Zhuang Rui's actions sparked speculation among the crew, especially after he tied up the sea clam. Most people believed he had discovered the shipwreck, though one or two who lived at sea year-round raised objections.
After hearing what the two people said, everyone felt something was off. Upon closer inspection of the object on the screen, it looked more and more like a clam. When the camera took a close-up of the object, everyone could basically confirm that it was indeed a large clam.
"Sigh, they're just young people..."
"Perhaps Mr. Zhuang thinks that's the wreckage of a shipwreck..."
"Hehe, if it really is a clam, we'll have clam soup tonight. Let me tell you, it tastes delicious..."
This discovery left everyone on the ship speechless. Was Zhuang Rui going to the sea to salvage the shipwreck, or was he going on an underwater sightseeing trip and fishing and shrimp-catching on the side?
Some people who were initially unconvinced by Zhuang Rui's youth started to mock him, saying that even though the salvage ship was his, he shouldn't go too far in his actions.
"Ahem... We'll know once it's salvaged. Finding the shipwreck wreckage by divers alone is like finding a needle in a haystack. Let's all wait patiently..."
Seeing that the people on the boat were getting increasingly absurd, Professor Meng coughed and stood up for his disciple.
However, Professor Meng was secretly lamenting. This was a multi-unit collaborative salvage operation and a key project of national concern. Instead of searching for the shipwreck, Zhuang Rui was grabbing sea clams, which was bound to cause gossip.
Zhuang Rui had no idea that the people on the ship were talking about him. Even if he did, he wouldn't care. He had already done everything he could, not only giving up the ship but also taking care of the people's food, drink, and shelter. What was a little truancy compared to that?
When Zhuang Rui arrived at the first shipwreck site containing spiritual energy, the countdown on his wristwatch showed only fifteen minutes left. Just in case, Zhuang Rui would begin his ascent in ten minutes.
"Huh? What's going on? Is this thing broken?"
Seeing that it was almost time, Zhuang Rui picked up the metal detector and first scanned the area around the gold. Then he placed it directly on the spot where his spiritual energy could sense it, but for some reason, there was no reaction.
When Zhuang Rui saw that the detector did not sound a warning, he became a little anxious. He couldn't very well throw away the detector and dig into the silt with his bare hands, could he? That would be too unreasonable.
"Mr. Zhuang, it's time to surface..."
Zhuang Rui heard instructions from above through his headset. Although he was the deputy chief commander of this salvage operation, he still had to follow the instructions of the diving commander during the dive.
"Beep...beep beep, beep beep beep..."
Before surfacing, Zhuang Rui, still somewhat unwilling to give up, waved the metal detector above the gold again, and this time it suddenly reacted.
The red indicator light on the metal detector head lit up, and a "beep beep" sound rang out simultaneously on Zhuang Rui and the ship's monitoring system.
"We've found something; the metal detector has activated..."
“That’s right, it’s from President Zhuang’s side. This is the first one from this survey…”
"Remember the coordinates and the surrounding seabed conditions, and immediately organize the second group of divers to go underwater..."
Upon hearing the alarm from the metal detector, everyone on the ship immediately sprang into action. Some of the second group of divers hurriedly donned their diving suits, while the researchers analyzed the seabed conditions based on the sensor images.
When Zhuang Rui used his spiritual energy to survey the area on the ship, he couldn't directly sense the depth of the silt. However, after arriving at the seabed and combining his observation with visual inspection, Zhuang Rui discovered that the gold was buried more than two meters deep. It seemed that to unearth it, he would have to use the ship's crane and platform.
Of course, these tasks are done by professionals. Zhuang Rui moved the detector above it repeatedly for a while, and the continuous "beep" sound confirmed the existence of the lowered metal object. His work was then considered complete.
The thruster's power unit was turned off, and a switch was turned on, expelling the water from the thruster and causing Zhuang Rui to slowly rise to the surface.
A minute or two later, Zhuang Rui's head emerged from the water. Two or three meters away from him was the speedboat that had been waiting there. The two people on the speedboat pulled Zhuang Rui and the propeller onto the boat, then immediately started the speedboat and headed towards the cruise ship.
"Mr. Zhuang, have a bowl of ginger soup..."
"Mr. Zhuang, quickly put this towel on..."
"Xiao Zhuang, not bad. Of the five of you who went down, only your team made a discovery. That's really good..."
As soon as Zhuang Rui boarded the cruise ship via the spiral staircase, he was immediately surrounded by a group of people. Some handed him towels, while others brought him ginger soup, serving him with utmost care.
You should know that even though the sun is shining brightly in the sky, the temperature at a depth of more than 40 meters in the ocean is extremely low. Even with Zhuang Rui's physical condition, his lips were a little pale after staying down there for more than an hour.
"Sigh, different people have different fates..."
The divers who boarded the ship before Zhuang Rui didn't receive such good treatment. Although they were provided with towels and ginger soup, they didn't receive the same warm greetings and care from Zhuang Rui.
Of course, they were also envious of Zhuang Rui's good luck. With the same equipment, Zhuang Rui was able to find the shipwreck. They couldn't help but admire him.
After Zhuang Rui finished drinking the ginger soup in one gulp, Director Wu of the Maritime Safety Administration asked impatiently, "Xiao Zhuang, what's the situation now?"
Professor Meng was originally slated to be the chief commander of the salvage operation, but he declined. Later, Vice Minister Yu of the Ministry of Transport took over as chief commander. However, he was directing the operation remotely from Beijing, while Director Wu did the actual work.
Whether this salvage operation is successful or not is not only related to the Ministry of Transport's performance record, but also a good opportunity for Director Wu to gain political capital. Therefore, now that a discovery has been made, he is naturally the most nervous person.
Chapter 1019 Black Pearl (Part 1)
“There should be metal objects under that seabed. I’ve used a metal detector to scan it several times, and it always reacts. I suggest we dredge the silt first, and then retrieve what’s underneath…”
Zhuang Rui knew best what was below, but for now he could only speak based on the metal detector's readings, and couldn't even say that the gold was two meters below.
"Okay, let's have a short meeting and see how to proceed with the dredging work..."
On the first day of the salvage operation, results were expected. Director Wu was in high spirits and brought out the usual government procedures, insisting that everything be discussed and addressed in meetings.
However, Director Wu was clearly more eager to get things done. As he said, this meeting was short, lasting only about half an hour, during which the dredging plan was finalized and implementation began.
Seabed dredging is a major challenge in current marine governance. Because the ebb and flow of tides cause changes in the silt, the cleaned areas often become covered in silt again within a few days.
Moreover, this silt is formed from volcanic ash and various marine decaying substances. Some parts are soft and some are hard, making it very troublesome to clean up, and sometimes even requiring blasting.
Of course, this plan is impossible to carry out, as the blasting would inevitably cause further damage to the shipwreck. Fortunately, Zhuang Rui's "Xuan Rui" is equipped with a drilling platform and a floating crane with an extension length of up to 60 meters, which is also a great tool for managing seabed silt.
Finally, it was decided that the specific seawater depth parameters would be determined first, and then a cantilever would be used to descend into the seabed to dredge up a layer of silt from the surface. Divers would then go down to conduct an investigation, and if it was confirmed to be a shipwreck, it would be salvaged according to its size.
Zhuang Rui couldn't get involved in the technical matters, and even Director Wu and Professor Meng couldn't understand the data the technicians were talking about.
Fortunately, Director Wu was an enlightened leader, and there was no situation where an outsider led an expert. He walked aside with Zhuang Rui and Professor Meng and started chatting.
"Zhuang Rui, are you alright? I just heard you came up, but when I came to find you, you were in a meeting..."
While Zhuang Rui was chatting with Director Wu and others, Qin Xuanbing walked in with a worried look on her face. Her expression relaxed when she saw Zhuang Rui.
"What could possibly be wrong?"
Zhuang Rui smiled and put his arm around Qin Xuanbing's waist. Qin Xuanbing was a little uncomfortable in front of outsiders, but she had been worried about Zhuang Rui and did not refuse his actions.
Seeing the young couple whispering sweet nothings, Director Wu and Professor Meng tactfully left the small conference room, leaving the space to them.
"You're so shy, isn't it..."
After Director Wu and Professor Meng left, Qin Xuanbing pinched Zhuang Rui's soft flesh on his waist.
"We're an old married couple, what's there to be embarrassed about..."
Zhuang Rui grinned mischievously and pulled Qin Xuanbing into his arms. Just as he was about to kiss her, he suddenly remembered something, looked up, and shouted at a corner of the room, "Clyde, if you look at me again, I'll pluck all your beard off!" "Oh God, how did he know I was looking?"
Clyde, who was in the monitoring room on the fifth floor, stared at the screen in disbelief. After a few seconds, he decided not to push his boss's limits and obediently turned off the monitor in that room.
"Let's go outside. If the two of us stay here, who knows what people outside will think..."
Qin Xuanbing was ultimately a little shy. She broke free from Zhuang Rui's embrace, opened the door, and the slightly salty sea breeze blew into the room, making her feel refreshed.
"By the way, honey, when we clean up the seabed silt later, how about I get you two tons to take home? This is the most authentic seabed silt..."
As Zhuang Rui walked out, he joked with Qin Xuanbing. He couldn't understand why this woman's cosmetics were so expensive. As far as he knew, the mud mask Qin Xuanbing used wasn't much cheaper than gold.
"What do you know? The kind of sea mud suitable for women's skin has to be red clay, and it has to contain a certain proportion of carbonates and iron oxide. Do you think just anything will work?"
