Closer to Revealing My True Self
Chapter 643 - 417: Mining Diamonds_2

Chapter 643: Chapter 417: Mining Diamonds_2

"No, I feel even more restless! I need to dig some more and sell them while they can still fetch a good price. Who knows how many houses I could trade them for!"

The speaker’s eyes gradually grew dreamlike.

A person nearby slapped him on the back, "Wake up, stop dreaming. You don’t have a single one, where would you get ’some’? We’re just here for the experience, to shoot a video and show off on social media. Do you really expect to find diamonds here?"

Mark, trailing behind, nodded silently to himself.

That’s right, just here to check in and experience it, have to keep a level head, definitely can’t harbor any illusions about actually finding diamonds.

Making a fortune off this? Wishful thinking!

Feng Yi had been wandering around the mine with tools in hand and hadn’t started digging yet but was standing to the side, watching the tourists busily at work.

Mark and Cai Bing followed closely, but there was nothing for them to do in the mine.

So, when their employer stopped, they also stayed nearby, occasionally engaging in idle conversation.

The two had different attitudes towards diamonds.

Cai Bing wasn’t optimistic about the diamond market and didn’t find them all that special—it was all a market game to him.

But since their financial backer was right there, he couldn’t freely voice his opinions, so he hummed softly, "Oh~ it’s all a bubble, just a momentary firework~"

Mark chuckled from the side, "Heh heh, don’t talk with such nonchalance, I don’t believe you wouldn’t want to find diamonds."

Cai Bing immediately responded, "Of course I do! These things can be exchanged for money. In some countries, they were once called ’the most portable cash’! But can we actually find any here?"

Mark shrugged, ever the universal answer, "If luck serves, we might."

Meanwhile, Feng Yi appeared to be watching others dig for diamonds, but in reality, he was sensing his surroundings.

Due to the age, diamonds related to his ancestors were likely to be extremely rare in this mine, and it wasn’t certain whether any still remained.

Even if there were any, diamond fragments are so tiny and their surface material even thinner, making them difficult to sense unless you’re close.

Therefore, to find any remaining fragments related to his ancestors in this area, Feng Yi had to sweep over each spot like a scanner.

He pretended to dig and then moved to a new location to observe and dig again.

His behavior was quite similar to that of the tourists.

Arriving at another spot, while Feng Yi was pretending to dig, he heard people from the travel group discussing not far off, their words tinged with resentment—possibly from baking in the sun for so long with no finds and feeling tired, their moods had soured.

"Diamonds should just shine in industrial applications! Haven’t the news reports said that diamond prices have plummeted?"

Another person, "Brother, doesn’t your girlfriend want to buy a diamond ring? Just tell her, the value of diamonds drops the moment you buy them! In the end, they’re just carbon that’s been under high temperature and pressure underground for a long time, right? They can be mass-produced artificially, and they’ll become even less valuable over time! Go buy gold. Gold is a scarce resource in the universe, something truly permanent and eternally cherished, plus it’s a financial product!"

"Exactly, diamonds were just hyped up by those companies!"

"It’s all a consumer trap! A tax on the naive!"

"Gold is worth much more than diamonds! Diamonds, after all, are nothing special..."

An uncle from the travel group, unable to withstand their endless chatter, turned around to intervene:

"Enough from you two! Stop blabbering about gold and diamonds, how do you know gold can’t be synthesized in the future? I’ve heard that laboratories can already synthesize gold, but it’s highly radioactive and costly. However, who can be sure what will happen in a few decades? A hundred years ago, no one could have imagined diamonds could be mass-produced artificially!

"What’s the point of judging something only by its material value in this day and age? Nowadays, anything can be hyped up!

"Those few thousand bucks worth of cheap models you bought are worthless in my eyes! In ten or twenty years, as the material degrades, they’ll just be a pile of junk!!!"

"Cheap models," "worthless," "a pile of junk"...

The terms directly set off the two young men.

"How can you say that!"

"Do you understand the concept of ’hard to come by’? Do you understand what ’life and passion’ means?"

"That’s a vessel for my emotions!"

