Chapter 336: Chapter 223: Island Resort

"You’re not giving them away as gifts?" Gu Nan asked, surprised. He knew Ye Jing was thinking about making money, but An Jun didn’t need a few thousand yuan. It seemed more likely he’d eat what he caught himself.

"I just gave some away a few days ago. If I do it again, I’ll look like a total sucker." An Jun rolled his eyes, exasperated. "I was originally going to keep them for myself and give some to my parents. But this is too much for my family to eat, so I might as well sell some."

"Besides, if I want to eat more later, I can just go out to sea with you!"

Gu Nan pondered for a moment, then said, "Have you ever thought about adding a new dish to a raw-marinated food shop? Like large yellow croaker sashimi, or maybe raw-marinated large yellow croaker?"

An Jun’s mouth twitched. "What kind of bizarre dish is that? You think we’re Japanese or something, making sashimi out of everything?"

But now that Gu Nan had mentioned it, he actually started to consider the idea.

"How about this? I’ll leave the fish in your freezer for you to store. I’ll go online and look up some recipes for reference. If they seem sellable, I’ll use them up gradually myself. If not, you can just take them."

"Just three days. If I can’t sell a single one in three days, I might as well just give them to you for free."

Gu Nan’s eyebrow shot up. "Oh? That generous? You’d give them to me?"

"What’s this between friends? It’s nothing!" Not to mention he’d be hitching rides on Gu Nan’s boat often in the future, he had at least prepared the bait for the last few trips. An Jun felt that these yellow croakers would be a fair payment for his boat fare.

Even the best of friends have to have some give-and-take. If one side keeps taking advantage, even a twenty-year friendship can’t withstand it.

While they were waiting for Gu Dacheng to return, some procurement staff from various hotels came by to stock up.

The people who came to the shop were all making large purchases; a typical small restaurant wouldn’t have a dedicated procurement position.

When they saw these line-caught large yellow croakers, they immediately said they wanted all of them.

The Mid-Autumn Festival was just around the corner, and the hotels had already received a large number of bookings.

There was a dedicated market for wild yellow croakers, so getting them in quantity wasn’t a problem. However, line-caught ones were rarer, so the buyers from Gu Nan’s place wanted all of them, regardless of size.

This included Yi Chen’s 3.5-jin fish, for which they offered 2,800 yuan per jin.

The price was fair. It would definitely get more expensive in a few days, but the fish would also be less fresh, so Yi Chen decided to sell it.

A single fish for 9,800 yuan. Ye Jing was so envious, but the other three barely reacted.

This was mainly because he rarely came to Gu Nan’s shop. He hadn’t seen many fish that cost ten thousand, let alone tens of thousands of yuan. Once you’re exposed to it more, what’s a ten-thousand-yuan fish?

A little after nine o’clock, Gu Dacheng returned. Gu Nan drove everyone home and then went home to sleep himself.

Over the next three days, besides going out to sea once to fish in a "game map" and catching a lot of Atka mackerel in the "Bering Sea map," he also made a special trip to fish for large yellow croakers.

Unfortunately, his harvest was meager. He only caught three small ones.

For these fish, you still had to wait for news. The fishing club’s internal group chat would occasionally leak information about fish schools and runs, but unfortunately, most were for the deep sea, not the coastal areas.

It wasn’t strange that the catch was poor these past few days; the great tides of the Mid-Autumn Festival hadn’t arrived yet.

The Mid-Autumn Festival would definitely be a good time for fishing, but he’d probably be busy those days.

So, he thought about taking his whole family out to relax for a day.

Coincidentally, Guo Xiao had originally booked a small villa, planning to take his family there to relax.

But the relatives who were visiting had a last-minute change of plans and decided to go somewhere else. He asked Gu Nan if he wanted to go, and if so, he would transfer the booking for the two small villas to him.

Gu Nan was tempted the moment he heard it. He had been going out to sea constantly recently, and when he wasn’t, he was busy at the shop. It would be good to take this opportunity to relax.

Guo Xiao had booked it for two nights, so they could stay for two nights. He went to discuss it with Yi Chen.

"Doesn’t that mean we’ll have to close the shop for two days?"

After hearing him out, Yi Chen’s first thought was about the shop’s business.

"Closing for two days is no big deal. For the restaurants’ orders, we can just deliver them a day early. We don’t make much money from just the walk-in customers anyway."

"We’ll be too busy during the Mid-Autumn Festival to have any time off. Since we can’t rest during the holiday, we might as well go relax a few days beforehand!"

The gold bar from the fish’s mouth had been sold to the shipyard owner at market price. It was worth two million yuan, and the owner had rounded the payment up to an even number.

The boat originally cost 7.8 million yuan, and now he still had to pay off 5.8 million.

Gu Nan had been making payments for two months. Because his income was substantial, he had paid back a total of 500,000 yuan, leaving 5.3 million.

He had 560,000 yuan on him. Yi Chen had two cards: one held the profits from their two shops, which currently had over 330,000 yuan, and the other held the income from selling his daily fishing hauls.

The money on the shop profits card was basically untouched. It would be used to pay the shops’ rent and any supplementary taxes next year.

At their income level, they would definitely have to pay extra taxes.

The card with the daily fishing income was used for all regular expenses, including utilities, food, drinks, and paying salaries.

Although salaries hadn’t been paid out yet, daily expenses could sometimes be high, so there wasn’t that much money on the card—just a little over 130,000 yuan.