Qin Xuanbing rolled her eyes at Zhuang Rui, annoyed. When it came to collecting antiques and jade, she didn't know as much as Zhuang Rui, but when it came to cosmetics, even if Zhuang Rui started learning now, he probably wouldn't be as knowledgeable as Qin Xuanbing even when he was sixty. That's just a woman's nature.
"Ahem... Xuanbing, well, let me give you something else..."
Zhuang Rui coughed awkwardly, then suddenly remembered the large clam he had brought with him. When it was being pulled from the sea onto the speedboat, the two people on the speedboat wouldn't have been able to lift it at all if Zhuang Rui hadn't intervened.
"What is that?"
Seeing how seriously Zhuang Rui spoke, Qin Xuanbing became curious as well. She knew that her husband had many strange and unusual abilities.
"Look, it's just ahead, you'll see it in a bit..."
By this time, the two had already reached the deck. A group of people surrounded Zhuang Rui about ten meters in front of him. Through the gaps in the crowd, Zhuang Rui could see that the giant clam was the one being surrounded.
"Hey, this really is a clam. Why did you bring this thing up here, Mr. Zhuang?"
"Want some meat? Let me tell you, the soup made from these clam meat is so delicious you'll want to swallow your tongue..."
"This is huge, it must weigh two or three hundred pounds, right? We can probably eat it all tonight..."
"President Zhuang is here, everyone please make way..."
As a group of people were discussing the millstone-sized clam, Zhuang Rui pushed through the crowd and walked in. Although Qin Xuanbing grew up in Hong Kong and was no stranger to the sea, she was still somewhat surprised by the size of the clam.
Most sea mussels are not very big. Sea mussels in coastal areas such as Fujian and Jiangsu usually have shells that are only 7 to 9 centimeters long and taste very delicious. Sea mussels this big are really rare.
"Honey, are you really going to eat the meat of this clam?"
Looking at the large, dark, millstone-shaped clam, Qin Xuanbing frowned and then asked, "Is this the thing you said you'd give me?"
"That's right, but not the clam itself, but what's inside..."
Zhuang Rui chuckled. The pearls inside were quite large; Qin Xuanbing, as a jewelry designer, would definitely like them.
"You mean there are pearls inside? How did you know?"
Qin Xuanbing reacted quickly and immediately thought of pearls. However, she then had a question: nowadays, it is very difficult to find natural pearls except around some remote islands. How could Zhuang Rui be sure that there are pearls here?
"Ah... well, when I went down there, the clam was open, and I saw a faint glowing color inside. I reckon it's most likely a pearl..."
Zhuang Rui hadn't expected that he would let something slip in his excitement, so he quickly made up an excuse. Qin Xuanbing, unaware of the habits of clams, nodded in agreement with Zhuang Rui's explanation.
However, some of the veteran sailors around him curled their lips after hearing Zhuang Rui's words. Clams are extremely sensitive creatures; they will immediately close their shells at the slightest disturbance, so it would be strange if you could see anything.
After Zhuang Rui said those words, an old man in his fifties squatted down and examined the large clam closely. After several minutes, he stood up and said, "You know what, there might really be a pearl inside this clam..."
Before the old man could finish speaking, someone in the crowd began to mock him: "Old Li, you're just bragging. This isn't a fish farm in the inner sea, where would you find so many natural pearls?"
Almost all pearls available on the market now are cultured, so the price isn't very high; you can buy decent pearl jewelry for just a few hundred yuan.
However, in the world of top-tier luxury consumption, people are all into natural pearls. If it is a top-quality natural pearl, the price is not much cheaper than that of diamonds and jade.
However, after decades of dredging, natural pearls are now very rare, so the onlookers were somewhat dismissive of Old Li's words.
Old Li, feeling embarrassed after being ridiculed by everyone, said loudly, "I didn't say it was definitely there, but looking at the shell pattern of this clam, it looks like it might contain a pearl. I, Old Li, used to run a clam farm, so I can tell a thing or two. This doesn't look like a clam from our country; it looks more like a black-lipped oyster..."
Old Li used to run a pearl farm for a while, but when the price of pearls dropped too much, he closed it down and went back to fishing. However, he still has some knowledge of pearl oysters.
"Black butterfly shell? That's a good thing!"
Zhuang Rui was taken aback upon hearing this. Pearls are a type of jewelry and antique, and Zhuang Rui had done some research on them. He knew that black-lipped oysters only have two main natural habitats, both in the South Pacific Ocean, but he didn't know why they would appear in China's inland waters.
The specialty of the black-lipped oyster is naturally black pearls, and the price of top-quality black pearls even far exceeds that of diamonds. For example, there is no readily available market price for perfectly round black pearls larger than 15mm, which shows how expensive and rare they are.