Chapter 48: What’s Going On Between You Two?

“Ma, shouldn’t you be asking me first if I made a profit today, how much money I earned? Why are you suddenly so interested in what’s going on at Chu Xuan’s house?”

Mu Chenze watched Qin Mahua’s face closely as he spoke, afraid to miss any change in her expression.

Qin Mahua didn’t even look at him. “Aren’t I working at Chu Xuan’s place to make money? If things go well for her, they’ll go well for me too!”

Mu Chenze kept probing, “She turned down my marriage proposal. Shouldn’t you be mad at her? Didn’t you go to her house to stir up trouble? Are you really just there for the money?”

Qin Mahua smacked him on the back. “Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on. Chu Xuan rejected the proposal because she didn’t want Feng Chunhua to use her as an excuse to bleed our family dry.”

“How did you know that?”

Mu Chenze had never explained this to his mother—he’d only told Ji Ping, and that was because he had no choice. If he hadn’t explained it, Ji Ping wouldn’t have agreed to deliver the skinned fish.

Did Ma hear it from Ji Ping?

Qin Mahua walked into the main room, poured herself a cup of tea, and took a few leisurely sips. “I went to talk to Ji Ping.”

Mu Chenze, following her in, nearly tripped over the threshold and had to steady himself.

What did Ji Ping tell his mother?

He’d have to ask Ji Ping about it later when his boat came in.

“Ma, you went to see Ji Ping? How come he never mentioned it to me? When did you go?”

She refilled her teacup.

Qin Mahua picked it up and downed it in one gulp. “Yesterday afternoon, after he got home from delivering fish to Chu Xuan. I asked him a few things.”

Mu Chenze tried to sound casual. “What did you ask?”

“I asked him why he was supplying fish to Chu Xuan. Didn’t he know she’d turned down your proposal? He explained everything, and that’s when I realized I’d blamed Chu Xuan wrongly. She’s had a tough life—if she can’t be my daughter-in-law, we can at least be relatives. After all, Feng Chunhua forced her to give you her first kiss, so it’ll be hard for her to find a match in the future. I used wanting to ask Gao Meijuan about something as an excuse to go to Chu Xuan’s house. Gao Meijuan was there gutting fish for money, so I just sat down and helped out. You know the rest.”

When she finished and looked up, her son was nowhere to be seen.

She had no idea that as soon as she mentioned “first kiss,” Mu Chenze’s face turned beet red. Not wanting her to see, he dashed into his bedroom as fast as he could.

Qin Mahua glanced at his bedroom door and sighed. “This child! He’ll be the death of me with all this worrying!”

She got up and knocked on his door. “Why’d you run off to your room? Anyway, can you share a cart with Chu Xuan? Maybe charge her a bit less for the ride…”

Mu Chenze had composed himself by now. He opened the door, flashed a cheeky grin, and handed over a thick wad of cash. “Sure! You can charge her whatever you want! I just came in here to get the money to settle up with you.”

It was good to be open about sharing the cart.

If his mother brought it up herself, it would save a lot of unnecessary trouble.

“Then just charge her ten yuan for the ride!” Qin Mahua took the money and started counting it, taking her time. “Seven thousand eight hundred yuan. Ze, you made two thousand eight hundred in one night! Well done! How much stock are you planning to buy tonight? I’ll count out the money for you.”

“Three thousand yuan should do.”

“Alright.”

Mu Chenze didn’t mention the close call he’d had in the early morning. If she found out, she’d just worry herself sick.

He took the three thousand yuan and put it in his pocket. “Ma, I won’t be home for dinner tonight. I’m going to talk business with Ji Ping and eat at his place.”

He didn’t want to mention Chu Xuan coming over to cook.

Qin Mahua didn’t suspect a thing. “Alright! I left lunch for you in the pot—go eat!”

“Okay.”

After eating, Mu Chenze had nothing to do, so he pulled his cart to the dock to wait for his dad and older brother.

As luck would have it, he ran into Ji Ping, who had just returned from fishing.

