138: 138. Are we being set up?

After the military personnel dragged away the miner's body, they left without looking back.

However, before James could even breathe a sigh of relief, chaotic shouts and sporadic gunshots rang out from the east and west directions.

"What's going on?" James was already a frightened bird, grabbing the local translator and pressing for answers.

The translator snapped out of his daze and exclaimed, "It must be the two tribes nearby! They've been feuding for generations. The previous miner was an official, which is why he could suppress them. Now that the King and the miner are both dead, they must be here to seize this mining point!"

"This is our tribe's land! Outsiders, get out!"

"Nonsense! The ore vein extends all the way to our tribe's territory! You're the ones who should get out!"

The two tribes cursed at each other, simultaneously turning their spears towards the Li Family team in the center of the field.

The bodyguards became alert, and as the three groups of people approached, pushing and arguing quickly escalated.

No one knew who fired the first shot.

"Bang!"

The chaotic armed conflict erupted instantly!

Bullets flew, and dirt and rocks splattered!

The bodyguards hired by the Li Family tried to protect their employers and engineers, but facing the numerically superior and bloodthirsty tribal armed forces, they were quickly suppressed.

The surveying equipment was snatched and destroyed. James couldn't bother to make a call, frantically fleeing for his life, but he couldn't run far in the dark before he was caught.

All members of the team and bodyguards were detained, becoming captives of both tribes.

Li Fang was very anxious when the call was cut off. Before long, it rang again. He quickly pressed the answer button, but a cold voice came from the other end: "If you want your people to come back alive, prepare five million in ransom per person! A total of thirteen people, sixty-five million! If even a single cent is missing, one body will be thrown into the mine!"

Li Fang slammed the satellite phone down, shattering it. His chest heaved continuously, and his face was ashen.

The sky had fallen!!

Not only did the long-coveted high-quality mining point instantly vanish, and the huge deposit was lost, but now he also faced an exorbitant ransom and potential casualties!

One must know that to secure this high-quality mining point, he had invested almost all of his liquid capital. Asking him to come up with sixty-five million now?! That was no different from asking for his life!

He no longer cared about the lives of those people, but... the study door was pushed open, and Li Wanrong entered the room, seeing her father slumped in a chair, his face ashen.

Upon hearing the situation, Li Wanrong's face changed dramatically. She felt a sudden darkness before her eyes and staggered, almost fainting!

The immense blow plunged the father and daughter, who had been so complacent not long ago, into a chasm of despair.

They still couldn't understand how all of this had happened.

"We... were played? Is this a conspiracy?" Li Fang murmured in disbelief.

It made no sense that everything was fine before, only for the situation to change once he was involved.

He didn't believe a country would set a trap just to ensnare him, so there was only one possibility... "Yu Tianxiong! It must be his doing!! How did he find us?!" Li Fang's face twisted like a malevolent ghost as he slammed his fist on the desk.

Li Wanrong also gritted her teeth and said, "Has Chu Man become a double agent?"

Suddenly, as if she thought of something, she cried out in terror, "Father! What do we do?! We paid a huge deposit! Almost all of the company's liquid capital was invested! With this problem..."

"Shut up!" Li Fang suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot, roaring like a cornered beast, "We cannot let the news leak! Immediately seal off all information about the investigation team! Announce to the outside that everything is normal!"

Li Wanrong shook her head dejectedly: "It's no use. Such a big incident in the Fei Country definitely can't be kept secret. Those people are even more informed than us."

Indeed, within just over ten minutes, the negative effects had already appeared.

Calls from banks demanding loan repayments began to ring, partners came knocking to question, and in the stock market, the Li Family's Tengfei Mining shares began to plummet without warning... "Father, the mining point must be saved, otherwise everything is over!"

"I know!"

Li Fang anxiously clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and said with sharp eyes, "You immediately transfer the deposit and part of the payment from the Julu Energy project for temporary emergency use, and grease the wheels with the Fei Country. As long as we stabilize the situation, we can find a way to make up for it!! Remember, don't let anyone find out!"

..."Mr. Lu! Latest news! The Li Family's mine over there has run into trouble. The warlords have turned on them, the situation has erupted, and they've lost everything! They are now completely bogged down in the mud! Your plan was too perfect!"

"Plan? What plan? Old Yu, we were just interested in the mining point and did a little research. They were greedy themselves and went to their deaths. What does that have to do with me?"

"That's also true, hahahaha..."

"Alright, let's cast the net a little wider now and scoop up those annoying small fish."

"Yes!"

...The news of the sudden unrest in the Fei Country had not yet reached China, so not many people knew about it.

However, in the circles of Jiangcheng, rumors were quietly spreading: the new laboratory at Jiangcheng University seemed to have produced something extraordinary.

Initially, it was just the students involved in the project who couldn't contain their excitement, revealing a word or two like "disruptive" or "world-changing."

Gradually, these snippets were caught by some keen-nosed industry insiders and venture capital institutions.

They began to inquire privately: "What about that Tingfeng Energy project... the one that Qin Tian, who was rejected by various institutions... how is it doing?"

However, no matter how much they inquired, the specific details of the technology remained tightly sealed. They only heard it was about batteries, which only added to the mystery.

As Yu Tianxiong's assistant, Chu Man had access to far more information than outsiders during this period.

She not only knew that the laboratory had made a major breakthrough but also personally witnessed the visit of Li Xu, the founder of Tianhua Technology, and the cooperation agreement.

As a commercial spy, her professional intuition told her that this was absolutely the core of the core!

She was ecstatic inside; as long as she got the core technical data, she could immediately make a clean getaway.

Just as she was racking her brains to find an opportunity, a heaven-sent opportunity suddenly appeared.

That afternoon, Yu Tianxiong seemed particularly busy. He handed a document bag to Chu Man and instructed her seriously:

"I have to meet an important client right away; there's no time. This contains several important documents and a USB drive. You must immediately deliver them to Professor Qin Tian at the laboratory. He urgently needs them for tomorrow's internal seminar. Remember, hand them directly to him personally, and don't delay!"

Yu Tianxiong's expression was serious and urgent, completely looking like he had no time to spare.

Chu Man was overjoyed but tried hard to maintain her composure: "Okay, President Yu, I'll send them right away!"