Tourmaline

Back on deck, Ding Er brought over a lounge chair for Ye Yuan to sit in.

Ding Yi and the others began inspecting and repairing the fishing boat. With those two robots around, things were truly much more convenient. They could handle plenty of tedious tasks.

When I have the time, I definitely need to make a few more of them, Ye Yuan thought.

This trip out to sea had revealed the shortage of manpower aboard the fishing boat. A normal fishing boat needed at least a dozen people when heading out, while Ye Yuan only had four. Although his fishing boat was advanced and much of the work could be completed automatically by machinery, sorting the catch still had to be done by hand.

Reclining in the lounge chair, Ye Yuan saw a convoy approaching in the distance. An Audi led the way, followed by several refrigerated trucks. The convoy stopped in the parking lot beside the pier.

Several people got out of the Audi. Two of them were Zhao Chuan, the eldest brother from Ye Yuan's dorm, and Zhang Wujin, the second brother.

They quickly spotted Ye Yuan on the deck.

After coming aboard the fishing boat, Zhao Chuan pointed at the man behind him and introduced him to Ye Yuan. "This is the friend I told you about over the phone, Wang Yueshan. He runs a seafood trading company on Blue Island. His father and my old man are on good terms, so we've known each other since we were kids. He's a year older than us, so just call him Brother Shan."

Ye Yuan nodded and shook Wang Yueshan's hand.

"Hello, Brother Shan. I'm sorry to have made you come all this way."

"What are you talking about, brother? I should be thanking you. This business isn't easy these days. Good goods are hard to come by. Chuanzi told me you have quite a few premium catches here, so don't forget about your brother when the time comes."

After exchanging a few polite words with Wang Yueshan, Ye Yuan led them into the fish hold.

When Wang Yueshan saw that the fish hold contained mostly common seafood, he was slightly disappointed. What he lacked now were supply channels for high-end seafood.

Still, Ye Yuan's batch of seafood was all top quality, both in quantity and quality.

Wang Yueshan offered more than nine hundred thousand for the boatload of seafood, and Ye Yuan nodded in agreement. Then the workers Wang Yueshan had brought began moving the seafood from the boat into the trucks. Wang Yueshan planned to ship it directly from Blue Island to his family's hotels around the country.

Eldest Brother told Ye Yuan that he had already gotten the broken jade Ye Yuan wanted, and it was currently being transported over. He had arrived early because of Wang Yueshan's matter.

Ye Yuan wanted to treat them to a meal, but Wang Yueshan politely declined. His reason was that he needed to transport the seafood back immediately. This was his first deal in Blue Island City, and he could not afford to mess it up.

After Wang Yueshan left, Zhao Chuan and Zhang Wujin had no intention of eating in Pinghai County either. Both of them clamored to go take a look at Ye Yuan's island.

Fishing Bay Island had already begun to take shape. During the few days Ye Yuan had been out at sea, the modern pier had been completed, while various factory buildings not far from it were still under construction.

At the pier, Brother-in-law was supervising workers as they unloaded materials from a transport ship.

Ye Yuan led the two brothers over.

From Brother-in-law, Ye Yuan learned that the dormitories on the island had already been completed and were now receiving their final interior work. Ye Yuan's family villa was also finished and ready to move into. His sister and Niuniu had already moved over, and the little supermarket had closed down.

Since Brother-in-law had to travel back and forth between the county town and the island, while Ye Yuan's sister was responsible for the company's finances and kept track of the quantities of many materials, the two of them discussed it and decided that she would bring Niuniu back to live on the island for the next few months.

After telling Brother-in-law to come home for dinner that evening, Ye Yuan led the two brothers toward his new villa.

From afar, they could see the family's three-story detached villa, built from natural stone. In front of it was a newly cultivated vegetable garden.

Mother Ye was watering the freshly sprouted greens in the garden. Behind her, Niuniu was riding on Big Yellow's back. Big Yellow's dog face drooped miserably as the little girl tugged on his ears with her tiny hands.

