Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Ford brothers intended to get to know Li Du but had no intention of talking to him
about meteorites.
When they talked about meteorites they only talked about the difficulty of looking for
those and the places they have searched before, but never about the purpose of looking
for meteorites and how they planned to use them.
As it happened, Li Du did not care much.
The search for a fifth dimension, the crossing of time and space, looking for the
origin of life, and so on, seemed unreliable and pointless to him.
Anyway, he would not spend his energy, money and material resources to do this
kind of thing. He would rather make money and build a comfortable living area wherever
he liked, like these people.
He believed that both Steve and the Ford brothers had money to burn and that for
them, taking risks and exploring these so-called unsolved mysteries could be a source
of inspiration.
Steve had called the Ford brothers to come and study the meteorite.
Inspired by the find, they decided to go to the area where Li Du discovered it to
investigate and see if they could unearth another piece.
Newman invited Li Du to go together, and Li Du readily agreed. He was quite interested
in the meteorite hunter’s work and thought that if he could find another eight to ten
pieces like this, the sum in his bank account could start growing again.
As long as there were no big storms in the warm Antarctic season, life was quite
comfortable.
The sun was shining brightly outside, seabirds were flying over the camp, and
Antarctica was in the midst of another annual life cycle.
After lunch, they went on a dog sled ride along the glacier to see the natural wonders of
the ice sheet. The flat ice sheet was dotted with many uplifted icebergs, which looked
magnificent.
After a day, they reunited with Steve and headed back to the beach in the same
direction as yesterday.
The Ford brothers had more men, and there were fourteen to fifteen people in total,
including both of them.
After the two parties met, Newman gave Li Du a brief introduction. The people that they
brought along were hired, professional meteorite hunters.
While Li Du had some free time the day before, he checked some information on the
industry online.
Meteorite collection was a historical pursuit. From the beginning of ancient China,
ordinary people and royalty alike began to collect these extraterrestrial mementos.
In medieval Europe, people were even more curious about meteorites and paid more
attention to collecting them, but for many years, few meteorites were found. Only in
recent times, the hunt for meteorites became more successful.
The reason why modern people found more meteorites was not because more
meteorites have landed on earth in modern times, but because it became easier for
people to identify them.
With the development of the space industry, humans could travel beyond Earth and
retrieve samples from other planets in the solar system. With the reference of these
samples, it was easier to identify meteorites.
This comparative geological analysis helped scientists understand the structure of other
planets in our solar system.
Meteorites were valuable both as collectors’ items and pieces of historical and scientific
value, and their rarity added to their worth.
Most meteorites and local rocks on earth were very similar, so they were generally
difficult to identify, and the probability of finding meteorites was very small. Even
experienced meteorite hunters could take several years to find one.
Finding a meteorite could make a hunter’s fortune, but many meteorite hunters have
worked for years without finding one, and often ended in giving up.
Therefore, meteorite hunters were as rare as meteorites themselves.
The people who could persevere in this pursuit were wealthy ones or those who have
been lucky enough to find a meteorite before. They needed, at least, to have enough to
maintain domestic expenses, enabling them to continue in this field.
Because the number of hunters was small, meteorite hunters had great pride and would
often look down their noses upon each other.
When Steve arrived with Li Du, the meteorite hunters did not come forward to greet
them, and just remained lazily sitting in their sled.
The Ford brothers did not seem to feel very kindly disposed towards them. Newman
said coldly when he saw Li Du approach, “This is Mr. Li, who has just discovered a
piece of meteorite weighing more than five kilograms. As far as I know, he is a layman
in this field. I don’t understand why supposed experts like you guys have not found
anything yet.”
Li Du could understand his feelings. Feeding these meteorite hunters was not free.
They were highly paid even they did not find any meteorites.
In addition, because they came to work in the Antarctic, which was a dangerous area,
their salary was doubled.
In other words, the Fords had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a month for
these people and did not get anything in return. Someone straight as Newman would
definitely be mad.
The Fords were big American capitalists who were willing to pay their workers, but they
had to produce value to offset the costs. They would definitely be unhappy if the person
they employed did not give anything in return after being generously paid, like the
meteorite hunters.
A hunter took off his fur hat to show his hairy beard. He said touching, his hair, “Boss, it
takes luck to get a meteorite. We discussed this clearly earlier. And we worked in the
Arctic and Siberia previously, this is a new place for us and we are not familiar with it.”
When Li Du heard that they had worked in Siberia and the Arctic, it occurred to him that
he and Steve had made an appointment to go to the Arctic together. Maybe I should talk
to these people and gain some experience.
Newman rolled his eyes and went to discuss the search plan with Steve. The hunters
sat lazily again, some of them smoking and puffing.
“The Antarctic ecosystem is very fragile. It’s not easy to deal with pollution here. You'd
better not smoke,” warned Li Du as he walked towards them.
The hunter gave him a cold look and said, “Pollution? Could the pollution caused by a
cigarette be as much =as your capitalist factories produce in a second?”
“Mind your own business. Your luck might ensure that you find a stone, but it won’t
guarantee that you’ll avoid my fist,” said another big man with an evil grin.
Brother Wolf walked out from behind Li Du with a cold expression, ready to teach
this big fellow a lesson.
Li Du did not mean to come across as hostile, so he laughed and said, “Hey, I
am not a capitalist, I am now a meteorite hunter, just like you.”
A big fellow gave him the finger and laughed scornfully. “Like us? Wow, we are
honored to have the same job as a millionaire like you. But do you know anything about
meteorites? You think that finding a rock by chance makes you a meteorite hunter?”
Li Du stroked his chin. The men looked wild, and it would probably be difficult for
him to get any information about Siberia from them.
