"So many abalone?" Sun Yanyan got goosebumps.
Mingjing waved, "Come on, Uncle, help us open it. I'll treat you to dinner tonight. If we find any abalone, we'll all get a share."
"Abalone? Those things aren't very common, are they?"
Sun Yang thought to himself that he might lose money today, but he didn't say anything on the surface. He pulled up a stool, sat down, and started playing with everyone.
After some time, Sun Yunmei had finished cooking: braised banana fish and a seaweed, scallop, and shrimp soup.
"Stop doing that, take a break, we'll talk about it after we eat," Sun Yunmei urged everyone to eat.
Mingjing was getting a little annoyed. The abalone kept wriggling, and he casually cut off half of a scallop with his knife. Mingjing thought that if he couldn't get any more out, he would sell them all.
The knife flipped the abalone shell, touching the clam. A bright, shiny bead spun inside. She exclaimed excitedly, "Haha, Mom and Dad, I told you I was the Sea Goddess's apprentice!"
The crowd was taken aback at first, then gathered around.
"It really is, it's white, so beautiful," Sun Jiaojiao said, holding the pearl and blinking.
“This one is not bad.” Ming Dahai examined the abalone carefully, unable to contain his excitement. “This one is twice the size of the previous one, it must be expensive.”
Sun Yunmei shone a flashlight on the abalone pearl. The bright light was dazzling. The pearl was smooth and almost flawless.
Everyone excitedly touched it.
"Thank Goddess of the Sea, you really managed to get it!" Sun Yang grinned.
"Why are we even eating? Let's get to work! If there are more Baozhu later, Uncle and Mom, you can each have one." Mingjing was happy.
Sun Yunmei was overjoyed when a gust of wind blew in, and she shut her mouth, got up and closed the door.
"Sister, let's use this to hold them and see how many we can fit in," Mingyue said, placing a glass jar of yellow peaches in the middle.
As everyone watched the pearl fall into the jar with a crisp sound, their confidence instantly soared.
Mingjing's hand was too stiff, so her speed was not as fast as before, while the others had extremely fast hand speeds.
That pearl was like a brick, leading to countless pearls behind it. After a while, Sun Jiaojiao opened one, which was irregularly shaped but golden.
Then the sounds from the jar never stopped, making a clinking sound from time to time, until eventually the sounds disappeared completely.
Unlike regular pearls, abalone pearls are mostly multicolored or mixed-color pearls, and they are particularly dazzling under the light.
"My goodness, so many pearls!" Ming Lei exclaimed, staring at the jar in shock. "There are twelve so far."
Sun Yang chimed in, "I have to say, Mingjing is really capable. Bao Zhu is a rare commodity, but she managed to make it as cheap as it is."
"I was overthinking things. If you had listened to me, you would have lost out big time," Ming Dahai said with a smile as he peeled the abalone.
"It's like the ocean has to go to the deep sea to catch abalone, and it takes several days to catch just one, and you end up getting sick. This is something else, it's just fate."
Sun Yunmei was all smiles, forgetting to eat, and joined everyone in opening the abalone.
The group drove until ten o'clock. Mosquitoes buzzed in the yard, and Minglei looked miserable from hunger.
"Grandpa, I'm hungry. There are so many mosquitoes here. I'm going to get anemia."
Sun Yunmei was so engrossed in watching that she reluctantly put down the abalone in her hand, stood up, and sighed, "Just bear with it, we'll finish soon. I'll just heat up the leftovers later."
"Mom, eating leftovers again is not good." Mingjing glanced at the braised pork and duck on the table, which were so hot they had turned black, clearly leftovers from several days ago.
“There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s all homemade, and it would be a waste to throw it away. I’ve tried it, and it’s edible,” Sun Yunmei said as she carried the food into the house.
Ming Dahai got up, picked up the plate of leftover food, and poured it into the swill bucket. "Mingjing is right. It's not that we can't afford to eat anymore, so we're not going to stop eating."
"Mom, finish the rest of the abalone and let Leilei and Auntie eat it first. They can't cook with us, so let's keep cooking."
Sun Yunmei nodded, grabbed a handful of the abalone that had been opened, made a braised abalone dish, and then cooked some of the remaining dishes.
"Yunmei, I'm in trouble." Zhang Qiao was in her late pregnancy, and she couldn't sit or stand properly, so she couldn't do much work and could only stand by and watch.
"It's nothing. It's too dangerous for you to stay at home by yourself. Come over and chat with us. This is just helping out, it's what we should do."
Sun Yunmei said to Mingjing, "Mingjing, how many do you think there are?"
“Seventy-two now,” Ming Lei said, his voice trembling as he was missing a front tooth.
"When did you lose your teeth, kid? Where are they?"
Mingjing pried open Minglei's mouth to take a look, and found that he was missing a front tooth, which looked quite comical.
“I ate it. Mom said that losing a tooth means you’re a man now, and I’m a man now.” Minglei clenched his little fist and raised his arm.
Mingjing sighed and teased him, "A real man throws his fallen teeth on the house; if you eat them, you won't grow tall."
"Huh? Then let me pull it out and throw it on the roof."
Ming Lei pursed his lips, picked up an abalone, and poked at the abalone meat with his fingers.
"Grandpa and Grandma, this bead is red, it's so pretty!" Minglei shouted, holding up the bead.
Mingjing glanced over and her eyes lit up. The abalone pearl was dazzlingly red, round and smooth. When a light shone on it, the patterns inside were transparent, and there was not a single flaw to be seen.
"Wow, this abalone pearl is amazing." Ming Dahai took the abalone pearl and wiped it on his sleeve without any disgust.
He had been touching abalone for so many years, and he had never encountered a red one before. He had a feeling that this time he was going to make a fortune.
The red abalone pearls were particularly eye-catching when placed in the jar.
“Dahai, this must cost a lot of money, right?” Sun Yang’s eyes lit up.
Ming Dahai shook his head. "I don't know. I've never seen abalone pearls of this color before. I guess they must be quite expensive."
“Young man, your luck is even better than mine,” Mingjing said with a smile, pinching Minglei’s cheek.
Minglei stared at the bead for a long time, then asked, "Third Aunt, can I have that bead as my front tooth? That way I'll be a handsome guy."
After he finished speaking, everyone burst into laughter.
Mingjing teased him again, "Okay, but that thing isn't cool. When your aunt has money, she'll get you an ivory one. That's what's really cool."
"Alright, stop joking around and come eat," Sun Yunmei said, pulling Minglei to the table.
"Third Aunt, you're the best. I'll buy you a villa someday."
Mingjing smiled and continued preparing the abalone. There was still a small bucket left; she wondered if she could collect a hundred.
“Sister, look at this, it’s even stranger,” Mingyue said, showing Mingjing a pink bead.
"Wow, there's a pink one too? This one's even prettier than the last one," Sun Yunmei said, glancing up at it.
Mingjing took the bead. It was round and smooth, pink inside and out, and about the size of a fingernail. It was definitely worth more than five thousand yuan.
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