Chapter 339 Parents come to visit relatives on the island

Xia Juanjuan put some mother-of-pearl oysters into the sea, and then observed them. It turned out that it takes two to three years for small scallop seedlings to grow and mature to the stage where pearls can be grown, which is about two to three months in space.

The pearl cultivation period can also be shortened to one to three months. Some larger pearls may even take four to five years to grow in reality, but in the summer, the growth period is naturally shortened to about four to five months.

Moreover, the pearls grown in her space are nucleus-less and almost like wild pearls.

In the past, I often heard about scallops forming pearls. It was said that sand fell into the scallop when it opened, and in order to relieve the pain, it spit out mucus to wrap the pearls.

Wild nucleus-free pearls are usually caused by this reason. Such pearls have to go through a slow growth period, which usually takes four years or more.

This is a world of difference from the nucleus-filled pearls sold in the live broadcasts of opening clams and selling pearls that Xia Juanjuan often saw on short video platforms before she traveled through time.

The quality of a pure wild marine pearl is of course also important to consider, but the price is generally several times, even dozens or even hundreds of times, that of a farmed pearl with a nucleus.

Moreover, nucleus-less pearls can be ground into powder, which is used as a material for skin care products, and is also a precious Chinese medicinal material.

In short, once it is released in the future, it can be used in many aspects.

There are not many mother-of-pearl oysters here, so Xia Juanjuan got a dozen or so and put them in the space to keep them for the time being.

By autumn, the pearl oysters were mature. Xia Juanjuan took advantage of the open shells to sprinkle a grain of sand into each pearl oyster. The shells closed immediately, probably because they were hurt.

However, Xia Juanjuan was still quite cold-blooded and didn't feel sorry at all.

Two months later, when the Chinese New Year was approaching, Xia Juanjuan picked up two scallops, opened them and took a look. Small pearls about 6 to 7 mm in size had grown inside the two scallops. The color was also light purple, with a strong fluorescent glow, and they were very round.

Xia Juanjuan was very happy.

What woman doesn’t like such natural jewelry?

Xia Juanjuan did not open the remaining seven or eight scallops. 6 to 7 mm is still a little small, and the pearl-cultivating time is not enough, so she will wait for a few more months, wait for four or five months, and then open them to take a look.

However, even though it was only about half a year, Xia Juanjuan still felt that it was too long.

No wonder real pearl jewelry is so expensive. Even if it is cultivated, it takes several years for a pearl to mature, which is really labor-intensive.

Moreover, there was another problem. She originally thought that the state-owned fishery on Emerald Island cultivated pearls, but later found out that there was no such thing. After all, the sea area here is too cold in winter and is not suitable for pearl oysters to overwinter.

Therefore, even if she wanted to get more scallop seedlings to grow in the space, there were not many here.

Xia Juanjuan was planning to go to the southern waters to buy some scallop seedlings and also learn how to cultivate scallop seedlings in space.

In this way, even if it takes a long time to cultivate pearls in space, as long as there are sufficient quantities, the production volume can be increased.

She hasn't decided what specific business she wants to develop in the future, but she has to prepare the raw materials first.

However, the weather is still cold now, so Xia Juanjuan plans to wait until spring to go.

Time flies, and a year has passed since Fu Nanzheng and Yue Sizhu got married.

Except for the fact that Wu Tiezhu and Wu Yun were domineering and engaged in espionage at the beginning, after they were arrested, the Emerald Island Fishing Ground elected an old local fisherman as the director.

The old fishermen are warm and honest people. Although those working in the fishing grounds all wear hats on their heads or have poor family backgrounds, the old fishermen treat them equally and treat them the same as the fishermen from the main island. If anyone discriminates against or bullies them, they will stop it.

Therefore, the Yue family's life became much better. In addition, Xia Juanjuan would secretly send some things over from time to time, and Fu Nanzheng would also send packages over every now and then and ask Xia Juanjuan to pass them on. At least their food and clothing were several times better than in the previous years.