"You’re trampling on my spiritual soul!"

Faced with the young men’s anger, the uncle rolled his eyes, "Such imprudent waste!"

The two young men’s faces flushed red, wanting to argue further, but the sun’s heat had muddled their thoughts. Looking around, their gaze landed on Feng Yi, and one of them asked:

"Hey, bro, which country are you from? Can you understand what I’m saying?"

Feng Yi nodded.

That person hurriedly asked, "Bro, do you collect models? You know, the figurine kind?"

Feng Yi thought of the items in his own collection and nodded slightly: "For fun."

The person nodded and said, "Exactly, isn’t it normal? Why is this uncle still insulting people!"

Feng Yi said, "As long as you like it, that’s what matters. The world changes so fast, the value of collections can’t be predicted."

Having said that, he quickly grabbed his tools and rushed to the next spot, not wanting to get involved in their discussion.

Glancing at the sun in the sky, Feng Yi sped up.

This place was just as Mark had described: full of miscellaneous objects, indeed many things that could confuse one’s sight. Tourists excitedly shouted from time to time, then sighed in disappointment.

The ground here had been plowed back and forth countless times. The likelihood of finding what Feng Yi was looking for was indeed slim.

His gaze swept over the minefield, then settled on the washing area.

There were quite a few people there, with most of the miners from the mining area busy at work.

Yes, the mine had been transformed, but the miners were still doing their original jobs; it was just that their clients had changed.

Considering the clothes and shoes they were wearing, the tourists were reluctant to stand in the water to pan for diamonds. So, they paid a fee to have the miners do it for them, asking them to wash the mining mud and sand they had dug up.

The tourists stood by taking videos, chatting with the miners panning for diamonds from time to time.

The process of panning for diamonds was actually quite simple: using a sieve to filter out the mud and sand in the water and then looking for diamonds among the remaining stones and other particles.

There was also a conical tool, like a pot, that the miners skillfully tossed about in the water—constantly splashing, sieving out impurities. Heavier stones would settle at the bottom, and if there were any diamonds, the miners would spot them.

A few miners were exceptionally fervent in their panning, either because the tourists paid them well or they were showing off their skills.

The atmosphere in the washing area was much more lively than the digging on dry land.

Indeed, some tourists found diamonds, though tiny, like grains of rice. Even if sold, they wouldn’t fetch a high price.

But the tourists who found diamonds were extremely excited; after all, even a small mosquito is meat!

Even if only the size of a grain of rice, it was still their find, their reward!

Then someone excitedly roared, "Never empty-handed!"

This drew some discontented stares from a few fishing gamers.

Dammit, I’m still empty-handed!

And they resolved internally that if they really couldn’t find any diamonds, they would pick a few stones to take home.

The washing area was bustling with activity.

Feng Yi walked around the edge, found nothing, but didn’t plan to leave. Instead, he casually dug up some soil and, after renting the diamond-washing sieve from the designated place, took off his shoes, rolled up his pants, took the sieve, and walked into the water, pretending to pan for diamonds.

He panned at one spot for a while before moving to another to continue.

While he seemed to be panning for diamonds, Feng Yi’s attention was mostly focused underwater, sensing the materials there.

After several sieves, his clothes were covered in mud stains.

Switching to another spot, he waded in and Feng Yi paused slightly.

Huh?

It seemed like he had detected a "signal", a faint response!

Feng Yi walked toward that direction.

The closer he got to the "signal" source, the stronger the perception became.

The intensity of this "signal" suggested it wasn’t just a small fragment.

Arriving above the "signal" source, Feng Yi used his foot to dig into the mud at the bottom of the water.

The overlying layer was quite thick, and it wasn’t going to be uncovered quickly.

So, Feng Yi would dig a few times with his foot and then pretend to sieve with the sieve in the water.

It was a slow process, but it wasn’t conspicuous.

About five minutes later, Feng Yi stumbled slightly, as if he was tripped up by something in the water, and then he bent down and grabbed an object from the water that almost covered his entire palm.

It was covered in much mud and water, making it hard to see clearly.

"Found it."