Chapter 66: Better Safe Than Sorry

The fashionable woman frowned, looking distressed. “There’s only about 50 grams in a small bag, and it costs one yuan per bag. They have free samples over there. My husband, Old Li, had never tasted such delicious grilled fish before. He tried it and loved it, but the price was too high, so we only bought three bags.”

Chu Xuan pressed further, “Do you remember the brand name?”

“It’s called Half-Moon Brand Grilled Fish. My son’s waiting at home for it! I can’t chat anymore.”

With that, the fashionable woman hurried off.

Now, Chu Xuan was certain that Boss Yuan was selling her grilled fish at ten yuan per jin.

“It’s as good as the grilled fish sold for ten yuan a jin in other cities, but I’m only selling it for two yuan and fifteen cents!”

As soon as she said this, the people haggling with Chu Xuan stopped complaining about the price. Instead, they acted as if they’d stumbled upon a great bargain.

Everyone bought a jin.

Soon, there were only five or six jin left in Chu Xuan’s basket.

Some enthusiastic women even helped spread the word, calling over a few more people.

The rest was snapped up immediately.

Chu Xuan hadn’t expected business to go so smoothly today.

All thanks to that fashionable woman.

Those who came later didn’t manage to buy any.

Chu Xuan told them to come back tomorrow afternoon, and reminded them to always taste before buying, no matter who was selling grilled fish, to avoid getting poor-quality products.

After all, some people might get jealous of her business and start selling grilled fish themselves.

Around 4 p.m., Chu Xuan walked into the department store, planning to buy a new abacus for Xiao Feng as a gift for his apprenticeship.

She spotted a familiar figure—Mu Chenze.

Chu Xuan was surprised. Shouldn’t he be at home catching up on sleep right now?

Mu Chenze was holding a brand new abacus and greeted her, “This is for Xiao Feng. What do you think? Not bad, right?”

He gave the abacus a flick, making the beads clack crisply, then laid it flat and snapped the beads back into place with a flourish—looking both cool and impressive.

Chu Xuan quickly pinched her palm to snap herself out of it—she couldn’t let herself get distracted by Mu Chenze’s good looks.

“How much was it? I’ll pay you.”

She reached for her money.

“There you go again. Chu Xuan, stop talking about money with me! I sold 300 jin of grilled fish today and got a bonus. What’s wrong with buying Xiao Feng an abacus? Aren’t we friends?”

Faced with Mu Chenze’s protest, Chu Xuan hung her head. She always wanted to keep things clear and settled between them, but the more she tried, the messier it got.

“Of course we’re friends. Thank you on Xiao Feng’s behalf.”

Mu Chenze put the abacus in Chu Xuan’s basket. “No need to thank me. I’m sure you’re not just here to buy this, right? Go get the rest of your stuff. I’ll wait for you at the entrance—there’s something important I need to tell you.”

“Okay.”

Twenty minutes later, Chu Xuan came out of the department store with her basket filled with four bottles of baijiu, two packs of milk candy, two packs of sponge cake, two pieces of cotton cloth, two bottles of malted milk, and two packs of tea.

Two bottles of baijiu were for Grandpa Wang, and the rest were gifts for Accountant Qi as part of the apprenticeship ceremony.

She saw Mu Chenze chatting with a rickshaw driver.

She didn’t catch the whole conversation, but heard words like “typhoon” and “reinforcement.”

Having lived through this life once before, Chu Xuan knew a typhoon would hit in a few days.

She also knew the two rammed-earth rooms at home wouldn’t collapse just yet, so she hadn’t arranged for further reinforcement—after all, she’d just had the roof reinforced last month.

Maybe the Mu family was reinforcing their house? But that didn’t make sense—theirs was the sturdiest house in the village.

She decided to ask Mu Chenze about it later.

Just then, Mu Chenze saw Chu Xuan and stopped talking to the rickshaw driver, walking over to her.

“Let’s talk as we walk.”

“Sure.”

The two of them walked on together.

“Today, when I delivered goods to Hou Mingliang’s processing plant in the city, he happened to be there. He saw the grilled fish on the truck and bought 150 jin at 1.6 yuan per jin. The remaining 150 jin I sold at the farmers’ market, all in batches of at least five jin, at 1.8 yuan per jin. Total income was 510 yuan. Brother Lin had a job back in the county, so I caught a ride with him and got home a little after seven this morning. I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open and fell asleep right away, so I didn’t settle accounts with you right away. I gave the money to Xiao Feng—your mom said you usually have him handle the accounts.”

“No need to settle up right away. We’ll see each other when we load up the grilled fish tonight anyway. I went to the beach today and dug up some king razor clams, and found some cuttlefish, sea bass, big sea cucumbers, and abalone—sold them all for 102 yuan. I’ll go again tomorrow morning, this time bringing salt. Who knows, maybe I’ll catch even more king razor clams. There were tons of holes on the beach today.”

“Looks like we both had good luck.”

“Yeah.”

“Want to hear something funny?”

“Of course! Tell me!”

Mu Chenze started laughing before he even began, “Let me laugh for a bit first. It’s just too funny! Haha…”

He definitely had Chu Xuan’s attention.

“Hurry up and tell me! If you keep me in suspense, I’m going to ignore you.”

Mu Chenze waved his hand, still laughing. “No, really, I just can’t stop laughing. Give me a minute to compose myself.”

“Alright.”

Chu Xuan waited patiently.

A minute later, Mu Chenze put on a straight face. “Yesterday, Zhang Dong’s wife’s grilled fish was sampled by food safety inspectors. The results came out today—bacteria levels were ten thousand times above the limit. As luck would have it, one of her customers found out. She refused to give a refund, so the customer dumped three days’ worth of collected sewage on her. Luckily, we’d already sold out of our grilled fish by then.”

Chu Xuan burst out laughing. “Serves her right! She dared to sell rotten fish as grilled fish—she deserved it!”

“That’s not all. The market staff told her to clean up the mess, and another customer ran up to her and, while she wasn’t looking, stuffed something into her mouth. She spat it out, yelling that it stank, and accused the person of shoving feces in her mouth. But the person said it was just the rotten grilled fish she’d been selling… Isn’t that hilarious?”

Now Chu Xuan understood why Mu Chenze couldn’t stop laughing earlier.

She couldn’t help but laugh too. “Hahaha…”

After a good laugh, she felt refreshed, but then a thought struck her.

If Zhang Dong’s wife’s grilled fish was sampled, theirs could be too.

“Mu Chenze, let’s send our grilled fish to the county food testing station for analysis!”

“That’ll cost quite a bit.”

“I don’t care about the money. What matters is having an official report. That way, even if the Zhangs try to frame us, we’ll have nothing to fear!”

Given how shameless the Zhangs were, they’d probably try to drag Chu Xuan down with them.

“Alright! No time to lose—let’s go to the testing station right now.”

“Okay.”

Ten minutes later, Chu Xuan and Mu Chenze walked out of the Lai County Food Testing Station.

According to the rules, staff from the station had to come and collect samples themselves, take them back for testing, and only then could they issue an official report.

With the rush fee and everything, the total came to twenty yuan.

That was about a month’s wages for a worker.

Chu Xuan paid without hesitation.

In two hours, the testing staff would come to collect samples and work overtime to run the tests. The report would be ready before midnight.

Mu Chenze and Chu Xuan needed to hurry back.

On the bus back to town, Mu Chenze asked quietly, “What if our grilled fish has too much bacteria too?”"