Chapter 44

Everyone decided to go diving, so they drove the yacht around nearby in search of a suitable spot.

Mo Qiong immediately guided them toward the Large Pearl, bringing the boat closer to their target.

There was no doubt that the pearl mussels could not be on the deep-sea floor. They had to be somewhere ten or twenty meters beneath the surface.

There were no islands nearby, yet there were pearls. Mo Qiong guessed that there must be elevated land beneath the sea.

In other words, they were islands below sea level. Only if the seawater receded would they become islands; otherwise, they were merely high ground on the seabed.

At noon, Mo Qiong looked at the surface and said, "This place should be perfect for diving."

Zhang He jumped in and took a brief dive before saying, "There are so many schools of fish! It shouldn't be very deep down there."

"How deep is 'not very deep'?" one of the girls asked.

Zhang He estimated, "At most thirty meters."

The four girls immediately clicked their tongues. "That's too deep! The deepest we've ever gone is ten meters."

They had simply been brought along by several men for entertainment and were not regular seafarers.

"It's fine. If you feel uncomfortable, just come back up. No one's forcing you to reach the bottom," said a young man named Xiao Kun.

The girls asked, "How deep have you gone?"

"I've dived a hundred meters before," Xiao Kun bragged, immediately drawing everyone's sideways glances.

Zhang He laughed. "Don't listen to him brag. The water was a hundred meters deep, but he came back up after diving thirty."

"Forget the girls. How about the rest of us go all the way down? I've dived fifty meters before. Thirty meters is nothing," someone said.

Zhang He said, "Whatever. What do you think, Little Mo?"

He had rammed Mo Qiong's boat and then been rescued by him. On top of that, Mo Qiong believed in and respected his dream. As a result, Zhang He had already come to regard Mo Qiong as a friend, and was even closer to him than to the friends he had come out to sea with.

Mo Qiong smiled. "I'm fine with it."

While chatting and laughing, everyone changed into diving suits.

Mo Qiong naturally had one too. He had deliberately preserved it when the ship sank earlier.

Splash!

Everyone went down one after another. After adjusting to the water pressure, they began diving.

At a depth of ten meters, they could already see schools of fish passing by. They swam through them, startling and chasing them, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

After taking several photos, everyone continued diving.

Once they reached a little over twenty meters, the girls could go no farther.

Everyone laughed and surfaced together.

"How about this? You girls can swim around near the boat. The rest of us will go down and take pictures for you," Xiao Kun said.

"We saw so many fish! Take lots of pictures," the girls said.

"No problem. Just wait here," Xiao Kun replied.

After leaving the girls behind, the five men held hands and dove down.

They stopped at around thirty meters, when they saw the rocks.

Holding onto the towering underwater rocks, they explored the area. Dense vegetation covered the place, with schools of fish darting through it.

Everyone chased after them for fun, but no one went too far away.

No one noticed the currents surging around Mo Qiong and flowing along the rocks into the darkness in the distance.

"Pearl mussels are usually found at depths of ten or twenty meters. This one seems especially deep."

Mo Qiong endured the water pressure and traced the rocks as he explored in pursuit of the current.

After moving dozens of meters away, Mo Qiong finally saw his target. Several meters away from him lay a large patch of shells.

They were connected to one another, covering the rocks.

One of them was especially huge, and a hole had been smashed into it by a can...

"I took protective measures. The pearl should be fine, right?"

Mo Qiong moved closer. Looking through the hole in the shell, he saw a large pearl, with his can beside it.

The can was no concern. He would bury it somewhere later. Then he pulled out the pearl. The meat inside had long since been eaten clean by the fish, leaving only an empty shell.

Holding the pearl, Mo Qiong examined it under the light on his head. There was no obvious damage.

"Just this one is worth who knows how much. If all the ones around it are like this..." Mo Qiong looked over the hundreds of pearl mussels around him and thought that the trip had been worth it.

Half an hour later, they grew tired of playing and wanted to go back up.

