I See through Everything

Jiang Miao came down from Yandun Mountain Farm.

Passing by the fishball factory, he saw Li Xinhua and the others.

However, Li Xinhua’s group didn’t notice his arrival.

Jiang Miao didn’t go over. Instead, he headed toward the feed factory next door. He planned to check on the recent Egyptian Catfish procurement situation.

Half a month ago, Hailufeng Company had already issued an announcement. Starting this month, they were lowering the purchase price for Egyptian Catfish to 2.5 yuan per kilogram.

For the fish farmers, this price was actually still acceptable.

This was because the first batch of Egyptian Catfish raised on No. 4 feed had generally reached a yield of 15,000 to 16,000 kilograms per mu, while the average feed cost per mu was around 18,000 yuan.

One mu of Egyptian Catfish could be sold for 38,000 to 39,000 yuan, resulting in a gross profit of around 20,000 yuan.

「Nearby Salt Town Village.」

Lin Taian’s family, who had sold their Egyptian Catfish to the feed factory three months prior, saw that it was harvest season again. He ran over to his third younger brother, Lin Tianing, to borrow a fishing net.

He drove his three-wheeler to the edge of the fishpond, where his son, Lin Yongqiang, was already wearing waterproof waders and tall water boots, and had gone straight into the pond.

The mute Lin Taian gestured from the bank, "Ah... ah..."

Lin Yongqiang finally noticed his father. He hurried to the bank, took the fishing net, and began to lay it out in the pond.

Lin Taian lined the bed of the three-wheeler with a waterproof tarp. Then, using a shoulder pole and buckets, he fetched several loads of water from the pond and poured them into the tarp-lined truck bed.

Meanwhile, Lin Yongqiang was in the middle of the pond, struggling. After dragging the net down, he had intended to herd the Egyptian Catfish to the side of the pond nearest the road. Unexpectedly, the fish inside struggled so fiercely that he could barely pull the net. He had no choice but to enclose just a quarter of the pond with it.

"Ah... ah..." Lin Taian gestured, a look of confusion on his face.

"Dad, there are too many fish! I can’t pull the net. I’ll just use the scoop net," Lin Yongqiang said, grabbing the long-handled scoop net from his father’s hands and quickly dipping it into the water.

An Egyptian Catfish weighing around ten kilograms thrashed desperately inside the scoop net.

"Damn! This fish is huge!"

In a short while, Lin Yongqiang had scooped up more than sixty fish. Seeing that the three-wheeler’s bed was already full, he had no choice but to hand the scoop net to his father and drive off to sell the fish.

He arrived at the entrance of the feed factory.

There, Lin Yongqiang saw Jiang Miao and a few others.

He smiled and greeted them, "Boss Jiang, good morning!"

"Oh, it’s Yongqiang! How’s your father’s health?" Jiang Miao instantly recognized him and was even completely clear on his family situation.

Lin Yongqiang was flattered by the attention. He quickly replied, "My dad’s doing well."

"Selling fish?" Jiang Miao glanced at the Egyptian Catfish. He noted that each one was between 10 and 15 kilograms, and their meat had a protein content between 24.6% and 25.1%.

Lin Yongqiang nodded eagerly. "Yes, Boss Jiang. Will the purchase price for Egyptian Fish drop again?"

"No, 2.5 yuan is pretty much the floor," Jiang Miao said with a smile, shaking his head.

’That’s good.’ Lin Yongqiang breathed a silent sigh of relief. For their one-mu fishpond, they had invested nearly 18,000 yuan in feed costs over the past three months. This included 2.4 tons of No. 4 feed bought on credit from the factory, plus various grass and corn pellets.

Jiang Miao took a look around and then left.

Just then, Lin Yongqiang saw his childhood friend, who was counting money. "Hey, Black Fish, you’re already settled up?"

"Ah Qiang, you just got here? My family started harvesting yesterday. We’re just finishing up this morning." Lin Yongji stuffed the cash into his fanny pack.

"How many kilograms did your family harvest?"

"15,473 kilograms."

"So how much did you make?" Lin Yongqiang asked quickly.

"After deducting the cost of feed and other expenses, I profited nineteen thousand."

Lin Yongqiang was relieved. Lin Yongji’s pond was also about one mu. He smiled and said, "Even with the price drop, we’re still making ten thousand yuan more than before."

Suddenly, Lin Yongji leaned in close and whispered, "I heard the purchase price for Egyptian Fish is going to keep dropping."

"Don’t spread rumors. I just ran into Boss Jiang, and he said the price won’t drop any further."

"You saw Boss Jiang?"

"Look, over there." Lin Yongqiang pointed to Jiang Miao’s retreating figure.

"Damn, that bastard San Gou dared to lie to me."

"He probably wants to lease your family’s fishpond, so he’s spreading false information on purpose," Lin Yongqiang said, voicing his suspicion.

"I’m heading back to settle the score with San Gou."

Lin Yongqiang quickly reminded him, "Don’t go starting a fight! Things aren’t like they used to be."

"I know."

Lin Yongji hurriedly drove his three-wheeler back to the village.

...

Meanwhile, Jiang Miao and Shuya passed by the fishball factory again and saw that Li Xinhua and the others were still discussing something.

This time, Li Xinhua also spotted him.

The group quickly jogged over.

"Boss, Researcher Lin."

"Manager Li, hello." Shuya nodded, carrying a cloth bag.

"Old Li, you’re here to inspect the factory this early?"

Li Xinhua explained, "It was General Manager Lin from Guotai. He contacted me to warn us about cheap fishballs and asked if we could lower our selling price."

"Oh?" Jiang Miao turned to Qin Hanming, the manager of the market research department who was also present, and asked, "Hanming, what’s the situation with the fishball market right now?"

Qin Hanming’s expression was a bit grim. "Currently, the market price for fishballs is polarizing. The wholesale price for some of the cheap fishballs has already dropped to 10 yuan per kilogram."

He then took a market research report from his briefcase and handed it to Jiang Miao.

Jiang Miao flipped through it. It listed the current wholesale prices for the major brands of golden fishballs on the market: