Photos of a 20-year-old boiled egg that had fossilized and now resembled a ruby went viral on Chinese social media platform Douban.
The woman behind the egg, surnamed Fu, had received it as a gift from her mother when she was still in primary school. Her mother had bought the egg because it was unusually small in size and had boiled it for her daughter to eat at school.
After forgetting about it for a few days, the mother found the egg had changed color to a dark, burgundy red and decided to keep it in a small jewelry box instead of throwing it away. Over time, the egg further fossilized and developed a smooth texture similar to a plastic ball, with fine cracks all over it.
Fu had moved out of her parent’s house and had forgotten about the egg until her mother recently found it while cleaning. The discovery stunned the internet and attracted mainstream news outlets who wanted to know the egg’s story.
The Chinese egg that had been preserved for decades and fossilized into a ruby-like appearance caught the attention of social media users. Some dubbed it a ‘pharaoh egg,’ while others wondered why it hadn’t rotted all this time.
Mrs. Fu, who had shared the photos, speculated that the cold and dry winter conditions of her hometown might have contributed to the egg’s preservation, but experts have yet to confirm this theory.
If the preserved egg seems strange to you, there’s another Chinese delicacy that may seem even more unusual. Century eggs, which are a Chinese delicacy, have an appearance that makes them seem completely inedible.
