240: Chapter 240 Australia, Here I Come!

7:00 AM, Shenzhen Bay.

The sun had not yet climbed onto the terrace flagstones; it was cool and chilly, with a hint of cold in the breeze.

Li Xin was curled up in a rattan chair, the light from his computer casting a glow on half of his face.

A map of all of Western Australia was spread across the screen. His fingers dragged and zoomed, locking firmly onto that stretch of wasteland in Kalgoorlie, as if he were standing on the solid ground itself.

The outer wall of his coffee mug was beaded with condensation, but he didn't spare it a glance; his mind was entirely buried in the yellow sands on the screen.

After a while, he closed his laptop with a dull thud.

The Gobi Desert on the screen was gone, but he had long since clearly demarcated the boundaries in his heart.

Hundreds of tons of gold were buried underground; with such a massive prize, just looking wasn't enough.

No matter how much gold he had already accumulated, it was never enough. This trip to Australia was set in stone.

When he changed clothes and went downstairs, the new butler, Old Zheng, was standing in the foyer with a strange expression. "Sir, there is a Mr. Zhang at the door with a suitcase, saying he is here to see you."

Li Xin paused for a moment, then walked over and opened the front door.

Qiang Zi stood at the doorway, wearing an ill-suited thin jacket, with a 28-inch black suitcase standing by his feet. He was clutching his phone, and on the screen, the chat history with Luo Maifa was clearly visible.

"Why are you here?"

Qiang Zi stuffed his phone into his pants pocket and tried his best to put on a composed expression. "I checked the weather; it's warm in Australia right now, perfect for escaping the cold. You're going too, right? It's on the way, just on the way."

Li Xin looked at the suitcase by his feet, then at the jacket he was wearing. Australia was indeed warm right now, but wearing that would probably make him swelter.

He didn't call him out, nor did he ask if Luo Maifa had tipped him off. It would be a waste of time to ask anyway; when Qiang Zi lied, his eyes would drift to the upper right corner, but right now, his gaze was overly straight—it was easy to see right through him.

"Come in. We leave at 7:50."

Qiang Zi dragged his suitcase inside. Passing through the living room, he swept his gaze around and clicked his tongue. "I've been to your courtyard ten times, and I still find it ridiculously large."

"Stop the chatter. Rest for a bit; we're leaving soon."

...

10:00 AM.

Shenzhen Bao'an Airport. A Gulfstream G650 with a silver-white fuselage was parked on the private tarmac, and ground crew were conducting final checks.

Along the way, Qiang Zi kept talking about his "itinerary," pulling up dozens of screenshots from his phone, all recommendations from Australian travel bloggers.

"This restaurant is said to be the best brunch in Perth. That influencer said their Eggs Benedict is to die for. And this beach, they say you can see wild dolphins, but you have to go wait at five in the morning. As for koalas, you have to hold one. I checked; some zoos don't allow it anymore, but there is one that does, though you have to book in advance..."

Li Xin sat in the window seat, fastened his seatbelt, and replied indifferently, "You've done your homework well."

Qiang Zi thrust his phone in front of him. "Look, this is the super mine in Kalgoorlie, what's it called again? The Super Pit. The documentary said it's Australia's largest open-pit gold mine; you can even see it from space."

"I've seen it."

"When did you see it?"

"Online."

Qiang Zi paused, then laughed. "Fine, you're more on the ball than I am. So, are you still going?"

"Yes."

Qiang Zi leaned back comfortably in his seat and fastened his seatbelt. The plane began to taxi, and as it accelerated and surged forward, he was thrown back into his seat, letting out an involuntary gasp.

Once the plane leveled off, he took out his phone and started recording a video through the porthole. Outside, the blue sky was wide open, and layers upon layers of white clouds stretched out boundlessly.

He lowered his head to type a post for his social media, muttering to himself, "Flying to Australia, going to mine for gold with Brother Xin!"

Li Xin reached out and pressed his phone screen down. "Don't talk nonsense."

Qiang Zi chuckled twice, didn't argue, and didn't delete the post. He flipped the phone over onto the armrest, turned to look out the window, and began humming a Cantonese song, though the tune was somewhat off.

During the six-hour flight, Qiang Zi took four naps, ate two in-flight meals, watched half an action movie, and spent the rest of the time flipping through his electronic travel guide.

Li Xin spent most of the time leaning back in his seat with his eyes closed, occasionally opening them to glance at the clouds outside before closing them again.

...

