The tractor was shaking all the way, and there were big and sharp turns on the mountain road from time to time. Everyone was staggering, but it did not affect their pleasant chat.
Xiao Zhou, who drives the tractor, is the son of the previous old Zhou. The father and son often drive the tractor on mountain roads and are very familiar with the roads.
Because it was dark, we had to rely on headlamps and flashlights. The road conditions were not very clear, and we staggered for nearly three hours before we entered the city, where the road became flat.
Zhou Da pointed out the road and the approximate direction. The surrounding scenery also changed from barren to residential areas with low houses. It didn't look much different from their countryside, except that the roads were better and smoother.
Everyone looked at it with disappointment, thinking there was something different in the city.
Zhou laughed and said, "We haven't reached the city yet. When the sun rises, you will definitely open your mouths wide."
No one commented.
"It will take a few more minutes to get to the market. It's almost one o'clock now."
"It will only take ten minutes."
The road was flat and empty, so the tractor moved faster.
When they passed through the city, although it was dim at night, they still saw several tall buildings. Just like Zhou Da said, everyone looked at the tall buildings with their mouths wide open in curiosity, shining flashlights everywhere.
"See, I told you that you would open your mouth wide after seeing this. The buildings in this city are tall, right? There are several buildings more than ten stories high here. It looks very beautiful during the day, completely different from our countryside. The roads are also very clean, which is incomparable to our town..."
Zhou Da was spitting all over the place, excitedly telling them how tall the buildings in the city were, how prosperous and lively it was during the day, and the others also cooperated...
Ye Yaodong was both amused and confused when he heard this, and felt a little emotional. They felt like they had come a long way just to the city.
No wonder there is a saying that if you want to be rich, build roads first.
The city had not yet expanded at that time and was actually only a small area. Within ten minutes, they saw what seemed to be a large yurt surrounded by an open space in the distance. There were many flashlights gathered around it, and it seemed that there were quite a few people.
Everyone stood up excitedly and looked into the distance.
“We’re here. We’re here.”
"Is this the place?"
"finally reached."
"There are so many people. There are so many people in the middle of the night."
As the tractor slowed down, the noise grew closer.
There were many carts parked in the open space around, all piled with goods, and people standing around them. There were also many tractors.
Xiao Zhou also found an open space and stopped there, asking them to get off the car first and take a look at the situation. There was no rush to unload the goods. The other cars were also full of goods, but many of them were covered with cloth, so it was impossible to see what was being sold.
Seven people jumped off the tractor like dumplings. They all looked at the surrounding environment with some unfamiliarity. Because they were unfamiliar with the environment, everyone looked around after getting off and listened to the conversations between people around them in silence.
Since Zhou Da had been there before, he volunteered to chat with the people around him and inquire about the situation.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that the rules had not changed and admission would still start at 2 o'clock.
Ye Yaodong listened to the people around him chatting and roughly understood some of the situation. He also relaxed and started chatting with the people around him.
An old man with a cart full of clams saw that it seemed to be their first time there and gave them brief answers to their questions.
As time approached, there were more and more carts and tractors around, all driving from all directions.
The line was very long. Ye Yaodong took out a boiled egg from the cloth bag, secretly stuffed one into the pocket of the old man selling clams, and then went back to his group.
The old man was surprised for a moment, then he took the money in his hand and put it in his pocket. He then walked up to them and told them that it would be best for them to find a stall near the entrance for merchants.
They were stunned for a moment, then they understood.
The entrance where they queue up is different from the entrance for merchants, and has two openings.
When the time came, the tarp at the door of this oversized yurt was rolled up, and the lights inside came on brightly. The light instantly came out, and all the people in the queue pushed their goods in and began to occupy the stalls.
After being allowed to enter, Ye Yaodong and the others were also excited.
Because they had too much goods, it was inconvenient to carry them, and they couldn't drive a tractor in, so they divided into two groups, three people lined up to get a stall, and four people stayed on the tractor. After they got the stall, they borrowed the market's land truck to pull the goods in.
The market was just as Zhou Da had described, large but very simple. A table was equivalent to a stall, and there were numbers written on the table with red pen. The goods they brought in were piled behind the table.
If there are not enough baskets or you need baskets, you can go to the corner and get them yourself. The market also has them, which are specially used for loading and weighing goods.
Since there were so many of them, they simply occupied two positions. The position near the merchant entrance had already been taken, so they could only choose the one that was closer.
