Zhou Xuan shared his thoughts. Inside the largest oyster, there was a pearl with a diameter of over two centimeters. Such a large pearl was indeed rare. Zhou Xuan wanted to keep it and give it to Yingying later. Although he had run away from home and left her, he could not leave her in his heart and always thought of her.
"What's the problem?" Yu Jinshan was stunned for a moment, then said, "This is what you risked your life for. Even if you want it all, there's no problem. You've caught so many fish. You've done an excellent job. Why are you asking me for the clams?"
Zhou Xuan smiled faintly, then shook his head, bent down and moved the largest clam in front of him, then found a plum blossom knife and pried the large clam open.
The clam was on the dry deck, and its size was particularly large, like a washbasin, which was quite frightening. When Zhou Xuan moved it in the seawater, he only roughly estimated its weight, since seawater has buoyancy and is not accurate. Now, after moving it by hand and examining it, he estimated that it might weigh more than thirty pounds. A clam that heavy and that big was truly unheard of and unheard of.
The other clams, each weighing about five or six pounds, were all being opened by everyone.
The shells of these large clams were very tight, and it took a lot of force to pry them open. Once opened, dozens of pearls were revealed inside, arranged in an ear-like shape. The pearl at the very front was the largest, followed by one smaller pearl after another. The last pearl was just a few small white dots, indicating that it was still growing.
The largest pearl in the oyster opened by Fu Gui and five or six others was about 1.5 centimeters in diameter. Uncle Yu was stunned when he saw the large pearl; he held his breath and carefully picked it up to examine it closely.
Volume 1, Chapter 460: The King of the South Pearl
Chapter 460 The King of the South Pearl
Uncle Yu was indeed shocked.
Although he wasn't a professional in pearls, he had managed to catch sea mussels in the sea and once obtained a pearl with a diameter of 1.2 centimeters, which he sold for 160,000 yuan.
Moreover, Yu Jinshan also knew that a few years ago, a fisherman in Beihai, Guangxi, caught a clam. After cutting it open, there was a pearl with a diameter of 1.12 centimeters inside. This pearl is currently the largest seawater pearl in China and was later bought by a businessman for two million yuan.
This businessman then commissioned a master craftsman to create a white sculpture of a "Pearl Fairy," holding in her hands this large, round, and full South Sea pearl, known as the "King of South Sea Pearls." The fairy's attire is equally valuable; her crown is set with 228 South Sea pearls, 1880 diamonds, and 18g of yellow and platinum. The pearls range in diameter from 6mm to 15mm, with a total value of 6 million yuan—truly a "super crown."
The five or six men currently dissecting oysters on deck are each finding a pearl, the largest of which is approximately 1.5 centimeters in diameter. This means each pearl alone is worth two million yuan. And these six men already possess six pearls of this size, making them worth over ten million yuan.
Yu Jinshan was stunned for a moment, then looked back at the deck full of clams. There were so many, about a hundred. If each clam contained a pearl of this size, how much would they be worth?
One hundred pearls this size, even if they don't reach the value of the "King of South Sea Pearls," should still be worth at least a hundred million in cash.
Yu Jinshan was stunned. He had never imagined such an encounter. He had fished his whole life, and he had never experienced anything so extraordinary as on these two voyages.
The other five people—Fugui, Fubao, Fushan, Yuqiang, and Lao Jiang—didn't know much about pearls and had never bought any, so they naturally didn't know their true value. However, they had seen artificial pearl farms along the coast, where the pearls weren't this big. A good pearl necklace made from those pearls could be worth over a thousand yuan. But they really didn't expect that the pearls they had could be worth millions.
Zhou Xuan himself was unaware that he kept the largest clam not to sell the largest pearl for a high price, but to keep it for himself and give it to Yingying.
While Yu Jinshan was in a daze, Zhou Xuan used a plum blossom knife to make a crack in the clam shell, then inserted a pair of fingers and with a forceful push from the left and right, he pried open the large clam shell with a "hey!" and a few pearls rolled out of the clam, but none of them were large.
The largest pearl was still inside the oyster. Zhou Xuan used his special ability to detect it clearly. This pearl was not very round, but its diameter was definitely over two centimeters. The other pearls were slightly smaller than the South Sea Pearl King, but Zhou Xuan's pearl was much larger than the South Sea Pearl King.
Yu Jinshan pointed at the pearl in Zhou Xuan's hand, gasped for breath, and then stammered, "Little...Little Hu...Little...Be careful..."
After talking for so long, I still couldn't get what I wanted to say out loud.
Zhou Xuan didn't have Ma Shu's mind-reading ability, so he didn't know what Yu Jinshan meant. He immediately asked, "Second Uncle Yu, what's wrong? What should we be careful of?"
Yu Jinshan took a few deep breaths, and after finally calming down, he said, "Be...be careful not to drop the beads in your hand and break them, they're...they're worth several million!"
"Worth several million?" Fu Gui and the others were startled, and their hands holding the pearls trembled.
Yu Jinshan exclaimed in surprise, "Don't drop it... The beads you have are worth over a million, each one is worth over a million. If you drop it, you'll lose over a million!"
