165: Chapter 165 Snowfield Forbidden Zone: A Life-or-Death Ordeal

When the train arrived at the station, it was already the afternoon of the next day.

The platform was small and built of wood, with peeling paint revealing the greyish-white wood underneath. There were few passengers, just a scattering of them, dragging their luggage as they walked out. Li Xin carried his backpack and was the last to get off.

The air was cold, bone-dry cold, feeling like a knife scraping against his nasal passages as he inhaled. His breath instantly turned into white mist, dissipating before his eyes. He pulled up his collar and walked along the platform toward the exit.

There was a small square at the station exit where a few passenger vans were parked. The drivers were bundled in cotton-padded coats, huddled inside their vehicles, honking their horns whenever they saw someone come out. Li Xin walked up to the van at the very end and knocked on the window.

"How much to the lakeside?"

The driver was a man in his fifties with a round face, a red nose, and an old leather hat. He looked Li Xin up and down.

"Two thousand rubles."

"Let's go."

Li Xin opened the car door and sat inside. The heater in the van was blasting, making it toasty and warm. The driver shifted gears, and the vehicle drove out of the square and onto the road.

On both sides of the road were birch forests, the leaves long gone, leaving only bare, greyish-white branches that looked like clusters of upright bones. The distant mountain ridges were covered in snow, emitting a white glow against the grey sky.

After driving for over an hour, the road reached its end. The driver parked the car in an open space and pointed ahead.

"Follow this road, and you'll reach the lakeside in half an hour. There's a village over there where you can stay."

Li Xin paid the fare and got out of the car.

The air was even colder than at the station. His feet crunched as he stepped on the snow. The road was narrow and covered in snow, with only a single track of tire ruts visible in the middle. The trees on both sides were covered in rime, fluffy and white; when the wind blew, fine ice crystals drifted down, sparkling in the sunlight.

After walking for half an hour, the lake appeared ahead.

It wasn't a gradual appearance; it was a sudden, expansive revelation. The forest ended, with snow underfoot, and at the end of the snow lay an endless expanse of ice. The ice surface was grey-blue, extending to the horizon and blending with the sky, making it impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. Sunlight hit the ice, reflecting with a glare that forced him to squint to see clearly.

Li Xin stood by the lake and watched for a few seconds.

Then, he walked north along the shore. The village was nestled in a bay, with a dozen or so wooden cabins scattered across the hillside. Some roofs were covered in snow, and some chimneys were puffing smoke. At the village entrance was a small pier with a few fishing boats frozen into the ice.

He found a cabin by the lake and knocked on the door.

The person who opened the door was an Old Lady, thin, with deep wrinkles on her face and wrapped in an old scarf.

"I'd like a room."

"One thousand five hundred a night. Dinner is extra."

Li Xin paid the money and followed her into the house. The room was not big, with a window facing the lake. The bedsheets were washed to a pale white, and the quilt was thick and felt warm to the touch. He put down his backpack, sat on the bed, and turned on his phone.

The information sent by Chen Hu was still there: the Sukhoy Log gold mine, a world-class, super-large gold mine with reserves exceeding 1,900 tons. The mining area was located north of Bodaybo city, Irkutsk Oblast, in the upper Lena River gold belt, about 120 kilometers from his current location.

It was under a three-tier joint military-civilian security alert; the Federal Security Service, mine security, and border defense forces jointly controlled it.

The controlled area had a ten-kilometer radius; he couldn't get in, nor did he need to. With a fifty-kilometer Scan radius, he could lock onto the ore body from ten kilometers away.

The problem was that the area around the mine was desolate, and a lone hiker suddenly appearing would be too conspicuous.

Li Xin thought for a moment and opened the map on his phone. About twelve kilometers to the southwest of the mine was a national park observation deck, open in winter, with hiking trails. Tourists could enter legally. The observation deck was about eleven kilometers in a straight line from the mine, well within the Scan range.