4:00 PM. The plane landed in Perth.

The sun was so piercing that one couldn't open their eyes. The air was dry and parched, carrying a sharp, astringent scent of eucalyptus.

As soon as Qiang Zi stepped out of the cabin, he casually pulled off his jacket, wearing only a short-sleeved shirt, muttering that it was unbearably hot.

Airport exit.

A black Maybach slowly slid over. The body was polished to a shine, the windows were tinted dark, and it had come specifically to pick them up.

The driver was a local man in his forties, sturdy in build, wearing a dark blue short-sleeved shirt. The moment he saw Li Xin, he immediately walked up to greet him.

"Mr. Li, I was sent by Mr. Chen Hu to pick you up. Please, follow me."

Qiang Zi leaned over to Li Xin's ear. "Damn, look at this setup."

Li Xin didn't respond and followed the driver toward the exit. The black Maybach was waiting by the terminal's VIP passage, and the driver reached out to open the door.

Qiang Zi bent down and climbed in. He brushed his fingertips against the leather seat and sighed in a low voice, "It feels so soft."

...

The car drove smoothly through the tidy, tree-lined streets of Perth and arrived at the destination before long.

Tucked away right next to Kings Park was a detached three-story villa. The surroundings were lush with greenery, filled with the shade of eucalyptus trees unique to Australia—quiet and serene. The courtyard was spacious, with a small private pool in the center. The clear water shimmered, exuding a sense of relaxed luxury.

As twilight fell, standing on the terrace allowed for a view over the entire Swan River. The river's surface was paved with the afterglow of the setting sun, its shimmering light fractured into a sky full of golden radiance.

Qiang Zi had just put down his suitcase when he immediately pulled out his phone to start filming. Pointing it at the pool and the river in the distance, he chattered away to the camera in a cheerful tone.

"Brothers, look, it's got its own pool, and you can overlook the entire Swan River. This view is insane!"

Li Xin ignored him and went up to the study on the second floor. The window faced the park, and the distant skyline of downtown Perth was blurred into a silhouette in the twilight. He sat down at the desk and was quiet for a few seconds.

"Scan Perth and the surrounding fifty kilometers."

The System interface unfolded in his consciousness. Ripples spread outward, and the underground signal data surged back like a tide. The signals in the Perth urban area were sparse, but toward the east, those golden points of light became increasingly dense, finally coalescing into a mass near Kalgoorlie.

[Kalgoorlie Region: High-density gold signals. Estimated reserves: approx. 470 tons. Signal characteristics: Some are known veins, some are deep, unregistered veins; signal strength is extremely high.]

Li Xin looked at that line of data with no extra expression. His finger tapped lightly on the desktop, and he picked up a pen to make a mark on the map.

The study door was pushed open, and Qiang Zi poked half his body in. "Brother Xin, come on, let's go eat. The guide says there's a hot pot restaurant in Chinatown that's the best in Australia. The line is super long, we need to go early."

Li Xin folded the map and put it into the drawer. "Let's go."

The hot pot restaurant was on the second floor of an old-fashioned shopping mall. The storefront wasn't big, but the interior was spacious.

Qiang Zi ordered a table full of food: tripe, yellow throat, Wagyu beef, shrimp paste, and chose a spicy and tomato split pot for the base. During the wait for the food, he didn't stop talking; while blanching the tripe, he counted down and spoke at the same time.

"Brother Xin, are you really going to mine for gold? I saw online that the gold mines here are quite famous. They've dug up thousands of tons of gold in Kalgoorlie before—is that true or false?"

Li Xin picked up a piece of Wagyu beef, put it into the pot, waited a few seconds, fished it out, and dipped it in sauce. "True."

"Thousands of tons? How much money would that be?"

"Based on current gold prices, calculate it yourself."

Qiang Zi, with half a piece of tripe in his mouth, swallowed it with difficulty, then pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times. His eyes slowly widened. He turned the phone around to show Li Xin. "Units, tens, hundreds, thousands... trillions? Australian dollars?"

Li Xin took a look and pushed the phone back. "That's the historical cumulative production, not what was dug up at once."

Qiang Zi gave a long "Oh," not knowing if he truly understood or was just pretending.

At the neighboring table were several Chinese tourists, speaking quite loudly. One of the men lowered his voice to whisper to his companion: "Things haven't been peaceful in Western Australia lately. People are stealing Ore in the mining areas, going in at night to dig, and even using guns when caught. The news hasn't reported much, but the locals are all talking about it."

