Chapter 86: The Red Diamond ""Pigeon Egg

As usual, Jiang Yan took out her underwater cutting torch from her space and quickly sliced open the steel door outside the vault storage room.

This was a room of about twenty square meters, located on the first basement level. Right next door was the shopping mall’s property surveillance room—so one could imagine the level of security.

From the outside, it looked completely ordinary. To avoid suspicion, they’d even hung an acrylic sign reading “Storage Room” on the door.

But only Jiang Yan knew that the walls of this room were probably lined with steel plates, just like her safe house in Shallow Water Bay—except here, the steel was clearly even thicker.

Even though the room was already flooded, she could still vaguely make out the dense array of surveillance cameras covering the ceiling.

There might even be infrared sensors and high-voltage anti-intrusion systems like the ones on her own front door.

But after so long without power or internet, and with the room soaked by rainwater, all those high-tech security devices had long since failed.

Looking at the security level of this room, Jiang Yan had a momentary illusion that she wasn’t in a shopping mall, but in a top-tier jewelry museum.

As usual, she swept her diving flashlight around the room before cautiously swimming inside.

“Jie jie jie!” (sinister giggle) Mama, I smell the scent of a red diamond pigeon egg!

“Red diamond—pigeon egg?!” Jiang Yan hesitated for a second, then her eyes lit up with delight. “Where?!”

Red diamonds are said to be the rarest and most precious color among all diamonds.

Next come purple, blue, pink, green, orange, yellow, white, black, and coffee diamonds.

Rarity is value, and diamonds are no exception.

She remembered reading in a fashion magazine that there are fewer than five red diamonds over one carat in the world—a level of scarcity that’s hard to imagine.

It’s said that just one could buy you a courtyard house in Beijing.

And if it’s called a “pigeon egg,” it must be at least five carats.

The key point was that such a rare diamond wasn’t at a jewelry exhibition or auction, but hidden here—this was truly beyond her expectations.

Looks like she’d really hit the jackpot today.

Jiang Yan was more than satisfied with this.

“Jie jie jie!” Over here, in this safe!

Huabao’s vines stretched out excitedly, wrapping around a strangely-shaped safe in the corner of the room.

This safe was clearly custom-made—unlike the other tall, rectangular safes, this one was a perfect two-meter cube.

On top of it, as if to cover it up, a pile of much smaller safes were stacked like building blocks.

It was a bit of a clumsy attempt at concealment.

Huabao was practically drooling, its crimson tongue licking the safe door in anticipation.

Jiang Yan silently laughed at its greedy expression.

But excitement aside, after collecting the other safes nearby, she quickly swam over and stored this special safe directly into the white [Living Area] of her space.

She was dying to open it and see the rare red diamond pigeon egg for herself, but considering the current environment, she gritted her teeth and resisted the urge.

“Huabao, let’s go—on to the next stop.” Having just secured another haul of sky-high-priced jewelry, Jiang Yan felt more and more at ease.

“Jie jie jie!” Let’s go, let’s go!

Huabao’s leaves spun like propellers, and it darted out of the room ahead of her.

After so much underwater exploration, it had grown much bolder.

They were currently on the B1 level.

This shopping center, located in the most prime real estate of the CBD, was worth its weight in gold.

The first floor had the highest rent, with prices decreasing on higher floors, so storage rooms and staff offices were all relegated to the least valuable, least ventilated basement.

She and Huabao had come down via the supermarket passage from the ground floor to B1.

Outside was a large imported goods supermarket—Jiang Yan had even shopped there a few times before.

But now, everything inside had either floated away if it was light, or sunk to the floor if it was heavy.

On the shelves, a few moss-covered towels and moldy, crumbling loaves of fresh bread still hung.

Some things were vacuum-sealed and preserved, but you’d have to dig for them.

Jiang Yan glanced at the pitch-black supermarket area, but ultimately gave up on swimming inside.

Time was too limited, and her main goal this trip was jewelry.

If time allowed, she might check out the beekeeping base or the clinic for some medicine.

Food was everyone else’s top priority, but not hers.

With that thought, Jiang Yan had already exited the shopping center.

Just as she was about to hurry on to the next mall, Huabao suddenly wrapped a leaf around her wrist.

With its other leaf, it pointed excitedly at another equally luxurious shop next to the mall:

“Jie jie jie!” Mama, there’s food in there too!

Jiang Yan followed the direction it pointed and couldn’t help but laugh.

“Huabao, you really have sharp eyes.”

She spoke as she followed it toward the shop.

It was the only flagship luxury watch store of “Donkey Brand Hennessy” in Anming, with three floors.

Inside, they sold all the major luxury watch brands under the group, and even had a section for other world-famous brands.

Most of these watches were exorbitantly priced—the cheapest started at 100,000, not to mention the eight-figure collector’s pieces.

When Jiang Yan had previously liquidated some assets, she’d sold a watch to a second-hand luxury website that she’d bought from this very store—well, from its overseas branch, where she could save on taxes.

So, Huabao wasn’t just sharp-nosed and sharp-eyed, it also had excellent taste.

It never picked the most suitable, only the most expensive.

She was actually a bit puzzled about the carnivorous plant’s appetite.

Some watch straps and dials, aside from gold and platinum, were made of all sorts of metals and special materials: stainless steel, titanium, rhodium, ceramic, carbon fiber, and so on. Some dials were made of mother-of-pearl, enamel, sapphire, etc.

Could she feed it stainless steel, shells, or ceramics as substitutes?

But when they’d passed a high-end bone china tableware counter at the mall entrance earlier, Huabao hadn’t shown the slightest interest—not even a glance.

And when it tried to bite the safe’s steel plate earlier, it couldn’t make a dent.

So, was this a matter of its “attributes”?

Oh well, since it said it could eat these, that must mean eating them would help it and her space level up.

No need to overthink it.

Jiang Yan quickly broke in, and with the help of the man-eating plant, swiftly found the area where the watches were stored in safes.

All those sky-high-priced watches, boxes and all, were swept into her space.

Her operations became smoother and smoother.

Six hours later.

Within a two-kilometer radius of the CBD, every jewelry and luxury watch store’s gold, silver, jewels, and watches had all been swept into Jiang Yan’s space.

She’d only entered her space once to rest—just had a strawberry pudding and a cup of hot milk chocolate to quickly recharge, then left again.

After such a frenzied, non-stop sweep, even with her body modified by the space, Jiang Yan was starting to feel the strain."