The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 193: Chapter 193: Delivering a Gift

That evening, Han Xiaorui, carrying some pastries, took a full-bellied Yang Minmin home.

Wu Cuicui and Yang Jianguo were in the middle of dinner; they hadn’t waited for Yang Minmin.

They knew that since Yang Minmin was at Han Xiaorui’s house, she would definitely eat and drink her fill before coming back.

Wu Cuicui quickly brought a stool over for Han Xiaorui. ”Xiao Rui, want some water?”

Han Xiaorui waved her hand and sat on the stool. ”Sister Cuicui, don’t trouble yourself, I’m not thirsty. Sister Cuicui, Brother Jianguo, you two eat. I’ll take my time explaining.”

Yang Jianguo nodded and looked at Han Xiaorui. ”Xiao Rui, go ahead. I’m listening.”

Han Xiaorui smiled. ”Brother Jianguo, how long can the fish from our ornamental fish farm survive in a box with enough oxygen?”

Yang Jianguo had already considered this problem and had begun preparations. ”Thirty-seven days. I tested it myself. We have a fish farm, and a single city like Shencheng can’t absorb this many ornamental fish. We’ll have to ship them elsewhere, and the fish can’t die on the way!”

Han Xiaorui thought this was great. ”Within Hua Country, besides Beijing, Guangzhou, and the coastal areas, we might be able to sell some. But we won’t get a good price in other places.”

”I’m planning to get into the ornamental fish export business. Thirty-seven days on the road is more than enough. We’ll sell them abroad and earn foreign currency.”

Yang Jianguo, who was in the middle of eating, nearly choked. He already thought he was ambitious, but he never expected Han Xiaorui to be even bolder.

”Sell them abroad? These are live creatures, so there must be all sorts of procedures, right? I don’t know anything about this, but I can ask around.”

Han Xiaorui blinked and asked, ”Brother Jianguo, who are you going to ask?”

Yang Jianguo smiled. ”It’s someone you know—Uncle Chen from the import-export company! Even if we can export, our farm probably doesn’t have the required license. We’ll have to use an import-export company to handle the process and the paperwork.”

Han Xiaorui remembered. She had sold her ambergris to that very import-export company.

His name was a bit similar to Chen Yupeng’s; he was called Chen Zhipeng.

”Brother Jianguo, when are you going?” Han Xiaorui asked. ”He’s never seen our fish. Why don’t we bring our best fish tank and some beautiful ornamental fish over for him to see?”

Yang Jianguo looked up at the starless sky. ”The weather won’t be good tomorrow, so you can’t go out to sea. How about we go over tomorrow evening?”

Han Xiaorui nodded. ”Okay. I’ll practice riding a motorcycle during the day tomorrow. In the evening, let’s ask Uncle Yang to come with us.”

’Maybe we can even get a spot at a foreign trade fair.’

”Alright. If we can export, earning foreigners’ money would be even better,” Yang Jianguo agreed. He got seasick, so making money from fishing was impossible for him in this lifetime.

The ornamental fish farm was Yang Jianguo’s career; he valued it even more than Han Xiaorui did.

After seeing Han Xiaorui off, Wu Cuicui remarked with emotion, ”Jianguo, Xiao Rui is truly amazing. I’ve never seen a woman so bold and capable.”

Yang Jianguo sighed, his eyes filled with melancholy. He felt sorry for his dumbass cousin and lamented his loss.

’Throwing away such a good wife, all he knows how to do is fool around!’

”And Ye Feng has never been married, has a great future, and comes from a wealthy family. He’s handsome, too. A man like that is a great catch anywhere. Plenty of women want to marry Ye Feng, but he just happens to like Xiao Rui.”

”Since ancient times, marriages have been about matching social status. Ye Feng doesn’t care about family background. If Xiao Rui weren’t so wonderful, why would he be pursuing her?”

Wu Cuicui deeply agreed. ”Every pot has its lid. It’s all fated. In any case, a good pot like Xiao Rui is no match for a broken lid like Jianming!”

Yang Jianguo gritted his teeth, completely understanding how his second uncle felt.

