103: Chapter 103 The Empress's Dowry: Coordinates of a Resource Planet

A deathly silence filled the cockpit of the luan niao starship for a full ten minutes.

Until the ship landed smoothly on the lawn of Yunding Villa, Academician Chen Shuyin remained frozen, holding her phone with her mouth slightly agape.

"Fifty billion... tons?"

She muttered to herself, her voice sounding as if it were drifting in from outer space. "Jiang Chen, pinch me. Am I dreaming? Or was the G-force during takeoff too high, and it damaged my brain?"

Jiang Chen unbuckled his seatbelt, rolled his eyes at her in annoyance, and pinched the back of her hand hard.

"Hiss—! That hurts!"

Academician Chen Shuyin cried out in pain, tears welling up in her eyes, but immediately, her gaze became brighter than a laser. "It hurts, that's good! If it hurts, it means it's real! Quick! Back to the study! I need to see the detailed data!"

...

Inside the study, the curtains were drawn tight.

The holographic projection equipment was running at full power, projecting the data of the mysterious planet named "S-778" into the air without reservation.

"Bzzzt—"

With a flicker of light and shadow, Jiang Wanqiu's figure appeared once again.

This time, she seemed a bit embarrassed.

She twisted the hem of her shimmering, iridescent dress with both hands, and in those red eyes, usually so decisive and ruthless, there was a rare hint of a young girl's shyness and nervousness.

It was just like a newlywed bride bringing out her life savings, fearing her husband might find it insufficient.

"Um... Father God."

Jiang Wanqiu lowered her head, drawing circles with her toe in the void, her voice impossibly soft and sweet:

"This is the... dowry that Jiang Wanqiu has prepared for you."

"Although it's just a dead star that nobody wants, and the location is a bit remote, on the outer edge of the Centaurus spiral arm. But Zero said that the things on it should be... barely usable for you right now?"

Barely usable? Usable?

Jiang Chen stared at the holographic model of the planet floating in the center of the study.

It was a grayish-brown planet, its surface covered in massive impact craters and winding canyons. At first glance, it really did look like a desolate mass grave.

But when Academician Chen Shuyin, with trembling hands, clicked on the "Resource Distribution Layer."

The entire room was instantly flooded with a dazzling gold and an eerie, ghostly blue light.

"Is this... a shallow crustal scan?"

Academician Chen Shuyin pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose, her entire body almost pressed against the projection, her breathing as ragged as a bellows:

"High-purity solid gold... 15% coverage?"

"That means, inside the planet's crust, there is an entire gold vein? No, this isn't just a vein, this is literally a gold-plated planet!"

She turned her head sharply to look at Jiang Chen, her eyes full of "this isn't scientific":

"Jiang Chen! Do you know what the proven gold reserves on Earth are? Less than two hundred thousand tons!"

"And on this planet... there are fifty billion tons!"

"Fifty billion tons! If we shipped it all back, gold would only be good for paving roads! It'd be too soft even for bricks!"

Although Jiang Chen had been mentally prepared, hearing the specific comparative figure still made his teeth ache.

He remembered the two hundred tons of gold he had flaunted in his live stream earlier.

At the time, he thought he was pretty awesome, quite the humble-bragger.

Now it seemed... that was just a joke!

Flaunting his wealth in front of Jiang Wanqiu was like a beggar showing off leftovers to the Dragon King!

"Ahem, gold and such are just worldly possessions."

Jiang Chen forced himself to maintain his "Father God" dignity and waved his hand. "Wanqiu, there is indeed a bit too much gold, but that's fine. We can ship it over later to tile my floors, or maybe use it to wrap the Great Wall."

On the other side of the screen, Jiang Wanqiu's eyes lit up, and she nodded vigorously:

"As long as Father God likes it! I knew you wouldn't care for such petty yellow and white things, but this stuff has decent conductivity, so it wouldn't be bad to use as wires for you!"

Academician Chen Shuyin clutched her chest, feeling her angina acting up.

Using gold as wires? Is this the extravagance of a God-level Civilization?

"Wait! It's not over yet!"

Academician Chen Shuyin's gaze suddenly locked onto the ghostly blue ocean on the planet's surface.

That wasn't water. It was a substance that remained liquid at extremely low temperatures and emitted a faint fluorescence.

"This... this spectral analysis is..."

Academician Chen Shuyin's fingers tapped rapidly on the virtual keyboard, pulling up the material composition table.

The next second. "Clang."

She plopped down onto the carpet, completely losing the ability to speak.

On that composition table, there was a chemical formula that would make global energy giants collectively hang themselves:

**[He-3 (Helium-3)]**

**[Purity: 99.99%]**

**[Reserves: Approximately 80 million cubic kilometers (liquid ocean)]**

"Helium-3..."

