor behind the fish market.

The market was by the sea and there was a harbor along the coast. This harbor was specifically for fishing boats, and thousands of ships lined the coast. Some were just coming back from sea with fishermen offloading their catch onto the shore.

This was the largest harbor in Hai Qing for sea fishing and ninety percent of the fishing ships in the city area left from here. Most of the fish came directly off the boats and into the market.

Pupu’s grandfather was a fisherman who went out to sea, but he mostly went to locations near the shore. His longest trips were half a month long, and when he returned, he needed to help his boss move the fish. The job required long and hard hours.

Pupu’s grandmother was bedridden, so she had to start working after high school.

As they neared the harbor, Pupu called grandpa Feng on the phone and walked towards a worn out fishing ship.

The fishing ship was about ten meters long with small yellow cracks along the paint on the side of the ship. Pupu’s heavily tanned grandfather stood to the side with his head down in his black leather jacket. A middle-aged man stood next to him impatiently, puffing on a cigarette.

“Grandpa!” Pupu ran over to Grandpa Feng and grabbed his sleeve.

“En?” The middle-aged man looked at Pupu. “You are Old Feng’s granddaughter? Did you bring the money?”

“Boss, I didn’t do it on purpose. It was too windy and the bucket fell over.” Grandpa Feng begged, wiping his hand and grasping Pupu’s.

“Not on purpose? How many times did I tell you to take care of it? Now they’re dead. Those sea snakes were the most precious catch we got, and you say you didn’t do it on purpose? Whose fault was it then? We worked hard for nine days for nothing because you were careless!” The middle-aged man pointed angrily as he shouted.

“You know how valuable those snakes were. We had three, and each was sixty thousand RMB at least. Now they’re all dead! I won’t make you pay for everything, but you still have to pay up fifty thousand then leave. I can’t keep someone like you around!”

“Boss.” Another man standing beside them frowned. Uncle Feng didn’t do it on purpose. Who could’ve known that the wind would topple the bucket and crush those snakes?”

“Who could’ve known? If I had known then why would this happen?” The middle-aged boss flared up. “Dealing with such precious things and I told him many times to watch them carefully. And now? Stop making excuses – he has to pay!”

“Fifty thousand!” Grandpa Feng whispered, his dark face turning pale. “Boss, let me work. I don’t need a salary. Can I pay it off?”

“No. I don’t dare to keep someone like you around.” The middle-aged boss frowned at Grandpa Feng. If he hadn’t been short on help last time, he wouldn’t have hired this old guy.

Pupu grasped her pockets tightly. She had the ten thousand from the store, but that was nowhere near enough.

“Sea snakes?” Chu Xian looked at the middle-aged boss and the three sea snakes on the ground.

Sea snakes were a living treasure of the sea. According to the research of contemporary pharmacologists, the venom of sea snakes could be used in Calmette’s serum for cancer, and they could also be used to help treat wounds caused by poisonous snakes, sciatica, rheumatism and many other things. More than ten enzymes could be extracted from them; the blood of the snake could be used to reduce freckles; snake oil could be made into soft gel and paint, and the snake’s guts could be used in medicinal liquor to help strengthen the body and heal rheumatism. Moreover, the snake’s skin could be used to make handbags and musical instruments.

In other words, basically every part of the snakes was a treasure.

There was a story that showed how precious sea snakes were. The venom of land snakes was called liquid gold, and the venom of sea snakes was far more precious. The venom of one chitti snake was sold for more than 7800 USD per gram by Sigma Venom Corp in the US. (1)

There were experts in Thailand whose jobs were just to catch snakes, and the most famous ones caught sea snakes in the Thailand Gulf. Many people risked their lives to catch the snakes, and it wasn’t uncommon for some to die from bites.

In Vietnam, they caught over eight tons of sea reptiles every year, equivalent to 225,000 sea snakes every year valued at over thirty billion USD. It could be estimated that every sea snake was worth sixty to seventy thousand RMB.

It was very difficult to catch sea snakes, and this time, they had been lucky enough to get three at the same time today, but because of an accident, they all died and their value dropped considerably.

“Fifty thousand, right? I’ll pay.” Chu Xian walked over and patted Pupu’s head.

“En? You’ll pay?” The middle-aged man was shocked but then he continued: “Alright, I don’t care who pays. Give me the money and this will end here!”

“Okay, can I pay with WeChat or Alipay?” Chu Xian asked nonchalantly.

Sure!” The middle-aged man nodded.

“Big brother!”

“Boss Chu!”

Pupu and Grandfather Feng looked at him in surprise but Chu Xian shook his head. “Don’t worry. It’s only fifty thousand – you can pay me back when you have the money!”

“Thank you Boss Chu, thank you, thank you!” Grandfather Feng’s eyes turned red and he bowed emotionally.

Chu Xian quickly moved to support him, joking: “You don’t need to thank me, Grandpa Feng. Pupu has always worked hard and I was going to give her a raise, but now that I’ve lent you fifty thousand, I won’t give her a raise after all.”