Chapter 114 - 105: Boss, Can You Take Me There on Your Electric Scooter?
Yi Chen slit open the backs of the river prawns and deftly removed the veins, her movements practiced as she prepared the large shrimp.
The pork ribs and taro were already simmering in the electric cooker. Now, all she had to do was stir-fry the celtuce and pan-fry the large shrimp, and dinner would be ready.
Yi Chen herself couldn't eat that much, but there was a bottomless pit right here.
Good thing bottomless pit number two wasn't here, or she would have had to prepare even more.
'Huh… Bottomless pit number two?'
In the middle of cooking, Yi Chen suddenly paused. She tilted her head, feeling like she had forgotten to say something, but she couldn't recall what it was.
'Oh well, whatever.'
She went back to stir-frying and humming a tune, which made Gu Nan, who was sitting at the counter, look up in surprise. He smiled. "What's got you in such a good mood?"
"Huh?" Yi Chen turned and blinked in confusion. "Am I?"
"You are. It's obvious," Gu Nan said with a firm nod.
At first, he thought it was because her sales had surpassed ten thousand, but this wasn't the first time she'd achieved that. She'd done it twice before.
Especially on the day Zhao Jie came by, when sales shot up to forty thousand. She was happy then, too, but it didn't seem to last as long as her good mood today.
Yi Chen herself couldn't explain why she was in such a good mood. She knew part of it was because Gu Nan was back, but she hadn't dwelled on it.
Being pressed about it now made her a little flustered. Her eyes darted around, and she quickly came up with a suitable excuse.
"Well, it's the fourth today! Payday is in six days. Of course I'm happy."
"Oh, right! You'd better not be out at sea fishing with no signal on payday, or you'll have me to answer to!"
"I promise I'll be in the store that day." Seeing Yi Chen's suddenly fierce yet cute expression, Gu Nan chuckled, readily agreeing that her salary would definitely be paid on time.
In fact, he was already calculating her salary at that moment, so he wouldn't have to worry about not having time before his next trip out to sea.
To be honest, he was also quite curious about how much she'd sold in her sixteen days of work last month.
He then went back to his calculator. After a flurry of CLACK-CLACK-CLACKS, he quickly figured out her sales for the half-month.
123,672 yuan. Divided by sixteen, her average daily sales were over 7,700 yuan.
That was a bit of an exaggeration. The high total was mainly thanks to the 40,000 yuan from Zhao Jie. Without that, her average would have been a little over 5,000.
The store's normal daily sales were only around 3,500 on average. The food stall owner's purchases had boosted Yi Chen's daily numbers significantly, and customers like Kang Ye and some of the other fishing enthusiasts also contributed to the high total.
A 5% commission came out to 6,183 yuan. Adding her base salary of 1,067 yuan, the actual amount to be paid was 7,250 yuan.
A slightly surprised look crossed Gu Nan's face. 'Was landing on 250 a coincidence?'
'Maybe I should round it up for her?'
By the time he finished his calculations, Yi Chen had already finished making dinner.
"Boss, dinner's ready!"
"Coming!" Gu Nan walked over and handed her the payslip he'd just prepared. "This is your salary for last month. Take a look."
Yi Chen took the payslip and glanced at it. The commission matched her own calculations, but when she saw the grand total after her base salary was added, her face fell. "Boss, you can't just insult me like this."
"Haha, how about I round it up by fifty to make it 7,300?" Gu Nan laughed.
Thanks to Yi Chen, Zhao Jie brought in at least 100,000 yuan in revenue for the store each month, and the food stall owner contributed over 20,000.
Any boss with a bit of foresight wouldn't cast someone aside after they've served their purpose, trying every trick in the book to lower commissions and cut wages.
Besides, Zhao Jie had specifically mentioned that he sourced from here partly because of his sister, and his sister had made the introduction because of Yi Chen—a way of repaying her for standing up for her back then.
The two of them were now in frequent contact, and their friendship was growing warmer.
Following this trend, Yi Chen's sales next month could potentially exceed 220,000 yuan. With her base salary and commission, her wages would be over 13,000 yuan.
Paying such a high salary for just selling fish in a seafood shop was, frankly, absurd.
But to Gu Nan, it was worth it. Setting aside the business from Zhao Jie, a hired cook would cost several thousand a month, and their food wouldn't even be as good as Yi Chen's!
So, anyone with a bit of perspective, earning as much as he was, wouldn't begrudge her this salary. More importantly, he was starting to feel like he couldn't do without this girl.
She was his logistics manager for the home front, allowing him to go out to sea and fish without a worry.
Downing the last mouthful of pork rib soup, Gu Nan patted his stomach in satisfaction.
Yi Chen had already finished her meal and was now selling fish.
Because of Gu Nan, dinner had been a bit late. By the time they finished, it was already 5:30 PM, the peak time for evening customers.
But it was only for a short while. Things would quiet down after 6:00 PM.
Seeing Yi Chen was busy, Gu Nan cleared the dishes himself, washed them, and placed them on a nearby rack. He couldn't let her do everything.
Afterward, he started arranging shipments for the seafood that needed restocking.
Having the aquarium handle shipments was great. Gu Nan didn't even need a notebook. For example, there were only seven Star Chicken Fish left, so he ordered a shipment of thirty.
There were thirteen Ball-nosed Fish in the tank, so he ordered twenty more.
He just had to place the orders for each item; the aquarium or the refrigerated warehouse would consolidate and send a single shipment.
As for the seafood in his Elite Catalog that was currently low in stock, Gu Nan held off on ordering for now.
Aside from the Indian Marlin, all other necessary seafood orders had been placed.
