Chapter 171 Life is getting better gradually
During the summer vacation when there was no school, Fang Wei and Cai Ling knew that they still met every day.
Even without mobile phones, internet, or video games, the long summer vacation doesn’t feel boring at all.
We do summer homework together, do handicrafts together, go swimming at the beach together, go fishing together, pick wild fruits together, and occasionally go adventure into the mountains and forests at night to catch cicada monkeys.
Liu Zhiyi's home became the most popular gathering place. Fang Wei and Xu Cailing both liked to go to her home because only her home had air conditioning...
“Phew—it feels so good!!”
Xu Cailing sat on a chair with her bare legs stretched out comfortably, enjoying the air conditioning and eating cold watermelon that she had just taken out of the refrigerator. This was the greatest happiness in summer.
Liu Zhiyi was also eating a piece of watermelon. She was also barefoot, sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding a book in her hand, reading leisurely.
Fang Wei was sitting in front of the computer, holding a watermelon in his left hand and the mouse in his right hand, playing Minesweeper.
There is a computer in Liu Zhiyi's room that she brought back from moving. It is a big, heavy, old-fashioned computer, but it has no internet connection. She rarely plays with it, except occasionally practicing typing. Fang Wei, on the other hand, plays it more and has already played Minesweeper to an advanced level of difficulty.
The gameplay of Minesweeper is simple, but it is very strategic and challenging, and it tests your logical thinking ability.
It’s not that Fang Wei likes playing games, but with a computer that is not connected to the Internet, what else can he do besides typing and playing Minesweeper?
It’s expensive to get broadband these days. Liu Zhiyi rarely uses the computer, so there’s no need for him to get internet.
Fang Wei thought that after two years when he had enough money, he would get a computer for his home. With a computer and the Internet, it would be convenient for him to do anything even if he was young. However, computers nowadays are indeed too expensive.
Although he only had a high school education in his previous life, Fang Wei used to work as a programmer. After graduation, he enrolled in a training course in the city in order to find a job.
At that time, there were few programmers who graduated from professional schools, and many programmers came from training classes. They first completed basic training and then slowly learned on the job.
In the early 2000s, being able to program was very popular, but it was really tiring. One person had to do the work of several people. Even the computer repair work in the company was done by programmers. The boss still thought it was easy for you, after all, you only had to type on the computer, and he was eager to give you more work.
"You're still playing this? What's so fun about computers?"
Xu Cailing moved a chair and sat next to Fang Wei to watch him play Minesweeper.
"Isn't this just a random order?"
"…What do you mean by randomly clicking? There is a trick. You need to use the known numbers to determine the location of the mines. How can you click randomly?"
"You order this one, I think it's a no-brainer!"
"Haha, it's just luck, right?"
Fang Wei was stuck at this step for a long time. There were five blocks that made him confused and he didn't know which one to choose first.
After hearing what Xu Cailing said, he clicked on the square she pointed at.
[Game failed!]
Xu Cailing: “…”
Fang Wei: "...No, you can definitely step on a landmine when you choose one of the five options? What kind of shitty luck is that?"
"Bah, it's obviously your bad luck! Let me help you!"
"Okay, then you come."
The game restarted, and Xu Cailing moved the mouse clumsily, randomly clicking on a block among a pile of unopened blocks to open it.
[Game failed!]
Fang Wei: “…”
Xu Cailing: “???”
Now even Liu Zhiyi, who was peeking over from behind and looking curiously at this side, couldn't help laughing, and Fang Wei laughed even more arrogantly.
"Forget it, Cailing. Your luck for today has run out. You've already failed at the first step. How bad is your luck?"
"That's because I sacrificed my luck for today!"
"Who did you sacrifice to?"
"The results of the Olympic bid will be announced tonight, so I'm sacrificing my luck today and praying that the next Olympics will be held here!"
"..."
Fang Wei seemed to be hesitant to speak, but was still hesitant to speak. How could she find such a plausible excuse?
"Is it really possible that the 2008 Olympics will be held here?" Liu Zhiyi asked curiously.
"It will definitely work this time!" Xu Cailing said confidently.
"Yeah, I think it's okay too." Fang Wei nodded. Perhaps it was really due to Cai Ling's sacrifice of luck that the news of the successful bid for the Olympic Games spread back to China that night, and 400,000 people flocked to Tiananmen Square to celebrate!
This is probably the most exciting thing for Cailing during this summer vacation.
……
During the long holidays, in addition to daily play, Fang Wei also helped with housework.
