Chapter 265, exclusively published on Jinjiang Literature City: Rescuing Bai Xuefeng
"So many treasures!" Someone exclaimed in surprise first.
Although the others did not speak, their expressions were all the same: surprise and delight.
The reason was that among the dozens of wooden crates he brought back were five crates of glittering gold coins, three crates of jewelry of different colors and sizes, as well as many exquisite tea sets, swords, scepters, and oil paintings and other works of art.
Although many of the teawares were broken or covered with some unknown substance and looked dusty, the swords were rusty, and the oil paintings were covered with a thick layer of dust, the brilliance of the gold coins and jewels was enough to make everyone's eyes pop out.
Lu Xuan immediately noticed that the items here did not seem to be from the Central Plains. This included the gold coins engraved with the portraits of unknown figures, which was not a custom of the Central Plains dynasties. The swords, scepters, and oil paintings were also clearly foreign goods.
This ship was either a merchant caravan that had traveled across the ocean from the West to do business, or it was a ship that sank on its way back from doing business there.
Regardless of which one it is, in the end they all benefit.
"Ugh, what the hell is this thing!" Miao Jinfeng suddenly spat out in disgust.
Lu Xuan turned his head and saw that someone had been curious about the contents of the oil paintings and had deliberately wiped off the thick layer of dust, revealing a pair of naked men and women with exposed breasts.
Some are solo paintings, some are of a woman surrounded by a group of men, or vice versa; in short, they are Western oil painting styles, those who know, know.
In particular, the figures in oil paintings are far more realistic than those in Chinese figure paintings. At first glance, they are all white, and the people in the paintings seem to be able to walk out of them at any time, which makes them seem even more indecent.
The women present immediately covered the eyes of the children next to them, and they themselves blushed with embarrassment.
Some of the men stared wide-eyed, some blushed and avoided eye contact, while the older ones, like Miao Jinfeng, furrowed their brows in utter disgust.
Wow! That's so exciting!
It's alright, this is art, it shouldn't be viewed with ordinary eyes.
We know it's art, but how could ancient people accept this? To them, even abstract erotic paintings were unbearable to look at, let alone these oil paintings whose clarity is almost indistinguishable from photographs.
I've never understood why art has to be expressed through naked portraits. :)
The villagers of Yunlu Village also could not understand or accept this.
Li Tie said with a dark face, "What kind of obscene pictures are these? Find something to cover them up right now! Nobody is allowed to look at them!"
Grandpa Zhang angrily exclaimed, "Throw away all these paintings that teach bad habits!"
Someone in the crowd hesitated, wanting to say what a waste to throw it away, but seeing the disgusted expressions on the other people's faces, they wisely kept their words to themselves.
In the end, Lu Xuan put away all the boxes containing the portrait paintings, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Then Aunt Liu was the first to complain: "It's unbelievable that someone would go to such lengths to bring back these obscene pictures from the sea."
Grandma Lin shook her head, "How could anyone draw such shameless things and then frame them? Are they planning to hang them up in public?"
The others subconsciously imagined such a scene, and their faces immediately showed unbearable disapproval.
Chen Rong said, "The people in those paintings look very strange. They have very high noses, curly hair, and blue and green eyes, just like the foreign merchants I've heard about before."
The others understood.
"I knew it! How could someone be so shameless? Turns out they're not even from around here."
"I've heard that the barbarian women outside the Great Wall wear so little clothing that it's practically like they're not wearing anything at all. I guess these foreign merchants are probably in the same boat."
The villagers murmured a few words, but still felt awkward, so they quickly changed the subject and started examining the contents of the other boxes.
A group of people first washed the dirt off the items in the box with water, and then counted the quantity together.
If it weren't for Lu Xuan's submarine, they wouldn't have been able to get these treasures at all. Therefore, as usual, Lu Xuan first selected 30% of them, and the rest were distributed by Li Tie to each household.
If anyone wants the public goods, they can exchange them for other goods.
As for the paintings, no one mentioned them.