But Zhang He looked around and could not find Mo Qiong.

Everyone else was unconcerned. Mo Qiong was such a strong swimmer—how could he possibly get lost? They said they would talk after surfacing.

However, once they reached the surface, Mo Qiong was nowhere to be seen.

After waiting a while, Zhang He grew anxious. "Where is he?"

"He swims really fast. Could he have chased the fish too far away?" Xiao Kun said.

Just as everyone was about to dive down to look for him, a large Spanish mackerel burst from the water. Right behind it, an arm gripping the fish appeared.

Mo Qiong surfaced. With one hand, he held the Spanish mackerel, swung his arm, and tossed it onto the deck.

The girls cried out one after another. Zhang He laughed. "You really went fishing? Impressive! How did you catch it with your bare hands?"

People were naturally slower swimmers than fish. Although large schools of fish seemed close enough to embrace with an outstretched hand, anyone who actually tried to catch one would find that they could not grab a single fish.

The others had tried it on the seabed, but quickly gave up. The smaller fish were too slippery and difficult to catch, while the larger fish were too strong and even harder to catch.

Catching fish bare-handed was a skill. At most, they could catch one with a net.

Everyone assumed Mo Qiong had gone fishing, unaware that the fish had merely been a tool for his rapid ascent.

Mo Qiong shook his head. "I caught this one along the way. What I mainly found was this."

As he spoke, his other hand emerged from the water, and the bright white Large Pearl broke through the surface.

"Holy crap!" Everyone erupted in an uproar. The pearl was perfectly round and full in his hand. Sunlight shone on the droplets of water, making it look even more dazzling.

All the women cried out and leaned over the railing, desperately craning their necks to look.

"You actually found such a huge pearl?" Xiao Kun exclaimed.

Zhang He also said, "Size isn't the important thing. I've seen larger ones. But one this round is truly valuable!"

Everyone hurriedly called for Mo Qiong to come up, then gathered around him and stared at the pearl.

Several of the girls wanted to touch it, and Mo Qiong passed it to them without hesitation.

After examining it in turn, the girls said, "The color and luster are pretty good too. It's beautiful."

"Too bad it's damaged. There's an obvious scratch here."

Zhang He said, "A scratch is no big deal. With one this small, just place it face-down on the display tray and no one will see it."

"Man, you're really lucky. Natural pearls this large are extremely rare. I can't believe you found one here. People generally don't come to places like this to harvest pearls."

This area belonged to the deep-sea zone, and the nearest shallows were more than two hundred kilometers away. No one had expected to find pearl mussels beneath it.

"There should be more down there, right? It's impossible for there to be only one mussel," Xiao Kun suddenly said.

Mo Qiong smiled. "There are several hundred more. None are as large as this one, though. You can go take a look."

He pointed out the direction without the slightest concern. Everyone was delighted, drove the boat over, and dove in again.

"Bring tools. If you pry them open by hand, you'll exhaust yourselves," Mo Qiong reminded them.

He had already pried open dozens of them. Some had no pearls, while others had tiny ones. In half an hour of searching, he had not found a second pearl as good as the one in his hand.

Not only had he found nothing equally good, he had not even found one that was slightly inferior.

However, if they pried open all several hundred, there should be some with decent quality. Compared with this one, though, those were merely small change.

After he pointed out the way, everyone dove down to search.

Even the girls, who had been unable to descend past twenty meters, stubbornly made it to thirty meters.

They were not short of money. They were searching for pearls for the surprise and the thrill of treasure hunting.

After more than a dozen trips up and down, the group thoroughly ravaged that patch of pearl mussels.

Hundreds of pearls, large and small, were brought aboard.

Mo Qiong took the opportunity to say, "This is the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone. Harvesting on this scale..."

Xiao Kun hurriedly laughed. "It's fine. Who would know about this place? We'll just return through the High Seas."

Mo Qiong nodded. He had now dragged everyone into the same boat. Everyone had obtained pearls, so no one would think there was anything wrong with it.