Watching what others were doing, I followed their example and poured out some of the goods from the basket, so that people who came to wholesale could see what you were selling.
At this time, everyone also saw each other and saw what other people around them were selling.
It was really an eye-opener for everyone. The deep-sea goods that are rarely seen at their docks were available in abundance in the market, including deep-sea tiger fish, pollyfish, horsehead fish, large hairtail, shrimp, various types of sea bream, green and red grouper, and tuna, all in baskets. There were also several baskets of golden yellow croaker displayed on the stalls. There were all kinds of valuable and worthless goods.
Everyone was there, looking around, and some were walking around and looking at others before the merchants arrived.
Ye Yaodong and his friends also took their goods into a basket, poured some and placed it in front of the table, then they took turns to go out for a walk, and stopped by the transaction point to learn about the current market situation of scallops. If they found someone who was interested, they would chat with the stall owner.
After coming back, everyone's eyes were shining and they were very excited.
"Scallops at the wholesale market used to be 3-5 cents more expensive than those at our purchasing point. Now that the price has dropped, the good ones are 36 cents, the inferior ones are 32 cents, and the small ones are only 28 cents. They are still more valuable here."
"You can't think like that. People have to make money by trading, otherwise wouldn't it be better to sell it in retail? But it takes more time and sells slower, so you have to give people room to make money. It's just that this thing is hard to catch and is relatively rare. Otherwise, shellfish are not worth much. Didn't the old man just say that he could only sell his razor clam for 1 cent?"
"That's true."
Everyone was extremely excited and felt that this trip was the right one, as they could make more money and broaden their horizons.
"We really need to walk around and take a look. There are many fish here that we have never seen before. A fish of unknown species was just brought in. It is so big and looks very rare."
"Yes, that fish is very big and flat, a bit like the flounder."
"I saw it too. It should be a big flounder. It must be several hundred kilograms. It's so scary. It feels bigger than the giant grouper that Adong caught before."
"This must be a big fish from the deep sea. I don't know how they caught it, but they were able to catch such a big fish."
"I've found a treasure. Such a big fish will definitely sell for a lot of money. Wow, there are so many good things in this market..."
Ye Yaodong went out for a stroll earlier and didn't see the fish they were talking about. He asked quickly, "Where is the fish you were talking about? I didn't see it when I went out earlier."
"It's stall 158, in that direction. You can go over and see for yourself."
"I'll go over and take a look, and learn something new."
The surrounding stalls were also talking about the fish, as if the fish had already taken the top spot in today's wholesale market.
Before he got close, Ye Yaodong saw the huge flounder from afar.
That's right, that one is a flounder. Although it is huge, two meters long, it is still a flounder even if it turns into ashes, just a different species. It is an Atlantic flounder.
Although there were many people gathered at the stall, partially blocking his view, he could still see it because the fish was quite long. He took a few quick steps forward and listened to the discussions of others.
"There are still many big fish in the high seas! This flounder is really big."
“I’ve never seen a flounder that big in my life.”
"I've never seen such a big fish! It must be two meters long, right? Have you measured it?"
"This is definitely longer than me."
"I measured it. Two meters and one meter."
"Selinmu, it's so big?"
Ye Yaodong listened to the discussions of others and knew that this fish was caught from the high seas. He observed the fish carefully and found that its two eyes were on the right side of its body, while the left side was smooth and white.
Logically, this fish should appear in the European market or the Russian market, but I don’t know how it appeared here.
He looked around and saw that other people were still pulling in basket after basket of goods and piling them all on the stall on the other side of the fish.
Seeing more and more people gathering around him, he walked back after watching the fun. However, as he walked on the road, he had an idea: the flounder was an obvious living signboard advertisement.
It is now the most beautiful creature in the market. Those who sell goods all find it rare. When the merchants and fishmongers hear that there is a flounder more than two meters long in the market, they all come to take a look, right
Then wouldn’t the stalls nearby be able to benefit from it
He hurried back a few steps, talked to other people, and quickly used a handcart to transport goods to change stalls, taking advantage of the fact that there was still an empty stall diagonally opposite the flounder.
Anyway, there was no rule that said once you occupied a stall you couldn't change it, so he took advantage of this loophole.
The others also figured it out and tried to change their seats, but the one at the entrance was still the best.
Not long after they changed their positions, people started coming in to buy wholesale one after another. Many people were rushing to buy goods before the local market opened for the morning session. These seafood had to be sold wholesale while they were fresh.