12: Chapter 12 Extending a Helping Hand

The next day was Saturday, and Li Xin woke up early.

He first went to the bank and transferred a portion of the 500,000 USD from his Switzerland account to his domestic account.

The process was smoother than he had imagined. The service at the Switzerland bank was excellent; one phone call settled it. The money was first transferred to his offshore account in Hong Kong, then transferred back to his domestic account in batches.

About one million RMB arrived in his account that day. Adding the hundred thousand or so already in his card, he now had over 1.1 million in his domestic account. He then made a trip to the second-hand market and bought a laptop and some office supplies.

Returning to school, he found a corner in a cafe near the school, sat down, opened his computer, and began researching.

He needed to figure out a few things:

First, the market trends and trading rules of the domestic gold market.

Second, the specific locations and reserves of major gold mines globally.

Third, where those legendary treasures actually were.

In his previous life, when he worked on construction sites, his only pastime was reading articles on his phone. He had read those articles about treasures, gold mines, and adventures countless times and remembered many details, but now he needed to confirm the accuracy of this information.

He spent several hours searching online and organized the key information into a document. He noted down the reserves, locations, and mining status of the world's top ten gold mines.

As for those legendary treasures, he also marked their approximate locations based on his memory and online information. Then, he opened the system panel and checked his detection range.

55 meters—too short.

To find those gold mines and treasures buried deep underground, he needed a detection range of at least several kilometers, or even tens of kilometers.

This meant he needed a large amount of gold to upgrade the Gold Search and Refining System 2.0. He needed to get his hands on more gold as soon as possible.

Just as he was thinking about this, his phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number.

"Hello?"

"Is this Li Xin? I'm Luo Maifa's father." The voice on the other end was a middle-aged man's, carrying a heavy Hunan accent.

"Hello, Uncle Luo."

"Maifa told me about you. He said you want to invest in our logistics company?"

"Yes. Uncle Luo, if it's convenient for you, could we meet?"

"Convenient, very convenient. Where are you? I'll come find you."

"I'm near the school. You name a place, and I'll come to you."

"No need, no need. You just wait; I'll be there in twenty minutes."

After hanging up, Li Xin packed up his computer, walked out of the cafe, and waited at the school gate.

Twenty minutes later, an old black Volkswagen pulled up in front of him. The window rolled down, revealing a face that was six or seven parts similar to Luo Maifa's, but thinner, with deeper wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.

"You must be Li Xin?"

"Hello, Uncle Luo."

"Get in the car; let's find a place to sit."

Li Xin opened the car door and got in. The car smelled like a mixture of cigarette smoke and leather.

Uncle Luo drove to a nearby tea restaurant, and the two found a booth to sit in.

"What do you want to eat? Order whatever you like." Uncle Luo pushed the menu over.

"I'm fine with anything, Uncle Luo, you order." Li Xin replied with a smile.

Uncle Luo ordered two set meals, then leaned back against the chair and looked him over.

"Maifa said you made money in Dubai? What kind of business do you do?"

"Some small trades, not very stable." Li Xin didn't want to dwell on this topic. "Uncle Luo, tell me about your company."

Uncle Luo sighed, took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, pulled one out, looked at Li Xin, and then put it back.

"Forget it, I won't smoke. Let's talk about business first."

He briefly introduced his company—Xinfa Logistics. It owned three trucks and mainly ran routes from Shenzhen to surrounding cities. It was fine for the first two years, earning three to five hundred thousand a year. But in the last two years, competition had become too fierce; gas prices rose, freight rates didn't, and profits were getting thinner and thinner.

"Maifa might have mentioned it to you—we lost a few tens of thousands last month, but actually, it was a loss of 120,000." Uncle Luo smiled bitterly. "If it keeps going like this, I'll have to close down."

"Have you thought about expanding?"

"I have. But I don't have the money. Buying a few new trucks costs hundreds of thousands, plus hiring drivers, renting a site... When you add it all up, you can't move without one or two million."

"If I can invest 500,000, how much can you raise?"

Uncle Luo looked at him, his gaze becoming serious.

"Can you really invest 500,000?"

"Yes." Li Xin said firmly.

"You're just a student, where would you..." Uncle Luo's expression was slightly doubtful, and he continued to press.

"Uncle Luo," Li Xin interrupted him, "Don't ask about the money. I won't do anything illegal. Just tell me, is 500,000 enough?"

Uncle Luo was silent for a moment. "500,000 isn't enough. But if we add my own savings and take out a small loan, we could probably scrape together 1.5 million. It's enough to buy five new trucks and rent a larger site."

"Then how much do you need me to invest?"

"If you're going to invest, invest one million. That would be for a 40% stake."

Li Xin thought about it. One million was not a small amount for him, but he could afford it. The key was whether this logistics company could make money.

In his previous life, he had seen too many businesspeople who were full of confidence when investing but lost everything when they went bust. But Uncle Luo was different. He had been in logistics for over a decade, knew the ropes, had many clients, and all he lacked was capital.

Furthermore, Li Xin wasn't investing this money just to make a profit. He was doing it for Luo Maifa. In his previous life, Luo Maifa had helped him during his hardest times. Now that he had the ability, he should give his brother a hand.

"One million for a 40% stake." Li Xin nodded. "But I have one condition."

"What condition?"

"Let Maifa participate in management. He is my brother, and I want him to get some experience."

Uncle Luo laughed. "That kid? What can he do?"

"Give him a chance to try. If it doesn't work out, we'll talk then."

Uncle Luo looked at him for a while and nodded. "Fine, I'll listen to you."

The two of them discussed the details of the cooperation over their meals. Although Li Xin had never done business before, the "Mastery of Disguise" the system gave him included a wealth of social and negotiation skills. Combined with the experience he had gained from struggling in society in his previous life, he didn't feel intimidated at all while talking to Uncle Luo.

Finally, they agreed to sign the contract next week. Li Xin would pay a deposit of 500,000 first, and pay the remaining 500,000 after the company registration changes were completed.

Walking out of the tea restaurant, Li Xin took a deep breath. His first investment was settled just like that.