Chapter 84: Oyster Opening
Chapter 84: Oyster Opening
When Li's father saw him coming back, he waved at him. When he came closer, he looked at him sternly and said, "I heard from your mother that you wanted to open all the oysters to look for pearls. That's just nonsense!"
"I have been a fisherman for most of my life. When I was in the production cooperative, I also opened a lot of oysters, but I have never seen anyone open pearls..."
"Dad," Li Changle interrupted him and said with a smile, "Just because you didn't get it doesn't mean I can't get it! Mom also saw the pearls I got, and I got it just by eating an oyster."
Chen Yongwei, who followed him up, said hurriedly, "Uncle Tang, I can testify to this. Brother Le ate an oyster and the pearl came out."
"It's not that I don't believe you."
Father Li looked at Li Changle and saw that he was not like before. He would yell at him with a dark face if he didn't agree with what he wanted to do. So he softened his tone.
He said earnestly: "Ah Le, Dad tells you that it is a blessing from the Sea Dragon Lord to be able to open a bead.
You should open all the ones at home to see if there are any beads. Dad agrees, but next time you pry the ones out of the cave, don’t open them. Give them to the restaurant or sell them to Chenji. It’s up to you.”
Li Changle, who had never seen his father speak to him in a gentle and soft voice since he became an adult, felt a headache when he saw his father's expression. "Dad..."
Father Li raised his hand and said, "I know you said you can dry the oysters, but the weather is too humid now, so it's not very suitable to dry them. If we are unlucky and it rains, all the oysters will be soaked. It's better to sell them instead."
Li Changle thought for a moment and prepared to use a delaying tactic, "Dad, how about this, if we finish opening the box last night and still can't find the bead, I'll try to pry another hundred pounds back.
If I still can’t find the pearl, I’ll give up. As for the remaining oysters in the cave, Awei and I will pry dozens of kilograms of them every day and sell them to the restaurant.”
Father Li hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, I'll let you try again at most." Then he asked, "How many oysters are there in the cave?"
"They are all over the cliff. We can collect several thousand kilograms." Li Changle looked at him proudly, "Dad, have you seen those Buddha's hand snails?"
Father Li looked at his son who was so proud that he was cocky, and gave him a reproachful look, "It's not like I don't have eyes. Lord Hailong is willing to give you food, so work hard in the future.
As the old saying goes, a good woman does not wear her wedding dress, and a good man does not eat the meal of a divided family. With the money you earn yourself, you can build a new house and buy a big ship. No matter who sees you, they will look up to you. "
"Don't worry, I will work hard and earn money to build a new house and buy a big boat!" Li Changle said as he took out the trap containing the flat-tailed sea snake from the backpack.
"Look, Dad, we caught a sea snake. Let Mom kill a chicken and make dragon and phoenix soup for everyone at noon."
"A gray-blue sea snake this big can be sold for at least ten yuan if it's sent to a restaurant." Father Li said unhappily, "You are just a picky person. You want to eat all the good things."
Just when I thought he had really changed for the better and become sensible, his true colors were revealed in less than a minute.
“It’s not that I want to eat it, but you see Xiao Hai and Xiao Zhou have yellow hair, and An Nan is so thin, I want to stew it for them to nourish them.
Also, you were just injured, and Doctor Lin also said that you need to eat something good to increase your resistance, so that you will have the strength to help me get out of the boat in the future."
"During this period, your mother has boiled chicken and duck eggs for me to eat every day. Besides, I just ate pig's trotters yesterday. It won't take long for me to recover."
Seeing that he was still reluctant to eat, Li Changle approached him with a playful smile and said, "The money I earned yesterday is more than others can earn in a month. Isn't the purpose of making money to eat better, dress better, and live better?
If I make money but still eat salted fish and sweet potato porridge every day like before, what's the point of making money? Dad, if you are still as reluctant as before, it will dampen my enthusiasm for making money. "
Father Li looked at his son with a headache, fearing that he would become the same as before. "Okay, okay, as long as you earn money honestly, I don't care whether you drink dragon and phoenix soup or open pearls, it's up to you!"
"That's right!"
Father Li rolled his eyes at him and said, "Eat firewood!" Then he walked towards Li Changle's house with his crutches.
"Brother, I have sorted the catch. Should we kill the sea snakes when they come back?" Chen Yongwei asked as he came out with a trap.
"Well, I'll kill them when I get back. I'll go see if your sister-in-law has opened any pearls first." Li Changle walked into the house in two steps. "How many have you opened? Have you opened any pearls?"
Seeing his anxious look, Zhou Ruonan smiled and pointed at the oyster meat in the porcelain basin, "Only a dozen have been opened. How can you find it so quickly?"
Li Changle found her words very satisfying. He put down the backpack and said with a smile, "You're right. We only opened a dozen and found one with beads. We're going to be rich."
"You know that too!" Zhou Ruonan glanced at him with a smile, took a pair of scissors and inserted them into the pointed tail of the oyster. He turned the scissors to lift up the oyster shell, and a piece of jade-white oyster meat was revealed.
She pinched the oyster meat and shook her head at Li Changle who was looking at her eagerly, "No."
"Let me try opening one." Li Changle stepped forward, took the scissors, inserted the knife neatly, cut off the clam shell and pried open the oyster shell.
