91: Dragon Ball

Yang Qi took the conch meat, and under Bai Xue's guidance, he indeed felt something hard.

Carefully breaking open the conch meat, he squeezed out a round, golden-orange pearl.

"Get some water to rinse it!"

"Oh, oh! Alright!"

His mother, who was watching the excitement nearby, immediately went to get a basin of water. Yang Qi scooped out water and poured it over the golden-orange conch pearl in his hand, which was about the size of a pigeon's egg.

After washing off the mucus and rinsing it several times in the basin of water, it looked even more remarkable when he picked it up again.

The flame patterns on the pearl seemed to come alive under the sunlight.

"Truly beautiful!" All three exclaimed.

"This thing must be worth tens of thousands of yuan, right?" Yang Qi's tone shifted, and he began to focus on the pearl's value.

Bai Xue replied:

"I actually know a little bit about this. When I was a sophomore, I read a report."

"Melo pearls, also known as Dragon Pearls or Flame Pearls, are relatively round and are extremely rare natural pearls found inside sea snails, which cannot be artificially cultivated."

"Their colors range from orange-yellow, orange-red, yellow, yellowish-brown, to near-white, possessing a ceramic-like luster and flame-patterned structure."

"Their shapes vary from irregular to egg-shaped, oval, and even round. Round ones are the most rare and precious."

"The chance of finding one inside a sea snail is very small, perhaps one in several thousand. The chance of successfully extracting a large, high-quality one is even smaller."

"In 2003, at the Hong Kong Poly Auction, a 100.4-carat Melo pearl sold for 2.7 million US dollars, averaging 26,892 US dollars per carat, setting a record for the highest price for a single pearl."

"Good heavens! Is it that valuable? I wonder how much our Melo pearl is worth?"

Yang Qi's eyebrows shot up when he heard this.

"This needs to be appraised by a professional, but this Melo pearl is very round and perfect. It should be worth a lot," Bai Xue explained.

"Keep going! Let's see if we can find any more Dragon Pearls in the remaining ones."

In fact, Yang Qi still preferred to call them "Dragon Pearls." He had known the story of "Dragon Ball" since he was a child.

He wondered if gathering seven Dragon Pearls could truly summon a Divine Dragon.

After a while, the remaining coconut conch meat was successively removed from their shells.

After careful and repeated inspections by the three of them, they ultimately found nothing else.

"Indeed, rarity is rarity, and there's a reason for its preciousness. It's not like cheap cabbage, found everywhere."

Yang Qi comforted his mother and Bai Xue.

"To get such a good one is already a great stroke of luck. From now on, we need to pay more attention when we encounter coconut conchs."

The two also agreed with Yang Qi's view.

"Let's go back and find someone to appraise it first."

The two of them cleaned all the conch meat, wrapped it in plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator. They collected all the conch shells, intending to take them back as decorations.

Bai Xue also sliced some of the conch meat and stir-fried a dish.

"We'll stop here for the night!"

Before they set sail, they had discussed it: his mother and Bai Xue would sleep in the rest cabin, while he and his dad would sleep, one in the cockpit and one on the flybridge sofa.

The four of them set up a table on the deck and began to eat: a large basin of steak, a large clay pot of rich Grouper soup, a plate of stir-fried conch meat, and a serving of stir-fried cabbage. Of course, the oysters they had just shucked that afternoon were also indispensable.

"Wow, this Grouper soup is really delicious, it's almost sticky on the lips!" Yang Qi exclaimed after tasting a mouthful of the fish soup.

"Of course! I put in two Groupers, each about three catties. How could this pot of soup not be delicious?" his mother said, a hint of pride in her voice, hearing her son liked the soup.

"The stir-fried conch meat is also very good, fragrant and chewy."

Dinner concluded with the group's laughter and chatter.

The group sat there chatting, slowly enjoying the sunset over the sea.

At sunset, the sea and sky merged into one color, golden sunlight spread across the sea, shimmering with reflections, breathtakingly beautiful. It was as if time itself had stopped at that moment.

After enjoying the sunset, Yang Qi immediately took out four or five bags of antarctic shrimp brick, and mixed the chum with the bait. He also told his dad to bring out two boxes of frozen bait fish.

The two began to chum the water, and as so much chum sank into the sea, the fish schools in the sea became agitated.

The first to be hooked was a large sea bass. Watching his dad effortlessly reel in the fifteen-to-sixteen-jin sea bass, Yang Qi felt his heart itch.

Soon after, a fish was also hooked on the other electric reel, which whirred as it reeled in the fishing line.

Suddenly, a strong pull came from his hand. By feel, Yang Qi knew that the fish he had hooked would not be too small either.

He looked closely and saw it was a Red Snapper. Its entire body was orange-red. Its scientific name is the Redfin Snapper.

It primarily forages at night, feeding on fish, crustaceans, and some invertebrates on the seabed.

Red Snapper has a rich mouthfeel, its flesh is delicious and delicate, not fishy, and it is orange-red. It is said to be delicious no matter how it is cooked.

The Red Snapper he caught was arm's length, weighing about twenty catties.

Although he didn't know the exact price, Yang Qi knew that red fish in the sea generally wouldn't be cheap, and this one was also quite large.

At the very least, it would be a hundred yuan per catty, right?

Within his field of vision, there were still quite a few more, all vying for the chum that had just been thrown into the water.

"Alright! We're a family, so let's all be together! Come on up!"

Yang Qi activated 'delivery mode,' sending the bait to the edge of the school of Red Snapper each time.

Although he occasionally caught a few other fish during this time, he ultimately caught about seventy to eighty percent of the Red Snapper school, roughly twenty-odd fish.

Yang Qi put down his fishing rod and began to organize his catch, pushing the fish into the freezer with a small cart.

Returning to the fishing spot, he helped his dad organize the fish he had just caught and put them onto the small cart.

His dad waved him off, pushing the cart to the freezer himself.

Yang Qi didn't cast his rod immediately. He lit a cigarette and observed the underwater situation.

Suddenly, he noticed a few large creatures appearing at the very edge of his ability's vision.

Their spindle-shaped bodies and yellow fins immediately told him they were Yellowfin Tuna passing by.

He picked up the Blue Mackerel segments left over from chumming earlier, from the fishing box beside him, and desperately scattered them far into the distance.

Yang Dad, who had just walked out of the freezer, saw Yang Qi chumming, so he returned to the cabin and carried out another box of frozen bait. He came to Yang Qi's side, chopped the Blue Mackerel into segments, and let him chum.

Yang Qi's chumming wasn't just dumping everything into the sea at once. Instead, he scattered it from far to near, creating a chain of bait.

Finally, he saw a few Tuna notice the commotion of the bait being scattered. They began to turn and swim towards them.

"Alright! Dad, start putting on whole fish as bait. Big fish are coming!" Yang Qi told his dad.

"Okay!"

Yang Dad had witnessed Yang Qi's abilities and now had complete faith in his son's words.

Without another word, he followed Yang Qi's example, putting a whole Blue Mackerel on the hook and casting his rod forcefully in the direction Yang Qi had cast his.

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PS: Yesterday's data dropped by half, I don't know why, and I have nothing more to say. Thank you to all my loyal readers for your support and encouragement!