How could he let his father take the blame for him? What kind of person would that make him!
Old Hong was worried that saying too much would lead to mistakes. He frowned and glared at Little Hong, scolding, "Shut up! This has nothing to do with you!"
Xu Qingqing wasn't touched by their father - son bond. One should take responsibility for their mistakes.
Even fishermen who retrieved rare and precious items from the seabed would turn them in voluntarily. Old Hong, a veteran fisherman who had been at sea for over a decade, couldn't not understand this.
If he understood but still broke the law, there was nothing she could do.
Xu Qingqing took the porcelain from Old Hong's hand. It was stained black by the seabed silt.
There were also all kinds of unknown slippery liquids on it, which felt disgusting to the touch.
Xu Qingqing examined it carefully from all angles but couldn't find anything special about this black porcelain. So she simply activated the system for identification.
Unexpectedly, using the system led to a huge misunderstanding.
The system's search circle spun around the black porcelain shard for a long time, and its anthropomorphic expression showed anger.
"Host, this is just an ordinary shard. It has no collection value at all!"
Xu Qingqing was instantly stunned upon hearing this. She looked at the shard in disbelief and handed it to Wang Lide, who had walked over.
"No way! This is a porcelain shard from the Li Song San shipwreck. How could it have no collection value?"
Xu Qingqing asked the system suspiciously.
The system explained seriously.
"The shipwreck had already been salvaged. This porcelain was just something that sank to the seabed due to a whirlpool."
Xu Qingqing was instantly speechless. It turned out that all their hard work had only fetched them marine garbage!
Wang Lide made a new discovery. There was a small string of black characters in the part of the porcelain shard filled with silt.
Wang Lide immediately washed away the silt covering the characters with water, revealing their true appearance: Made in China.
Upon seeing these four characters, Xu Qingqing felt as if the air had stopped. She couldn't help but want to laugh.
Who would have thought that all their commotion had only been for marine garbage!
Gu Yuan was the first to complain, "Damn it! We've worked so hard, and it turns out to be just junk!"
There was a flash of astonishment on Wang Lide's face due to this huge misunderstanding. He shook his head and let out a bitter laugh.
"I also thought that if it was really the Li Song San shipwreck, it wouldn't have remained until now."
Hearing that the shipwreck they had salvaged wasn't a treasure - laden one, Old Hong and Little Hong's tense hearts relaxed.
As long as it wasn't a ship specifically for treasures, their crimes might be mitigated.
Just as everyone was feeling depressed because it was just a broken porcelain piece, a cry for help suddenly came from outside the ship.
"Help! Help!"
"Xu Qingqing! We know we were wrong. Save us!"
"Xu Qingqing, I'm your relative. You can't just stand by and watch us die!"
Hearing the shrill voices outside, Xu Qingqing frowned. She took an umbrella and walked out of the cabin to the bow of the ship.
The wind at sea was getting stronger and stronger. Xu Qingqing was so thin that if it weren't for the bodyguards holding the umbrella with her, she might have been blown away by the wind.
Xu Qingqing tucked the hair blown by the sea breeze behind her ears and squinted at the two people waving at her on the sea.
It was her uncle and Huang Tonghai. Apparently, they had been hit by the storm and had to come back.
Xu Qingqing waved her hand in disgust and told someone to fish the two of them out of the water.
Huang Tonghai had lost his arrogance from when he left. He was huddled up, shivering with cold.
Xu Qingqing threw two towels at them and told them to dry off the seawater on their bodies before allowing them to enter the cabin.
Xu Qingqing turned on the air - conditioner in the cabin and poured a cup of hot tea for each of them. A mischievous thought came to her mind, and she picked up the broken porcelain shard on the table.
"Boss Huang, you should have thought of this earlier. If you hadn't done bad things, you wouldn't have ended up in such a sorry state."
Boss Huang knew that he had to bow his head when under someone else's roof. He just nodded while holding the teacup and didn't dare to refute, for fear that a single word of protest would get him thrown off the ship.
"Do you want to hear some good news?"
Xu Qingqing showed the porcelain shard in her hand with a smile. "We've found out where this porcelain shard came from. Do you want to hear about it?"
Huang Tonghai's eyes lit up upon hearing this, but then he thought of Xu Qingqing's identity and quickly shook his head.
"No, no, no. I don't want to hear it!"
He already thought it was from the Tang Dynasty, so it didn't really matter whether he heard the details or not.
Xu Qingqing slapped the porcelain shard on the table and pushed it in front of Huang Tonghai with a smile.
"It's okay. Take a look. Maybe the porcelain you dug out with so much effort also has this mark on it."
Finally, Huang Tonghai couldn't resist his curiosity. He bent down and took a peek at the small characters on the black porcelain shard. His eyes instantly froze.
"Made in China?"
What?
"Isn't this from the Tang Dynasty?"
Huang Tonghai couldn't control his emotions and shouted out. He felt as if his heart had shattered into pieces, and each piece was causing him excruciating pain.
It was as if he had finally managed to grab an international brand, only to find out from the invoice that it was made in Yiwu and cost only 9.9 yuan with free shipping!
The gap was just too big!
Seeing Huang Tonghai's devastated look, Xu Qingqing couldn't help but laugh. She teased, "The Tang Dynasty was also part of China. There's nothing wrong with that."
Huang Tonghai forced out a smile that was uglier than crying. He slumped into the chair and couldn't come back to his senses for a long time.
On the other hand, upon hearing that it wasn't a Tang - Dynasty treasure but just an ordinary broken porcelain shard, her uncle rushed up and grabbed Huang Tonghai by the collar, roaring like a madman.
"Didn't you say this was a Tang - Dynasty treasure? Why is it a modern one? Why!"
It turned out that all his efforts and the risk he had taken had only fetched a modern item!
Wasn't this just making a fool out of him!
Xu Qingqing watched them fight with great interest and leaned back in her chair leisurely.
When the crazy uncle had even scratched Huang Tonghai's face, whose expression was still blank, Xu Qingqing lazily raised her hand and told someone to separate them.
After having fun with them, Xu Qingqing suddenly remembered that there was still one person who hadn't boarded the ship. She asked calmly, "By the way, where's Gu Anrou?"
Since her uncle and Huang Tonghai couldn't withstand the storm and had come back, as a woman, Gu Anrou surely couldn't hold on either. Could it be that she had been abandoned by these two heartless men?
Hearing Xu Qingqing's questioning voice, her separated uncle replied indignantly.
"She hadn't disembarked when we were fleeing for our lives. I don't know how she is now..."
At this point, her uncle's eyes dodged Xu Qingqing's gaze guiltily.
After all, Gu Anrou had been tied up with a fishing net by him. If she didn't come back, the responsibility would probably fall on him.
Noticing her uncle's evasive eyes, Xu Qingqing immediately realized something was wrong and asked coldly.
"Uncle, did you do something to her?"