Lu Xuan took the initiative to say, "Next time I go to the Western Continent to trade, I will sell the painting and then exchange it for supplies before we split the profits."
They disliked those paintings, but some people would like them, even when ordinary disaster victims could only survive on nutritional supplements during the disaster, they would be willing to spend a lot of resources to obtain them.
After receiving the gold coins and jewels, the villagers' minds were elsewhere. The able-bodied men had no interest in continuing to explore the underwater city and instead went home to admire and distribute the treasures with their families.
Lu Xuan handed the jewelry to Lu Qing, telling her to take it home and admire it at her leisure. He then found a private lounge to contact the new emperor and Huo Tiankuo to discuss the matter of the pirates in detail.
·
Starting the day after the shipwreck treasure was discovered, strong winds began to blow at sea.
The once calm sea was whipped up by the strong winds, creating huge waves that made it impossible for the fishing boats to maintain their balance.
For safety reasons, the villagers immediately stopped exploring the underwater city and chose to stay on the cruise ship to wait for the extreme weather to pass.
The cruise ship is large enough that even with strong winds of force 12 or 13 outside, you can only feel a slight swaying, and there is no risk of it capsizing.
On the third day after the strong winds began, the rain that had stopped for a few days started falling again, and several waterspouts appeared at sea, approaching the cruise ship in Yunlu Village at an extremely fast speed.
Upon discovering the situation, Lu Xuan decisively activated the city's protective shield.
Within a quarter of an hour of the protective shield being activated, the number of waterspouts that started as four or five increased to more than twenty, making the people on the cruise ship's scalps tingle.
Not to mention the enormous whirlpools that appeared on the sea surface around those waterspouts, and the thunderstorms that kept flashing purple and white lights in the distance, which looked even more terrifying.
[A combination of strong winds, torrential rain, and tornadoes—it all happened at once!]
[It's just scary to look at; it doesn't affect the streamer.]
[This is very dangerous for people from the Western Continent. If they go fishing in this kind of weather, whether they encounter a waterspout, a whirlpool, or a thunderstorm, any one of these would likely mean they don't return.]
[Didn't the anchor already inform the emperor and the other people in the settlements about climate change? They're not stupid; they must have stopped going to sea long ago.]
Lu Xuan thought so too.
When Huo Tiankuo was contacted before to discuss the pirate matter, the latter also said that he would send Huo Tiankuo to suppress the pirates after the extreme weather had passed.
Unexpectedly, while the villagers were waiting for the storm and thunderstorm to pass under the protection of the shield, something still went wrong on the western continent.
On the fifth day, Lu Xuan received distress calls from the Bai family and the Marquis of Weiyuan's residence.
Bai Xuefeng is in danger.
"What happened?"
Lu Xixuan frowned and looked at Lord Xie and Bai's father on the other side of the screen, "Why would Bai Xuefeng go out to sea in this kind of weather lately?"
Behind the two, many relatives of the Bai and Xie families could be seen, including the two Xie brothers. Without exception, their faces revealed anxiety and worry.
Mr. Bai said anxiously, "The child went out two days before the storm started at sea. A few days earlier, a boat in Feng County discovered a group of lobsters, and he wanted to go and catch some. According to the plan, he should have returned the day before the storm started, but unexpectedly, they encountered a group of swordfish that went crazy and attacked the fishing boat, which sank."
“Jinzhi does have two kayaks in his space, but he's too far away to get back in time by kayaks alone. I asked the guards to order a large ship to go and pick him up…”
Unfortunately, they encountered a waterspout halfway through their journey and were forced to retreat. The situation at sea worsened, with thunderstorms also occurring. It became difficult for both ships and hoverbuses to search for people at sea in such complex and extreme weather conditions. One hoverbus was even struck by lightning and never returned.
With no other options, they had no choice but to seek help from Lu Xuan.
Lu Chen asked, "How is Bai Xuefeng doing now?"
Even the most luxurious electric kayaks probably wouldn't last long in the rough seas.