The mussel seedlings planted in May needed to be packed in nets, and he spent most of July at the farm helping to pack the nets.
Soon, the holiday was halfway over and by August, the thirty acres of mussels planted in October last year were ready to be harvested and put on the market.
Fang Wei also went to help, but this was heavy work and he could not do much, so his father specially hired a few workers to do the harvest.
Several small fishing boats were sailing on the sea, pulling up strings of heavy seedling ropes, and machines were needed to remove the finished mussels with the foot threads firmly wrapped around them.
After nearly eleven months of cultivation, the mussels have grown quite well and are of excellent quality. The yield is almost the same as originally estimated. For this initial mussel farming project, this is a success that is worth celebrating!
The sales of mussels are mainly wholesaled to various dealers. Fang Xianfeng has been selling fish for many years and has established good cooperative relationships with dealers. He uses their distribution network to deliver mussels to various market terminals.
Now that the breeding project has just started, Fang Xianfeng does not expect to become a big fat man in one go. His main energy should be focused on breeding first. When he has a clearer path and more experience, he will consider opening up the upstream and downstream chains. Wouldn’t it be better to produce and sell by himself?
Fang Xianfeng may have relatively traditional ideas about this, but Fang Wei has many ideas. When the time comes, there will be many suitable sales strategies, whether it is selling on e-commerce platforms, building his own brand, exporting, or doing deep processing of products.
Thirty acres is not a big area, but it is not small either. In today's age where manual labor is the main method of production, the entire harvesting and wholesale work will take more than half a month.
Every evening when he returned home, Fang Xianfeng's calculator would start clacking away.
"Dad, how's the profit?"
"Not bad. After deducting various costs, I can make about 2,400 to 2,500 per acre!"
"That's good!"
"It's OK, it's OK, hehe..."
He said it was okay, but Fang Xianfeng's mouth was almost crooked with smile. Even if there was no mistake in the calculation, he couldn't help but calculate it over and over again.
Calculating at 2,500 yuan per mu, the profit from these 30 mu is nearly 75,000 yuan!
In ten months, I earned 75,000!
This is only the 30 acres planted in October last year, and the 30 acres planted in May this year will bring in another 75,000 yuan in March or April next year! It is equivalent to winning the lottery every few months!
With the accumulation of capital and the continuous expansion of breeding scale, the flow of wealth will become faster and faster.
After this batch of mussels is harvested, the overall breeding scale will be expanded to one hundred acres. Next year, it will be expanded to two hundred acres. By then, it will be a big farm with an annual income of hundreds of thousands!
With the success of Fangjia mussel farming, it is foreseeable that more people will participate in the mussel farming project during the seedling planting period in October this year.
It’s not a bad thing. The reputation of Pineapple Island’s mussel farming will always rely on the participation of more farmers, and Fang Wei has taken advantage of the first-mover advantage.
Of course, as the scale continues to expand, it is impossible to do everything by oneself. Fang Xianfeng also plans to recruit some workers and expand the scale in an orderly and continuous manner.
And this year, my uncle finally made up his mind to start farming mussels.
Xu Cailing's family also began to think about transformation. Uncle Xu originally ran a small seafood processing workshop. He had a keen sense of smell. Seeing that the mussel farming industry on Pineapple Island was gradually becoming popular, he decided to transform and specialize in the deep processing of mussels, such as canning, mussel powder, mussel sauce, mussel snacks, etc.
Xu Cailing was happy to see this, after all, it meant she no longer had to help dry the salted fish...
Over the years, Uncle Xu had accumulated some savings. He transferred his original small workshop, gritted his teeth and rented the abandoned Donghua Village Primary School to build a small factory for mussel processing.
As for the raw materials of mussels, we must buy them from Fang Xianfeng.
Xu Cailing no longer has to dry salted fish, but she still has to go to the primary school every day... no, to the factory to help open shells.
Occasionally, Fang Wei and Liu Zhiyi would come to visit her and help her open the shells when they were free.
"Your shells are so hard to open!"
"Look at my technique. See how I opened it in one go?"
"School is really my home now..."
Xu Cailing couldn't help but sigh.
She still remembered that when the school just closed down last year, Fang Wei said that Donghua Primary School would be rented out to others as a seafood processing factory. She didn't believe it at that time, but she didn't expect that it would become her family's factory...
Fortunately, Donghua Primary School is small and shabby, otherwise if the factory is too big, wouldn’t she be running a shell business or a hemp business?
I pray that Uncle Xu doesn't hear what the silly girl is thinking...
(End of this chapter)
