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

The next morning, Lin Che took Engineer Zhou to that land.

It's where the three lines on the map intersect, in the middle section of the mining area.

He didn't make a fuss, only saying that he was going to check a set of data.

Kamau followed as usual, as did Old O, and Mvanji drove the way.

This trip will follow the same old routine.

Lin Che informed Kamau in advance about where he was going and what he was doing, without hiding a single word.

Being stared at like that from morning till night would make anyone else furious.

Lin Che, however, seemed to be used to it all along. He said what needed to be said and did what needed to be done, without showing the slightest impatience.

He knew very well that the situation in this area was very complicated, and as a newcomer, he was constantly being hampered.

Being anxious is useless; the more anxious you are, the more likely you are to expose your incompetence.

It's better to stay calm and take each step steadily.

The car bumped along in the open field for almost half an hour before stopping in front of a gentle slope.

Lin Che was the first to jump out of the car.

The moment your feet touch the ground, the heat from the red soil seeps up from the soles of your shoes.

The sun had not yet risen high, and a thin layer of morning mist shrouded the open fields, with distant mountain ridges appearing indistinctly.

He stopped and looked around.

This piece of land is no different from the surrounding area.

The same red soil, the same shrubs, the same acacia trees.

With just a pair of eyes, you can't tell the difference between it and the rest of the place.

Mvanji squatted by the car smoking, while Old Ao chatted with the driver; neither of them thought there was anything special about this gentle slope.

In their eyes, this was just a piece of wasteland that could be found anywhere in the mining area.

But Lin Che knew in his heart that what was hidden beneath this inconspicuous gentle slope was of great importance.

"Engineer Zhou is in this area."

He pointed to the gentle slope and said, "Go down to each of the points I marked and take samples."

Engineer Zhou responded and instructed the workers to set up the drilling rig.

Lin Che didn't explain why he specifically wanted to target this particular area.

He came here nominally as the client to conduct the survey, but he was accompanied by supervisors, and he had to report everything he did, so he couldn't make any promises he couldn't keep.

He only gave Zhou the key locations, without mentioning how these locations were obtained.

Engineer Zhou didn't ask any further questions.

After that data discrepancy incident, the technician had developed an almost instinctive trust in Lin Che's judgment.

He simply followed the instructions, meticulously drilling, sampling, and calculating at each location.

The drilling rig roared, and the red soil churned.

Rock cores were taken from the ground, sliced, bagged, and sent into a makeshift tent.

Lin Che did not stay by the drilling rig.

He stood atop the gentle slope, gazing at the bustling construction site in the distance, awaiting the results.

The drill bit sank inch by inch, emitting a dull roar that made my feet go numb.

The workers toiled under the scorching sun, their sweat dripping into the red soil and disappearing in the blink of an eye.

This land has been silent for countless years, and today, finally, someone will pry open a crack in it to see what's hidden inside.

Lin Che's expression was calm, but his eyes, fixed on the construction site, were more focused than anyone else's.

This drilling expedition wasn't just testing one piece of land.

It tests his judgment along the way, and whether he dares to bet the rest of his grand strategy on this land.

He Wei stayed by his side, still holding the same notebook in her hand.

"President Lin."

She asked in a low voice, "Are you so sure it's this area?"

"That's what it points to in the picture."

Lin Che's gaze never left the bustling construction site. "But the map is dead. Get me a straight answer."

"What if... the calculation on the map is wrong?"

He Wei was still a little worried.

Yesterday's mishap left a shadow in her heart.

"That means I misread one of the lines."

Lin Che was quite frank: "If we're going to make a mistake, it's better to make it now than to sign the contract, spend money, and then make a mistake."

He Wei nodded silently.

She suddenly understood why Lin Che was willing to go through the scrutiny of the authorities to make this trip himself.

There are some things he absolutely refuses to write down unless he sees them in front of him.

The waiting time wasn't long.

When the data for the first point came out, Engineer Zhou's expression changed.

He almost jogged to deliver the record board to Lin Che.

"Mr. Lin, please take a look at this."

His voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement: "The grade at this point is the highest in the entire mining area."

"The enrichment level is even higher than the best points yesterday."

Lin Che took the record board, glanced at the string of numbers, and nodded slightly without saying anything.

His face was expressionless, but Engineer Zhou could tell that the boss had anticipated this outcome.

The doubts that had arisen in Engineer Zhou's mind because of yesterday's deviation faded a bit.

Without thinking twice, he turned around and ran back to the drilling rig.

The second point.

The third point.

The data kept coming back.

With each name Zhou reported, his voice rose one notch.

This time, the answer Lin Che wanted was clearly given from underground.

Yesterday, measurements were taken throughout the entire mining area, and the data was slightly lower in some places and slightly off in others, leaving everyone uncertain about the outcome.

But beneath this gentle slope, each point is richer and thicker than the last.

Compared to the surrounding area, this is undoubtedly the core, the most lucrative part of the entire mining area.

Yesterday's nerve-wracking deviations, viewed in this context, become mere background noise.

They veered off course, but ultimately didn't stray from the core area Lin Che had identified.

What he wanted was never a precise number, but rather the accurate location of the land.

Now, the earth gave him an answer that couldn't be clearer.

I've made up my mind.

The weight that had been hanging over Lin Che's heart finally lifted.

What was presented on the map gave him a real answer from underground.

This is the land.

He accurately extracted the most lucrative piece of meat from a pile of true and false clues in this mining area.

The village rumors, the old stories of capital withdrawal, the signs of supervision, the underground mines—these seemingly unrelated things all point to the same place in the end.

And that place was right beneath his feet.

It wasn't a guess, it wasn't a fluke, it was the result of painstaking effort.

"That's right."

Lin Che returned the record board to Engineer Zhou in a calm tone.

"The core is right here; the next exploration and mining plan will revolve around this area."

Engineer Zhou nodded emphatically, his eyes filled with undisguised admiration.

He Wei, standing to the side, also quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

The anxiety I've been carrying these past few days can finally be put to rest at this moment.

With the core area locked down, the path ahead suddenly became much clearer.

During his time in Africa, he felt like he was groping in a fog, encountering obstacles at every office, struggling to distinguish between true and false information, and even having a pair of eyes watching him.

Only after the drill was driven in did the fog begin to dissipate.

The land beneath my feet is real.

His judgment, based on bets, was correct.

Looking at the land beneath his feet, Lin Che felt a rare sense of peace.

He patted the red dirt off his clothes and was about to get up and return to his post.

But just as he lifted his foot, a sentence suddenly flashed through his mind.

It was what Mvanji said when we first arrived here.

The local tour guide once casually mentioned something while pointing to a mountain ridge not far away.

He said that someone seemed to have come from that area a while ago.

He set up scaffolding, fiddled with some metal tools, and left after a few days.

He didn't pay attention at the time, thinking it was just idle gossip from a cowherd.

At that time, he hadn't yet locked onto this core area, and he forgot about that sentence after hearing it.

But things are different now.

The treasure he painstakingly sifted out from a pile of clues turned out to be not far from that mountain ridge.

Lin Che slowly straightened up.

He had no idea who the people who came were, what they came for, how many days they stayed, or why they left.

In the past, this would have been just a trivial rumor.

But when he landed next to the land he had just identified as the core, that sense of certainty and security quietly cracked.

His gaze, involuntarily, drifted back into the depths of that wilderness.

It was cast toward the gray, hazy mountain ridge in the afternoon heat.