At the seafood market in Mindong, when Huo Sining first saw fresh abalone, she thought it was just a common sea shell. It was only after listening to Luo Jinzhi’s explanation that she realized the creature hidden inside the shell was actually the legendary abalone.
On the outside of the abalone’s body, there’s a thick, calcareous shell that wraps around it, which is a dextral, ear-shaped spiral shell. Its scientific name is "Haliotis," which means "sea ear," due to the ear-like shape of its shell.
In ancient China, abalone was named "Nine-Holed Conch," based on this characteristic.
When in S City, Huo Sining also purchased abalone to cook, but because she bought dried abalone with the shells removed, she never knew that fresh abalone were actually shellfish living inside shells.
Perhaps because of its great reputation, many people on the Mainland only know that abalone is a rare sea delicacy, and are unaware that abalone is actually a type of shell.
However, unlike ordinary shellfish, abalone are quite delicate and grow very slowly. Breeding them is difficult, and a slight carelessness can lead to "total annihilation," which is why the abalone that people commonly consume in their daily lives are artificially bred using scientific water purification methods.
In the market, the price of artificially bred abalone usually ranges between one hundred to two hundred yuan per kilogram, but wild abalones are a different story. Expensive is an understatement, and they are scarce as well, with supply falling short of demand.
Huo Sining looked at the bottom of the pool with an amazed expression, her eyes blazing with an intense light.
The hot spring in this pool must have formed as a result of submarine volcanic heat from rock magma eruptions, because the magma contains rich minerals. Moreover, the constant temperature of this clear and clean spring water throughout the year has allowed for the growth of so many wild abalones.
Huo Sining couldn’t wait to scoop one out of the pool, and when she looked at it, she was even more astonished.
What kind of abalone is considered top-grade? None other than the priceless double-headed abalone!
The grade of abalone is counted by "heads," which refers to the number we usually associate with individual abalones.
Abalone are not sold by the market "jin" but by the "simaji," also commonly known as the Hong Kong "jin," which is roughly 605 grams.
The grade of abalone is determined by how many abalones there are per simaji, including "2-head," "5-head," "10-head," "20-head," and so on, where "head" refers to the number of abalones.
If there are two abalones per jin, it is called double-headed abalone; three abalones make a three-headed abalone; and so forth—however many abalones there are per jin dictates the "head" number.
The fewer the heads, the larger the abalone and the more expensive it is.
Double-headed abalone means there are only two abalones per jin, and this kind is very rare. There’s even a saying in the market, "A thousand gold cannot buy double-headed abalone," which just shows how precious and scarce double-headed abalones are.
But the abalone in Huo Sining’s hand, she guessed, weighed at least seven or eight "liang," and even without the shell, the abalone’s weight was at least over three hundred grams! That is to say, this abalone could definitely be counted as a double-headed abalone and moreover, a rare wild delicacy.
This was just one that Huo Sining picked up casually, but there were even larger abalones in this pool!
Huo Sining swallowed instinctively, "My goodness," there were at least a hundred or two of these big guys in the pool. She had really stumbled upon a treasure!
Once there, the Old Sea Turtle paid no attention to Huo Sining, heading straight to the bottom of the waterfall, stretching its neck as if trying to bite the flower buds at the top of the plants. However, the stems under the buds were too tall for the Old Turtle to reach, which left the old chap utterly anxious, circling round and round the few strange plants.
Huo Sining’s gaze was fixed on the abalones at the bottom of the pool, not bothering to notice the Sea Turtle’s anomaly.
Faced with so many wild abalones, of course, Huo Sining couldn’t remain indifferent. She tossed the emergency light back into the storage ring and hurriedly plunged into the waters to fish for shells.
The pool was only one to two meters in depth. With the Azure Pearl, Huo Sining, squatting underwater, was not affected at all. Not only could she move freely, but her vision was also clear. The abalones at the bottom were accurately caught one after another.
Back when she was in Baiyun Village, Liu Qingdong had mentioned that the age of shellfish can be determined by the patterns on the front of the shells.
However, abalones grow more slowly compared to other shellfish, and it’s not easy to determine their exact age directly from the growth lines on the front of the abalone shells. One must clean off the algae and lime insects attached to the shell surface and use light transmission through an electric lamp for an accurate determination.
But at this moment, Huo Sining couldn’t care less about that. Her hands moved swiftly, and she used her touch to collect all the abalones larger than a five-headed abalone from the bottom of the pool.
Her logic was simple. A wild five-headed abalone was already genuine, something that couldn’t be bought on the market. Besides, this was definitely a one-off deal. Even if she knew the secret breeding grounds for these wild abalones, who knows when she could return after leaving the island? So, with such an opportunity, she would catch as many as she could.
As for abalones smaller than a five-headed abalone, she didn’t bother. Firstly, they were too small for her liking, and secondly, she wanted to leave some abalone seeds here, just in case she got the whim to come back here one day for another round.
She was so engrossed in collecting abalones that after a busy half hour, Huo Sining managed to put all the mature ones into her Storage Space.
She had prepared cargo boxes in the Storage Space in advance. Since the mature abalones were quite large, they quickly filled up four or five cargo boxes.
Luckily, the Storage Space was three-dimensional. Though not very large in area, the goods could be stacked high because the space was static. So, she didn’t need to worry about the items getting crushed and could simply stuff them in.
After busying herself with these tasks, Huo Sining finally had time to pay attention to the guide, Prime Minister Turtle.
Huo Sining thought that Prime Minister Turtle had brought her here to find abalones, and previously, this old chap had shown a strong possessive desire for the Tridacna. However, to her surprise, after bringing her in, the Old Turtle showed no interest in the abalones and went directly to the bottom of the waterfall, circling the few strange plants.
This made Huo Sining somewhat curious, and she couldn’t help but pick up the emergency light and look toward the plants below the waterfall.
She shouldn’t have looked because the moment she did, Huo Sining’s eyes widened in shock.