Male Lead's Canon Fodder Wife

Lu Jueyu glanced at her husband and, seeing that he was no longer as unhappy as before, shifted the conversation, "Alright, now tell Mother what you wanted to say earlier."

Remembering his original purpose, Dong Li quickly said, "Mother, I wanted to ask if you would like to buy some pearls from me."

Raising an eyebrow, Lu Jueyu asked, "Why not sell them to Houzi or Doctor Xie? Why sell them to Mother instead?"

Scratching his head, Dong Li replied, "Mother, the pearls are too high in quality. If I sell them to Uncle Houzi or Doctor Xie, they will definitely try to investigate where I got them. That would bring unnecessary trouble."

He grinned at his mother and added, "But if I sell them to you, there won't be a problem since we are family. After all, we should keep the water in our own fields."

Lu Jueyu chuckled at his reasoning and nodded, "That's true. But first, you will have to show Mother the pearls. Your mother won't buy them unless they are really as good as you claim."

Hearing that, Dong Li smiled wider and replied, "Mother, I guarantee you will be satisfied. Wait here—I will go get them right now!"

With that, he walked out of the room and didn't forget to close the door.

Watching her son hurry off, Lu Jueyu turned to her husband and asked, "Husband, are you still angry with him?"

"Are you not?" Li Chenmo asked her back with raised eyebrows.

Lu Jueyu let out a soft laugh and replied, "More than anger, I'm just worried."

Glancing at his wife, Li Chenmo sighed and said, "Maybe this is the start of his rebellious phase."

Hearing her husband's long sigh, Lu Jueyu burst out laughing. "Isn't it too soon for that? Ah Li is barely over twelve!"

"Boys mature faster than girls and Ah Li has always been independent. He has his own thoughts and is stubborn. If he ever decides to go down a crooked road, it won't be easy to guide him back," Li Chenmo said with a frown.

Smiling at his words, Lu Jueyu reached out and gently smoothed the furrow in her husband's brow while saying, "Husband, trust yourself and trust our son."

"Ah Li might think differently from other children his age, and he might mature earlier, but he is a smart child. He will understand our intentions," she added softly.

"I hope so," Li Chenmo murmured, pulling his wife into his embrace.

As he breathed in her familiar scent, he thought to himself, 'Yu'er is right. I need to be more patient and understanding.'

In the backyard, Dong Li was scooping pearls out of the earthen jar into a bamboo basket. He placed two layers of cloth inside the basket to ensure the water wouldn't wet his parents' room later.

Ten minutes later, he finally finished moving all the pearls. After cleaning up the earthen jar, he carried the basket into the house. Knocking on his parents' bedroom door, he said, "Mother, Father, may I come in?"

"Come in."

Hearing his mother's voice, he opened the door and walked inside. He placed the basket near the Kang bed and said, "Mother, Father, these are the pearls Jianmin and I harvested today."

Seeing the basket filled to the brim with pearls, both Lu Jueyu and Li Chenmo were surprised. They had expected far fewer, thinking their son wouldn't find more than a hundred. So, these numbers were far from what they expected.

"These are all the pearls from the cave?" Lu Jueyu asked.

Shaking his head, Dong Li replied with a smile, "Mother, there are a lot of mussels in the underground river. Jianmin and I only managed to harvest a small part. It would take months to collect everything."

After hearing her son's words, Lu Jueyu picked up a pearl and examined it. Compared to the pearls produced by her space, the quality was still inferior. But for natural freshwater pearls, these were far above standard.

After she finished her inspection, she put the pearl back in the basket and asked, "Ah Li, how much do you plan to sell them for?"

Dong Li sat across from his parents on the Kang bed and said, "Mother, I asked Brother Bajie, and he offered me one yuan and 50 cents per pearl."

The moment Lu Jueyu and Li Chenmo heard this, their faces darkened. Bajie was really too much. For pearls of this quality, he only offered less than two yuan each?

In the black market, even the lowest-quality pearls sold for 80 cents apiece. Based on that, the pearls their son found should fetch at least four yuan each.

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Seeing his parents go silent, Dong Li thought the price might be too high for them to afford. As their son, he didn't mind selling at a lower price and was about to speak—

But before he could, his mother said, "These pearls are of high quality. Mother will pay you five yuan each."

Dong Li's eyes widened in surprise the moment he heard his mother's words. The number of pearls he and his friends had collected exceeded 16,000 pearls. If his mother paid him 5 yuan each, that would be more than 80,000 yuan!

He hesitated for a moment before he asked, "Mother, isn't that too high?"

"It's a fair price for pearls of this quality," Lu Jueyu replied with a smile.

"But there are more than 16,000 pearls—"

Understanding her son's concern, Lu Jueyu reassured him with a smile, "Don't worry, your mother has enough money to pay you. Let's count how many pearls you have and settle the bill."

Seeing how confident his mother was, Dong Li could only nod, "Okay."

Once the price was set, the three of them began counting the pearls. After almost an hour, they finally finished—16,895 pearls in total.

Lu Jueyu walked to the cabinet and retrieved a small can from beneath a pile of clothes.