234: Counting treasures

The next morning, the two woke up, lingered in bed for a while, then got dressed and went downstairs.

They opened the room where the treasure was kept, saw that the wooden boxes were still there, and, relieved, locked the door and went to find food.

They first went to Mother Yang’s place, saw that no one was home, and no breakfast had been left for them. After discussing, they went to Bai’s house, but the result was the same.

“Husband, you sit for a bit; I’ll go make something for you,” Bai Xue said to Yang Qi.

“Let’s not bother. It’s just the two of us; we won’t eat much, and it’s too much trouble. Let’s go to a breakfast shop!” Yang Qi suggested.

“Okay, let’s go! What do you want to eat?”

“Let’s go eat clam cakes! It’s been a while since we had them.”

Yang Qi went home, got on his electric scooter, and took Bai Xue. The two chatted as they rode towards the breakfast shop.

“Hello, comrade! Please pull over,” a traffic officer at a turn stopped them and saluted.

“Oh no, this is bad. I forgot to wear my helmet.”

Yang Qi obediently pulled over.

In the end, because they weren’t wearing safety helmets, they were lectured and fined 20 yuan before being allowed to leave.

The only thing to fear is a traffic officer saluting you, or a doctor telling you he’s sorry!

After the two finished their clam cakes, Yang Qi went to buy Bai Xue a pink helmet before riding home.

Back home, he began to move the treasures, grunting and groaning, into the master bedroom, like moving a hamster’s stash.

Yang Qi and Bai Xue decided to first authenticate the small yellow croaker, so they took a few ordinary small yellow croaker without inscriptions and prepared to go to a gold shop in the The City.

They also remembered that the Crabs and Spiny Lobsters they caught yesterday were still on setting sail, and they needed to be dealt with quickly.

Yang Qi drove the van, dropped Bai Xue off at the wharf, and let Bai Xue sail the boat while he drove to City Wharf to meet her.

Yang Qi picked up Bai Xue at City Wharf, and together they found a gold shop with a larger storefront, the same one where they bought the gold bracelet last time.

After paying the fee, the authentication result showed that the small yellow croaker had a gold content of 99.9%, with a recycling price of 940 yuan per gram according to the day’s gold market.

Each small yellow croaker weighed one liang, which is 31.25 grams, making its recycling value 29,375 yuan.

Yang Qi and Bai Xue exchanged a smile. As long as they knew it was real gold, that was enough; a content of 99.9% made it even more perfect.

There were more than ten such small yellow croaker without inscriptions at home, which amounted to over three hundred thousand yuan! Plus those large gold bricks, ha ha ha, just thinking about it was wonderful!

The inscribed ones, even a fool would know, were worth even more. They had struck it rich this time!

The two returned to the wharf in high spirits, loading the Crabs, Spiny Lobsters, and some miscellaneous fish onto the car.

Yang Qi drove to Zhang Jun’s house. Zhang Jun was not home; only Aunt Wang was there.

Yang Qi put some Grouper, Mud Crab, and swimming Crabs into Zhang Jun’s new fish tank, and then tossed in more than ten Spiny Lobsters.

Finally, he returned to the town’s training center wharf, picked up Bai Xue, and they went back home.

They distributed some of the Spiny Lobsters, Crabs, and Grouper to their families, and kept the rest in the large fish tank at their new home.

All the miscellaneous fish were packaged and frozen in the freezer, to be used as chum on their next fishing trip.

Bai Xue simply pulled Yang Qi home and moved some of her luggage over.

From then on, the two began a “shameless” cohabitation.

The reason was actually very simple: when they went to Uncle’s house to deliver Crabs earlier, they saw Little Aunt Chen Lanxin walking very awkwardly and organizing her luggage.

Bai Xue secretly asked and found out that Little Aunt had moved in last night and was already living a happy life with Uncle Zheng Tie.

For her own happy life, Bai Xue gritted her teeth and went all out, pulling Yang Qi to move her luggage.

Anyway, with Little Aunt taking the lead, she could just follow suit.

What she didn’t expect was that her mother, Chen Lanying, said nothing, as if she had known all along.

After lunch, Yang Qi and Bai Xue began to sort the silver dollars in the bedroom. There were 50 sealed bundles, each with 50 coins, totaling 2500 silver dollars.

Plus, there were 82 loose ones.

In total, there were 2582 silver dollars, with 36 different types and sizes.

The two had no knowledge of silver dollars. Even for the most familiar “Yuan Datou,” which are silver dollars with Yuan Shikai’s portrait, they were stumped when they found there were four or five different inscriptions, portraits, and patterns.

These “Yuan Datou” portraits included bald ones, those wearing hats, and different years.

Their eyes grew tired from looking. They searched for information online, but found conflicting opinions and didn’t know who to believe. The more they searched, the more confused they became.

They only knew that a few types might be more valuable, but the specifics were unclear.

They took out two of each type, packed them separately. The rest were wrapped back in oil paper, marked one by one, registered, and put away.

Next were some gold and silver jewelry. Some were exquisitely crafted, while others were very ordinary.

Yang Qi looked at these uneven quality gold and silver jewelry and secretly wondered:

“People who own so much gold must be extremely wealthy. They shouldn’t be wearing crudely made jewelry! One or two pieces might be possible, but there are dozens of ordinary pieces here.”

He shared this thought with Bai Xue.

Bai Xue also expressed her confusion:

“Husband, I’ve been thinking the same thing. I don’t think these things belong to one family, including those small yellow croaker. It’s as if they were collected by someone. But the large gold bricks are most likely from one family.”

“Your analysis is very thorough.”

Yang Qi nodded, agreeing with her idea.

Suddenly, he thought of a possibility: his father had told him last time that Chen Zhongwei had mentioned sea bandits and pirates in this sea area in the 1970s and 1980s, who were later eliminated by smugglers.

“Could it be things those people robbed?”

After hearing this, Bai Xue also nodded repeatedly.

“It’s highly possible. At that time, there were also many stowaways, some of whom smuggled their entire families. Perhaps these large gold bricks and small yellow croaker were robbed from these stowaways. And those ordinary pieces were probably accumulated from regular robberies.”

After some analysis, the two felt this was the most likely possibility. The fact that these boxes hadn’t taken on water, plus the inscriptions on the small yellow croaker, gold ingots, and gold sycees inside, proved that the time couldn’t have been too long ago.

However, none of that mattered anymore. They weren’t archaeologists; they just needed to know that these things now belonged to them.

Yang Qi told Bai Xue to pick out the ones she thought were beautiful. For the remaining ordinary pieces, he planned to buy a gold melting furnace online and melt them all down.

Finally, he poured out the gems from the small pouch. There were thirty-five in total, red, blue, and green, with brilliant colors and crystal clarity, very beautiful.

“Husband, these gems are so pretty!”

Bai Xue couldn’t take her eyes off the gems, praising them sincerely.