Chapter 85: “Zero-Dollar Shopping Spree” at the Bottom of the “Sea”

Seeing what was happening, the man-eating flower blinked its eyes and quickly crawled onto Jiang Yan’s arm, obediently hiding behind the underwater flashlight.

Jiang Yan slowly edged her body to the side of the inflatable boat, first dipping her feet into the water to test it.

The water was even colder than the air, probably just four or five degrees Celsius.

Even through her insulated wetsuit and diving boots, she could feel the chill.

But there was no better option at the moment—the further she went, the colder it would get.

The diving gear she wore was heavy. After putting on her diving mask, she eased herself into the water bit by bit.

After making sure there was no one around, she reached out and stowed the inflatable boat into her storage space.

By now, the light drizzle in the sky had stopped.

The wind had died down too.

Probably because this was a commercial district, there were few corpses or debris floating around, making it look much cleaner.

Jiang Yan was already used to all this, her mood and mindset calm and steady.

She’d done her homework before coming: in all jewelry stores, the merchandise is never left in the glass display cases after closing.

Instead, everything is stored in the shop’s safes.

After all, the security and surveillance here were top-notch, and the alarm system was directly connected to the local police station, so there was little worry about break-ins or theft.

For extra security, before closing, management would add a U-lock inside the store, in addition to the regular electronic locks.

Most of the shopfronts along the street had their rolling shutters tightly closed.

Jiang Yan knew she’d reached the jewelry section of the pedestrian street.

The first jewelry store was quickly reached.

If an ordinary person saw this, they’d probably be scared out of their wits.

Along the way, Jiang Yan’s dopamine was surging, and she’d long forgotten about her fatigue and the cold water.

With her “jewelry radar”—the flower pet—she soon received an alert.

The flower pet seemed to sense the presence of gold and jewels, leaving her arm and swimming toward a corner of the store.

Jiang Yan, cautious as always, swept her flashlight around to check for any signs of life before entering.

After confirming it was safe, she put away her cutting torch and swam into the shop.

A rusty sign reading “A Diamond is Forever” soon appeared in her view.

Unlike the tightly shut doors of the street-facing jewelry stores, the entrance to this mall shop had actually been pried open.

Probably because the shop had been sealed off earlier, a few calculators, two lucky cat figurines, and a God of Wealth statue floated in the water.

On the floor were scattered promotional posters, fragments of holiday balloons burst by water pressure, and dyed barley stalks symbolizing “big sales.”

There were no corpses to be seen.

She took out an underwater cutting torch from her storage space—this thing could easily slice through several centimeters of steel, much better than a fire axe.

In just a few seconds, she’d cut a gap in the rolling shutter big enough for a person to slip through.

Ordinary tools wouldn’t have managed.

Inside, the space was much larger than the street shops, and the layout less regular.

But with the help of her “jewelry radar,” Jiang Yan quickly found the safe storage area.

Looking at the three huge standalone safes, each taller than herself, she was instantly delighted.

Most regular safes have concrete filling between steel plates, but these were made entirely of solid steel.

Some shops even had their safes embedded directly into the walls.

She reached out and, with a thought, stored all the safes into her space.

Now, her storage space held dozens of all-steel safes of various sizes.

At first glance, they looked like big-mouthed green water snakes, or perhaps some kind of mutant jellyfish.

Her flower pet was currently in its liquid green form, emitting a faint green glow.

It was so excited it was practically vibrating, its two leaves rubbing together as it exclaimed, “Kekeke! Yay, yay, I love opening blind boxes!”

It couldn’t open the safes itself, but it remembered that Mom had a cutting torch, so these big boxes should be easy to open!

But it soon realized it had overestimated itself—just now, it almost chipped a tooth trying to bite through the steel.

Jiang Yan smiled and swam closer.

“Wait, Huabao, we can’t open them here!” she quickly stopped it.

The flower pet, confused and with aching teeth, asked, “Kekeke? Mom, why can’t we open them now?”

“If we open them, water will flood in. Let’s put them in the space first, and when we get home, we’ll open them one by one. How about that?”

The flower pet immediately understood, looking at the compass while recalling the map in its mind, giving her clear directions.

Leaving the pedestrian street, Jiang Yan, guided by the flower pet, quickly found the most upscale mall in Anming.

With telepathic communication between her and the flower pet, she didn’t need to speak out loud—a good thing, since she couldn’t have managed it underwater anyway.

She sped up.

Given the situation, there wasn’t a single security guard around—heck, not even a ghost.

With the resistance of water, swinging a hammer or stick wouldn’t have much force.

But none of this was a problem for Jiang Yan.

She carefully checked the entrance before swimming in.

With the flower pet’s help, she soon found the safe storage area.

Judging by the flower pet’s excited cries, the jewelry stored here was probably even more valuable than what they’d found on the pedestrian street.

From this brand-name jewelry store, Jiang Yan and her flower pet repeated their process, quickly collecting all the remaining jewelry shops along the street.

Her mood while treasure hunting was pure joy.

The flower pet, sensing gold, shouted, “Kekeke! Mom, there’s gold here!!”

Whether it was people or flower pets, in the face of food (or treasure), fear of the unknown could always be overcome—at least for a while.

She’d heard that this famous brand only allowed men to custom order a single diamond ring in their lifetime, with ID verification and even a “true love agreement” to sign.

Whether it was true love or not, the marketing gimmick was certainly strong.

Jiang Yan didn’t linger, diving down and swimming toward the first batch of jewelry stores.

Looking at the rippling water above, she felt as if she were floating on the ocean’s surface.

The flower pet’s mood was three times happier than usual at the thought of a “zero-dollar shopping spree” and upgrading their storage space.

All in all, with her flower pet’s “jewelry radar,” Jiang Yan’s underwater treasure hunt was off to a thrilling, rewarding start."