My father-in-law and mother-in-law have also recovered a lot in health and even gained some weight.

Yue Sizhu was worried about her parents, so she stayed on the island, and she and Fu Nanzheng were in a situation of separation.

However, because Xia Juanjuan was there, the two were still able to exchange letters, and Xia Juanjuan became a frequent visitor to the post office, going there almost every week, and even the couriers at the post office knew her.

Xia Juanjuan was embarrassed to have someone deliver letters, parcels and remittance slips to her every now and then, so she would either pick a few cucumbers and tomatoes grown in the yard and give them to the postman every time, or send some tofu, bean sprouts or mackerel that she made herself, just to trouble the person to run errands for her.

However, Yue Sizhu also knows how to be grateful.

I asked someone to help me buy wool yarn from the supply and marketing cooperative on land, and I knitted sweaters for the six little kids in my family.

Xia Juanjuan accepted it without hesitation.

After this, they are relatives and it is best to reciprocate.

She also didn't make people feel grateful and keep thinking that they owed her something. Otherwise, over time, they would become distant.

In the spring of 1977, the sea breeze was blowing, and the ship that regularly traveled between the island and the mainland docked at the pier.

Xia Juanjuan and Li Zhan were waiting at the dock with their six kids.

Watching the boat approach the shore, Xiaowen suddenly pointed at the people on the deck excitedly and said, "Mom! Fourth uncle! It's grandpa and grandma! And third uncle!"

As he spoke, he shook his hands vigorously and shouted, "Grandpa! Grandma! Third uncle!"

When Xiao Wu Beibei and the triplets saw him, they all excitedly waved their hands and shouted, "Grandpa! Grandma! Third uncle!"

The wolf cub has grown in size. It is a black-backed wolf with a large patch of black hair on its back and yellow-brown hair elsewhere. Although it is much bigger than the triplets it grew up with, it still plays and stays close to its little masters like it did when they were children, and is very loyal.

At this time, it also ran excitedly around Xia Juanjuan Lizhan and a few cubs. From time to time, it ran to the shore, looked at the people on the boat, and ran back excitedly, as if it still remembered Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru who had fed them when it was young.

Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru on the boat heard Xia Juanjuan's fierce battle with the kids on the shore, and their eyes suddenly became hot and they waved their hands vigorously.

Lin Yuru even lifted up the corner of her clothes to wipe away her tears.

Xia Shuangshan said, "Why are you crying? When you couldn't see your daughter and grandchildren, you kept talking about them. Now that you finally see them, you're crying again."

Upon hearing this, Fu Nanzheng quickly smiled and said, "Uncle Xia, don't talk about my Aunt Ru. I haven't seen her for such a long time that my nose is aching. You haven't seen Juanjuan and the kids for more than a year, right?"

Lin Yuru glanced at Xia Shuangshan, wiped her tears, and said, "Isn't it? When Lizhan and Juan'er set out to the island, it was the winter of the year before last. Yanyan, Yeye, and Yaoyao just celebrated their third birthday, and now... they are already four and a half years old!"

As he spoke, he couldn't help shedding tears.

It is easy to be sentimental when people get old. When she and Xia Shuangshan sent them off to the island, the triplets, who were not even as tall as her knees, hugged her and Xia Shuangshan's legs one by one, two by three, and cried and refused to get on the train.

The wolf cub was only a tiny one, and it circled around the two of them, sobbing and looking back every few steps before it walked away.

Now looking at the shore from a distance, the triplets have grown a lot taller, and the wolf cub has grown into a big dog!

The boat finally docked, and Fu Nanzheng helped Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru get off the boat.

"Grandpa! Grandma! Third uncle! We missed you so much!" The triplets and Xiaowen, Xiaowu and Beibei all rushed over like little birds and hugged them.

The wolf cub also barked excitedly, and then made a sobbing sound as if it was wronged and sad.

Lin Yuru couldn't stop crying again, and Xia Shuangshan's voice became incoherent.

