I Can Turn into a Fish

“Eighteen thousand! Eighteen thousand for the gentlemen from Gu Dao Recipe!” The old man called out with the tiniest frown on his lips as he glanced at the people from Gu Dao Recipe before turning back expectantly to the other bidders.

Having people from Gu Dao Recipe making an appearance was always a hit or a miss. Often, they immediately called out a price that scared off most of the competition, allowing them to win directly, but other times when someone competed with them, they would fight to the end.

Once, ten deepsea codfish were auctioned off for three times the market price as a result of a duel between Gu Dao Recipe and another bidder. In the end, the bidder saw that the people from Gu Dao Recipe didn’t care how much they paid, so he finally conceded.

Gu Dao Recipe upheld this standard – everything they cooked in their restaurant sold for five or six times the market price. This was what other restaurants couldn’t do.

This was the benefit that fame brought.

“Gu Dao Recipe will definitely get this tuna!” the young man from Gu Dao Recipe called out aggressively.

“Ah, forget it. The people from Gu Dao Recipe will definitely win!”

“I heard that the new location Gu Dao Recipe opened up in the Dragon Tourism Resort is always packed with people. Apparently, business is so good that they’re running low on top-quality ingredients, so they come to the markets every day to buy more! They spent five or six hundred thousand RMB in just two days!”

“I also heard that Gu Dao Recipe is planning a new restaurant in Jing Hai!”

“Rich and overbearing! If your restaurant made hundreds of thousands of RMB a day, you wouldn’t care about this money either!”

The crowd was full of hushed conversations. Chu Xian frowned slightly.

Gu Dao Recipe was extremely famous in Hai Qing. Chu Xian had eaten there twice, and the second time, he met the brain-dead manager.

“Eighteen thousand for this young man from Gu Dao Recipe. Going once! Going twice!” The old man yelled out again. He was a little disappointed, but eighteen thousand was still a good price.

“Nineteen thousand!” Chu Xian said after some thought. He wasn’t targeting the people from Gu Dao Recipe specifically; it was just that there were too few large fish. Even when he went out to sea, he didn’t really encounter any big fish.

“Shit, someone is competing with Gu Dao Recipe!”

“No way! Who is it? I don’t recognize him!”

“He couldn’t be a man that the boss hired, right?”

“Eh, don’t be an idiot! If they found out he was an actor, you think Gu Dao Recipe would forgive them?”

Chu Xian’s bid startled the crowd, and the mere fact that someone was competing against Gu Dao Recipe amazed them.

“Nineteen thousand! This little brother offered nineteen thousand! Do any friends offer a higher price?” the old man asked happily as he turned quickly to the people from Gu Dao Recipe.

“Hmph, twenty thousand!” Someone from the group snorted and added another thousand RMB.

“Twenty-five thousand!” Chu Xian said immediately. He already decided he would bid up to fifty thousand RMB, and if it went over, he would just look elsewhere.

“Si(1)! Twenty-five! So overbearing! Which restaurant is he from? The crowd muttered and speculated.

“Adding five thousand! That’s already over the market price!”

The people from Gu Dao Recipe were also surprised, but they quickly yelled out again: “Twenty-six thousand!’

“Thirty thousand!” Chu Xian called out calmly.

“F*** me. Is some new money chap trying to make trouble for Gu Dao Recipe?”

“This time the boss is really making it big!”

“Hehe!” The old man on the fishing ship was barely hiding his giggles. The more he looked, the cuter these two young men appeared (2).

“Brother, are you targeting our Gu Dao Recipe?” This time Gu Dao Recipe didn’t call out a price immediately.

There were too many people between them and Chu Xian and he couldn’t see their faces, so he called out: “If you bid more than fifty thousand then the tuna is yours, but otherwise I’m taking it!’

“Fifty thousand. Tsk tsk, that’s already four times the price!”

“Buying it for four times the market price means the restaurant won’t make much profit. It’s not worth it, and it isn’t even precious seafood!”

“Let’s just see what the people from Gu Dao Recipe say. They’re always so domineering!”

“Pa! Pa!”

There was no reply except the clapping of feet against the dock as people parted and let the man through.

“It’s you…” the man said in astonishment, and his face darkened.

“Oh?” Chu Xian looked over. The young man in the suit was the stupid, brain-dead manager. Somehow he ended up here, buying ingredients for his restaurant.

“It’s you! What a small world for enemies!” the young man said darkly.

“What? Why can’t it be me?” Chu Xian’s mouth curled. “Are you buying or not? Fifty thousand is my limit. If you want it then bid higher. Otherwise, just let me take this one!”

“Hehe.” The young man stared coldly at Chu Xian. “Which restaurant are you buying for?”

Chu Xian shook his head. “I’m buying for myself; I don’t work for a restaurant!”

“No.” The young man glared. “You made trouble for us last time as well, and here you are again. You think I’ll let you win so easily?”

Chu Xian frowned slightly, narrowing his eyes as he shook his head again. “I’ll say it again, my limit is fifty thousand. If you want it, buy it. If not, then give up!”

The young man’s face changed. If he bought the fish, he wouldn’t make much money, and it wouldn’t even increase Gu Dao Recipe’s popularity by much. He bid such a high price to make an impression and intimidate others so his future purchases would go more smoothly.

If he did this all the time, his supervisor would start asking questions. It hadn’t been easy for him to make his way to this purchasing agent position. He didn’t want to go back to grinding in the restaurant!

But if he didn’t win then this asshole would win, and he wasn’t willing to let it go so easily.

“Are you going to bid?” Chu Xian looked at him and asked again.

The young man glared then spat out coldly: “Forty-nine thousand, nine hundred!”

“En?” Chu Xian looked at the man and shook his head slightly. “Congratulations! This yellow-fin tuna is yours!”

“You…” The young man’s face purpled and he stabbed the air angrily. “You f*cking said your limit was fifty thousand! You!”

Chu Xian looked at him in amusement. “That was my limit, but I’m not an idiot. Hehe!”

The crowd was stunned for a moment then they chuckled.

Yes. You can’t act as if others are idiots. Although fifty thousand was his limit, if someone bid 49900 just to make him uncomfortable, only an idiot would keep bidding.

And everyone could see that this young man from Gu Dao Recipe didn’t actually want to spend so much money on this yellow-fin tuna. There wasn’t much profit to be made.