After Reincarnating as the Dragon King, I Made a Fortune with Seafood – CH39

Chapter 39: Discovery

Lu Ao searched underwater for more than twenty minutes and soon discovered traces of coelacanths.

There should be quite a few coelacanths in this sea area. He observed four of them—three large and one small. All of them were very cautious. Aside from the first one, which had darted out in fright, the other three were hidden among the rocks, quietly revealing only the tiniest bit of themselves.

Lu Ao ignored them. He found a place farther away, filled several tubes with seawater and collected some mud and sand, then slowly floated back up.

His ascent took more than an hour, and he even used his backup tank.

When he climbed onto the deck, the rest of the diving team had already returned.

Team leader Xiang Xingchang came over to help him take off his equipment. Seeing that Lu Ao’s complexion did not look right, he hurriedly asked, “Are you okay? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”

“No.” Lu Ao was so tired his face had gone a little pale. He took the collected samples out of his fish bag. “I’m just tired.”

Brother Wu came over. “Thanks for your hard work. Are these samples all from the same place?”

“No. They’re from several different places. You’ll know once you analyze them.”

Brother Wu was all smiles. “Good. Since you’re back, get some proper rest. I’ll take the samples to Team Leader King. And the underwater micro-cameras too.”

Lu Ao took the cameras off his buoyancy control vest and handed them over. As he removed them, he realized only one was left.

Brother Wu helped him look around, and his expression immediately changed. “What happened? One underwater camera is missing?”

“I don’t know.” Lu Ao’s brows and eyes were full of exhaustion. “The situation underwater was too complicated. I may not have noticed.”

Xiang Xingchang spoke up for him. “Maybe it wasn’t clipped on tightly enough. The pressure is huge at more than a hundred meters underwater.”

Brother Wu could not say much more, so he took off the other camera with a frown.

Very quickly, he discovered that the sole surviving micro-camera was actually broken too.

His expression turned ugly. “What is going on? Our cameras passed underwater pressure-resistance tests. They can film even five hundred meters below the sea.”

Lu Ao stayed silent, his face pale.

Xiang Xingchang could not stand it anymore. “Anything can happen under the sea. It’s not like Lu Ao could have broken it.”

“Even if he didn’t break it on purpose, does that mean it isn’t broken?” Brother Wu frowned. The smile from earlier had completely vanished. “An underwater micro-camera costs at least ten thousand. One was broken and one was lost. Is it wrong for me to ask for an explanation?”

Lu Ao said weakly, “I don’t know what happened either. I’ll compensate you.”

The other members of the diving team all came over, their faces carrying some dissatisfaction.

Especially the teammate whose inflator valve had suffered a mechanical failure and who had been forced to return early. He glanced at Brother Wu and muttered, “You don’t have any proof that the camera was fine to begin with. Besides, weren’t you the one who clipped it on?”

If every underwater equipment failure was blamed on the divers, they might as well stop diving altogether.

This precedent for compensation could not be allowed.

As they gathered around and argued, King Lee quickly came over. His gaze swept over Lu Ao, who was sitting pale-faced on the deck, then over Brother Wu and Xiang Xingchang, who were arguing. His eyes sharpened. “What happened?”

“King.” Brother Wu greeted him and said, “Lu Ao broke one underwater micro-camera and lost another. We’re discussing it.”

Lu Ao had recovered a little and apologized first. “I’m sorry. It was my problem. I’m willing to compensate for it.”

King saw that even his lips were pale. He stared at him for a while, thought briefly, then said, “Forget the compensation. Be more careful next time. Don’t break or lose them again.”

“Alright.” Lu Ao said, “Sorry.”

King patted him on the shoulder and signaled for Xiang Xingchang to take him back.

Xiang Xingchang helped him up, his face full of concern. “Are you feeling unwell? Should I take you to the ship doctor?”

“I’m fine.” Lu Ao said quietly, “I’m a little hypoglycemic. I want to eat something.”

Xiang Xingchang told his team members to go back first, then simply took Lu Ao to the dining hall.

It was almost dinner time, and the food was already prepared.

Xiang Xingchang went over to communicate with the chef. Very soon, he returned with plate after plate of rice noodles, steamed buns, stir-fried dishes, and other food.

Lu Ao did not stand on ceremony. He quickly finished one portion of food after another. The empty plates beside him piled up over ten centimeters high.

Seeing him like this, Xiang Xingchang instead smiled a little, with some nostalgia. “When I was a soldier, I was just like you. After physical training, I could eat half a bucket of rice by myself.”

Lu Ao looked up despite being busy eating. “You were in the army?”

“Yeah. That was almost ten years ago. If I didn’t have to take care of my parents, maybe I’d still be in the military now.”

Lu Ao said, “No wonder you didn’t like the look of me.”

Xiang Xingchang was not embarrassed either. He laughed a few times. “Who told you to be so good-looking? I took you for a pretty boy.”

“What’s wrong with pretty boys? Pretty boys don’t get in your way.”

