"Hey! What are you doing here? " A middle-aged man wearing leather gloves and covered in mud stood up from a pond and shouted at Dong Xuebing. "Who let you in?"
About 20 minutes later, the bus stopped, and Dong Xuebing alighted after paying. He looked around and grabbed the bag in his hands and walked towards the east. This bag might look ordinary and even a little old-fashioned. This man had purposely made Dong Xuebing look like a leader, but he had purposely made this bag. There was a password-protected box in the bag, and it contained Dong Xuebing's savings of 440,000 RMB. This time, he was taking a risk and wanted to make 1 million RMB. That's why he brought all his savings.
The worker agreed and took out a thinner mussel from the net. He squatted down and picked up a kitchen knife from the mud. He pinched the mussel and used all his strength to cut into the mussel. The mussel was cut into two, revealing the mussel meat and golden pearls. The worker reached into the mussel meat and dug out 9 big, small, round or crooked pearls. He placed them into a plastic basin. Freshwater pearls were different from seawater pearls. Every mussel produced a lot of them. There were more than one or two.
The boss shook the mud off his leather gloves. "We are not selling mussels. If you want pearls, come back tomorrow or the day after. This batch is not opened yet."
From afar, a few white office buildings appeared. When Dong Xuebing got closer, there were about 5 to 6 pearl ponds.
Dong Xuebing followed behind the worker, avoiding the puddles in the grass.
"Don't, don't. This is enough." Dong Xuebing thought to himself. He had not been idling on the train for more than 10 hours. He had studied the pearl mussels and knew that these pearl mussels were of inferior quality. It was considered lucky to dig out a pearl worth 20 RMB. Most of the pearl mussels were of inferior quality and were not worth much. "Lady boss, I need to ask you something. Do you know any places nearby where we can gamble on pearls? How much is it? "
"Pearls!" Dong Xuebing frowned and looked at him. "Where is your boss?"
That boss replied impatiently. "Didn't he say he is not selling? Hurry up and go back! "
After alighting from Suhang South Railway Station to Zhuji Bus Terminal, Dong Xuebing carried a big bag with Mei Lian Mei Supermarket printed on it and walked briskly. As he walked, he was pulling on his clothes. It was very awkward. The air in Zhuji was cold and humid. Dong Xuebing, who was used to the dry and cold temperatures in the north, was not used to it. He looked left and right on the main road and quickly found a small restaurant to hide from the rain. He didn't care if the restaurants around the bus terminal or train station were ripping off their customers.
Dong Xuebing blushed. "Err … what does this pearl mean?"
What I want is exactly what you didn't drive. Dong Xuebing followed: "What do you think of this batch of mussels? What color? "
The 1.4 cm and above finally appeared!
Dong Xuebing replied. "You can drive to the nearest pearl breeding base."
"Oh, mussels?" The driver thought for a while. "Then we should drive west. The two nearest breeding bases might not be in season yet, and it is not the season for mussels to bloom. The one in the west is further away, but my house is nearby. I saw them fishing for mussels these few days."
The female boss looked at the driver. "You should drive two roads west. There should be someone pushing a cart over there. The price is about 200 to 300 RMB."
Plump, round, shiny, and big. These are the criteria to identify a good pearl. Although gold quality pearls are considered top quality pearls, they are only a few millimeters big and are worthless. More than half of the nine gold pearls from this mussel cannot be used to make jewelry.
The boss was stunned and thought for a while before walking towards the lake. "Come."
"You want to buy pearls?" The middle-aged man looked at Dong Xuebing. "I am the boss here. What kind of pearls do you want to buy? Pearl powder? "
The boss and the workers started to cut the mussels with their kitchen knives.
Dong Xuebing asked. "Do you have better quality pearls? For example, 2,000 to 3,000 for a mussel? "
"Eh! Boss! This is big! This is big! "The worker shouted.
Coincidentally, the Lady Boss served them clam soup. Clam was a native name used by the people in the capital. In fact, it was just a clam, a pearl clam. There was nothing else in the steaming hot soup except for a clam the size of a palm. Dong Xuebing was curious and picked up his chopsticks to open the mussel. The pearls inside were all white pearls, and when he tasted the mussel, Dong Xuebing spat it out. This mussel was too old. How can he eat it? Dong Xuebing was curious.
"Oh, so this soup of yours is actually a game of pearl gambling?"
Ten minutes later, all the dishes were served.
"You can say that. If you are lucky, you might get some good pearls. Do you want another pot?"
Zhejiang Province, Zhuji City.
