13: Chapter 13 Blue Amber

Li Dongping's daughter, Li Lanshan, opened the door for Cao Xiao. Having an eighteen-year-old girl call him 'Uncle' always made Cao Xiao feel like an old man whenever he was at Li Dongping's house. Consequently, he didn't speak much to the girl, as it felt awkward. However, this young girl would raise her voice every time she called him, and one could only imagine the frustration in Cao Xiao's heart.

He had come this time just to return the car to Li Dongping. As for the money he owed, he would have to wait a while. It wasn't that he didn't have the money to pay it back, but rather that suddenly producing such a large sum would be difficult to explain. They were people who knew each other's backgrounds well; if he went out for one weekend and earned hundreds of thousands, others would think he had done something shady. If he truly had such a lucrative way to make money, he wouldn't have borrowed from them in the first place.

Li Dongping's wife had also prepared a table full of dishes. She was a relatively traditional housewife—not that she lacked her own opinions, but Li Dongping was a family man with a good temper, and the couple rarely argued. She didn't interfere in Li Dongping's affairs, and he treated her very well; they could be called a model couple. As a creditor, she had no complaints against Cao Xiao either. She supported whatever Li Dongping decided, and since Cao Xiao was a frequent guest, their relationship had become very good over time. Even Li Lanshan, the well-behaved girl, would joke with him now.

After eating and having some drinks with Li Dongping, Cao Xiao took his leave. When he returned to his small house, He Yueyou was absent again, likely not back yet. Having run around all day and drunk some alcohol, Cao Xiao went to bed early.

Early the next morning, he took the bus to work at Hengyu instead of driving his own car, as that would be too conspicuous. Many colleagues hadn't arrived yet. Cao Xiao turned on his work computer to check the surface location of that old mining site. Fortunately, there were no buildings or roads nearby, and the location was remote. Because the mining was complete, many areas on the surface had subsided, so few people went there. This was good news for him; he wouldn't be discovered entering the underground from there in the future. After turning off the computer, Cao Xiao changed his clothes and went down the shaft.

He arrived at the old mine tunnel with practiced ease. After moving the earth blocking the tunnel, he didn't start mining coal directly. Instead, he followed the upward passage to the top of the coal seam and began a tunneling project. He dug a spiral staircase passage from the top toward the surface. This passage was only one meter wide and two meters high with an arched ceiling to prevent collapse. Many issues need to be considered for earthwork or mining operations underground, such as groundwater and soil density. However, with his ten-meter Detection Function, Cao Xiao could identify unstable factors in advance and bypass them.

The distance to the surface was over a hundred meters, and since it was a spiral passage, the actual length was even greater. He had to stop and observe for a while every few meters, continuing only after ensuring the passage wouldn't collapse. It took a full two hours before Cao Xiao breathed fresh air. During the process, he encountered a small underground river that gave him a major scare. Even a ten-meter distance wasn't safe, as the pressure of underground rivers is immense. He quickly backfilled the large section of the passage near it. Encountering an underground river during subterranean operations is no joke; if things go wrong, the entire mining area could be flooded. If the water flow were large enough, the coal mine would be completely ruined. Cao Xiao could only steer clear of the underground river and dig a new path in a different direction.

Cao Xiao emerged from the hole and carefully observed the surroundings. Seeing no one, he carefully identified the location before returning to the passage. He meticulously backfilled the five meters of the passage closest to the surface and restored the ground to its original state. This way, even if someone noticed something unusual on the surface, they wouldn't be able to enter the passage.

Returning to the underground cavern in the coal seam, he released the earth from his storage space and piled it where the coal had previously been mined. Once the space was cleared, Cao Xiao began mining coal. The coal in the seam continuously disappeared, and in a short while, the collection space was full. Cao Xiao did not continue—not because he couldn't fit more, but because he had encountered something interesting.

On the Detection Function panel, a massive black object appeared before his eyes. It was irregularly shaped, with a volume of 4.5 cubic meters and a mass of six tons. The size wasn't the most important part; what was truly shocking were the specks of blue translucent solids inside the object. Scattered blue translucent solids could also be seen around this massive black object through the detection.

Having dealt with coal mines for a long time, Cao Xiao naturally knew he had struck luck and encountered a rare treasure. The black object before him was jet—also known as coal jade—a natural organic gemstone used for making jewelry.

