"Hey, little bro."
The voice of Uncle Chen Kingdom drifted in from outside the door.
There had once been quite a few siblings in their generation, but times were brutal back then, and only three survived — Chen Jun was the youngest, with his elder brother Chen Kingdom above him and their second sister Chen Rong.
Chen Rong had married and moved away, leaving just the two brothers in the village to lean on each other.
"Big bro."
Chen Jun jumped up to greet him. "You eaten yet?"
"Yeah, already ate."
Chen Kingdom walked with a slight limp — his left leg couldn’t bear much weight, the result of a fall at a construction site a few years back. What made it worse was that he’d been hurt saving Chen Jun, and that guilt had weighed on Chen Jun ever since.
It was part of the reason Chen Jun had stayed in the village.
Partly because Tang Ying worried, and partly to keep an eye on his big brother — someone had to make sure nobody took advantage of him.
"Uncle, come sit and have some tea."
Chen Yuan dragged over two stools and brought out two cups of tea.
"Sure, sure."
Chen Kingdom took the cup with a smile. "When’d you get back?"
"Got in around two this afternoon."
Chen Yuan pulled out a pack of cigarettes, offered one to Chen Kingdom and one to Chen Jun, then parked himself on the doorstep with one dangling from his lips, taking long, satisfied drags.
In a village like this, all you needed for a long visit was a stool and a cup of tea.
The two brothers chatted about all sorts of things before the conversation finally turned to the fish pond.
"Yuan, your dad’s already told me about the fishing spot idea. Don’t think I’m being nosy, but I have to ask — are you really sure about this?" Chen Kingdom looked at Chen Yuan with a serious expression.
"Yeah."
Chen Yuan stood up right away and gave a firm nod.
He knew his uncle wasn’t trying to back out of anything — he genuinely cared. The two families were close like that. If it were just business, they wouldn’t be sitting here talking; they’d have gone straight to negotiating a price.
Whether you lose money is your problem. As long as I don’t lose, I’m fine.
"Alright, you can have my pond for your fishing spot."
Chen Kingdom didn’t push further. He’d already said everything he needed to say to Chen Jun. If his nephew had made up his mind, the only thing left for an uncle to do was support him.
"Thanks, Uncle."
Chen Yuan felt a wave of relief — the pond was finally secured. "Uncle, what’s the situation in the pond right now?"
"I had it dug to just over three meters deep. Three-layer mixed stocking — four hundred silver carp, four hundred bighead carp, three hundred grass carp, three hundred bream, and crucian carp are the most, about a thousand of those."
Chen Kingdom took a sip of tea and continued matter-of-factly, "I bought slightly larger fingerlings. I do one harvest at the end of every year, so right now there’s probably only around seven thousand jin."
Chen Yuan nodded along.
That was pretty standard fish farming — controlled numbers, multiple species mixed together.
"Big bro, I’ll pay you the wholesale market rate for the fish in the pond. Here, take this." Chen Jun pulled out a thick stack of cash — looked to be around fifty thousand yuan.
Seeing the money, Chen Yuan figured it out — his old man had gone to the bank in the afternoon.
He would’ve liked to pay himself, but he didn’t have enough on him.
"What do you mean, money? My nephew’s starting something up — as his uncle I’ve got to pitch in somehow. Besides, the fish are still in the pond. Wait until you’re making money, then we’ll talk." Chen Kingdom waved it off.
The youngest brother’s family wasn’t exactly flush with cash. Handing over that much all at once — how were they supposed to get by?
Chen Kingdom probably still wasn’t convinced the fishing spot would work out, but either way, the fish weren’t going anywhere. Even if it failed, he wouldn’t be out much — he could consider it his contribution to his nephew’s first venture.
"Big bro, even between brothers we keep things straight. You’ve been raising those fish for years — giving you wholesale price is already a deal in your favor. You’re taking this money no matter what." Chen Jun pressed the cash into Chen Kingdom’s hands.
"Uncle, just take it. If you don’t, my dad won’t let me go ahead with any of this. And like you said — the fish are in the pond. If the fishing spot doesn’t pan out, we can always sell them." Chen Yuan added.
