"Why isn't it true? Just ask your friends in the border trade business. Actually, Chinese people are quite honest and kind..."
Of all the countries Hu Rong has lived in, this is probably the day he's sighed the most. Talking about these things, his feelings are quite complicated. After all, one country is his root, while the other is the place that gave him birth and raised him. He can't really say which side he's on.
"kind?"
Zhuang Rui was confused by Hu Rong's words. Earning other people's money and using other people's things, how could that be related to the word "honesty"?
After Hu Rong's explanation, Zhuang Rui finally understood that China's trade practices were indeed quite fair.
Because China has ultimately left behind some tangible things in Myanmar, these things will help Myanmar and China gradually achieve economic integration. Perhaps in a few years, Myanmar will be able to board the big ship of China and gain some substantial benefits.
Compared to the trade practices between China and Myanmar, the United States' methods of controlling Latin America are far more egregious. It has brought a resource-rich country like Brazil to the brink of collapse, not only taking away its resources for nothing but also leaving Brazilians with a mountain of debt.
From Hu Rong, Zhuang Rui heard something that seemed like a fantasy: Brazil was once forced to use more than 50 percent of its national tax revenue to repay the interest on loans from the United States... well, just enough to cover the interest.
Compared to the US, China is indeed quite generous. Zhuang Rui also understood; it turns out the US always wants to be the international policeman, fighting wars in the east and sending troops to the west—there are benefits to be gained from this.
The Burmese military junta can only turn to these domestic resource companies for now. They control domestic resources very tightly because it is related to whether the government will have food to eat.
Zhuang Rui couldn't believe that a country's government had fallen to such a state.
This jade mine has been in operation for nearly three months, and Hu Rong has indeed been having trouble eating and sleeping lately. So far, the amount of jadeite contained in the rough stones that have been dug out is quite small. Although it cannot be ruled out that the vein has not been found, it is also very likely that it is an abandoned mine.
In recent years, Hu Rong has established jewelry companies in Southeast Asia, China, and Taiwan, investing substantial sums. However, due to the short operating history of these companies, they have not yet started generating profits. After spending this $80 million, he has found himself facing financial difficulties.
The Hu family's ability to maintain a foothold in Myanmar requires money; aside from other factors, the annual expenses of the Chinatown alone amount to an astronomical figure.
"These are things we can't worry about. I just need to ensure that the Hu family can stand firm in Myanmar..."
Hu Rong concluded by saying that his idea was simple: as long as his family members could live well, he didn't care about the raging storm outside.
If the mine is indeed a dead mine, Hu Rong is prepared to make a tough decision and hand it back to the Myanmar government. He will consider his previous investment a loss, which is better than continuing to pour money into it like a bottomless pit.
Zhuang Rui nodded and said, "Brother Hu, if all else fails, go to Hong Kong, or come to the mainland. I can still help out..."
"Let's talk about that later. There's still a way to deal with it right now..."
With Hu's wealth, investing in immigration would be incredibly easy for him. However, they have been rooted in Myanmar for over a century and have many followers, making it impossible for them to simply leave.
Seeing that while the two were talking, people kept coming in to ask Hu Rong for instructions, Zhuang Rui said, "Brother Hu, I'll go take a look around by myself. You go ahead and do your work..."
“Okay. His name is Zhu Fanpo, he's Thai, speaks excellent Mandarin, and is very knowledgeable about identifying rough stones. Let him show you around…”
Hu Rong was indeed very busy. He beckoned over a man who appeared to be a foreman and was fairly fair-skinned, and introduced him to Zhuang Rui.
"In Thailand, they call someone a 'cook'?"
Zhuang Rui was stunned. There was someone with that name?
"Wow, this boss is really funny, he even knows my nickname..."
The man named Zhu Fanpo gave Zhuang Rui a very "charming" smile, which made Zhuang Rui's hair stand on end, his hair almost stand up, his skin break out in goosebumps, and his forehead instantly covered with beads of sweat. Was this a man or a woman?
"This is my cousin. Forget your act, take him for a walk. Yeah, bro, he had hormone injections when he was a kid. You know what I mean..."
Hu Rong smiled awkwardly at Zhuang Rui. Although this man was Thai and a bit effeminate, he was very loyal to him and had excellent judgment. He had been with him for five or six years and was now a manager with about a hundred people under him.
"Brother Hu, no... you don't need to accompany me. Peng Fei and I will wander around by ourselves..."
Zhuang Rui met the "man" named Zhu Fanpo?
The person was looking at them with a resentful expression. They quickly tugged at Peng Fei's sleeve. Although Peng Fei was ruthless, he was also struggling to cope at this moment, and the two of them fled in panic.
"Damn it, how can there really be people like that?"
Zhuang Rui only stopped when the "cook" disappeared from his sight. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with lingering fear. The thought of how "charming" the man could smile made Zhuang Rui shudder again.