He currently had two marlins, weighing a combined total of over 550 pounds. One was smaller, probably just shy of 220 pounds. So, Gu Nan sent a message to Zhao Jie first.
"Boss Zhao, I'm getting two Marlin Fish in tomorrow. One is probably a little under 220 pounds, the other is a bit over 330 pounds. Which one do you want? Or do you want both?"
This time, Zhao Jie didn't take both. Too much stock would be hard for his restaurant to use, and letting it sit for too long would affect the quality of the meat. He only wanted the 330-pound one. He also took the opportunity to list the other seafood he'd need for the next day.
In that case, Gu Nan arranged to have only one marlin shipped, leaving the other one in the refrigerated warehouse. He also topped up his orders for the other three types of seafood Zhao Jie had requested.
He'd caught a lot of fish on this trip. After arranging today's shipments, he still had about a third of his game inventory left. Under normal circumstances, he could slack off for another two or three days, only needing to spend two hours a day to use up his "Guaranteed Catch" attempts.
But he was about to reach Level 10, so Gu Nan had a feeling he wouldn't be idle tomorrow.
He could, however, relax tonight. He could make a trip to Feiyun Pavilion, catch up with his old classmates, and see if he could meet some seafood restaurant owners or hotel purchasing managers to sell more Indian Marlin.
At his current rate, he could catch over a thousand pounds of marlin in a week. Zhao Jie couldn't possibly buy that much.
Besides, the various groupers in his shop were also perfect for selling to such establishments. Selling them individually at the seafood store was a slow process.
The main issue was that Gu Nan's seafood store hadn't been open long and hadn't accumulated many "whale" customers.
Even if rich patrons only bought high-end products occasionally, with enough of them, good stuff would never be hard to sell.
But before Gu Nan could even begin to implement his plan to meet his old classmates, the first roadblock appeared.
At 7:00 PM, just as he had closed the door, Yi Chen, who was still standing by the entrance, suddenly spoke up. "Boss, I want to go to the mall to buy some things. Could you give me a ride on your electric scooter?"
As soon as she said it, her heart started to THUMP-THUMP-THUMP. She was incredibly nervous, afraid he would say no.
"Of course." Gu Nan was momentarily surprised, then smiled and agreed.
So he unlocked the door again and wheeled out the electric scooter that was parked inside.
After locking the door again, he had Yi Chen get on and said, "I'll take you home first. I need to go back and take a shower. After a night at sea, I feel like I'm starting to go bad."
That was perfect. Yi Chen also wanted to go home, shower, and change her clothes.
Sitting on the back of the electric scooter again, she remembered the last time was when she had fallen into the sea and Gu Nan had rescued her.
Even though it had been less than a month, it felt like a lifetime ago.
It was just after 7:00 PM, and there were plenty of pedestrians on the road.
As he rode the scooter toward Yi Chen's home, they ran into many people who knew her.
The neighbors were all surprised. 'Has this girl started dating?'
Today, Gu Nan didn't stop at the same intersection as last time. With Yi Chen pointing the way from behind, he rode all the way to the front of an old residential building before stopping.
Coincidentally, the door was open, and an elderly woman was sitting in the main room.
"Grandma?" Yi Chen was a little surprised. Usually, her grandmother would have already finished dinner and be resting in her room by this time. She rarely came out.
'What's going on today? It seems like she was waiting for me on purpose.'
Zhao Chunlan was just as surprised to see Gu Nan bringing her granddaughter home.
She had been waiting for her granddaughter to come home today because she had something important to discuss.
She knew she was old and could pass away any day. Her biggest worry was her granddaughter.
When Yi Chen was very young, her parents' relationship was already rocky, and they argued frequently.
Although the old woman had other grandchildren—three grandsons, in fact—her favorite was always this granddaughter, who had been an adorable, sweet-talking child. That's why she had insisted on raising her.
She was too old to meddle in her youngest son and daughter-in-law's relationship, but she could at least help raise their daughter.
Back then, she was also looking after two of her grandsons. The three children made the house lively, which made the old woman happy.
Later, her grandsons grew up and left Yangjiang Port, leaving only her granddaughter by her side. This made their bond even deeper.
Therefore, the old woman wanted to find a good home for Yi Chen before she passed away.
She knew the pain her son and daughter-in-law had caused their daughter, but she still believed she should find her granddaughter a good husband. That way, someone would be there to take care of her, and she could finally rest easy.
For an old woman born before the founding of the PRC, her mindset was still rooted in that era. It was normal for her to think this way.
The day before yesterday, a family had come to inquire about a potential match.
Zhao Chunlan didn't agree right away, only saying she would ask her granddaughter's opinion.
She then asked an acquaintance to look into the family and the character of their son. After hearing good things, she decided it was a good match and was waiting for Yi Chen to come home so she could discuss the blind date.
She just never expected a tall, handsome young man to bring her granddaughter home today. 'Could it be that my granddaughter has secretly been dating someone all this time?'
Even though Yi Chen's parents were divorced, most of the neighboring families with unmarried sons had their eye on her!
What could they do? In this day and age, it wasn't easy for an average family to find a wife for their son.
The neighbors all knew what kind of person Yi Chen was. She'd been a bit of a rascal before, but hadn't she straightened out?
It was just a rebellious phase; everyone understood that.
But Yi Chen didn't understand. She wasn't even twenty yet. What was up with all these matchmaking inquiries?
So she had rejected them all without hesitation.
Hearing how Yi Chen addressed the elderly woman, Gu Nan quickly got off the scooter and greeted her politely. "Hello, Grandma. I'm Yi Chen's boss. My name is Gu Nan."