The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 102: An Unexpected Windfall

After getting Jiang Luoluo's shipping address and chatting a bit longer, they ended the call.
Enough time had passed. Chu Mingcheng posted photos of his catch to the group chat.
First up for sale was the massive 2.2-meter amberjack. He posted a picture of himself holding the fish, along with photos documenting its length and weight.
One of the younger customers immediately typed: "Holy shit."
The rest followed suit, forming a chain of identical comments.
Seeing they weren't getting to business, Chu Mingcheng filmed a short video of the giant amberjack and sent it. "Any takers? If not, I'm moving on to the other catches!"
Zhao Xia: "What's the price on this one?"
"This amberjack is 2.23 meters long and weighs 226 jin. 【TN: 113 kilograms】 It's the largest caught in recent years. Flat price of thirty thousand. If that's too steep, I'll sell it to a hotel after we dock."
The Bin Diao snapper, at just over sixty jin, had sold for thirty thousand. If he couldn't get thirty thousand for this fish, Chu Mingcheng had no intention of selling it to the group.
After all, plenty of buyers would be waiting at the pier. What if some tycoon made a high offer?
Honestly, he didn't know if anyone in the group owned a hotel, but if they did, buying an amberjack this large would be an absolute steal.
At the mention of thirty thousand, most of the group went silent, Zhao Xia included.
Just as Chu Mingcheng thought no one was interested, the customer who had bought his red snapper and black sea bream on Yanmen Island spoke up.
Guo Yongle: "Damn, boss, you're back from Xisha? I just woke up to this massive surprise in the group. Thirty thousand—I'll take it. I'll send you the address for air freight in a moment."
"By the way, what other fish do you have? Post them all, let's see."
"You got it!" Chu Mingcheng was thrilled to sell it for thirty thousand. It would have been a hassle to sell at the pier later.
Next, he laid out the more valuable, premium fish: the deep-sea groupers, longtail snappers, red snappers, wrasse, and Asian sheepshead wrasse.
He borrowed a scale from a crewman and began weighing and selling the fish on the spot.
The customers in the group immediately snatched them up.
He sold them at market price. If multiple people wanted the same fish, whoever spoke up first got it. But if the same situation happened with the next fish, that person had to yield to someone who hadn't bought anything yet.
Chu Mingcheng wasn't greedy enough to start a bidding war. Small business, honest dealings.
The wrasse came first. He weighed it and sent a panoramic video to the group to show he wasn't cheating, putting the customers at ease.
Besides, they could always weigh it themselves upon delivery.
The fish weighed 11.3 jin. Since it had been on ice for two days, he priced it at 100 yuan per jin, selling for 1,130 yuan.
Many fish were called "wrasse" (qingyi), and basically any green coral fish could be given that name, but the
Choerodon schoenleinii
was the true wrasse.
This fish was already being farmed in the South China Sea, but yields were very low.
Some seafood shops occasionally had live wrasse, which could sell for around 170 yuan per jin. They were usually caught by anglers and could be kept alive temporarily—a rare find.
Spearfishing killed the fish instantly. If it was the same day, it could still fetch a high price, but after two days on ice, the price had to be lowered.
Even line-caught fish placed in a live well often didn't survive the trip back to shore.
However, spearfishing was an extreme sport. Trying to frame it as agricultural production wasn't quite right.
Next, the two Asian sheepshead wrasse sold quickly. Although they went to different people, the shipping address was the same.
The two fish weighed 32.4 jin total. Chu Mingcheng voluntarily knocked off a hundred yuan for the iced fish, selling them at 280 yuan per jin for a total of 9,072 yuan.
This fish was never seen in Wenshi, nor could you find it online, which was why the price was exceptionally high.
The longtail snappers—eight in total—weighed 73.6 jin. At 260 per jin, they sold for 19,136 yuan.
There were quite a few Bin Diao and red snappers left, and he thought he wouldn't be able to sell them all, but Guo Yongle bought them all up.
At the same time, he sent a private message explaining that he and a friend had opened a hotel together and desperately needed these premium fish. He wanted to establish a long-term partnership with Chu Mingcheng but hoped for a slight discount.
A discount wasn't a problem. If he couldn't sell these fish, he'd have to sell them to a fishmonger at an even lower price, which would be a bigger loss.
