Becoming Rich with Daily Scavenging APP-Chapter 405: Han Dynasty Crystal Carvings

This shop, located a few blocks away from the most bustling area of Jeddah, is more like a warehouse full of clutter than an actual store.

Chen Yiyang searched for half a day here before finally finding what he wanted in a box.

"I can’t even remember when these two things got left here."

The shop owner, scratching his head with his fingers as he looked at what Chen Yiyang had brought out, said, "But they look like plastic. Must have been imported from abroad at some point."

Of course, the two items Chen Yiyang wanted to buy were not plastic.

Yet the shop owner’s comment was understandable, as the items indeed did not look like antiques from thousands of years ago.

One of the items was completely transparent, while the other had some red hues within it.

Indeed, at first glance, they looked like plastic.

"How much for these two things?" Chen Yiyang asked.

"I’ll just give them to you." The shop owner said generously, waving his hand.

"How could I accept that?" Chen Yiyang wasn’t the type to take advantage of others easily.

So, he picked out a few more local Saudi jewelry pieces and paid the shop owner a total of two hundred Saudi Riyals.

One Saudi Riyal is equivalent to 1.9 RMB, and considering the local prices in Saudi Arabia, it wasn’t much.

After buying the items, the shop owner didn’t let Chen Yiyang leave, and instead, continued chatting with him.

"I heard on the news that our country is going to create an economic zone with your country?"

"Yes, that’s true," Chen Yiyang nodded and said, "I’m here this time because of that matter."

"Is it that the noble Queen of the East has decided to take off her precious silk gloves and join this struggle for supremacy?"

Uh.

What a bizarre way to speak.

Chen Yiyang was silent, unsure of how to respond.

So after making some small talk, he quickly left the shop.

"Why did that shop owner say that?" Chen Yiyang curiously asked his guide on the way back.

The guide, while not a native, had studied in China and knew a bit about both sides.

He explained after hearing Chen Yiyang’s question, "In your country, there’s more detailed teaching about European global colonization, the massacres, and the destruction they brought to other countries in history.

But in the Middle East, the history books don’t cover much for regions outside the Middle East, so the only way people here can learn about these things is online.

However, the content online is mostly from Europe and America, which downplays the history of their invasions everywhere.

So to people here, Huaxia is a country that has remained strong from ancient times to the present, just slightly fallen behind in the last hundred years or so.

Now as the West is declining, people here hope you’ll come out to contend for world dominance, allowing them to continue making money as middlemen."

So that’s the reason.

Chen Yiyang suddenly understood.

While people in China think we’re just starting to get back on track and have time to develop slowly,

from the Middle Eastern perspective, they wonder why Huaxia has been cooped up in the East and hasn’t come out.

Only if the East and West engage in conflict can the Middle East continue doing what it has done since the Silk Road days: making money from both sides as middlemen.

After returning to the hotel, Chen Yiyang took photos of the two antiques he just bought and sent them to the historian.

A few seconds after sending the photos, the historian called him via video.

"Quick, let me see them."

"Why are you so impatient?" Thanks to Jeddah’s good network as the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia, their connection had little delay.

He showed the two items to the historian through the camera.

"Wow, where did you find them? This one should be a Crystal Cicada from the Han Dynasty. It was common to carve cicadas from jade in the Han Dynasty, but Crystal Cicadas are exceptionally rare.

The other should be a Crystal Beast, a small one, but also extremely precious.

In the Han Dynasty, crystal was also called ’Shui Yu’ (water jade). The people regarded it as radiant as water and as hard as jade. So, they loved carving things from crystal.

You really found something special; these items are the kind that even museums in your country would preserve. Where did you get them?"

Image of a Han Dynasty Crystal Beast.

Image of a Han Dynasty Crystal Cicada.

After Chen Yiyang explained the origins of these items to the historian, the historian remarked, "They must have been taken to the Middle East by a merchant during Silk Road trade. Due to various incidents, they ended up being preserved until now.

There’s a lack of Huaxia cultural relic experts in the Middle East. The shop owner, seeing their appearance, assumed they were modern craftsmanship and kept them until now. Your luck is unreal, being able to buy such rare artifacts."

"Alright, I know their story now. I’ll take them back when I return to China."

"Remember to let me know when you return; I’d like to take a look too. And make sure to preserve them well, don’t let them get damaged," the historian reminded Chen Yiyang repeatedly with concern.

Chen Yiyang simply hung up the call.

After carefully preserving the two Han Dynasty crystal artifacts,

the hotel reception informed him that someone wanted to visit him.

The hotel offered a meeting lounge, so Chen Yiyang decided to wait there for his visitor.

"Hello, friend from Huaxia."

A local Saudi man, dressed in their traditional attire, came to meet Chen Yiyang.

"Hello, hello," Chen Yiyang greeted him in English.

The man’s English was also quite good, allowing them to communicate without a guide.

"I heard from the hotel staff that there was a businessman from Huaxia here, so I came to find you. Let me introduce myself, I’m Abdul, a fishery businessman based in Jeddah."

The Middle Eastern merchant explained how he had come to find Chen Yiyang.

This hotel really has no sense of confidentiality.

Chen Yiyang felt a bit helpless. But in someone else’s territory, he had nothing to say, so he just said, "I am indeed a businessman, but I haven’t decided whether to do business in Saudi Arabia."

"Do you know any merchants in your country who are into freshwater fish farming?"

Abdul was quite friendly, unbothered by Chen Yiyang’s cautiousness.

"Aquaculture?" Chen Yiyang was a bit puzzled.

"On my first day in Jeddah, I visited your fish market; you don’t seem to lack fish to eat here."

"What we have in Jeddah are all sea fish. I want freshwater fish," Abdul said, "like catfish, carp, or tilapia. I also deal in freshwater shrimp."