Dong Xuebing ordered two familiar home-cooked dishes and asked. "Do you have any local soups? I will also order some to warm myself up."
Dong Xuebing replied. "Ok. Let's go to the west. Thank you."
Dong Xuebing walked along the muddy road to the iron gate. There was no one outside and he hesitantly entered.
Dong Xuebing and the boss looked over and saw the worker digging out a large golden pearl from the mussel. "This pearl is at least 1.5 cm long. The quality is also good." Dong Xuebing took out the measuring device, and the pearl was exactly 1.5 cm long. There were no flaws, and the color was round. This was a high-quality golden pearl!
The boss smiled. "Hmmm … not bad."
Ten minutes had passed, and there was not a single 1.4 cm pearl among all the mussels!
This was pearl opening mussels! Dong Xuebing felt this was exciting and fun.
The driver asked. "Where are we going?"
"Coming." A plump middle-aged woman walked over with the menu.
"Oh, then you have to go to the breeding base to take a look. Their mussels are good, but those people don't gamble on pearls. They usually open the mussels they catch and then sell them to others according to their quality. Most of the pearls gambling here are scattered stalls, and the quality is not very high."
Dong Xuebing saw this opportunity and shouted BACK!
The tenth mussel … were all 0.7cm pearls.
The boss lowered his head and touched them. Then, he picked up the biggest one and measured it with an instrument. "Hmm, not bad. It's 1.2 cm." The measuring device was used to measure the diameter of the pearls. There was a watch at the bottom, and a handheld device at the top. "About half of them can be used as jewelry. The rest are not as good. We can grind the crooked or pockmarked pearls into powder. Xiao Er, let's open the mussels and let Xiao Liu sort them."
"Are you here for sightseeing? You can pay someone to string the pearls together and bring them back as jewelry. "
Click … another one …
The fifth one …
And the last one …
After chatting with the worker for a while, Dong Xuebing got a better understanding of Zhuji's pearl industry.
The boss walked closer and told a worker on his left. "Let's open one first."
The surface of the lake is clear, and there are rows of neatly dotted buoys along the shore. Two small wooden boats are docked on the muddy shore, and there are a few mussels in the nets on the boats. There are more than a hundred of these nets, and there should be more than a thousand mussels. Every mussel is big and fat, and it's much better than the mussels Dong Xuebing ate at the restaurant. One look and Dong Xuebing can tell these are high-quality freshwater pearl mussels.
The driver stepped on the accelerator and asked. "Are you from Beijing? Are you here for sightseeing? "
At this time, 3 men dressed like workers walked over from the northwest side of the lake. "Boss, everything is ready. Do you want to open the mussels now?"
The sky was half bright and half overcast, and it was drizzling. It seemed like it was going to stop soon.
The rain had stopped, and after lunch, Dong Xuebing hailed a taxi.
It's here!
The ninth mussel … The biggest one was 1.3cm. It's not bad.
Click … a mussel bigger than a palm was opened. There were 11 white pearls inside, and the biggest pearl was 0.8cm. The value of a mussel did not depend on the number of pearls, but on the diameter of the largest pearl. That was why the mussel did not bloom well. That was why it did not bloom well.
"Ok. I am here to try my luck with some pearl mussels."
"Boss, the menu." Dong Xuebing sat at an empty table.
"If this batch of mussels is of good quality, money is not a problem." Dong Xuebing was annoyed by the man's attitude. He knew the man must be thinking that Dong Xuebing was too young and did not look like a rich man. That's why he was like this. If it was a middle-aged man with a big belly, he would not treat Dong Xuebing like this. Dong Xuebing looked at the man and opened the bag. There was a password-protected box inside. "Even if you are not willing to sell, there is no loss for me to take a look. As for the price … … we can discuss later. "
The lady boss behind the counter looked at the mussels and laughed. "We don't usually eat the mussels. We prefer the soup."
It was not that this batch of mussels was not good. It was just that pearls above 1.4cm were too rare. It was like crystals, or jadeite. It was not easy to find pearls!
Dong Xuebing believed the man and asked: "Are you selling the mussels? What's the price? "
When the 11th mussel was opened … …
Dong Xuebing smiled. "Let's see. You all can open first." Although 1.2cm pearls were worth a lot, it was not enough to move Dong Xuebing. Dong Xuebing counted the BACK he had now. When he went back to Zhou Guoan's house to investigate the evidence, he still had 2 BACK left. With the BACK he had accumulated these few days, he had 10 BACK left.
"Oh." The boss looked at Dong Xuebing and asked: "How many mussels do you want?"
The 8th mussel … …
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