Chapter 700: What Treasures Are There?

As soon as Ye Yaodong got a little closer to that boat and made out the markings on it, he immediately swung the boat around in a sharp turn and headed back the way he came.

Ye's father hadn't even gotten a clear look yet, his hands hadn't even found their grip, and the sharp turn nearly knocked him off his feet.

"What's the rush? Why the hurry to leave? Which village's boat is that?"

"Black lettering—it's a boat from Luzhoudao. No idea what they're up to; must've eaten too much, not out there trawling and robbing, but coming to this island two days in a row."

Most fishing boats have markings that are either red, or blue, or white, but black lettering is unique to boats from Luzhoudao—maybe they really do have a pirate's nature.

Ye Yaodong's words sounded calm on the surface, but his heart was already churning—could there really be a gold mine on this island?

Holy shit???

He'd only ever heard of gold under the sea, never gold on an island?

Wait, no—there is, he'd heard Jiaodong Peninsula has an extra-large gold mine, could they have one here too?

"Huh? What are they going to a deserted island for? Digging for shells patiently?"

Ye's father couldn't believe it—these people were used to robbery and plunder, would they really have the patience to pan the sea? Isn't that women's work?

"Who knows?"

Ye Yaodong tossed off a casual reply, then steered the boat further out to sea first.

Luzhoudao wasn't far from them and also fell under their county's jurisdiction, but those sea-plunderings—if you didn't catch them red-handed, even if you reported it to the border defense post, most cases just fizzled out.

Besides, in these times, ordinary folks don't think of running to the border defense brigade for every little thing; when there's trouble, villages settle it among themselves—the border defense brigade has no time for trivial matters.

Ye's father didn't know about the gold nuggets, and he didn't take the Luzhoudao people coming to the island two days in a row to heart either; in his mind it was just a barren island—who cared why they went up there?

But Ye Yaodong was different—the two oddly-shaped gold nuggets at home were a constant reminder that this island was no ordinary place, only he didn't have the ability to go looking, and besides, if there really was a gold mine, it would belong to the state—how would he dare!

Give him ten guts, ten lives, ten systems, and he still wouldn't dare.

Because the matter weighed on his mind, when he went on to trawl after that, he was somewhat distracted, and while working he kept staying around the area, taking every chance to edge a little closer to see if that boat was still anchored there.

Ye's father noticed and found it strange, but on second thought figured he was probably afraid those people might turn around and rob them later?

"Let's steer further out to work; those shrimp cages we just dropped don't need tending, we'll come back to collect them tomorrow—just keep our distance."

"Huh? Oh, alright then."

He temporarily pulled his thoughts back, talking himself into relaxing—if they really did discover a gold mine, they wouldn't have the capacity to mine it, and in the end it would still belong to the state.

Thinking this way, his heart did settle a little, and he could tuck it back into his belly for the time being.

Only when he'd finished hauling in the longlines and was on the way back, he steered the boat over again, planning to sneak a peek and see if the boat was still there.

As expected, the boat was still anchored there, hadn't left.

Ye's father also found it very strange. "They've been anchored at this little island two days in a row? Doesn't seem to be anything on this island, right? When you went up to poke around for a few days that time, seems like you only picked up a few baskets of seabird eggs?"

"Not just that."

"Huh?"

"There were also some wild strawberries, and wild chicken eggs too."

Ye's father shot him a glare—thought he was about to say something big, had already prepared to listen attentively.

"Let's go back, let's go back, who cares why they go up to the island, it's none of our business anyway."

"Oh."

Before leaving, Ye Yaodong took one more glance before heading off.

After finishing the busywork of selling the catch, the moment he stepped through the door he didn't even bother to bathe, just greeted his wife and the old lady and went straight into the room to rummage for the key, ready to open the drawer and look at the two gold nuggets Lin Lin Xiuqing had put away earlier.

He'd been behaving better and better these past year or two, and Lin Lin Xiuqing didn't keep him at arm's length—he knew exactly where the key was kept.

After finding it, he opened the drawer, but didn't find them—besides receipts clipped together, the drawer was full of loose little coral pieces, and some scattered small bills; nothing of value at home was kept inside.

He quickly pushed the drawer back in and called out toward the door: "Ah Qing, Ah Qing~"

"Huh? What?" Lin Lin Xiuqing heard his call, spatula in hand, and ran to the bedroom door. "What is it?"

"Put the spatula down and hand it to the old lady, come in first, I need to ask you something."

"Oh."

Lin Lin Xiuqing, her face full of bewilderment, went back out to call the old lady, asked her to keep an eye on the vegetables in the pot, then wiped her hands and came back into the room.

"What? What's so urgent you have to yell like that the moment you're back? You didn't even wash up first, didn't change your clothes and shoes."

"Where did you put those two gold nuggets of ours?"

