After Reincarnating as the Dragon King, I Made a Fortune with Seafood – CH48

Chapter 48

The idea that he might sleep and bask in the sun on the mountain one day moved Lu Ao. His attitude toward contracting woodland went from casual to active.

The people of Tanwu Village were very happy too. Such a large mountain, Haining Mountain, had been assigned to their village’s collective land back then.

Their village had few people. If Lu Ao contracted it, every person could receive a decent sum of money.

Tan Junhao was now the representative of Tanwu Village, so he was the one discussing the matter with Lu Ao.

“The elders in the village went around the county to ask. The lowest they could negotiate down to is fifty yuan. The forty-eight yuan per mu you asked for is a little hard. The county said for a mountain at Haining Mountain’s level, fifty is the lowest bottom line.”

Haining Mountain was very large, more than two thousand mu in total. If each mu was two yuan more per year, two thousand mu would cost four thousand yuan more a year. His goal was to contract it for fifty years, which meant the total rent would be two hundred thousand more.

That was not a small amount.

Lu Ao asked, “There’s no room to negotiate?”

Tan Junhao did not hide it from him. “It might still be possible, but if it goes any lower, the villagers probably won’t be too happy. They heard that in the neighboring town, contracting a mountain can reach fifty-six yuan per mu. Several people already said in the WeChat group that if it’s below fifty, they’d rather leave it there than lease it out.”

Lu Ao was now a famous person in Chongxin Village. Everyone knew he could sell a single fish for tens of thousands, and boats were willing to pay tens of thousands to hire him out to sea from time to time.

Hearing that he wanted to contract a mountain, many people had the mentality of, if they could fleece him, why not? They planned to make a proper profit off him.

Human nature was like that. Lu Ao understood the current situation too.

Tan Junhao was his friend, so he advised, “Haining Mountain is really too big. Why don’t you contract another mountain instead? You’re only planting a few fruit trees. You don’t actually need that much land.”

Two thousand mu of land meant that before he had done anything at the start of the year, he would already have to pay a hundred thousand yuan in rent.

A hundred thousand was not a small sum. In all of Shuiyuan Town, there were not many people whose annual income exceeded a hundred thousand.

Fishermen seemed to make dozens or hundreds from one fish, so their income looked impressive. But in reality, after deducting taxes and buying fishing gear, there was not much left in hand.

Lu Ao said, “I’ll think about it again.”

“Okay, think it over. Anyway, those fruit trees of yours aren’t in a rush to be transplanted. If you delay it a little, maybe the price will naturally drop.” Tan Junhao laughed. “But don’t mention that to anyone else.”

“I know. I won’t sell you out.” Lu Ao stood up and saw him out. “I don’t have that much money on hand anyway. Waiting a while will give me more breathing room.”

“That’s true. Those fruit trees of yours weren’t cheap, and you still need to buy a boat.”

Word had spread that Lu Ao had spent more than three hundred thousand buying fruit trees. Quite a few people in the village thought he was a sucker. How could those fruit trees be worth more than three hundred thousand? Even one hundred and fifty thousand would be too much.

That was also why the people of Tanwu Village insisted on not lowering the price. If he was willing to buy fruit trees, how could they lower the price on a mountain that cost only a few dozen yuan per mu?

Tan Junhao asked, “When is your boat auction?”

“Tomorrow,” Lu Ao said. “I’m going to the city tomorrow, so I won’t go fishing with you guys.”

“It’s fine. Go ahead.” Tan Junhao smiled. “When you buy your boat back, we’ll get to ride your big boat too.”

“Who knows when it’ll be ready? The boat I have my eye on is pretty old. I still need to send it to the shipyard to be renovated.”

“All boats need repairs. What’s there to be afraid of? Oh, right, Brother Zhang asked me to tell you that the giant grouper fry you ordered are almost ready to be netted. He told you not to forget.”

Lu Ao rubbed his brow. “Got it.”

He had already paid the deposit for the giant grouper fry. Now he only needed to pay the remaining fifteen hundred yuan.

