After rebirth, the Queen and I are on the run.

Chapter 881 The Younger Sister's Dowry [2]

"This...this is...a South Sea pearl!" Uncle Qin exclaimed excitedly, then slapped himself hard to calm down. He hurriedly instructed his family, "One of these can sell for a hundred gold coins, it's a hundred times more valuable than gold. Don't let anyone know this, or you'll be in deep trouble, understand?"

Qin Xiaomi: "Look around the whole family, besides you, who else has lost their composure? Everyone else is very calm, it's just you who's yelling and screaming."

Uncle Qin jumped up and down: "Is it that you don't want to lose your temper? It's that you don't even recognize this as a South Sea pearl, and you don't know its value."

He steadied himself and explained to his family, "Sea pearls are precious. Even the thirty top-quality sea pearls at Aunt Liu's house are worth two or three times more than the same weight of gold..."

"And these large South Sea pearls, the size of longan, are worth more than a hundred times the price of gold of the same weight."

"So just one large South Sea pearl is worth a hundred taels of gold. When fleeing, carrying such a light and delicate large South Sea pearl means you won't have to worry about settling down later."

"And there are these red coral beads. Do you know red coral? It's a kind of plant that grows on the seabed, but this plant is alive..."

"Red coral beads are made by polishing red coral. They are extremely difficult to polish. A bead that is almost the size of a thumb is a top-grade red coral bead, and a single bead can sell for dozens of times more than the same weight of gold."

"Phew, no wonder Young Master Huang scolded us for only eyeing gold. Look at the things Young Master Huang gave us, isn't every single one more valuable than gold?" Uncle Qin clutched his chest excitedly, his tone filled with shock and reluctance: "Young Master Huang, no, our Ah Long is just too generous. Why is he going back to Lingnan Prefecture? Stay a little longer, Uncle will definitely treat him like his own nephew."

*Slap!* Grandpa Qin slapped him on the head. Grandpa Qin said disdainfully, "Be normal."

Uncle Qin snorted indignantly, but dared not make any more of a fuss. Instead, he looked at the red coral beads and said regretfully, "There are only six of these. If it were a string of red coral beads for a bracelet or necklace, the price would be a hundred times higher."

Qin Xiaomi: "Second Uncle, even if Young Master Huang dares to give us a whole bunch, our family wouldn't dare to accept it."

Red coral necklaces were tribute items, something only nobles could wear.

"It's just right that our family got a few of these, to keep as a reserve for future emergencies. Otherwise, it would be too much."

Grandpa and Grandma Qin nodded in agreement: "Xiao Mi is right. Now is the perfect time. Giving too many would be bad... Besides, we can't show these few to our family. We have to keep them hidden."

The three men from the same household nodded in agreement: "Yes, we know."

"Yes, good." Grandpa Qin looked at his children and grandchildren with satisfaction, and said, "Young Master Huang has given us such a generous gift. We must remember Young Master Huang's kindness and not let him down."

Huang Yanglong said it wasn't that serious, just a small trinket.

It's not that Huang Yanglong is bragging, but these few large South Sea pearls and red coral beads are really nothing to Huang Yanglong's family.

Huang Yanglong possessed countless treasures from the sea, including black sea pearls, clam shell pearls, and hawksbill turtle shell pearls, which were more precious than South Sea pearls and red coral pearls; a whole red coral tree taller than a person; and even blood amber.

Blood amber is a non-renewable treasure formed from amber that sank into the sea when land turned into ocean tens of thousands of years ago, and was dyed red by seaweed.

Such a treasure, let's just say, if Huang Yanglong's family ever committed a crime, he could use this ten-thousand-year-old sea blood amber as a pretext to ask the current emperor for protection.

The pearl jewelry belonging to Qin Liupo and her family was enough to get them into the homes of county magistrates.

The large South Sea Pearl can knock on the door of the local prefect's house.

Black Sea Pearl can open the doors of noble families in the capital.