She said in a low voice as she went to open the wardrobe. "There were too many of those things, and we had a thief a while back, so I asked our dad to make a wooden box, got a lock for it, and secretly nailed it into the corner of the wardrobe myself."

Ye Yaodong then also saw the small wooden box in the corner of the wardrobe, hidden behind the hanging clothes. "That works too, nailed to the wardrobe, no one can carry it off."

"I'll go get the key."

He watched her pick up a pillow, then reach her hand inside the pillowcase and fumble around for a while before fishing out a small key.

"You women seem to really like hiding money and keys inside pillows, or under pillows, or under the mat."

Lin Lin Xiuqing laughed and laughed. "Really? Seems like it—my mom also likes to tuck spare change under the mat."

"You're the same."

"Then I'll switch it up next time."

She laughed as she spoke, opening the small box inside the wardrobe, and by the light from outside, fished out two oddly-shaped stones that looked like gold but also didn't, and handed them to Ye Yaodong.

"Why'd you suddenly think to dig these two things out?"

Ye Yaodong took them, held them in his hands and examined them, then raised them up, holding them by the window in the light, turning them over and over carefully.

The dirt on them had long been wiped clean by Ah Qing, and the shapes still looked very cute.

When he'd first brought them back he'd told Ah Qing to put them away, and hadn't taken them out to look again since—he'd even forgotten what they looked like, only remembering one looked like a lion and one like a rabbit.

Looking at the shapes and comparing them to the legends, they should be gold nuggets, no mistake.

"Just on a whim, thought I'd take them out for a look, to confirm again."

"I don't buy it—why not look at something else? Is something going on?"

Sure enough, the one who knows you best is the one by your pillow.

"How'd you know something's up?"

"The moment you got back you were in a rush, saying you needed to find these two things. Even a fool would know something's up."

Ye Yaodong chuckled. He had come across as a bit too eager.

"What's wrong? Is there something going on with these two things?"

Ye Yaodong thought for a moment, organized his words, and told her about the ship he'd seen at sea yesterday and today, placing special emphasis on the possibility of a gold deposit.

Lin Lin Xiuqing's eyes went wide and her mouth fell open in a perfect circle.

"Th-there really is a gold deposit?"

"There might really be one. Why else would they go ashore two days in a row? There must be something on the island they want—otherwise why waste several days? It's possible they went ashore on the earlier days too, when we weren't out at sea for the baby's first birthday and Qingming."

Lin Lin Xiuqing frowned, but after a moment she said, puzzled, "But that doesn't add up. How would they know there might be gold on the island? Aren't these two ore samples in our hands? They don't have them—how could they know?"

Ah??!

Ye Yaodong froze. He blinked a few times. Wasn't she right?

Weren't these two ore samples in his hands? How could those people know this island might have gold?

How had they figured it out? Were there several nuggets of placer gold? Impossible!

He seemed to have fallen into a blind spot earlier.

"If they weren't going ashore to look for gold, then why did they sail to that island two days running?"

Lin Lin Xiuqing thought it over. "Maybe they just went ashore to gather? I heard a lot of the village women went out to sea today to gather shellfish. I even heard Third Aunt took a fall and cut a huge gash on her hand—she bled a lot and was sent back early."

"So careless. Mom really—I've told her, she's getting on in years, she shouldn't go. Some of those rocks are hard to climb, and slippery. What if she falls into the sea?"

"Well, if people want to go, there's nothing you can do. You can't stop them."

He really couldn't stop her. Ye Yaodong frowned, then steered the conversation back on track.

"Luzhoudao is surrounded by sea on all sides. If they wanted to dig up some shellfish, it wouldn't be hard—there are some uninhabited islets nearby, picking up a few shells would be easy. Why go all the way there on purpose?"

"How should I know why they went there? It's none of our business. Don't worry about it. If they find treasure, that's their own skill."

"It's just that I can't swallow it! I was the one who noticed that island first. I've hauled up so much good stuff from under the reefs nearby. Now they've taken it over and I can barely go near the place. What's that about? And besides, what if there really is treasure on that island? If those people get it, how depressing would that be?"

"If there's really treasure, just report them. They're not good people anyway, and you get a reward for reporting."

He scraped his chin with his thumb. "Let's wait and see. I'll go out to sea the day after tomorrow and swing by that area, see if they've gone ashore again. If there's really treasure, it wouldn't be just one ship going ashore."

"Right, stay safe, keep your distance. If things look off, run fast—don't let them catch you. Losing the boat is one thing, but don't you go losing yourself."

Lin Lin Xiuqing thought it over and felt it really was quite dangerous.

"Forget it, let's not worry about what they're doing. Just keep our distance. Whether they find treasure or not, it's none of our business."

"Safety first. If you really run into a big group of them and a few ships surround you, then it'll really be a case of crying out to heaven and getting no answer, crying out to earth and getting no reply."