But spending money was always unpleasant, especially when he was getting poorer and poorer.

That afternoon, Lu Ao specially went fishing for the whole afternoon. He caught thirty-seven fish, nearly a hundred jin in total.

He sent the fish to town to sell. After taxes, they brought him over one thousand eight hundred yuan in income.

After excluding grocery money, he had earned enough for the remaining payment on the giant grouper fry.

When Lu Ao returned home, he saw Lin Qiyan waiting in front of the courtyard and asked, “Why are you here?”

Lin Qiyan yawned, his expression full of resentment. “Didn’t you tell me to cut sweet potato leaves?”

Last time, he had lost a bet, and his penalty was to come help cut sweet potato leaves for two hours.

Later, Lu Ao was busy going out to sea, so the matter was pushed to the back of his mind. It was only a few days ago that he remembered and casually mentioned it.

“You went to cut them this afternoon?”

“Yeah.” Lin Qiyan’s face was red from the sun. “The sweet potato leaves are all in the field. I can’t transport them back, so I came specially to tell you.”

“I’ll go.” Lu Ao said, “Wait for me to put the vegetables away.”

Lin Qiyan did not stand on ceremony either. After helping him put the vegetables away, he climbed into the back of the tricycle. “I’m seriously exhausted today. The sun was too strong this afternoon. Even with a straw hat, I couldn’t take it.”

“Why didn’t you wait until the sun was about to set?”

This was the seaside. At sunset, there would be sea breeze, so the weather would not be too hot.

“Once the sun sets, there are mosquitoes! And not just one kind!” Lin Qiyan said gloomily. “I’d rather be scorched to death by the sun than bitten to death by mosquitoes.”

Lu Ao had forgotten about that.

Ever since he became a dragon, no mosquitoes or insects dared to bite him anymore. Naturally, he could no longer experience the horror of the sun setting and swarms of dark mosquitoes rushing out to feed.

Just talking about it made Lin Qiyan’s arms itch. He rubbed his arms. “Where are your geese? Did you take them out to graze today?”

“No. I didn’t have time today, so I kept them shut in all day. I’ll talk about it the day after tomorrow.”

“Honestly, just drive them to the riverbank. I think they know their way home and won’t run around. You can drive them out in the morning and drive them back at night. You can even skip feeding them at noon. Your geese are still small. No one’s going to try anything with them. What are you afraid of?”

“I’ve been busy lately and haven’t tried whether it works or not. I’ll see after a while.”

Songzhou had driven the geese out before.

Lu Ao attributed that to Songzhou being highly skilled and bold. He did not think the geese themselves had contributed much.

What if he drove the flock out with no one watching and only a few came back?

Their river was connected to the sea, and there were plenty of fierce carnivorous fish inside.

Leaving aside anything else, the nearly two-meter-long giant eel Lu Ao had caught—if a gosling got bitten by that thing, it would basically become its meal.

Lin Qiyan thought for a moment. “How about I herd the geese for you for a day? I can shoot an episode about herding geese too.”

Lu Ao did not refuse. “Okay. Which day?”

“Tomorrow. Give me the key. I’ll look up how to herd geese. If there’s no problem, I’ll come over first thing tomorrow morning and drive them to the riverbank.”

“Pay more attention to the lead goose named Sesame Ball. Don’t take them onto the sea. There basically won’t be any problem.”

There were currents and sea wind on the surface of the sea. If the geese went out there, they could easily be scattered.

When Lu Ao was young, there had once been a duck farmer whose ducks were driven out to sea and then scattered by the sea wind. For several days afterward, the farmer went around the nearby villages to retrieve ducks.

Lin Qiyan knew about that too. He promised, “Don’t worry. I’ll only drive them toward the riverbank. Absolutely no going into the sea.”

“I’ll give you a spare key to the goose pen later. You can come straight over tomorrow.”

“No problem. You won’t be back tomorrow. Do you want me to feed the geese at night?”

