Uncle Liu was naturally a talkative person. After all, he came from a foreign trade background and spent years doing business with clients. If he didn't have a silver tongue, he wouldn't be able to make a living in this field.

After a few drinks, Uncle Liu became even more loquacious, talking non-stop, leaving no room for Uncle Mei and me to interject.

Uncle Liu, holding his wine glass, squinted his eyes and said, "Da Ding, you know, after graduation, I was assigned to work in foreign trade in Southeast Asia. You might think this job is not bad, after all, you get assigned a job right after graduation, and you earn quite a bit, but don't think I'm complaining after getting a good deal. I didn't like that damn place in Southeast Asia at first..."

Uncle Mei smiled and didn't say much. After all, he had never been to Southeast Asia in his life, and he didn't understand why Uncle Liu didn't like it there.

Uncle Liu explained, "First, I couldn't speak Thai when I first graduated, only English, so there were communication barriers with the locals. Second, the people there didn't really like people from our country. You could feel it. They were clearly hostile towards us."

I didn't understand these things, as I hadn't been abroad at that time, but judging from Uncle Liu's expression, it didn't seem like he was making it up.

In the blink of an eye, he drank another glass of wine and continued, "But later, as time went on, I learned Thai and became familiar with the locals, gradually integrating into the environment. When I had time, I studied the history of Southeast Asia and gradually became attracted to this land. Funan Kingdom, Champa, Khmer Empire, Siam Kingdom... Speaking of which, the history of Southeast Asia is really not simple. Don't think that we are an ancient civilization with five thousand years of history, but they also have a brilliant historical civilization over there in Southeast Asia."

Uncle Mei and I were both people with low education levels, let alone the history of Southeast Asia, we hadn't even understood the history of our own country for the past few thousand years.

I had never heard of any of the ancient kingdoms that Uncle Liu mentioned. Sitting at the dinner table, I felt like I was listening to gibberish.

Finally, Uncle Mei couldn't take it anymore, coughed, and interrupted Uncle Liu, saying, "Old Liu, don't give us a history lesson. Rongsheng and I weren't good students when we were in school. Do those ancient kingdoms you're talking about have anything to do with this deal?"

"Of course, they do," Uncle Liu said with a smile. "Because the ship you're going to salvage this time is related to these ancient kingdoms. Da Ding, do you remember me telling you what era this treasure ship is from?"

Uncle Mei said, "Of course, I remember. You said it was six or seven hundred years old. If you push it back, it would be around 1300-something or 1400-something, right?"

"That's right." Uncle Liu nodded, then asked us, "Do you know what dynasty that time belongs to?"

Uncle Mei thought for a while and asked, "Is it the Qing Dynasty? No, it shouldn't be the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty?"

I also thought it was like the Ming Dynasty and said, "It should be the Ming Dynasty, right?"

"Yes, it's the Ming Dynasty." Uncle Liu announced the answer and then said, "But while our country was in the Ming Dynasty, Southeast Asia also had their own kingdoms. At that time, there was a very prosperous country in Southeast Asia called the Ayutthaya Kingdom. From the beginning, their country maintained trade relations with many European countries, especially France. At that time, the Ayutthaya Kingdom often sent treasure ships out to sea to trade with European countries. The treasure ship you are going to salvage this time is a cargo ship from the Ayutthaya Kingdom."

"Ayou… something spit?" I didn't remember the complicated name and asked.

"Ayutthaya, it's Ayutthaya." Uncle Liu patiently repeated it to me several times and said, "Also called the Ayutthaya Dynasty, this dynasty was very prosperous and also nurtured its own civilization, possessing many brilliant cultural relics, so there must be a lot of treasures in their treasure ships."

I carefully wrote down this name, thinking that I would look up information after returning home, and it would be best to learn about the antiques of this country so that I could at least identify which treasures were valuable and which were worthless.

Uncle Mei then asked curiously, "By the way, Old Liu, weren't you doing business in a foreign trade company before? How did you get into this business of salvaging shipwrecks?"

Uncle Liu smiled and said in a low voice, "To be honest, what I'm doing now is also foreign trade, but the goods I used to deal with were building materials, and now the goods I deal with are antiques. I used to work for the public, but now I'm making money for myself..."

Uncle Liu's words were both clear and unclear. Although some things were not explicitly stated, we all understood.

Uncle Mei was also a tactful person, knowing what could be asked, what could not be asked, and to what extent could he ask the questions that could be asked.

Some things should be touched upon and stopped, without the need for further discussion.

However, what he was most worried about was the issue of safety.

He lowered his voice and said, "Old Liu, is this deal safe? Is it illegal for us to salvage antiques at sea like this? Will we be arrested and unable to return?"

When Uncle Liu heard this, he laughed and said, "Da Ding, we're all classmates, would I ever cheat you? Just go with peace of mind, safety is absolutely guaranteed! I'll vouch for it with my character!"

Uncle Mei was still worried and asked, squinting his eyes, "So, that means there are still risks in this deal, isn't there?"

Uncle Liu took a sip of wine and said with a smile, "Da Ding, look at what you're saying. There are risks in every profession. Even if you're a clerk sitting in an office, you could still be hit by a car on the way to and from work, couldn't you? When you come out to make money, you can't be too timid. As the saying goes - the bold are stuffed to death, the timid starve to death."

Uncle Mei frowned and didn't respond.

Uncle Liu patted Uncle Mei on the shoulder and said, "Da Ding, just put your heart at ease. To tell you the truth, this isn't the first time I've done this kind of deal. Over the years, I've salvaged seven or eight ships at sea. Otherwise, where do you think I got the money to buy a villa for my parents? I'm telling you, none of those seven or eight times had any accidents."

Uncle Mei breathed a slight sigh of relief after hearing these words, and I also felt a little more at ease.

At this time, Uncle Liu said again, "But to be honest, Da Ding, what you should be most worried about in this line of work is not whether you'll be arrested, but whether you can come back up after going into the sea. Going into the sea is not like going into a river, the sea is ruthless."

As soon as these words came out, Uncle Mei and I realized that we had both overlooked a problem.

We were so busy pondering whether salvaging treasure ships without permission was illegal that we forgot that diving into the sea to salvage them was itself a very dangerous thing. If things went wrong, we could lose our lives!

Uncle Mei couldn't help but raise his glass and take a sip, then asked Uncle Liu, "Old Liu, is the probability of accidents high in this line of work? How many people who go into the sea to salvage treasures usually come back alive?"