The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

A yellowed map lay spread out on the table, its edges curled up, with an irregular area circled in red.

That was the mining area they were going to survey.

The tea room was small, the lighting was dim, and an old ceiling fan in the corner turned intermittently.

The teapot on the table was steaming, mixed with the fishy smell of rain drifting in from outside.

Old Ao tapped the red circle with his knuckles, his expression more serious than during the day.

"Mr. Lin, there are some things I need to tell you beforehand."

This is the evening of my third day in Nairobi.

Old Ao and the others sat in the tea room downstairs at the hotel to discuss some things that were inconvenient to say during the day because there were too many people around.

Kamau was also there.

Old Ao invited him along, not intending to keep it a secret.

He sat a little further away, his notebook spread out as usual, but this time he barely touched the pen.

Lin Che glanced at him.

Old Obama waved his hand.

"It's alright, he'll remember it."

He said, "What needs to be known can't be hidden, and there's no need to hide it from him."

Lin Che didn't say anything more and turned his gaze back to the map.

"This piece of land."

Old Ao traced the red circle with his finger.

"The government will most likely approve the permit."

Old Ao said, "The difficulty isn't here."

"Where is it?"

Lin Che asked.

"Those villages on the ground."

Old Ao said that although the land nominally belongs to the government, it is people from the surrounding three villages who have been grazing and farming on it for generations.

According to local custom, whether or not the land can be disturbed depends on the approval of the elders of these villages.

"Three villages."

He held up three fingers.

"Two are easy to deal with, but the last one is the troublesome one."

"What makes it so difficult?"

He Wei quickly jotted down notes in her notebook, then looked up and asked a question.

"Different stances."

Old Ao said that the two villages that are easy to talk to are hoping to start mining and earn money to build roads.

That troublesome village, clinging to the land passed down from their ancestors, refused to give up an inch.

"Why won't you?"

He Wei pressed for an answer.

"There are the graves of their ancestors in that field."

Old Ao said, "In their eyes, that's not land, it's roots, and they wouldn't sell the roots for any amount of money."

He shook his head.

"You can't reason with people about this kind of thing. You can't bribe them with money, and you can't suppress them with official power."

"No matter how willing the other two villages are, as long as this one doesn't give in, the land can't be moved."

Lin Che kept this in mind.

The divisions within the village are the first hurdle to overcome.

"There's one more thing."

Old Ao lowered his voice even further.

"You're not the first to have your eye on this land."

Lin Che and He Wei both raised their heads.

"Two years ago, another company came here, and they were even more prestigious than you."

Old Ao said, "A lot of money was invested in the early stages, and the map has been drawn up to this point."

He paused, then didn't continue.

"And then?"

Lin Che asked.

"Later, they withdrew."

Old Ao shrugged.

"Overnight, everyone left, and they didn't even want the money they had invested."

The tea room fell silent for a moment.

"Why the rush to evacuate?"

Lin Che asked, "You're even giving up the initial investments?"

"No, I don't want it."

Old Ao said, "I left the equipment on the construction site, shoved the keys to the rented office into the landlord's hand, and left overnight."

"I heard that the person in charge was transferred not long after he returned, and we haven't heard from him since."

Lin Che didn't rush to ask further questions.

He leaned back in his chair and weighed the matter in his mind.

It's unusual for a reputable company to invest a large sum of money and then suddenly withdraw completely overnight, leaving nothing behind.

What's the background of this company?

Lin Che wanted to follow this line of questioning further.

Old Ao waved his hand, saying that he knew only limited things about that company, and that he had only heard about it from others.

Lin Che could tell that he didn't want to talk about it anymore, so he didn't press him further.

He was waiting for Old Obama to explain the reason behind it.

But Old Obama didn't continue talking about withdrawing investment; he changed the subject.

"The government's attitude is also quite interesting."

He said, "The permits won't stop you, but if you really ask them whether the land is stable and whether you can work on it with peace of mind, no one will give you a definite answer."

"What are they worried about?"

He Wei frowned.

"There are many things to be concerned about."

Old Ao smiled vaguely, not going into details.

Lin Che, however, discerned something in the conversation.

The government doesn't block permits because mining brings tax revenue and political achievements, and they are happy to see it happen.

But when it comes to stability, everyone falls silent, clearly indicating that there is something that even the government is unwilling to confront directly.

What could be on this land that even the government avoids?

Lin Che mentally went over these pieces of information.

Disagreements within the village, companies that abruptly withdrew, and the government's ambiguous attitude.

The three things seem unrelated on their own, but when put together, they just don't smell right.

This land is far more complex than the initial introduction by our partners.

The water was deeper than he thought.

To be honest, he didn't have many things at his disposal when he arrived in this unfamiliar land.

The connections and information channels you have back home are completely useless here.

All he can rely on now is his ears, listening little by little, asking little by little, piecing together the scattered words into a coherent picture.

He's not in a hurry.

The more obscure the water, the more important it is to first determine what's at the bottom before taking a step.

He Wei's notebook was already filled with densely packed notes.

She looked at the few notes she had written down, and the more she looked, the more her brows furrowed.

Before I came here, the information the company provided described this land as a clean and easy piece of meat to eat.

But after listening to Old Ao's story for just one night, she discovered that the information was missing more than it was written down.

She glanced up at Lin Che, trying to glean something from his expression.

Lin Che's expression remained calm, revealing neither worry nor joy.

"Old Ao."

Lin Che leaned forward slightly.

Why did that company withdraw?

Old Ao tapped his fingers lightly on the table twice, as if considering how to begin.

"This matter, when you talk about it, you can't avoid mentioning one person."

"Who?"

Old Ao glanced around.

There were no other customers in the tea room, so he lowered his voice even further.

"In this area, the official rules are governed by the government."

He said, "But the decisions that can actually be made in private depend on one person's mood."

"Who gets the work in the mine, whose territory the ore transport route passes through, and whose orders the village elders listen to are all decided by his word."

Lin Che and He Wei remained silent, listening intently.

"Why doesn't the government give you a definite answer? Because the government has to consult him first regarding this land issue."

Old Ao tapped the rolled-up map again with his finger.

Lin Che's heart stirred slightly.

A person who can get the government to consult him first and cause big companies to stumble is definitely not an ordinary local gentry or wealthy household.

The true depth of the waters in this land probably depends entirely on this one person.

"That company that withdrew ended up like that because it failed to deal with this person back then."

Old Ao added, "No one in the local area dared to contradict him."

"Who exactly is this person?"

Lin Che asked calmly, but leaned forward slightly.

Old Ao opened his mouth.

"His name is..."

Old Ao had just finished speaking when the door to the tea room was pushed open.

A waiter walked in with a freshly brewed cup of tea, his steps light and quick.

Old Ao immediately stopped talking.

He put on that amiable smile again, took a sip of tea, and acted as if he hadn't said anything at all.

The waiter changed the tea, left, and closed the door again.

Lin Che looked at Old Ao, waiting for him to finish the name he hadn't said.

Old O shook his head, glanced at Kamau, and then looked away.

"It's getting late, Mr. Lin."

He stood up, rolled up the map, and stuffed it back into his bag with swift movements.

"Let's discuss some things in another place."

Lin Che didn't insist and stood up as well.

He didn't ask for a second sentence.

In a place like this, forcing someone to say what they don't want to say will only block their path.

That name remained stuck in mid-air, unable to land.

He knew in his heart that Old Ao wasn't unwilling to tell him.

It is in this place, at this moment, in front of these recording eyes, that name cannot be spoken.