Zhou Xuan took a small sip of tea. It was fragrant and refreshing. It was good tea, but he didn't know what kind of tea it was.
Looking around again, the furniture was all antique. Within three meters of Zhou Xuan's seat, there was a rosewood tea table and a mahogany chair. One end of the tea table was burning ambergris.
Purple sandalwood is actually a type of rosewood, but it's the most precious and rarest of all rosewoods. Zhou Xuan had certainly heard of its value; it's more expensive than gold, and crucially, there's no market for it even when it's available. Modern mature purple sandalwood is almost extinct. A single purple sandalwood tree takes hundreds of years to mature before it's usable. Moreover, nine out of ten purple sandalwood trees are hollow; only the small area between the cavities and the bark, the small piece of wood, is usable.
Compared to sandalwood, ambergris is also a hard-to-obtain material.
Ambergris is the most enduring fragrance in the world, unmatched by any other fragrance, and is said to "exist with the sun and moon." Due to its rarity, ambergris is also known as "gray gold." It is also one of the most mysterious fragrances, only occasionally found on the beach, and its origin has been the subject of countless speculations and legends.
In fact, there is a gigantic creature in the ocean called the sperm whale, which can dive to depths of thousands of meters to devour giant squid, octopuses, and other large animals. However, after these animals are swallowed, their hard, sharp horny beaks and cartilage are difficult for the sperm whale to digest. Its stomach and intestines suffer greatly from the grinding and tearing, and it cannot expel the sharp objects, causing the sperm whale immense pain. Stimulated by this pain, the sperm whale produces special secretions through its digestive tract to coat these sharp objects and alleviate the pain. Every so often, the suffering sperm whale expels these secretions. These capsules float on the surface of the sea, and after being exposed to wind, sun, and seawater, they become the valuable ambergris.
However, sperm whales are enormous and live in the deep sea, so it is already difficult to see them, let alone hunt them. As a result, the origin of ambergris has become more and more mysterious, with most legends explaining its origin by the saliva from the mouth of a dragon.
In just this one living room, Zhou Xuan saw several legendary items. Fu Ying's family was indeed extraordinary!
I sat and waited for about ten minutes.
The tea in the teacup was finished, and Zhou Xuan was bored sitting there. He glanced at the Japanese soldier Ito, who was also looking at the things in the living room, but he wasn't looking at the tea table, chairs, or other furniture. Instead, he was looking at the calligraphy and paintings on the wall.
Zhou Xuan was too far away to see the calligraphy and paintings on the wall, so he didn't know if they were genuine ancient works.
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Volume One: The Lotus Buds Just Begin to Emerge, Chapter Twenty-One: The Golden Stone Appears Again
Ito admired the calligraphy and paintings on the wall, while Zhou Xuan played his ice-cooling game; both were quite content. (www.W)
Almost half an hour later, Fu Ying and Li Junjie brought in an old man in his fifties or sixties.
Fu Ying said softly, "Sorry to keep you both waiting. This is my grandfather!"
Fu Ying's grandfather had white hair and beard, and looked to be at least sixty or seventy years old, but his face looked like he was only around fifty. He had a very dignified face and sat in the host's seat with an air of authority.
Zhou Xuan nodded, stood up, bowed to Fu Ying's grandfather, and said, "Hello, my name is Zhou Xuan, and I'm from China!"
Fu Ying then introduced him to her grandfather: "Grandpa, this is Mr. Zhou Xuan, a diving expert I invited from the mainland. And that is Mr. Ito, a guest invited by my cousin."
Li Junjie, who usually has a carefree and playful demeanor, was now completely silent, standing obediently to the side without saying a word.
Zhou Xuan naturally didn't know the background of the old man in front of him. Fu Ying's grandfather was Fu Tianlai, the true head of the Fu family, the chairman of the Chinatown Chinese Chamber of Commerce, a figure at the pinnacle of money and power, and naturally exuded an aura of authority in his every move.
Zhou Xuan greeted him, and the Japanese soldier Ito also stood up and said, "Grandpa Fu, Ito Kinji sends his regards. I have long admired your name in Japan!"
Damn, this little Japanese guy can actually speak Mandarin!
Although his speech was slightly awkward, it was fluent and the meaning was correct. Zhou Xuan cursed inwardly. This little Japanese guy was too gloomy. He hadn't said a word for so long. He thought that the guy was also silent because of the language barrier. It turned out that the kid was just pretending.
Fu Tianlai was silent for a while, then suddenly glanced at the group. Zhou Xuan felt a chill run down his spine when he saw Fu Tianlai's gaze.
Fu Tianlai's gaze finally landed on Li Junjie, and he said in a deep voice, "You and Xiaoying have been doing so many sneaky things, do you think I don't know? Since we've brought this up at home, fine, tell me."