Natural jet has a fine texture and a smooth feel. It often appears as an opaque black with a bright luster. The use of jet in our country has a long history. High-quality jet is as black as lacquer, with a bright luster and pure texture, possessing a literary aura similar to landscape ink paintings; thus, it was highly favored by scholars in ancient times. jet is hard with a fine structure, blacker and brighter than coal, and is a special material slightly lighter than coal. Because of its distinct horizontal and vertical grain, it is an excellent raw material for carving. The price of jet varies; for ordinary small accessories, the price is mostly around thirty or forty yuan. Smaller items, like pendants, are priced around ten or twenty yuan. For large jet carvings of good quality, the price can reach hundreds or even thousands of yuan.

However, until now, he had never heard of jet being produced anywhere in the world except for Liaodong Province. Why would jet exist in a small coal mine in this central province? In his years at Hengyu, Cao Xiao had never heard of jet being found here; otherwise, the place would have been famous long ago. Unable to figure it out, he could only praise the wonders of nature.

This piece of jet was very large, but it wasn't worth that much; if he found a sucker to sell it to, he might get a few hundred thousand at most. However, those blue translucent objects inside the jet were valuable. That was natural amber—specifically, the rare blue amber. Due to its scarcity, the price of blue amber had skyrocketed a few years ago. Nowadays, blue amber is sold by the gram, with the best specimens reaching prices of over ten thousand yuan per gram.

Amber is the resin of coniferous plants from 45 to 65 million years ago that dropped and was buried underground for tens of millions of years, fossilizing under the influence of pressure and heat; hence, it is also known as 'resin fossil' or 'pine resin fossil.' It is mainly distributed in the sediments of sandstone and coal seams from the Cretaceous or Tertiary periods. Amber comes in various shapes, and its surface often retains the patterns created when the resin originally flowed. Bubbles and ancient insects or plant debris are frequently visible inside.

Among the many types of amber, blue amber is a more special category. It doesn't possess a blue color itself, but rather its luster exhibits a blue tone. Beyond its collection value, blue amber itself has many beneficial effects for humans.

blue amber has multiple functions, such as relieving pain, aiding in the treatment of rheumatism in joints, calming the nerves, absorbing radiation, and helping with sleep. Furthermore, after being worn for a long time, blue amber also possesses human spirituality. When you are healthy, it is crystal clear, bright in color, and warm in texture; if you are feeling down or in poor health, it becomes dull and lusterless. Therefore, blue amber is an excellent health monitor.

Amber contains many inclusions, which is to say, many impurities. Thus, a large piece of raw material might not yield even one small, clean, and flawless bead. Moreover, the areas with more impurities are often bluer, so a piece with good blueness and no impurities is very rare. The fewer impurities in blue amber, the better. Of course, plants and animals are not considered impurities; if they are present, the piece is even more valuable.

The blue amber in the jet Cao Xiao discovered had very few impurities, possibly because it co-existed with the jet, resulting in high purity—there wasn't even a trace of flora or fauna. However, the purity of some blue amber around this piece of jet was very low, containing many impurities. Much of it lacked collection value; only the pieces with insects or plants encased inside were valuable, and their value was higher than ordinary blue amber.

Within the ten-meter detection range, there were no fewer than several hundred pieces of blue amber, and there were more beyond ten meters, not counting the hundred-plus pieces inside the jet. This must have been a place with a very special environment in ancient times; otherwise, the amber produced wouldn't be so dense.

The best origin for blue amber is only the Dominican Republic. Dominican blue amber has good texture and few impurities. Among these, the yield of such blue amber is extremely scarce. The monthly production of raw Dominican blue amber is less than 20 kilograms. After processing, the yield of high-quality blue amber is only about 5,000 grams. As the saying goes, rarity makes a thing precious. Naturally, the price of blue amber is much higher.

The price of blue amber is categorized by color into sky blue, light blue, and deep blue, with sky blue having the highest value. Sky blue amber is around ten thousand yuan per gram, light blue amber is 4,000–6,000 yuan per gram, and deep blue amber is 1,000–3,000 yuan per gram.

