CTF 0044

“You’re excellent in both academics and moral character. Women really won’t be outdone by men!” The field manager gave Xu Yin a thumbs up. 

“Let’s go. I’ll take you to choose fish fry. We bred these fish from carefully selected fish from all over the country. They’ve been bred generation after generation to get the fish we have today. We’ve never sold fry before, and you’re the first one to ever buy it from us. But I always keep my promises. You can have as many as you want.”

The farm manager was a bit reluctant at first.

It was because Xu Yin wanted a thousand fish fry. 

She planned to distribute them across her three mus of paddy fields. As for the one-mu left, she planned to keep it empty in case of disease outbreaks that would require isolating some fish.

The farm director was willing to honour his promise, despite everything else. 

Although, he couldn’t help but wonder why they hadn’t tried this earlier. With so many mus of fields, why didn’t they give it a try? 

Moreover, he heard from Xu Yin that paddy fields could not only be used to raise rice fish but also crabs and eels.

In June, having yellow field crabs was particularly popular. 

Moreover, paddy fields co-cultivated with fish had excellent rice grain production. The grains would be large and plump.

If they succeeded in this, they would not only harvest an additional batch of fish but also increase the rice yield by one to two hundred kilograms per mu.

Xu Yin’s parting words left the farm director in high spirits. 

When he returned to his office, he wrote up a plan. After he finished, he sighed with relief and looked at the large watermelon in the corner of the room. He smiled and shook his head.

“This rice fish is indeed a hot commodity. But watermelons…”

With so much land at the farm, how could they be lacking a watermelon?

Still, he’d been working hard for so long, and he was a bit thirsty. He had his secretary come in, slice the watermelon, and hand him a piece. He took a bite.

“Wow! What kind of watermelon is this?”

It was so delicious!

Xu Yin returned home as the evening drew near. 

However, many people were still gathered in her family’s yard. They had come to inquire about the rice paddy fish breeding methods.

It seemed that, in the second half of the year, there would be many more rice-fish farmers in this village. 

As a result of this, fish prices might fluctuate at the end of the year. 

It didn’t matter much, though. If the price of fish fell, that meant many more people would be able to see fish on their dining tables.

Moreover, every new industry would follow the orderly development pattern of going from ‘nobody is doing it’ to ‘everyone is trying it out’, and then to ‘survival of the fittest, the winner will take it all’, all per the market economic laws.

Still, as long as their rice paddy fish were the plumpest and the most delicious, they wouldn’t be afraid of competition. In this economy, quality was the ultimate guarantee of sales. 

Mother Xu saw off the villagers. Then, she scooped a bowl of green bean soup for her daughter. “How did it go? Did Instructor Yu agree to lend us his tractor?”

“He agreed, but I’ll have to help him plough his farm first. They have to meet their own targets first.”

“That’s only fair,” Mother Xu said.

However, she was concerned for her daughter. A young lady driving a tractor around the fields would get sunburned and might also lose weight.  

“We’ll slaughter a chicken to make some soup for you tomorrow.” 

“Why not wait until we harvest the rice? We can make some chicken soup for Dad and Uncle too.”

“Alright, we can do that. Tomorrow, I’ll go line up to buy some bones to make seaweed soup for you instead.”

During the busy farming season, everyone would buy some meat to supplement their diets. As a result, meat was in high demand. If one didn’t go early, one might not be able to get any, and might only be able to grab some bones. 

“Oh, by the way, did you inquire about fish fry? Do you know where to buy them? It’s my fault; I should have checked with Hutang Village earlier. When I went to ask them, they won’t sell them anymore. They say there are too many buyers, and they don’t have enough for themselves.”

In truth, Hutang Village had seen the rice-fish system that the Xu family’s village had applied, and they planned to try it for themselves in the second half of the year. That was the true reason why they weren’t selling their fish fry. 

Many other households had the idea to follow the system that Xu Yin’s family had implemented, but they lacked experience. It was not until the harvest came that they realised that they hadn’t secured the fish fry they needed for the next season. 

Fortunately, Pingyang wasn’t a small county, and the rice paddy fish cultivation was a system that was, at the moment, only known by the Xu family’s village and several other villages near it. It hadn’t really spread yet.