"Hey! Xiaowen, Xiaowu, Beibei, and Yanyan, Yeye, and Yaoyao, you have grown a lot taller! You miss grandpa so much!"

As he spoke, Xia Shuangshan had already hunched his back, trying hard to pick up Yaoyao.

Lin Yuru knew that she was old now and her legs and feet were not as flexible as before. She was also afraid that they would fall if she held them in her arms, so she just held Xiaowen's hand and wiped her tears vigorously: "Hey! Grandma misses you too! Did you listen to your parents?"

As he spoke, he touched the wolf cub's head and said, "Ah! The wolf cub has grown so big! It looks like he still remembers me!"

The wolf cub, now big and vigorous, seemed to have returned to his childhood more than a year ago, and rubbed Lin Yuru gently with his head.

Fu Nanzheng lifted Yeye up and put him on his neck, saying with a smile, "Little boy, I haven't seen you for a few months, and you have gained a lot of weight. You are like a little pig."

Fu Nanzheng comes here every six months to see his wife, so it is a common occurrence.

Li Zhan said with a smile: "Dad, Mom, Third Brother, you are finally here. Juanjuan has been waiting at the dock since the day before yesterday."

Xia Juanjuan glared at him, feeling that he was exposing her shortcomings, and then asked with a smile: "Did you have a smooth journey? Dad, Mom, you guys are not seasick, are you?"

Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru laughed and said, "No, I'm not dizzy! This is our first time on a boat! I saw some of the people who came here with us were dizzy and had vomiting and diarrhea. I felt sorry for them!"

This was the first time for both of them to travel so far. In the past, they could only go to the county town by ox cart.

This time, it was Xia Juanjuan who decided to take Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru to live on the island. She wrote a letter to tell them and asked Fu Nanzheng to bring them along when he came.

Fu Nanzheng went to the village personally and escorted the two elders all the way to the county town by ox cart, and then they took a train to Beijing, and from Beijing they took a special car to Shenyang, Lianshi, and then they took a boat here.

We all went home together.

Xia Shuangshan smiled and said, "This trip has really opened my eyes. I used to think that the mountain behind our village was high and big enough, but I didn't expect that there are such high mountains all the way north by train! The train even passes through the mountains! And now there is the sea! Sigh... I never thought I would see such a scenery in my life!"

Xia Juanjuan couldn't help laughing: "Dad, this is nothing. In the future, when the kids are older, I will take you to travel around the country."

"Tourism? What is tourism?" Lin Yuru asked puzzledly.

Xia Juanjuan was stunned for a moment before she remembered that the word "tourism" was not a commonly used word in that era. Everyone still needed to get a letter of introduction when traveling and a letter of acceptance when arriving at the destination.

She smiled and said, "It means... walking around and taking a look."

Lin Yuru half-understood: "Oh, how many letters of introduction would we need? No one in the country would accept us."

Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "Mom, don't worry about this. Things will work out when the time comes. There will always be a way."

As he spoke, he had already brought Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru into the yard.

Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru looked around the yard and said with a smile, "This yard is nice. It's similar to the yard in our Qingshui Village."

Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "It's almost the same. There are many rooms in the house, so you and my dad will have a place to live in the future."

This time, Xia Juanjuan brought Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru over, intending to let them live there permanently.

More than half a year after coming to the island, that is, not long after Fu Nanzheng and Yue Sizhu got secretly married, she and Yue Sizhu took the triplets back to Beijing City, and later returned to Qingshui Village.

Xiaowen, Xiaowu and Beibei were not brought back with them because they had to go to school.

It took me seven or eight days to go back and forth that time. Fortunately, Yue Sizhu helped to look after me, so I was relatively safe.

However, after that, every three to five months, Xia Juanjuan would go back directly through space.

Leaving her children in the care of her neighbors, she teleported directly to the county town and asked Xia Shuangshan to pick her up. She would stay for half a day or a day and then leave. This way, the travel time could be shortened to a round trip on the same day or less.

