Chapter 116: Solving Problems

Chu Xuan couldn’t help but shake her head. She never expected that her grilled fish fillet workshop would actually push the price of leatherjacket fish to a new high.

All these years, the price of leatherjacket fish had never exceeded ten cents per jin.

If she couldn’t wait and bought leatherjacket fish at this price today, the price would only go higher in the future.

She wasn’t about to indulge those people.

“Li Lin, please tell your dad to buy from his friend. As long as the fish is fresh and the quality is guaranteed, I can wait. I also plan to sign a supply agreement with his friend, with the purchase price and quantity set in advance. Your dad will definitely get his commission.”

Let those people who try to jack up the price go sell their leatherjacket fish elsewhere.

“Okay.”

Li Lin didn’t stay long—after all, things were busy over at the dock.

Everyone in the courtyard had a flash of anger in their eyes.

No one expected the Qiu family to cause trouble at a time like this.

Chu Xuan went to the village office to find Wang Depin.

She explained her intentions, saying that from now on she wouldn’t hire people to chop firewood in the mountains anymore, but would only buy from the village collective, paying the market price per load. As for the water fee, even if she didn’t have people fetch water, it would just flow away, so she wouldn’t pay for it.

Wang Depin was a smart man. He immediately promised the villagers that from now on, the village collective would assign people to chop and sell firewood, and the money would be kept by the village office for now, with dividends distributed to villagers at the end of the year.

The crowd at the village office finally dispersed.

However, Chu Xuan also realized that using firewood to grill fish fillets wasn’t a long-term solution. She suggested to Wang Depin that in the future, the grilled fish fillet factory should use charcoal, as it would produce more consistent quality.

Wang Depin readily accepted the suggestion and asked Chu Xuan to experiment with charcoal grilling next month, saying the village would provide some subsidies.

Chu Xuan happily agreed.

That day, because of the limited amount of leatherjacket fish, Qin Mahua and the others finished work and got paid before dark.

What Chu Xuan didn’t expect was that instead of going home, they all ran over to the Qiu family’s area to curse them out.

The Qiu men, seeing it was a group of women, egged their own wives on to go out and argue back.

But they were no match for Gao Meijuan and her group, who scolded them so badly they were left speechless.

Just then, a few families arrived with carts to sell leatherjacket fish.

The Qiu women deliberately showed off.

Only then did Gao Meijuan and the others realize that the Qiu family had been buying up leatherjacket fish at high prices and had stockpiled over a hundred loads of firewood, preparing to make grilled fish fillets themselves.

They didn’t bother arguing anymore and hurried to report to Chu Xuan.

After hearing the news, Chu Xuan reassured everyone not to worry. The Qiu family didn’t have the recipe for marinating fish fillets, nor could they control the grilling process. They wouldn’t be able to sell at a high price, their costs would be high, and they wouldn’t make much profit. It wouldn’t affect their own business at all...

The next morning at 7 a.m., Li Tong brought his friend over to deliver 6,000 jin of leatherjacket fish, all of good quality.

Chu Xuan settled the payment on the spot and agreed on a daily delivery of 4,000 jin for the next half month.

With this supply and Ji Ping delivering fish every day, Chu Xuan no longer feared the villagers jacking up prices.

Just as Chu Feng was about to go call Gao Meijuan and the others to start work, they arrived at the door.

As usual, ten people were in charge of cleaning the fish.

At the dock, Li Tong absolutely refused to buy any leatherjacket fish priced above 4.5 cents per jin.

The Qiu family still hadn’t used up the fish they bought yesterday at ten cents per jin, so they weren’t buying today.

This forced those villagers who wanted to sell at high prices to go elsewhere.

But elsewhere, the purchase price was only 4 cents per jin.

No one believed the Qiu family’s nonsense anymore.

The next day, when the villagers tried to sell their catch to Li Tong at 4.5 cents per jin, Li Tong said, “The price of leatherjacket fish has dropped today—4 cents per jin. Chu Xuan has already signed a supply contract with my friend. Whether I buy or not doesn’t matter. If you have good quality, I’ll take some.”

