Chapter 108

By the time they arrived home, Lin Xiuqing had just brought the water to a boil and put the Helmet Conchs in. After all, it takes quite a bit of effort to start a fire with matches in a clay stove.

"You're all back?"

Ye Ersao glanced at the pot, her eyes flickering, and she said with a smile, "Since you've already put them in the pot, I'll wait for you to boil them until they're cooked to see if there are any pearls first. I'll wait for the next batch."

To avoid confusion, what if a pearl is found? Whose would it count as? It would be hard to explain.

Lin Xiuqing smiled indifferently. "Alright."

Ye Dasao asked curiously, "How come you all found this conch? I just saw the Secretary's wife find one, and Adan, who makes shrimp paste, also found one."

Ye Ersao smiled and said, "I didn't even recognize this conch; I only knew about it after hearing Yaodong talk about it."

As she spoke, she looked at Ye Yaodong again. "What kind of pearl can this Emperor Conch produce? Is it valuable?"

"What kind of pearl? It's called an Emperor Helmet Conch pearl, which is also a type of conch pearl. It's just that this conch is a bit precious and has a certain probability of producing a Helmet Conch pearl. How can conch pearls not be valuable? It just depends on whether you have the luck to find one."

"Stop thinking about it, you won't find any. Go do what you need to do; the tiles over there are still being laid. I'm going to take the boat to the shelter." Ye Fu held no hope; the probability was too low, and furthermore, it was his daughters-in-law who found them, so it had nothing to do with him.

Ye Mu didn't care about their fussing and went to the backyard to pick and wash vegetables, preparing to make lunch.

After Ye Fu left, the two brothers, the eldest and the second, also prepared to go to the house to help, but were called back by Ye Yaodong. "Wait a bit before going together. Anyway, it'll only be a short while, and it won't make a difference."

He had already opened a Melo pearl, so he still held expectations.

Lin Xiuqing did too.

When they were boiled enough, she fished those two out, and Ye Ersao immediately and impatiently put her two in.

Ye Yaodong used a rag to wrap his hand, grabbed the conch, took a chopstick, inserted it into the head, and then carefully rotated the conch meat to pick it out.

He squeezed its tail, but there was nothing. Unwillingly, he pried open the meat on the head, but there was still nothing.

He shrugged his shoulders and handed the chopstick to his wife. "This one doesn't have any; maybe my luck isn't good. There's one more for you to try."

"Alright."

As a result, undoubtedly, there was nothing either!

Ye Yaodong saw her disappointed expression and comforted her, "It's okay, it's normal not to have conch pearls. How can one have such good luck every day? People open thousands or tens of thousands and might not even find one."

"Is the probability really that low?"

Opening one Melo pearl had given her the illusion that these conch pearls were easy to obtain.

"Of course! If it were too easy, how could it be rare? Conch pearls are different from regular pearls. Conch pearls are formed when a conch comes out of its shell while feeding, bringing sand or other impurities from the outside into its body. Then, its flesh is irritated, and it continuously secretes a unique substance to wrap the foreign object. As the foreign object is continuously wrapped larger and larger inside the conch's body, it slowly forms."

"This process takes 5-20 years, whereas freshwater pearls only take 1-6 years. This is much more precious than pearls. I heard that only one conch pearl might appear in 50,000 conchs."

After finishing, he threw a look at his wife, as if saying, now you know how lucky you are, right?

Lin Xiuqing was instantly comforted.

Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua's couples also looked at Ye Yaodong in surprise. "How do you know so much?"

They all knew that there was an extremely small chance of conch pearls being produced in conchs, but they didn't know the principle. Hearing him say this, they were suddenly enlightened.

"I haven't been wasting my time, have I?"

Having lived a few decades longer, he naturally knew more than them. Decades later, information flows quickly, and with all kinds of short videos, even an illiterate person can know a lot of things.

They suddenly looked at him with new respect. Ye Yaohua said with a smile, "In the future, if we don't know something, we won't need to ask others; just finding you will be enough."

"Don't hold me in too high regard; I only know a little, very limited, and can only show off occasionally."

Lin Xiuqing stole a glance at him and smiled; he must be finding it troublesome!

Hearing him say this, Ye Ersao also gave up hope.

Only one conch pearl might be produced in 50,000 conchs; isn't this just like winning the lottery?

Even if this Emperor Helmet Conch could produce an Emperor Helmet Conch pearl, the probability was too low. If she had known, it would have been better to just sell it directly. Now she regretted it so much her intestines were turning green.

At first, she was also blinded by him talking about the ten most precious and rare pearls.

Sigh, slapping her thigh in regret!

When the conchs in the pot were boiled enough, she didn't look forward to it anymore. She fished them out and directly told Ye Yaohua to take chopsticks, pick them out, and slice them, to avoid making a mess like Ye Yaodong did and not knowing how to stir-fry them.

"You're just going to slice them directly? Not look carefully?"

Ye Ersao had suffered heavy losses and was in a bad mood. She said crossly, "Mom is already preparing to cook; if I don't slice them directly, what else should I do?"

"Alright, there's still a piece of coconut conch meat there; let's slice that and stir-fry it together."

"Ah? You guys also opened a coconut conch?"

"Yes, there was nothing in it. If I had known, I would have sold it directly; it could have sold for a few yuan."

Lin Xiuqing really felt it was a pity. She had always been frugal, and today was truly too extravagant. They had actually wasted three top-tier conchs, and she didn't even feel heartache, only a little pity, and still felt that tasting them wouldn't be bad. Maybe she had been corrupted by her man!

