Cold Storage For The Greedy

In a crowded pier market, a deep-sea fleet owner has quietly kept wholesale prices low for local vendors, letting them run tabs through the Memorial Day rush. When he points at a sea bass to ask its price, the stall owner clubs the fish dead and demands a hundred dollars, then adds a fifty-dollar cleaning fee when the carcass lands at his feet. Carts block the aisle, and a group chat rallies the other vendors to seal the exits.

The Market Director waves off the security camera as broken and sides with the stall owner, while a chef and a woman in a red apron urge the visitor to pay and move on. The crowd brands him a rich outsider, and the Director threatens to hold him in the cold storage office if he keeps obstructing trade. The visitor, who had been feeding a pack of wolves, now weighs his own rules against theirs.