Hearing this, no one dared argue. They sold to Li Tong at 4 cents per jin.

In the blink of an eye, August 20th arrived. Chu Xuan had already packed over a thousand jin of grilled fish fillets, just waiting for the truck Boss Yuan hired to come pick them up.

The agreed time was around 8:30 a.m., but by 9:00, there was still no sign of the truck.

Chu Xuan started to worry. Had something happened? Did the driver forget her address and take the wrong road?

She told her younger brother and planned to wait at the village entrance.

Just as she stepped out, Gao Meijuan came rushing over, holding a stick and looking anxious. “Xiao Xuan, come with me to the village entrance, something’s happened! The truck arrived a while ago, but the driver’s being extorted by the Qiu family. Grandpa Wang isn’t in the village right now, so I’ll go with you…”

“Okay!”

Chu Xuan grabbed her carrying pole and ran to the village entrance. Despite being a bit plump, she’d been drinking herbal medicine and exercising lately, so running was no problem.

Ten minutes later, they arrived at the village entrance.

Qiu Daguang’s father, Qiu Zhi, was lying in front of the truck, shouting, “My leg is broken! It hurts! My leg is broken! Don’t let this driver get away!”

The driver, standing to the side, was furious. “Get out of the way! My truck didn’t even touch you!”

“You hit me! Plenty of villagers saw it!”

Several other Qiu family members chimed in.

“I can testify that you hit this uncle!”

“So can I!”

“A broken leg—at least 500 yuan in compensation!”

The driver was starting to get a headache.

Chu Xuan said sternly, “You Qiu family are putting on a show to scam people. Not a chance.”

Only then did the driver realize that the “villagers” Qiu Zhi mentioned were all his own family.

Chu Xuan stepped forward, grabbed Qiu Zhi by the collar, and dragged him aside. She apologized to the driver, “Sorry for wasting your time. Please go to my house to load the goods. I’ll handle things here.”

The driver was grateful. “Thank you! I was too naive and fell for their trick. Sorry to keep you waiting! I’ll drive over right now.”

He got in the truck and started it up.

The Qiu family tried to block the truck, but Chu Xuan’s carrying pole and Gao Meijuan’s stick kept them at bay.

Just then, Widow Niu, Qin Mahua, Mu Chenze, and Liu Dapeng arrived and quickly subdued the Qiu family.

Qiu Zhi shouted, “I really was hit by the truck! Don’t let the driver leave! Everyone, come look! I was hit by a truck, and now Chu Xuan is beating me! Someone judge this!”

More and more villagers gathered, blocking the truck’s way and discussing the situation.

Gao Meijuan, who’d been the village chief’s wife for years, spoke up, “Everyone, let me tell you what happened. I saw it with my own eyes! Qiu Zhi blocked the truck from afar, and the truck stopped three meters away from him. Qiu Zhi tried to get the driver to buy his grilled fish fillets, but the driver refused. So Qiu Zhi rolled himself under the truck and grabbed his knee, trying to scam him.”

Qiu Zhi insisted, “Don’t listen to her! Don’t forget she and Chu Xuan are as close as sisters! That driver came to pick up goods from Chu Xuan’s house! Of course she’s on the driver’s side! I really was hit!”

The Qiu family echoed, “That’s right! We can all testify!”

Chu Xuan pointed at Qiu Zhi’s knee and sneered, “So you were hit on the knee?”

Qiu Zhi nodded repeatedly, “Yes!”

“Then write it down right now—exactly where the truck hit you. Sign it and put your fingerprint on it! I’ll handle the compensation.”

Hearing this, the Qiu family thought Chu Xuan had no way out. One of them handed Qiu Zhi pen and paper, urging him to write.

Qiu Zhi thought the same, and promptly wrote that the truck driver had hit his right knee.

After he signed, Chu Xuan pulled out the red inkpad she always carried. “Put your fingerprint on it!”

She’d actually prepared the inkpad ahead of time for the driver to sign receipts."