Ji Ping’s boat was a ten-meter-long mechanized wooden vessel. He usually went out to sea alone.

He hadn’t even had time to sort the catch yet.

Mu Chenze helped him unload and borrowed a few big tubs from Li Tong to sort the fish.

They kept over four hundred jin of skinned fish and sold the rest.

There were a dozen or so big sea bass, over a hundred jin of octopus, more than sixty jin of mackerel, and a few jin of small miscellaneous fish…

They sold for over two hundred and twenty yuan. After deducting the cost of going out to sea, there was still over a hundred and eighty yuan left.

Ji Ping was all smiles—today’s haul was great.

Usually, he’d only make a few dozen yuan, a hundred at most.

After Ji Ping finished settling up with Li Tong, Mu Chenze was just about to ask him something when his older brother’s voice called out.

“Ze, come help unload!”

The Mu family’s boat had docked.

Mu Chenze and Ji Ping went over to help.

The fish had already been sorted.

After unloading, they just needed to weigh everything.

There was over a hundred jin of ribbonfish, more than two hundred jin of mackerel, over two hundred jin of octopus, two sea cucumbers and two abalone (not very big), more than three hundred jin of green-scaled fish, and six hundred jin of skinned fish…

People at the dock looked on enviously, marveling at the Mu family’s incredible luck at sea.

After selling everything except the skinned fish, the Mu family made nearly seven hundred yuan—this was their biggest haul of the year.

The skinned fish were taken by Ji Ping, to be settled at the end of the month.

Other fishing boats didn’t bring in nearly as much—some even less than Ji Ping.

Some fishermen only made thirty or forty yuan, and some only five or six.

Like Chu Zhi.

Chu Zhi couldn’t help but glance at the Mu family’s boat and mutter under his breath, “That wretched Chu Xuan really has no luck. If she’d managed to marry into the Mu family, she’d be living the good life now. She just had to refuse, and now she’ll have to work herself to death just to survive. Looks like I’d better listen to my mother—do what she says and I’ll have food to eat and money to spend.”

He wasn’t the least bit discouraged by his poor catch.

Soon, word spread through the fishing village that the Mu family had made seven hundred yuan from a single trip.

Mu Chenze set aside two big ribbonfish, told his dad and brother, and got ready to go to Ji Ping’s house.

Mu Chenfu suddenly stopped him. “Second brother, I want to come too. Let’s have a drink tonight? At home, my wife keeps me on a tight leash—only lets me have a sip or two…”

Normally, Mu Chenze would have agreed, but not today.

“Big brother, Ji Ping and I have some private business to discuss. Let’s drink together another time.”

Mu Chenfu, a bit embarrassed, didn’t insist. “Alright, next time then.”

He went home with Mu Qinlao.

Ji Ping borrowed Li Tong’s scale and weighed all the skinned fish—a total of 1,201 jin.

They loaded it onto the cart to deliver to Chu Xuan’s house later.

Li Tong had already heard that Ji Ping was also collecting fish for Chu Xuan. “Ji Ping, how much is Chu Xuan paying you per jin for the skinned fish?”

Ji Ping scratched his head. “We haven’t settled up yet! She said she’ll pay market price at the end of the month.”

“End of the month, huh? You’d better keep good records—the price changes every day.”

“Thanks for the reminder.”

Ji Ping did keep records every day, but he wasn’t about to tell Li Tong that while he sold his own catch to Chu Xuan at market price, the skinned fish he bought from the Mu family was only three cents per jin.

That was what Chenze had arranged with him beforehand.

Mu Chenze called Ji Ping to leave—if they kept chatting with Li Tong, it would delay Chu Xuan’s fish processing.

Ji Ping pulled the cart away from the dock, and Mu Chenze said quietly, “Chu Xuan’s coming to your place to cook in a bit.”

Ji Ping nearly tipped the cart over, and Mu Chenze quickly steadied him.

“Chenze, what’s going on between you two? Are you dating at my house now?”"