“That’s true, but am I not allowed to dislike pretty boys?” Xiang Xingchang pulled out a cigarette, tapped it against the cigarette box, lit it with a lighter, and mumbled around it, “Back in the day, so many girls I chased got stolen away by pretty boys.”

Lu Ao asked, “Then have you found someone now?”

“Not yet. I spend every day in the wind and water, and if I’m not careful, I might croak. What good girl would marry me?” As he spoke, he saw that Lu Ao had finished eating and pulled out a cigarette for him. “Want one?”

Lu Ao looked at his world-weary face and said, “Forget it. If your teeth get stained yellow, it’ll be even harder to find a wife.”

Xiang Xingchang finally realized that this guy was a little petty. As long as someone offended him, he would definitely remember it.

“Hey, can you stop stabbing your brother in the heart?” Xiang Xingchang reached over, dragged the ashtray closer, and flicked ash into it. “I still haven’t asked you. What happened just now? Was it improper handling? How did both underwater cameras end up with problems?”

“No.” Lu Ao had long since noticed from the corner of his eye that there was no one around. There was not even a surveillance camera; only the fan above their heads was still turning. He lowered his voice. “I did it on purpose.”

Xiang Xingchang’s gaze instantly sharpened. He held the cigarette between his fingers but did not smoke. He asked in a low voice, “Why? Out of spite?”

“No.” Lu Ao kept eating, but his voice dropped even lower. “The strange fish they asked us to look for is called a coelacanth.”

“Mm?”

“It’s classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It’s on the verge of extinction, and in our country, it’s a Class I protected animal. Export and trade are absolutely prohibited. As far as I know, Country U and Country R have not discovered traces of this fish in their waters.”

Xiang Xingchang continued smoking. His tense voice came through the curling smoke. “Is what you’re saying true?”

Lu Ao continued eating. “Why would I joke about this kind of thing? Lying about this wouldn’t benefit me in any way.”

“Fuck. I was wondering why these foreign devils suddenly came rushing over to our waters all excited to take samples and do research. What does anything in our territory have to do with them?” Xiang Xingchang said. “I’ll tell them later. Even if they see this fish, they’ll pretend they didn’t. We’ll just fool them and be done with it.”

Lu Ao said, “If you tell the others and the news leaks, what then?”

Xiang Xingchang’s voice was steady. “Don’t worry. I won’t dare say much else, but my brothers are absolutely trustworthy. We’re Chinese. Even if we die, we’ll protect China’s resources. There are no spineless cowards under my command.”

Lu Ao did not exactly have confidence in Xiang Xingchang’s brothers. It was just that right now, there was no better option.

It was more important that everyone know how important coelacanths were and refuse to help catch them.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Ao said, “You may need to do this discreetly. I accidentally filmed a coelacanth today and had no choice but to destroy the cameras. They’re probably already suspicious of me.”

“Got it.” Xiang Xingchang smiled and teased, “Suspicion might not be the case. More likely, they’re questioning your professional ability.”

After eating, Lu Ao returned to his cabin to rest.

He had spent so long moving around in the sea that he felt especially tired.

Over the next few days, Lu Ao and the others went underwater to collect samples according to instructions. They did whatever they were told to do and wore the cameras properly, but they never filmed anything valuable.

Underwater, it was only them. It was not easy to film something deliberately, but it was far too easy to deliberately avoid filming something.

Three or four days passed.

King’s team grew somewhat restless.

At this routine meeting, a researcher from Country R raised doubts. “Judging from the body language of those divers, do they know something?”

“Yes. According to our analysis results, it’s impossible for them to search here for so long and have no clues at all.”

“I’m also inclined to believe they’re hiding something.”

“I suspect what they’re hiding is information about the coelacanth. King, we need to think of a way.”

After listening to their comments, King dragged a picture from his computer and shared it. “I originally planned to wait two more days and bring it out for discussion once things were a little more certain.”

“What is this?” A researcher looked at the picture and did not quite understand the red dots and lines.

“It’s a trajectory!” A researcher from Country R quickly noticed. “Is this the movement trajectory of those divers?”

“Yes. This is the trajectory analyzed from the positioning systems on the oxygen tanks.” King shared another clearer picture. “Look at this one.”

“This is also a trajectory? It seems to be concentrated in the same area!”

“Yes. This picture is the movement trajectory of that lucky boy.” King’s face carried a pleased expression. “It seems our lucky boy really is a treasure. He has already found the coelacanths. Otherwise, he wouldn’t swim toward this area every time he entered the water.”

Someone immediately said, “Does this mean he already knows these are coelacanths and doesn’t want to help us catch them?”

“Obviously.” King interlaced his fingers on the table.

The researchers frowned and offered suggestions one after another.

“Should we increase the reward?”

“Perhaps designate someone specific?”

“Yes, designate someone. If he’s worried, we can offer him immigration eligibility.”

“No.” King refused and glanced at the expedition members. “Don’t pin your hopes on them. That Xiang Xingchang is not easy to deal with. Tomorrow, once the final round of data analysis comes out, I will personally pilot the submersible and go down to capture them.”