356: Tridacna Beads

Yang Qi did not head towards the inflatable boat, instead going directly to the further "setting sail". He put all the premium seafood from the Net Bag into the small Live Well.

After clearing the Net Bag, Yang Qi returned to the area near the cliff and began prying up large Abalone.

Suddenly, he saw a strange, flat-shaped reef on the seabed not far away, with a diameter of over a meter.

In the middle of this reef was a huge, jagged crack, which looked very uniform.

This phenomenon immediately caught Yang Qi's attention. He quickly picked up the large Coconut Shell Snail beside him and stuffed it into the Net Bag.

Upon reaching the object, he realized it was actually spouting water from the crack, and the color inside the crack was snow-white, unlike the pitch-black reef outside.

"Holy crap, isn't this the legendary Giant Clam?"

Seeing this live Giant Clam, Yang Qi felt a mix of awe and regret. Looking at the huge and thick shell, he was quite tempted.

This Giant Clam shell is one of the four great organic gems in the West and also one of the Seven Treasures of Buddhism; it's not cheap at all.

If one were to make beads out of a Giant Clam shell this big, there would probably be hundreds of strings. That would be worth a fortune!

However, this thought only flashed through his mind. He couldn't do that; this thing is a protected animal in the country, and messing with it would land him in jail!

"Sigh! Can only look, not touch. What a pity!"

He turned his head, ready to leave, but then had a second thought. He immediately turned back and lay down again.

"Right! I remember Giant Clams can also produce pearls! I wonder if there's one inside this big Giant Clam?"

So, he took a Large Whelk out of the Net Bag and wedged it onto the edge of the Giant Clam's shell, preventing the Giant Clam from getting startled and closing its shell to crush his arm.

Yang Qi held the Large Whelk with one hand and reached into the clam meat with the other to grope around. The inside of the shell was soft, with huge flesh, feeling…

"Holy crap, there really is one!"

He took it out and saw that it was very round, entirely blood-red with flame patterns, and a size larger than the melo pearl from last time.

"Such a big Giant Clam, and the pearl it produced is this small? What a waste of growing so big."

He remembered reports online that in the Philippines in 1934, a diving child was trapped by a giant Giant Clam and drowned.

After salvaging the Giant Clam, they unexpectedly discovered a huge pearl, weighing 6350 grams, 241 millimeters long, and 139 millimeters wide, with an age of about 2500 years. This is the largest natural seawater pearl ever discovered in the world, named the "Pearl of Allah", also known as the "Pearl of Laozi".

Its name stems from a legend: when observed from different angles, the surface contours of the pearl can be imagined as the three holy figures of Sakyamuni, Confucius, and Laozi. It symbolizes the philosophical concept of "the unity of heaven and man".

In 1969, it was first valued at 4.08 million USD, rising to 23 million USD in 1980, and this year there were reports claiming its value reached 40 million USD.

Yang Qi looked at the pearl he had found, feeling a bit frustrated at its lack of ambition.

"They are both Giant Clams, why is there such a huge difference?"

"At least it grew relatively well-formed, and didn't turn out all crooked and ugly."

After admiring it for a while, Yang Qi stuffed the Giant Clam pearl into his glove, tightened the Velcro straps on his wrists, and continued foraging.

After a while, once all three Net Bags were full, he felt his glove to ensure the pearl was still there, and then swam towards "setting sail".

Upon arriving at "setting sail", he found the three girls moving seafood onto the boat. It seemed they had also gathered quite a lot.

Yao Shanshan stood on the inflatable boat, took Yang Qi's Net Bags, and passed them onto the boat one by one.

Yang Qi noticed that the Abalone they caught were also quite large, basically around half a jin each, and there were also many kinds of Sea snails.

"Wow, Brother Qi, yours seem to be even bigger!"

Yao Shanshan held the Net Bags Yang Qi had sent up, looking quite surprised!

Yang Qi looked helplessly at Yao Shanshan, then at Bai Xue, without saying a word.

"Come up and rest for a while first!"

"Hmm, alright!"

Yang Qi vaulted onto the inflatable boat and casually tied it to the fishing boat. Then, he and Yao Shanshan boarded "setting sail".

"Little Snow, let me show you something good!"

Yang Qi winked at Bai Xue and walked into the Cockpit. Bai Xue understood and followed him in. She saw Yang Qi take a huge pearl out of his glove and hand it over.

Bai Xue took it in her hand, mouth agape, eyes wide, looking at Yang Qi and then at the pearl:

"Hubby, did you just find this down there?"

"Yeah, I ran into a big Giant Clam over there…"

Yang Qi recounted the process.

"Hehehe, isn't this pearl beautiful?"

"Beautiful, it's too beautiful!"

Seeing Bai Xue's doting expression, Yang Qi said softly:

"If you like it, it's yours!"

"Thank you, Hubby! Mwah…"

Yang Qi grinned, enjoying Bai Xue's reward. After a while, he said:

"Go put it away first. Let's go back there later and see if there are any more."

"Alright! Let's go together later! Hubby, you keep this pearl for now! Give it to me when we get back."

Bai Xue handed the pearl to Yang Qi and said.

"That works too. Otherwise, just like that melo pearl, I'll make this Giant Clam pearl into a pendant, and you can wear them interchangeably!"

"Okay, I'll listen to Hubby!"

After Yang Qi put the pearl into his suitcase, the two of them walked out of the Cockpit hand in hand.

At this time, Yao Shanshan and Wang Yan on the deck had already taken off their wetsuits and started making a midnight snack.

Once these wetsuits leave the water, they stick tightly to the skin; they aren't breathable and are very uncomfortable.

After eating the midnight snack, everyone rested for a while, then followed Yang Qi to the cliff side to catch big hauls.

On the inflatable boat, Yang Qi repeatedly emphasized that they must not get close to the cliff wall, and that any seafood they gathered should be placed in the inflatable boat first. If they were tired, they should get on the inflatable boat to rest.

Then, the four of them went into the sea together to look for seafood.

By the time Yang Qi surfaced for the third time carrying a Net Bag, he found that Yao Shanshan and Wang Yan were already sitting on the inflatable boat.

Diving is actually very physically demanding; their performance was already very good. But they certainly couldn't compare to Bai Xue and Yang Qi.

Especially when only the two of them were underwater, they didn't even need snorkels.

Finally, when the inflatable boat was almost full, Yang Qi called a stop for Bai Xue, ending this diving foraging activity.

When the inflatable boat returned to "setting sail" and all the seafood was moved onto the fishing boat, they found that the small Live Well was also basically full.

Looking at the time, it was already 3:30, so the three girls decided to wait for the sunrise on the Flybridge.

Yang Qi didn't bother with them, and after washing up, he went back to the Cockpit to sleep.

Nothing happened overnight!

By the time Yang Qi woke up again, it was already 8:30 in the morning. The first thing he did was check the Live Well and found no issues.

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