"Stealing Ore? Who can they sell it to after digging it up?"

"There are specialized buyers. Black market prices are low, but the volume is high. I heard they can steal hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars worth of Ore in a single night."

Qiang Zi listened with his ears perked up, then turned his head and lowered his voice. "Brother Xin, did you hear that? Someone actually dares to steal gold Ore."

Li Xin fished out the shrimp paste from the pot. "Gold is something that people have always fought over. If you can see it, others can see it too."

Qiang Zi frowned and thought for a long time. "Then will we... be in danger?"

Li Xin glanced at him. "Weren't you quite excited about going to the mine just a moment ago?"

"Excitement is one thing, but that doesn't mean I want to get shot."

"Then just follow me." Li Xin picked up a piece of blanched tripe and put it into his bowl. "You don't need to worry about it."

Qiang Zi looked down at the tripe in his bowl, picked it up, took a bite, chewed twice, and finally couldn't help but ask: "Brother Xin, did you know long ago that people were stealing Ore here?"

Li Xin didn't answer and picked up his sour plum drink to take a sip.

It was almost 9:00 PM when they returned to the villa. Qiang Zi had showered and changed into pajamas. Holding his phone, he wandered from his room to the doorway of the study, gripping the doorframe and poking half his head in. "Brother Xin, tell me about the history of Australian gold mines."

Li Xin was sitting at the desk looking over printed satellite maps. Hearing this, he put down the map. "Gold mines were discovered in the 1860s, which sparked a gold rush that shocked the world. The Kalgoorlie area has been mined for over a hundred years; the surface Ore is basically gone, but there is still some in the deep layers."

"Then how do you dig the deep layers? Use machines?"

"Large mining companies have the capability to dig deeper, but the cost is high. If the Ore grade isn't high enough, it's not cost-effective for them, so they don't touch it."

Qiang Zi nodded thoughtfully. "So are we just visiting the mine, or...?"

"Visiting."

Qiang Zi stood there for a while longer. Probably feeling that Li Xin didn't intend to continue, he retreated. After taking two steps, he turned back. "Then what time are we leaving tomorrow?"

"Seven o'clock."

"Got it, I'll set an alarm."

The study door was closed. Li Xin spread the satellite map out again and used a pencil to circle a small area on the north side of the mine.

It was about eight kilometers from the center of the mine, in an uninhabited area. The abnormal signal displayed by the System was coming from that direction.

He pulled up the System backend and confirmed it again. The surface of that area was covered with hard red soil; there were no buildings, no roads—on the satellite imagery, it was just a flat expanse of ochre red.

[AI System: This area has stable geology, is suitable for long-term mining, and is not easy to leave traces of mining. Prioritize this area.]

He closed his laptop, stood up, and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. Outside, it was pitch black, with only the lights of downtown Perth in the distance casting an orange-red glow in the night sky. The Swan River was no longer visible; he could only sense the faint, fragmented light reflected on the water's surface.

His phone vibrated; Qiang Zi had sent a long voice message.

He tapped it to listen; Qiang Zi's speaking speed was rapid. "I just checked the guide again. There's an underground mine tunnel tour project at the mine. Should we sign up? I saw in the comments that it's super exciting; you can see the tunnels that miners dug over a hundred years ago."

Li Xin didn't reply after listening. He took a screenshot and sent it to the brothers' group chat. "This contestant has already entered travel blogger mode."

The group was quiet for three seconds, then Luo Maifa popped up first. "Don't mind him, let him film. When he gets back, he can edit a three-episode documentary. I bet he has at least one selfie stick in his suitcase."

Yang Hong popped up after a while. "I checked the mining rights laws in Australia for you. Private prospecting requires a permit, and the process is quite troublesome. But if it's just a visit, it's no problem."

Li Xin replied with two words: "That's good."

Qiang Zi's second voice message popped up immediately after. This time, his voice was sleepy and slurred. "Brother Xin, I'm going to sleep. See you tomorrow."

Li Xin listened and the corner of his mouth twitched. He put his phone into his pants pocket and took one last look at the night scene outside the window. The system panel was quietly glowing in his consciousness, and those golden points of light in Kalgoorlie were stable and clear. 470 tons—he recited that number in his heart once more. Then he turned off the lights and walked out of the study.

From the room next door, the creaking sound of the bed frame came as Qiang Zi tossed and turned, along with a slurred sentence in his sleep, though it was unclear what he was saying.

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