Chapter 60: A Lottery Ticket Worth 30,000 Yuan and a 120,000 Melo Pearl!

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[Today's Intelligence 01]:
You chatted with Xu Li yesterday about a lost lottery ticket and obtained the relevant intelligence—
Xu Li's lottery ticket, worth 30,000 yuan, was folded into a little paper airplane by her daughter, Jiang Xue, and thrown behind the living room television.

[Today's Intelligence 02]:
You and Lü Qian dined at Fatty's Seafood Barbecue in Xiaoshahe Village yesterday and obtained the relevant intelligence—
Inside a bailer shell in the seafood tank at Fatty's Seafood Barbecue, there is a Melo pearl worth 120,000 yuan.

...

"That little rascal Xiaoxue has really given her mom a massive headache this time."
Seeing the content displayed in the first piece of intelligence, Jiang Tao could not help but feel a mixture of amusement and exasperation.
The night before yesterday, plus the entirety of yesterday, Xu Li had been feeling gloomy, self-blaming, and mentally drained all day long.
It turned out the culprit was her own little darling!
In Jiang Tao's impression, Xu Li was never such a careless person.
When Xu Li told him yesterday that she had lost the lottery ticket, Jiang Tao even thought she was joking.
The truth of the matter was probably that Jiang Xue had fished the ticket out of Xu Li's clothing pocket and treated it like origami.
Jiang Xue was only six years old this year; she had no concept of a lottery ticket and naturally did not know its value.
Fortunately, he had the system's reminder.
Otherwise, the lottery ticket belonging to his household probably would have ended up just like the one he had picked up earlier—quietly expiring in some unnoticed corner.
When he was comforting Xu Li earlier, putting on an air of treating money like dirt and completely disregarding the 30,000 yuan, his demeanor was actually just meant to alleviate Xu Li's sense of guilt.
A lottery ticket worth 30,000 yuan—lost, found, and recovered—Jiang Tao was actually quite thrilled inside!
With this 30,000 yuan, just how much New Year goods could one buy?

After reading the first piece of intelligence, Jiang Tao shifted his gaze downward to the second one.
"A bailer shell with a Melo pearl worth 120,000 yuan? What on earth..."
Jiang Tao had never heard of the items mentioned in the second intelligence report, so he took out his phone and looked them up online.
The bailer shell, also known as the Melo snail or papaya snail, has a yellowish-brown shell and looks just like a large papaya.
Bailer shells are mainly distributed in warm and tropical shallow sandy-muddy marine areas.
There were also quite a few food bloggers online posting videos of butchering bailer shells to make delicacies.
They looked quite delicious as well.
The Melo pearl mentioned in the intelligence, also called the "Dragon Pearl" or "Flame Pearl," originates inside sea snails and cannot be artificially farmed.

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The composition of a Melo pearl is similar to most seashells, consisting of crystal aggregates of calcite and aragonite.
The hardness of this gemstone is approximately 4.5 to 5 on the Mohs scale, its refractive index is about 1.51 to 1.64, and its specific gravity is around 2.75.
Colors range from orange-red, orange-yellow, yellow, and yellowish-brown to near-white, featuring a ceramic-like crystalline appearance and flame-like pattern structures.
The shapes of Melo pearls range from irregular, oval, and egg-shaped to completely spherical.
Spherical Melo pearls present the best visual effect and are the most beautiful.
The orange-yellow Melo pearl that Jiang Tao searched up looked strikingly similar to the Dragon Pearls from the Japanese anime Dragon Ball, where collecting all seven summons the divine dragon.
It was indeed very beautiful!
Due to the rather unique formation process of Melo pearls, they form naturally within sea snails and cannot be obtained through artificial aquaculture.
Because of its rarity and unique appearance, the Melo pearl is highly sought after in the market and commands a hefty price.
Melo pearls are typically used in the jewelry industry to craft rings, pendants, bracelets, and other accessories.
The level of value is usually determined by the quality of the Melo pearl.
A cheap one might only cost a few thousand yuan, but expensive ones can reach hundreds of thousands or even millions!
While searching for related information, Jiang Tao also stumbled upon a very interesting piece of news.
A few months ago, a young woman posted a video claiming that she chipped her tooth while eating sea snails during a gathering with friends and family.
Upon spitting it out to look, it turned out to be an orange "conch pearl."
The incident even became a trending search topic, and netizens all envied the young woman's good fortune.
However, bloggers quickly debunked the news, revealing that the woman had staged the video.
Because the small sea snails she ate could not possibly produce a Melo pearl of that size; the proportions were severely mismatched.
Just like how no matter how large a real person's eyes are, they could never occupy half the proportion of their face like a two-dimensional anime character.
A precious gem like the Melo pearl could only appear inside giant snail species such as the bailer shell.

