72: The tragic Wan Yuanliang

On thursday afternoon, before it was even three o'clock, Ye Su had already bought an extendable net and arrived at a distance from Binkeng Creek on Jinxi Road to wait for his opportunity.

Binkeng Creek was just a small stream less than a meter deep. It likely didn't have many fish, let alone pedestrians. After arriving, Ye Su didn't even see any anglers.

Ye Su suspected that this group of middle-aged women releasing animals had also seen those news reports online, where people were caught and scolded by law enforcement for indiscriminately releasing various creatures, which was why they chose such a remote creek to release them.

Not long after, Ye Su noticed six women in their fifties or sixties, each carrying a basket, descending to the creekside from a gap at the bridgehead.

The plastic basket in the hands of one of the women, who was wearing red clothes, was flashing with light, immediately attracting Ye Su's attention.

"It's them."

After confirming that the plastic basket in the woman's hand was the target of his trip, Ye Su didn't try to take the easy way out; he went straight up to offer money to buy the items in their hands.

There was no way to judge their economic status from the clothes they wore, but the fact that they didn't have to work on a thursday afternoon and had arranged to come to the creek to engage in this "release" activity suggested their financial situation probably wasn't too bad.

If he offered too much money, Ye Su wouldn't be happy.

If he offered too little, it might not shake their conviction to release the animals, and he worried that if they suspected Ye Su would fish out what they released, they might just take their baskets and go to another creek to release them, which would really be a disaster.

To prevent any accidents, Ye Su could only patiently wait for the women to pour all the seafood into the creek before going to fish it out.

The two parties were separated by dozens of meters, and the women didn't notice that someone in the distance had spotted them.

They didn't release the animals immediately. After placing the plastic baskets on the ground, they each put their hands together and muttered something, sounding very earnest.

However, as a person from Guying, Ye Su was all too familiar with this kind of scene.

He couldn't hear what they were chanting, but it was nothing more than things like "May the whole family be safe when coming and going" or "May the children's studies improve."

Once the required rituals were completed, the women looked around, and after confirming no one was coming to stop them, they poured the contents of the plastic baskets into the creek one by one.

"Fish, seashells, and those little round things—could they be river snails? Not bad. Compared to releasing bottled water, these things are at least a bit more normal."

From dozens of meters away, Ye Su couldn't see clearly, but he could confirm that the things the women poured out were a motley mix; he didn't know if they had gotten them from a wet market or somewhere else.

As the items were thrown in one after another, splashes kept erupting in the creek. When the final highlight—the glowing Golden-Lipped Pearl Oyster—was thrown in, it even sent up a jet of water.

After completing their psychological comfort, the six women gestured at the air, muttered a few more words, and then left the creek, chatting and laughing.

Back on the bridge, after confirming the women had left and wouldn't come back to stop him while he was fishing for the items, Ye Su went to the spot where they had just dumped the seafood.

With the system's prompt, Ye Su could clearly see a patch of light shining underwater. Judging by the look of it, the creek wasn't deep, and the net he had bought was definitely long enough.

"Are those even freshwater fish that you're just dumping in here?"

While complaining, Ye Su screwed the handle onto the net and reached down toward the light underwater.

Feeling that the net was positioned just about right, Ye Su tentatively scooped upward.

"Having perspective is just so useful."

Seeing the light move with the net, Ye Su's face lit up, and he hurriedly pulled the net back.

"Damn, it actually has some weight to it!"

Dumping it onto the ground along with the silt, a Golden-Lipped Pearl Oyster, over twenty centimeters in size and weighing an estimated six or seven catties, appeared before Ye Su's eyes.

After being fished out by Ye Su, the two shells of the Golden-Lipped Pearl Oyster were still firmly closed, looking very much alive.

Putting the Golden-Lipped Pearl Oyster into a plastic bag and disassembling the net, Ye Su went back to the bridge, hailed a taxi, and rushed back to his rental apartment as fast as he could.

To be safe, Ye Su used his phone to check several search platforms and AIs, confirming that the Golden-Lipped Pearl Oyster was not a protected animal, before confidently beginning his work.

Putting on the work gloves he had bought when digging last time, Ye Su first washed the mud and sand off the surface of the Golden-Lipped Pearl Oyster. Then, holding a sharp knife, he carefully pried it open. Like an oyster shucker opening an oyster, he slowly cut the adductor muscle on the shell, successfully prying the Golden-Lipped Pearl Oyster completely open.

For Ye Su, who had cooking experience, this step wasn't difficult at all.

After taking off the gloves, Ye Su felt with his fingers and, sure enough, found a hard lump in the middle of the oyster meat.

Slicing open the meat and squeezing with both hands, a perfectly round, flawless golden pearl fell onto the towel he had laid out.

Ye Su didn't have any particular feelings about pearls, but he still thought this naturally formed, radiant golden pearl was very beautiful.

"This is the naturally occurring South Sea golden pearl that's worth more than gold!"

"No, it should be said that it's even more expensive than gold."

Ye Su had checked online; when calculated by weight, a gram of natural South Sea golden pearl was worth several hundred US dollars, far exceeding the price of gold after its recent surge.

The most exaggerated part was that for every millimeter increase in the diameter of a natural South Sea golden pearl, the price basically doubled.

Two years ago, an 18.5-millimeter natural South Sea golden pearl was sold at an auction for the exaggerated sky-high price of 3.8 million Hong Kong dollars!

"Such a small thing is worth 40,000 yuan. If it were strung into a pearl necklace, wouldn't it be enough to trade for an apartment in Yangcheng!"

After admiring nature's uncanny workmanship, Ye Su used a tape measure and chopsticks to roughly measure the size of the golden pearl.

"It's about 11 millimeters."

After measuring several times in a row, Ye Su finally estimated a size he believed was the most accurate.

"When in trouble, find A-Liang."

Unless he went to jewelry stores and asked for prices one by one, Ye Su had no other channel to sell this golden pearl.

Fortunately, with the father-son duo Wan Yuanliang, who had wide connections and knew all kinds of people in Yangcheng, Ye Su could save himself a lot of trouble.

Opening WeChat, Ye Su first sent a photo of the golden pearl to Wan Yuanliang, and then sent a message.

[Bro, are you buying natural South Sea golden pearls?]

After sending the message, Ye Su grabbed a storage box and placed the golden pearl inside to avoid any bumps or scratches.

...

On the other side, Wan Yuanliang was taking advantage of his father minding the shop by himself today to stroll through the Guangchang Ceramic Jade Stone Craft Market, nicknamed "Yangcheng's Panjiayuan," intending to see if he could spot any bargains with his own eye.

Logically speaking, since their family ran an antique shop on Xiguan Antique Street, both father and son knew a large number of people, whether they were sellers or buyers of antiques.

They just needed to act as an antique transit station, serving as the middleman for these two groups of customers, and the antique shop would be raking in money. Wan Yuanliang could completely sit back with his feet up and wait for the money to fall into his pocket; he didn't need to come to the craft market to hunt for bargains.

Previously, Wan Yuanliang had indeed lived such a cushy life.

But ever since Ye Su first unearthed a piece of jade wrapped in stone, and then a painting with an interlayer...

After being used by Wan Bowen for comparison and then subjected to a round of sarcasm, Wan Yuanliang's cushy life had come to an end.