Chapter 60: A Lottery Ticket Worth 30,000 Yuan And A Melo Pearl Worth 120,000!
【Today’s Intelligence 01】：
You discussed the topic of lost lottery tickets with Xu Li yesterday and obtained relevant intelligence—
Xu Li’s lottery ticket, worth 30,000 yuan, was folded into a paper airplane by her daughter Jiang Xue and thrown behind the television in the living room.
【Today’s Intelligence 02】：
You and Lu Qian dined at Pang Ge Seafood BBQ in Xiao Shahe Village yesterday and obtained relevant intelligence—
Inside a seafood box at Pang Ge Seafood BBQ, a conch contains a Melo Pearl worth 120,000 yuan.
…
“That rascal Xiao Xue has really gotten her mom into a lot of trouble this time.”
Seeing the content displayed in the first piece of intelligence, Jiang Tao couldn’t help but feel amused and exasperated.
The night before last, and all day yesterday, Xu Li was unhappy, blaming herself, and tormenting herself.
It turns out the instigator was her little cotton jacket!
In Jiang Tao’s memory, Xu Li was never such a careless person.
Yesterday, when he heard Xu Li say she had lost the lottery ticket, Jiang Tao thought she was joking.
The truth of the matter was probably that Jiang Xue took the lottery ticket from Xu Li’s pocket and treated it like origami paper.
Jiang Xue is only 6 years old this year and has no concept of lottery tickets, so she naturally didn’t know the value of that ticket.
Fortunately, he had System Brother’s reminder.
Otherwise, his own lottery ticket would have probably expired quietly in a corner no one would find, just like the one he found.
When he comforted Xu Li before, he acted as if money was dirt and completely disregarded the 30,000 yuan.
In reality, that was just to alleviate Xu Li’s guilt.
To get back a lottery ticket worth 30,000 yuan, lose it, and then get it back again, Jiang Tao was quite happy!
How many New Year Goods could be bought with 30,000 yuan!
After reading the first piece of intelligence, Jiang Tao’s gaze continued downward to the second piece.
“A conch, a Melo Pearl worth 120,000? What is that…”
Jiang Tao had never heard of the things mentioned in the second piece of intelligence, so he took out his mobile phone to search online.
Conchs are also called trumpet shells or papaya shells. Their shells are yellowish-brown and look like large papayas.
Conchs are mainly distributed in shallow sandy mud areas of warm temperate seas.
There are also many food bloggers online who kill conchs to make delicious dishes in videos.
They look quite delicious too.
The Melo Pearl mentioned in the intelligence, also known as “Dragon Pearl” or “Flame Pearl,” comes from inside a sea snail and cannot be artificially cultivated.
The composition of Melo Pearls is similar to that of most seashells, containing aggregates of calcite and aragonite microcrystals.
The hardness of this gemstone is about 4.5-5 on the Mohs scale, with a refractive index of about 1.51-1.64 and a specific gravity of about 2.75.
The colors range from orange-red, orange-yellow, yellow, yellowish-brown to near white, with a bright ceramic-like appearance and flame-like patterns.
Melo Pearls come in irregular, oval, and round shapes.
Round Melo Pearls have the best visual effect and are the most beautiful.
The orange-yellow Melo Pearl that Jiang Tao searched for closely resembled the Dragon Balls from the Japanese anime Dragon Ball, where collecting seven could summon a divine dragon.
It is indeed very beautiful!
Due to the unique formation process of Melo Pearls, they are naturally formed inside sea snails and cannot be obtained through artificial cultivation.
Due to their rarity and unique appearance, Melo Pearls are highly sought after in the market and are expensive.
Melo Pearls are usually used in the jewelry industry to make rings, pendants, bracelets, and other jewelry.
The value is usually determined by the quality of the Melo Pearl.
Cheaper ones might only cost a few thousand yuan, but expensive ones can range from tens of thousands to even millions!
While searching for related information, Jiang Tao also found a very interesting news story.
A few months ago, a girl posted a video claiming that she got a toothache while eating sea snails with friends and family.
When she spat it out, it turned out to be an orange “sea snail pearl.”
This matter even made it to the trending searches, and netizens envied the girl’s good luck.
However, a blogger soon debunked the news, claiming the girl had staged it.
This was because it was impossible for the small sea snails she ate to produce such a large Melo Pearl; the proportions were severely off.
It’s like even if a person’s eyes were huge in reality, they wouldn’t occupy half their face like animated characters in anime.
Melo Pearls, such treasures, can only appear inside giant sea snails like conchs.
After finishing his search on his mobile phone, Jiang Tao felt another surge of excitement and secret joy!
That seafood dinner last night was not eaten in vain!
He actually obtained such important intelligence!
According to the information mentioned in System Brother’s intelligence, the Melo Pearl contained within the conch at Pang Ge Seafood BBQ is worth 120,000 yuan!
If he can get his hands on this conch, that’s another 120,000 yuan in his pocket, and he’ll have a prosperous new year!
“Although no intelligence about antiques was refreshed, it’s still not bad.”
“The combined value of these two pieces of intelligence is already 150,000!”
“If I could refresh intelligence of this value every day, I could earn four to five million a month!”
After analyzing the two pieces of intelligence refreshed by System Brother today, Jiang Tao was generally satisfied.
He glanced at the time displayed on his mobile phone; it was already around half-past twelve at night.
After a simple wash, Jiang Tao quickly got into bed and burrowed into his quilt to sleep.
The night passed without incident.
Jiang Tao slept until 7:30 in the morning before getting up and going downstairs to Lao Guo’s shop for breakfast.
He wasn’t planning to go to the Hongxing Second-hand Market to look for work today.
Getting the conch from Pang Ge Seafood BBQ would be equivalent to a year and a half of hard work.
Which is more important, even a fool would know.
After breakfast, Jiang Tao strolled over to the Pang Ge Seafood BBQ restaurant where he had dined last night.
At this time in the morning, of course, no one would be there to eat barbecue.
When Jiang Tao entered the shop, there were only two cleaning aunts sweeping the floor and wiping tables.
“Young man, are you here to eat?”
One of the aunts saw Jiang Tao enter and greeted him with a puzzled look.
Pang Ge Seafood BBQ opens at 10 AM and closes at 10 PM.
It’s rare to have customers like Jiang Tao come to the shop so early in the morning.
Jiang Tao didn’t waste words with the cleaning aunt and said directly:
“Auntie, is your store manager here? I want to buy some seafood, do you sell it?”
“Yes, of course we sell it. We sell seafood here, how could we not sell it?”
The cleaning aunt chuckled heartily at Jiang Tao’s question, feeling he had asked a redundant question.
Jiang Tao added, “I mean, I want to buy fresh seafood and process it myself when I get back.”
“We do sell fresh seafood. You can ask our Boss Lady, she’s over there.”
The cleaning aunt turned and pointed out a woman standing behind the counter, wearing a black dress and engrossed in her accounting.
“Okay, thank you, Auntie.”
Jiang Tao thanked the cleaning aunt and walked straight towards the counter, his gaze also falling on a large glass seafood tank in the center of the first-floor hall.
In Jiang Tao’s view, in a compartment in the upper left corner of the seafood tank, a conch emitting a dark golden glow was quite conspicuous among the many seafood items.
“Boss Lady, hello. Can I buy two conchs from you?”
“I’m a food streamer and want to film a video about making conch dishes. Please help me out. The price is negotiable.”
Jiang Tao stopped in front of the counter, smiled, and greeted the Boss Lady, giving a pretext for buying the conch.
