In rural areas, people are most afraid of someone showing off their wealth. If someone spreads the word, it can easily lead to trouble.

He lowered his head, carefully took out the pearls one by one, and put them into a large bowl filled with water.

After finishing the male cockscomb clam, Chen Tianhua took a short break.

It wasn't that he was tired, he had to calm down his inner excitement before continuing his efforts to get the biggest female clam.

With the help of his eldest sister Tingjuan, Chen Tianhua "battled" with the female clam for nearly 20 minutes, and finally completely opened its powerful shell...

When he stretched out his hand to lift his cheeks, the whole family held their breath, and several pairs of eyes stared straight at him.

The cheeks are finally revealed...

Oh my God! More than twenty large pearls were presented in front of his eyes. Chen Tianhua calmed down and held them out one by one with trembling hands.

Suddenly, an extra large bead rolled out from the innermost part of the cheek, and with a "dong..." sound, it fell into the foot basin.

"Wow..." Young sister Youjuan couldn't help but exclaimed.

"Tell you to be quiet."

Chen Tianhua scolded his little sister. He suppressed the joy in his heart and carefully put the dozens of large pearls he took out into the only metal vessel in the house, a small copper basin for serving vegetables, and washed them.

After the cleaning was completed, all the clams taken out from the last male clam were put into a copper basin and brought to the mother's room in the west wing, where everyone counted the results together.

There were eighteen natural pearls in the male clam. Chen Tianhua visually inspected them and estimated that they were more than 1 centimeter in diameter and were translucent jade-white with blood-red spots.

There are twenty-four female clams in the body, each with a diameter of about 1.2 to 1.5 centimeters, and are translucent jade-white with chicken blood red.

And when it rolled out, the largest natural pearl was at least 2.5 centimeters in diameter, just like the size of mothballs in the pile of clothes at home, and its color was rare pure chicken blood red.

This might be called the King of Pearls.

The translucent white jade has chicken blood red or pure chicken blood red. These are rare jewelry.

Freshwater natural pearls are nucleated pearls and are called real jewelry, while sea pearls are nucleated pearls and can only be regarded as jewelry.

Freshwater natural pearls are generally much smaller than sea pearls, and are generally considered treasures with a diameter of 0.5 centimeters.

Natural freshwater pearls larger than 0.8 centimeters are rare jewelry and their value is very expensive.

If a natural pearl exceeds 1 centimeter, it is extremely rare jewelry. It is estimated that there are no jewelers of this size in the entire Shaoxing Prefecture.

This kind of treasure should be priceless. The so-called priceless means that there is no reference on the market. The price will naturally be negotiated between the buyer and the seller.

And that chicken blood red piece with a diameter of 2.5 centimeters should be priceless among the priceless. It can be rare in the whole of Jiangnan, even Hangzhou and Shanghai.

Chen Tianhua estimated that this largest chicken-blood red pearl was worth at least five to six thousand yuan.

Natural freshwater pearls are extremely spiritual jewelry. In the international gem industry in later generations, natural freshwater pearls have always been listed as lucky stones. They symbolize health, tranquility and wealth.

Chen Tianhua estimated these pearls and found that they were worth at least six to seven thousand yuan. His mother and younger sister looked shocked when they heard this and almost fainted.

"Have you heard this, Shaoan? Our family has a promising future. You, the soul in heaven, must protect the safety of the whole family!"

Xue Wanzhen knelt down in excitement before Chen Shaoan's memorial tablet in the west wing. While crying, she put her palms together and prayed, muttering something in her mouth.

Chen Tianhua also knelt beside his mother, kowtowed to Chen Shaoan and then read:

"Dad, our family will get better day by day in the future. Don't worry. Don't pity the money. If it's not enough, we will burn more gold ingots for you."

The whole family wept with joy and burst into tears.

"Well, please get up quickly. From now on, we will be rich. We can pay off all our debts, build a few big houses, and live a good life." Chen Tianhua helped his mother up and said softly.

"That's true, but who are these pearls going to be sold to? Who can afford so much silver?"

Xue Wanzhen still seems to be in a dream, her mind is confused. She doesn't quite believe that this kind of good fortune will happen to them for no reason?

"Well, mama, don't worry about this matter. I will handle everything. But this time about the cockscomb clams and so many pearls, please don't let any news leak to the outside world."

"You are not allowed to tell anyone, even grandma and uncle. They can't tell it for the time being. It's not that I don't believe my family, but I'm afraid that they will tell it when they are happy. This will bring disaster to the family."

"Well, mama... I also remember my little sister Youjuan. Just pretend that nothing happened today. Do you understand?"

Chen Tianhua has repeatedly told his family that it is particularly important in this society that wealth should not be exposed to the public.

"Mom knows, Gen'er!"

"Brother, don't worry, I won't go out and talk nonsense."

Chen Tianhua nodded and started his next assignment.

He put these pearls into a copper basin and submerged them in clean water. If the pearls are exposed to the air, they will oxidize easily.

He removed the footrest, placed the copper basin under the big bed, and then closed the footrest, waiting to buy a container from the town to place it tomorrow.

…

The next morning, Chen Tianhua went to the township market early and bought a small ceramic jar.

First, use clean water from a large water tank and pour it into an iron pot. Let Youjuan boil the water for a while to completely evaporate the oxygen in the water. Then put the boiling water aside to let out the heat.

Put the pearls into a clean ceramic jar, pour cold boiled water into the jar until the mouth of the jar is full, and then seal it with a clay lid.

In this way, the pearls in the jar will not come into contact with any oxygen molecules and will naturally remain intact.

The entire clay pot was wrapped in oil paper and placed at the bottom of a large floor-to-ceiling wooden cabinet in the west wing. The top was covered with old cotton quilts to disguise it.

With such multiple layers of defense, Chen Tianhua seems to feel much more at ease.

Normally, the whole family does what they have to do as usual.

Wu Laosan and Lin Gen finished their business at home and brought their brothers to see Chen Tianhua.

Chen Tianhua took them to prepare for wild fishing, lake shrimp fishing, or using unique barbed thorns, sprinkled with hot and fragrant rice bran, and let them exercise first and get a feel for it.

He himself planned to go to Shaoxing city to take a look and get a feel for the jewelry business in the city.

Chen Tianhua visited many old streets in Shaoxing in later generations, but this was the first time he traveled through time and space.

Stepping onto the Shaoxing Fucheng in the late Qing Dynasty, you will experience a myriad of things.

Narrow alleys, old bluestone roads, old gates with white walls and black tiles, gurgling small bridges and flowing water, and awning boats rippling in the water, everything is still so quiet and beautiful.
Chapter completed!