I Can Turn into a Fish - Chapter 244
Translator: Aristophaneso
The Shang Wen shipwreck was one of a commercial ship far larger than that of the Lisa, and had found itself stuck deep underwater, with coral surrounding the ship.
This ship was extremely difficult to salvage, and the location made any operation of mechanical equipment incredibly complicated, but with the help of the five meter long dunkleosteuses, the ship was dragged out of its enclosure and could finally see the light of day.
The five meter long dunkleosteus had grown gigantic, and were each the size of a small ship. The ten of them lined up was a chain of beast over fifty meters long.
To witness that scene with the ten dunkleosteuses tied to the shipwreck and dragging it free was like entering another world.
“It really is terrifying. If one day these creatures grow to over ten meters long each, they will really have become giant creatures. It’s hard to know what their value will be then.” Old Gu looked over the ten dunkleosteuses and exclaimed to himself.
“Over ten meters.” Fa Daiyue examined the dunkleosteus with astonishment. “If a group of ten such dunkleosteus attacked together, they could capsize a standard military ship. They’ll be kings of the sea.”
“Make good use of them.” Old Shi patted his shoulder. “With these dunkleosteus, you will never be ordinary. Don’t do anything bad in Chinese territory, but other waters are outside my control.”
Chu Xian chuckled. “And will there be a problem if normal people find out about the dunkleosteus?”
“No. There’ll be some shock with the ordinary fishermen, but the more powerful people will know a little bit more. There have been a dozen or so accounts of giant squid attacking ships, and in places like the Bermuda these accounts are not uncommon. There really are certain sea monsters out there, and they’re just another type of sea bed animal. Your dunkleosteus will just be another species to the list.” Old Shi smiled and replied.
Chu Xian nodded. “That’s good. I was worried that there might be some trouble if someone found out.”
“Today, we’ve salvaged a decent amount. The bronze inside will be worth quite a bit, and with these two shipwrecks recovered, I’ve relaxed quite a bit.”
“These should amount to around two billion rmb. After we’ve taken a full accounting, I’ll have someone transfer you the money.”
Old Gu smiled and said.
“Haha, this business really is quite easy. Two days and I’ve made over twenty million. Grandpa Shi, if you have something like this again, just call me.” Chu Xian chuckled.
“Alright, in the future we’ll come find you.” Old Shi smiled and patted his shoulder.
“Then Grandpa Shi, Big Brother Fa, I’ll take my leave first.”
After Chu Xian bid his farewells, he returned to his fishing ship. As he sailed away, he looked back at the salvaging ship and fell into deep thought.
“Old Mu, let’s return to the location of that gold mine.”
“Yes boss!”
Old Mu nodded, and the ship sailed quickly back to the coordinates of the gold mine.
“Boss, we’re here. This is the place.” Old Mu stopped the ship and exited the bridge and informed Chu Xian.
“Good.” Chu Xian nodded, and he turned to look at the dunkleosteus trailing the ship.
“Let’s go, we’re taking a dive.”
Chu Xian called out to the mermen on the ship, and directly jumped into the water.
“Pong Pong Pong.”
The dozen or so mermen all followed after, and Chu Xian and his mermen quickly dived downward to the seabed with the dunkelosteus not far behind.
“Here, the gold is here.” Chu Xian examined a protruding rock and wiped the seaweed from it.
“Come here.”
Chu Xian waved one of the dunkleosteus over, and the giant beast swam froward. Chu Xian placed is hand on its strong body.
“Try and break this rock.” Chu Xian ordered it.
The dunkleosteus waved its giant body in a ponderous motion, and smashed its armored head against the rock.
“Kaka.”
A small wave rippled through the water and the over a meter long protrusion was cracked in one blow.
Chu Xian swam forward and checked on the dunkleosteus’ head, but was relieved to find no sign of damage.
“Truly deserving of the steel body name.”
“And look, the amount gold in these rocks are surprisingly high.” Chu Xian looked over the rocks with surprise.
In a normal grouping of gold ore, it was a good load if a dozen 克 of gold was refined from a ton of stone, but the gold here was of a far higher purity, which was why Chu Xian had decided to come take a look.
“Yi?”
Chu Xian suddenly knit his brows. He looked down at the gold ore beside him and reached down to touch a piece of rock, and almost immediately, the ore crumbled apart into a kind of sand.
“Gold sand?” Chu Xian’s face grew shocked.
Gold sand came from gold ore that had been eroded for a long time, and the gold would separate from the ore and settle with mud and water in a kind of gold layer. These gold sand particles were uneven in size, and could be as large as a bean or as small as a grain of sand, and came in every variety of shape.
It is far easier to mine gold sand than it is to mine ore, and this kind of gold was usually only found in the soil and banks of rivers. It was probably here underwater because the gradual movement of the earth plates had pushed the sand together, forming this gold sand hill.
