Chapter 305: Golden Thread Turtle [Part 2]
The middle-aged men stopped yelling after the gentlemen showed up. Instead, they formed a circle so that no one else could get in and take a look at the turtle. The gentlemen were older than they were, so it wouldn’t be right to chase them away. The same couldn’t be said for the kids, especially if they were planning to buy it at an exorbitant price.There were two reasons. One, they wanted to look at the Golden Thread Turtle a bit longer. Two, such a precious animal would be completely wasted in those rich kids’ hands!
Wheeze didn’t care one way or another. All it knew was that the turtle could be sold for a lot of fish biscuits, and anyone who tried to take it without paying would have to pay the blood price!
“It is a Golden Thread Turtle, possibly a hundred years old!” The old man called Senior Sun said.
Most people believed his words immediately. He was an expert in this area.
“Not bad, not bad. Very feisty.” Professor White was going to tap the turtle’s sh.e.l.l with his walking stick, but it caught it with its mouth and bit down so hard that he wasn’t able to pull it out despite multiple attempts.
Wheeze glanced at the two bold idiots who dared to tap its precious with their walking sticks. If Cillin hadn’t stopped, it would’ve chopped their sticks into pieces already!
“Heh! What a feisty turtle. There’s no way it’s genetically engineered!” The comment got a lot of nods of agreement.
Professor White didn’t get angry with the turtle despite being unable to pull his walking stick free. The delight in his eyes only grew more and more as he played tug of war with it.
“It’s been years since I’ve seen a natural turtle like this.” Senior Sun sighed. “Boy, did you catch it in the lake today?”
The Golden Thread Turtle’s sh.e.l.l was pretty special. In fact, the golden linings gave it the ability to avoid being detected by a scanner. It was why the creature were notoriously difficult to find, especially if it was a natural one. Someone tried searching the entire lake using a scanner before, but they only managed to find two tiny turtles. Worse, both turtles pa.s.sed away not long after that discovery. Since then, no one had ever seen a Golden Thread Turtle in the lake again. It was one of the main reasons why these people were making such a big deal out of it.
Cillin was holding the fis.h.i.+ng pail whe the crowd looked at him after Senior Sun asked him a question. He answered, “That’s correct.” Then, he told them exactly where he found the turtle, prompting everyone to jot down the details on a paper or record it with a recording device. They did it because they knew they had poor memory, and they were afraid to miss a single word. Who knows, maybe they could catch another Golden Thread Turtle at that location!
“Are you aware of the value of a Golden Thread Turtle?” asked Senior Sun with a kind smile, but he still felt imposing for some reason; the harmless kind that made people feel respect rather than fear. It definitely wasn’t on purpose at least.
“I don’t know too much about this, honestly. I’ve only read about it once in an aquatic pet magazine.” Cillin went on to explain the article he read briefly.
Senior Sun nodded. “If you don’t mind, can I examine it at close range?”
By now, everyone knew that the gray cat with a bundle of webbing in its mouth was a feisty one. It would scratch anyone who attempted to touch the turtle without permission.
“No problem.”
Cillin motioned for Wheeze to put down the net, and it reluctantly obeyed after sweeping an unfriendly glance at everyone in the area. It didn’t walk away though. It sat right next to the turtle like a guard dog looking out for its sheep.
Senior Sun, White and his friends immediately walked up to the turtle. Then, they pulled out all kinds of equipment out of their pockets and started examining it in detail. Cillin had to suppress a twitch in his face. Their movement was so practiced that he had to question if they carried their equipment with them all day and night.
The crowd fell silent and while the professors did their work the turtle. They were the authorities when it came to Golden Thread Turtles, so everyone here trusted their judgment. Cillin was greatly amused by the nervous expressions on their faces. It was almost as if they were waiting for the announcement of an important exam result.
On the other hand, Wheeze couldn’t wait for the Senior Sun and Professor White to be done with their business. It felt impatient just staring at all the strange equipment the two old men were using to examine its turtle.
Finally, Senior Sun stood up and stretched his back a little. He looked a little tired, but his eyes were full of excitement.
“Ninety eight! It’s a ninety-eight years old Golden Thread Turtle!”
No one had any doubt that Senior Sun’s announcement was true.
“Not only that, it’s going to turn ninety-nine years old very soon.” The other gentleman also finished his examination and declared confidently.