That was it.

Early the next morning, he went out.

He put on his thickest clothes and shouldered his camera bag. The camera was a Leica he had bought in Dubai; he hadn't used it much, so this time it would serve as a prop. He also stuffed water, dry rations, and a first-aid kit into the bag.

Leaving the village, he walked north along the lakeshore. The lake surface shimmered with blue light in the morning sun, and there were strings of bubbles frozen beneath the ice, looking like amber. In the distance, someone was drilling holes in the ice to fish, crouching there, motionless.

After walking for nearly two hours, he left the lake and entered the forest. The path began to incline, not steeply, but the snow was deep, sinking to his ankles with every step. The trees were covered in rime, and when the wind blew, ice crystals rattled down, falling into his collar and making him shiver from the cold.

After walking for about an hour, he arrived at the observation deck.

It was a wooden platform built on a ridge, not large, enough for a dozen people to stand. Prayer flags were tied to the railing, snapping loudly in the wind. Standing on the platform and looking north, he could see the direction of the Sukhoy Log mining area—continuous mountain ranges, grey and hazy, with no buildings visible. The mining area was blocked by the mountains.

Li Xin stood by the railing and raised his camera to take a few shots. Mountains, snow, trees, prayer flags.

After shooting, he crouched down, pretending to tie his shoelaces, with his hand pressed against the wooden planks.

"AI System, Scan. Sukhoy Log mining area."

[Scanning. Fifty-kilometer radius, covering the target area. It will take a few minutes.]

He crouched there, waiting. The wind blew from the north, cold as a knife. The white mist he exhaled was blown away by the wind.

A few minutes later, the AI System reported the results.

[Sukhoy Log mining area. The underground ore veins run north-south; the main ore body depth is 180 to 550 meters, with an extension length of about 4.8 kilometers and an average grade of 5.6 grams per ton. Total reserves are approximately 1,920 tons.]

"How much can be extracted?"

[The mining area is currently undeveloped and belongs to an owner. The host can extract 60%, which is 1,152 tons. The Extraction point has been locked, approximately 11.2 kilometers from the current location; it is within the ten-kilometer range, so Extraction is possible.]

Li Xin stood up and brushed the dust off his hands.

Just as he was about to turn around, the sound of engines came from afar. Not just one, but several, driving up from the foot of the mountain, getting closer and closer.

He looked in the direction the sound was coming from. Three military off-road vehicles were driving up the mountain road, antennas on their roofs, the bodies grey-green with no markings. The cars stopped below the ridge, doors opened, and a dozen or so men got out. They wore camouflage uniforms, steel helmets, and carried guns.

Li Xin's heart rate accelerated, but his face remained expressionless.

Those people moved quickly; after getting out of the cars, they spread out, flanking the observation deck in a fan formation. Walking at the very front was an officer in his thirties, his face frozen bright red, wearing sunglasses. He walked under the observation deck and looked up at Li Xin.

"You. Come down."

Li Xin walked down from the observation deck and stood in front of him.

"Identification."

Li Xin took his passport out of his pocket and handed it over. The officer flipped through two pages and looked at it for a while.

"Chinese?"

"Yes."

"You look suspicious. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for photography. I came up via the national park's winter hiking trail."

The officer stared at him for a few seconds and handed the passport to the person beside him. That person took it and pulled out a phone to take a photo of it.

"When did you enter the country?"

"Three days ago, transferred from Moscow to Yekaterinburg, and then took the train here."

"Where are you staying?"

"The village by the lake, the one on the north side."

The officer nodded. The person beside him was writing something in a notebook.

"Let me see your camera."

Li Xin handed over the camera. The officer quickly flipped through the photo album; after finishing, he found nothing unusual and returned it to him.

"How long have you been on the observation deck?"

"Ten minutes or so, took a few photos, and was just about to go down."

The officer was silent for a moment. The soldier beside him was verifying his entry, accommodation, and route; everything was normal.

