Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 543: Chapter 543: Skeleton in the Sea

"These two hundred-plus are no good."

Ding Kaifang moved quickly. In one go, he sorted out more than two hundred pearls that were irregularly shaped, had a dull luster, or possessed obvious flaws. He pushed them to the side. "These are only good for being ground into powder. They have no value as jewelry."

"These few are okay... and this one... this one’s not bad either..."

After a careful selection process, Ding Kaifang finally picked out thirty pearls with commercial value.

A few of them, while not quite on par with Li Xu’s "Shell King," were still rare, high-quality specimens. They would look absolutely stunning made into a necklace or earrings.

"How should we divide them?"

Ding Kaifang looked at the others. "Doctor Li found this place, so he should be the one to decide how to distribute them."

Li Xu glanced at the "rejects" on the table that Ding Kaifang had disdained, then at the thirty exquisite pearls, and smiled faintly.

"How about this," Li Xu began. "Besides being used for jewelry, these pearls actually have a more important value—a medicinal one."

"There’s an old saying about pearls: beautiful as adornments, precious as medicine."

Li Xu picked up a pearl that wasn’t perfectly round and said slowly, "Everyone knows pearls are precious ornaments, but they are also an extremely valuable ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. The famous An Gong Bezoar Pill, as well as many other expensive sedatives and tranquilizers, all have pearl as an essential component in their formulas."

"Pearl is used in medicine as a powder, and its medicinal history is long and storied. Legend has it that during the Qin and Han dynasties, the pearl fishers of Guangxi Hepu commonly used Pearl Powder externally to treat bleeding from cuts, as well as burns and scalds, and took it internally to clear heat and detoxify the body. Ancient seafaring fleets even considered Pearl Powder an essential first-aid remedy for their voyages."

"The *Medical Master’s Special Record* from the Three Kingdoms period, the *Collected Commentaries on the Classic of Materia Medica* from the Liang Dynasty, and the *Compendium of Materia Medica* from the Ming Dynasty all clearly document the therapeutic effects of Pearl Powder: to calm the spirit and pacify fright, to improve vision and clear nebulae, and to detoxify and promote tissue regeneration."

Li Xu pointed to the two hundred-plus "rejects." "President Ding, these ones you just picked out may not have much value from a jeweler’s perspective, but in my eyes, these wild sea pearls have absorbed the essence of the sun and moon in the deep sea. Their medicinal value far exceeds that of cultured freshwater pearls."

"Every single one is a potent medicine for curing illness and saving lives."

"As for this largest one in my hand..." Li Xu gently rubbed the "Shell King." "Needless to say, whether for jewelry or medicine, it’s the best of the best. You could even say it’s a spiritual object in and of itself."

Finally, Li Xu made his decision.

"Alright, each of you pick a few of the high-quality ones you like. Take them home to make jewelry or to keep as collectibles."

"As for the rest, regardless of quality, we’ll take them all back to the pharmaceutical factory to be stored as medicinal ingredients."

When Lin Xiaoyu heard this, she immediately felt a little embarrassed. "Doctor Li, this is too valuable. I... I’ll just take one nice one as a memento."

Even though it was just one, a wild sea pearl like this would start at several hundred thousand yuan at auction.

For her, that was already a huge sum of money.

"Go on, take them. Everyone who was here gets a share," Li Xu said with a smile.

Song Sisi and Ding Kaifang, of course, had no objections. They were all on the same side and would just follow Li Xu’s arrangements.

They each carefully selected a few pearls they liked and put them away cautiously.

With the spoils divided, everyone was in high spirits.

After resting for a while, they had recovered a good deal of their strength.

Ding Kaifang gazed at the azure water outside the window, still eager for more. "Doctor Li, since we’re just sitting around anyway, why don’t we... go down one more time? Who knows, there might be a few more big pearls we missed in that oyster bed."

Li Xu smiled and stood up. "You read my mind. Let’s go. We’ll strip that entire area clean."

The four of them geared up once more and dove into the mysterious waters.

This time, their goal was to retrieve all the pearls that Ding Kaifang had "rejected" but which, in Li Xu’s eyes, were top-grade medicinal ingredients.

After entering the water, the four of them split up with a practiced understanding, each taking charge of a different area.

Li Xu swam to a spot near a coral reef and was focused on prying open a shell.

Suddenly, in his peripheral vision, he noticed a stream of fine bubbles slowly rising from the seabed not far away.

"GLUG... GLUG..."

The bubbles were rising rhythmically, as if some living creature was breathing below, or perhaps it was gas released by some kind of geological activity.

A thought crossed Li Xu’s mind. ’Could there be a big lobster hiding down there?’

The thought of plump, juicy lobster meat made his mouth water uncontrollably.

He had collected most of the pearls in this area anyway. He might as well go check it out. If he could catch a big lobster, they’d have a nice addition to dinner tonight.

He kicked his flippers and shot over like an agile shark.

He arrived at the spot where the bubbles were rising from—a dense thicket of staghorn coral.

Li Xu got closer and peered into the crevices. It was pitch-black, and he couldn’t see a thing.

Not giving up, he reached out and broke off a piece of coral with force.

"CRACK—"

As the coral snapped, a cloud of murky sand billowed up.

Once the water cleared a little, Li Xu didn’t see the lobster he’d been dreaming of, but instead saw a black hole about the size of a bowl.

The hole had originally been clogged with silt and was very inconspicuous.

But after being scoured by the bubbles and then violently broken open by Li Xu, it was now completely exposed.

Li Xu lay on the seabed, stretched out his arm, and mustered the courage to reach into the hole.

His fingertips touched something slick and slippery.

’Got something!’

His heart leaped with joy, and he grabbed at it fiercely.

However, before he could get a firm grip, the thing shot away from between his fingers like a loach.

Li Xu took a closer look and saw it was just an unknown species of small sea fish, frantically darting into the depths.

’Tch, got excited for nothing.’

Deflated, Li Xu shook his head and prepared to leave.

Just as he turned to go, the edge of the now-empty hole, having lost its support, suddenly collapsed.

"RUMBLE—"

A large amount of sand and silt slid down into the hole, revealing a piece of something stark white buried deep inside.

Li Xu stopped and swam back curiously.

He took the small shovel he used for prying open shells and carefully began to dig away the surrounding sand.

The deeper he dug, the more of the white object was exposed.

When he had dug about half a meter deep, Li Xu finally saw clearly what it was.

It was a human femur!

Although eroded by the long years and soaked by seawater, the bone had become brittle, even turning to dust in some places, but its unique shape was still clearly recognizable.

Li Xu was startled, but he quickly calmed down.

Finding skeletal remains on the seabed was not an uncommon occurrence, especially around ancient underwater sites.

’Some poor soul was buried here, who knows how many years ago.’

He was starting to feel tired, and the oxygen in his tank was running low, so he began to ascend.

Back on the yacht, Ding Kaifang, Song Sisi, and Lin Xiaoyu had already completed their task. They were sitting on the deck resting, taking inventory of the buckets of pearls.

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