Chapter 32: Fleeing in Embarrassment

All along, Gao Meijuan had never asked Chu Xuan about her refusal to marry. In fact, she hoped Chu Xuan would marry into a good family, and the Mu family really was quite decent. Still, she respected Chu Xuan’s choice.

Tactfully, she went to the kitchen to check on the oven, leaving Chu Xuan and Mu Chenzhen space to talk.

Chu Xuan was just about to ask, “Why are you here?” when Mu Chenzhen’s slightly disgruntled voice sounded, “Seems like you’ve forgotten something.”

Chu Xuan was confused. “Forgotten what?”

“You said that once your new house was built, you’d treat me to a meal. I say, why wait? How about tomorrow night?”

Once again, Mu Chenzhen had everything planned out for her.

Chu Xuan had indeed promised, but she’d been quite busy these past few days.

“Can we do it another day? Tomorrow morning I have to go to Li Tong’s stall to pick up skinless fish, arrange people to clean them, ask Uncle and Aunt Mingchen to come with me to the city to sell grilled fish slices, then come back and marinate the fish. By then, the fish from your family should be delivered, and I’ll need to arrange people to clean those too…”

Before she could finish, Mu Chenzhen interrupted with a darkened expression, “Why didn’t you ask me to help collect the fish or go to the city with you to sell grilled fish slices? Don’t you know I have more connections? Am I not your buddy?”

“How could you not be my buddy? I just figured you need to go out to sea and make money! I didn’t want to take up your time!” Chu Xuan really hadn’t expected that not wanting to trouble Mu Chenzhen would actually make him angry.

Besides, she needed Uncle Mingchen to go to the city with her tomorrow. Otherwise, he’d go out to sea, and the tragedy from her previous life might repeat itself.

Mu Chenzhen snorted, “But you’re asking Wang Mingchen to go with you. Isn’t that taking up his time too?”

It was obvious who was close and who wasn’t. He felt that Chu Xuan was closer to the Wang family, even though the two of them were already quite familiar—heck, they’d even kissed…

Thinking of this, Mu Chenzhen’s face flushed red.

The courtyard light shone on his face, and Chu Xuan caught it. “Mu Chenzhen, don’t get so worked up. Look, your face is turning red from anger! How about this: except for tomorrow, whenever you’re free, I’ll ask you to come with me to the city to sell grilled fish slices, okay? If sales are good, I’ll have you help me collect a thousand jin of skinless fish every day, sound good?”

After all, she owed this guy so much.

She couldn’t stand to see him upset!

If he wanted to be troubled, then so be it.

Mu Chenzhen couldn’t be bothered to explain that his face wasn’t red from anger. He quickly composed himself. “That’s more like it! Remember, buddies are meant to be troubled! And about that meal, I was just saying it in passing. The main reason I came today is to bring you some good news.”

Chu Xuan looked curious. “What good news?”

“I found someone to come and buy fish livers and fish heads from you. His name is Bai Xiaotian. He said the price depends on how well the fish livers are preserved. Good quality livers are used to extract fish oil, while poor quality livers and fish heads fetch a very low price—just a few yuan per ton. He’ll take them for processing, mostly as animal feed.”

Mu Chenzhen explained everything in detail.

Even though he didn’t spell it out, Chu Xuan could tell he was helping her broaden her knowledge.

She couldn’t help but praise him, “You really know a lot, and you have so many connections. Thanks! You’re a great buddy! By the way, when will Bai Xiaotian come to collect them?”

There were quite a few fish heads piled up in the yard, at least several dozen jin. She was glad she hadn’t thrown them away—even a few cents is still money.

Mu Chenzhen was a little embarrassed by the praise and tossed out, “He’ll come in three days.”

And with that, he practically fled in embarrassment.

He felt like he just couldn’t handle Chu Xuan’s endless stream of compliments!

Chu Xuan stood at the door, struggling to hold back her laughter. So this guy had such a cute side to him?

