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

After the Western representative left, he went to report to headquarters. The final outcome of this negotiation was no longer in doubt.

Three days later, the signing ceremony was held as scheduled.

It was the same conference room, but the atmosphere was completely different from what it had been a dozen days ago. A new agreement was on the table, and representatives from various parties sat on either side, the air thick with a solemn sense of relief that everything had finally settled.

The ownership of that marginal area in the northern section is no longer important. The core of this agreement is only one clause: the gentle slope in the middle section, along with the real rich core zone beneath it, all belong to Weiguang.

The chief representative of the Western company also arrived.

He was there to sign the supplementary document regarding the division of ownership of the northern section. The core area, which he had once been determined to possess and would not yield an inch of, was now reduced to a scrap piece. His face was expressionless; he simply wrote his name in the proper place, as if it were a business matter.

The pen in his hand felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

He wasn't signing a document; he was signing a rare and utter defeat in his career. A man who had been in the business for nearly thirty years, confident that he had never failed in judging the value of mineral deposits, was now signing to admit that he had treated a gold mine as a wasteland. With that stroke of the pen, he was revisiting the judgment he had been so proud of for half his life.

It was Lin Che's turn.

He picked up a pen.

In the conference room, everyone's eyes were fixed on the pen in his hand. He Wei held her breath, Shen Nan remained calm, and even the local official unconsciously sat up straight.

Lin Che carefully signed his name in the position of Party A in the agreement.

The sound of a pen gliding across paper was exceptionally clear in the quiet meeting room. It wasn't just the sound of a signature; it was the sound of a judgment, a high-stakes gamble, the final move in a game of chess.

The red stamp was then applied, and the bright red ink fell onto the white paper, as if putting an unalterable period to this long game.

This stroke of the pen signifies that all the planning, all the forbearance, all the apparent concessions and passivity since setting foot on this land have finally come to an end.

The core area has been renamed Weiguang.

That gentle slope in the middle section, which everyone had once deemed useless and which the other party had generously given up, that piece of land that truly held a gold mine, officially became Weiguang's possession from this moment on.

He Wei stood to the side, looking at the signed name, and let out a long sigh of relief. The weight that had been pressing on her heart these past few days had finally been lifted. She was even a little dazed; those sleepless nights filled with anxiety, that seemingly dangerous siege, now seemed like stepping stones to this moment.

Shen Nan closed the folder in his hand and nodded to Lin Che.

The worn-out briefcase stood quietly at his feet. The set of items it had brought had successfully completed its mission.

The local official was present to witness the event. He was more solemn than ever when he signed and stamped the document.

"Mr. Lin, congratulations." He extended his hand. "I'm at ease handing this land over to you."

From initial cautious observation to genuine congratulations, his transformation was something he himself didn't realize began at. Perhaps it started the moment the report's conclusion was read aloud. A partner who could see things correctly where everyone else was wrong, and who took every step with integrity, had no reason not to inspire confidence.

He even proactively stated that he would oversee the approval process and complete it as quickly as possible.

The identity hurdle that had previously stood in the way of Weiguang and almost dragged the business down was no longer a problem for this official.

Lin Che smiled, shook hands with him, and thanked him.

At that moment, he felt at ease.

Since the day he joined the company, he has tackled countless tough challenges. But this mine, thousands of miles away, which had teetered on the brink of collapse several times, was undoubtedly the toughest of them all. Now, it has fallen safely into the pocket of Weiguang, along with the sleeping gold mine beneath it.

This sense of groundedness comes from hard work and dedication.

Everything has settled down.

The funds had already traveled exactly as Shen Nan had planned, flowing cleanly from overseas reserve accounts, through a bridging entity in Mauritius, and into the project company in Kenya. The additional funds didn't touch any of the marked accounts in China; every transaction was traceable and could withstand scrutiny. Those roundabout routes taken initially to evade detection now seemed to have been the right ones.

Mining rights secured, funding secured.

This battle, fought from China to Africa, was won brilliantly and cleanly, leaving the opponents speechless with a single doubt.

After the signing ceremony, everyone stood up one after another. The chief representative walked up to Lin Che and extended his hand politely.

"Mr. Lin, you are a worthy opponent." His handshake was measured, but deep in his eyes lay a hint of resentment and an indescribable scrutiny. "Until we meet again."

Until next time.

He spoke those four words with profound meaning.

After saying that, he turned and left.

Lin Che watched his retreating figure without giving it much thought. In his view, it was merely a loser's dignified farewell. The win or loss in business had come to an end. He couldn't have imagined that the other man's "see you later" wasn't just polite talk, but a premonition.

The person who walked out, upon returning to his headquarters, will report today's defeat, along with all his apprehension towards Lin Che, in detail. And in that place unseen by Lin Che, a massive machine will, because of this defeat, begin to slowly shift its focus, aiming its spearhead at the fading light.

At this moment, Lin Che was completely unaware of all of this.

He put away the pen he had used to sign the contract, and the weight that had been hanging over his heart for so long finally settled down.

In that moment of peace, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

It was an encrypted message, sent from a secret line he used within China.

Lin Che clicked on it.

The message was short, only two lines long. It concerned the other side of the ocean, a list that had long existed but was now being brought up again because of this mine.

Behind that list lies a complex web that he still hasn't fully grasped. And today's resounding victory has precisely alerted those behind that web.

Something was quietly taking shape in that place he couldn't see, towards the direction of the faint light.

He stared at the two lines of text, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly, for a long time.

He won this mine. He won fair and square, flawlessly. But it was precisely this overwhelmingly beautiful victory that, like a beam of light, illuminated the glimmer of light and made those eyes hidden in the shadows truly notice its significance for the first time.

The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. He understood this principle better than anyone.

The more impressive the victory, the more dangerous the attention it attracts.

The sense of security I felt just now was gradually mixed with a touch of coolness.