Chapter 844: Hot Spring Digging for Crystals

The slender and powerful fingers slowly moved down along the jade-white back. The soft but powerful fingertips seemed to be playing a slow-paced country blues, plucking every muscle fiber along the way.

Tighten, relax, tighten again, and relax again. The friction between the fingertips and the skin brings a burning sensation. The effect of rose essential oil amplifies this touch, making people's nerves jump back and forth between tingling, numbness and comfort.

"Ah~~~" A suggestive moan came out of Hannah's mouth, which made Jiejie, who was pretending to be willing to learn, blush.

"Go down from the trapezius muscle, around the raised scapular spine, hold the deltoid muscle, and use your knuckles to press against the infraspinatus fascia on the upper side of the teres major muscle to apply slight force."

There was not a trace of fluctuation in Jack's voice as he explained seriously, as if what was under his palms was not a young and graceful body, but just a prop used to demonstrate his massage techniques.

There is no way. This is the state of a sage. Emptiness is form, and form is emptiness. Sometimes, even if the body has not reached its limit, the mind also needs a proper rest.

The female governor, whose life was saved by the FBI, gave a generous gift out of gratitude and invited everyone in the wanted criminal team to enjoy a full week of hot spring vacation.

The hot spring bath they were in, which was built completely in imitation of the European style of the 18th and 19th centuries, was itself two or three hundred years old.

As early as the late 1800s, the country's rich and famous came here, believing that the mineral-rich thermal waters here had miraculous effects on a variety of ailments.

Several presidents at the time, including several presidents, regarded this place as a sanatorium and even allocated funds to study the efficacy of the hot spring water.

However, the FBI only enjoyed three days of vacation before saying goodbye and leaving. After all, taking a bath and getting a massage would get boring after a long time. After a brief discussion, they found a better place to go on vacation.

Places with hot springs usually have active geological activities, which also means rich mineral deposits. For example, less than an hour's drive from Hot Springs is another famous attraction - Crater of Diamonds State Park.

I don't know who came up with such a gimmicky idea to develop a diamond mine with no commercial mining value into a park.

Visitors only need to pay a $10 ticket and can bring tools to dig in the mud for a whole day. If they can really dig up diamonds, they can take them away directly.

Jack and his companions' target was certainly not those hard-to-find and worthless small stones. They had a bigger and shinier target, another well-known mineral in Arkansas, natural white crystal.

Although Aubrey has long retired from Wall Street, he still holds a lot of stocks, including a mining company called "Avant".

This mining company owns several crystal mines in Jessieville County, Arkansas. Some of the mines can be mined for a fee, but some mines with huge output and high-quality crystals are not open to the public.

As a minor director of the mining company, Aubrey certainly had some small privileges, such as taking everyone to a crystal mine that was not open to the public.

Natural crystal is actually natural glass, also known as quartz. When silicon dioxide crystallizes perfectly in the natural environment, it is called crystal. After gelation and dehydration, it is called agate. After the water-containing colloid solidifies, it is called opal.

The obsidian that the Aztecs of Central America inlaid on wooden sticks as weapons is also a type of quartz, also known as volcanic glass.

This thing that looks like a primitive version of the "chain sword" is considered a special weapon by the famous "Jaguar Warriors" because of its heavy weight and is named "Macawwit".

The content of perfectly crystallized prismatic crystals in nature is actually not low, but some people are superstitious and the claim that natural crystals can absorb negative energy has been widely circulated.

Jack suspected that Aubrey proposed this journey just to please Alice, who believed in this theory. However, as we all know, women are like dragons in European and American mythology and are always interested in shiny things.

Since Hannah and Jiejie also seemed very excited, he naturally would not spoil their fun.

Although it was really hard to trudge through the reddish-brown mud and the deep pit dug by the excavator, the girls cheered enthusiastically when they saw large chunks of natural white crystal all over the ground and within easy reach.

Jack also gained a lot of knowledge. After all, he had never seen such a crystal mine in his two lifetimes. He could dig out a fist-sized piece of high-purity white crystal. After washing off the dirt on it, he could clearly see the lines on the palm of his hand through one side.

Although we know that this thing is not very valuable and most of it can only be used as industrial raw materials, we can still find some gem-grade raw ores if we look carefully.

Because of the different geological conditions under which natural crystals are formed, different minerals and inclusions will be mixed in, resulting in some unique cracks or colors inside. In short, the more beautiful they are, the higher their value.

Led by the girls, everyone worked enthusiastically for a whole day. They dug all kinds of strange-shaped natural crystals, some as big as fists, some as thick as arms, and even as big as volleyballs, filling up an entire pickup truck, weighing more than one ton, and all were dragged back to the mine factory.

He picked up the high-pressure water gun and rinsed it. As the dirt on the surface was washed away, Jack looked at the charming colors of the natural glass under the light. Only then did Jack have a more intuitive feeling about the high-quality mining area that Aubrey mentioned.

According to the workers in the mine, although natural crystal itself is indeed just a cheap gem, the white crystal produced here is of very good quality, and an ordinary fist-sized piece can be sold for three or four hundred US dollars.

If you come across one in good condition, such as one with special contents inside, it can be easily sold for seven or eight hundred dollars or even thousands of dollars.

Jack randomly picked out a few pieces that he liked, thinking it would be a good idea to take them home and carve a wooden shelf to display them.

Since we were out for a "team building" activity, eating and drinking were inevitable. After a busy day, everyone had a big appetite. Everyone packed up their favorite gains and drove to a camping site by the river.

Traveling with rich people means less worry. Aubrey found a party company in advance, and they had already arranged everything at the camping site, just waiting for guests to arrive.

The FBI agents were served the finest steaks from Texas to the west, crawfish and smoked duck from the "Pelican State" (Louisiana) to the south, and peach wine and fresh peaches from Georgia to the east. The specialties of these three states were used together to serve the FBI.

Although everyone knew that Aubrey's spending was not cheap, they all felt at ease eating because they were just guests and the host was Alice who was still struggling with Aubrey.

Although it is unclear why this guy who claims to have a fear of intimacy suddenly fell in love with Alice, a single mother, but looking back on their previous interactions, it is not completely impossible to see clues.

As early as the "collar bomb incident", the two had experienced the test of life and death together. When Alice's life was hanging by a thread, in addition to Jack, the busy protagonist, Aubrey was almost by her side throughout the whole process.

It seems easy to understand that the "suspension bridge effect" occurred during this period. After the wanted criminals team was officially established, it was normal for some hidden feelings to slowly grow as everyone spent time together day and night.

Anyway, Jack had no right to care about such things. He even deliberately comforted Jubal, who was a little worried about this, in front of Aubrey.

If the two of them end up together, there's nothing to say. Alice's position is almost equivalent to that of a clerk, and it won't affect anything. Just don't be too conspicuous within the FBI.

What's more, it is still too early for them to talk about marriage, and it is even unclear whether they will get married. Nowadays, there are many couples in the United States who do not get married but live together for their whole lives.

If they are divided, it will be easy. Just kick Aubrey out. He is a wealthy retired Wall Street man who came to the FBI purely to pursue his ideals. It doesn't matter which department he works in.