Chapter 60: The Lottery Ticket Worth 30,000 Yuan and the Melo Pearl Worth 120,000 Yuan!

[Today’s Intel 01]:

Yesterday you talked with Xu Li about the lost lottery ticket, and got some related info—

Xu Li’s lottery ticket worth 30,000 yuan was folded into a paper airplane by her daughter Jiang Xue and thrown behind the living room TV.

[Today’s Intel 02]:

You and Lü Qian had dinner yesterday at Brother Fatty’s Seafood Barbecue in Xiaoshanhe Village, and got some related info—

Inside Brother Fatty’s seafood crates, a coconut conch contains a Meile Pearl worth 120,000 yuan.

...

"That little brat Xiao Xue really screwed her mom over this time."

Seeing the first piece of intel, Jiang Tao couldn’t help but feel both amused and helpless.

Xu Li had been gloomy and self-blaming all day since the night before last, overwhelmed with guilt and regret.

Turns out—the culprit was her Little Cotton Padded Jacket!

From what Jiang Tao remembered, Xu Li was never the type to be that careless.

Yesterday when Xu Li told him she lost the lottery ticket, Jiang Tao actually thought she was joking.

The truth probably was that Jiang Xue dug the lottery ticket out of Xu Li’s coat pocket and used it to make origami.

Jiang Xue is only six years old this year, has no concept of lottery tickets, and of course didn’t know its value.

Good thing he had Brother Tongzi’s reminder.

Otherwise, his family’s ticket would probably end up just like the one he found, quietly expiring in some forgotten corner.

Back when he comforted Xu Li, he acted all nonchalant about the money, like thirty thousand was nothing.

Honestly, it was just to ease Xu Li’s guilt.

Lost, found, lost and found again—Jiang Tao was genuinely happy to get that 30,000-yuan lottery ticket back!

You could buy a whole mountain of New Year goods with thirty thousand!

After reading the first intel, Jiang Tao scrolled down to the second item.

"Coconut conch, Meile Pearl worth 120,000? What the heck is that..."

Jiang Tao had never heard of what was mentioned in the second intel, so he pulled out his phone to look it up online.

The coconut conch, also known as coconut spiral or papaya snail, has a yellow-brown shell and looks kind of like a big papaya.

They’re mainly found in warm, shallow coastal sandy areas.

There are quite a few food bloggers online making dishes out of coconut conch and posting videos.

Honestly, it looks pretty tasty.

The Meile Pearl mentioned in the intel, also called "Dragon Pearl" or "Flame Pearl," comes from inside the conch—no way to farm it artificially.

The Meile Pearl’s makeup is similar to most shellfish, made up of calcite and aragonite microcrystals.

The hardness is about 4.5-5 on the Mohs scale, refractive index about 1.51-1.64, and its density is roughly 2.75.

The color ranges from orange-red, orange-yellow, yellow, yellow-brown to nearly white, has a glossy, ceramic look, with flame-patterned lines.

The Meile Pearl can be irregularly-shaped, oval, egg-shaped, or round.

The round pearls have the best visual effect—definitely the prettiest.

The orange ones Jiang Tao found online looked just like the Dragon Pearls in those Japanese movies, where you collect all seven to summon a dragon.

Really gorgeous!

Since Meile Pearls form naturally inside conchs, and can’t be produced by farming, they’re super rare and unique.

Because of this and their looks, Meile Pearls are a hot commodity and fetch a steep price.

They’re mostly used in jewelry—rings, pendants, bracelets, and so on.

The value pretty much depends on quality.

Cheap ones might just be a few thousand, but the fancy ones—tens or even hundreds of thousands isn’t rare!

While searching, Jiang Tao found another interesting news story.

A few months back, some girl posted a video claiming she broke her tooth eating conch at a family dinner.

When she spat it out—turned out to be an orange "conch pearl."

The story even made trending topics; netizens were envious of her luck.

But soon, some blogger said the girl’s video was staged.

Turns out, the type of tiny conch she ate couldn’t possibly have that big a Meile Pearl—the size was way off.

Kinda like, no matter how big someone’s eyes are in real life, they can’t possibly take up half the face like some anime character.

Basically, Meile Pearls like that can only come from giant snails like the coconut conch.

After checking all that on his phone, Jiang Tao was secretly pumped—score!

Last night’s seafood dinner was totally worth it!

He’d actually gotten some crucial intel!

According to Brother Tongzi’s tip, the coconut conch in Brother Fatty’s Seafood Barbecue contains a Meile Pearl worth 120,000!

If he can get his hands on that conch, that’s another 120,000 in the bank—this year he can really live large!

"Even though I didn’t get any antique-related intel this time, it’s still pretty good."

"The two intel items together are worth 150,000!"

"If I could refresh info like this every day, I’d be pulling in four or five million a month!"

After analyzing the two bits of intel Brother Tongzi had for today, Jiang Tao was pretty satisfied overall.

Glancing at his phone, he saw it was already about 12:30 at night.

He quickly washed up and dove into bed to sleep.

Nothing happened overnight.

Jiang Tao slept all the way to 7:30 and went downstairs to Old Guo’s shop for some breakfast.

He wasn’t planning to go work at Red Star Second-hand Market today.

If he could snag the coconut conch at Brother Fatty’s place, that would be worth one and a half years of hard labor.

Anyone with half a brain could see which was the smarter move.

After breakfast, Jiang Tao strolled over to Brother Fatty’s Seafood Barbecue, where he’d eaten last night.

Of course no one would be eating barbecue this early in the morning.

As Jiang Tao walked in, there were only two cleaning ladies sweeping the floor and wiping tables.

"Young man, are you here for a meal?"

One of the ladies spotted Jiang Tao walking in and greeted him, puzzled.

Brother Fatty’s Seafood Barbecue opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m.

Customers showing up this early, like Jiang Tao, were pretty rare.

Jiang Tao didn’t waste time chatting—just asked straight:

"Auntie, is your manager in? I want to buy some seafood from you guys—do you sell it retail?"

"Of course we sell, we’re a seafood shop—how could we not sell seafood?"

The cleaning lady laughed heartily, feeling like he had asked a silly question.

Jiang Tao clarified, "I mean, I want to buy raw seafood and prep it myself at home."

"Yeah, we do sell fresh seafood. You should ask our boss lady, she’s over there."

The cleaning lady turned and pointed out a woman in a black dress behind the counter, head down doing the accounts.

"Thank you, Auntie."

Jiang Tao thanked the lady and headed straight to the counter, glancing meanwhile at the huge glass seafood tank in the center of the lobby.

In Jiang Tao’s line of sight, the coconut conch glowing with a bronzy-gold hue in the upper-left compartment was still easy to spot among all the seafood.

"Hello, boss lady—I’d like to buy two of your coconut conchs, is that okay?"

"I’m a food blogger, and I want to film a segment making coconut conch. Hope you can help me out—price is no issue."

Standing at the counter, Jiang Tao smiled and greeted her, making up a reason for buying the coconut conch.