The officer verified that there were no errors and turned to look at Li Xin.

"This area is close to the mining zone, so controls are strict. You cannot post the photos you took online."

"Alright, I'll delete them right now, is that okay?"

"Hmm, leave the national park within today. Don't come back tomorrow."

"Understood."

The officer stared at him for a few more seconds and waved his hand. Those dozen or so people turned around and got into the off-road vehicles. The doors closed, engines started, and the three vehicles drove away along the mountain road.

Li Xin stood in place, waiting until the taillights disappeared behind the ridge before he let out a breath.

His palms were full of sweat.

He turned around and walked down along the path he had come from. He hadn't walked more than a few steps when a low roar came from the woods on the right. It wasn't the wind, nor was it breaking branches; it was the sound of an animal—low, muffled, as if squeezed out from a chest cavity.

Li Xin stopped and slowly turned his head.

A brown bear stood at the edge of the woods. Less than ten meters away from him. It was massive, taller than a person when standing, covered in brown-black fur, very conspicuous against the snow. It lowered its head, sniffed the air with its nose, then raised its head and stared at Li Xin.

Li Xin didn't move. His hand slowly reached toward his backpack, touching the handle of his folding knife.

The brown bear took a step forward. The snow crunched. It took another step.

Li Xin took a step back. The sound of the bear's paws hitting the ground was muffled and heavy.

The brown bear stopped. Then it took another step.

Li Xin didn't hesitate any longer. He dodged sharply to the left, simultaneously drawing his knife and gripping it tight. The moment the brown bear pounced, he sidestepped, the tip of the knife grazing the bear's front leg. It wasn't a vital spot, but he hadn't used his full strength; this slash wasn't to kill the bear, but to make it hurt.

The brown bear felt the pain, let out a roar, and retreated two steps. Blood seeped from its front leg, dripping onto the snow, glaringly red.

Li Xin didn't wait for it to react; he retreated a few more steps, increasing the distance. The brown bear stared at him, growling low, and pawed at the ground a few times. Snow spray flew up.

"AI System, what should I do?"

[Don't run, and don't turn your back on it; back away slowly.]

Li Xin backed away step by step, his eyes fixed on the brown bear the entire time. The brown bear circled in place twice, looked at its wound again, then turned and plunged into the woods. The sound of breaking branches grew more and more distant.

Li Xin backed away for several dozen meters, and only after confirming the brown bear wasn't following did he stop.

His legs went weak. He leaned against a tree, gasping for air.

"Damn."

[Siberian brown bear, adult male, weight about four hundred kilograms. You're lucky; it wasn't hungry.]

"Lucky?"

[If that paw had landed solidly, at least three of your ribs would be broken.]

Li Xin didn't respond. He put the knife away and continued walking down. He walked much faster than when he came, almost running.

When he returned to the lakeside, it was already almost dark. The setting sun shone on the ice, orange-red, very beautiful. He had no mind to look at it; he walked quickly back to the village and into the wooden cabin.

The Old Lady was cooking in the kitchen; hearing the door, she poked her head out.

"Are you eating?"

"Yes."

He sat at the table, waiting for the meal to be served. Stew, potatoes, carrots, a few pieces of meat, served with black bread. He ate two bowls and finished the bread by dipping it in the soup.

He returned to his room and lay on the bed.

"AI System, is the Extraction point confirmed?"

[Confirmed. It's about eleven kilometers from the observation deck, deep in the forest area, with no personnel activity at night. I suggest acting in the early hours of the morning.]

"What time?"

[One o'clock in the morning. Twelve hours of continuous Extraction, ending at one o'clock in the afternoon.]

"Okay."

He closed his eyes and mentally went over tomorrow's route. Start from the village, walk north along the lakeshore, enter the forest, and reach the point. Twelve hours. No mistakes could be made.

Outside the window, the wind was howling.