The village chief’s house was located at the very top of the village, in a spot that could be said to be the best in the small fishing village; naturally, his house was also well-constructed, boasting blue bricks and large roof tiles. It was said his son worked in the county as an accountant and his daughter-in-law was from the city, while his daughter had married a landlord, so the family’s circumstances were quite good. Otherwise, how could his youngest son afford to have two fishing boats for his work?
Therefore, Xiao Yu’s arrival was quite surprising, especially to the lean and wiry old man, who found it utterly incomprehensible.
Xiao Yu dispensed with the pleasantries and went straight to the point, "Village chief, hello, I would like to ask for a detailed price list of the seafood and dried goods sold by our villagers. Boss Zhang of Huiben Building is interested in sourcing from several nearby fishing villages. I want to recommend our village to him. I can’t guarantee other places, but if our village’s prices and quality are assured, he would still be interested."
The village chief was exceedingly surprised, "Oh? Is there such a thing?"
Xiao Yu’s smile was radiant, "I was thinking, since our villagers are selling anyway, instead of selling to merchants from other places, why not sell to locals? The prices are not much different, especially for the fresh catches. Some fish might not even survive until the merchants arrive, but the town is quite close to our village. If we deliver the catch right after it’s hauled in, wouldn’t that ensure the fish’s freshness better than waiting for the merchants?"
The village chief frowned at her, "Girl, do you know how much the ten boats in our village ship out every day? Do you think the capacity of a town’s restaurant can handle the entire village’s output?"
"If they can’t handle the fresh seafood, they can take the dried goods. They will take as much as there is, provided that the quality is guaranteed, and they have certain size specifications they choose."
In the winter, the fishing village’s fresh seafood could last a bit longer; in other seasons, seafood was directly stored in seawater right after being caught by the boats and quickly transported towards the county or town. However, not every trip was lucky enough to sell everything, so the leftovers were made into dried goods.
Therefore, upon arriving in the fishing village, one was greeted by the strong smell of the sea. Part of the reason was the dried goods that were spread out everywhere – on the beaches, in the fishermen’s homes, and on the protective embankments.
To her surprise, the village chief refused her kind offer, "Xiao Yu girl, I appreciate your good intentions, but Huiben Building has limited capacity for goods. We could sell our catch at the port or the county’s port in one go, so why bother delivering it to Huiben Building? The prices wouldn’t be much different either. If you’re talking about the small amounts of seafood the fishermen catch, we could deliver that to them if they want it. But the quantities from the fishing boats... haha, you probably don’t realize how much that is, so you’re a bit naive. Although not every fishing trip is successful, the volume we catch is too much for them to handle by selling fish one by one. Don’t waste your effort, child."
"What about the dried goods?" Follow current novᴇls on novęlfire.net
"The dried goods will be sold along with the seafood, and it won’t be Huiben Building’s turn to receive them. But you can go back and let the shopkeeper know that we appreciate his kindness. If the fishermen catch some quality goods, we will sell to Huiben Building at the freshest price."
Xiao Yu hadn’t expected such an outcome, and thinking about it, she felt she had been too presumptuous. What she actually wanted was to secure some high-quality seafood through Zhang Quan and then send it to Beijing for her future business, but the villagers would rather sell to merchants than go through Huiben Building, believing that a small restaurant lacked significant capability.