Blood-red amber can knock on the gates of the imperial city.

But the Huang family, or rather the large coastal families, did not get rich from these things... They were able to rise to prominence because of the treasure ship and treasures that sank at sea countless years ago.

And the ability to build large ships.

These are the trump cards of coastal bigwigs like Huang Yanglong; those rare and delicious seafood such as sea cucumbers and fish maw are just ordinary stuff.

Half an hour later, the Qin family finally calmed their excited hearts.

Grandpa and Grandma Qin handed Qin Xiaogu's share to her: "Shu'er, this is the dowry that Young Master Huang gave you. Please accept it and add it to your dowry list." "As for the four large South Sea pearls and four red coral beads that our family received, divide them into four portions, one large South Sea pearl and one red coral bead for each portion."

"Xiaomi's brother, Dadao, hasn't been found yet, so he's still alive. Therefore, each of the three branches of the family gets one share, and the remaining share goes to Xiaomi."

"Everything in our family was built by Xiaomi, and she wants to claim a separate share... Do you second and third wives have any objections?"

Qin Xiaogu: "Grandma, we, the third branch of the family, have no objections."

Qin Xiaomai nodded in agreement.

Aunt Qin was annoyed that Uncle Qin was too slow to respond, so she pinched him. Uncle Qin hissed in pain and quickly said, "Our second branch of the family has no objection either."

Hilarious! The second branch of the family just lives off their juniors. How dare they have any complaints?

"Okay, let's divide it like this." Grandpa Qin and Grandma Qin divided everything into four parts, but some things, such as the property deed for the capital city, still belonged to Qin Xiaomi alone.

Uncle Qin clutched his chest again... No joke, his niece's assets were so abundant that they were the envy of everyone.

Qin Xiaomi glanced at him and said, "Second Uncle, I'm in debt. Can you lend me 20,000 taels of silver to tide me over?"

"What? You're in debt? If you want your uncle dead, just say so. You don't need to make up an excuse to kill your uncle." Uncle Qin didn't believe it at all.

Qin Xiaomi didn't mention that she owed the Xue couple money. Instead, she tidied up and started hiding things like a hamster.

All the women were hiding, and the three ladies of Qinghe Mountain pretended not to hear anything, staying in Qin Xiaogu's boudoir to help her organize her newly acquired dowry.

They were busy until almost midnight, and the family members gathered in the back courtyard to eat mooncakes, pomelos, and red-fleshed melons before returning to their rooms to rest.

Jiang Xiaozhu even collected the red-fleshed melon seeds and said to Qin Xiaomi, "Keep them to plant, so that our family can eat red-fleshed melons again next year at this time."

Qin Xiaomi: "Planting red-fleshed melons will ruin the soil's nutrients."

Jiang Xiaozhu was shocked: "How could this be? Is it poisonous?"

Qin Xiaomi: "Yeah, more or less. There's a little thing inside it that consumes a lot of nutrients from the soil. But it can still be planted. After planting it for a year, you can plant soybeans for a few more years to allow the soil to recover."

Uncle Qin had already gone inside when he heard this, so he opened the window and asked, "Eldest niece, tell me about the red-fleshed melons ruining the soil another day."

Fearing that Qin Xiaomi would refuse or ask him for money for the commentary, he immediately closed the window and pretended to be asleep.

……

At Taifu Restaurant, the students were finally able to eat.

"Brother Ying is truly capable, allowing us to have dinner so we won't go hungry until tomorrow." More than two hundred students almost cried while eating their meal.

There was the joy of finally being able to eat, but also the frustration of the food being so unpalatable.

Boom!

Many students also found sand or small pebbles in their food.

There was nothing we could do; the ingredients had been rolled around on the ground several times, and even after washing, there were still small grains of sand embedded in the meat that we couldn't remove.

In short, their mood today was like the food in their mouths—a mix of all sorts of feelings, hard to describe.

(End of this chapter)