A time-travelling peasant girl becomes a wealthy woman

"Of course it's edible. Open the shell and there's meat inside. It's very fresh."

"This is our first time in town, and we haven't seen this thing before. Can you open one for us to see?"

"That won't do." The fisherman stopped what he was doing and looked at Huang Haolin: "If you don't buy after the opening, I will lose money."

When seashells are frightened, they usually clench their jaws very tightly. When subjected to external force, they will only try harder to close, and it is difficult to pry them apart with bare hands.

The government had strict control over ironware, and it was difficult for ordinary people to buy a knife to pry the shells. Usually, they would use stones to smash them open, then wash and cook them.

If the shells are knocked off, the seashells will die after a while, which fishermen naturally don't want to do.

"But we haven't seen it, and we don't know what's inside. You said there's meat, but we don't know whether it's true or not, and it's not moving..." Huang Haolin poked the seashell deliberately: "What if it's dead or smelly and can't be eaten?"

Seashells have a unique fishy smell from the sea. For people who see seafood for the first time, it is really hard to tell whether they are dead or alive.

The fisherman hesitated for a moment; this kind of thing had happened to him before.

After the customers took the shells home and left them for a while before cooking them, they found that the shells were all dead and smelled very bad. The buyers came back to make a fuss and not only did they not get their money back, they also had to compensate them with a sea fish. Therefore, seafood basically has to be sold out before noon, otherwise it has to be cooked early in the morning.

"I can't open it. If you want it, I can sell it to you at a lower price. It's two cents each, big or small."

Huang Haolin shook his head. "Uncle, I can't do that. My mother is the only one in our family who earns money by doing embroidery work. We don't have much money. If the food we buy is spoiled and inedible, wouldn't that be a waste of money? I can't be willful."

The fisherman felt a bit troubled seeing the kid's stubborn attitude. He had been selling seafood at the dock for some years, but this was the first time he had encountered such a difficult kid.

"Even if you say so, I can't break it open and show it to you. If you are not satisfied later, I will lose money in vain."

Huang Haolin pretended to look at his sister in distress, and the little girl immediately got the hint: "Brother, forget it, Mu Mu doesn't want it anymore, let's go eat wontons, there are meat ones."

Seeing that the brother and sister wanted to back out, the fisherman became a little anxious.

Seashells are heavy and have little meat. Although he had heard before that there were small white or golden round beads inside that were very valuable, he had never encountered one in nearly ten years of fishing, so he just regarded it as a story.

He was the only one selling seashells at the pier. He accidentally discovered that seashells could occasionally be salvaged at a certain location on the seashore, so every time he went out to sea, in addition to fishing, he would also make a detour there to try his luck, which didn't take much time.

Although it is a market day today, no one is interested in buying seashells. I will have to cook and eat these seashells myself. If I can sell them, I can earn several dozen coins.

"Wait." He said quickly, "How about this, I'll give you a discount and give you a few at a discount, is that okay?"

After some bargaining, Huang Haolin finally bought fifteen seashells for twenty cents, including the ones that Huang Mulin liked.

Except for Huang Mulin and Huang Haolin, the others seemed to be watching a play and were enjoying it very much.

In addition to watching the show, Huang Jinlin also got to try food he had never tasted before, which made him very happy.

The boss pulled out a large leaf from the side of the stall, placed the seashells they bought on it, poured some sea water into it, wrapped it up, and handed it to Huang Haolin: "Take it back and process it as soon as possible. It's hot, and the seafood will die easily, and the meat will be inedible."

Huang Mulin then realized that even if they could take a ride home now, it would take more than half an hour to get home, and Haibei would have been dead long ago.

She was troubled.

"Dad, Mom," she said bitterly, "it will take us a long time to get home, and these babies are going to die!"

When everyone heard this, they didn't know what to do.

Huang Haolin suddenly thought: "Dad, isn't the water bucket at home broken? You said before that you would make another one, but you never had the time. Why don't you go to the market and buy one directly, put the seashells in it and soak them in sea water. It should be enough to last until we get home."

It's a good idea, but a bit expensive.

Country people usually make these little gadgets by themselves. They go to the mountains to cut wood, then come back and make them themselves. It just takes some time to make them, and the materials are free.

It costs at least five or six cents to buy one. This money is earned slowly but spent like water.

In fact, after Huang Haolin finished speaking, he also felt that it was a bit too much. He really spent a lot of money today. Although his parents didn’t say anything, it was not good after all.

Huang Bo was also thinking that he had spent a lot today, and he was a little unhappy. But if he didn't have a container to hold the seashells, they would die and he wouldn't be able to eat them when he got home, and the twenty cents would be wasted in vain.

It's really a bit confusing.

But He Hui Niang realized that it was her own daughter who wanted to buy it, so the second child went to negotiate the price. Huang Mulin had never expressed what he wanted since he was born, and this was a rare opportunity for him to express his wish, so the money was spent.

"Bozi," He Hui Niang said, "Go buy a wooden barrel. We'll wait for you here."

Huang Bo looked at his wife in surprise, but seeing her support, he said nothing. He told his sons to protect their mother and sister, then walked towards East Street.

Huang Haolin scratched his head a little embarrassedly, while Huang Mulin flattered his mother by saying good things about her. He also said that when he made money in the future he would buy her nice clothes and headdresses, etc., which made He Hui's mother very happy.

Huang Bo came back soon. The fishermen first helped them get a small half bucket of sea water, then poured the seashells into it and covered them with leaves to block some of the smell.

After buying seashells, they strolled around for a while and then walked back. They found a small stall to sit down. Except for Huang Mulin, everyone ate a bowl of wontons, and then returned to the place where the ox cart was parked at the entrance of the town.

Almost all the others had returned, except for Aunt Huang Liu and another peasant woman.

Huang Bo's family was carrying a bucket with leaves on it. Everyone was curious and someone asked about it.

"Hiroko, why is this bucket covered with leaves? Is there gold in it?"

This made the people around laugh.

"There are some seafood in here." Huang Bo responded, "These seafood will die after a while without water. It just so happens that the bucket at home is broken, so I bought a new one to store them in."

“It will leave a taste.”

"Just think of it as taking a bath in the sea." Everyone laughed again at his amusing words.

Soon, Aunt Huang Liu and the others came back. Huang Youde saw that everyone was there, so he asked them to get in the car and then returned the same way they had come.

Aunt Huang Liu saw Huang Bo carrying a bucket with a strange smell: "Bozi, what is this? It smells so bad."