Blood Red Dragon

When he reached the living room, Ye Yuan carefully opened the black cloth bag in his hand and placed the fish tank inside on the table.

The two Red Mint Angelfish in the tank were full of energy, showing no signs of listlessness.

When Zhao Chuan saw the fish in Ye Yuan's hands, he asked uncertainly, "Are these Red Mint Angelfish?"

Ye Yuan gave Zhao Chuan a meaningful look and slowly said, "Yes and no."

Zhao Chuan rolled his eyes at Ye Yuan. "Fourth Brother, can you stop being so mysterious? You know your brother here. Even though we studied the same major, I'm a particular kind of guy. The moment I graduated, I gave everything the school taught me back to the teachers. I don't like owing anyone favors, you know?"

Ye Yuan was amused by Zhao Chuan's shamelessness. "These are mutated Red Mint Angelfish. Look closely at their bodies. There are markings on them."

After hearing Ye Yuan's words, Zhao Chuan handed him a bottle of mineral water and leaned over the fish tank to inspect it for a long while.

"Fourth Brother, your skills are pretty good. You can even engrave words on fish. Not bad."

Ye Yuan nearly sprayed out the water in his mouth.

"I'm saying, Eldest Brother, what kind of eyes do you have? Those are natural, not engraved by me."

Zhao Chuan looked more carefully for a while before saying uncertainly, "This is really natural? Let me tell you, my old man is an expert."

Ye Yuan could not be bothered to deal with him. He plopped down on the sofa. "I have to say, imported genuine leather really is different."

"You like it? It's yours."

Ye Yuan did not respond. He simply took several pearls out of his backpack and set them on the table.

The moment Zhao Chuan saw the pearls, he lost all interest in the Red Mint Angelfish.

He walked straight to the table and stared at the Black Pearl the size of a ping-pong ball, clicking his tongue in amazement. "Good lord, it's even more lustrous than it looked in the photos."

As he spoke, Zhao Chuan quickly took out a pair of calipers and a pair of white gloves from a drawer, then began measuring it carefully.

"Ah, what a pity. Its diameter is 37 millimeters, just a little short." Seeing the measurement, he began muttering to himself.

Ye Yuan asked in confusion, "Is there something wrong with 37 millimeters? Why do you look like there's some significance to it?"

Zhao Chuan shot Ye Yuan an annoyed look. "Do you really not care about your own things? The world's largest Black Pearl has a diameter of 38 millimeters. Look at yours..." As he spoke, he began sighing again.

Only then did Ye Yuan realize that his Black Pearl had fallen just a tiny bit short of breaking the world record.

"That's nothing. A pearl this large should sell for quite a bit, right?" Ye Yuan was still very concerned about the Black Pearl's price.

At the mention of money, Zhao Chuan looked at Ye Yuan seriously. "I spoke with the appraiser. Our jewelry store will buy your four smaller pearls directly. We'll give you fifteen thousand yuan for each Black Pearl and five thousand for each white one. As for the largest Black Pearl, we'll put it up for auction. Don't worry about it failing to fetch a good price. I'll guarantee you a minimum of three million."

Ye Yuan was stunned by Zhao Chuan's offer. He knew Black Pearls were expensive, but he had never expected them to be this expensive. Even if he did not auction it and simply sold it directly to Zhao Chuan, it would still be an enormous sum to him.

Zhao Chuan saw Ye Yuan's surprise and added, "Because of your Black Pearl, I sent out a lot of invitations this time. It should bring in a good price, though I can't say exactly how much. The jewelry business runs deep. If I had enough time, the price could be even higher."

Ye Yuan cut him off. "No need. This is already good enough. I need money urgently."

Zhao Chuan wanted to say that he could lend Ye Yuan the money first, but remembering Ye Yuan's personality, he swallowed the words that had reached his lips.