The monthly payment for the fishing boat was deducted from the card the game had set up for Gu Nan.

Based on his current income, paying back 500,000 yuan a month was not a problem.

However, he had invested in some mutual funds. The money was just sitting there anyway. As long as the fishing boat was paid off within three years, it was fine. There was no interest, so there was no rush.

"How much money do you have on you right now?" After listening to him, Yi Chen checked the balances on her bank cards and then asked.

She was also worried about the fishing boat debt. If they didn’t have much money, it would be better to just keep the shop open and focus on earning.

"I have over half a million. Don’t worry, the debt isn’t a problem." Having been together for so long, of course Gu Nan knew what she was thinking.

"Alright then, you arrange it." Hearing that he still had so much money, she was relieved.

"Okay. When you go back tonight, ask your grandma if she wants to come out and relax. It’s not good for her to be cooped up at home all the time. Oh, and are your parents free? There are two small villas, so there are plenty of rooms."

"I’ll ask Grandma. As for my parents, forget it. The two girls have school, so they won’t have time."

"Alright, then I’ll call An Jun and the others too. The more, the merrier."

The two small villas had eight rooms in total, so there was more than enough space for their group.

That afternoon, Gu Nan went to discuss the plan with his parents, telling them he wanted to go to a resort on the island to relax for two days.

He originally thought he would have to convince his mother, but it was his father who disagreed. His mother, on the other hand, agreed immediately and even seemed very interested.

Since his mother had agreed, he couldn’t be bothered with his father. He’d come along in the end anyway.

He then contacted the few restaurants that sourced from his shop daily, explained the situation, and delivered the necessary stock with his dad that afternoon.

In reality, it wasn’t a lot of stuff. Many restaurants only needed one large grouper or something else every day or two.

These restaurants all had their own signature dishes. For example, one specialized in Emperor Crabs, and they would only restock from Gu Nan’s shop after selling out of their current supply.

If they ran out of stock during the day, they would call for a delivery or even come over themselves to pick it up.

This time, they were just delivering a bit extra—enough to cover two or three days’ worth of stock.

There was even less of a problem with Junhao Hotel. They had their own dedicated cold storage and tanks for live seafood, so two days wouldn’t be an issue.

When An Jun and Ye Jing found out they were going to the resort the next day, they took Gu Nan’s pickup truck that night, leaving their own sedan behind.

They were being all mysterious, not saying what they were up to, only that they had a big surprise in store.

Gu Nan had originally planned to bring an Emperor Crab and a large lobster for a barbecue, but now that his pickup was gone, he would have to wait until the next day.

Anyway, the resort was on the island, and it wouldn’t take long to drive back and forth. He could come back to get ingredients anytime.

「Early the next morning」

Gu Nan drove the sedan An Jun had left behind to Yi Chen’s house to pick people up.

After a great deal of persuasion and coaxing from Yi Chen, Zhao Chunlan finally agreed to come out and relax for two days.

Meanwhile, Gu Dacheng drove his own car, bringing along Gu Xin and her young daughter, who was still recovering at home.

The little girl was clingy with her mother. Since Gu Nan’s aunt was free at home watching her own grandchildren, she could also look after her grandniece, so they decided to bring the girl along.

It had been Zhao Suying’s idea to invite Gu Xin. Gu Xin had been working diligently at the shop recently, always rushing to do any task.

Furthermore, Zhao Suying had made a point to visit this poor little grandniece of hers. The girl was only seven, but she was so thin and small it felt like a gust of wind could blow her over.

Fortunately, there were no signs of rejection or other issues after her surgery. It had been two months, so she was more than ready to go out and play.

The little girl had become a bit introverted because of her illness. Zhao Suying pitied the child, which was why she had specifically told Gu Dacheng to bring her along for the trip.

As for An Jun and Ye Jing, they had already picked up their girlfriends and were driving in the opposite direction of the island, apparently heading somewhere else first.

「An hour later」

They arrived at the foot of a mountain. There were some old houses here, all with large backyards.

An Jun and the others got out of the car. Before they even entered the shop, they heard the BAA BAA of sheep from the backyard.

"Boss, you in? We’re here to pick up the sheep."

"I’m here." Hearing the shout, a tall man with a high-bridged nose came out, wearing a badam cap.

Seeing An Jun, a smile appeared on his face. "Here for the sheep, huh? Need me to butcher it for you?"

An Jun had ordered a live sheep from him at a high price. The roast lamb shop owner had two types of sheep, and the price for a whole roasted lamb varied greatly.

One type was the local, ordinary sheep, which was cheaper. The other was the Yuli Luobu sheep from the Western Border, which was more than twice the price, yet more people chose it over the ordinary kind.

So, whenever he restocked, he would always get fifty or sixty of them at a time and even specially rented a house with a large backyard.

He usually sold some raw mutton as well, but it was rare for someone to buy a whole sheep directly. It was just that the price An Jun offered was great, so he was willing to sell.

"It’ll be difficult for us to butcher it over there, so let’s just have the boss do it and we can take it with us!" Ye Jing suggested to An Jun upon hearing the owner also offered butchering services.

"True. In that case, we’ll have to trouble you, Boss. Please butcher it for us."

An Jun nodded in agreement.

As for the roasting rack and other equipment, he had already bought them and put them in the truck bed. A rack for a whole roasted lamb wasn’t small, which was exactly why he had borrowed Gu Nan’s truck.

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