Chapter 278 - 178: Buying a New Car

Chapter 278: Chapter 178: Buying a New Car

After enjoying the sunrise, Gu Nan successfully caught a second bigeye tuna of a similar size.

He watched the school of fish swim away with some regret. They had arrived too late; if they’d come earlier, he might have caught several more.

Still, two wasn’t bad. Today was the day their parents were meeting at the hotel, so he could arrange for one of the bigeye tuna to be served. Any parts they didn’t finish could be conveniently sold to the hotel at a slight discount.

As for the other one, Gu Nan glanced over at Guo Xiao and the others on the second boat.

Wang Junhe couldn’t land a big fish, so he’d given up and started fishing for small tuna with An Jun. Their catch was decent.

In the end, however, Guo Xiao had to ask for their help. The line on his reel was running out, and his own hand was so sore and weak he could barely turn the handle. Without help, there was no telling how much longer it would take.

With the two fresh bodies of An Jun and Wang Junhe joining the fight, they finally managed to land the fish shortly after the sun had fully risen.

In truth, three people taking turns weren’t necessarily slower than the supernaturally efficient Gu Nan. The problem was they had let the fish run too far at the beginning, so a huge amount of time was spent just reeling the line back in.

Plus, their fishing rod didn’t have the function of draining the fish’s stamina. Every time the fish rested and recovered, it would take off again. This back-and-forth was what had dragged the process out for so long.

Fortunately, the outcome was good. With the help of his two friends, Guo Xiao successfully landed the fish—a bigeye tuna about the same size as Gu Nan’s.

The three of them each took a picture with the fish, after which Wang Junhe turned his attention to Gu Nan.

"Ah Nan, how about you spare one of your fish for me?"

’Guo Xiao is going home with a fish this huge. If I go back empty-handed, my wife will mock me for a week straight,’ he thought. ’I’m already bound by an exhausting "three nights a week" treaty. If I have to endure being mocked for another week on top of that, how am I supposed to survive?’

"Sure thing!" Gu Nan agreed instantly. Bigeye tuna weren’t exceptionally rare. He gave him a small discount, selling it to Wang Junhe for seventy yuan per catty.

It weighed two hundred and eighty-seven catties. He knocked off the ninety-yuan odd change, making it an even twenty thousand yuan.

The two boats drew near, and Wang Junhe immediately had the fish hoisted over to his. ’Now *this* is how you cheat for real!’

An Jun watched the transaction without much of a reaction. ’Even before I got into fishing, I knew that when fishermen can’t catch anything, they just go buy one from the market. What’s the big deal about this?’

Wang Junhe not only transferred the money on the spot but also tossed over two cartons of cigarettes.

Gu Nan chuckled as he accepted them. He didn’t have to swipe these things from them anymore; now, Wang Junhe and Guo Xiao would offer them up voluntarily.

If Gu Nan ever managed to get his hands on some especially rare, top-quality seafood from abroad, they’d at least have enough clout with him to ask him to set it aside for them.

This was one of the reasons they were happy to have him take things from them—it wasn’t just about the big fish, but also about securing priority purchasing rights.

Top-grade seafood was always in high demand. If you didn’t have a good relationship, who would give you face?

So what if you offered to pay a premium? Did you think others wouldn’t?

There were far too many tycoons in China. In Bazhou City alone, there were at least a dozen people with assets exceeding Wang Junhe’s and Guo Xiao’s. Were any of them short on cash?

This was also why Gu Nan wasn’t shy about their arrangement. He’d take things, contact them first when he had a big fish, and occasionally give them a couple of fish as gifts.

After taking tens of thousands of yuan worth of tea from them, he would think about what he could give in return. That was why, upon seeing the thirty-catty Emperor Crab, his first thought was to give it to them for a get-together.

Reciprocity was key, and Gu Nan had a good head on his shoulders.

Wang Junhe and Guo Xiao wouldn’t keep doing things at a loss. Who would be happy being taken advantage of all the time? They went along with it because they felt they were also gaining something. Their Spirit was satisfied, and they didn’t care about that little bit of money, so they didn’t feel like they were losing out.

Piggybacking off the signal from Wang Junhe’s boat, Gu Nan connected and immediately sent a message to Yi Chen, telling her not to open the shop today. He said he’d pick up his parents in the afternoon and then come get her for the hotel.

At that moment, Yi Chen was just about to get up. After seeing the message, she simply replied that she would go to the hotel with her parents in the afternoon and that he didn’t need to pick her up.

As for closing the shop, she didn’t agree. Instead, she got up, washed her face, and went to the shop to open for business.

A few thousand yuan in revenue in a single morning, and over ten thousand on a good day—how could she bear to close up shop?

Gu Nan didn’t know her plans. Since one bigeye tuna was sold to Wang Junhe, the other would be sent to the Junhao Hotel.

An Jun wanted the longfin yellowtail he had caught, so Gu Nan didn’t go back to the shop after returning to shore.

He also didn’t arrange to ship out the new products he’d gotten these past few days, like the Red Demon Shrimp. That could wait until tomorrow.

In fact, Red Demon Shrimp could also be found in domestic waters. With his new boat arriving in just over two months, Gu Nan was planning to order some custom deep-sea cages to catch deep-water shrimp and crabs.

The resources in domestic waters were just as abundant. There was no need for him to focus solely on imported seafood and miss out on the top-quality catches available at home.

He rushed back to his rental apartment for a nap. After waking up, he grabbed a quick bite to fill his stomach, then drove home to pick up his parents.

As for where they would stay, since they were dining at the Junhao Hotel, it was only natural they’d stay there.

