Seizing the opportunity by farming softshell turtles, a down-and-out middle-aged man leads over a hundred farming households to prosperity together

He had been farming softshell turtles for over ten years, stumbling along without making much money, and on top of that, his wife passed away. By middle age, he had lost his confidence in life. Coming out of the trough, reflecting on himself, he went through many hardships and finally raised softshell turtles that satisfied him. How did Liu Xingquan from Sichuan crack the problem, getting his softshell turtles into supermarkets across many places in Sichuan, with annual sales reaching nearly 10 million yuan?

Liu Xingquan: Do you want one glove?

Reporter: Okay, one please.

Liu Xingquan: One is enough.

On September 23, 2015, Liu Xingquan was in a hurry to move his softshell turtles that day. Within a single day, he had to redistribute the more than 8,000 softshell turtles in this pond into different ponds according to their size.

Liu Xingquan: Here, I'll grab two. Look, this softshell turtle is 100 grams, and this one is probably 400 grams.

Reporter: Were they put in here in the same year?

Liu Xingquan: Yes, they were all put into this pond in the same year, all hatched from their shells in the same year.

Reporter: Why is the difference so big?

Liu Xingquan: It's like this: the big ones grab food aggressively, and the small ones never get to eat, so it has come to this situation, the big ones are very big and the small ones are very small. The most troublesome thing is that the big ones will eat the small ones. The weak are prey to the strong. Look at this big one, it can handle it easily, one claw and that's it.

Liu Xingquan wanted to lead the workers to first scoop up all the large and small softshell turtles, and then have dedicated people sort them by size. Liu Xingquan's practice of separating the softshell turtles he had raised for two years by size could let the small ones grow better and increase profits by 30%.

Liu Xingquan: In this work we're doing now, we separate out the big ones. The big ones go to a new pond, all the same size, and the small ones can eat steadily. After one year, next year the small ones will be this big.

Besides large and small softshell turtles, during the catching process, the reporter also noticed that sometimes the workers would throw the softshell turtles they caught into another pond. What was going on?

Reporter: Are you not keeping it? Not putting it in the net bag.

Liu Xingquan: This one goes in the commodity pond. This one is even bigger than the big ones. It was just too lucky and wasn't caught several times, so next time it will stay and its offspring will grow together with it.

Reporter: I see splashes in the water.

Liu Xingquan: Seeing splashes is exactly right.

The reporter saw that the workers seemed to catch softshell turtles very easily, and also wanted to square up, push aside the water hyacinths, and give it a try. But as soon as the reporter made a move, it turned into trouble.

Liu Xingquan: Careful, careful. Ten centimeters more and you'd be in the water, ten centimeters more and you'd be in the water. Be careful, be careful.

Just then, suddenly everyone told the camera reporter to hurry over and film this scene.

Employee: Come, come, come.

Liu Xingquan: It's all softshell turtles inside, do you see that?

Reporter: Where? Where?

Liu Xingquan: All softshell turtles. Hurry and grab them, you all hurry and grab them.

Reporter: It's all softshell turtle heads, one after another. Why are there so many softshell turtles?

Liu Xingquan: After the softshell turtles get startled, they keep pushing forward hard, and when they reach this edge they pile up. There are probably over a thousand softshell turtles in here.

Reporter: Over a thousand in just this tiny spot?

Liu Xingquan: They're everywhere.

Cameraman: Put some strength into it, grab five or six at once, see if you can pull them up.

Reporter: I can, absolutely can. Look, right in this small patch. It pinched my flesh.

Liu Xingquan: It's fine, it's nothing, no problem. This softshell turtle is not poisonous, don't worry. It just hurts a little.

Reporter: This is the tooth mark from the softshell turtle.

Liu Xingquan: It left you a souvenir, it just gave you a little kiss.

After bustling about for half a day, Liu Xingquan smoothly moved the softshell turtles to their new home. Having farmed softshell turtles for more than twenty years, Liu Xingquan was already thoroughly familiar with doing this. Now his softshell turtles sell in large supermarkets across many places in Sichuan, with annual sales of nearly 10 million yuan.

But in 2006, when his second wife Li Jianhua met Liu Xingquan, he was at the lowest point of his life. At that time, Liu Xingquan had lost money farming softshell turtles, and his wife had also passed away from illness.

Liu Xingquan: Everything I looked at had no color, everything looked gray. If it weren't for the twins below, I was ready to go with her, because without her life had no meaning anymore.

To treat his wife's illness, Liu Xingquan spent all his savings and even owed more than 100,000 yuan in debt. It was precisely this that moved Li Jianying.

Wife Li Jianying: This person is relatively down-to-earth and willing to work hard, and he treats his wife and children well. As long as his wife's illness could be cured, he could pay any price, so I felt he did this very well.

Liu Xingquan's loyalty and devotion not only helped him win her heart, but also helped him get through a life-and-death crisis in business in the future. At that time Liu Xingquan had lost hope in life, and with no heart for business, he did not even go to the farm once for half a year. Li Jianying encouraged Liu Xingquan to return to the farm. Not only that, after learning that Liu Xingquan lacked funds, Li Jianying also sold her original beauty salon business and raised more than 100,000 yuan for Liu Xingquan to keep things running.

Liu Xingquan: At the time the comfort was still very great, because when a person is at a low point, it's like when a person is coldest, even a little bit of clothing makes you feel very warm.

His partner's care helped Liu Xingquan regain his confidence. He reflected on and summed up his previous experience in farming softshell turtles, and felt that the reason he had been in the softshell turtle business for over ten years with ups and downs but had not made much money was related to his always blindly following trends.

Liu Xingquan: When I first started raising softshell turtles, they were all open-air softshell turtles, and everyone could still make some money. Later, when others did greenhouse softshell turtles, I also went to do greenhouse softshell turtles, and I could also make a little money, but it was very short-lived. After one or two years, that market was gone. If you always follow behind others, you can't make money.

This is the Heilongtan Reservoir in Sichuan Province. In 2007, Liu Xingquan heard that the Heilongtan fishing team had caught quite a few softshell turtles that had grown for many years. Regardless of the high price of more than 200 yuan per jin, he bought more than 100,000 yuan worth of softshell turtles in one go. He wanted to use these softshell turtles as female parents and crossbreed them with male softshell turtles from elsewhere, no longer farming in greenhouses but switching to outdoor pond farming. After three years of waiting, Liu Xingquan's softshell turtles finally grew to maturity. He hoped that this change in farming breed and farming method would let him make a great fortune turnaround. In September 2010, during the first pond clearing and catching, Liu Xingquan was very excited, because he found that the crossbred softshell turtles were large and full of wildness, very different from greenhouse softshell turtles.

Liu Xingquan: What's most intuitive is the color. Greenhouse softshell turtles grow in dark indoor spaces, so their body color is black. These grew in a natural environment, so they are yellow. Turn it over and look, the flower pattern on the inside has not fully faded. The softshell turtles we hatch are small, and all have flower patterns on their belly.