"There are not many of them. There are two that are quite big, and the rest are just average!" Xiang Yang said.
Li Chao's excited heart suddenly cooled down. If the quantity was not large and the size was small, it would be of no use to him. He worked in a hotel, and the first factor in serving food in a hotel was the presentation.
Whether a dish tastes good or not, and whether it is nutritious or not are secondary. The key is that it must look good when served on the table. The more upscale the banquet, the more so. For example, the dishes at the state banquet during the 2008 Olympics were all beautifully carved with dragons and phoenixes.
Natural abalone is good, but if it is too small, it will not look grand when served on the table. Small natural abalone is usually not as popular as large farmed abalone in large hotels.
Seeing that Li Chao didn't say anything for a while, Xiang Yang had to continue: "Brother Chao, you know that abalone likes to hide in the cracks of reefs on the seabed and are very difficult to catch."
"Yes, I know. It's luck if we can catch a few natural abalones. We can't ask for more." Li Chao forced a smile on the other end of the phone.
"Yes, we can't ask for too many." Xiang Yang agreed and said, "I led the entire crew to search the sea for a long time and only found about 300. It's really too difficult to find."
Li Chao was about to speak when he was suddenly stunned. "Wait, wait, Brother Xiang, how many natural abalone did you find? I didn't hear clearly, please say it again."
"More than three hundred."
"Three, more than three hundred?" Li Chao spoke faster. "Really more than three hundred?"
"Could it be fake?"
Li Chao became excited instantly, "Oh my God, more than 300 natural abalones, where did you go to find the abalone's nest? By the way, how big are these abalones? Don't let them be those that are over a hundred. I won't want those small abalones even if they are natural abalones." He thought that if there were 20 or 30 abalones, he would definitely hype them up. Of course, he would also want them even if there were only 30 or 40 abalones, but he wouldn't make that much money from that, so there was no need to hype them up.
"I found a nest rich in abalone. How could I possibly catch those small abalones with more than a hundred heads? Wouldn't that be intentional to wipe out the abalone population?"
"That's right, that's right, Brother Xiang, you are right." Li Chao felt as if he had been scratched by a cat after hearing Xiang Yang's words, "Then what is the average size of your abalone?"
"Don't worry. I had those abalones that were too small, such as those with less than nine heads, released. Most of the nine-headed abalones were eaten by me and the crew at noon on the boat. Most of the remaining abalones are six or seven heads, and a small part are four or five heads." Xiang Yang said.
Every time Xiang Yang said something, Li Chao felt as if his heart was hit by a sledgehammer. "Most of the more than 300 abalones have six or seven heads, and some have four or five heads. Mr. Xiang, are you kidding?"
Xiang Yang nodded? "Of course I'm not kidding."
Xiang Yang sighed, "It's just that those big abalones are so hard to find. We have so many people looking for so long? We only found twelve three-headed abalones in total? We only found one double-headed abalone and one single-headed abalone each."
Li Chao: “???”
Li Chao was confused? Was he really confused? Was there only one voice exploding in his head? He only found one double-headed abalone and one single-headed abalone.
"Only!!!"
Look at the wording.
Li Chao now has an urge to curse someone but he doesn't know whether he should do so or not.
"Hello? Hello? Brother Chao, why aren't you talking again? Is your signal bad?" Xiang Yang shouted.
"My signal is not good, what the hell? I'm in the city? You're in the sea. Who of us has the worse signal?" Li Chao finally couldn't help cursing. "Oh my god? A single-headed abalone, a single-headed natural abalone? Do you know how many years I haven't seen one? You're telling me one? It's a treasure that others can only see once in a hundred years. Do you want to go out to sea and catch a sack of it?"
Li Chao's voice became louder and louder, until it almost broke.
Xiang Yang hurriedly said, "Don't get excited, don't get excited, it's just a big abalone. Brother Chao, you have seen a lot of storms and big things in the world, is it necessary to get so excited over an abalone? We shouldn't."
"That's because you don't understand the preciousness of single-headed natural abalone. Among the abalone species in our country, those that can grow into single-headed abalone are all mutations, which are even rarer than blue dragons."
Li Chao gradually calmed down, took a deep breath and said, "Where are you now? I will arrange for someone to come and find you right away. No, I will come to find you in person right away."
Xiang Yang looked at the sky and said, "It's getting dark, how about tomorrow?"
"Don't even mention dark, I'll come even if it's almost dawn." Li Chao said firmly.
Xiang Yang groaned. He didn't expect Li Chao to be so anxious, so he said, "Well, I'm still at sea now, and I can get back to Yanlong Village in more than an hour. It will take you just over an hour to get to our village from the city. Shall we meet in Yanlong Village later?"
"Okay, then I'll hang up." Li Chao said.
"Wait." Xiang Yang stopped him quickly.
"Is there anything else?" Li Chao asked hurriedly. He would not feel at ease until he reached Yanlong Village. He even wished he could grow a pair of wings. How could he waste time on the phone with Xiang Yang
Xiang Yang could tell that Li Chao seemed quite anxious, and he could faintly hear hurried footsteps. It seemed that something had happened to Li Chao.
That's right. After all, he is in charge of such a big hotel. How many things do he have to deal with every day? Xiang Yang said briefly, "It's like this. In addition to catching a batch of abalone, I also caught a batch of giant anemones during my trip to the sea. I wonder if you will accept them, Brother Chao?"
"Is the quantity large?" Li Chao asked.
"Not a lot, maybe just over a thousand kilograms." Even though giant sea anemones can be seen everywhere in that sea area, and each giant sea anemone weighs dozens of kilograms, when Xiang Yang discovered the giant sea anemones, the crew members had already exhausted themselves looking for abalone on the seabed. Each crew member only caught four or five giant sea anemones at most, and that was after everyone risked their lives.
Li Chao was speechless again. He found that he and Xiang Yang could no longer talk on the same channel. That's right, he was in the catering business and calculated the ingredients by the number of meals, while Xiang Yang was a fisherman and calculated the catch by the number of tons. It would be a miracle if they could talk to each other.
"If I want the giant sea anemone, I have this dish available in my hotel. However, the giant sea anemone is not a rare seafood, so when we purchase the goods, our logistics staff will go out to purchase them in bulk. This also makes accounting and management easier. If I bypass the logistics department to receive a batch of goods, it will add a lot of workload to the logistics, warehouse and finance departments. So, I will call Zhang Qicheng and he and I will come over together. You can talk to him about the giant anemone. He is an old friend of yours, and the price he gives you will not be low." Li Chao said.