Upon hearing this, the viewers in the live stream asked directly:
Is Bai Xuefeng still alive?
Could they have already disappeared?
Disappearing at sea is tantamount to being dead, isn't it?
[Ah, he did help the streamer when they were collecting supplies, and I really liked him. I hope nothing really happened to him.]
Lu Xuan frowned even more after seeing the comments on the screen. He took out another communicator and dialed Bai Xuefeng's number.
No one answered.
At this moment, Xie Hou said, "The kayak capsized the next day, but Jinzhi was wearing a single-person protective shield and brought a lot of energy stones, so he should be alright. It's just that we really have no way to rescue him now."
Lu Xuan raised an eyebrow, as if remembering something, and asked, "Is he wearing a tracking device?"
Mr. Bai nodded, "He thinks the locator is fun, but he's also afraid of something happening at any time, so he always wears it with him."
Lu Xuan tapped his thigh with his fingertip and said, "We can't contact him with the communicator. He probably encountered some trouble when the ship capsized or afterward."
He turned his head to look out the window at the gloomy weather, and at the distant waterspouts and dense thunderstorms.
He looked at Bai's father again and said, "Tell me Bai Xuefeng's current coordinates, and I'll go find him."
Mr. Bai looked conflicted: "His coordinates kept changing. Based on our speculation, he may have fallen into the sea after the boat capsized and is now drifting in the ocean."
Lu Xuan: "..."
Live stream viewers: ???
That makes sense, doesn't it?
If the boat capsizes, you'll fall into the sea.
[But because the protective shield was activated, and they likely had diving equipment, they're still alive. They just don't have a boat, and the waves are too big to save themselves?]
[That sounds so tragic. Just imagine Bai Xuefeng stuck in the sea, unable to surface. Light a candle.]
[Food should be fine, but energy and oxygen tanks are probably limited, right? We don't know how long he can hold out. If it drags on, even if we can find someone based on the coordinates, it might be too late...]
Lu Xuan naturally understood the importance of timely rescue better than the audience.
After obtaining the coordinates, he didn't talk much with Bai's father and chose to set off immediately to rescue the people.
After saying goodbye to his family and the village chief, Lu Xuan braved the wind and rain outside, took out the submarine, jumped in, and dived straight to where Bai Xuefeng was.
The coordinates given to him by the Bai family were not far away; it would only take two hours to get there by submarine.
Although the sea is raging with storms and huge waves, the seabed is not as terrifying as it is above. In fact, you can't feel anything unusual at all when you go down to a depth of more than 100 meters.
Lu Xuan arrived near the coordinates without any major incidents.
On the way, he checked with Bai's father to confirm the coordinate changes. When he learned that there had been no change, his heart skipped a beat, and he worried that the person might have already died.
But then I thought, even if Bai Xuefeng really did have an accident, the coordinates might not remain completely still.
On the contrary, this may prove that he has found a way to fix himself.
When Lu Xuan followed the coordinates, he found that the person was indeed unharmed.
The current situation is a bit hard to describe.
In a large pile of underwater reefs, Bai Xuefeng was firmly wedged in a small crevice, with only his upper body exposed and the rest of his body submerged inside.
Lu Xuan: "..."
When the submarine approached, the surrounding water flow changed noticeably, and Bai Xuefeng, who had been dozing off, suddenly woke up and raised his head alertly.
He was first startled by the enormous creature that had appeared out of nowhere, then he saw Lu Xuan inside through the submarine's window. His wariness was instantly replaced by surprise, and he burst into tears, his expression as excited as if he had seen his own father.
After confirming that he was alright, Lu Xuan relaxed, then smiled and answered Bai's father's call. Before the other party could ask any questions, he pointed the screen at Bai Xuefeng, who was 'pulling a radish' out from the gap.
Bai's father, Marquis Weiyuan, and the Xie brothers instantly met Bai Xuefeng's gaze as he looked up, wanting Lu Xuan to lend a hand.
Bai's father and the others: "?"
Bai Xuefeng: "!!!"
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