Chapter 618 Water and Fire (1/2)

Chapter 618: Water and Fire

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Besides the Narwhals' teeth and balance springs of high-grade wrist watches, they also gained a complete set of high-grade furniture, a set of silverware, a safe full of gold and silver jewelry, and more than 50 laptops.

Among which, the Narwhals' teeth were the most valuable. For centuries, people have always related the Narwhals' long teeth with mythical unicorns and believed that they possessed potent medicinal and magical effects.

Unfortunately, they were not in the right era. In the European Middle Ages, this ”unicorn horn” was worth 10 times its weight in gold.

Allegedly, Queen Elizabeth I of England had once kept a Narwhal's tooth worth 10,000 pounds, which could buy a castle in that era.

Currently, Narwhals' teeth could only be used as ornaments and were worth much less. However, there were still a lot of people interested in them and hence, they could still sell for a good price.

Hans had asked a friend to help check and found that the Narwhal's tooth was rarely seen on the market. The latest open sale was in the year 2005 where Oliver Tang, the manager of a store in the north of Arctic Bay, Canada, used 75,000 US dollars to procure four Narwhals' teeth from hunters in the polar region.

Oliver placed a Narwhal's tooth inside a box and shipped it by boat to North Bay, Ontario, where it was auctioned off to an art dealer and collector for a total of 280,000 dollars.

All in all, a Narwhal's tooth was worth around 70,000 dollars in the year 2005 and taking inflation into account, a Narwhal's tooth would definitely be worth at least around 10,000 dollars at present.

Right now, as Narwhals were much rarer and had already been restricted by the Arctic Council from being hunted, a Narwhal's tooth could sell for an even higher price if they handled it right.

In the past, the beautiful sea creature could also be spotted in Canadian waters but was now rarely seen. Japanese whalers had, for many years, wreaked havoc in the Arctic, resulting in a rapid decrease in the number of Narwhals from 10,500 in 1986 to 1,500 in 2002.

Today, if someone wanted to see Narwhals, they had to go to the Arctic waters or the west coast of Greenland.

In order to protect the Narwhals, the Arctic Council placed them on a restricted hunting list while the Greenland local government stipulated that local hunters were only allowed to hunt at most five Narwhals per year.

Li Du took a Narwhal tooth as he needed to prepare a present for Sophie father's birthday.

Regrettably, he was unable to personally attend the birthday party, which was today. He initially planned to use a day and a half to clean up the storage units so he could hurry back in time.

However, as God's plans supersede our own, Li Du was kidnapped. He was not able to return as he needed to assist the Las Vegas police and Knight's group to solve this case.

With no other alternatives, he called Sophie on the day of the birthday. Poor Sophie, who was still waiting for him to come, picked up the call and immediately asked cheerfully, ”Darling, where are you at?”

Li Du replied helplessly, ”Sorry darling, I am still in Las Vegas.”

”Huh?” Sophie responded quickly before thoughtfully inquiring, ”The auction did not go smoothly?”

Li Du initially did not want to tell her about the kidnapping incident to avoid worrying her.

However, after thinking about it carefully, he realized that even if he could hide the incident from her now, he could not hide it from her forever as Sophie, being so close with him, would find out eventually. Even if he didn't tell her, other treasure hunters would spill the beans.

Furthermore, it was his first time participating in one of Sophie's family gatherings after going steady with her, so he needed a proper reason for not attending.

As such, he told the truth. ”Darling, I was kidnapped two days ago.”

Sophie was taken aback and said, ”Are you playing with me?”

Before finishing what she had to say, Sophie was already sobbing. She obviously knew that Li Du would not use such news to play with her.