Zhao Chuan's phone rang. Third Brother Deng Kai had arrived. Zhao Chuan locked the pearls in the safe and told Ye Yuan that he still needed to take them to the appraiser tomorrow for another look. Ye Yuan naturally had no objections.

When Deng Kai entered, he gave Ye Yuan a long, enthusiastic hug. The few of them had lived in the same dormitory for four years. They had graduated a year ago, and this was their first meeting since then, so they missed each other greatly.

The three sat down and talked about their different experiences over the past year. Before they knew it, night had fallen. Zhao Chuan switched to another car and took Third Brother and Ye Yuan to the airport to pick up Second Brother Zhang Wujin.

What the three of them had not expected was that a beautiful girl had also come to pick up Second Brother.

Only after Second Brother introduced her did they learn that she was a fourth-year student at Shangjing Film Academy. With the girl present, they did not drink much. In the end, only Ye Yuan and Zhao Chuan returned to Zhao Chuan's home.

Second Brother said, "I already booked a hotel, so I won't be staying at Eldest Brother's place." The suggestive look in his eyes as he left made everyone understand.

The next day, Zhao Chuan went to the company early. He had originally planned to take Ye Yuan with him, but Ye Yuan wanted to visit the ornamental fish market on his own. He left the matter of the pearls entirely to Eldest Brother. Eldest Brother did not stand on ceremony and simply tossed Ye Yuan a set of car keys before heading out.

Ye Yuan drove to a nearby place and bought a fish tank. Then he found a more secluded stretch of road and took out some of each type of ornamental fish from his space before setting off for the flower, bird, fish, and insect market.

During his chat with Third Brother yesterday, Ye Yuan had learned that there were three flower, bird, fish, and insect markets in Shangjing. The one he was currently at was one of them.

Ye Yuan figured that he had nothing to do for the next few days, so he would visit all three markets and learn the going rates before making any decisions. He stopped at a store selling saltwater ornamental fish, asked about prices, and then casually visited several more shops.

When he arrived at the entrance of a fairly large fish store, he noticed several people arguing inside. Since he had nothing better to do, he went in to take a look.

"I'm telling you, young lady, you can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want. When I sold you that Blood Red Dragonfish, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. Who knows what you did to that dragonfish after taking it home?"

A middle-aged man who appeared to be the store owner was speaking to a girl around twenty years old with delicate features. She wore a T-shirt on top, jeans below, and carried a small Hermes handbag.

Hearing the owner's words, she replied angrily, "You told me yourself that this fish needed water between twenty-four and twenty-eight degrees Celsius. I followed your instructions exactly, but it still ended up like this."

As she spoke, the girl pointed toward a commercial SUV outside.

The SUV's door was open, and a large fish tank had been placed inside. Within it was a Blood Red Dragonfish with blood-red scales. Among the dragonfish family, the Blood Red Dragonfish could be considered supreme. If red dragonfish were nobles, then Blood Red Dragonfish were royalty, exceedingly precious.

The fish was truly beautiful. Even Ye Yuan, someone who spent every day at sea and had seen countless varieties of fish, could not help taking several extra looks.

The fish was in terrible condition now. Its belly would occasionally turn upward before it sank back to the bottom of the tank.

"Looks like it's not going to make it," many knowledgeable onlookers whispered among themselves.

The girl was in no mood for anything else. She said directly to the owner, "I never said I was blaming you. You sold me this fish yesterday, and now it's like this. I asked you to help me find a way to cure it. Is that not okay? I never said I wanted a refund. I just want you to cure it. I bought it as a gift. How am I supposed to give it to someone in this condition?"

The moment the owner heard that the girl did not want her money back, a faint smile appeared on his face.

He said to her, "Young lady, I understand how you feel, but the fish is already in this state. Even an immortal couldn't save it. There really is no way. If you still want to buy fish, you can take another look around my store. I have plenty of good fish here. Pick whichever one you like, and I'll give you a twenty percent discount. How does that sound?"