I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Yi Chen’s First Day at Work (Part 1)

At 5:30 in the morning, the alarm clock rang right on time. Gu Nan’s wake-up time was now half an hour later than before.

He used to get up that early because business was slow, and opening the shop sooner might mean selling an extra fish.

But with his income having skyrocketed over the past few days, he no longer needed to worry about the handful of customers in the early morning.

After getting up, washing up, and heading out, he rode his tricycle to the breakfast stall, where he happened to see Yi Chen buying breakfast.

She was dressed simply today in a black T-shirt, tight-fitting jeans, and a pair of black-and-white sneakers. The outfit was clearly more practical for working at the shop.

"One bun and a soy milk. How much is it?"

"Is that all you’re eating?" Gu Nan asked, getting off his tricycle and walking over.

"Boss..." Yi Chen turned around, looking a bit surprised to see him. "You buy breakfast here too!"

"Yeah, I eat here all the time," Gu Nan replied, then said to the young woman at the stall, "Eight soup dumplings, a bowl of lean pork congee, two fried dough sticks, and a soy milk."

Listening from the side, Yi Chen was secretly amazed, even though she already knew he had a big appetite.

’This meal alone must be over ten yuan,’ she thought. ’Add in lunch and dinner, and he must spend a lot on food every day!’

The young woman at the stall quickly packed everything up and handed the food to them.

Gu Nan took out his phone and said directly, "I’ll pay for both. What’s the total?"

Yi Chen quickly tried to refuse, pulling out her own phone to scan the payment code. "No, let me!"

’She had mooched a free lunch off him yesterday, so treating him to breakfast today was nothing.’

But she was a step too slow; Gu Nan had already paid. "Let’s go. It’s just breakfast, don’t worry about it."

"Oh..." Seeing this, Yi Chen took her breakfast and followed, only to see him get onto a brand-new tricycle.

"Huh? Boss, did you just buy this?"

"Yeah, bought it yesterday. It’s for transporting goods. After all, there’s a delivery fee to get imported fish from the port. I can save a lot by going myself."

Gu Nan finished speaking and patted the seat next to him. "Hop on, I’ll give you a ride."

"Okay." Yi Chen didn’t overthink it and sat down beside him. It was still a short walk to the seafood shop from here, about five or six minutes on foot.

Gu Nan’s tricycle was quite large, so they weren’t squeezed together after she sat down. He twisted the throttle, and the tricycle shot forward. A minute later, they were at the entrance.

He parked the vehicle and took out his keys to open the door.

"I’ll go get a key copied today. Once you’re familiar with the shop’s operations, I might need you to open up in the mornings."

"Then I can focus on deliveries and restocking, and also look for some new channels for imported seafood."

Yi Chen was a little surprised to hear this. ’He’s not worried that I’ll short-change customers on the books and pocket the money myself?’

But just then, a delivery courier arrived with a document.

Yi Chen accepted it with a strange look on her face. When Gu Nan told her to open it, she did as he said.

When she opened it and saw it was full of receipts for the imported fish, she immediately realized how ridiculous her previous thought had been.

Of course, it wasn’t like Yi Chen would ever actually do something like that.

Carrying the receipts to the counter, she had only taken a few steps when she noticed something was off.

’Why are there so many more fish in the tanks? And there are a few kinds I didn’t see yesterday.’

"Boss, did you restock yesterday?"

"Yeah. When it was just me running the shop, I always went to get new stock at night. But from now on, deliveries might also come in the afternoon or evening. I’ve recorded the prices and quantities of these fish in the notebook. You can take a look in a bit."

As he spoke, Gu Nan opened his breakfast bag and used his chopsticks to give her two soup dumplings. "Don’t just eat plain stuff. You start work early and it’s tough, you’ll get hungry fast if you don’t have some meat."

Yi Chen glanced at him silently and didn’t refuse.

From their interactions since yesterday, she had discovered that this man was very meticulous and considerate.

He didn’t say much, but his actions spoke for themselves.

After they finished breakfast, Gu Nan threw away the trash. Seeing Yi Chen pick up the notebook to look at the fish prices, he went over to introduce her to the new fish he’d caught last night.

"By the way, Yi Chen, text the ice delivery guy and have him bring over two boxes."

"Okay."

After she sent the text, Gu Nan nodded and led her to the freezer. "From now on, the first thing every day is to check if we have enough crushed ice. Try to keep a good surplus. We can store any leftovers in the freezer."

"We display some of the chilled fish out here, and at night, we’ll shovel some crushed ice on top of them. There’s no need to repeatedly put these fish back in the freezer. Freezing and thawing the meat over and over will ruin its quality."

"Of course, if they’ve been out for too long, we have to prevent them from spoiling. At that point, we’ll have to freeze them solid in the freezer and lower the price."

Gu Nan’s method for handling chilled fish was different now. Before, he was afraid they wouldn’t sell, so he’d put them in the freezer at night even if it damaged the meat’s quality a bit.

But with business as it was, he felt the fish wouldn’t be so hard to sell. The main chilled fish in the shop was the Black-striped Small Stripes Buri, which could be sold in cuts, so it moved quite quickly.

So, he could just keep it on the display stand packed in crushed ice. At most, he’d pile on a bit more ice at night. This would preserve the freshness of the meat as much as possible.

Yi Chen followed beside him, writing all these instructions down in her notebook. Since she was new and unfamiliar with the shop, she could just check the notebook every day to know what she needed to do.

A short while later, the ice delivery guy arrived.

However, when Gu Nan saw the boxes overflowing with crushed ice, his expression turned a little strange.

He glanced at Yi Chen. ’Is the ’pretty girl effect’ really this powerful? Even the ice delivery guy isn’t immune?’

Well, the ice delivery guy was a young man, seemingly even younger than him. And since they had exchanged WeChats and had each other’s contact info, it was normal for him to have some ideas.

’Not everyone is like me, single-mindedly focused on making money.’

"Let’s start a tab for the ice starting today. You’ll be delivering every day, so we’ll settle up all at once later."

The ice delivery guy nodded, took out his receipt book, wrote up an invoice, and tore off the red copy to hand to Yi Chen.

’He clearly brought more ice than before, and he’s giving the receipt to her,’ Gu Nan thought. ’But don’t be shy, at least give her a proper look!’

Gu Nan shook his head as he watched. ’There’s nothing wrong with simping for a pretty girl, but you have to let her know you’re doing it. How else is she going to remember you?’

’But this kid is clearly simping in the wrong direction. He brought extra ice, but I’m the one benefiting from it!’

After the ice delivery guy left, he went to the display stand and brushed aside the ice he had piled on last night, revealing the large fish hidden beneath.

"Whoa, what a huge fish! Boss, what kind is it?" Yi Chen’s eyes lit up when she saw the fish, which was as big as a small door panel. ’How much commission will I make if this sells?’ she wondered.

"This is a long-jawed trevally. The Black-striped Small Stripes Buri next to it can be sold in cuts. I wrote down sixty yuan a jin in the notebook. But this one can’t be cut; it has to be sold whole."

"None of the prices in the notebook are set in stone. For example, if a customer buys a lot, you can lower the price a little, but not too much."

"For this long-jawed trevally, the lowest you can go is ninety-five yuan a jin. You can’t sell it for any less."

"But don’t try to sell it for too high, either. There’s no point in ripping off one or two customers. Our main goal right now is to build a base of repeat customers."

Yi Chen nodded repeatedly, showing that she understood.

Having taught her pretty much everything she needed to know for now, Gu Nan returned to the counter and left the fish-selling to her.