Chapter 43: Abalone Pearl
The abalones that followed were all priced by the jin, but there was also a need to differentiate.
Five to six large abalones totaled 21 jin, priced at ten yuan per jin.
The smaller ones were all categorized together, totaling 43 jin, calculated at five yuan per jin.
Adding 68 jin of Duji Amberjack, because of their large size, Awang offered a price of fifty cents per jin.
Prawns weighed 23 jin, and Sea Centipedes weighed 15 jin.
Additionally, there were some scattered crabs they had collected, and that one Red Grouper fish. They took the Black Drum fish home to eat themselves.
All those miscellaneous items added up to several yuan.
In the end, the total came to 583.5 yuan.
“Uncle, are you not selling those sea urchins?”
Yun Jiao and Yun Liuliu shouted at the top of their lungs: “Not selling!”
Awang was speechless: “Alright, not selling, not selling.”
While Awang was calculating, Old Master Yun was also calculating.
After confirming, the entire family’s breathing quickened.
So much, so much money…
After giving them the bill, Yun Wang left with the abalones; he had to sell these items quickly.
“583.5 yuan, selling this much on my first trip out to sea, am I dreaming?”
Wang Mei mumbled, and finally pinched the person next to her.
Yun Linhe gasped in pain.
“What are you pinching me for!”
Wang Mei stared at his expression: “It’s not a dream, this is all real, we really earned over five hundred yuan!”
Granny Yun carefully put the bill away.
This auspicious start brought a relaxed smile to everyone in the family.
Yun Linhe said: “We didn’t expect there to be such a large patch of abalones on that small island.”
They excitedly talked about how they discovered the abalones on the island and how they found that big Duji Amberjack.
The few boys nearby listened with burning passion, wishing they could rush to the island right now.
“Dad, I want to go tomorrow too, I want to go collect abalones too!”
Yun Xiaowu immediately exclaimed: “I absolutely must go. If you don’t let me go, I’ll swim there myself!”
Yun Linhai’s face fell, he immediately took off his shoe and raised it to hit his son.
“You’re threatening your own father, are you!”
Yun Xiaowu darted away like a monkey.
“Anyway, I don’t care, I want to go out to sea too.”
Yun Xiaoqi turned his head to look at his father with sparkling eyes.
Yun Linhe also pulled out his shoe sole.
“You dare say another word?”
Yun Xiaoqi: “If Fifth Brother goes, I’ll go!”
After saying that, he ran off. The shoe Yun Linhe threw flew past his shoulder.
For a moment, the room was noisy and lively.
“Ah!!!”
Aunt suddenly let out a scream, startling Yun Jiao.
She looked up and saw Aunt staring at her, or rather, at the abalone in her hand, and let out a sharp cry.
“Jiaojiao, you… how do you still have one in your hand.”
And it was such a large one, this single abalone would be worth 18 yuan!
The gazes of others were also drawn over, and then they saw the large abalone Yun Jiao was holding.
Everyone: ……
Yun Jiao: “Mine.”
She hugged the abalone in her hand tightly.
“Not selling.”
Yun Linhai quickly said: “Jiaojiao found this, and I promised her she could keep it herself.”
Granny Yun felt a pang of heartache; that was 17 yuan.
“Eating this? If we want to eat, we can keep some small abalones.”
Eating such a large abalone was heartbreaking.
Yun Jiao didn’t care and ran to Yun Linhai’s side, holding the abalone.
“Dad, open it.”
Although it pained them, if Yun Jiao wanted it, everyone else had to endure the heartache.
Think positively, they sold over five hundred yuan today!
“Big Brother, Second Brother?”
Shen Yunlian tidied her hair: “The results of the medical examination are out, your Big Brother and Second Brother are going to see the results.”
“It’s open, Jiaojiao, do you want to eat it now?”
Yun Linhai handed her both the abalone and the abalone shell.
Yun Jiao shook her head and took out the abalone meat.
The inner wall of the abalone shell had a very beautiful and brilliant color, and the pearl formed was also similar in color to the inner wall.
“What is this?”
Yun Xiaowu’s head craned over, and he also saw something protruding from the inner wall of the abalone shell.
The others also gathered around.
Yun Jiao’s young voice was very certain: “A pearl.”
“A pearl?!!!”
The reason they didn’t recognize it was because it was nothing like the smooth, round shape a pearl was supposed to have.
In fact, pearls are not only round; because their formation processes differ, their shapes vary.
And in everyone’s perception, round pearls were the best.
Inside the abalone shell that Yun Jiao was holding, there was an irregularly shaped pearl, with a part of it embedded in the inner wall of the abalone shell.
“Take this out and let’s see.”
Yun Xiaowu rolled up his sleeves: “I’ll do it!”
Yun Linhai: “You? You don’t know how to be gentle.”
In the end, Yun Linhai did it. He carefully used a small knife to extract the irregularly shaped pearl.
“This looks like a fish tail?”
The overall shape of the pearl was a particularly beautiful fish tail, with a large tail fin, fanned out in a petal shape, with rippling waves.
Both its color and shape were exceptionally beautiful.
The color was a peacock green with a hint of blue.
“Is this also a pearl? It’s so beautiful.”
Shen Yunlian and Wang Mei, the two women in the family, were deeply captivated.
It was rare for women not to like pearls.
Even though it wasn’t a round pearl, it didn’t affect its beauty at all.
Yun Jiao herself quite liked it.
“Wait… there are pearls inside abalones too?”
Once they realized, everyone was dumbfounded.
They had never heard of pearls being produced inside abalones.
Even Old Master Yun and Old Madam Yun had never heard of it.
Wang Mei: “Then, could there be pearls inside the other abalones we sold?”
If there really were, how much had they missed out on?
These pearls were very valuable.
Old Master Yun was calmer: “What are you thinking? Are you going to get all the good fortune?”
“We’ve heard of Flame Pearls, but abalone pearls, in all my years, I’ve never heard of anyone mentioning them. What does this mean? It means this is rare.”
Yun Linhe quickly nodded: “Father is right. The boss who bought our Flame Pearls before said that only one Flame Pearl might be found in ten thousand conch shells.
Pearls from abalones are something I’ve never even heard of, which shows how much harder it is to get pearls from them. Should we really open all the abalones for an uncertain pearl? Then not only will there be no pearls, but we won’t even sell the abalones for a good price, that would be a huge loss.”
He didn’t dare to gamble on that slim chance.
Wang Mei also calmed down upon hearing this.
“Yes, maybe there are no pearls in the other abalones.”
They couldn’t help but look at Yun Jiao.
“It’s our Jiaojiao who has good luck, finding a pearl in an abalone. Last time, the Flame Pearl was also found in the conch shell that Jiaojiao picked up. Isn’t our Jiaojiao Mazu’s own daughter?”
“It’s good that she kept it, otherwise this pearl would have gone to someone else.”
At this moment, no one felt sorry for the abalone Yun Jiao had kept.
