Chapter 31: Dividing Wealth

  The matter of the sea bandits has been settled, and Meng Chao has rendered all of them useless in martial arts. It seems that they will spend the rest of their lives doing hard labor on the island.

  The chief culprit has been executed, and the fishermen of Xiaoyao Island can also calm down to face reality. There are more than 100 old, weak, women and children on the island, and only more than 20 young and strong people left. It's not bad to have a group of pirate laborers.

  Handing over the pirates to the authorities can earn a reward, but the stolen goods may be embezzled by corrupt officials, so the captain wisely agreed to deal with the pirates.

  Lian Pingyuan was very sharp-eyed and, without waiting for the captain to speak, he arranged for people to move various treasures out of the pirates' lair. These things were all they had risked their lives to salvage from the sunken ships on Fog Island. The pirates had left behind only the most valuable items, including gold, silver, jewels, and some famous water-resistant goods.

  The old captain and the sailors all had bright eyes and heavy breathing, they were all hardworking people who ran the sea, even if they worked for a lifetime, they might not be able to accumulate so much wealth, let alone them, even Yang Yun and Meng Chao were in a state of being deeply moved.

  Qing eradicated the pirates almost single-handedly, she didn't open her mouth and no one dared to secretly divide. The old captain pulled Lian Pingyuan and asked her meaning in a humble manner.

  "I don't want it, let the islanders keep half and divide the remaining half among the people on the ship." Zhao Jia waved her hand impatiently.

  Lian Pingyuan hastily pushed and dodged, exchanging a few fake blows with the boat owner. In the end, they agreed that the islanders would take 30% and the people on the Changfu ship would get the remaining 70%.

  The captain and the sailors knew each other's intentions, and the extra 20% was a hush money. After they divided the spoils and returned to shore, most of them would quit their jobs and scatter in all directions. They were not afraid that someone would remember this ill-gotten gain, but the people on Shrimp Island still had to live here, and the news that they had money would spread, and another disaster would befall them.

  Chang Fu and the others discussed with the islanders, decided to tell outsiders that the money was found on an uninhabited island, then everyone happily prepared to divide the money.

  It wasn't until the division began that they realized it wasn't easy to divide things fairly. Gold, silver, and copper coins were simple, as they could be exchanged based on their value, but those pearls, jades, and other goods had no one who could accurately estimate their value.

  At this time, Yang Yun jumped out and came up with an idea. He picked out things that couldn't be valued and gave each person a number plate, then started auctioning them off one by one.

  Everything starts at a price of one thousand two silver coins, and if no one bids, it decreases by one hundred two silver coins per round. When it drops to the last one hundred two silver coins, it will decrease by ten two silver coins until someone is willing to take over.

  The first item was an eight-treasured lapis lazuli bowl, with a body as blue as lake water and inlaid with colorful pearls and precious stones. Several people coveted this item, but it was finally snatched up by the captain of the ship at a price of 400 taels, leaving the others to clench their fists in regret and lament their lack of decisiveness.

  Yang Yun took the eight-treasured agate bowl aside, noted down the ship captain's number, and waited to collect it after the auction ended.

  With this precedent, the rest of the auction gradually became more intense. This kind of auction is very demanding on one's eyesight, but if your eyesight isn't good enough, you can also try to gamble with your luck.

  The prices of the next dozen or so items were relatively high, including a sailor who bought three items in a row. Yang Yun had to remind him that if the final value exceeded his share, he would have to pay extra to make up for it. If he didn't have enough money on hand and couldn't borrow any, he would have to give up some of the items and resell them.

  More and more items were marked with numbers, the remaining ones were relatively niche, and many people spent a lot of money buying things in advance, now they all want to save some silver coins to take back home, so the auction prices plummeted.

  Yang Yun then made his move, using 70 taels of silver to effortlessly acquire a green jade rhinoceros paperweight.

  The jade quality of this paperweight looks ordinary, the rhinoceros button is not made very exquisite, and other people's psychological price is mostly five or six tens of two, and no one competes with him.

  Yang Yun's face remained calm and expressionless, but in his heart he was already excited to the point of bursting out laughing. He had concocted this auction for more than half the reason being because of this paperweight.

  What is this green jade? The green stone body has a faint white stripe, which contains a clear and cool spirit. This is obviously a green cloud stone.

  The stone lives up to its name, and everyone believes that this magical stone can help people achieve great success - as for the reason behind this saying, if it's an ordinary person, of course, they can't explain why, but just use it as a good phrase; if it's a general practitioner, then they can sense the water attribute spirit energy contained within, which can make people's minds stable and focused; however, Yang Yun knew that things were not so simple, this involves the operation of qi, the power of faith, the opportunity, the proof, and also some mysterious rules of this world.

  For Yang Yun who had ambitions for the imperial examination, from the moment he saw this Qingyun Stone Town paper, he made up his mind to obtain it.