"In Thailand, many boys are raised as girls from birth and given hormone injections. However, many families eventually run out of money to continue the injections, resulting in many boys becoming neither male nor female..."
Peng Fei had previously frequented the border areas between China, Myanmar, and Thailand, so he knew a little about these things. However, this was the first time he had ever seen it. Any man who didn't have homosexual tendencies would avoid this kind of thing.
Zhuang Rui shook his head and secretly vowed in his heart that he would never go to Thailand again.
Once his heartbeat had calmed down, Zhuang Rui began to examine the mined rough stones more closely. He was following a group of people who were in turn following the excavator, using iron bars or their eyes to identify whether the stones shoveled out by the excavator were jadeite rough stones.
Their method of identification was simple: they would poke the surface with an iron rod, look at the marks left, and listen to the sound. Perhaps this mine really was an abandoned mine. Zhuang Rui followed behind them for more than half an hour and saw with the spiritual energy in his eyes that not a single piece of jadeite rough appeared.
These people are quite skilled; at least in the past half hour, they haven't put a single stone on the cart, which must have been determined by their unique method.
After watching for a while, Zhuang Rui got bored and went around to another direction, turning his back to Peng Fei and looking down at the ground.
Zhuang Rui's eyes had been inexplicably enhanced in Mandela's temple, and he could now see through objects nearly thirty meters away. He wanted to help Hu Rong by checking if there were any jade veins within this thirty-meter-deep underground area.
After looking at several places, Zhuang Rui shook his head and left. The rock layers here were basically all pyroxene, so there should be mineral veins. However, apart from finding a few scattered pieces of jade, Zhuang Rui did not see any relatively concentrated jade veins.
Although the hill was not small, after wandering around for more than an hour, Zhuang Rui had basically looked through all the underground areas that were being mined, but there were no tempting mineral veins to be found.
To outsiders, Zhuang Rui was just picking up stones and looking at them; not many people paid him any attention. Around six o'clock in the afternoon, Hu Rong called Zhu Fanpo to call Zhuang Rui so they could go down the mountain.
Looking at the "cook" woman's swaying waist as she walked, Zhuang Rui couldn't help but feel a chill. He followed her from a distance until they reached the railcar.
Professors Feng and Chen had already gotten out of the car, while Hu Rong looked rather unwell and was waiting for Zhuang Rui.
"What's wrong, Brother Hu? Don't the two professors think it's a good idea?"
Zhuang Rui stepped forward and asked.
"We'll stay one night and observe for a few more days. However, Professor Feng said that when these pyroxenes were formed under low temperature and high pressure, the pressure might not have been high enough, causing the growth environment of the jadeite to change. If we can't find a vein 20 meters down, it'll basically be a waste mine..."
This news certainly didn't make Hu Rong happy. He had invested a total of $80 million, and without the mineral vein, all that money would be wasted.
Zhuang Rui had nothing to say to comfort Hu Rong, so he turned around and boarded the railcar with Peng Fei and Hu Rong. The railcar slowly drove down the mountain, and the round trip took almost an hour.
It was getting dark, and there wasn't much scenery to see, so Zhuang Rui listlessly turned his gaze to the mountain wall above.
Chapter 494 Investment (Part 1)
Winter in Myanmar is the dry season. It often doesn't rain for months. At this time of year, as the sun sets, fiery red clouds appear on the horizon, making half the sky seem as if it has been set ablaze—a truly beautiful sight.
Standing on the track car, Zhuang Rui noticed that Peng Fei and Hu Rong beside him were bathed in a golden light, and even the rocks in front of him were a deep red. The lush forest in the distance was also draped in a golden coat.
The fiery sunset didn't last long, disappearing after a few minutes. The tram was still heading downhill, and it would take about 20 minutes to reach the foot of the mountain.
Because of the mineral vein, Hu Rong was in a bad mood. Zhuang Rui and Peng Fei remained silent, with only the sound of the mountain wind in their ears.
Out of boredom, Zhuang Rui looked at the four balanced railway tracks. The tracks were about four meters wide, and with the cleared area around them, the total width was more than six meters. The total length of the slope should be close to one kilometer.
The trees along the way had all been cut down, and small stones were laid under the rails. The fact that such a track could be carved out on such a steep mountain shows how much Hu Rong had invested in the early stages.
Could there be jade inside this mountain?
A thought suddenly popped into Zhuang Rui's mind: when he was on the mountaintop, he didn't seem to have observed the area around the railcar, so maybe it really was here.
Thinking of this, Zhuang Rui focused his mind slightly and looked at the dark rocks that appeared even as night fell.
"One meter...five meters...fifteen meters...twenty meters..."