This is also a helpless act.

Li Zhan is very busy and it is impossible for him to take a week or two off to accompany her back. It is not safe for her to take the kids back with her without anyone to take care of them on the way back.

Go back alone. The children are still young. It’s okay to leave them with neighbors for half a day or a day or two. It would be embarrassing to leave them longer than that.

If you use space, you can avoid the trouble of traveling, and the time is short and you don’t have to worry about the children being left unattended.

However, as a result, every time they went back, even though Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru didn't say it, Xia Juanjuan could see that they missed their grandchildren in their hearts.

Xia Juanjuan then thought of bringing them to live on the island.

The college entrance examination will be resumed in the winter of this year, so she will definitely go back to Beijing in half a year at most.

Because I thought the time would not be long, even if Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru were not used to living here, it would only take half a year at most, and then I would go back. I could just think of it as bringing them here for a trip.

The weather here is actually more suitable than Qingshui Village, and it is not too hot in summer. As for food, since people live close to the mountains and the sea, there are definitely more seafood here.

However, if Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru are not used to the food, there are pork, mutton, beef, poultry, eggs and other foods in her space, so they will definitely not go hungry.

Of course, she also has selfish motives.

She also planned to go to the south in the spring to get some pearl shells.

It just so happened that the superiors sent Li Zhan and several other military officers to an island in the South China Sea for exchanges and exercises, and the plan was to send a ship directly there at that time.

It takes at least half a month to go from Haikai Island to the South China Sea and back. The resident officers are also worried that if the crew members on the ship get sick, they will not be able to find a doctor.

But there were not enough doctors on the island, so they thought of Xia Juanjuan.

She was an expert in Chinese medicine. Over the past year or so, the families of the soldiers who had accompanied the troops on the island had sought her help with common colds, fevers, stomach problems, etc., so even the headquarters knew about it.

The commander found Li Zhan and proposed to second Xia Juanjuan to temporarily serve as the ship's doctor.

Xia Juanjuan was struggling with how to get there, so when she heard the suggestion, she naturally agreed.

This meant that he would have to go on a long trip, and would be away from home for almost a month. It would definitely not be appropriate to leave the children with the neighbors. As for Yue Sizhu, since their relationship had not been clarified yet, it was naturally not appropriate either.

Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru came over, it was just in time.

After Fu Nanzheng sent the person to the place, he immediately took a boat to Emerald Island to find his wife.

Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru were still wondering: "Why is Nanzheng in such a hurry to leave without eating? Isn't he staying here tonight?"

Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "Mom, don't worry about him. He's gone to find his own wife."

As he spoke, he told Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru that Fu Nanzheng and Yue Sizhu were already married.

The public opinion environment on Emerald Island has improved a lot since Wu Tiezhu and Wu Yun fell from power. Many people also know that Fu Nanzheng is Yue Sizhu's partner who came from a big city on the mainland and they are going to get married in the future.

In the past, there were still some people spreading those unbearable rumors about Yue Sizhu, but after Fu Nanzheng stopped them and gave them a good lecture, no one mentioned them anymore.

People in big cities eat commercial food, and I heard that there are doctors. What kind of people can't they find?

He had to go to this barren island to find Yue Sizhu, with the intention of getting married.

If Yue Sizhu's body was really soiled by Wu Yun, how could such a handsome young man with a good family background and a promising future not mind at all?

It can be seen that the previous rumors were all false and were spread by some jealous people.

Moreover, every time Fu Nanzheng went to the island, he always brought White Rabbit milk candy, walnut cakes, sesame candy and the like from Beijing, and distributed them to everyone, regardless of gender or age.

This kind of person who eats the food and takes the money from the people will be grateful, and gradually no one will say anything about him anymore.

Fu Nanzheng occasionally stayed at Yue's house when he came here, and there was no one to keep an eye on him or report him to.

Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru were also sighing after hearing what Xia Juanjuan said.