His dad was right — even as things stood, they were already getting a bargain. A ready-made pond stocked with fish was saving them an enormous amount compared to starting from nothing.
"Alright, alright. I’ll hold onto it for now, but if you ever need anything, you say the word." Chen Kingdom finally accepted.
"Uncle, is there a leasing contract for the pond?"
Chen Yuan stepped forward and offered him a light.
"What contract? It’s the village pond — why wouldn’t village folk be able to use it? Who’d waste money on something like that? Not necessary."
Chen Kingdom lit the cigarette, took a drag, and waved a hand at Chen Yuan. "At harvest time, just drop a few fish off at each household. That’s enough."
That was just how it worked in the village. The pond belonged to everyone, so if someone wanted to use it, they used it. Nobody expected payment for that sort of thing.
And having someone raising fish in the village was handy — when friends or relatives came to visit, you could pull out a couple of fish for dinner. Cheap and convenient. Nobody was going to go out of their way to draw up a formal lease agreement.
"We’re all villagers here. No need for all that." Chen Jun agreed — it seemed unnecessary.
"Dad, we can’t look at it that way."
Chen Yuan shook his head. "The pond is collective property. Keeping it small and casual is fine, but if the fishing spot actually takes off, what do we do when people in the village start getting ideas?"
The pond was only about two mu — not big. Leasing it officially would cost a few hundred yuan a year at most, something the village committee had probably never even considered collecting. And since no one else had raised a fuss, nothing had ever been formalized.
But that was all premised on the fact that Uncle was only clearing a few thousand yuan a year — and in a bad year with disease or die-offs, he might not even break even.
Under those circumstances, nobody — villagers or village committee — had any reason to care.
But with the system behind it, the profits from this fishing spot were going to blow everyone’s expectations out of the water. When that happened, who could guarantee the villagers wouldn’t start grumbling?
Without a contract in hand, the village committee could pull the plug at any time.
"You’re getting ahead of yourself."
Chen Jun took a sip from his cup. He understood what Chen Yuan was getting at, but they hadn’t even started yet — who knew whether the fishing spot would amount to anything.
"I think Yuan has a point."
Chen Kingdom actually sided with him. "A fish pond and a commercial fishing spot are two different things. Better to get the paperwork sorted out properly. That way, no matter how things go, nobody can say a word."
"Fair enough. It’s still early — I’ll head over to the village committee and have a word."
Chen Jun set down his cup. He could see the sense in doing things by the book — the more formal and serious they were about it, the more it showed his son meant business. And if the boy was serious, then he naturally hoped it would succeed.
"Dad, hold on — I’m coming with you."
Chen Yuan ducked inside to grab a pack of Hua cigarettes, then headed out with Chen Jun toward the village committee office. Opening a fishing spot in the village meant dealing with certain people — there was no getting around it.
He could use his dad’s connections to get a foot in the door, but he couldn’t rely on his dad for everything.
Chen Kingdom’s leg made it hard to get around, and that much cash lying around wasn’t something you wanted to advertise, so he stayed behind.
The village committee was only a few hundred meters away — one turn off the main road and you were there. Within a few minutes, the two of them were standing outside the village secretary’s office.
"Well, hey — Jun! What brings you here?"
Chen Wenbin had been leaning back in his office chair, but the moment he spotted them he sat up straight. "And is that little Yuan? When’d you get back?"
"Hey, Uncle Bin. Got back around midday."
Chen Yuan greeted him with a smile and casually slipped a cigarette from the pack of Hua, handing one to Chen Wenbin and lighting one for his dad too. Then he stepped back and let the adults do the talking — he’d come along to back his father up, but this was his dad’s conversation to lead.
Chen Wenbin glanced down at the Hua cigarette in his hand. His dark eyes flickered briefly, and then he set it on the desk.
That was an interesting move.
Taken but not taken. Let’s hear what you’ve got to say first.
"Secretary Chen, we’ve actually got a small matter we were hoping you could help us with." After a bit of small talk, Chen Jun got to the point.
"Go ahead."
Chen Wenbin laced his fingers together and rested them on the desk, settling into the composed, all-business expression of a man ready to hear a proposal.