Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Firing up the Stove in the Shop

The awkwardness lasted only a moment; both Gu Nan and Yi Chen acted as if nothing had happened.

The two continued discussing the video, then uploaded it.

“I’ll message Ah Jun and tell him to follow you and promote you a bit.” Gu Nan stood up as he spoke, giving her his seat.

Even though they had a silent agreement to ignore what had just happened, the atmosphere between them was still a little strange.

Yi Chen nodded, sat down, and took out her phone, occasionally refreshing the backend data.

She was understandably nervous after just uploading the video, hoping people would see it but also fearing negative comments.

As for the wardrobe malfunction earlier, she wasn’t too bothered by it.

’What else could she do about it? It’s the middle of summer, and bikinis are everywhere on the beach. She hadn’t even shown as much as they do!’

About half an hour later, An Jun arrived at the shop. “Didn’t you say you were going out to sea today? How are you back so soon?”

“What else? Was I supposed to stay out all night?” Gu Nan was lying on a chair, occasionally refreshing Yi Chen’s video on his phone.

An Jun had already helped promote it, but since he hadn’t posted a new video of his own, the effect was mediocre.

The video only had a little over a hundred views so far, but a few comments had appeared in the comments section.

He clicked in to take a look and immediately saw a snarky comment.

“Holy shit, such a pretty girl selling fish? First came the ’fishing babes,’ and now we’ve got ’fish-selling babes’?”

With just over a hundred views, the comment already had more than thirty likes. It just went to show how much people disliked these ubiquitous wannabe influencers.

“Stop looking. How many views can a freshly posted video have? Let’s wait a month and then check the stats! Didn’t you say you were going to teach me how to clean fish? Hurry up and teach me!”

“What’s the rush? Wait until customers arrive this afternoon…”

As Gu Nan spoke, it suddenly occurred to him that he had never even eaten any of the fish from his own shop!

Since he had time now, he might as well make dinner himself. He was getting tired of eating takeout every day.

“Alright, I’ll make dinner today. I’ll teach you how to clean fish at the same time.”

“Yes! Perfect! So what fish are we having tonight?” An Jun’s eyes immediately scanned the various fish tanks and landed on the few Tai Star Garoupa. “How about we eat this one!”

’If you’re getting a free meal, you’ve got to pick the most expensive thing, of course.’

“Dream on!” Gu Nan rolled his eyes, walked over to the Blue-striped Gidai, and scooped out a roughly three-jin one with a landing net. “We’re eating this tonight.”

There were only a few high-star fish in the shop, and he wasn’t catching that many each day himself. There was no way he could bring himself to eat one.

The Blue-striped Gidai used to be quite precious, but now that he was catching a fair number of them every day, he didn’t feel the sting as much.

An Jun was just saying that for effect. He thought Gu Nan might pick a Black-striped Small Stripes Buri or something, but he hadn’t expected this choice.

“Whoa, you netted such a big one. Guess you’re not so stingy after all.”

“Stingy? Didn’t I treat you to a meal worth several thousand?”

“That was just one time.”

“Damn, how many times were you hoping for?!”

Gu Nan was bagging the fish and adding oxygen, about to ask Yi Chen to watch the shop, when a young man appeared at the door with a handcart stacked with two large foam boxes.

“Is the owner here? The fish you ordered have arrived!”

“That was fast?” ’I hadn’t expected the game to be so efficient,’ Gu Nan thought.

“We arrange delivery as soon as the boat docks,” the young deliveryman explained. He then helped carry the two boxes of fish inside. “There are live ones, too. They’ll be here in a moment.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Gu Nan and Yi Chen, who had come over, started unpacking the boxes together.

Seeing he was busy, An Jun, who was standing nearby, suddenly had an idea. “Hey, what if I go to your place, grab your pots, pans, and seasonings, and then buy an induction cooktop to use in the shop? What do you think?”

“I think it’s a bad idea. I’m afraid you’ll start coming over to freeload every day,” Gu Nan refused without hesitation.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Yi Chen, standing beside them, chimed in supportively. “That way, we wouldn’t have to eat takeout every day. We could cook for ourselves.” ’This could actually save a lot of money,’ she thought.

Gu Nan was generous and took good care of her, so she felt she should also do what she could to help him save money. Most importantly, she knew how to cook.

“Two against one, the motion passes! I’m off to get the stuff. Ah Nan, give me the keys to the tricycle and your apartment.”

“…”

“Boss, I can actually cook. I’m pretty good at it, too.”

“Fine. Remember to buy a rack, so we have a place for the pots and pans.”

Hearing Yi Chen say that, Gu Nan decisively pulled out his keys and handed them to An Jun.

He wasn’t willing to cook in the shop himself whenever he felt like it, but if there was a little chef in the store, that was a different story.

An Jun left on the tricycle, while Gu Nan and Yi Chen continued unpacking the boxes and taking out the fish.

These two boxes contained chilled fish, mainly Black-striped Small Stripes Buri, Indian Pompano, and Longnose Trevally.

Though there were two boxes, there wasn’t actually that much stuff—just enough to fill the display counter.

Just then, the deliveryman also brought the live seafood Gu Nan had ordered. These fish were transported from the fishing boats through customs and transferred to transport trucks, with oxygen being supplied the entire time. They weren’t packed up like the chilled fish.

They didn’t even use the same type of truck. Live seafood was transported in special live seafood trucks, while chilled and frozen products used refrigerated trucks.

Fortunately, both the live and chilled seafood were shipped by air, so they could arrive at the same time.

If there were any deep-frozen seafood products, they would be shipped by sea. In that case, even if Gu Nan had retrieved them from the game at the same time, their arrival times at the shop would be different.

