**[Today's Intelligence 01]:**
You talked with Xu Li yesterday about the topic of a lost lottery ticket and obtained the following information—
Xu Li's lottery ticket, worth 30,000 yuan, was folded into a paper airplane by her daughter, Jiang Xue, and thrown behind the TV in the living room.
**[Today's Intelligence 02]:**
You dined with Lü Qian yesterday at Fat Brother's Seafood BBQ in Xiaoshahe Village and obtained the following information—
Inside the seafood tank at Fat Brother's Seafood BBQ, there is a coconut snail containing a Melo pearl worth 120,000 yuan.
…
"That little rascal Little Xue really screwed over her mom this time."
Seeing the details in the first piece of intelligence, Jiang Tao couldn't help but chuckle wryly.
Xu Li had been upset the night before last and all day yesterday, wallowing in self-blame and frustration.
Turns out, the culprit was her little "cotton-padded jacket"!
In Jiang Tao's memory, Xu Li was never a careless person.
When Xu Li told him yesterday that she lost the lottery ticket, Jiang Tao thought she was joking.
The truth of the matter was probably that Jiang Xue took the lottery ticket from Xu Li's pocket and used it as origami.
Jiang Xue is only six years old this year and has no concept of lottery tickets, so naturally, she didn't know the value of that ticket.
Thank goodness he had the system to remind him.
Otherwise, their family's lottery ticket would likely have ended up like the one he found—quietly expiring in some unnoticed corner.
When he comforted Xu Li earlier, he acted like money was nothing to him, as if 30,000 yuan was no big deal.
In reality, it was just to ease Xu Li's guilt.
A 30,000-yuan lottery ticket, lost and then found again—Jiang Tao was secretly thrilled!
With 30,000 yuan, he could buy a huge pile of New Year's goods!
After reading the first piece of intelligence, Jiang Tao's gaze shifted to the second.
"Coconut snail, a Melo pearl worth 120,000 yuan? What the heck…"
Jiang Tao had never heard of the things mentioned in the second piece of intelligence, so he took out his phone and looked it up online.
The coconut snail, also called the coconut volute or papaya snail, has a yellowish-brown shell that looks like a large papaya.
Coconut snails are mainly found in warm tropical shallow waters with sandy and muddy bottoms.
There were plenty of videos online from food bloggers slaughtering coconut snails to make delicious dishes.
They looked quite tasty.
The Melo pearl mentioned in the intelligence, also known as a "dragon pearl" or "flame pearl," comes from inside the snail and cannot be artificially cultured.
The composition of a Melo pearl is similar to that of most shellfish, consisting of calcite and aragonite microcrystal aggregates.
This gemstone has a hardness of about 4.5–5 on the Mohs scale, a refractive index of about 1.51–1.64, and a specific gravity of around 2.75.
Its colors range from orange-red, orange-yellow, yellow, yellowish-brown to near-white, with a glossy ceramic-like appearance and flame-like patterns.
Melo pearls come in various shapes, from irregular to oval, egg-shaped, or round.
Round Melo pearls have the best visual appeal and are the most beautiful.
The orange-yellow Melo pearl Jiang Tao found online looked strikingly similar to the dragon balls from the anime *Dragon Ball*, where collecting seven summons a dragon.
It was indeed very pretty!
Due to the unique formation process of Melo pearls, which occur naturally inside the snail and cannot be artificially cultivated, they are highly sought after in the market and fetch a high price.
Melo pearls are commonly used in the jewelry industry to make rings, pendants, bracelets, and other accessories.
Their value is typically determined by the quality of the pearl.
Cheaper ones might cost a few thousand yuan, but high-quality ones can go for hundreds of thousands or even millions!
While searching for information, Jiang Tao also came across an interesting piece of news.
A few months ago, a girl posted a video claiming that while eating a snail during a family gathering, she bit into something hard.
When she spat it out, it turned out to be an orange "snail pearl."
The incident went viral, and netizens were envious of her luck.
However, soon after, a blogger debunked the video, claiming it was staged.
The type of small snail she was eating couldn't possibly produce a Melo pearl that large—the proportions were completely off.
It's like saying a human's eyes, no matter how big, could never take up half their face like in anime.
Melo pearls can only form inside large snails like the coconut snail.
After checking the information on his phone, Jiang Tao felt another surge of excitement and secret delight!
Yesterday's seafood meal wasn't for nothing!
He had obtained such valuable intelligence!
According to the system's information, the Melo pearl inside the coconut snail at Fat Brother's Seafood BBQ was worth 120,000 yuan!
If he could get his hands on that coconut snail, it would mean 120,000 yuan in his pocket—a fat New Year was guaranteed!
"Although there's no intelligence about antiques this time, this isn't bad at all."
"The two pieces of intelligence together are worth 150,000 yuan!"
"If I could get intelligence of this value every day, I could earn four or five million a month!"
After analyzing the two pieces of intelligence provided by the system, Jiang Tao was overall quite satisfied.
Glancing at the time on his phone, it was already around 12:30 AM.
Jiang Tao quickly washed up, hopped into bed, and went to sleep.
The night passed without incident.
Jiang Tao slept until 7:30 AM, then went downstairs to Old Guo's shop for breakfast.
He wasn't planning to head to the Hongxing second-hand market to hustle for work today.
Getting his hands on the coconut snail at Fat Brother's Seafood BBQ would be worth more than a year and a half of hard labor.
Anyone with half a brain could see which was the better choice.
After breakfast, Jiang Tao strolled over to Fat Brother's Seafood BBQ, where he had dined the previous night.
It was early in the morning, so naturally, no one was there for barbecue.
When Jiang Tao entered, only two cleaning aunties were sweeping the floor and wiping tables.
"Young man, are you here to eat?"
One of the aunties looked at Jiang Tao with a puzzled expression as she greeted him.
Fat Brother's Seafood BBQ opened at 10 AM and closed at 10 PM.
Guests like Jiang Tao, showing up first thing in the morning, were rare.
Jiang Tao didn't waste time with the cleaning auntie and got straight to the point:
"Auntie, is your manager here? I'd like to buy some seafood. Do you sell it?"
"Of course we sell it! This is a seafood place—how could we not sell seafood?"
The cleaning auntie laughed heartily, thinking Jiang Tao's question was redundant.
Jiang Tao clarified, "I mean, I want to buy raw seafood to take home and cook myself."
"We do sell raw seafood. Go ask our boss lady—she's over there."
The cleaning auntie pointed toward a woman in a black dress standing behind the counter, busy with her accounting.
"Thanks, Auntie."
Jiang Tao thanked the cleaning auntie and walked straight toward the counter, his gaze shifting to the large glass seafood tank in the center of the main hall.
In Jiang Tao's view, a coconut snail with a faint golden glow stood out prominently among the other seafood in the upper-left corner of the tank.
"Hello, boss lady. I'd like to buy two coconut snails. Is that okay?"
"I'm a food vlogger, and I want to film a video about preparing coconut snails. Please help me out—price is negotiable."
Jiang Tao stopped at the counter, smiled, greeted the boss lady, and gave an excuse for wanting to buy the coconut snails.
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