393: Highly enriched uranium

Yang Qi turned around in curiosity to look at Bai Xue, who had just cursed.

He saw that Bai Xue's expression was clearly nervous, yet she was trying to act calm as she spoke:

"Hubby, listen to me. Now, slowly put the thing in your hand back into the box and close the lid!"

Hearing Bai Xue being so solemn, Yang Qi didn't dare to delay. He followed her instructions, put the lead block back into the box, and closed the lid.

"What's wrong, Xiaoxue?"

"Hubby, take a look."

Bai Xue held her phone out in front of Yang Qi for him to see for himself.

The page displayed the translation of the Japanese text on her phone.

"Holy shit, holy shit... Damn it!"

Yang Qi took one look and shouted out in shock.

In truth, there wasn't much text on the phone, but even those few words made his skin crawl instantly!

It seemed things had taken a serious turn, completely exceeding the scope of his control.

"Highly Enriched Uranium-235"

These few words were enough to blind his eyes.

"Uranium, nuclear weapons, radiation."

For a moment, the two of them were dumbfounded. They stared at each other as these words involuntarily flashed through their minds.

Neither of them knew what to do next.

Yang Qi picked up his phone to search. In his understanding, he only knew that highly enriched uranium was used to make nuclear bombs; he really didn't know the specifics of whether it was radioactive.

According to the definition by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Uranium-235 with an enrichment of 3% is low-enriched uranium used for nuclear power plants. Uranium with an enrichment of over 80% is highly enriched uranium, and that with an enrichment of over 90% is called weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, primarily used for manufacturing nuclear weapons.

Highly enriched uranium is indeed hazardous, but the risk primarily depends on the mode of exposure, especially whether it enters the human body.

When in direct contact outside the body, the hazard is relatively limited because highly enriched uranium mainly emits alpha rays. This type of radiation has very weak penetration and can be blocked by skin or ordinary barriers.

However, if it enters the body through inhalation, ingestion, or wounds, the hazard increases significantly because internal radiation directly damages cells.

"Thank goodness, thank goodness! Damn, that gave me a huge fright. This stuff should be encased in lead blocks right now. Touching it with hands shouldn't be an issue!"

The two of them finally let out a long sigh of relief, their hearts finally at ease.

However, this thing was now a hot potato; they couldn't throw it away, and they couldn't hide it.

If they threw it back into the sea and ignored it, and if one day the lead casing was corroded and caused nuclear pollution, it would be no small matter—it would be a heinous crime.

As for keeping it hidden at home without a word, that was even more of an absurdity.

"It looks like we can only hand this over to the state. We can't handle it ourselves."

Yang Qi spoke after a moment of thought.

"Yeah, this is indeed the only way to handle it. But what about our other things? We can't hand everything over, can we?"

Bai Xue couldn't help but ask back.

Yang Qi was momentarily speechless. Those items were brought up by him and Bai Xue after exhausting all their efforts and working themselves to the bone.

To ask him to hand everything over to the state now was something he was incredibly reluctant to do. He didn't consider himself that noble.

But if they didn't hand over anything at all and lied saying they only found one small box... do you think the state would believe them?

Probably even a fool wouldn't believe it!

"How could we hand everything over? But a major sacrifice is definitely necessary. Damn, why is this thing here? Sigh..."

Yang Qi also felt a headache coming on.

"Right now, in the Freezer Hold, there are twenty boxes of gold bricks, one box of gold coins, ten boxes of ore, five boxes of Golden Buddhas, and two boxes of Gold jewelry. Right?"

"That's right. Hubby, you're not planning to hand over all those things in the Freezer Hold to the state, are you? This... this..."

Bai Xue's eyes widened, her voice rising a few notches.

"That's impossible! After all, we moved them out box by box ourselves. Only we know how much we suffered during that time. I'm not that selfless or noble."

"Besides, strictly speaking, the location of that shipwreck isn't in our country's waters. We have the coordinates to prove it."

Yang Qi was certain that after they handed it over, the relevant departments would definitely go to the shipwreck site to verify it.

"My idea is to hand over half of the gold in the Freezer Hold, including the Golden Buddhas and so on. As for the ten boxes of ore, we can hand all of those over; they're useless to us."

"It definitely won't work if we don't hand over a portion; there would be zero credibility. Xiaoxue, what do you think?"

Yang Qi spoke his thoughts aloud.

"This... alright, I'll listen to you."

Bai Xue gritted her teeth, her face full of reluctance.

"But there's only one box of gold coins in total. We'll keep that for ourselves, surely that's okay?"

"Of course. That box of gold coins will be kept for you to play with."

Yang Qi stroked Bai Xue's head and said dotingly.

"In that case, adding the four boxes of gold bricks under the bed, we'll only have fourteen boxes of gold bricks left. Oh! If only that thing wasn't there!"

Bai Xue felt an indescribable heartache, but after thinking for a moment, she added:

"Hubby, I think we should hide a portion of the things and bring them home in batches later on."

"What you said makes a lot of sense. I think hiding them on the seabed is the safest. You're the smartest, Xiaoxue!"

Yang Qi gave Bai Xue a timely thumbs up. The praise made Bai Xue grin.

The two of them took the small box back to the Freezer Hold and locked it again, then began discussing which boxes to hide back on the seabed.

Yang Qi looked for the best hiding spot along the way. Two hours later, when the fishing boat reached a sea area with a depth of about 130 meters.

He finally found a place far from the shipping lanes that had a large area of jagged reefs.

The area was about three to four hundred square meters, and in the middle of the reefs was a small, relatively flat area, perfect for hiding these heavy boxes.

Moreover, because it was surrounded by reefs, they didn't have to worry about fishing boats accidentally snagging the boxes with trawling nets. It was an excellent hiding place.

Seeing that it was still light out, the two of them stopped the boat and started cooking, then waited for nightfall while they ate.

After dinner, Yang Qi and Bai Xue started fishing, while also observing if there were any fishing boats operating nearby.

Finally, after 11 PM, when there were no lights in the surrounding waters, they began transporting the treasure chests to the seabed.

In the end, they hid ten boxes of gold bricks, two boxes of golden Buddha vessels, and one box of Gold jewelry back down there.

Once the work was done and Yang Qi climbed back onto the deck, Bai Xue started the fishing boat and headed home without stopping.

From then on, the "setting sail" didn't stop once along the way. When it was time to eat, one person would cook and bring it to the Cockpit to eat together, not wasting a moment of travel time.

Finally, at eleven o'clock at night, they returned to Qingshan Town. Bai Xue steered the "setting sail" and slowly docked at the small pier of the Sea View Villa.