Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 516: Chapter 512: Sunken Ship Treasure Hunt

Guided by the little dolphin through a hole into the interior of the sunken ship, Huo Sining was so frightened that she reached out to brace herself against the body of the ship. With that reach under the Heavenly Eye, she saw a faint purple Spiritual Qi emanating from the entire sunken ship.

Clearly, it was an ancient shipwreck. Huo Sining could not determine the exact age of the ship, but it was definitely older than the Republic of China era.

Within the decayed wooden hull of the ship, Huo Sining unexpectedly found several intact wooden chests.

The chests were guarded by General Tiesuo, but having been soaked in sea water for who knows how many years, they had actually completely rotted away.

With a light scratch, Huo Sining crumbled a piece of the wooden chest, revealing the contents inside.

It was a chest full of thread-bound books which had already disintegrated in the sea water. They had maintained their integrity in the stillness of the sea water, but with Huo Sining’s slight touch, the pages instantly turned to a pile of powdery pulp and slowly floated up in the water.

Huo Sining frowned and pried open the other two chests. To her astonishment, these two chests were filled with silver ingots.

She picked up one of the ingots. This ingot was about four centimeters tall and eight centimeters wide, unlike the plump ingots often seen with the God of Wealth or on television, it was concave in the center with longer ”ears” extending outward on both sides.

Turning it over to look at the bottom, Huo Sining found the casting stamp on the base of the ingot. The ingot was engraved with the date of manufacture and circulation, ”Guangxu seventeenth year Ding Mao,” and in the center, the seal read ”Craftsman Gao Ming Fity Tael,” referring to the name of the silversmith and the face value of the silver ingot; on one side was also cast the manufacturing city and maker’s mark ”Kuan Cheng Tong Shun Fa” and other characters.

The ingot was quite large. Huo Sining lifted one to gauge its weight and estimated it to be around two kilograms. This whole chest was neatly arranged with thirty silver ingots in two layers. Two chests of silver ingots totaled three thousand taels.

Huo Sining remembered seeing an analysis online once; the Boxer Protocol indemnification was 450 million taels of silver, which equated to about 90 billion RMB. This meant, according to the prices during the Qing Dynasty, one tael of silver was roughly equivalent to two hundred RMB at present, which implied that these two chests of silver ingots amounted to about 600,000 RMB.

For a ship to carry so much cash, it seemed the owner of the ship was a wealthy person. Huo Sining glanced around the ship’s cabin and did not find anything else of value, so she had to give up for the time being and unceremoniously collected the two chests of silver ingots into her storage ring.

Coming out on this trip and earning two chests of silver ingots, Huo Sining felt quite happy inside. No wonder Su Qingqing said the sea was the biggest treasure trove. There were countless shipwrecks down there, and these few chests of silver ingots were just a drop in the bucket.

Having tasted the sweetness, Huo Sining was curious about the treasures of those sunken ships at the bottom of the sea. Unfortunately, on this trip, she did not prepare for an extended stay underwater. The time did not permit her to delay any further, so she reluctantly ordered the little dolphin to start the return journey.

The trip back was quite smooth. After such a long rest, the Spiritual Energy of the Azure Pearl had mostly recovered. A little over two hours later, they returned to the shore, where Huo Sining did not skimp on her Spiritual Energy and gave the little dolphin a big gulp.

The little critter, after being rewarded, rubbed comfortably against Huo Sining’s hand, reluctantly performed several circles in the water, and finally left with frequent backwards glances.

Once she got back to shore, Huo Sining headed straight for Xianyu Shop.

In order not to arouse suspicion from Yaya and the shop assistant, after arriving at Xianyu Shop, Huo Sining used the excuse of getting fish stock to drive her light truck out. She drove around the city center for a while before returning.

In less than an hour, the originally empty truck was filled with a load of lively, jumping fresh fish. When the truck drove back to Xianyu Shop, the shop assistants were stunned.

”What are you standing around for, hurry up and help move the fish!”

Huo Sining shouted at the clerk, and upon hearing the commotion, owners of a few neighboring shops also ran out to watch the fun. Seeing so many fish on the truck, they all grinned.

”I was wondering why it was so bustling,” said one, ”turns out it’s you, little Huo, back with a new delivery!”

Old Fish also heard the noises and rushed out. Seeing the crowd around the entrance of Huo Sining’s shop, he immediately joined in. Spotting the fish in Huo Sining’s truck, he quickly reached out to grab one.

Unexpectedly, he nearly got slapped in the face by the fish’s tail, and if not for his quick reaction, he would have been hit in the face by the fish.

The people around couldn’t help but burst into laughter, and even Huo Sining laughed along. Old Fish wasn’t angry at all, instead, his eyes shone as he looked at the fish in the truck:

”These are some high-quality fish! You can tell they’re pure wild ones, full of wild energy and sure to taste great!”

Huo Sining said with a smile, ”That’s for sure. These are all fresh, live fish, plump and tender, just caught, and absolutely wild — no deception here!”

Among the crowd that gathered were some loyal customers of Huo Sining’s Xianyu Shop. Hearing Huo Sining’s words, they were immediately overjoyed:

”I’ve been waiting for this! Boss Huo, your store has been out of stock since the beginning of the year. I’ve been here so many times recently, just wanting to buy fish from your shop, and each time Manager Wu says there’s none.”

”Exactly, ever since I ate fish from this shop, I can’t stomach the fish from other markets; they taste terrible. The fish from Xianyu Shop are good, affordably priced, and the flavor is authentic!”

With the help of Old Fish and a few other neighbors, Huo Sining quickly had the live fish moved into the large tank in the shop. The customers who had been waiting outside swarmed in, all eager to buy live fish to try.

After the hustle and bustle, Huo Sining finally got a chance to rest. She handed the store over to the clerks and Yaya to manage and then took a taxi back to the villa area.

By the time she got home, it was already eleven o’clock. Auntie Li was preparing lunch. Seeing Huo Sining enter, she breathed a sigh of relief:

”Miss Huo, where were you last night? This morning when I called you to get up for breakfast, I found out you weren’t in your bedroom at all.”

”Yesterday, I stayed over at Yaya’s place. I sent her brother to Bashu, and she was home alone. I was afraid she wouldn’t be used to it, so I stayed with her for the night.”

Huo Sining lied without missing a beat. Seeing that Auntie Li still seemed puzzled, she quickly changed the subject:

”Auntie Li, is there anything to eat? I didn’t have breakfast and I’m starving.”

Sure enough, Auntie Li immediately became flustered when she heard this. As she went to get breakfast from the kitchen, she began muttering:

”You young people just don’t take care of your health. Skipping breakfast is bad for your stomach. No matter how busy you are, you should eat something to fill your stomach first. My son is just like you; relying on his youth and health, he often skips breakfast, and now he’s developed stomach problems...”