Li Junjie paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Grandpa, let my cousin do it."
Fu Ying was clearly spoiled since childhood and wasn't as afraid of her grandfather. She moved closer and said, "Grandpa, since you already know, I'll say it too. Grandfather's birthday is in a month. You know what's on his mind. I think the best birthday gift for him is to find the remains of my great-great-grandfather. Since I grew up, Grandpa has never mentioned this matter again. I know it's dangerous, but things are different now!"
Fu Tianlai said with a stern face, "Go on!"
“Back in the days when my great-grandfather and grandfather went there, technology was far less advanced than it is today,” Fu Ying said slowly. “At that time, the best diving equipment could only add an air tank for about ten minutes. In terms of decompression and endurance, it was almost no different from free diving. Maybe my grandfather was a little better in the last two times, but it still couldn’t compare to today’s high-tech equipment. The equipment I bought this time is a product modified from a spacesuit. Ordinary people can reach a depth of more than 200 meters in deep water, let alone experts.”
Fu Ying then pointed to Zhou Xuan and Ito and said, "Grandpa, Mr. Zhou and Mr. Ito can reach depths of over 400 meters when they wear these diving suits. Have you ever seen them?"
Fu Tianlai was somewhat surprised and asked, "Four hundred meters deep? Can it really reach that depth?"
Li Junjie quickly interjected, "Grandpa, it's true! My cousin and I hired six skilled divers wearing these new diving suits. They can reach depths of over 280 meters in the shallowest water, and the deepest depth was reached by this Mr. Zhou, at 412 meters!"
"Four hundred and twelve meters?" Fu Tianlai was somewhat astonished. He knew very well what this depth meant. In that devil's sinkhole, the water cave was only about two hundred meters deep, but some people could withstand it. Of course, no one could say for sure what the situation was, because those who went down never came back up.
Li Junjie added, "Yes, Grandpa, we encountered four great white sharks in our most recent test. It's very rare to encounter them in this area, but we happened to run into them. Hehe, Mr. Ito and I each shot one with an arrow. The crossbow was very powerful."
Fu Tianlai pondered for a while before asking Zhou Xuan and Ito, "Are you... confident?"
Zhou Xuan didn't say anything. He had no confidence at all, and it was still uncertain whether he would agree or not, but he didn't want to hold Fu Ying back.
Ito replied, “Mr. Fu, there’s an old Chinese saying, ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ I can’t be sure if we’re confident, but looking at the wonders of the world, apart from places that humans can’t go, the areas that can be reached aren’t too dangerous. As long as we’re well-prepared and have high-tech equipment as a backup, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Back then, you just didn’t have the equipment to dive to that depth. Of course, it was also because of the limitations of the environment and terrain. Better and larger diving equipment couldn’t go there, so you didn’t succeed. Mr. Fu, I want to ask you something.”
Fu Tianlai stared at Ito and said in a deep voice, "Speak!"
"Back then, did you ever hear of or see anything about that place?" Ito said slowly. "Were there people who went in and came out of that place?"
Fu Tianlai squinted and stared at the painting on the wall, lost in thought. But Zhou Xuan noticed that his eyes were unfocused and not on the painting, indicating that he was thinking about something.
After a long while, Fu Tianlai sighed and then said, "Xiaoying, go and get the little red brocade box from the compartment under my pillow in my room."
Fu Ying responded and walked out of the hall.
Zhou Xuan noticed that Fu Tianlai didn't answer Ito Kiji's question, but instead asked Fu Ying to bring out a box. What did that mean?
Fu Ying didn't take long this time; she returned to the hall in less than two minutes, holding a red brocade box about half a foot square in her hands.
Fu Tianlai took the box and placed it on the coffee table. He stared at it for a while but didn't open it. He then sighed and said, "In fact, someone went into that place and came out again!"
These words startled everyone, even Fu Ying and Li Junjie, who had never heard him say such a thing before!
Fu Tianlai continued, "I wasn't born then. It was my uncle, who was also Xiaoying's great-great-grandfather, Yushan Gong. He had a friend who was a very powerful martial arts master. He found a treasure map somewhere and then led a few friends to find the place according to the map."
At this point, Fu Tianlai looked at Zhou Xuan and the others and slowly said, "I'm sure you all know that this is the place we're going to. My uncle Yushan Gong's friend went into the water and surfaced not long after. His friend pulled him out of the water, but he couldn't speak and was seriously injured. Then he breathed his last. Alas, in the end, no one has ever gone in and come out of there, because the person who came out is already dead!"
Fu Ying frowned and asked, "Grandpa, why didn't you tell us this before? Also, what's in this box?"