Auerbach brought a camera and filmed "The Woman with the Drum" from different angles. He also selected a painting from Pina Yang's works, "Morning Breeze Blowing Through the Woods," and took some shots of it as well.

　　"I'll send these to my old friend and have him judge them with a professional eye," Auerbach explained. "That guy is the art director for Lishi Auction House in Ottawa—his eye is second to none."

　　Owen Sutton carefully stored and arranged the paintings. As Auerbach was about to leave, he noticed the pickup truck in the yard, nodded, and said, "It's really inconvenient to get from the fishery to town. I overlooked that. Here, take my old Ford. I'll return the pickup to Anderson."

　　Anderson was the name of the owner of the small inn.

　　Hearing this, Owen Sutton was a bit moved and said, "If you give me your Ford, what will you drive?"

　　Auerbach replied, "I still have a BMW 750. I'll just drive the BMW."

　　Owen Sutton: "…"

　　Auerbach left. With nothing to do alone in the small building, Owen Sutton picked up the vacuum cleaner and a feather duster, preparing to clean up.

　　The building had two floors. The first floor had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large hall, a storage room, and a kitchen. The total area exceeded 300 square meters, with the hall alone nearly 100 square meters.

　　The second floor was slightly smaller, about 250 to 260 square meters, symmetrically divided into six bedrooms. There was also a walk-in closet of about 20 square meters—very spacious. The decor was minimalist, and the entire building, from floors to walls, was covered with high-quality red maple boards, which were both moisture-proof and beautiful.

　　At lunchtime, Owen Sutton wanted to try something different. Cod from the Newfoundland area is very famous, so he shifted his consciousness to the nearby ocean, planning to fulfill his wish from when he arrived—to cook a cod and have a taste.

　　The beautiful Chenbao Lake had given Owen Sutton a lot to think about. He had thought that if a lake's scenery was so splendid and colorful, then the vast underwater world of the sea should be even more spectacular.

　　But what he saw with his consciousness disappointed him. In waters less than two meters deep, the seabed was mostly covered with fine, snow-white sand, with the occasional rock here and there.

　　He dove deeper, to about four or five meters, and found coral on the seabed.

　　Unlike the colorful tropical corals of Australia seen on TV, the corals in the waters around the fishery were mostly grayish-white and lifeless.

　　Owen Sutton thought this was just how cold-water corals looked, but then, by chance, he spotted a small patch of coral blending pink and pale yellow.

　　From this coral, Owen Sutton could sense vibrant life. Tiny coral polyps clustered together to form this small patch.

　　This made Owen Sutton realize that the grayish-white ones weren't living coral, but coral reefs made up of the remains of dead polyps.

　　Owen Sutton's consciousness continued to move through the sea, but he couldn't go very far—the maximum range was about two nautical miles from the fishery. Even so, the area he could explore was considerable, but after searching for a long time, he didn't see a single fish!

　　The inshore waters near the fishery were lifeless, the seabed environment severely damaged, and the fish had all left. In addition, the pollution in this area was quite serious, the water quality was very poor, and the low temperature was another reason the fish had fled.

　　As his consciousness was returning, Owen Sutton saw a transparent jellyfish with long arms drifting toward him.

　　This jellyfish was over forty centimeters long, with a diameter of five centimeters. Its shape resembled a spiral arm, overall symmetrical but slightly slender at both ends. Its body was made up of an outer and inner wall, with a hollow center, and the whole thing was a semi-transparent pale white.

　　Owen Sutton recognized it as a glass sponge. Although it looked large, its structure was similar to that of coral—the latter is made up of countless tiny polyps, while this was made up of countless tiny jellyfish.

　　Cup jellyfish are very common in the Atlantic Ocean. This glass sponge was formed by a group of deep-cup jellyfish. Each tiny jellyfish is only two millimeters long, and they usually live in colonies—thousands of them coming together to form such a structure.

　　Seeing this glass sponge, Owen Sutton was a bit happy, because this thing can attract fish. It's known as a "small fish shelter" and can protect small fish.

　　As everyone knows, the ocean's food chain is a pyramid—big fish eat small fish. But glass sponges can grow several meters, even over ten meters long, and to big fish, they look like monsters, so they don't dare attack them easily.

　　This way, small fish hiding inside have a much better chance of survival. And the secretions and excrement of the small fish are food for these cup jellyfish—their symbiotic relationship is one of the ocean's wonders.

　　When Owen Sutton's consciousness approached the glass sponge, he found that the tiny cup jellyfish making it up were very weak, and there was even a hole in the side wall.

　　But as the glass sponge approached Owen Sutton's consciousness, its vitality slowly began to recover, while Owen Sutton started to feel a bit tired. Suddenly, he realized that his consciousness could actually heal or even save marine life.

　　As Owen Sutton's consciousness withdrew, the glass sponge followed him, finally drifting to the patch of pink and pale yellow coral, where it stopped.

　　By this time, the cup jellyfish had regained their vitality, and Owen Sutton could feel their attachment to and gratitude for him.