The blue amber in the jet was basically all sky blue, with fewer than ten pieces being light blue and none being deep blue. The blue amber around the jet was exactly the opposite: deep blue was more common, light blue was less common, and there were only a few pieces of sky blue. This was without even finishing the detection of this coal seam; based on the density, the quantity was definitely not small. The weight of the sky blue amber discovered so far added up to several kilograms. Once these pure pieces were processed, the weight wouldn't decrease too much, likely retaining at least half. The value of the sky blue amber alone was worth tens of millions, not counting the rest. This blue amber might be more valuable than all the anthracite in this coal seam combined.

Cao Xiao collected all the blue amber within the ten-meter range into his personal space and put that piece of jet into the research space. Then he continued mining the surroundings, putting all the anthracite into the processing space. Once the processing space was full, he filled the research space. When he could fit no more, he piled what was in the collection space onto the ground and repeated the process. He didn't stop until not another piece of blue amber could be found. By then, a quarter of his personal space was filled with blue amber. It was insane—a full two cubic meters! All of it was blue amber. The density of blue amber is just slightly higher than water. Two cubic meters of blue amber, minus some gaps in the pile, weighed over a thousand kilograms. Even if most of it had many impurities, if only a few hundred kilograms of high-quality material remained, and about a hundred kilograms were left after processing, it would be worth a hundred million even at the lowest price for deep blue amber. Not to mention, the overall quality of this blue amber was good; its value was immeasurable. This amount of blue amber was likely much higher than the annual production of the Dominican Republic, and the high-quality stuff even more so.

After doing some simple math on the spot, Cao Xiao was dazed by this massive windfall falling from the sky. He had worked so hard to get several thousand tons of anthracite powder only to sell it for a few million, yet today he suddenly had wealth worth over a hundred million. As long as he sold a portion of it, he would be a bona fide billionaire in the future and could fully start preparing for retirement.

After spacing out for a while, Cao Xiao shook his head. He had been blinded by wealth, actually thinking about retirement at such a young age. Besides, it couldn't be calculated that way. If so much high-quality blue amber were released all at once, the market price might plummet. blue amber was expensive precisely because it was rare; if there was too much, it wouldn't be valuable. Furthermore, the current high prices for these collectibles involved some speculative factors. If speculators found out he held a massive stock, they would definitely ensure he couldn't sell a single piece. Therefore, he could only sell it slowly. Until another high-quality source of blue amber was discovered, the price would only keep rising, and keeping it in his collection would only increase its value. Now that he wasn't particularly short on money, there was no need to take risks to sell it for cash.

He should just stick to dealing in coal honestly. Cao Xiao's heart finally calmed down. Checking the time, it was already eleven o'clock. Once he finished up here today, he had to go resign; if he was late, everyone would have left work.

Thinking of this, he got up and walked out, moving earth as he went to completely block the passage. Even if he were to enter from the mine tunnel again, it would take a lot of effort. Returning to the office, he took a quick shower and then went to the administration department to resign. He took a resignation form from the department, filled it out casually, and then went to find his superiors for signatures. Finding his superiors meant finding Li Dongping and Fang Xuehai. He had already settled things with Li Dongping yesterday, so he could just go straight to him. As for that grandson Fang Xuehai, he couldn't be found, and his phone wouldn't pick up, so there was no need to look for him. He didn't care about that bit of salary; Li Dongping would handle it for him later. After getting Li Dongping and the administration manager to sign, Cao Xiao went to find a few colleagues he was close with and invited them to bring their families to the Fangzhu Town Hotel that evening for his farewell dinner.

His colleagues knew the current situation at Hengyu and realized there was no point in trying to persuade him to stay, so they all agreed to bring their families that evening. After leaving Hengyu, Cao Xiao took the bus back to the small town.

With nothing to do in the afternoon since he wasn't working, he decided to drive his new car to Jinghu City to dispose of the coal in his space. That way, he could deliver another batch when he went back tomorrow. Otherwise, using trucks or ships for transport would be too inefficient; the shipping costs would be significant and it would be quite troublesome. One round trip plus disposing of the coal powder would take at most six hours. He would return just as Li Dongping and the others finished work, and he could break in his new car in the process.

Thus, Cao Xiao ordered a few small dishes for lunch at a small restaurant in town. He then drove his new Leopard onto the nearest highway entrance, heading toward the highway exit near that pier in Jinghu City.