There's a small night market in town where nearby villagers set up stalls to sell fruits and vegetables they grow at home, while small vendors sell some daily necessities and so on.
The market isn't very big, but since it's on the main road that villagers must take to get home, there are pedestrians from before dusk until after eight in the evening.
Zhang Yang arrived fairly early, grabbed a spot near the intersection next to an elderly man selling vegetables, placed the bucket of crucian carp on the ground, sat on a small folding stool against his bicycle, and his little stall was ready.
Every five days, on the first and sixth, there's a big market in town. Because it's close to the Wen River, there are plenty of common freshwater fish like crucian carp on sale. However, if you want wild crucian carp, you have to rush in the early morning; there really aren't any fish sellers at the night market.
The small night market doesn't have the bustling crowds of the big market, making it hard to have good sales. Besides, if you cast your net in the morning and stay until the evening, live fish are prone to dying, and if they're not fresh, they won't sell for a good price.
For various reasons, Zhang Yang's little fish stall became the one and only business at the night market.
Not long after he set out his catch, a woman in her fifties spotted them and came over.
"Young man, how do you sell this crucian carp?"
Zhang Yang smiled and nodded, pointing to the fishing rods behind him, "Auntie, do you want to buy fish? These are wild big crucian carp I caught from the Wen River, absolutely fresh! How much do you want? If you buy more, I'll give you a discount!"
"Just want this big one! How much?" The woman knowingly pointed to the large crucian carp struggling to turn over in the bucket, only managing to lie sideways.
"This fish is about one and a half pounds, pure wild, selling for 40 yuan! It's still alive now! Take it home, slaughter it, and you can stew a good pot of soup, fresh and nutritious!"
"Are you sure it's wild? Don't trick me!"
"I'd be a liar if I tricked you! Wild crucian carp from the Wen River have 28 large scales from the gill cover to the tail. You can count them and see!" Zhang Yang spoke with confidence.
The woman also knew her stuff, reached out to grab the crucian carp, looked at it, and nodded.
"The price is a bit high. Can you give me a discount?"
"Auntie, don't joke with me. A pound and a half of wild big crucian carp at this price is still expensive? At the early market, they sell for fifty yuan, and restaurant owners scramble to buy them!
The saying goes, 'Crucian carp over a pound is like ginseng', but this one is at least a pound and a half, a rare find even with money!"
With a smiling face and humble tone, Zhang Yang still firmly controlled the transaction.
"Alright, young man, you're quite young but have such a good talk. Pack it up for me!"
Seeing Zhang Yang not yielding, the woman nodded and took out the money. Her daughter-in-law had just given birth to a big fat boy, and her milk was a bit lacking. This wild big crucian carp was perfect for boiling soup to improve her milk.
"Uh, I didn't prepare a convenient bag!" The sale was completed, but Zhang Yang was a bit embarrassed. It was his first time selling fish, so he forgot to prepare bags for the fish.
Luckily, the elderly man selling vegetables next door was a generous person and handed two convenient bags to him, "Here you go, young man, use mine! It's rare for someone your age to put aside their pride to sell fish for money, much better than my youngest son! That kid only knows to ask me for money to play computer games at the internet cafe!"
"Thank you, sir!" Zhang Yang expressed his gratitude, packed the fish using the convenient bags, received the money from the woman, and completed his first transaction.
Sold a fish for 40 yuan, first sale done!
Less than an hour later, two more customers spotted the live crucian carp in Zhang Yang's bucket. The big crucian carp sold for seven yuan per pound, the smaller ones for five yuan per pound, and after picking and choosing, all were sold, yielding 43 yuan.
Combined with the earlier big crucian carp, 83 yuan earned!
After selling all the fish, Zhang Yang packed up his things, said goodbye to the helpful elderly man next door, and rode away.
The sky was almost dark, but Zhang Yang wasn't in a hurry to go home. Instead, he headed straight to the herbal medicine shop on another street.
With the startup funds in hand, he needed to prepare the herbal liquor for rice used in making wine. Zhang Yang entered the shop and stated the types and quantities of medicinal herbs needed, cheekily adding a few extra to ensure the recipe remained a secret.
He spent a total of twenty-four yuan, buying all the medicinal herbs required for brewing the wine rice, and also had the shop use a machine to crush the herbs into powder.
With the medicinal herbs prepared, the next step was to buy cheap high-proof grain liquor in a ten-pound package from the supermarket, which cost 55 yuan. After paying, he brought the items back home.
The Zhang Family's dinner time was relatively late, usually starting after seven. Zhang Yang returned home just after half past six, and while it was already dark, he hadn't delayed anything.
"Yang Yang, where did you go this afternoon? Haven't seen you all afternoon, coming home so late! What's this you've bought?"
His mother looked him over from head to toe, finally focusing on the cheap grain liquor hanging from the handlebars with a puzzled expression.
"Went fishing! Learned a recipe for brewing herbal liquor rice and tried it out this afternoon. It worked well; I caught ten pounds of fish in half a day! This liquor is what I bought with the money from selling the fish at the night market, for making herbal liquor rice!"
Zhang Yang didn't worry about the sequence of logic, told a little lie to his mother, afraid she'd object. He twisted open the drum's lid and stuffed the crushed herbs into the liquor barrel right in front of her.
"Using good white liquor for rice fishing? Your dad will scold you for wasting things when he comes back!"
Seeing her son's actions, Zhang Yang's mother warned him while instinctively glancing at the courtyard gate, worried that her husband would see and her son would get scolded.
"Hehe! I'll hide it in the corner of the storeroom so he won't see it! I'm old enough now, can't always reach out to you for pocket money, right? If this wine rice works well, I'll fish on my own for pocket money!"