Zhuang Rui shook his head and looked down to a depth of nearly 20 meters. Inside the rocks he could see, although they were all pyroxene, there were no large chunks of jade. Occasionally, a few flashes of green would appear in Zhuang Rui's eyes, but the color was very faint, and they were just scattered pieces of jade.
Undeterred, Zhuang Rui peered another ten meters into the distance, the maximum distance his spiritual energy could currently reach. However, there was still no sign of the jade vein. Slightly disappointed, Zhuang Rui shifted his gaze downwards and prepared to withdraw his spiritual energy.
"No way?"
Just as Zhuang Rui's gaze shifted downwards, a chilling aura was suddenly sensed by his spiritual energy. This spiritual energy was exceptionally pure; Zhuang Rui had only ever sensed it within icy jadeite before.
“Fei…Peng Fei…”
Zhuang Rui almost blurted it out, but luckily he reacted quickly and called out Peng Fei's name.
"Brother Zhuang, what's up?"
Peng Fei, who was standing next to him, thought that something had happened to Zhuang Rui.
"It's alright, we'll get some sleep tonight, and tomorrow we won't go up the mountain. Instead, we'll go hunting in the forest..."
Zhuang Rui didn't have any good excuses, so he simply brought it up. Although he had some reservations at first, he thought that it would be a shame not to go after all that golden gold.
However, as Zhuang Rui spoke, his eyes remained fixed on the opposite rock wall. Fortunately, it had already gotten dark, and the people around him did not notice that his expression was somewhat off.
If it were daytime, Peng Fei and Hu Rong would have seen that the muscles in Zhuang Rui's face were twitching slightly, and the veins on the back of his hands, gripping the railcar handrails, were bulging from the force. It was clear that he was extremely nervous.
“Brother, if you don’t want to go mining tomorrow, I’ll have Zhu Fanpo accompany you for a walk in the mountains. He’s very familiar with the area. But don’t go too far. Although the Savage Mountain is full of treasures, it’s also fraught with danger…”
Hu Rong won't be able to go hunting with Zhuang Rui tomorrow. He'll be accompanying the two professors to continue exploring the mine, as this will affect his future decisions.
"Okay, okay, we won't go far..."
Zhuang Rui answered absentmindedly. Peng Fei, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but nudge him with his elbow. He didn't know why Zhuang Rui had agreed to Hu Rong's suggestion to go into the mountains with that effeminate man. Peng Fei was also a little overwhelmed by that guy.
"Hmm, what is it?"
Zhuang Rui turned his head to look at Peng Fei; he hadn't actually heard what Hu Rong had said.
"Brother Hu said he'd have that 'cook' come with us to the Savage Mountain to hunt..."
"What?"
Zhuang Rui felt uneasy upon hearing the name and quickly said, "Brother Hu, just give us two guns, and we can just wander around the edge. We don't need that guy to accompany us, right?"
"That won't do. Looking at the two of you like this, you might get lost after walking only a few hundred meters into the mountains. I'm worried about leaving you alone..."
Hu Rong flatly refused Zhuang Rui's offer. Although Zhuang Rui was tall and imposing, he wasn't familiar with the jungles of Myanmar. As for Peng Fei, he had a pretty face and was probably from a wealthy family. If something happened to him in the Savage Mountain, Hu Rong wouldn't be able to explain it to Qin Haoran.
"Well... let's talk about it tomorrow..."
Zhuang Rui's unusual lack of persistence puzzled Peng Fei, who was standing beside him.
Little did Peng Fei know that Zhuang Rui's mind was completely focused on this mountain.
At the same time Zhuang Rui sensed the spiritual energy, he also saw the scene inside the rock wall. It was a sight that Zhuang Rui could hardly describe in words. As far as the eye could see, it was all green, like being in a vast grassland in spring. Apart from green, there was nothing else to see.
Clumps of jadeite encased within the stone skin emitted a captivating fluorescence in Zhuang Rui's eyes. At first, Zhuang Rui even doubted whether the previous fiery clouds had caused him to have an illusion, but as the railcar moved, the jadeite veins clearly appeared before his eyes.
This vein of minerals is about 26 or 27 meters deep into the rock, and about 200 meters from the mountaintop, where Zhuang Rui's current railcar is.
The length of the jade vein, so far, has extended more than sixty meters from where Zhuang Rui first saw it. He couldn't predict the width, but it was at least four meters, because there was still jade at the edge of the distance that his spiritual energy could reach.
Because the railcar was constantly moving, Zhuang Rui couldn't stop to observe the quality of the jadeite in detail. However, the cool aura he sensed indicated that the jadeite from this vein was likely of a decent grade. Furthermore, the pieces of jadeite he could see were all of bean-green type or higher, indicating they were mid-range jadeite raw materials.
That's it?
After the railcar traveled about 100 meters further downhill, the mineral vein in Zhuang Rui's eyes suddenly disappeared.
"A jade vein that's 160 or 170 meters long, oh my god..."