I Can Turn into a Fish

“I wonder how business will be today,” Chu Xian thought to himself as he stood by the shop door expectantly.

“Hello! Welcome!” Chu Xian greeted the passerby enthusiastically. The first customer came pretty quickly.

To his astonishment, the customer was a familiar face.

“Heh. Hello, it’s nice to see you, Chu Xian,” He Wei greeted, walking up to Chu Xian with a slightly sheepish smile. “Congratulations! You’re running such a high-class goldfish store now. I was petty and small before; I hope you can forgive me.” (1)

“Haha,” Chu Xian chuckled, looking at He Wei with some surprise. He shook his head and said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ve already forgotten what happened.”

“Okay, that’s great!” He Wei said happily. “I saw on WeChat that the goldfish you’re selling are very beautiful, so I came to buy a couple.”

“Sure. You can look for any goldfish you like, or I can pick some out for you!” Chu Xian said with a smile.

“This one is good. This one as well,” He Wei said while pointing at a couple goldfish. “Two thousand RMB each, right? Here, Chu Xian, twelve thousand RMB in total. Hehe.”

“Okay,” Chu Xian said with a chuckle. He took He Wei’s money and handed him a small fish tank.

“Okay. Wait, Chu Xian, let me take a video to help promote your business,” He Wei said hurriedly, taking out his phone and taking a video. He posted it in his friend circle saying, “I bought six goldfish from my old classmate Chu Xian. They’re very beautiful – two thousand RMB each, extremely precious. If you want to buy some, come to Gu Wu Street, or you can contact me.”

“Okay. I hope your business flourishes! I really hope you can overlook my pettiness!” He Wei said shamelessly.

Chu Xian looked at him speechlessly and nodded.

“Yo, Chu bro!” At that moment, a group of men and a pretty girl entered the store with big smiles. Chu Xian turned around and greeted them, “Haha, you guys came!”

“Heehee. We’ve come to take advantage of you!” Li Qiaoqiao said as she peered around the store curiously before focusing on the goldfish in the tanks. “Wow! These goldfish are incredible!” (2)

Ge Wenqing and the others smiled before walking over to Chu Xian. Wenqing patted Chu Xian’s shoulder before commenting, “Brother Chu, looks like business is booming!”

“Haha! It’s because of your silver tongue! Come, look at these goldfish. I have eight types. You all can take one tank each.

“Heehee, how could I accept so much?” Li Qiaoqiao said happily from where she stood, leaning in and staring at the goldfish.

“You can introduce some customers to me later,” Chu Xian said with a smile, pushing the prepared goldfish to them. “I can’t hang out with you guys today though. My store is too small, so I won’t keep you.”

“Haha. You’re afraid we’ll get in the way of your business! Brother Chu, we’ll take your gift and help you promote your business. We’ll definitely introduce some customers to you,” Li Zhong promised.

“Then I’ll have to thank you in advance!”

After chatting for a little while longer, they each took their tank and left with smiles.

Chu Xian watched them go as He Wei watched on, stunned. He Wei’s heart filled with happiness as he rejoiced over his decision to lower his head and apologize.

“Chu Xian, I don’t want to keep you anymore. If you need anything, just find me and I’ll definitely help out!” He Wei waved goodbye.

Chu Xian nodded back with a smile and sat back down.

Right before noon, the store filled with customers; some came because of what they saw online and some were just passing by.

In the afternoon, the three young housewives who hadn’t managed to buy goldfish the previous time they came each picked out eight goldfish and left, satisfied. (3)

Chu Xian’s face was filled with smiles as he kept himself busy the entire day helping every customer and explaining some basic goldfish knowledge. At the end of the day, he was thirsty and tired, but he rested with a satisfied smile.

That day he sold a hundred and twenty goldfish – more than two hundred thousand RMB! This kind of revenue would definitely astonish most people.

“But this situation won’t last,” Chu Xian thought to himself as he lay down on his new bed. He flipped around, looking at the walls of his new home as he thought to himself. Selling in a local store had significant limitations, and he really needed to make gains on his internet development.

“Promoting online is much more troublesome though. Right now, I can only advertise on Fast Hands, and even then, out of the thousand people who see my posts, only a couple will buy. The reach of my account isn’t enough,” Chu Xian thought with a frown.

The next day, Chu Xian sold around a hundred a fifty goldfish. This was mainly because Ge Wenqing, Li Qiaoqiao and the others who spread the news and asked their friends to come buy some goldfish and help his business out.

One or two hundred thousand RMB wasn’t much to these rich second-generation friends, and they all gave face to Wenqing and the others. The goldfish were indeed very beautiful, and it would be nice to play around with a couple or give them as gifts to family or girlfriends.

The third day, business went down a lot, and only thirty fish were sold the entire day.

“It looks like the market in Hai Qing will be saturated pretty soon, then it’d be considered a good day if I sold just four or five goldfish a day.”

“I need to start more widespread advertising online!”

Chu Xian thought to himself. As he thought of a specific person, he smiled to himself.

However, right at that moment his phone began to ring, and Chu Xian saw it was the renovation company’s number, so he picked up immediately.

“Mr. Chu! Bad news! All our work has been vandalized!”

“What? Vandalized?” Chu Xian said with a sinking expression. “Who?”

“We don’t know either, but in the morning, our workers came and found everything damaged. The floor, aquarium, everything! We already contacted the police!”

“Okay, got it. I’m heading over now.” Chu Xian said, hanging up with a clouded expression on his face. He closed up his shop and hurried over to the fish farm.

When he arrived, he found a crowd surrounding his place intermingled with the police. Chu Xian pushed through and walked into his farm.

Translator’s Thoughts

 Aristophaneso

(1)- He Wei is the classmate who works at Golden Dragon Group. He led the interviewees the day that CX brought the koi fish over. He saw how CX was greeted by President Jin and was suitably floored. The last thing he thought as CX left was how his job was on the line if CX said anything to Jin Jin. First introduced in chapter 23, and sweats in chapter 25.

(2)- Li Qiaoqiao was one of the friends Jin Sen introduced to CX in Chapter 28. He offers them all some goldfish for free. Her background is introduced in 29. She’s either super wealthy or her parents are in the government or something.

(3)- Either from 18 or 19, when CX met Super Boss Jin and he bought all the goldfish. The young ladies came just as CX was putting up the sign that said he wouldn’t be doing business for a couple of days.