Golden Fishing Village

Ao Muyang went to the old earthenware jar of the old man and looked at it. He wanted to find some pickles. There was fat lard and pork belly in the refrigerator. He could stir-fry some pickles with green onions and dried chilies.

The old jar had a big opening, and there was a big gray stone in the middle. Fishermen would put stones in the pickle jars, one to squeeze out the water in pickled vegetables such as radishes, and the other to prevent the pickles from floating to the surface, otherwise they would easily deteriorate.

But this stone is not omnipotent. This big jar has been used as a pickle jar for decades. It has not been brushed for who knows how long. There is a foul smell when you look up.

Ao Muyang is used to this smell. Pickle jars are like this.

He wanted to find a lumpy head, so he asked while studying it: "Grandpa Bing, when are the lumpy heads in it? Are there any old materials?"

Like green radishes, lumpy heads are spicy. If the pickling time is short, this smell cannot be removed, which will affect the taste when stir-fried.

The old man said, "Look down, if you look to the bottom, you can find a lump that's ten years old, haha."

Ao Muyang didn't need such a treasure. He picked up the stone and reached down to touch it. He could judge its pickling years by the hardness of the lump.

He reached into the jar and stirred it a few times, and the smell of pickled vegetables became stronger, so he had to hold his breath and touch it.

During this process, he always felt that something was wrong, and there seemed to be something wrong, but when he looked at the pickle jar, he couldn't find anything wrong.

Frustrated, he had to frown and continue to touch it, and took it out after he found a lump with the right hardness.

After finding the pickles, he was going to put the stone on it. Just when he picked up the stone, he knew what was wrong: the stone was too light!

He had been looking for the lump with his hands, and he held the stone in his hand after taking it out with his left hand, so when he looked into the pickle jar just now, he didn't find anything wrong. It turned out that the stone in his hand was wrong.

This stone was a bit too light, as big as a cantaloupe, but he lifted it up easily. Ao Muyang felt that under normal circumstances, this stone should be twice as heavy as the one in his hand.

He had nothing to do at the moment, so he simply studied the stone and asked, "Grandpa Bing, where did this stone come from?"

Ao Zhibing was still smoking happily with his pipe in his mouth. After hearing his words, the old man stood up and squinted his eyes for a while, then said uncertainly, "It seems that it was given by Aman? I forgot, it must have been twenty years. It seems that once Aman fished some stones from the sea, and I happened to find someone to press pickles, so I asked him for a piece."

The Aman he mentioned was the old man Ao Zhiman. Because they both lived alone early, they had a good relationship. He and Ao Muyang were the few people in the village who could enter Ao Zhiman's house at any time.

After hearing Ao Zhibing's answer, Ao Muyang suddenly had a bold guess. He said, "Grandpa Bing, this stone is very light. Don't you feel something is wrong?"

Ao Zhibing said, "Light? I can't feel it. Anyway, it can hold down the pickles."

Ao Muyang thought to himself that it was not true. The specific gravity of this stone was greater than that of water. It was impossible for it to not hold down the pickles and float on the water.

He took the stone out and rinsed it with sea water. The stone had been soaked in the pickle jar for too long. The stench on it could not be washed away. It had been pickled.

After washing for a while, Ao Muyang smelled it and still had a smell, so he simply stopped doing useless work. He waved to Heilong and said, "Give me your knife."

Heilong pulled out a military knife from his waist. It was heavy to the touch, with sawtooth on the back of the knife, and it was very thick.

Ao Muyang held the stone with one hand and sawed with the other hand. He didn't think much about it. He simply felt that the stone was too light and wanted to see if there was honeycomb stone inside.

Honeycomb stone is also called water-sounding stone. There are many holes on this stone. When it is placed on the beach and the seawater hits it, it will make a rhythmic sound. When Ao Muyang was a child, he often looked for such stones with his friends to compare the sound.

The stone is not strong. After all, it has been pickled in salt water for many years, and the surface is a little crisp.

After the dagger sawed it, there was a crackling sound, and stone chips flew everywhere. It actually began to separate like a thousand-layer cake, and a layer of stone shell fell off.

This made Ao Muyang very puzzled. Is the stone wrapped in something? Is it a dinosaur egg or something like that?

He became interested and knocked, hit, and sawed, and then as the stone shell and fragments fell off, a little orange-yellow was revealed.

Ao Zhibing was watching from the side. He was shocked at this moment. He quickly took off the pipe in his mouth and said, "Oh, there is gold inside?"

Ao Muyang shook his head and said, "Impossible, gold is heavier than stone. This stone is too light. What is inside? Let's see."

He used the tip of the knife to shave off the stone wrapped outside, gradually revealing the true face of the thing inside: an orange-yellow opaque mineral. Ao Muyang was familiar with it. This is beeswax, which is also called sea amber by the people of the fishing village!

There is sea amber in Hongyang Bay. Ao Zhiman has been salvaging this thing since he was young. Considering that this stone was obtained by Ao Zhibing from Ao Zhiman, it must be sea amber.

No wonder this stone is so light. The specific gravity of beeswax is not even half of that of stone. It only sinks a little in water. High-quality beeswax can even float in the sea water!

Ao Muyang estimated that this piece of beeswax must have sunk into the ground and, after millions of years, its surface was covered with sand and gravel. Due to pressure and temperature, these sand and gravel merged together to form a whole piece of stone skin.

This is different from jadeite. The stone skin wrapped around beeswax is not solid and can be peeled off layer by layer with tools, unlike jadeite which is almost integrated with the stone.

As more and more beeswax was exposed, Ao Zhibing also recognized it. He exclaimed in surprise: "Oh, this is a piece of beeswax."

Zhong Cang and his wife came after hearing the news. They heard that the beeswax was dug out from the stone used to press pickles. They were amazed: "It's really interesting. Uncle Bing, you have always used a treasure to press pickles. No wonder I said your pickles are delicious."

"This is really a treasure. I have seen beeswax in the mall. It is quite expensive. How much does such a big piece cost? It must be hundreds of thousands or millions?"

After washing it with water, Ao Muyang smiled and said to the old man: "Grandpa Bing, you have won the prize this time , big prize, you can become a millionaire if you sell this stone. "

Ao Zhibing shook his head and said, "Hey, what does this have to do with me? This is Aman's. It turns out that Aman gave me a piece of beeswax at that time. Well, boss, you can bring it to him when you go back."

Zhong Cang asked in surprise, "Uncle Bing, you, you want to give this beeswax to someone else?"

The old man smiled and said, "Who to give it to? It originally belonged to someone else, but he didn't care about giving it to me. Now that we know the truth, we must give it back to him. Boss, you give it back to Aman. Aman has been looking for this thing for many years. I guess he will be happy for a while!"