Therefore, the two types of fish, totaling about 150 jin, only sold for thirteen thousand yuan.
The white-spotted rockfish, however, sold very well. Over twenty jin brought in 2,300 yuan.
There weren't many deep-sea groupers, and they were snatched up as well, selling for 5,300 yuan.
The remaining mackerel, longtail snappers, barracudas, and some amberjacks didn't sell as well.
There were quite a lot of them, and with few customers in the group, only a fifth sold, earning him 7,500 yuan.
The rest, Chu Mingcheng simply sold to the boat owner. His price matched the fishmongers on shore, so it was more convenient to sell to him. That brought in another 18,700 yuan.
The remaining fish totaled over five hundred jin, with the barracudas alone accounting for over 300 jin, yet the selling price was less than the eight longtail snappers.
If these fish were sold retail, they could have fetched over thirty thousand. This highlighted the importance of cultivating a customer base.
With all the fish sold, Chu Mingcheng began packing and sealing the boxes. With the crew's help, he finished packing everything before they docked.
All the catches were packed according to air freight requirements. The boxes, plastic bags, and ice were all purchased from the boat, costing him over a thousand yuan, with ice being the main expense.
Since the customers were all from Wenshi, each box was packed to about fifty kilograms. Otherwise, material costs would have been several hundred yuan more.
With his work done, Chu Mingcheng finally had a moment to himself and calculated his earnings from the trip.
The two big fish had brought in sixty thousand. The rest of the fish sold for seventy-six thousand total. Combined, his catch from this trip was worth a staggering 136,000 yuan.
As for costs: packing was a thousand, the boat fee for the trip and trolling was 9,500, plus other miscellaneous expenses, totaling around 11,500 yuan.
So his total profit from this trip was over 124,000 yuan. His savings were now over 190,000—just a few thousand short of 200,000.
"Hiss~!"
Chu Mingcheng sucked in a sharp breath. He hadn't realized until he did the math just how incredible his haul had been.
But without those two big fish, his income would have been cut in half.
And without the customers in his group chat, it would have been cut in half again, leaving him with only about thirty thousand.
Looking at it that way, Chu Mingcheng felt it was all quite reasonable.
After all, the fish resources in Xisha were excellent, and they hadn't encountered any bad weather, which meant fishing at every spot had been fantastic.
It wasn't just him. The dozen or so anglers who were even more diligent, aside from lacking the two big fish, had actually caught slightly more than him.
The only downside was exhaustion. Chu Mingcheng had gone to bed after midnight last night, while that group had fished through the night.
Now they were all listless. They'd probably need several days of rest when they got back.
Just then, Jiang Yuqi, seeing he was finished, walked over. "Ming-ge, let's exchange contact info! By the way, where are you from? I'll come find you when I have time!"
"I often travel to different cities to try local specialties. If I get a chance to visit your hometown, you can show me around and let me try the local food!"
Chu Mingcheng laughed. "You're clever, finding yourself a free tour guide. But I'm currently based in Xiamen. If you can get away during New Year's, come find me in Wenshi, and I'll treat you to some hometown specialties. If not, we'll figure it out later."
Hearing "Xiamen," Jiang Yuqi's heart stirred. She would soon be going to a city very close to Xiamen.
As for New Year's, she said with a touch of resignation, "How could I possibly get away during New Year's? We'll have to see if there's a chance later!"
Back on shore, the boat owner had already contacted several shipping companies. Chu Mingcheng immediately arranged for his packed seafood to be shipped.
It was all air freight, so it would arrive the next day. He sent the tracking numbers to the group chat so customers could see when their seafood would arrive.
Then he called his parents to let them know he was safe and sent them Jiang Luoluo's family address, asking them to help ship all his fishing gear over.
He didn't forget to pack and ship the gear he had with him, including his speargun.
He had a lot of stuff, and it would be inconvenient to take on a plane to Xiamen.
Especially the speargun—that definitely couldn't go on a plane.
After saying goodbye to Jiang Yuqi, Chu Mingcheng returned to the club. He brought Lu Zheqiang a 20-plus-jin longtail snapper and treated him to dinner that evening to thank him for his care and for letting him use the dorm.
The next day, filled with anticipation for the future, Chu Mingcheng boarded a plane to Xiamen.