Li Xiangdong handed the four pearls he had extracted to Zhao Sufang and put them away carefully.

He didn't intend to give the bead to his mother to make a necklace. Although wild river beads are not as precious as sea beads, a perfectly round, light pink bead with a strong luster like this could definitely fetch a good price.

After that, whether he started a business or planned ahead to purchase real estate, he needed a lot of money as a foundation.

Li Ping had the deepest obsession with pearls. She carefully selected a river mussel that looked the most perfect and was just like the pearl that Li Xiangdong had just opened, and couldn't wait to start cutting it.

"Xiaoping, be careful with the knife, don't cut your hand!" Seeing her anxious and agitated state, Li Xiangdong quickly reminded her, lest she cut her finger before the pearl was even opened.

Li Ping exerted tremendous effort to finally cut open the closed muscle, and then forcefully pried open the clam.

Seeing Li Ping's face flushed red and beads of sweat streaming down his face, Li Xiangdong couldn't help but laugh. "Xiao Wu, you've ruined perfectly good scallops."

"Shh!" Li Ping said with a serious little face, telling everyone to be quiet and not scare her pearls away!

Everyone held their breath as they watched Li Ping slowly touch the hem of her skirt.

It was flat, still flat, and Li Ping grew increasingly disappointed.

Suddenly, Li Ping touched a round bump!

What is this?!

Li Ping's eyes lit up, and he energetically imitated Li Xiangdong's technique, squeezing out the protruding area.

It's a white, teardrop-shaped pearl!

Although it's not as round as the ones Li Xiangdong just drew, this teardrop shape is still very beautiful, and it has a strong luster after being washed.

According to modern standards, Li Ping's bead is an irregularly shaped bead.

Of course, since the formation of pearls is affected by many factors, the industry classification standard divides pearls into: perfectly round, round, near-round, oval, flat, and baroque. The closer a pearl is to a perfectly round pearl, the fewer there are, and the higher its price.

By this standard, Li Xiangdong's four pearls are definitely worth much more than Li Ping's pearl.

However, Li Ping's pearl exudes a strong luster from the inside out. If another similar pearl could be made and used to make a pair of earrings, it would be worth a lot of money.

Li Ping searched for a long time, eventually tearing the clam meat to shreds, but still couldn't find any other pearls.

Li Ping sighed in disappointment, and Li Xiangdong comforted her, "This is not bad. It's good that it can produce such a big teardrop-shaped bead with such a perfect color and such a strong luster."

“But this one is white, not as pretty as your little pink bead, and it’s not round either,” Li Ping said, somewhat dissatisfied.

“The pearls worn by the emperor and his wife in the past were extremely precious and not allowed to be worn by ordinary people. Those pearls were wild river pearls produced in places like the Heilongjiang, Ussuri, and Yalu Rivers. Even such precious pearls are not all round. With your appearance, at least a concubine could wear them.”

Li Xiangdong loves watching "Empresses in the Palace" and is a loyal fan of Sun Li, so he knows a little about some of the clothing and decorations from the Qing Dynasty!

"Is that so? Is that so!"

The group of people were completely fooled by Li Xiangdong.

"Second brother, how do you know so much?" Li Jiabao asked.

"Well, of course, I learned it from a book!" Li Xiangdong certainly couldn't say that he learned it from a TV series.

"I don't believe it, there's nothing about it in the book!" Li Jiabao refused to believe it.

“Xinhua Bookstore has it in their books, of course your textbook doesn’t,” Li Xiangdong argued.

Speaking of Xinhua Bookstore, Li Jiabao had never been there and couldn't refute his brother's statement. Li Xiangdong breathed a sigh of relief, but Ning Ruoruo looked at him strangely. Xinhua Bookstore didn't have any books about emperors and empresses!

This Li Xiangdong is quite interesting!

Next, Li Jiabao opened the clams. Li Jiabao followed Li Ping's example and asked everyone to be quiet, but after most of the day, they didn't find a single one.

Disappointed, Li Jiabao fed the clam meat to his family's big yellow dog.

Li Xiangdong helped Li Zhen and Ning Ruoruo open the clams, but they found nothing. Fortunately, the clams' closing muscles were intact and hadn't been damaged.

This result made Li Ping happy again. As the saying goes, happiness comes from the contrast with others. Although she couldn't compare to her second brother, she was still second place, which was much better than her fourth sister and the other air force officers!

Li Jiabao didn't dare to mess with Li Xiangdong, so he kept pestering Li Ping to let him see the beads. Li Ping wouldn't give them to him, so the two of them kept chasing and playing around in the yard, and the whole yard was filled with their laughter.

Ning Ruoruo helped Li Zhen put the clams into a bucket after they were opened, and then carried it to a place far away from the village to throw them away. These things were too fishy and attracted mosquitoes and flies.

Don't be fooled by this mountain of river mussels; the amount of mussel meat that comes out is only enough for a small basin, and the closure muscles are even less. If it's made into dried scallops, there will be even less.

Li Xiangdong now understands why dried scallops are so expensive—they're produced in small quantities!

Zhao Sufang washed the river clam meat five or six times with clean water until there were no impurities left. She then brought it into the house, blanched it in boiling water, and rinsed it with cold water.

River clam meat is thick and meaty, especially the skirt, which is usually tough to chew even after cooking. This is why people don't like to eat river clam meat. However, Li Xiangdong has a little trick: he uses the back of a knife to thin the skirt and then cuts it into thin strips. This makes it easier to absorb the flavors and chew after cooking.

At the request of Li Xiangdong and the other children, Zhao Sufang stir-fried half of the shredded river clam meat with shredded red chili peppers and chopped chives, and made a clam and tofu soup with the other half of the shredded river clam meat and tofu.

Stir-fried shredded river clams is simple; Zhao Sufang has made stir-fried pork with chili peppers before, so she knows how to make this. However, she has never made or eaten clam and tofu soup.

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