Chapter 763: Jerk
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The rocks were getting older and older, so they couldn"t withstand the pressure and broke!
Li Du had been observing the process and witnessed a small volcanic eruption.
It was a bit of an exaggeration to say that water vapor erupting from the ground was much worse than volcanic eruptions, but the two were essentially the same, and Li Du was right to think so.
A strong stream of steam pushed away from the broken rocks and burst out like lightning.
The steam stream itself was very hot, and it was well known that the highest temperature of water at atmospheric pressure was 100 degrees Celsius and above that, it became water vapor.
However, the pressure on the ocean floor was strong, and these subsurface steam flows had previously acc.u.mulated in the rock formations, causing more pressure and temperatures higher than 100 degrees Celsius.
The moment the steam hit the water, the water instantly boiled. Li Du was shocked to see that the water vapor could be more than 200 degrees Celsius.
The water traveled at a rapid rate, impeding the steam"s flow.
There were fishermen around the cracks, and the steam was coming right at them. Each of them escaped, but they were all extremely uncomfortable, and they twisted in the water as they swam desperately to the surface. Li Du thought it was a funny scene.
This ma.s.s exodus included the first person to reach out and touch a black gold abalone. However, the fisherman did not manage to avoid the steam and was burned.
Li Du watched these people wriggle as they were scalded. He thought of the mudfish he caught as a child. When it was thrown into the hot sun, it reacted the same way the fishermen were.
The crowd left, and Li Du slowly dove down and caught the black gold abalone in his hand without needing to use any effort to pry it off.
The black gold abalone had been hit by the steam. The heat caused the abalone"s foot to contract, making the abalone easy to harvest.
Coming out of the water with the black gold abalone, he heard a series of screams and curses.
"F**k! F**k! It"s killing me!"
"Show me! D*mn! D*mn! Look at my a**, did it burn my skin?"
"Who has ointment for burned skin? For G.o.d"s sake, give me the ointment. My arm is burned!"
Sophie swam up and grabbed Li Du in a hurry. "How are you, Li? Oh my G.o.d, what happened? Are you all right?"
"I"m fine, don"t worry," Li Du comforted her. "I swam in the back, so I didn"t get burned by the steam."
The black gold abalone fishermen in the area were scalded, though the burns were not very severe. As was the case with Li Du last time when he had burned his skin, they couldn"t go into the water for the rest of the day.
No one followed Li Du, and they sailed away to get treatment for their burns.
But there was still a rival here, the sea woman.
This j.a.panese woman was very strong, and her diving skill was superb. She quietly searched for black gold abalone in the sea. With a deep breath, she could stay underwater for a long time.
Li Du counted once. She had been in the water for 12 minutes before she came up.
This was an incredible number, and the ability of the sea woman truly amazed Li Du.
He had been trained to dive freely and was in excellent physical condition. He could dive in water for up to five minutes.
The world record for holding one"s breath underwater was set by Stig from Denmark, who was nicknamed, "the man who doesn"t need to breathe." He could dive for 22 minutes.
But Stig was a person who was trained to hold his breath underwater. He didn"t move underwater; he just held his breath for a record.
This sea woman was different. She worked underwater all the time. She used more energy. She also used more oxygen at the same time.
Li Du thought her ability to hold her breath was too amazing!
Unfortunately, she didn"t have the little bug to help her. Every time she dove, she could only find one black gold abalone. What restricted her was not the ability to hold her breath, but the ability to search for the abalone.
If Li Du could work with the sea woman, he would locate an abalone for her and put her in charge of picking it up. In this way, they could harvest more than 70 abalones a day.
Unfortunately, they could not cooperate. The sea woman was silent, and they did not know what she thought of Li Du. However, her husband was rather unfriendly to him.
Li Du could only take Hans into the sea, and they both got much more than the sea woman did. After all, every time they went into the sea, they ran directly to the black gold abalone, whereas the sea woman wasted too much time searching.
At the end of the day, Li Du and Hans harvested more than 70 black gold abalones.
In the afternoon when they were ready to leave, Brooks came boating by and showing off. "Hey, I see you"re busy floating up and down in the water? How many black gold abalones did you find?"
Sitting in the stern, wrapped in a blanket, the sea woman looked out to sea with a slight frown, seemingly uninterested in what her husband was doing.
Hans swam to the side of the boat. Hannah poured him a cup of warm ginger cola. However, he did not drink it. Instead, he handed the cup to the sea woman in the little boat beside them and said in a friendly manner, "I think you need to drink this now."
The sea woman was astonished to see the gla.s.s in front of her, and then she quickly took it in her hands and nodded and smiled at Hans. "Thank you very much for your kindness."
Brooks saw that no one was paying any attention to him. He was dissatisfied. "What? Are you afraid to show your harvest? Look, we"ve found 25 black gold abalones!"
"We haven"t counted them," said Hannah, pointing to the four abalone storage bins in the bow. "There are too many to count, but it"s full. You can guess for yourself."
Brooks sneered. "Who can"t boast? Ha, four boxes full? Have you got 80?"
Hannah was about to open the box for him to see. Hans stopped her and said in disgust, "Why do you care? If I were you, I wouldn"t stay here. I"d bring my wife to the sh.o.r.e to take a warm bath."
Brooks looked at his wife, who was sipping the hot soda with her eyes closed. He grumbled, "Why do you care? My wife is not cold."
Hans shook his head. "How can such a jerk find a wife? Cupid must have been blind when he drew the bow."
"Who said Cupid shot him with his arrow? How can a woman fall in love with someone who is fat and stupid and rude?" said Lu Guan.
Brooks glared at them, then turned back and pushed the gla.s.s out of his wife"s hand. "Why are you drinking this? We don"t know what"s in it. Don"t touch their stuff!"