After checking the information on his phone, a wave of excitement surged through Jiang Tao's heart once again, and he secretly rejoiced!
That seafood meal yesterday was certainly not eaten in vain!
To think it yielded such crucial intelligence!
According to the information mentioned in the system's intelligence, the Melo pearl hidden inside that bailer shell at Fatty's Seafood Barbecue is worth 120,000 yuan!
Getting his hands on that bailer shell means another 120,000 yuan will be credited to his account, allowing him to have a prosperous New Year this year!
"Although no intelligence regarding antiques refreshed this time, this isn't bad either."
"The combined value of the two pieces of intelligence amounts to 150,000 yuan!"
"If intelligence of equivalent value could refresh every day, I could earn four to five million a month!"
After analyzing the two pieces of intelligence refreshed by the system today, Jiang Tao was generally quite satisfied.

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Glancing at the time displayed on his phone, it was already around twelve-thirty at night.
After a simple wash, Jiang Tao hurriedly climbed into bed and burrowed under the covers to sleep.
The night passed uneventfully.
Jiang Tao slept soundly until seven-thirty in the morning, when he got up, went downstairs, and had some breakfast at Old Guo's shop.
He had no intention of going to the Hongxing Second-Hand Market to hustle for odd jobs today.
Getting his hands on that bailer shell from Fatty's Seafood Barbecue was equivalent to a year and a half of his hard labor.
Anyone with half a brain could weigh the pros and cons clearly.
After finishing breakfast, Jiang Tao strolled over to Fatty's Seafood Barbecue, where he had dined the previous night.
At this early morning hour, naturally no one would be coming to eat barbecue.
When Jiang Tao stepped through the door, the only people inside were two cleaning aunties sweeping the floor, wiping tables, and doing chores.
"Young man, are you here to eat?"
One of the aunties asked him with a puzzled expression upon seeing Jiang Tao enter.
Fatty's Seafood Barbecue only started business at 10:00 AM and stayed open until 10:00 PM.
Customers coming to the shop as early in the morning as Jiang Tao were a rare sight indeed.
Without wasting words with the cleaning auntie, Jiang Tao went straight to the point:
"Auntie, is your manager in? I'd like to buy some seafood from your shop. Do you sell it raw?"
"We sell it, of course we do. We sell seafood here, how could we not sell it?"
Hearing Jiang Tao's words, the cleaning auntie laughed heartily, feeling that he had asked a rather pointless question.
Jiang Tao added, "What I mean is, I want to buy raw seafood myself and take it back to cook it myself."
"We do have people buying raw seafood to take away. Go ask our boss lady; she's over there."
The cleaning auntie turned and pointed toward a woman standing behind the counter, wearing a black dress and engrossed in tallying accounts.
"Alright, thank you, auntie."
Thanking the cleaning auntie, Jiang Tao walked straight toward the counter while casting his gaze toward a huge glass seafood water tank placed in the center of the first-floor lobby.
In Jiang Tao's field of vision, in a compartment in the upper left corner of the seafood tank, a bailer shell radiating a dim golden light stood out quite conspicuously among the numerous sea creatures.
"Hello, boss lady. Would it be possible for me to buy two bailer shells from you here?"
"I am a food livestreamer and want to shoot a video about cooking bailer shells. I'd appreciate your help, and the price is negotiable."
Stopping in front of the counter, Jiang Tao greeted the boss lady with a smile, concocting an excuse for purchasing the bailer shell.

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