Academician Chen Shuyin's voice was trembling; it was fear, and also ecstasy. "This is... the perfect fuel for Controlled Nuclear Fusion!"

"It's extremely scarce on Earth; there's only a tiny bit on the lunar surface, and you have to struggle to dig it out of the dirt! One ton is worth billions of dollars!"

"And here... there is an entire ocean of it?!"

"Crazy... this world has gone crazy..."

She grabbed her hair, staring blankly at Jiang Chen:

"Jiang Chen, do you know what this means?"

"As long as you can ship back even one ten-thousandth... no, one one-hundred-millionth of the Helium-3 on this planet!"

"Earth's energy crisis would be completely over!"

"Oil, coal, all of it can be swept into the dustbin of history! Humanity will enter the era of infinite energy directly!"

Jiang Chen stood there, looking at that ghostly blue ocean.

His throat felt a bit dry.

The reason he was in such a rush to build an "artificial sun" before was because he lacked energy.

And now. Jiang Wanqiu had directly gifted him a "gas station."

And it was a super gas station where one fill-up could last ten thousand years!

"Wanqiu."

Jiang Chen took a deep breath and turned to look at the girl in the holographic projection, who was still looking nervous, fearing the gift wasn't heavy enough.

His expression was incredibly complex.

There was emotion, shock, and a deep sense of... the shame of being a kept man.

"This gift... is too heavy."

Jiang Chen's voice was hoarse. "How is this a dowry? You've gifted me half the GDP of the Milky Way Galaxy."

"Is it heavy?"

Jiang Wanqiu tilted her head, looking innocent and naive:

"But Zero said this is just standard equipment for a 'God'."

"He said that since Father God wants to build a sun in that world, you must be very short on fuel. This little bit of Helium-3 is only enough for you to burn for a few thousand years; it doesn't count as much of a gift."

She rubbed the corner of her dress in embarrassment:

"Actually... I originally wanted to catch a neutron star for you to use as a desk lamp."

"But that thing has too much gravity. I thought about it and was afraid it would suck your house in, so I gave up."

"..."

Jiang Chen and Academician Chen Shuyin exchanged a look, both seeing the words "I am trash" in each other's eyes.

A neutron star as a desk lamp? Listen! Is that even human language?!

"Alright, stop talking."

Jiang Chen raised his hand to stop Jiang Wanqiu from humble-bragging further. "I accept this dowry."

"But..."

He looked at those distant coordinates, then at his study, which was spacious enough but now seemed incredibly cramped, and sighed helplessly:

"This thing is too far away. 4.2 light-years."

"I haven't even made it to the moon yet; how am I supposed to receive your dowry?"

This was the most awkward part.

Clearly, there was a mountain of gold right in front of him, but because he had no travel money or tickets, he could only drool while looking at it.

This feeling was worse than being broke!

Jiang Wanqiu seemed to have thought of this long ago.

She smiled mysteriously and opened a new data package:

"Don't worry, Father God! Since I have given you a dowry, how could I not provide free shipping?"

"In those ruins, we also found a complete set of blueprints for a 'star gate'!"

"Although our current technology can't build a large one, building a small, 'one-way receiving terminal' capable of transporting supplies is no problem!"

"As long as you can provide enough startup energy on your end..."

"I can continuously 'shoot' the resources from this planet over to you!"

"Startup energy?"

Jiang Chen keenly caught the keyword.

"Yes, it requires a one-time injection of... about 1 billion energy points."

Jiang Wanqiu gestured with her fingers, feeling a bit guilty. "After all, it's material transport across light-years; the shipping fee... is a little expensive."

1 billion points. Another 1 billion points.

1 billion to pick someone up, 1 billion to ship goods.

Jiang Chen looked at his balance, which had just skyrocketed due to his "Nobel Prize marketing," but was still far short of 1 billion, and suddenly felt a wave of frustration.

He was now like a beggar guarding a gold mine.

Holding a shovel in his hand, but lacking the strength to even dig the first scoop.

"Money..."

Jiang Chen sighed at the sky, filled with grief and indignation:

"I thought I was rich enough."

"Yet in front of this dowry of yours, my meager assets aren't even enough for a down payment?!"

Academician Chen Shuyin added a cutting remark from the side:

"Stop howling."

"This dowry is too hardcore; our Earth's bride price really can't be brought out."

"How about..."

She pushed up her glasses and looked Jiang Chen up and down, her eyes filled with a hint of teasing:

"Just give in."

"Since you can't afford the bride price, you'll just have to... pay with your body."

"Giving yourself to her, that's a deal you won't lose on."