It was lively with the family of seven in the sealed house, and the aroma of food, as well as the warmth of home, permeated the air.
Bai Qingqing was the first to finish eating. After rinsing her mouth, she squatted next to the animal skin bag to look at the rocks.
There were all sorts of rocks of various sizes in the bag; some were round, and some were square, but there was one thing in common between them—they were all heavy, which meant their densities were high.
“Is there metal in these rocks?”
Bai Qingqing picked them up piece by piece. Under the illumination from the luminous balls, she noticed an indistinct metallic luster in the rocks.
Could it be that such rocks contained metal?
Winston wolfed down all the meat, then said as he washed his hands, “I asked them to look for heavy rocks, after which I selected from what they found. All these rocks contain the scent of something like metal.”
Bai Qingqing was speechless.
Did metal have a scent?
Bai Qingqing quietly found her nail clipper. She tried sniffing at it but didn’t detect any scent.
Winston walked to her side and crouched down. After coaxing the baby to sleep, Parker also walked to her other side. The trio started studying the rocks with their heads pressed close together.
“I’m sure this rock contains metal.” Parker weighed a spiky rock and said, “It’s very heavy. Even if it’s not metal, I’m sure it’s something even tougher than metal.”
Winston had wanted to take the rock from him to take a look, but before he could do so, Bai Qingqing took the rock from Parker’s hand and peered at it using the illumination from the luminous ball.
This rock was truly different from the rest. Likely, it was forcibly pried apart by someone, for it was surrounded by asparagus-like sharp spikes, and inside, there was a dense and multifaceted object that appeared transparent under the hazy lighting.
Smudging it with a finger, the transparent rock’s surface got stained with an oily glow, after which no matter how one tried, it couldn’t be wiped clean.
“Is this metal?” Bai Qingqing gently rapped the transparent rock with a sharp rock. “Or is this jade?”
“Crush it, and you’ll know what it is.” As Parker spoke and snatched the rock back. Bam! The rock was smashed apart.
“Don’t!” Bai Qingqing made a stop gesture, but alas, it was too late. She could only watch as the rock was smashed to smithereens.
This loud bang startled the little leopards who were asleep in their nest, making them shriek out loud and jump to their feet.
Roar!
Bai Qingqing waved at them. “It’s alright, continue sleeping.”
Parker removed the rock. The coarseness on the exterior of that particular rock was crushed into many pieces, but the transparent interior was unscathed and merely broke into a few individual pieces. Each of those individual pieces uniformly had eight facets and were only the size of quail’s eggs.
Bai Qingqing heaved a big sigh of relief. “Thank god it’s not smashed. You gave me such a scare.”
Bam!
The daft Parker smashed at it ferociously once more.
This time, without the envelopment of the exterior shell, the transparent rock took a solid hit as Parker smacked heavily upon it, making even the floorboard tremble.
Bai Qingqing was speechless.
She was so annoyed that she twisted Parker’s ear and raised her voice. “I told you to stop hitting it! Are you bent on damaging the rock?”
Parker held his ear and cried in agony. “I merely wanted to see its hardness. In any case, metal will need to be melted and reshaped. So, what does it matter if we smash it?”
Bai Qingqing, who couldn’t bear to inflict pain upon him, let go of his ear despite her annoyance. “I want to keep this and play with it. Stop smashing it.”
Bai Qingqing had a feeling this rock wasn’t simple. The pretty crystals that came out from the rock, even if they weren’t jade, should be quite valuable. Perhaps it might even be a diamond.
Winston picked up the six rocks scattered all over the floor and handed them to her. “For you.”
Bai Qingqing smiled at him. “Thank you.”
