Chapter 384: Whale Poop

Wu An was taken aback.

What the hell?

Ambergris?

He looked at the somewhat excited Lao Fu Tou and asked, "Lao Fu, you mean what those two sea turtles just spat out is ambergris, that legendary spice more valuable than gold?"

Lao Fu Tou nodded.

Lao Fu Tou carefully held up a small piece; Wu An saw his serious expression and also leaned in to look. To him, it looked like a grayish-white stone.

But it wasn't stone; the surface was very rough.

Lao Fu Tou leaned in to smell, coughed twice: "It's a bit fishy."

Wu An also smelled it, frowned and nodded: "Yeah, it looks like ocean trash, probably some plastic contaminated and soaked in seawater to become like this."

"Could this be ambergris?"

"Lao Fu, you must be mistaken."

Lao Fu Tou's face grew more solemn as he said, "Go ahead and touch it."

Wu An hesitated, then took the "ambergris", weighed it in his hand; it wasn't heavy, and its texture was peculiar—like wax but not wax, soft and sticky.

He said uncertainly, "It seems somewhat special."

Looking at the ambergris in his palm, his feelings were a mix of apprehension and curiosity: if this really were ambergris, then those two little sea turtles bumping him with their heads were actually trying to give him the ambergris?

Lao Fu Tou said, "I've seen something like this online before; I can't say it's a hundred percent, but it's at least eighty to ninety percent similar."

He was also anxious about gains and losses.

He feared he was mistaken, which would just leave everyone happily disappointed.

Wu An shrugged: "Let's go back and have a professional take a look."

Ambergris is valuable.

But he wasn't someone who had never seen big money; after all, he was an elite young professional making hundreds of thousands a day easily, so he wouldn't be undone by two pieces of ambergris smaller than a child's fist.

If it were about the size of A Qing's head, it would be comparable.

A Qing and Mei Wu also came over to look; Wu An gave each a piece, letting them hold and play with it. Both were curious: "Lao Fu, is this ambergris? It looks about the same as a plastic chunk, and about the same weight."

Mei Wu said, "I actually looked into this before; ambergris is actually a secretion excreted by sperm whales."

"I've heard it's worth thousands per gram, far more valuable than gold, which is only two or three hundred per gram."

Lao Fu Tou laughed: "It's not that exaggerated."

"But it's truly more valuable than gold."

"Either way, it's a good thing."

Mei Wu doubted: "No way, I saw photos in reports that were blackish-gray; this looks pretty white, not really like it."

Lao Fu Tou said: "They're all like that; color differs, and so does quality."

Mei Wu suddenly realized, hefting it in his hand, happily said: "This must be a few dozen grams; if it really is ambergris, it'd be worth tens of thousands."

A Qing asked: "Spending that much money on this stuff, what's it used for?"

Lao Fu Tou said: "Um... it's a spice, I'm not exactly sure of the specifics."

Mei Wu also said: "I saw reports online before, but I forgot what it's actually used for."

At the time he only cared about the price.

He also thought that if he could pick up a piece of ambergris on the beach, he'd strike it rich; he never expected he now had a piece suspected to be ambergris in his hand.

Wu An said: "It's a traditional Chinese medicine; our ancestors discovered it, and now it's used to make perfume."

He knows this because.

It's also because in his previous life he read many sea‑gathering novels that described it; he was quite fascinated for a while, after all, he came from a seaside fishing village and also dreamed of striking it rich overnight and returning home in glory.

The fantasy never came true, but instead he was reborn.

Getting rich overnight is impossible, but he can slowly make money.

Lao Fu Tou ran into the boat's canopy and fetched a? steelyard balance—that is, a rod with a hook at the front, with weights hung on the rod for weighing.

This thing is rarely seen nowadays.

"How come there's still one of these on the boat?"

"I occasionally use it; I just left it on the boat." Lao Fu Tou likes to buy things to soak in liquor, often trading at the dock; he took it and weighed the ambergris, the two pieces together weighing 149 grams.

Wu An's eyes lit up: "If this really is ambergris, wouldn't it be worth several hundred thousand?"

Lao Fu Tou smiled and nodded.

Wu An was very pleased; gaining this unexpected wealth could be said to be "good deeds are rewarded." When he first helped the sea turtles clean off the barnacles, he never expected any reward.

But look, the sea turtles are grateful; when they previously encountered a storm, they helped guide him, and now they've sent him ambergris.

This makes him feel a bit embarrassed.

He muttered to himself, wishing they could send more if possible.

It's not that he's greedy; he just can't help thinking about more.

You know, the whole boat's sea cargo isn't worth as much as these two little pieces of ambergris.

Who wouldn't be moved?

No wonder they say ambergris is a treasure of the sea.

That's absolutely true.

The premise is that these two things are really ambergris; otherwise, it would just be a false joy.

Lao Fu Tou had Wu An put the ambergris away, then solemnly said: "A Qing, A Wu, keep your mouths shut, don't leak anything."

A Qing nodded.

Mei Wu said, "Leak what? I don't know anything."

Lao Fu Tou smiled and nodded at him.

When Wu An came out, Lao Fu Tou asked, "Is it set?"

Wu An nodded: "I found a box."

"Don't worry, as long as we don't say anything, no one will know."

"Besides, I've hidden the box deep inside; unless a thief actually gets on our boat, the ambergris won't be lost."

He also wondered to himself, unsure if it really was ambergris.

Lao Fu Tou said, "Okay, okay, okay, that's fine."

Although it wasn't fully confirmed yet, he already felt it was ambergris; those two pieces were worth over ten thousand, and he couldn't afford to be careless—if word got out, surely a third hand would reach onto the ship.

At this moment.

The Fan clan's fishing boat approached, and over the walkie-talkie came Fan Dali's cheerful voice: "A An, following you really is right; after following my old man out to sea for so many years, this is the first time I've felt like picking up money on the sea."

To the side.

Fan Lao Tou hearing his eldest son complain about him wasn't annoyed at all; he hehe laughed, today's catch of so many big tail squid could sell for a good amount of money, he was overjoyed in his heart—let alone complaining, even if his eldest son scolded him two sentences, he wouldn't get angry.

He also felt proud, saying: "That's also because I insisted on following Wu An back then; otherwise, where would we have the chance to make money now?"

Fan Xiao Zhu listening, couldn't help but curl his lips.

He felt that Father could keep saying this line for a lifetime.

Wu An laughed: "Congratulations, congratulations, getting rich!"

Fan Dali: "Let's get rich together, let's get rich together."

Wu An asked: "Oh, right, didn't hurt any sea turtles, did we?"

Fan Dali strangely asked: "What sea turtle? I didn't see any sea turtle; did you guys catch a sea turtle?"

Wu An suddenly realized.

It looks like they caught sea turtles because the sea turtles were close to him.

Then naturally, Fan Dali and them also couldn't possibly obtain ambergris.

He smiled: "Yes, we caught a lot, almost every net had a sea turtle, and after pulling them up we released them."

"Lao Fu said the big tail squid school was driven to the surface by the sea turtles."

"Alright, no more chit-chat, let's hurry to Xuan Ya Dao."

Leaving Xuan Ya Dao, they unexpectedly encountered a big tail squid school and sea turtles, purely an incidental gain; his main purpose was still to let the 'fish' bite the bait.

It's time to go back and lift the line.