"Alas, I didn't expect that the southern expedition has been so hard all these years. Juanjuan, you have to help your sister-in-law more." Lin Yuru said.

Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "Mom, we are all family, that's for sure."

Then he smiled and said, "Dad, Mom, you've all been through a hard journey. Go inside and take a nap. I'll go cook dinner."

After hearing this, Lin Yuru immediately stood up and went to the kitchen: "I'll go."

Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "I'll go. You'll be busy a lot in the future, go talk to the kids."

Lin Yuru no longer insisted.

Xia Juanjuan took out tuna and salmon from the space.

I just bought some fresh tuna and salmon from the local market this morning. These are deep-sea fish, which are not usually found on the island. However, the large fishing boats stationed here just came back from a trip a few days ago, so they are available at the local market.

I also took some hairtail, sea cucumber, abalone, shrimp and so on.

Tuna and salmon can both be cooked into sashimi, but it is okay in coastal areas of Guangdong or Fujian, where people have the habit of eating sashimi. If Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru were to eat it, it would scare them. It is also not suitable for children, who have weak stomachs.

So I made fried tuna and fried salmon. The hairtail was coated with cornstarch and fried until golden and crispy.

As for sea cucumber and abalone, they are both very nutritious. Abalone is fine, but Xia Juanjuan has never been able to adapt to the appearance of sea cucumber, so she just cut it into small pieces and made a stew with abalone. For shrimp, she made boiled shrimp and dipped it in the prepared sauce.

Xia Juanjuan was worried that they wouldn't have enough seafood, so she made braised pork and stir-fried pork.

It had been a long time since the family had eaten together. Xia Juanjuan specially prepared a bottle of Maotai for Li Zhan and Xia Shuangshan to drink.

Xiaowen, Xiaowu and Beibei were fine, they were not afraid of getting stuck by fish bones, the hairtail fish was for them to eat. The triplets had stewed eggs and fried salmon or tuna.

Maybe they were all fried. Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru didn't have much aversion to seafood, so it seemed that they wouldn't have any problems with food later.

After dinner, Xia Juanjuan took them for a walk on the island and pointed out the places they often visited, such as the small market and the cafeteria.

For dinner, we didn't cook seafood, but noodles with dried mushrooms and minced pork. Even though they could eat seafood, their meat-eating stomachs and habits made it difficult for them to adapt to it all at once.

After dinner, Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru went to their rooms and saw that the carpets were all new.

Lin Yuru said, "Why don't you prepare a brand new roof for us? You build the brand new one, and your father and I will just build the old one."

Xia Juanjuan quickly hugged her and said with a smile: "Ours is also new and not long old. Besides, you see, the children will definitely ask to sleep with you in a while. Even for them, this new blanket cannot be changed."

After hearing this, Lin Yuru had no choice but to give up.

Sure enough, at night the triplets and Xiaowen, Xiaowu and Beibei clamored to sleep with their grandparents.

Xia Juanjuan was complaining that the six little kids were squeezed together and there was no room for them to sleep.

Later, a small bed was moved into the room for Xiaowen and Xiaowu to sleep on, while Beibei and the triplets slept in the big bed with them.

Even the wolf cub was excited on the first night. He dragged the small nest that Xia Juanjuan had sewed for him with cotton and cloth into the bedroom and slept between the two beds.

Xia Juanjuan couldn't help laughing. Fortunately, the bed was big enough, otherwise she would have to sleep on the floor.

Li Zhan was very happy.

As soon as Xia Juanjuan entered the room, he locked the door, reached out to pick up Xia Juanjuan and threw her onto the bed.

"Ah!" Xia Juanjuan shouted quickly, then quickly covered her mouth and dared not speak.

Lizhan had already pressed forward, bit her earlobe, and laughed softly, "Keep your voice down. I won't care if my parents hear you."

As he spoke, he took off Xia Juanjuan's clothes with ease.

Xia Juanjuan punched him shyly and said angrily, "Really? You do it every day, and I don't know where you get the strength..."