Chapter 14: Ribbonfish

Chu Xuan gave Chu Feng a thorough talking-to, “Xiao Feng, what are you daydreaming about? He’s a swan in the sky, and I’m just a toad on the ground. You have to know your place in life. Look at all this fat on me, and this round face—how could I possibly be worthy of him? I still feel guilty about what happened with that scheme. Besides, I’ll only think about marriage after you’ve made something of yourself.”

Chu Feng was puzzled. “Why do you have to wait until I’ve made something of myself? When will that be?”

“When you become a sensible, responsible man, that’s when. As for why I have to wait—because I’m your big sister! The eldest sister is like a mother! Now hurry up and eat your fish, and don’t bring this up again!”

But what Chu Xuan really wanted to say was: If I think about marriage before you’ve grown up, I’ll just end up dragging my in-laws down.

Outside the courtyard wall, Mu Chenze stopped listening.

He felt a bit annoyed. After the swan got tricked and kissed by the toad, the toad didn’t want to take responsibility. Shouldn’t the swan be happy about that?

So why did the swan feel like it was being rejected by the toad?

When he got home, he hurriedly ate a few bites of food and went back to his room.

Qin Mahua whispered to her husband, Mu Qinlao, “Dear, have you noticed that our second son’s been acting strange these past couple of days?”

Mu Qinlao was the easygoing type and waved her off. “Haven’t noticed. The boy’s been working hard on the fishing boat, just like always.”

Qin Mahua felt like she was talking to a brick wall. “Forget it, I’m not talking to you anymore!”

She went off to chat with her eldest daughter-in-law, Fu Qing.

“Qing, I feel like our second son’s not himself lately. Could it be that he’s upset after being rejected by Chu Xuan? Should we find a matchmaker to introduce him to someone?”

Fu Qing had also noticed her brother-in-law hadn’t had much of an appetite lately. “He really might be upset. Mom, why don’t you talk to a matchmaker tomorrow—”

“Why wait for tomorrow? I’ll go tonight!”

A few minutes later, Qin Mahua grabbed a bag of gifts, picked up a flashlight, and bustled off to the matchmaker Wang’s house…

The next morning, a little after six, Chu Xuan grabbed two buckets and her other tools, getting ready to go foraging by the sea.

Chu Feng came out of his room holding a bowl of malted milk. “Sis, have a bowl to fill your stomach first. I’ll have breakfast ready by the time you get back.”

He’d lost track of time reading last night and woke up late this morning, so he hadn’t managed to make breakfast for his sister in advance.

Chu Xuan took the bowl gratefully and finished it.

In her past life, she’d always looked after her little brother. In this life, she was finally getting to feel his warmth in return.

Twenty minutes later, Chu Xuan arrived at the beach. The tide had already gone out quite a bit.

There were a lot of people out foraging, most of them collecting clams.

Even though clams didn’t fetch a good price these days, it didn’t dampen anyone’s enthusiasm for combing the shore.

But Chu Xuan didn’t rush to join the crowd. Instead, she headed straight for the rocky area, hoping for better luck.

Before long, she found a ribbonfish a meter long, weighing at least seven or eight jin.

The ribbonfish was already dead, but still fresh, its gills bright red.

This kind of fish lives in deep sea, and once it’s brought ashore, its internal organs burst from the pressure difference.

Usually, people only ever see dead ribbonfish.

It was one of Chu Xuan’s all-time favorite seafoods.

After putting the ribbonfish in her bucket, she couldn’t help but imagine the delicious taste of braised or deep-fried ribbonfish.

She turned over a few rocks and found a palm-sized swimming crab.

It wasn’t crab season, and this one was missing a claw, so it wouldn’t sell for much. She decided to keep it for Xiao Feng—he’d been craving crab for ages.

Definitely a keeper.

She put it in the other bucket.

After all, the crab still had one claw left, and she didn’t want it to ruin her prized ribbonfish.

She searched through the rocks and found two octopuses, each weighing two or three jin, and put them in the bucket too.

The rocky area was pretty big, and although the tide hadn’t fully gone out, that didn’t stop Chu Xuan from hopping from rock to rock in search of seafood.

She looked into the water.

She saw a whole bunch of ribbonfish.

What luck!

In her previous life, she’d never found this many ribbonfish, and neither had anyone else.

Could this school of ribbonfish be a gift from the heavens?

Her luck was really something.

Free seafood!

And there was no one else around.

Ten minutes later, she’d filled both buckets to the brim with ribbonfish.

As for the crab, surrounded by dead ribbonfish, Chu Xuan wasn’t worried about it causing any trouble.

When she carried her buckets toward the pier, she drew plenty of envious looks.

She’d gotten all the ribbonfish—no one else had found any.

Many of the other foragers regretted not searching the rocks. Ribbonfish were worth much more than clams.

At the pier, the ribbonfish were of excellent quality. Li Tong, the fish buyer, recognized Chu Xuan at a glance and hurried over to help carry her buckets. He weighed them—sixty-five jin and three liang in total.

Li Tong was amazed. It was the first time he’d ever seen someone collect so many ribbonfish while foraging. Usually, only deep-sea fishing boats brought in that much.

Surprised as he was, business was business.

“Normally, I pay 1.3 yuan per jin for ribbonfish over eight liang, but yours are all big—almost all over a jin each. I’ll give you 1.5 yuan per jin. How’s that?”

Chu Xuan picked out the meter-long ribbonfish. “I’m not selling this one. And I’ll keep the crab and octopus for myself. For the rest, let’s make it a flat 100 yuan. Deal?”

Li Tong did the math. At 1.5 yuan per jin, sixty-five jin and three liang came to ninety-eight yuan. If Chu Xuan took out the biggest one, that’d be seven or eight jin less—worth over ten yuan.

“At that price, I won’t make any money. How about this: flat 90 yuan?”

Chu Xuan wasn’t easy to fool. “No way. Flat 95 yuan, not a cent less, or I’m not selling.”

Li Tong glanced at the other fish vendors nearby, who were eyeing the deal hungrily, and could only agree, though it pained him. “Fine. But if you get any more good stuff, you have to sell to me first!”

“No problem.”

Business was all about bargaining, after all.

Chu Xuan was satisfied with the price and didn’t bother looking for another buyer.

Li Tong counted out ninety-five yuan and handed it to her.

Some gossipy villagers saw the whole thing and spread the news back in the village.

When Chu Xuan returned, she heard people talking.

“Ever since she split from her family, Chu Xuan’s luck has been great.”

“Yeah! She was in debt before the split, but now she can pay it off. Plus, her real mom sends money to help build a new house. Life’s only going to get better for her.”

“That Feng Chunhua just couldn’t see the bigger picture…”

Chu Xuan didn’t bother listening to the rest.

Twenty minutes later, she was at her doorstep. She paused, looking at the long ribbonfish in her bucket.

She couldn’t help but wonder: Mu Chenze turned his nose up at two- or three-jin mackerel—surely he wouldn’t reject a seven- or eight-jin ribbonfish, right?

Should she give him the ribbonfish to repay some of what she owed him?

She’d owed him so much in her past life, and still owed him plenty in this one…

But she was craving that ribbonfish herself. In both her lives combined, she’d never eaten one this big.

Just then, she saw a familiar figure passing by—it was Mu Chenze.

He didn’t go out to sea today?

The moment she saw him, Chu Xuan’s hand went to the ribbonfish. She picked it up and blurted out, “Mu Chenze, here’s a big ribbonfish for you—seven or eight jin!”

She couldn’t help feeling a little regretful—she wouldn’t get to taste that big, delicious ribbonfish herself."