“If they don’t eat enough outside, feed them a little.” Lu Ao said, “Just throw some sweet potato leaves into the goose pen later. They’ll eat them themselves.”

The goslings’ beaks were already quite strong. They could even nibble grass down, so eating some sweet potato leaves would not be difficult.

Lu Ao was too lazy to chop them. Usually, he threw them in whole bundles, then cleaned the goose pen the next day and swept the leftovers and goose droppings together into the nearby compost pile.

By the time they finished transporting the sweet potato leaves back, the sky had already darkened, but Songzhou still had not come.

During this period, Songzhou had been very punctual. Usually, he would appear in the courtyard around four or five. Today, he suddenly did not come, and Lu Ao felt worried.

Lu Ao looked at the sky. He wanted to call Songzhou, but he was also afraid of disturbing him.

After thinking for a while, Lu Ao sent a message: Songzhou, are you not coming back tonight? Did something happen?

Songzhou replied very quickly: Nothing happened. I’m just on a business trip and can’t get away for the moment. I got busy and forgot to tell you. I won’t be coming tonight.

Lu Ao felt an inexplicable sense of disappointment. He held his phone: Got it. Be careful. I’m going to the city tomorrow to attend the boat auction, so I might not be home either.

—Okay. If I’m free tomorrow, I’ll go to your place.

Lu Ao exchanged a few simple messages with Songzhou, then ended the conversation.

The courtyard was empty. There was only Lu Ao.

He lay back on the lounge chair, not really wanting to eat. He lay there for a long time.

It was not until after eight in the evening that he slowly got up to cook.

Since he was eating alone, he did not bother making anything complicated. He put vegetables, meat, eggs, and noodles into the pot together and boiled them, then served them with some chili sauce, soy sauce, and a little vinegar.

The noodles made this way tasted ordinary, but the ingredients were fresh, so they were not unpleasant.

Early the next morning, Lu Ao took a bus to Qianyong City.

The starting price of the boat was three hundred thousand. Lu Ao had already paid a sixty-thousand-yuan deposit.

The auction began at ten in the morning on July 15. Bidding could be done directly on the online shopping page, and each increase had to be more than three thousand yuan.

At ten in the morning, Lu Ao placed his first bid and entered three hundred and three thousand yuan.

A few seconds later, someone bid three hundred and ten thousand.

Lu Ao continued to add more.

His bids were very steady, basically increasing by three thousand each time, right at the minimum increment.

There was only one other bidder. The auction had an automatic extension function, meaning that in the last five minutes before the auction ended, if a bidder placed a bid, the closing time would automatically be extended by five minutes.

For the first few minutes, Lu Ao went back and forth with the other person.

When the fishing boat reached three hundred and fifty thousand, Lu Ao basically began placing bids right at the five-minute limit.

His highest expectation was four hundred thousand. If it exceeded that, he would rather look for another boat.

The two sides went back and forth.

The other party clearly sensed Lu Ao’s hesitation and began hesitating too.

At ten thirty-eight, Lu Ao placed his final bid: three hundred and ninety-six thousand.

The other party hesitated for a long time but did not bid again. Five minutes later, the auction time set by the system automatically ended. Lu Ao won the bid.

Lu Ao did not hesitate either. He paid immediately.

The boat fee, taxes, and all other expenses totaled more than four hundred and thirty thousand. Since he had already paid a deposit, he only needed to pay another three hundred and seventy thousand now.

After this, Lu Ao had only a little over two hundred thousand left in hand.

He had just filled in the information and submitted it when Xiao Du called. As soon as the call connected, Xiao Du shouted excitedly, “Brother Lu, you bought the boat, didn’t you? I think I heard it was you!”

“Yeah. I just finished paying.”

“That’s great! Where are you now? Are you coming to pick up the boat? I’ll go with you!”

“I’m in the car. I should arrive soon.” Lu Ao said, “I’ll treat you to lunch. There’s something I want to ask you for help with too. We’ll talk later.”

“Great! I’ll be waiting.”