She didn’t go back to the kitchen until his figure had disappeared from view.

Gao Meijuan gave Chu Xuan a meaningful smile. Chu Xuan hurried to explain, “Grandma Gao, don’t get the wrong idea. What happened between me and Mu Chenzhen before was just an accident. We’re just good buddies now.”

Gao Meijuan couldn’t help but rub her forehead. “So he sees you as one of the guys? Just buddies?”

Didn’t that mean there wasn’t even the slightest chance of marriage?

She didn’t say this out loud, afraid of discouraging Chu Xuan.

Chu Xuan looked unconcerned. “What’s wrong with being seen as a guy? If I want to support a family in the future, I have to be even more capable than a man!”

Gao Meijuan felt a pang of sadness for Chu Xuan and quickly changed the subject. “Xiao Xuan, check the oven fire.”

Chu Xuan immediately focused on the grilled fish slices.

She adjusted the vent damper.

A while later, Chu Feng whispered something to Chu Xuan.

Chu Xuan nodded, took out four yuan, and handed it to Gao Meijuan.

“Grandma Gao, here’s your and Shasha’s wages for today.”

Gao Meijuan stared in shock at the money in her hand.

“This much?”

Wang Shasha looked incredulous. She was young, but she knew that factory workers only made a little over one yuan a day.

They’d earned three workers’ wages in just three or four hours tonight?

Chu Xuan smiled and explained, “It’s one cent per jin processed. You and Shasha handled four hundred jin, so that’s four yuan.”

Gao Meijuan tried to return two yuan. “That’s too much! You haven’t even sold the grilled fish slices yet.”

Chu Xuan firmly refused. “It’s not too much—it’s because you and Shasha are so capable! Don’t worry, these grilled fish slices will definitely sell.”

She was confident.

Just then, Wang Depin knocked on the door to pick up Gao Meijuan and his daughter.

“Meijuan, since it’s wages, just take it!”

Keeping business and personal matters separate is the way to make things last.

Since Wang Depin had spoken, Gao Meijuan had to accept it.

But she secretly resolved to help out at Chu Xuan’s house more in the future.

Wang Depin didn’t leave right away, but chatted with Chu Xuan for a while.

He’d gotten some information from a friend about buying a shop at the train station. Outsiders could buy, but they had to get a quota from an insider.

He was grateful to Chu Xuan for the tip.

He was very optimistic about those shops.

He also reminded Chu Xuan to share any news she heard when selling grilled fish slices in the city.

Chu Xuan naturally agreed.

After seeing the three of them out, she went back to grilling fish slices.

By eleven at night, all the grilled fish slices were done.

Chu Xuan weighed them—just under 86 jin.

Out of 560 jin of fish, that really was about one and a half jin of product per ten jin of fish.

She jotted down notes, calculating the costs.

Cost of fish, labor, firewood, transportation, spices…

Ten minutes later, she figured out that the cost per jin of grilled fish slices with bones was 0.8 yuan.

She planned to sell them for 2 yuan per jin, a bit higher than the grilled fish slices sold in town.

After all, her product was better in quality, taste, and appearance.

Once she started selling in the city and beyond, she was sure she wouldn’t tarnish Laixian’s reputation for grilled fish slices.

At that moment, Mu Chenzhen was sitting in his courtyard, staring at the sky.

Qin Mahua saw him and came out, concern on her face. “Xiao Ze, why aren’t you asleep yet? Don’t you have to go out to sea before dawn?”

Mu Chenzhen replied casually, “Just moon-gazing.”

Qin Mahua slapped him on the back. “Who are you fooling? It’s the first day of the lunar month—what’s there to see? Something on your mind?”

Mu Chenzhen let out a sigh. “Of course I’ve got something on my mind! Just thinking about how to make more money while I’m still young! Mom, you go to bed. I need to think about how much deep-sea catch to bring in the day after tomorrow.”

“Is that really it?”"