Chapter 28 Aquatic Products Market

  "Dear Mr. Xiao, you've come just in time." Pierre was delighted to see Xiao Ping and opened his arms wide for a hug.

  If Pierre was a charming French girl, never mind an embrace, even a hot kiss would be fine with Xiao Ping. Unfortunately, this French guy is a man, and Xiao Ping thinks that embracing and all that is not necessary. He grabbed Pierre's hand before he could hug him, shook it lightly a few times, and immediately sat down, not giving the Frenchman a chance to show enthusiasm.

  Pierre was also used to the Chinese way of being reserved, and didn't take Xiao Ping's reaction to heart. He smiled and said: "I've already contacted the Italian side, they will transport the truffles out in the next few days. In order to meet your fresh requirements, this batch of truffles will be air transported, and at the latest it will arrive within four days!"

  For Xiao Ping, this was indeed good news. Although the Frenchman was a bit too enthusiastic, he was still quite reliable in getting things done. Since the truffles would arrive soon, Xiao Ping wasn't in a hurry to leave and smiled at Pierre: "In that case, I'll stay in the provincial capital for a few more days and wait until the truffles arrive before leaving. By the way, your store must use a lot of vegetables, such as making salads?"

  "Of course, vegetables are healthy food and very popular now," Pierre said proudly. "I dare say that among all the Western restaurants in this city, our vegetable salad is the most delicious!"

  Xiao Ping smiled slyly and said, "That's not necessarily true."

  "You're questioning my professional standards!" Pierre said with some displeasure.

  "Don't be in a hurry, try this first." Xiao Ping tossed Pierre several fresh vegetables, with a mysterious expression on his face.

  The Frenchman looked at the selling appearance of these vegetables, and his eyes sparkled with light. He couldn't help but mutter to himself in French: "Such beautiful vegetables, oh... God, this is simply a work of art!"

  Xiao Ping also couldn't understand French, so he impatiently urged: "You try it."

  Foreigners usually make salads with lettuce, and Pierre pulled down a few leaves, rinsed them with water, and stuffed them into his mouth. He had only chewed a few times when his face changed immediately, and he hastily swallowed the things in his mouth, staring at Xiao Ping and asking: "Where did these vegetables come from? The taste is simply... too good!"

  Xiao Ping didn't answer Pierre's question and instead asked back, "If other Western restaurants use these vegetables to make salads, wouldn't they taste better than your restaurant?"

  Although he was very unwilling to admit it, Pierre could only nod his head, but he soon became disgruntled and said: "This is just because of the ingredients, and has nothing to do with the chef's level."

  "The guests only care about the taste, do you think they would mind anything else?" Xiao Ping's one sentence made Pierre speechless.

  However, Xiao Ping soon gave the Frenchman hope, smiling and saying to him: "This dish is produced by my farm, all natural green food, are you interested?"

  "Of course!" Pierre nodded immediately: "One hundred kilograms of each variety every day!"

  Xiao Ping shook his head and said, "Sorry, the yield of this vegetable is very small, at most 200 kilograms per variety per week. This is already a special favor to you because we are partners."

  "Alright!" As a seasoned chef, Pierre certainly knew the value of these vegetables and agreed to Xiao Ping's terms without even asking the price.

  "It's settled then, three weeks from now we'll start, and I'll deliver goods to you once a week." Xiao Ping also didn't drag on the matter and settled it.

  With this harvest of vegetables, Xiao Ping has already let Wang Dapao and others sow in batches. Every week, one-third of the land is sown, which can guarantee that there will be vegetables on the market every week. The advantage of this is that it can stably supply vegetables, avoid the situation where prices plummet when they are concentrated on the market, and customers cannot buy vegetables at other times.

  Xiao Ping's visit to Raffles Restaurant this time has yielded a lot. Not only did he learn that the truffles are almost in hand, but he also found a long-term customer for the farm. Although Pierre's order quantity is not large, Xiao Ping values his influence in the Western restaurant industry. The farm will definitely continue to develop in the future, and Xiao Ping has an ambitious plan to sell the farm's products all over the world, and Raffles Restaurant is just the first step in opening up the global market.

  After leaving the Raffles restaurant, Xiao Ping went directly to the aquatic market by the river. To know which fish is the most profitable to raise, just take a look there and you'll know everything. Last time Xiao Ping came to the provincial city, he was in a hurry to buy tree saplings back, so he didn't have time to come here and take a look. This time, since he had to stay in the provincial city for a few days anyway, it's just right to come and get a feel for the market.