The moment Big Yellow saw Ye Yuan, he looked as if he had found his savior and tried to run over. However, the little girl gave his ear a hard tug, and he obediently settled down again.

Seeing this, Ye Yuan walked over and picked Niuniu up, finally rescuing Big Yellow from his suffering. Once freed, Big Yellow barked twice at Zhao Chuan and Zhang Wujin behind Ye Yuan, then ran straight out of the villa, off to who knew where to have fun again. Ever since eating the Spirit Opening Pill, Big Yellow often ran outside, and the family did not bother too much about it.

"Doggy! Doggy! Niuniu wants to ride the doggy!"

Seeing Big Yellow escape, the little girl struggled in Ye Yuan's arms, trying to get down.

"Be good, Niuniu. Let's go inside first, then you can ride the doggy later, okay?"

Ye Yuan comforted the little girl, then introduced Zhang Wujin to Mother Ye. Zhao Chuan had been to Ye Yuan's home before, so Mother Ye recognized him.

Seeing that there were guests, Mother Ye went into the kitchen to cook.

Carrying Niuniu and leading the two brothers inside, Ye Yuan entered the villa. Although it was his first time entering the place, he was not at all unfamiliar with its decor, because he had personally designed many parts of it.

When Zhao Chuan saw the eighty-centimeter Blood Red Dragonfish in the living room, his eyes went wide. "I'm telling you, brother, this fish is absolutely top-tier. It's who knows how much better than the one Jia Hongyuan gave my dad."

This Blood Red Dragonfish was the one Ye Yuan had obtained from Zhao Chuan's younger sister and entrusted to Brother-in-law before he left.

"You aren't planning to serve this to Eldest Brother and me, are you? Come to think of it, I've never eaten this kind of fish before," Zhang Wujin joked from the side.

"You bad man! You're not allowed to eat Red-Red!"

Niuniu's distinctive childish voice rang out.

Zhang Wujin was left thoroughly embarrassed.

Zhao Chuan and Ye Yuan burst into laughter.

Ye Yuan suddenly remembered the tourmaline he had brought up from the sea and called Ding Yi. Before long, Ding Yi delivered the tourmaline.

Ye Yuan took out a twenty-centimeter pink tourmaline and gave it to Niuniu. The little girl loved the sparkling thing so much that she planted a loud kiss on Ye Yuan's cheek, then hugged the tourmaline and ran off to find her grandmother.

Ye Yuan still had two pieces left in his hand, one black and one azure blue. He placed them directly in front of Zhao Chuan.

"Eldest Brother, take a look. This thing should be worth quite a bit, right?"

Zhao Chuan looked at the azure-blue tourmaline before him, not quite daring to be certain. He asked Ye Yuan in a puzzled tone, "Is this tourmaline? Did you pull this out of the sea too?"

"Yeah."

Zhao Chuan examined the tourmaline carefully as he explained its value to Ye Yuan and Zhang Wujin.

"Tourmaline is also known as electric stone. It is a mixed gemstone, and tourmaline crystals come in a wide variety of colors. It is said that there can be as many as fifteen multicolored varieties, with colorless, rose red, pink, red, blue, green, yellow, brown, and black being the main types. Among them, transparent and lustrous azure blue, vivid rose red, and the multicolored combination of pink and green are considered superior grades of tourmaline. Because of its brilliant, varied colors and high transparency, tourmaline has been deeply loved since ancient times. At present, it is one of the colored gemstones ranked just below diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.

"Tourmaline has a relatively short history of being used as a gemstone, but the beauty created by its vivid, rich colors and high transparency won people's affection as soon as it appeared. It became known as a gemstone of endless charm. During the Qing dynasty, tourmaline received unprecedented attention in China. Empress Dowager Cixi, who held sole control over the court, was especially fond of it and was a true tourmaline enthusiast. Legend had it that she always kept a piece of red tourmaline beneath her pillow. Tourmaline was also seen as a symbol of power. It was used as one of the materials for the hat ornaments and peacock feathers of first- and second-rank officials, as well as for the court beads they wore."

PS: Thanks to brother 08a for the tip.