Gu Nan quickly brought out the shop’s water tanks and transferred the live seafood they had delivered into them. The boxes had to be returned.

The delivery personnel then handed him the relevant documents, such as the customs clearance form for imported goods and the quarantine certificate.

The game had already deducted the shipping fee from his bank card in advance, so Gu Nan didn’t need to pay it himself.

That’s right—when he chose the delivery mode, he had to pay an extra shipping fee.

The fee was based on market prices, and air freight was actually quite expensive.

But compared to the zero cost of the fish themselves, this shipping fee was nothing.

Regardless, the delivery mode was more plausible and less likely to attract unwanted scrutiny.

An Jun was incredibly fast. Just as they finished sorting the acclimated live fish into their tanks, he returned, his tricycle laden with a large load of items.

Gu Nan went over and unloaded a plastic shelf, bringing it into the shop and placing it inside the counter on the left side, in a space normally used for stacking foam boxes.

For now, though, he had stacked the foam boxes on top of an unplugged freezer, and the cleared-out space was more than enough for a shelf.

There was a ton of miscellaneous stuff: a rice cooker, an induction cooktop, a wok, a steamer, and more.

“Ah Nan, this shop of yours is still a bit small. When you upgrade to a bigger place, you should set aside a dedicated kitchen and dining area.” After putting everything away, An Jun looked around, expressing his dissatisfaction with the cramped space.

“Nice try. You’re planning to shoot your videos here in the future, right? Not a chance.” Gu Nan knew exactly what he was thinking and shut him down immediately.

He was planning to move to another seafood market. The shops there were bigger, sure, but setting aside space for cooking would be too much of a luxury. The annual rent wasn’t cheap; he would definitely need to set up more fish tanks.

“Weren’t you going to learn how to clean fish? Come on, I’ll teach you.”

Seeing An Jun trying to bring the topic up again, Gu Nan simply scooped up the Blue-striped Gidai from before and led him to the entrance.

As for the extra vegetables he had bought, Yi Chen was already washing them off to the side.

“If you’re not wearing gloves when you clean a fish, the first step is to kill it so it doesn’t struggle and cut your hand. Different fish are handled differently. Today, we’ll start with this type of smaller fish. You just need to stun it by hitting it on the head with the back of the knife.”

Gu Nan began his lesson, and An Jun started learning earnestly. From the looks of it, he really did seem to be planning to film seafood videos.

It took a good three to five minutes to completely clean the three-jin Blue-striped Gidai.

It wasn’t that Gu Nan was slow, but he was teaching and demonstrating at the same time, which naturally slowed down his movements.

After teaching, he filleted the fish and handed the meat to Yi Chen. “Yi Chen, let’s have this Steamed! We can use the bones and head to make a soup. Ah Jun just bought some tofu and seafood mushrooms; we can add those to the soup too.”

“Okay~”

The fish was taken away, and Gu Nan washed his hands. Seeing An Jun still watching the video he had just filmed, he smiled and asked, “So, how much did you learn?”

“I don’t know if I’ve learned it or if I’m a lost cause. I’ll have to try it myself to find out.”

An Jun watched the video, then glanced over at the fish tanks.

“You can try it, no problem. Just pay up.”

“Damn it, what kind of person do you take me for? Am I the type of guy to freeload without paying?”

“Aren’t you freeloading right now? Then pay up!”

“I’ll treat you to a massage!”

“…”

In the end, An Jun decided not to practice that evening. It would be a waste to kill a live fish just to have it sit on ice all night. It wasn’t too late to kill one tomorrow when he decided what he wanted to eat.

However, Yi Chen gave them a big surprise. Her cooking skills were excellent, top-tier even for home-style cooking.

For the first time, Gu Nan thought that when he upgraded to a bigger shop, he might actually consider adding a kitchen.

After dinner, it was still very early, just past five o’clock.

’It couldn’t be helped, not with their work schedule. They either had to eat early or wait until after closing.’

The first customer of the evening was quite eye-catching. Pan Yourong had arrived with her son.

“Hello, boss! Any fish you’d recommend in the shop today?”

Her creamy-white, loose-fitting T-shirt might have concealed her explosive figure somewhat, but Pan Yourong had shrewdly tied a knot at the hem, revealing her slender waist and making the loose fabric suddenly taut.

Her tight jeans hugged her figure closely, and her long, shapely legs and peach-like hips were a constant magnet for men’s gazes.

In comparison, Yi Chen looked like a simple country girl. Mainly because she only wore practical work clothes at the shop, so she wasn’t as eye-catching.

An Jun sized Pan Yourong up and down with interest, but knowing she had given Gu Nan massages a few times, he didn’t have any ideas.

’What if his bro lost control one day? He wasn’t about to make their bromance even more intimate by turning them into ’comrades-in-arms.’’

“I just caught some silver pomfret this morning. They’re very fresh. Would you like to take a look?” Gu Nan said, leading her to the display counter.

“You caught them yourself?” Pan Yourong was slightly surprised to see so many silver pomfret.

“That’s right. Fishing is a hobby of mine, and a friend happened to be going out to sea today, so I tagged along. Silver pomfret meat is tender and nutritious, very suitable for children.”

“Alright, I’ll take this then.” Pan Yourong noticed some larger silver pomfret nearby and asked, “How much are these bigger ones?”

“The bigger ones are half a jin each, and they’re eighty yuan a jin.”

“Eighty yuan… okay, I’ll take two.”

Hearing the customer’s order, Yi Chen, who had already put on gloves, came over with a bag, picked out two of the best-looking ones, and weighed them.

“Boss, 1.1 jin.”

“Okay, that’s eighty-eight… just give me eighty-five.”

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