Chapter 844: Hot spring bathing and crystal digging
The slender and powerful fingers slowly moved down along the white jade back. The soft but powerful fingertips seemed to be playing a country blues with a slow rhythm, plucking every muscle fiber along the way.
Tighten, relax, tighten again, and relax again. The friction between the fingertips and the skin brought a burning feeling. The effect of rose essential oil amplified this touch, making people's nerves jump back and forth between tingling, numbness and comfort.
"Ah~~~" Hannah's groaning sounded, which made Jiejie, who pretended to learn humbly, blush.
"From the trapezius muscle down, bypass the protruding scapular spine, buckle the deltoid muscle, and use your knuckles to press against the infraspinatus fascia on the upper side of the teres major muscle and apply a little force."
Jack's serious explanation voice did not fluctuate at all, as if his palm was not a young and graceful body, but just a prop used to show his massage techniques.
There is no way, the state of a sage is like this, emptiness is color, color is emptiness, sometimes even if the body has not reached its limit, the mind needs a proper rest.
The female governor who was saved by the FBI gave a generous gift with gratitude, inviting the wanted criminals team to enjoy a full week of hot spring vacation.
The hot spring bathhouse they are in now, which is completely built in the style of 18th and 19th century Europe, has a history of two or three hundred years.
As early as the late 19th century, the country's rich and famous people came here because they believed that the mineral-rich hot spring water here has magical effects on various diseases.
Including several presidents at that time, they regarded this place as a sanctuary for recuperation, and even allocated funds to study the efficacy of hot spring water.
However, the FBI only enjoyed three days of vacation and left. After all, bathing and massage for a long time would be boring. After a brief discussion, they found a better place to take a vacation.
Places with hot springs are usually geologically active, which also means rich mineral deposits. For example, there is another famous attraction less than an hour's drive from Hot Springs City-Diamond Crater State Park.
I don't know who came up with such a gimmicky idea to develop a diamond mine that has no commercial mining value into a park.
Visitors only need to pay $10 for a ticket, and they can bring tools to dig in the mud for a whole day. If they can really dig diamonds, they can take them away directly.
Jack and others' target is certainly not those hard-to-find and worthless small stones. They have a bigger and more shining target, another well-known mineral in Arkansas, natural white crystal.
Although Aubrey has retired from Wall Street, he still has 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 collected for a fee, but some mines with huge output and high-quality crystals are not open to the public.
As a small director of this mining company, Aubrey certainly has some small privileges, such as taking everyone to a crystal mine that is 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.
Obsidian, which was inlaid on wooden sticks as weapons by the Aztecs in Central America, is also a kind of quartz stone, also known as volcanic glass.
This thing that looks like a primitive version of the "chainsaw sword" is considered a special weapon by the famous "Jaguar Warriors" because of its heavy weight. It is named "Makwawit".
The content of perfectly crystallized prismatic crystals in nature is actually not low, but some people are superstitious. The so-called natural crystal can absorb negative energy has been widely circulated.
Jack suspected that Aubrey proposed this trip just to make Alice, who believed in this statement, happy, but as we all know, women are like dragons in European and American mythology, always interested in shiny things.
Since Hannah and Jiejie also showed an enthusiastic look, he naturally would not spoil the fun.
Although it was really hard to trudge through the deep pit dug by the excavator with one foot deep and one foot shallow in the reddish-brown mud, the girls cheered enthusiastically when they saw large pieces of natural white crystal all over the ground.
Jack also gained a lot of knowledge. After all, he had never seen such a crystal mine in his two lifetimes. He could dig 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 from one side to the other.
Although it is known that this thing is not very valuable and most of it can only be used as industrial raw materials, some gem-grade raw ores can still be found if you look carefully.
Due to different geological conditions of formation, natural crystals will be mixed with different minerals and inclusions, resulting in some unique cracks or colors inside. Anyway, the more beautiful it is, the higher its value.
Driven by the girls, everyone dug enthusiastically for a day. Fist-sized, arm-thick, and even volleyball-sized natural crystals of various shapes filled a pickup truck, about more than one ton, and were all 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 a fist-sized piece can be sold for three or four hundred dollars.
If you encounter a good-looking one, such as one with special internal contents, it is easy to sell it for seven or eight hundred dollars or even thousands of dollars.
Jack picked a few pieces that he liked at random, thinking that it would be nice to take them back and carve a wooden shelf to display them.
Since it was a "team building", it was inevitable to eat and drink. After a busy day, everyone had a big appetite. Everyone packed up their favorite harvests and drove to a camping site by the river.
Traveling with rich people is worry-free. Aubrey found a party company in advance. They had already arranged everything in this camping site, just waiting for guests to come.
The top steaks from Texas to the west, crayfish 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 the three states served the FBI.
Although everyone knew that Aubrey's spending was expensive, they all ate with peace of mind, because they were just guests, and the host was Alice who was still pulling each other with Aubrey.
Although it is unclear why this guy who claims to have intimacy phobia suddenly fell in love with Alice, a single mother, looking back at the two's 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, except for Jack, the busy protagonist, Aubrey was almost by her side throughout the whole process.
It seems easy to understand that there was a "suspension bridge effect" during the period. After the wanted criminal team was officially established, it was normal for some hidden feelings to grow slowly as everyone spent time together.
Anyway, Jack has no right to deal with such things. He even deliberately comforted Jubal who was a little worried in front of Aubrey.
If the two of them finally get together, there is nothing to say. Anyway, Alice's position is almost equivalent to that of an office worker, which will not affect anything. Just don't be too ostentatious within the FBI.
Moreover, it is still too early for the two of them to talk about marriage, and it is even uncertain whether they will get married. There are many couples in the United States who live together for life without getting married.
If they break up, it will be simple. Just kick Aubrey out. He is a wealthy retired Wall Street man. He came to the FBI purely to pursue his ideals. It doesn't matter which department he works in.