  The aquatic market in the provincial capital is very large, with hundreds of stalls operating here. In addition to freshwater and saltwater fish, there are also shrimp, crabs, shellfish and other aquatic products, in short, as long as it comes from the water, it can be sold here.

  Xiao Ping walked among the many stalls, looking for fish species suitable for his breeding. He had only two conditions for choosing fish species: one was that the price must be expensive, and the other was that it must be freshwater fish. As for whether the fish were easy to raise or how fast they grew, these were completely outside his consideration.

  However, after wandering around the market for a long time, Xiao Ping found that only eel met his requirements. The two kilograms of eel had to be sold for more than 60 yuan per kilogram, which is considered expensive among freshwater fish in the aquatic market. However, after inquiring, Xiao Ping learned that eel farming requires purchasing wild seedlings in early spring, and it's impossible to raise them at this time, so he can only wait until next year.

  Helplessly, Xiao Ping continued to walk around the market, and when he passed by a store that specialized in selling high-end aquatic products, his eyes suddenly lit up. Outside the store hung a sign with a line of eye-catching large characters: New arrival of Yangtze River knife fish, 2 catties or more, 4500 yuan per kilogram.

  Xiao Ping had long heard that the Yangtze River knife fish was expensive, but he didn't expect it to be this pricey. He rubbed his eyes hard to make sure he hadn't miscounted a zero or missed a decimal point, and then couldn't help muttering to himself: "4,500 yuan per kilogram - this is the kind of fish I want to raise!"

  After sighing, Xiao Ping walked into the store and pretended to look around for a while before asking the boss: "Boss, where is the Yangtze River knife fish?"

  The boss, a middle-aged man with a flat head, listened to Xiao Ping's words and carefully looked him up and down before asking: "Brother, are you new to this line of work?"

  "How did you find out?" Xiao Ping was very surprised.

  The boss smiled and pointed at the ice cabinet in front of Xiao Ping: "Isn't this it? You can't even recognize a knife fish, aren't you an outsider?"

  The boss's words made Xiao Ping smile awkwardly. He lowered his head and saw the legendary knife fish that cost thousands of yuan per kilogram, only to find that this fish had a slender body, was silver-white all over, and didn't seem to have anything special about it.

  "Today we received just over a dozen fish in the entire market." The boss promoted with great effort: "Each one weighs more than two catties, and 45 yuan is very cheap!"

  Xiao Ping gently shook his head and asked the boss tentatively: "Is there any work?"

  "Alive? You're kidding, right?" The boss was a chatterbox to begin with, and since there were no other customers in the store, he started chatting with Xiao Ping: "Knife fish are hot-tempered, once they're caught in a net, they'll struggle desperately, and will die soon after being taken out of water. I've been doing knife fish business for many years, but I've never seen a live one."

  The boss's words made Xiao Ping extremely disappointed, he took out a cigarette from his pocket and threw one to the other party, holding on to the last hope and asked: "So that means this knife fish can't be relied on for artificial cultivation?"

  The boss's eyes were sharp, and he immediately saw that Xiao Ping was taking out a pack of soft Zhonghua cigarettes. A few more smiles appeared on his face. He lit the cigarette and took a puff before slowly saying: "At present, all knife fish are wild, but I heard that Professor Song Tianming at Nan Da is studying the technology for artificial breeding of knife fish, and it seems to be almost successful."

  This boss has been doing the knife fish business for many years, and usually pays close attention to all news about knife fish. Now he's chatting with Xiao Ping, and they're getting along famously.

  However, the speaker was unintentional, but the listener was intentional. When Xiao Ping heard him mention Nan Da's name, he immediately felt a stir in his heart and thought to himself: "Isn't Little Chili Pepper from Nan Da? Maybe asking her about this will yield some results."

  "Thanks, boss!" With that, Xiao Ping didn't chat with the boss anymore, and casually tossed the entire pack of Zhonghua cigarettes to the other party before hastily leaving the store.

  Xiao Ping found a relatively quiet corner in the market and dialed Song Lei's phone number.

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  A new day has begun, continue to ask for votes and collections, thank you very much to everyone at Haima.

  Also: Thanks for two rewards from Peng Liang.