Ninety-eight years old!
If they raised it for another two years—no, just a year and a half—they would have a hundred-year old Golden Thread Turtle! It would bring them so much face, not to mention that a hundred-year old Golden Thread Turtle was said to bring great fortune to the owner.
Personally, Cillin thought that the rumors were just a scheme by the greedy merchants to increase the sale of their products. However, there were people who loved these kinds of things, and they didn’t mind falling into a rabbit hole even though they were aware that it was a scheme.
“Boy, are you planning to sell this turtle?” Senior Sun watched Cillin closely.
Cillin thought for a moment before shaking his head. He wasn’t in dire need of cash, and a natural Golden Thread Turtle was pretty rare. He decided that he would keep the pet and raised it himself.
Everyone looked disappointed when they saw this. A couple of people tried to offer him more money to buy the Golden Thread Turtle off his hands—there was even one person who offered almost a million—but in the end Cillin turned them all down.
Finally, Senior Sun silenced the crowd with a wave of his stick before turning back to Cillin. “We won’t force you to sell the turtle if you aren’t willing. However, we really do like it a lot, so can we come to an agreement of sorts?”
After that, Senior Sun asked Cillin if he could keep the Golden Thread Turtle for two days for research before returning it to Cillin. After that, they signed a borrow note and made him sign it as well. He didn’t think it was necessary, but the older men looked like they wouldn’t be satisfied unless the agreement was jotted down in black and white. Amused, Cillin replied affirmatively,
“Okay. We’ll do as you say.”
After the borrow note was signed, it was decided that the Golden Thread Turtle would be kept at Senior Sun’s place temporarily. Senior Sun gave Cillin his address and told him to come look for him in two days.
Suddenly, Senior Sun asked a question. “Are you a student or an employee in our inst.i.tute?”
“No, I’m here for that RAS presentation,” Cillin replied.
Everyone wore a proud expression on their face when the matter was brought up. The fact that the RAS had decided to send someone over to perform a presentation proved that their educational inst.i.tution was at least worth some value to the RAS. Naturally, as members of this educational inst.i.tution, they were proud to have that honor.
Most of the members of the crowd were teachers who taught in San Calombo. Some of them such as Senior Sun and Professor White even grew up at this place. They had devoted most of their lives to their educational inst.i.tution, so their attachment to the educational inst.i.tution was beyond the understanding of most outsiders.
San Calombo was definitely not the best educational inst.i.tution out there. It was also still lacking in many areas. But to them, it was the most precious educational inst.i.tution in their lives, and not even the affiliated schools could compare to it.
When San Calombo received the acceptance letter from the RAS, they had organized a celebration party. On the same day, they spread the word of their success and won the envy of countless other educational inst.i.tutions.
Besides that, San Calombo’s hotels started receiving a lot more bookings, and the tickets to the conference sold like hot cakes. Although it looked like there weren’t many visitors right now, the reality was most of the accommodations on San Calombo were booked to the point where it was impossible to get a room even at an exorbitant price. As it turned out, there were many foreigners who would like to experience a joyful San Calombo even if they couldn’t book a room or attend the conference personally.
Cillin didn’t know that his choice would trigger such a drastic change in San Calombo.
Everyone smiled when they heard Cillin’s reply. Since San Calombo had been getting a lot of visitors as of late, they thought that Cillin was one of those foreigners who had partake in their joy as well.
Cillin neither confirmed nor deny their imaginations. He simply smiled back and said nothing.
Senior Sun brought up a map of San Calombo’s courtyard and pointed at a small square. He said, “This is where I live. You can come here and take your turtle after two days. I promise you I won’t go back on my word. You can also give me a call if you don’t have the time to make the travel there. My name is Sun Fu. Everyone in San Calombo has heard about me.”
After the negotiations were finally done, Senior Sun immediately ordered his household robot to deliver a suitable container. After the netted Golden Thread Turtle was put inside, he jumped into a flying car and went away immediately.
The old men who were good friends with Senior Sun also summoned their own flying cars and chased after the vehicle in a hurry.
Finally, Cillin was able to return the equipment he rented and left the lake with Wheeze.
On the same day, the news that a ninety-eight years old Golden Thread Turtle was found in the lake of San Calombo spread like wildfire.