Yu Jinshan's words only terrified Fugui and the others, causing their hands to tremble even more. They quickly placed the pearl back onto the clam meat, and their faces turned deathly pale.
Zhou Xuan wasn't that surprised. The bead in his hand was only worth a few million. Even if it were worth hundreds of millions, he probably wouldn't be too excited. Money held no appeal for him. All he wanted to do was make the bead into an ornament and give it to Yingying.
Zhou Xuan has plenty of valuable things in his possession; any random item he picks might be more valuable than this bead.
However, Fu Gui and his group were different. Their usual monthly salary was only a few thousand yuan. Last time they went out to sea, they received a bonus of 40,000 yuan because of Zhou Xuan. This made them even happier than during the New Year. Last time they went out to sea, they caught 50,000 to 60,000 catties of sea fish and twelve tiger sharks, which made them so happy that they almost fainted.
This time, they caught over 40,000 jin (approximately 20,000 kg) of fish while still in the dark, a huge harvest. But they could never have imagined what they were seeing now: inside one of the clams they'd opened, a single large pearl was worth over a million yuan, and there were hundreds of such clams on the deck! The shock and excitement they felt was truly unparalleled.
Although Zhou Xuan wasn't surprised by the true value of his pearl, he was somewhat taken aback by the sheer number of pearl oysters he had caught. According to Uncle Yu, the pearls inside these oysters should be worth around 100 million. He was content with catching enough fish to do his job well, but the pearl oysters he had caught today were far too valuable. He just wanted to work quietly at sea, but that was clearly not the case. It would be difficult to live a peaceful life. It seemed that after this, he would have to reduce his catch at sea and not go to such heights. Doing too much and too well would only lead to the death of Yu Changhe's family, which was not worthwhile.
Even if the Yu family gets more, it's still better to let Fu Gui and his crew get some of mine; that would probably make me feel better.
Old Jiang excitedly ran into the cabin and found a small box. He lined the box with thick cotton cloth and had everyone put the pearls inside.
Then the six people started dissecting the other oysters. Among the remaining oysters, there was only one pearl that was the largest. Strangely, the largest pearl was almost identical to the ones that had been dissected before, like twins, with no difference between them.
In the end, since too many clams had been gutted, Uncle Yu asked Fushan to bring over a few more baskets to take out the clam meat from the gutted clams and put it into those baskets.
Clam meat is much more expensive than sea fish. These hundreds of clams, once opened, would yield at least two or three hundred pounds of clam meat, worth tens of thousands of yuan. However, tens of thousands of yuan is basically nothing to Yu Jinshan and his group now.
After dissecting all the hundreds of large clams, Lao Jiang carefully counted them by the box. He found a total of one hundred and nine large pearls, and countless small pearls.
This, of course, does not include Zhou Xuan's largest pearl. Zhou Xuan had already told Uncle Yu that the large clam belonged to him, so the pearl belonged to him. No one asked about it anymore. Zhou Xuan only kept the large pearl and didn't take the other small pearls in the clam, putting them together with the other small pearls.
Seeing the hundred or so creamy white pearls in the small box, so lovely, they all stared in amazement.
There are only 109 pearls, and the small box is not even half full, but the value is over 100 million. Zhou Xuan also said that he only wants the big clam, which is the big pearl he cut out. He doesn't want the other pearls. In other words, like the sea fish, they belong to the boss Yu family. So they can also get a large bonus. Although we don't know how much it is, it should be much higher than the bonus last time.
The total income last time was nearly six million, and the bonus was forty thousand. The total income this time is not clear. If it is worth more than one hundred million according to Uncle Yu, then the bonus should be twenty times that of last time, and each person can get more than eight hundred thousand. So Fugui and the others are especially excited. If they get such a high bonus, then their dream of buying a house can almost be realized.
However, while the idea is one thing, it's uncertain whether it's truly worth that much money. Everything will have to wait until they return home and the Yu family asks experts to confirm its value. As for the amount of the bonus, that's not something they can decide. Whether it will be based on the previous standard is anyone's guess. Who knows what the boss is thinking? It might even be less than last time. After all, there's never been a clear rule about how much the bonus should be, and in recent years, they haven't caught any fish exceeding the standard weight.
After processing about a hundred clams, there were about twenty pounds of smaller pearls, one hundred and nine larger pearls, and three baskets of clam meat.
Uncle Yu asked Fushan to make hot pot broth, then cook clam meat, and asked Fugui and Fubao to bring out beer and liquor, and they celebrated on the deck.
In addition, Yu Jinshan notified Wu Dehu's boat to return at full speed. Although Wu Dehu's boat had caught nearly 20,000 catties of fish, which was far from saturated, it was still a lot compared to the catch of the past few months.
Of course, the Yujinshan ship was different. Whether it was fish, more than 40,000 catties, it was a great harvest. As for pearls, it was an even greater harvest, beyond description.
Such a shock meant that none of the crew members, including Uncle Yu and Fugui, wanted to stay at sea any longer. They all wanted to get back to shore as soon as possible to verify the value of the pearls.
So even if they stayed on the ship, they had no motivation to work anymore. Yu Jinshan himself felt the same way, so they simply decided to return home.