He forced me to sever ties with my family and sleep on a dilapidated boat, then turned around and be

Gold jewelry from 1984 would indeed be around this price.

However, if you buy old gold at a bank branch, you only get about 17 yuan per gram.

This boss might have some connections, or he might be involved in some underground gold collecting business, which is why he can sell it so cheaply.

Niu Bayi also picked up the golden cage, looked at it, and squeezed it.

Judging from its appearance and feel, it is indeed pure gold.

He nodded.

"Okay, 90 yuan it is."

Anyway, he's made a lot of money now, so he doesn't care about a few bucks. He just took out nine ten-yuan bills and slapped them on the table.

The boss was also very skillful. He held up a small pair of tweezers, picked up the largest golden cage, and slightly adjusted the opening of the cage.

He then took the pearl from He Zhenzhen's hand and carefully placed it inside.

Seal the opening tightly again.

Next, he took out a red thread and tied it on.

He finished it in no time and handed it to He Zhenzhen.

He Zhenzhen didn't take it, but looked at Niu Bayi with a smile.

Niu Bayi smiled, took the pearl pendant from the boss, and gently put it around He Zhenzhen's neck.

He lowered his voice, sounding very gentle.

"Really? From now on, I've got you tied to me. You'll never be able to leave me for the rest of your life."

He Zhenzhen rolled her eyes.

"My goodness, that's so cheesy! I can't stand it!"

Nearby, a man who looked like a boss asked, "Young man, this is a pearl king! If you sell it, you can make a lot of money. You can give it to your wife; smaller pearls are fine too."

"I'll buy them from you for 800 yuan each, what do you say?"

Niu Bayi immediately shook his head.

"I wouldn't sell it for 8000 yuan. This is the first gift I gave my wife, a token of our love, priceless!"

Upon hearing this, He Zhenzhen beamed with joy.

She wrapped her two soft arms around Niu Bayi's arms, pressing her whole body against him.

It's almost turned into a puddle of spring mud, plastered all over him.

Then, the soon-to-be young couple walked towards the market entrance.

Watching their retreating figures, everyone shook their heads and sighed.

"This young man loves his wife so much, he wouldn't sell a single one for 800 yuan!"

"No wonder, after all, he's already made several thousand dollars, and he's saving the biggest pearl for his wife—how sweet!"

"I wish I had a husband like that! I'm so envious!"

……

As the two walked out of the market entrance, an elderly man in his fifties approached them.

He was leaning on a cane and looked very panicked.

As I walked, I kept asking the people next to me.

Have you seen my bag of pearls?

"Has anyone seen my bag of pearls?!"

"That was my life, worth a lot of money. Who saw it? Who picked it up?"

As he spoke, he tapped his cane on the ground, making a thumping sound.

Anyone could sense his anxiety.

Someone immediately asked the old man, "Hey Boss Wang, what happened to you? Did you drop a bag of pearls?"

The old man kept nodding, his eyes welling up with tears, looking extremely anxious.

"Yes, I just took a group out to sea and caught a lot of pearl oysters, all deep-sea pearl oysters. When we opened them up, they were full of pearls, and high-quality ones at that!"

"After I processed them, I packed all the pearls into small bags and brought them here to sell, but they disappeared in the blink of an eye. Where did they go? Have any of you seen them? Anyone who can provide clues to Wang Laicai—"

"A 100 yuan bonus!"

Immediately, someone pointed at Niu Bayi, who was about to walk past.

"Oh my, this young man just sold a bag of pearls at the market, all high-quality wild natural pearls, for 5000 yuan."

Upon hearing this, the old man immediately looked at Niu Bayi, his face showing excitement.

"Young man, did you... did you find my bag of pearls? My bag is about thirty centimeters long, made of polyester fabric, dyed dark blue, and has an elastic drawstring at the top."

"Was the bag of pearls you found packed in this kind of bag?"

Niu Bayi and He Zhenzhen were taken aback.

They did indeed use these bags to hold the pearls.

But the bag was found by He Zhenzhen at home, and it's exactly the same as what the old man said.

Immediately afterwards, Niu Bayi's face showed a hint of annoyance.

He suddenly recognized it.

Wang Laicai's words were quite cunning!

Name a bag of the same color and size, and then ask him if the bag of pearls he found was packed in that bag.

This is obvious; you need to create an impression on others—

He found that bag of pearls!

Just as Niu Bayi was about to speak, another onlooker shouted, "That's right, that's right! The bag of pearls that young man was selling just now came from a bag like this."

"I never expected him to have found it. I thought he had actually caught it from the sea."

"He's sold them all now!"

Someone else snorted.

"Actually, I figured it out a long time ago; he's just a small-time fisherman!"

"How could a small fisherman go to the deep sea and find such high-quality pearls? He probably either stole them or picked them up! You have a lot of nerve, picking up Boss Wang's pearls and daring to bring them here to sell."

The third person spoke.

"Hey, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and return the 5000 yuan you earned from selling the pearls to Boss Wang!"

These people were clearly accomplices, chatting amongst themselves in the crowd.

This immediately angered the uninformed audience, who all looked at Niu Bayi with rage and scolded him for being dishonest, picking up the pearls and not returning them to their owner, but instead selling them in the market.

He Zhenzhen shouted angrily, "We retrieved the pearls ourselves! Who said we picked up other people's? Don't listen to their nonsense!"

One of the henchmen pointed at her and shouted, "Do you know who Boss Wang is? He's the King of Pearl Hunters, the best among pearl hunters. He uses professional ships and equipment to go out into the deep sea and harvest wild pearls."

"That bag of pearls is of very high quality. How could you possibly have gotten them? It must be Boss Wang's!"

Pearl hunters were a profession unique to the 1970s and 80s, who would travel to the deep sea in special pearl-diving boats.

Then, wearing a bulky canvas wetsuit and a hard helmet, they dived to the seabed at least twenty or thirty meters deep using a hose connected to the surface to obtain compressed air from the ship.

They harvest various types of shells that can produce pearls there.

This kind of work is very hard, and there is even a risk to one's life if one is not careful.

Throughout the year, far more pearl hunters die at sea than fishermen.

As pearl farming technology matured and spread, coupled with the extreme danger of deep-sea pearl harvesting, the industry gradually declined after the 1990s.

A pearl hunter who can become the King of Pearl Hunters must be extraordinary!

At this moment, Wang Laicai suddenly pointed at He Zhenzhen's pearl pendant.

"This...this is the King Pearl I painstakingly retrieved from over fifty meters deep at sea! How did it end up hanging around your neck? You've gone too far!"

Then, he took a small box out of his pocket and opened the lid.

Inside, there was a pearl with a diameter of about eighteen millimeters, which was quite lustrous and shiny.

It's almost exactly the same as the one hanging around He Zhenzhen's neck.

He said, "This is the King of Two Pearls! Both pearls were taken from the same large pearl oyster. When I lost that bag of pearls, the other King of Pearls also fell out."

"I can't believe you found it and even made it into a pendant?"

"You have to give it back to me, or you're no different from a robber!"