As soon as he pinched the oyster meat to feel it, Zhou Ruonan and Chen Yongwei looked at him eagerly, "Is there anything?"
Li Changle glanced at the two of them, pinched the oyster meat and felt it, shook his head at them, put the oyster meat in the porcelain basin, and picked up another one. After prying it open and feeling around, he still couldn't find it. "Damn it, I don't believe it. If I can't open one today, I won't leave."
Seeing his expression, Father Li couldn't help but sneer, "You didn't listen to the old man's advice, and now you're suffering. You've worked so hard to pry the oysters out, and now you have to dry them into dried oysters to sell. It would be much easier to just sell them directly."
Seeing that he didn't say anything, Zhou Ruonan said to Father Li, "Dad, the last time I went back to my mother's house, my mother said that the dried oysters she bought were not as good as the ones I sent her last time. They were not fresh when cooked into soup, and they were not sweet when cooked into porridge.
The oysters we found this time are good. We dried them and sent them to Lucheng and asked my mother to help us sell them. The price is more cost-effective than selling oysters. "
After Zhou's father was rehabilitated, the school paid both of their salaries to Zhou's mother and allowed her to continue working in the school cafeteria.
When the brother and sister-in-law saw that Zhou's mother not only got the back pay from the school but also got her job in the cafeteria back, they flattered her and brought their two children to her house to beg for forgiveness.
Zhou's mother would rather die than forgive her disobedient and cruel son and daughter-in-law. After driving them away, she didn't want to go back to work at school and simply applied for medical retirement.
When I have nothing to do, I grow some vegetables and sell them at my doorstep. My life is pretty leisurely.
After hearing this, Father Li said, "Then what your mother bought must be dried oyster meat that was boiled in oyster sauce and then dried in the sun. This kind of dried oyster meat is not directly opened and dried, but is fresh and sweet."
Grandma Chen: "An Nan, your mother likes to eat it, so dry it and send some to her."
"Thank you, grandma." Zhou Ruonan looked at Li Changle, "Ah Le, stop talking, hurry up and send the catch to the restaurant, it will be too late if you wait any longer."
"I'll open this and leave." After Li Changle opened an oyster and squeezed it twice, his eyes suddenly lit up, "There seems to be something in this piece of oyster meat!"
"Really?" Four pairs of eyes looked at him.
"Hmm!" Li Changle dug open the oyster meat and squeezed out a jade-like bead that was two circles larger than the one yesterday.
He proudly held the beads and handed them to Zhou Ruonan who was looking at him eagerly. He laughed and looked at Father Li, "Look, I said there is one!"
"Oh my god, it really opened!" Zhou Ruonan looked at the bead in her hand in surprise and said excitedly, "This bead is whiter, brighter, and more beautiful than the one last night!"
Chen Yongwei had an admiring look on his face, "My brother is so lucky. I opened several and none of them came out right."
"Let me see!" Father Li also took the beads excitedly, rubbed them on his clothes a few times, and looked at them in the sunlight.
Under the soft light of the morning sun, the beads refracted silver light. Looking closely towards the light, the whole bead was glossy and shiny, and its shape seemed to be made from a mold, round and without a single flaw.
"Great, great!" Father Li grinned and happily handed the beads to Grandma Chen who was looking at them eagerly. "I didn't expect that he would actually find it."
He turned around to look at his son who was grinning with a smug look on his face, and felt a little embarrassed when he thought about how he had just accused him of being a fool.
Li Changle looked at him with a smile, "I just felt that it was not worthwhile to sell such good oysters for only one or two dimes each, and I got another pearl, so I decided to take a gamble and opened them all. It seems that this gamble was right."
Father Li glanced at him with a smile in his eyes, "Okay, let's make a bet. If you want to gamble at the card table, I'll break your hand!"
Grandma Chen looked at the beads and smiled with wrinkles on her face, "Don't worry, A-Tang, A-Le knows what's going on. Luckily, A-Le didn't listen to us last night, otherwise the person who bought this oyster would have made a fortune."
"Look at them, they are so round and smooth, almost as round as sticky rice balls. If they were sold in the old days, one of these would have sold for at least ten silver dollars."
"Two hundred yuan?" Chen Yongwei's eyes lit up and he excitedly took the bead. "Grandma, do you mean this bead can be sold for two hundred yuan?"
Grandma Chen smiled and shook her head, "I don't know what it's like now? In the old days, those rich people had no shortage of money. As long as it was a good thing, they would buy it without blinking an eye."
Li Changle thought of the man who bought the cat shark at the Phoenix Restaurant, "There are many nouveau riche people nowadays, and they buy things without blinking an eye."
"Right, right, right!" Chen Yongwei also thought of it, "Brother, let's take the beads to ask Manager A Kun for help. What do you think?"
Before Li Changle could answer, Zhou Ruonan hurriedly pulled him back and said, "Ah Le, I think it's better not to take the beads out until all the oysters in the cave are pried back."
"I'll listen to you and not take it out." Li Changle had the same idea in mind.
Father Li nodded and said, "Ah Le, you and Ah Wei must not let any rumors spread. If someone hears, no matter where you two go to shop, people will follow you, all wanting to make a fortune on Taobao."
(End of this chapter)