Gu Nan was also planning to buy a sedan for his dad to drive, so he wouldn’t have to chauffeur them around in the future.

When he got home, Gu Dacheng and Zhao Suying were already ready, both dressed quite formally.

"Son, what do you think of Mom’s outfit?" Zhao Suying asked for his opinion the moment Gu Nan walked in.

"Yeah, it’s great. Elegant and dignified. Mom, you look stunning!"

Gu Nan delivered his assessment with a very serious expression, without a trace of insincerity.

Having lived in constant peril under his mother’s thumb since childhood, he certainly knew how to handle her.

The slightest hint of just going through the motions would have meant they wouldn’t leave until the last possible moment, and he’d have to listen to her complain the whole way there.

Zhao Suying beamed at the compliment, looking at herself in the mirror again and again. The more she looked, the more she liked it. The matter of the outfit was successfully navigated.

"Mom, Dad, let’s head into the city first. I’m going to buy you a car. The fishing season is about to start, and the renovations on my other shop will be done soon, so I’ll need you to run the old one."

"You’ll need to rent a place in Yangjiang Port for a while, and having a car will make things a lot more convenient."

Gu Nan naturally had plans for his parents. He couldn’t afford to buy them a house just yet. With the monthly installment payments for the new boat, it was hard to save up enough money for a down payment.

Although Yangjiang Port was just a seaside fishing port, the property prices there were not cheap. In some of the better complexes, an apartment with a proper title deed would cost around 12,000 yuan per square meter. A three-bedroom, one-living-room unit would be over a million yuan. He could handle the down payment and installments, but there was no need for it at the moment.

Whether to buy a house would depend on how the business did. If it was stable, buying one next year wouldn’t be too late.

In this day and age, it was always wise to keep some cash on hand for emergencies.

Gu Dacheng and Zhao Suying had no objections to renting. That was what they had been considering as well. They only objected to their son’s plan to buy a car.

"Son, forget about the sedan. Your mom and I talked it over. We’ll get a used van for now. We can modify it a bit so it can be used for both transportation and hauling cargo."

"Don’t do that. The inspections are strict now, you’ll get caught easily. An unmodified van doesn’t have much space in the back anyway, so there’s no point in buying one. I have a pickup. I can handle deliveries for both shops. If I go out to sea, you can use my truck. The pickup has a lot of space and is convenient for hauling goods."

"Besides, my income is good now. A sedan is a must. We’ll have plenty of use for it. We can’t just drive a pickup everywhere as a family, can we?"

Gu Nan rejected the idea without a second thought. Modified vans were fine in the past, but the inspections were too strict now. In Yangjiang Port, they were cracking down hard on not just modified vans, but even electric scooters.

This was why he hadn’t considered a van in the first place, opting for a three-wheeler and then upgrading directly to a pickup.

Besides, if there was a large load, he usually had the other party arrange for their own transport. For smaller loads, his pickup was more than enough.

Gu Dacheng thought about it and felt his son had a point.

A modified van was useful in the village, but it really wasn’t practical in the county or the city.

Zhao Suying didn’t interject. When it came to major decisions, she usually let the men of the family discuss and decide.

They drove into the city and first bought a new energy vehicle for 280,000 yuan, all-in. He didn’t get a hybrid this time.

The sedan would mostly be driven in the city. Their family and relatives were all within Bazhou City, so with no long-distance travel, there was no fear of the battery dying mid-trip.

With the new car in hand, an excited Gu Dacheng got behind the wheel and followed Gu Nan’s pickup truck toward the Junhao Hotel.

He was a man in his fifties, yet this was the first time he’d ever had a car of his own. How could he not be excited?

Zhao Suying sat in the passenger seat, touching this and looking at that, clearly thrilled as well. Even though she was a woman, she loved this car too!

Upon arriving at the hotel, he first checked his parents in, then gave Yi Chen a call.

"Chenchen, how are you guys getting here tonight? Should I come pick you up?"

At that moment, Yi Chen was at home waiting for her father to pick her and her grandmother up. Hearing his offer, she quickly refused, "No, don’t. I’ll just wait for my dad to come get us tonight."

She might seem a little clueless at times, but in that moment, she was sharp as a tack!

’If I go over now, I’ll basically be facing Gu Nan’s parents all by myself,’ she thought. ’This is our first time meeting; facing my boyfriend’s parents alone would be mortifyingly awkward.’

With her own family there and at the dinner table, the situation would naturally be different.

Gu Nan hadn’t thought that far ahead. Seeing her refusal, he just let the matter drop.

Back in the room, they chatted about the seafood shop. He had originally planned to give the old shop to his parents. They were his parents, after all, and he was their only son. Everything they had would be his someday, so there was no need to be so calculative.

But Gu Dacheng and Zhao Suying were still unwilling to take advantage of their son. They stated directly that they would just help manage the shop, with no thought of any return.

Gu Nan wouldn’t agree to that, either. It would be one thing if he were broke, but his income was substantial now. There was no reason to have his parents work for free. Since they wouldn’t take the shop, he would pay them a salary, just like Yi Chen.

However, Zhao Suying refused. She had a rough idea of her son’s income and proposed ten thousand yuan a month for the two of them, considering it pocket money from her filial son.

She would save the revenue from the old shop for now and give it to Gu Nan later if he needed it.

He didn’t object to this. Just like when he’d offered them the shop, they were all family, so any arrangement would work.

As they chatted, evening arrived.

Gu Nan got a call from Yi Chen, who told him that her family was about to arrive. He and his parents hurried down to the lobby to wait for them. Greeting them personally at the entrance would show just how much his family valued hers.