The village of Dalong was so small that any trivial gossip or minor stir could spread throughout it in less than a few minutes.
The news that Li Haochen had installed a large gate for Butterfly Bay had already spread all over Dalong Village. Renting Butterfly Bay was already foolish enough, and now he was installing a gate – what else could that be but sheer idiocy?
The old folks, with nothing better to do, loved to gather under the large banyan tree at the village entrance to shoot the breeze. Today’s topic, besides old man Huang peeking at the widow next door and getting his ear twisted by his wife, leading to a hospital visit, was mostly about the foolish Li Haochen.
The discussion was as organized as a class lecture, with group discussions and even cross-exchanges, creating a fervor comparable to village head elections.
As the talking went on, more and more people joined in. They were all bored and had nothing to do. It couldn't be blamed on them; the young and strong had all flocked to the cities, leaving only these lonely old men and women. Soon, the village would be like a ghost town.
Li Haochen, in the midst of harvesting coconut fruits, was unaware that he had become the main topic of conversation in Dalong Village.
The branch store could open today, but Li Haochen wasn't in a hurry. After some thought, he decided to spend the afternoon harvesting more coconut fruits, aiming for enough to last four to five days.
Since renting Butterfly Bay, Li Haochen had focused all his attention there, and he needed to spend more time managing it.
Fortunately, Murong Yanran had classes in the afternoon, allowing Li Haochen to enter and exit the space without any reservations.
Li Haochen entered the space, rolled up his sleeves and trousers, and worked diligently for three hours. His entire body creaked and groaned like he was doing the electric slide.
“Whew… ah… whew…”
Li Haochen collapsed onto the beach, gasping for air, his tongue hanging out from exhaustion.
Today was the fifteenth day of the lunar month, and a major low tide was occurring in the space. It wasn't long, only an hour. Li Haochen’s rest coincided with the receding tide, which was moving remarkably fast. With a whoosh, it retreated more than ten meters in no time.
Li Haochen had already prepared tools like the clam shovel but hadn't had a chance to check them. He decided to take advantage of the major low tide today and explore the intertidal zone.
He had originally released about 1,000 small clams and a significant number of periwinkles. Given the space's accelerated time, they had likely been growing for about 3 years.
Clams were oviparous mollusks, with separate sexes and no hermaphroditic phenomena. They generally reached sexual maturity in two years, reproducing once a year. A 3-year-old female clam could lay hundreds of thousands of eggs. Although hundreds of thousands of eggs sounded like a lot, it was similar to human pregnancy, just with a higher success rate. A mature female would typically successfully produce only a few to a dozen offspring per year.
Periwinkles could mate and reproduce year-round, with spring being the best mating season, followed by autumn. The other two seasons saw less activity. The time from spawning to maturity was very short. With abundant food and suitable temperatures, they could mature in two months.
However, the prices of the two differed greatly. The current price for about ten clams was around 20 yuan. Periwinkles, on the other hand, were not as profitable. The highest retail price was only 3.5 yuan. Their advantage was rapid reproduction, and their popularity in food stalls was driven by volume.
Li Haochen walked into the intertidal zone and observed. Many periwinkles had crawled out to breathe. He saw one every few steps, and they were quite large. At this density, the entire intertidal zone would only yield around a few thousand catties, not a lot.
He shook his head and tossed the periwinkles he was holding back into the intertidal zone. He put on his belt and pressed the not-so-sharp steel blade of the clam shovel into the mud. He moved his body backward, pulling the shovel along, and the mud peeled off the blade like layers of cake.
“Clang~”
A crisp sound of hard objects colliding reached his ears. Li Haochen knew it must be a clam. He dug twice more at the source of the sound with the clam shovel, revealing a clam the size of a goose egg.
He weighed it. “Not bad, this size will definitely fetch a good price, but…” Li Haochen looked at the intertidal zone, which was more than a kilometer long, and felt a bit daunted.
Li Haochen continued digging. In a short while, he had dug a few catties. He didn’t dig more. From this brief period, it was clear that the clam population in the intertidal zone was not very large. Digging it alone would be like asking for trouble.
“To fill the entire intertidal zone, I’d need to release at least hundreds of thousands of seedlings, and I can’t buy seedlings. Sigh~”
Li Haochen shook his head with a wry smile. It was like having a treasure mountain he couldn’t use. He could only let the few clams he had brought in reproduce freely and let nature take its course.
Actually, the long stretch of intertidal zone outside Dalong Village could also be used for clam digging. However, dozens of people roamed there every day, plowing it over and over again. There were probably very few clam shells left.
After resting, Li Haochen picked up the clams and left the space. He took a basin of clean water and put the clams in it to purge their sand.
He had harvested quite a few coconut fruits today. Three hours of labor had yielded at least seven to eight thousand fruits. He had only laid around the space’s beach. He brought a small portion out, loaded them onto his vehicle, and then Li Haochen delivered the coconut fruits to the branch store.
“Xiao Nian, Ah Long, Ah Hao, come out and help carry the coconut fruits!” Li Haochen called out to the store as he unloaded.
“Boss, why are you so late today?” The three responded and came out to help with unloading and carrying.
“Yeah, something held me up. You guys start carrying. I’ll go back for another load. Once the young coconuts are prepared, send them to the main store first.”
“Alright, don’t worry.”
Li Haochen made several trips, and by 6 PM, he had finally delivered thousands of coconut fruits. The discarded coconut husks had occupied the roughly ten square meters of open space around the garbage bins outside the branch store, piling up like a small mountain. The two sanitation workers saw this and exclaimed, “This is too much!” Grabbing their long brooms, they headed straight for the store.
“Hey, who’s the boss here?”
Li Haochen was taken aback and confused. “Auntie, I’m the boss here. What’s the matter?”
“You?” The two sanitation aunts were somewhat surprised to see such a young Li Haochen.
“It’s like this, you have so many coconut husks, they’re like little mountains. We don’t have enough time to handle this. We’re already swamped with work. Last time we were almost worked to death, and this time there’s even more. We won’t handle it. You must clean it up yourselves.”
“That’s right, we won’t clean it up.”
Li Haochen went out to take a look. “Holy cow~”
Even he was startled. It was indeed difficult for them. They were just doing their jobs; there was no need to put them in a difficult position.
“Aunties, I’m really sorry.”
Li Haochen pulled the two sanitation aunties to the side. “Aunties, how about we discuss something?”
“There’s nothing to disc—” Before the two aunts could finish speaking, they were captivated by the bright red banknotes in Li Haochen’s hand.
Rubbing their hands, they said, “Boss, just tell us what you need, don’t beat around the bush.”
“It’s like this, from now on, we’d trouble you to handle these coconut husks outside our store. How about this much every month?”
Upon hearing this, they immediately perked up. The two exchanged glances and nodded with satisfaction, stuffing the banknotes into their pockets, their faces beaming. “We knew the boss would prosper. Don’t worry, we’ll clean it up spotlessly.”
Spending a little money to resolve the issue and gain the goodwill of two sanitation workers – why not? Don’t underestimate these ordinary folks; they might be of great help someday. This is what’s called getting a lot for a little.
As the two left, Li Haochen also gave them two young coconuts. The aunts looked at Li Haochen with great satisfaction.