  If this piece of Qingyun stone were to be placed in Fengming Prefecture or Dongwu City, it wouldn't just sell for a mere 70 taels of silver, but even 7,000 taels or 70,000 taels would be possible.

  Tonight I will laugh even in my dreams.

  Yang Yun finally couldn't help but smile triumphantly when no one was paying attention.

  The auction and distribution of silver continued for a whole day, with only one meal in between. After Zhao Jia had wandered around the small island, he became very bored and urged everyone to set sail.

  In the end, everyone on the Cháng Fú got a share of six hundred taels worth of goods. Of course, this was just a nominal figure - Yang Yun's Qingyun stone paperweight alone was worth more than all the others put together. And then there were those like the captain who had some sales channels, he estimated that the price of the Eight Treasures Lüli bowl would double when it was sold, and he repeatedly stroked his non-existent beard with joy.

  With a large sum of money in hand, the sailors' hearts were set on returning home, and they decided to travel through the night.

  The Changfu set sail on the sea, at this time it was already sunset, and a vast expanse of shrimp suddenly appeared on the sea surface illuminated by the afterglow.

  Lian Pingyuan was also on the Changfu, he pointed to the sea and said: "Look, these are silver shell shrimp. Every evening, the shrimp group will float on the nearby sea surface, and our Shrimp Island got its name from this."

  The sea surface was covered with shrimp groups, and silver arrows were jumping everywhere. The sunset shone on it exceptionally colorful and beautiful.

  Zhao Jia gazed in rapt attention and said: "It's truly beautiful, but the name of your island isn't good. I think it should be renamed to Xiāo Dǎo (Island of Rosy Clouds)."

  Lian Pingyuan hastily replied, "Thank you, immortal, for giving us a name. From now on, our island will be called Xiadao."

  Zhao Jia burst out laughing and said: "I'm not a fairy, you'd better still call me Zhao Niang."

  "Yes, I'll listen to your orders."

  Zhao Jia was actually a rookie who hadn't even left her sect's gates, and this was the first time someone had called her Fairy, so she was delighted.

  When I was in a good mood, a noise came into my ears.

  "Not here, not here, there are more over there - Brother Tiger, you go down the web over there."

  Zhao Jia turned her head to look, Yang Yun and Chen Hu were holding a long net pole, with half of their bodies leaning out of the boat to catch shrimp.

  What an uncouth person! How can you never forget to eat at any time?

  The good mood was completely ruined, and Zhao Jia once again had the urge to kick Yang Yun into the sea.

  Yang Yun was extremely excited and picked up two large buckets, casually plucked a shrimp from the water, peeled off its silver shell, squeezed it gently, and the crystal-clear shrimp meat jumped into his mouth. As he chewed, there wasn't a hint of fishiness, just a burst of freshness that lingered between his lips and teeth.

  "Good shrimp." Yang Yun praised and took a mouthful, with both hands opening to the left and right, sending one after another of the sea shrimp into his mouth.

  The sailors had been at sea for years, and they were tired of eating fresh fish and shrimp. Only Meng Chao came over to accompany them for a while, but he only ate about ten or so. Although the shrimp was very fresh, eating too much raw food would harm their spleen and stomach.

  Yang Yun didn't listen to dissuasion and ate half a bucket like flowing water, unable to stop, causing everyone on the boat to stare in surprise.

  Zhao Jia watched Yang Yun eating with such relish and thought to himself, "Is this sea prawn really that delicious?" He had a mind to try some, but couldn't muster up the courage to eat it raw. Moreover, the two buckets of sea prawns were monopolized by Yang Yun, and he didn't want to ask this annoying guy for any. So he simply ran to the back of the boat to avoid him altogether.

  The shrimp he ate turned into a stream of essence, replenishing Yang Yun's body. Although the silver-shelled shrimp were small in size, the essence they converted was very abundant, far exceeding the ordinary meat dishes. Yang Yun only ate half a bucket of shrimp, and the effect was even better than a banquet, probably because these shrimp contained more spiritual energy than ordinary livestock.

  Yang Yun thought to himself, the Moon Flower True Classic would not be able to provide combat power in a short period of time, and the Silent Yuan Refining Technique still needed to be strengthened. Finding some food rich in spiritual energy was the most effective method.

  I recalled the white python's corpse that was abandoned on Fog Island. It would be great if I could eat it, but unfortunately, Wild Girl didn't have a detoxification charm on her body. With my current cultivation level, taking one bite would be suicidal.

  He had intended to go and scoop up a few more buckets of shrimp, but found that the Changfu ship had already left the sea surface where the shrimp were hiding. Yang Yun was disappointed and didn't eat anymore. Although he could still eat two more buckets with his Jieyuan Huajing technique, he didn't want to be regarded as a monster by the sailors on the ship. Anyway, it would take several days to return to shore, so eating these shrimp earlier or later made no difference.