Chu Xian bent down and dug his hand into the hill, and his hand came free with a layer of impure gold.
“No wonder the dunkleosteus could break apart the rock so easily. So this is the reason – it’s actually a gold sand deposit. What a pleasant surprise.”
Chu Xian’s face could not hold back his excitement. He was going to scan around the area and see if he could use the mermen and the dunkleosteus to mine out the gold here.
His thought had been that if the gold was dense enough, he could blast the ore free and then use the dunkleosteus to transport the debris to the ship. He would have had to cooperate with Fa Daiyue and the military if he had gone down that route.
But if he did not need to blast, and could easily mine this gold sand, than cooperation was unnecessary. And to top off everything, the gold sand here was extremely dense in gold ore, and looked to be around 50%.
“Haha, how lucky!” Chu Xian’s face showed his excitement.
Chu Xian grabbed a piece of the gold and returned to the ship to examine it more closely. Back aboard, Chu Xian crumbled apart the chunk of rock, and a layer of gold sand lay in his hand.
“Looks like it really can work. As long as I have enough mermen and dunkleosteus, I can mine out gold at the bottom of the sea.”
Chu Xian’s face showed his excitement, and even though he could mine this out all by himself, he only had ten dunkleosteus. If he wanted to mine out all the gold, it would take too long.
And of course Chu Xian could not just leave all his dunkleosteus and mermen here.
Time was especially important for the dunkleosteus. The creatures were still growing, and leaving them here would only stall their growth.
The future image of his giant sea creatures and mermen doing his bidding along the sea bed gave him chills of anticipation.
And at that time, if it was possible, he might even remold one of the dunkleosteus into a giant monstrous worker beast, molding it into an excavator that could handle complex work…. He couldn’t even picture what that would be like.
At the very least, he could attach equipment to the dunkleosteus, and the ten meter long adult creatures could function as makeshift heavy machinery.
If this method worked, he could even start his own deep-sea giant sea creature business.
This was just a fantasy right now, and any hope of making it work would lie far in the future, and it was quite possible that he would never be able to put it all together.
Chu Xian paused and shook his head. It looked like the rush of easy money from the shipwreck treasures had pushed him to all kinds of fantasies.
At that moment, the phone that Chu Xian had put aside rang.
Chu Xian picked it up and looked at the caller ID. It was Duan Ke, and was probably about the movie.
“Hey, how is it? Did you find a distributor?” Chu Xian said directly as he picked up the call.
“Chu Xian, I found a distributor long ago. I begged my father-in-law, and he helped me find someone that could resist Feng Huo’s father, but the cinemas have told me that there are too many movies playing right now, and that we have to wait.”
Duan Ke continued angrily. “I knew something like this would happen. They won’t let us get through so easily, and even though my father helped me with the distributors, he won’t help with the cinemas. The price is too high.”
Chu Xian fell silent and thought. He had known that Feng Huo and his father would not let them get through so easily.
“What if we hype up our movie first. I think that when the cinemas see how our movie is trending, they won’t be stupid enough to refuse the money?” Chu Xian asked.
“It’s hard to say. Feng Huo’s father is on very good terms with many cinemas. If it were a movie by a famous director, they wouldn’t dare use such an open method, but…” Duan Ke could not finish his sentence, but Chu Xian understood his meaning.
A movie by a small time director was easily blocked by a high up decision. Situations like this had been rumored to occur.
“Don’t worry. Start the advertising and I’ll deal with this.” Chu Xian directly replied.
“Are you sure, Chu Xian? If we start advertising and end up unable to show the film in cinemas, it will be even more shameful, and we’ll have thrown millions of rmb away.” Duan Ke hesitated and asked.
“I understand, just start the promotion. I have this under control.” Chu Xian nodded and affirmed.
“Okay, then I’ll start making the calls.” Duan Ke nodded.
“It’ll be best if we can premier it within the month. In a month’s time, I’ll have enough aquariums for the stores, and with the movie’s advertising, aquariums will trend across the country.
A small smile crossed Chu XIan’s face. He’d had Zhang Xiaohua put a hold on the opening of new franchises because of a plan he’d been working on.
He would prepare a supply of aquariums and ready the franchises, all to prepare for gigantic opening sales. When the time was right, there would be dozens of aquarium stores opening in various cities all at the same time. It would be something else.
The franchises would do their own series of promotions before their opening day, and if all of this came together, half of China would be advertising his aquarium stores, and his tanks would be a household name.
With the success and promotion of this movie, his stores would trend across the nation.
When the residents of larger cities wanted his aquariums but could not find his stores in their cities, the market for his stores would create itself, and he could pick up a location without any additional need for advertising.
This would cut out steps after steps, and save at least ten million rmb of advertising.
As for the situation with the move, Chu Xian was not concerned at all.