"You're not getting any younger, stop thinking about useless things! Finding a stable job is the right path!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know! Once the textile factory gives word, I'll go for an interview!"
Zhang Yang chuckled, scratched his head, and carried the wine barrel into the side room after tightening the lid.
During dinner, his mother didn't mention anything about her son using Chinese medicine to soak wine. After dinner, Zhang Yang went back to his room early, fiddled with his computer for a while, and went to bed around nine o'clock.
For the next few days, Zhang Yang left home after breakfast, rode his bicycle with a fishing rod to the river to fish. He'd come back at noon for lunch and then disappear again.
The spring weather was unstable; sometimes, it would be windy, so his fishing haul varied from day to day.
During this season, wild fish feed all day, but the best window to catch fish is usually early morning and just before dusk. After those times, the catch decreases.
On average, he caught about fifteen or sixteen pounds of fish each day, selling them at the night market, earning around a hundred or so yuan daily.
Using the money he earned from selling fish, Zhang Yang took a bus to the city's fishing gear wholesale street to buy a set of beginner fishing equipment: a short-section fiberglass fishing rod, ground insert rod holder, fishing set, standing bobber, leader line box, fishnet, rod bag, and other miscellaneous items.
With the equipment, he finally looked like a proper angler, at least not using a bamboo rod anymore, which seemed so shabby.
Earning money from selling fish to buy a set of fishing gear, the rod bag was so conspicuous that it couldn't be hidden as he carried it in and out every day.
Zhang Yang didn't plan to hide it. When his father asked about it, he naturally explained about earning pocket money by selling fish at the night market, saying that he bought all the fishing equipment with his own earnings!
Buying things with money he earned himself gave him confidence, anytime. Zhang's father only asked a few questions and then didn't bother him, letting him go his own way.
In Zhang Guofu's mind, his son might enjoy fishing for a few days, but since he'd start working soon and wouldn't have time, he'd eventually settle down!
What he didn't know was that going to work wasn't even in Zhang Yang's plans!
Unknowingly, a week passed, and Zhang Yang opened the lid of his homemade herbal wine for the first time.
A special aroma of Chinese medicine mixed with the scent of wine wafted out. The smell wasn't overpowering, but the fragrance was unique, a faint and subtle fragrance that could be smelled from afar.
It's exactly this aroma—the scent that comes from combining several types of Chinese medicine in a certain ratio—which makes this herbal wine so special, and it's also the key to its excellent effect when used to prepare rice for making wine.
With the herbal wine ready, Zhang Yang found a large, empty ceramic jar in the side room and poured forty pounds of dry coarse corn grits directly into it.
He covered the mouth of the plastic bucket for storing the wine with two layers of gauze to filter the Chinese medicine residues, and poured all of the herbal wine over the corn grits.
He used a clean bamboo board to mix the wine and corn grits thoroughly, and after a few hours, once the corn had fully absorbed the alcohol aroma, it was ready for use!
With the homemade rice for making wine sorted, Zhang Yang bought small packages with zip-lock closures from the town's supply and marketing cooperative, each bag weighing 200 grams, making ten trial size bags as freebies.
The non-stick labels were supposed to arrive the next day, so Zhang Yang decided to head to Wen River for a live demo and on-the-ground promotion.
He secured part of his fishing gear on the back seat of his bicycle and headed straight to the fishing spot.
After a week of continuous fishing, Zhang Yang had a fairly accurate estimate of the fishing situation at Wen River to the south of the village.
Overall, the crucian carp resources in this section were quite abundant, but there were tricks to choosing fishing spots and methods.
For example, as a simple case, many anglers from outside liked using longer rods, often six-point-three meters or even seven-point-two meters, for deep water fishing. Those who weren't tight on money would even set up a fishing platform (see annotation at the bottom of the chapter, Annotation ①) to reach further spots.
In Zhang Yang's view, springtime fish prefer to stay in warmer, food-rich, and safe spots, making the shallows beside water plants a good choice.
While fishing with longer rods in deep water might catch larger fish, the catch was sparse, and the harvest was poor.
When Zhang Yang arrived at the riverbank with his sample bait, it was already past three in the afternoon.
It was a Saturday, and many people were fishing by the river. From far away, Zhang Yang saw six or seven cars parked in an open space by the roadside.
Once at the spot, he observed that the fishing spot he usually occupied was taken, but after watching for a while, Zhang Yang noticed everyone else's catch wasn't impressive.
Everything fell into place; with everyone having poor fishing results, it was the perfect opportunity to showcase his skills! Zhang Yang eagerly unpacked his rod bag and began preparing.
Zhang Yang found an open grassy area to set up his fishing spot and mixed some fresh herbal rice bait with mud to hit the fishing point, then sat on a folding stool and waited patiently.
Zhang Yang was now using a three-point-six-meter fiberglass fishing rod, which wasn't much, but was full-sized and more convenient to carry than a bamboo rod. Plus, it was cheap—after some bargaining, he bought it for just 55 yuan.
Over here, Zhang Yang was preparing the bait and sorting out his fishing setup.
A forty-something middle-aged angler smoking a cigarette strolled over from not far away.
Note ①: Fishing Platform: A piece of fishing equipment made from aluminum alloy, foldable with extendable legs at each corner, used for fishing on shallow water banks, offering clean fishing positions and access to further spots. The downside is its heaviness, requiring time to set up and pack. There are now carbon fiber fishing platforms available, which are lighter but expensive!
Note ②: Fish Condition: Literally means the situation of the fish, it generally refers to the current fishing, the level of fish activity, appetite, quantity, etc.