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

The convoy left the city before dawn.

Nairobi was shrouded in a thin mist in the early morning, the streetlights were dim, and there were few people on the road.

Three SUVs carried Lin Che, He Wei, Kamau, and two other people temporarily hired by the partners.

The vehicle was filled with tents, dry food, water, and boxes of equipment. It was hundreds of kilometers from the city to the mining area, and once you went there, you wouldn't be able to come back in just a day or two.

One of them was a local guide named Mwanji, who had been traveling around this area for half his life. He knew every road that led there with his eyes closed.

The other was a geological technician hired by the partner, surnamed Zhou. He was sent from China and didn't talk much. As soon as he got in the car, he clung to an instrument case and wouldn't let go.

The day before his departure, Lin Che met with that troublesome elder.

He was an elderly man with gray hair, a very straight back, and an imposing gaze.

The meeting was brief, and the elder didn't say much, remaining completely silent about the mining operation from beginning to end.

He kept repeating the same thing: their ancestors are buried in that land, and it must not be disturbed.

But what Lin Che wanted was not to give in.

He chatted with him for a while, and then casually mentioned a few old stories about the area.

The elder's expression darkened noticeably at the place where a certain name should have appeared, before he changed the subject.

The name was on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it back, as if he didn't even want to mention it.

They didn't say it, but that subtle avoidance was clearer than any statement.

The person that Old Ao couldn't avoid mentioning was a real person.

He has a name and surname, and people in this area avoid him when he is mentioned.

Lin Che finally found the connection between this and the second completely unrelated person.

Once the car left the city, the asphalt road turned into a dirt road after only an hour or so.

The view outside the window gradually receded from low-rise buildings and crowded streets into vast open fields.

The red earth stretched to the horizon, sparsely dotted with drought-resistant shrubs and acacia trees with flat canopies.

Occasionally, a few skinny cows graze by the roadside, and in the distance, smoke rises from a solitary mud house.

The further you go in, the fewer people there are.

The car bounced violently, the red soil was swirled up by the wheels, leaving a long trail of dust behind it.

The asphalt road was long gone, and the guide navigated the intersections by memory.

Some sections of the road were barely recognizable as roads; they were just two ruts left by wheels on the wasteland.

He Wei was carsick; her face was pale, and she leaned back in her seat with her eyes closed.

Kamau sat in the last row, his notebook spread out as usual, and his pen never stopped, no matter how bumpy the road was.

Lin Che glanced at him.

Even though they were in the middle of nowhere, the guide still remembered everything meticulously.

He didn't care; what he was seeing wasn't anything shameful.

Engineer Zhou hugged the instrument case even tighter, muttering that this road was not good for the equipment.

Lin Che chatted with him for a few minutes, asking about the geology of the area.

Once the topic turned to his profession, Engineer Zhou immediately became more talkative.

He said that this area is located on the edge of the East African Rift Valley, and the underground structure is active, making it a good place to produce non-ferrous metals according to geological laws.

In recent years, many mineral deposits have been discovered in the Rift Valley area, including copper, rare earth elements, and gemstones.

This piece of land is sandwiched in the middle, but it has not been properly surveyed by predecessors. In Engineer Zhou's view, it is a virgin land that has never been touched.

"I've reviewed all the previous satellite remote sensing and regional data."

Engineer Zhou patted the instrument case. "According to the data, this land has great potential."

"Data is data, but in the end, we still have to take the instruments to the site and measure it in person to make it count."

Lin Che nodded and made a mental note of what he had said.

That's exactly the kind of knowledgeable person he needs.

After driving for most of the day, as the sun began to set, the guide, Muvanji, turned around and said something.

"We're almost there."

About twenty minutes later, the car stopped on a wide-open high ground.

Several people got off the bus one after another to stretch their muscles after being jostled all the way.

As planned, we will camp on this high ground tonight and officially start work early tomorrow morning.

The driver and guide started unloading the goods and setting up the tent, while Lin Che walked around for a bit.

A hot, dry wind blew in my face, carrying the pungent smell of red earth.

Before me stretched an endless expanse of wilderness, with undulating terrain and several low, gently sloping mountain ridges in the distance.

This is the area circled in red on the map.

Seeing something with your own eyes is a completely different experience than reading it on paper.

The red circle on the paper was only about the size of a palm.

Standing here, you realize how big it is. You can't see the end of it at a glance, and you have to measure it step by step.

Lin Che stood on the high ground and slowly turned around.

He silently memorized which side was higher, which side had traces of water, and which side had exposed rock strata.

This land is home to cattle and sheep from three villages, the ancestral graves of one village, and countless mineral deposits.

No wonder someone has been eyeing this place for two years and refuses to let go.

Engineer Zhou also got out of the car, holding up his instrument and looking around, muttering some technical terms that Lin Che didn't quite understand.

"The surface rock strata here are well exposed."

He pointed to an exposed rock face not far away, "Judging from its direction and color, there's a good chance there's something underneath."

Lin Che looked in the direction he was pointing and nodded.

He listened to Engineer Zhou on professional matters.

Zhou was in high spirits. He took out a handheld instrument from the box, walked up to the rock wall, and measured it a few times.

A string of numbers appeared on the instrument screen.

He glanced at it, his brows first relaxed, then twitched slightly, as if something was amiss.

"What's wrong?" Lin Che asked.

"fine."

Engineer Zhou shook his head and measured it again. "It might be due to surface interference. Let's set up the platform and do a proper measurement later."

He suppressed his doubts and didn't take them too seriously.

Lin Che didn't think much of it and turned his gaze to the entire landscape.

Mwanji squatted on the ground, grabbed a handful of red soil, rubbed it between his fingers, then stood up and squinted as he looked around.

He seemed very familiar with this place, or perhaps he was looking for something.

He knew every nook and cranny of the area, where the water was, where the grass was suitable for grazing cattle, and which roads would be cut off during the rainy season.

The partners hired him because of his familiarity with the business.

Lin Che walked over and casually asked if anyone usually came to this area.

"There aren't many people."

Mwanji said that the place is remote, more than ten miles away from the nearest village, and apart from cattle herders, no outsiders are seen.

As he spoke, he suddenly raised his hand and pointed towards a distant mountain ridge.

"However... it seems like someone came from over there a while ago."

"Who is it?" Lin Che asked.

"It's hard to say."

Mwanji shook his head, speaking casually as if he were talking about something trivial.

"Some cattle herders saw it and said there were some unfamiliar faces who had set up a frame over there and were fiddling with some iron stuff."

Mvanji said, "He stayed for a few days and then left. Nobody got a close look at what he did."

Lin Che looked in the direction he was pointing.

The mountain ridge was far away, hazy and gray, and looked somewhat weak in the afternoon heat.

The wilderness was empty and desolate, with nothing in sight, showing no trace of anyone having been there.

The wind blew from that direction, carrying a dry heat mixed with an indescribable smell.

It was very quiet all around, except for the sound of the wind whistling through the wild grass.

The sun slowly sank behind the mountain ridges, casting long shadows across the open fields.

This desolate wilderness, so remote it seems, should be a place where no one would ever come.

But then, a few unfamiliar faces came by recently. They set up a frame, fiddled with some metal stuff, and then left quietly.

Lin Che withdrew his gaze and did not ask any further questions.

In such remote areas, strangers passing through are rare, and rumors, whether numerous or few, should not be taken seriously.

Nothing was left in the wilderness, and the cowherd's rambling words couldn't explain anything.

He simply noted down Mvanji's casual remark in his mind.