Hearing that they had opened an extra coconut conch, Ye Ersao felt balanced in her heart; they had lost even more!

After Ye Mu came in with the washed vegetables, she saw the mangled conch meat by the stove and the pieces being sliced, and asked casually, "Nothing in them, right?"

"Sigh~ no... ah! What is this?"

Ye Ersao felt like she had cut into a foreign object and hurriedly put down the kitchen knife, but saw an off-white, yellowish bead in the conch meat, and was instantly ecstatic.

"A pearl!?"

The others, hearing this, all hurriedly leaned in to look, and instantly, everyone's eyes widened.

"Holy crap, there really is one!?"

"Ah, a conch pearl!"

"Let me see..."

Ye Yaohua excitedly wanted to reach out, but was slapped away by Ye Ersao. She said with heartache, "There's a scratch, it was cut by the knife! I XXX..."

She couldn't help but curse in the local dialect, feeling heartbroken.

Who could have thought that even though she had given up hope, she had actually cut it out? It was truly unbelievable!

She kept stroking the scratch on it with heartache, wishing she could smooth it out. If she had known, she would have learned from Ye Yaodong and picked the conch meat apart first; she had actually cut down so forcefully just now.

It made her so angry!

Everyone also saw the scratch on it. Although it wasn't their own item, they also felt heartache!

This was a conch pearl!

It would have been enough for them to go out and brag for several days.

Ye Mu also immediately wiped her wet hands and hurriedly came over, eyes wide. "It... it really opened up a conch pearl for you? Why are you so careless, using a knife to cut it? Since it was already boiled, why didn't you pick it out to check first? Oh my~ this scratch is so big..."

Ye Mu also felt heartbroken after seeing it, her facial features crinkled together. A conch pearl! No one in their village had opened one in recent years.

"Mom, stop talking, I'm already sad enough." Ye Ersao said with a mournful face, kept touching it, and then took the bead to the back door to shine it under the sunlight. "The scratch really can't be removed."

Her heart was dripping blood...

"You should at least let me take a look!" Ye Erge also felt heartbroken and really wanted to hold it in his hand to look at it for a few moments.

"Here, take it!"

Ye Erge held the bead in his hand, also feeling heartbroken, and couldn't help but complain, "Since it was already boiled, why didn't you know to pick it out? Look at this scratch... what are we going to do now? It has a flaw..."

"You're blaming me now? Why didn't you remind me? You were watching from the side, and now you have the nerve to open your mouth and criticize me. If you had been firmer and reminded me to pick it out, I wouldn't have been disappointed and just cut it with a knife..."

The more Ye Ersao thought about it, the angrier she got. As she spoke, she started hitting him several times. "It's all your fault..."

Ye Erge shrugged his shoulders without dodging, letting her hit him. "You... why are you being unreasonable and shifting the blame? It was clearly you who cut it directly with a knife, and you're blaming me for not reminding you! Xiuqing reminded you to look carefully, but you didn't listen, and now you're blaming me for not saying anything..."

"She is her, you are you. If you had reminded me, I definitely would have thought to dig it out..."

Ye Yaohua was speechless. "You still have the nerve to argue! Look at what you've done to it..."

"How was I supposed to know there was really a bead inside?"

A perfectly good thing instantly developed into a family farce. Everyone was a bit dumbfounded; Ye Erge had always listened to Ye Ersao, so it was rare for him to be loud for once.

However, he still didn't overcome Ye Ersao's unreasonable fussing.

Ye Mu heard the cause and couldn't help but speak up, "Alright, alright, you didn't look carefully yourself, and now that you've scratched it, who can you blame? Let me see."

Ye Erge handed the conch pearl to Ye Mu again. Only then did everyone see the appearance of the conch pearl clearly: it was the size of a soybean, irregular oval-shaped, with a very obvious scratch in the middle.

Now even Ye Mu couldn't help but complain about Ye Ersao. "Tell me, why didn't you pick it out? Since it was already boiled, would it have taken that much time? Just because Dongzi and the others didn't find any doesn't mean you wouldn't have. If you didn't hold any hope, you might as well have just sold the conch directly."

Facing Ye Mu, Ye Ersao didn't have the confidence to fuss unreasonably, and only said gloomily, "How was I supposed to know!"

Ye Dasao smiled and smoothed things over, saying, "It's already like this, so there's no use talking about it. Since it was possible to open a conch pearl, that's a good thing; it's better than nothing! It can't be sold for money because of the flaw, but you can keep it for yourself to wear! You can make it into a necklace pendant, or a ring face; this color is the same as the conch shell, and it's quite pretty."

"I guess I can only wear it myself."

After Ye Mu looked at it for a few moments, she returned the bead to Ye Ersao.

Ye Ersao was comforted a little, but she still felt very gloomy.

Lin Xiuqing said with a smile, "There's still one more. Second Sister-in-law, why don't you dig it out and see? Maybe you can dig out another one, and then you'll really be rich."

"Yes, yes, yes, there's one more." She had almost forgotten. Being both surprised and gloomy by this one conch, she had forgotten there was still one conch that hadn't been dug out.

Now everyone was full of expectation, and several pairs of eyes were burning as they watched the Helmet Conch in her hand.

When she was holding the chopstick and preparing to insert it at the edge of the table, Ye Yaohua suddenly grabbed her hand. "How about you let me do this one?"

"Don't get in the way!" Ye Ersao crossly nudged him with her elbow, then proceeded to insert it and pick out the conch meat herself.