Watching them flaunt their oysters one after another, Feng Ye no longer felt bored. His appetite was whetted, and he couldn't resist digging one up to try.
With precision and ease, he pried open a large oyster with his small hoe, revealing its plump and tender flesh.
"These oysters are really good stuff."
As soon as he pinched the lump of flesh, he felt something hard inside.
Feng Ye was slightly taken aback, thinking that he had accidentally gotten some shell fragments into his flesh. However, when he opened his palm to look, he found no shell fragments at all.
"Could it be..."
He suddenly thought of something.
Immediately, he couldn't wait to squeeze the hard thing out of the oyster meat.
It was a round, milky-white bead, about one centimeter in diameter.
His pupils contracted slightly: "It really is... an oyster pearl!"
"Oyster pearls?"
"What oyster pearls?"
"Can pearls grow inside oysters?"
Fang Yi and the others were on the rocks nearby. Upon hearing this, they all turned around in surprise to look at Feng Ye.
They knew about pearls, nothing special, but they had never heard of oyster pearls.
"All shellfish can produce pearls, and oysters are no exception."
Feng Ye explained, excitedly picking up the beads to show them.
All three of them saw the oyster pearl he was holding and gathered around.
"These are oyster pearls, they're quite pretty."
"It's quite big and so round, it should be worth a lot of money, right?"
"Ah Ye, you're so lucky. I ate several but didn't get a single one."
Feng Ye handed the beads to them.
The three of them took turns looking at the oyster pearl, their eyes sparkling with curiosity and envy.
Zhang Qiang couldn't help but reach out and touch it, exclaiming, "This is really a good thing, I'm so lucky!"
Wang Teng then asked, "Ah Ye, what's the difference between oyster pearls and regular pearls? We've never heard of them before."
“You’re not from the coast, so how much do you know about the things in the sea? Besides oyster pearls, there are Merlo pearls, conch pearls, and all kinds of pearls. Of course, the most common are seawater pearls produced by the white-lipped pearl oyster.”
As Feng Ye spoke, he took the oyster pearls and put them into his pocket.
"Actually, whether it's freshwater pearls or saltwater pearls, the reasons for their formation are pretty much the same..."
There are two reasons for the formation of pearls: internal and external.
The internal cause is that the outer epidermis of the mantle of mollusks is pathologically stimulated, and a portion of it undergoes cell division and separates, and is then wrapped by the organic matter it secretes.
At the same time, it gradually sinks into the connective tissue of the mantle, forming a pearl sac and then a pearl.
Because there is no foreign object as a nucleus, it is called a "nucleus-free pearl".
External factors include the stimulation of the mantle of mollusks by foreign objects (sand grains, parasites). The epidermal cells at the stimulated site use the foreign object as a nucleus and become embedded in the connective tissue of the mantle.
The encapsulated epidermal cells of the mantle spontaneously divide to form a pearl sac. The pearl sac cells secrete nacre, which wraps around the nucleus layer by layer to form a pearl.
Because it has a foreign object as its nucleus, it is called a "nucleated pearl".
Oyster pearls are formed in roughly the same way.
However, there is a misconception about the formation of nucleated pearls, which claims that a grain of sand entering an oyster's body will cause pearls to begin to form.
This statement is actually correct only when there are parasites in the sand.
Oysters can expel sand without wasting any secretions.
"Oh, I see. That sounds amazing."
All three listened with great interest.
"The oysters here are quite large, many of them meet the first-grade standard. You can try looking for the big ones, maybe you can dig them up."
Oysters are categorized by weight:
Grade A large oysters typically weigh over 5 taels each.
Grade 2 medium oysters typically weigh 3-4 taels each (the kind grilled over charcoal);
Grade 3 small oysters are 2 taels each.
Upon hearing this, the three of them excitedly went to find a large oyster to shuck.
In fact, the formation of oyster pearls has nothing to do with the size of the oyster.
However, larger oysters take longer to grow and have a higher chance of producing pearls.
I found an oyster about the size of my palm, pried it open, squeezed it, and exclaimed in surprise, "Ah... I found one!"
"Holy crap, is this for real?"
Hearing Fang Yi's shout, Feng Ye turned around in surprise.
Fang Yi held a oyster pearl in his hand, slightly larger than the one from before. It was round and plump, radiating a faint luster.
Is this another instance of the newbie's halo?
But why didn't Wang Teng and Zhang Qiang drive it out?
Meanwhile, Wang Teng and Zhang Qiang looked at the oyster pearls in Fang Yi's hand with envy.
"Damn, how come you're so lucky?"
"Yeah, he hit it right away. Why can't I get it right?"
"Maybe you drove it out, but you swallowed it whole."
"Huh? No way? Then I'll lose a fortune."
"Pearls can't be digested. Try looking in your poop after you poop these past couple of days; you might find some."
"Go to hell, you're the one looking for shit."
Feng Ye chuckled and interjected, "It's normal that it didn't turn out well. It's said that only one out of 20,000 oysters might yield an oyster pearl, so the probability is very low."
With Fang Yi setting a precedent, Wang Teng and Zhang Qiang were even more excited to continue searching for large oysters, hoping to find oyster pearls as well.
However, in the following period, although they opened many large oysters, they did not find a single oyster pearl.
"Damn it, I'm stuffed, and I didn't even get a single pearl out of the oysters."
Wang Teng let out a burp, rubbing his stomach as he complained.
Zhang Qiang also looked dejected: "Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if these are the only two oyster pearls on the island, and that they just happened to find them."
Fang Yi gave them a disdainful look: "Are you guys stupid? You can't eat anymore but you insist on forcing yourselves. Why don't you just dig the whole thing back and slowly open it up?"
Feng Ye also laughed and said, "Yes, let's dig it up and open it. At least it won't go to waste. If we can't finish it, we can dry it or render it into oyster sauce."
Unlike them, he wouldn't force himself to eat one and then continue digging out whole oysters to throw in the bucket. Whether there were oysters or not, he planned to take them home to open.
"I can still eat one more... hiccup..."
Wang Teng let out a burp, then pried open a large oyster, followed by a burst of wild laughter: "Hahaha... I dug one up too!"
He was holding a milky white bead aloft in his hand.
"Damn, you all dug them up, how come I'm so unlucky? God is so unfair to me..."
Seeing this, Zhang Qiang was both envious and anxious, and he quickened his pace, prying open several oysters in a row, but still without any success.
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