’Seeing how much of a bastard his cousin was, Yang Jianguo had lost all desire to have a son.’

’It’s just too damn stressful!’

’The key is you can’t get rid of them, can’t cut them off. Look what happened to his second uncle, as capable as he is. He’s been worn down to nothing.’

’Whatever. Just let my cousin piss off abroad. He can go find a foreign pot over there.’

’Hopefully, out of sight will be out of mind for my second uncle, and he can have a few years of peace.’

The next day, Han Xiaorui and Wu Jiao spent the whole morning practicing on motorcycles. After three more sessions, she would be able to take the driver’s test.

After a nice nap at noon, at four in the afternoon, Han Xiaorui got into Song Sixth’s van. With a fish tank and some marine ornamental fish, she headed to Chen Zhipeng’s house with Yang Zhigang and Yang Jianguo.

Chen Zhipeng was the director of an import-export company. In those days, any work unit that could earn foreign currency was definitely a good one.

Even if other units had resources, without an import-export license, they couldn’t handle the related procedures at all. They had to go through a unit that was qualified for import and export.

After receiving a call from his old comrade-in-arms, Yang Zhigang, Chen Zhipeng went straight home from work. He had already told his wife to buy extra groceries to host his comrade for dinner that evening.

Song Sixth was the driver. Knowing they were going to discuss business, he understood it wasn’t his place to be there. He adamantly refused to go in and said he would wait outside.

If he got hungry, he would just eat somewhere nearby.

It was precisely because Song Sixth knew his place that Han Xiaorui and Yang Zhigang always used his van.

Just from the business from Yang Zhigang and Han Xiaorui alone, Song Sixth could earn a good amount of money.

Upon arriving at the Chen family’s home, they were greeted by Chen Zhipeng’s wife, Jiang Shuhua. She knew Yang Zhigang, since he sent a lot of seafood to their house every year, after all!

”Old Yang, you should have just come. Why did you bring things?” Although Jiang Shuhua said this, her body was very honest—she had already taken the gifts.

Yang Zhigang chuckled. ”How could I visit Brother Chen empty-handed? Especially since I’ve come to ask Brother Chen for a favor this time.”

Jiang Shuhua smiled and looked at Han Xiaorui. ”Xiao Rui, hurry and come in, don’t just stand outside. You all talk business. I’ll go cook. It’ll be ready in a little while.”

With that, Jiang Shuhua put the things away, brewed them some tea, and went to the kitchen to cook.

Their children weren’t home, so it was just the old couple.

After they had some tea, Chen Zhipeng said with a smile, ”Xiao Rui, Zhigang called me yesterday and told me about the ornamental fish. If they can really survive on the road for thirty-seven days, this business could work.”

”I’ve been on inspection tours abroad before. There’s definitely a market for ornamental fish, and the prices in Japan and South Korea, as well as in Europe and America, are indeed very high. This could also drive the export of fish tanks. It’s killing two birds with one stone.”

Hearing Chen Zhipeng’s affirmation, Han Xiaorui breathed a sigh of relief. ”Thank you, Uncle Chen. We don’t understand the relevant inspections and quarantines, or the foreign procedures, so we’ll need your help when the time comes.”

Yang Jianguo unplugged the radio and placed the fish tank on the surface where it had been.

He placed some imitation coral reefs and rockeries inside, along with beautiful pebbles and green plastic seaweed.

Han Xiaorui’s eyes lit up. ’I didn’t expect Yang Jianguo to be so well-prepared, even more thoughtful than I was.’

He filled the tank with tap water, then poured in a small bag of seawater nutrient solution, which would turn the tap water into water suitable for raising marine ornamental fish.

Han Xiaorui came over to help, carefully placing the colorful ornamental fish into the tank.

Yang Jianguo had picked ones with beautiful colors and shapes.

Among them were two Queen Angelfish, with the scientific name *Holacanthus ciliaris*.

This species of ornamental fish was not native to the waters of Hua Country but came from the Atlantic Ocean. Han Xiaorui had spent money to buy them and then bred them.