Besides, these people all had connections for selling the batch of pearls. Mo Qiong could also take advantage of their momentum.

Two hours later, they entered the High Seas again and headed toward their homeland.

Inside the cabin, everyone gathered around the table, appraising what they had harvested.

Zhang He had harvested pearls before and was even very familiar with that market.

He pointed at the pearls and said, "These two hundred or so are useless. The girls can use them for facial treatments."

In one go, he directly picked out more than two hundred pearls of mediocre quality.

"These few are good, as are this one and this one..." Zhang He selected thirty pearls with commercial value in succession.

Xiao Kun said, "I want all thirty. Name your price."

Zhang He said, "These few are worth around ten thousand yuan each. But you'll have to pay a premium for these four. Their roundness, luster, and surface are all perfect. This one alone is worth a hundred thousand. For every millimeter larger the others are than it, the price doubles. You can do the math yourself."

Xiao Kun laughed. "That's nothing. I couldn't afford his."

As he spoke, he pointed at the largest pearl in front of Mo Qiong.

Mo Qiong froze. He looked at that small pearl, then at the one in his own hand.

The two differed by at least thirty millimeters in size.

Mo Qiong said blankly, "The price doubles for every millimeter? Then mine is... three million?"

"Hm? Three million? I'll buy it!" Xiao Kun hurriedly said.

Looking at him, Mo Qiong knew it had to be worth more than three million.

Still, if selling it himself would be troublesome, selling it to this group of rich second-generation heirs would be a good option. He did not mind selling it a little cheaper.

Zhang He glared at Xiao Kun, then smiled at Mo Qiong. "He's joking. What I just said was for pearls made into jewelry. Yours is exceptionally large, so it's different. It belongs in the category of collectibles. At auction, six million wouldn't be a problem."

Mo Qiong took a deep breath. "I'll sell it to you for six million. Will you buy it?"

Zhang He froze. "You really want to sell it? You might get more at auction. It just depends on whether you can find a buyer who likes it."

"If you want it, I'll sell it directly to you. Whether you auction it afterward or keep it in your collection is up to you," Mo Qiong said.

Six million was enough for him. He knew that if he auctioned it, it might be a long time before he saw the money. After all, auction houses needed a long time to promote, prepare, and build momentum for an item.

Zhang He smiled. "I have no problem buying it. I definitely won't lose money, but think it over carefully."

"I've thought it through. If you want it, take it." Mo Qiong spoke as casually as if he were selling vegetables.

At that moment, Xiao Kun suddenly said, "How about this? I'll take it for six million too. I'll give you the money after we return home."

Zhang He smiled. "He's selling it to me. I never said I wouldn't buy it."

"Seven million. I'll take it."

Xiao Kun rolled his eyes. "Are you crazy? Why are you raising the price against me?"

Zhang He smiled and simply said, "What do you say? If you want it, offer seven million. Then I'll step aside."

Xiao Kun hesitated briefly, but still said, "Fine, I'll take it for seven million. But you owe him a favor, so just give him the money. Why are you screwing me over?"

Mo Qiong was stunned. Anyone could see that Zhang He had raised the price by a million with a single sentence.

Zhang He smiled. "Don't listen to his nonsense. This isn't about repaying a favor. I consider you a friend and don't want you to lose out."

"To tell you the truth, if he takes the pearl for seven million, he can definitely make a profit."

Mo Qiong asked, "Why? Is he certain he can find a good buyer?"

Zhang He said, "It doesn't matter if he can't. His family runs an auction house. If it doesn't reach their target price, they can simply bid a million on it themselves."

"After some time, his family can send someone to put it up for auction again. If it doesn't work, they can buy it back themselves and keep it."

"They can do that once a year. After doing it twice, the price will be driven up. Someone will definitely take it in the end. Don't worry. With enough time to build momentum, his family will make their money back sooner or later."

P.S.: Now that I have money, it's time to start getting in touch with the peripheral side...