Even though they couldn’t buy fish fry nearby, they could still buy them if they travelled further away. It just meant that they’d have to go through a little more trouble for the fish fry.

At this time, Father Xu came back.

“I met Jianjun on the way. He said that a night school classmate’s house had a fish pond, and his friend had promised to sell him a batch of fry. He asked if we wanted to buy some too.”

“No, Dad, I was just about to tell you that I made an order with the farm. I bought a thousand seedlings in total. The farm director and I selected them together. All the seedlings are good. We even pulled a net separately. When the time comes to put them in the fields, you’ll just take the buckets with you.”

“…”

Her parents were stunned. It took them a few seconds before they reacted.

“Fish from the farm? That’s really good!”

“My little Yinyin is really capable! She’s only gone out for half a day and has already taken care of all of our problems!”

Mother Xu was so happy that she wanted to go out to show off. Before she could, though, Xu Yin grabbed her and said, “Mom, don’t tell anyone about the fish fry before they arrive. Otherwise, everyone will rush to the farm to buy them, too. The farm manager will get annoyed. What if he ends up refusing to sell to us because of it?”

What Xu Yin said made sense to Mother Xu, so she immediately came back. She didn’t even dare to go out of the courtyard gate from then on. She was afraid of accidentally spilling the beans and losing the fish fry that her daughter had worked so hard to obtain because of that.

Paddy rice fish was a new product. They weren’t worried about finding buyers.

Xu Yin had originally intended to set up a stall in the county for the fish that her family had harvested, just like she had planned to with the watermelons. 

However, before she could, the villagers had already bought a considerable amount of the fish.

Some people couldn’t afford to buy pork, and so chose to buy fish instead to replenish their bodies with. After all, the busy farming work took its toll on one’s energy. 

Some people thought that Xu Yin’s family had good luck this year, and as such bought their family’s fish to get some of their good luck. Maybe the rice fish that they’d raise next season would be as good as the ones that Xu Yin’s family had harvested.

Several households were planning weddings, marriages, and other celebrations after the busy farming season. They needed to purchase fish for more than a dozen tables. 

Rice paddy fish were no different from wild fish; they were vigorous and could survive in tanks for several days, making them suitable for events. 

So, they bought them from the Xu family since they were from the same village, saving transportation costs.

In summary, everyone had their reasons to buy the Xu family’s rice paddy fish, but it still turned out great for Xu Yin’s family. 

They sold more than 200 fish, keeping some for their consumption or to give to others, and the rest were sold out in less than three days.

The fast turnaround delighted Mother Xu. 

“That Stinky Dajiao must be so jealous! Her family took the fish to the county and only sold half, but we sold all of our fish without that much effort! Hahaha!”

What made her even happier was the amount of money they made. “Old man, guess how much we made from selling the fish?”

“How much?” 

Father Xu had no idea about the financial matters since Mother Xu usually handled them all on her own.

“157 yuan!” Mother Xu’s face flushed with excitement. “Excluding the cost of buying the fish fry, we made a profit of 99 yuan!” 

And it had only been three months!

They’d also only raised 268 fish. Even excluding those they had kept for personal consumption and gift-giving, they still sold over 200 fish. Her daughter had ordered a thousand fish fries for the next season, so she would be sure to earn even more money. She calculated it and found that she could probably earn up to 600 yuan.

“Mom, don’t get too excited too soon.” Xu Yin poured cold water on her enthusiasm.

The reason they sold well this time was that there were few fish farmers, but the next season, when everyone would have already followed suit, fish prices would drop.

Mother Xu slapped her thigh in frustration. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have let them know the fish feed formula.”

Xu Yin chuckled. “Mom, if only our family could raise big fish while everyone else had small ones, don’t you think people might get upset and try to sabotage us? They might say there’s something wrong with our fish feed. Anyway, that’d cause trouble for us.”

After her parents thought more deeply about it, they sighed. 

Xu Yin smiled and said, “We might not get 600 yuan, but 500 yuan should still be possible.”

Mother Xu’s spirits were instantly lifted again. “That’s not bad at all. And this is just the money from selling the fish. We still have three mus of watermelons! This year’s overall harvest is not bad at all!”