80: Chapter 80 The Shouts in the Sulawesi Rainforest

Flying from Yogyakarta to Makassar, then transferring to Gorontalo—it was a whole day of exhaustion.

By the time Li Xin arrived in Gorontalo, it was already evening. The airport was tiny, with only one runway and a few small propeller planes parked on the tarmac. Stepping out of the airport, a wave of heat hit him in the face; it was even more stifling than in Bali.

He called a taxi and gave the address of a hotel near Pani Village. The driver was a man in his thirties with dark skin; his English was halting, but he was very enthusiastic.

"Friend, you're going to Pani? What for?" the driver asked, glancing at him through the rearview mirror.

"Tourism. I heard the scenery is nice, wanted to check it out."

"Pani scenery is good." The driver nodded. "Not just mountains, the rivers and trees are very beautiful." He paused, then gave a mysterious smile. "There's a gold mine there, you know."

"A gold mine?"

"Yeah. A big gold mine. Owned by a foreign company." The driver pointed north with his finger. "It's inside the mountains. But you can't get in; there's security and a Patrol Team there."

"I'm just going for a walk to experience the local customs and enjoy the scenery along the way. I won't be entering the mining area."

The driver smiled and said nothing more, but the car slowed down noticeably, as if he were hesitating about something.

After driving for nearly two hours, the road became narrower, and the trees on both sides grew denser. Darkness had fallen, and there were few streetlights; only the headlights illuminated the road ahead.

Suddenly, the driver slammed on the brakes.

"What's wrong?" Li Xin looked forward.

A pickup truck was parked in the middle of the road ahead. Its headlights were off, and it sat there like a dark lump. Two men were standing beside the vehicle, wearing dark clothes; their faces were unclear.

The driver's hands gripped the steering wheel tightly.

The driver slammed the car into reverse, the tires screeching against the ground.

"Why are you reversing?" Li Xin asked, confused.

The driver didn't reply. At that moment, the two people standing in the middle of the road moved. A flashlight beam swept over, and two more people got out of the truck.

Four people stood in the middle of the road, blocking their path.

Li Xin's heart rate spiked, but his face remained expressionless. His hand instinctively reached for the side pocket of his backpack, where a folding knife he had bought in Palembang was kept.

The driver had already reversed dozens of meters, then jerked the steering wheel to turn the car around. The tires skidded in the mud, spraying a sheet of muck.

"Hold on tight!" the driver shouted, then floored the accelerator.

The car surged backward. Li Xin looked back; the four people hadn't chased after them, just stood in the middle of the road, watching their taillights disappear into the night.

After driving for over ten minutes, the driver slowed down. There was sweat on his forehead, and his hands were still trembling.

"Who were those people?" Li Xin's voice trembled slightly.

"I don't know." The driver shook his head. "But they definitely aren't good people. This road isn't safe at night. There are robbers, illegal miners, and then—"

"And then what?"

"And people from the company." The driver glanced at him through the rearview mirror. "They catch people. If they catch illegal miners, they send them straight to the police station. If they catch… other things, I don't know."

Li Xin was alarmed. "Other things?"

The driver was silent for a few seconds, then said, "I heard someone went missing last month. A local, too. He went into the mountains and never came out. His family looked for days and couldn't find him. The police said he might have been bitten by a wild boar, but nobody believes that."

"What do they believe?"

"They believe he saw something he shouldn't have." The driver lowered his voice. "There are places in the mountains the company doesn't let people see. If you see them, you don't come back out."

The car arrived at the hotel, and it was already pitch black. Li Xin got out and paid the driver double the fare.

The driver took the money, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Going into the mountains tomorrow, it's best to go during the day and come out before dark. Don't go alone; find a guide."

"Thank you."

Li Xin checked in, took a shower, and lay on the bed. He opened his phone to check the information on the Pani gold mine—proven reserves of 160.5 tons, Indonesia's largest pure gold mine. The mining area was deep in the mountains, surrounded by rainforests and rubber plantations, with security patrols.

He turned off his phone and closed his eyes.

In his mind, he was thinking about the pickup truck, the four people, and what the driver had said.

The next morning, Li Xin had breakfast downstairs, shouldered his bag, and went out. He didn't hire a guide; being alone was more flexible. He followed the dirt road behind the village and headed into the mountains.

Fields of lush green rice paddies came into view, the rice ears stretching out freely. In the distance, the rubber forest stood in neat rows like an army. The farmers working in the fields glanced at him faintly before lowering their heads to continue their labor.

Time passed bit by bit, the rice paddies quietly faded away, and the rubber forest was close at hand. Rows of neat rubber trees hung with small bowls containing white latex; some had already coagulated into a lump, which felt soft and stress-relieving when pressed lightly with his fingers.

Li Xin found a spot to sit down, drank some water, and wiped the sweat from his brow.

[Ding… System prompt: Current location is approximately 9 kilometers from the core area of the Pani gold mine. You have entered the detection range.]

After walking for another half hour or so, the rubber forest turned into mixed woods.

He saw a small stream. The water was very clear, and the stones at the bottom were clearly visible. There was a simple wooden bridge over the stream, made of a few logs tied together, which didn't look very stable.

Just as he stepped onto the wooden bridge, a fierce shout came from behind him.

"Hey!"

He turned his head abruptly.

A man in his thirties was standing on the other side of the stream. Li Xin scrutinized him: dark skin, a scar on his face stretching from his forehead to his cheekbone, wearing camouflage clothing, and holding a wooden stick. He must be a member of the Patrol Team. Li Xin felt a slight tension rise within him.

"What are you doing? Where are you going?" the man asked in Indonesian, his tone very aggressive.

"I'm hiking here." Li Xin felt his heart tighten, but then he smiled and said, "The scenery here is so beautiful, I couldn't help but come here."

"You aren't allowed here." The man walked over, stood at the head of the wooden bridge, and blocked the path, expressionless. "You'd better go back quickly."

"What place is this ahead?"

"Mining area." The man gripped the wooden stick tightly. "Company property. You can't enter."

"I'm not going into the mining area, just walking around outside."

"That's not allowed either." The man shook his head. "Outside isn't allowed either. This is the company's territory. You'd better go back. I'm going to call people, and if that happens, you probably won't be able to leave."

Li Xin looked around. On the other side of the stream was dense forest; he couldn't see any buildings. But this man was clearly a member of the company—or hired by the company.

He nodded and turned to walk back.

After walking about fifty meters, he stopped, squatted down, and pretended to tie his shoelaces.

"System, Scan the entire Pani gold mine area."

[Scanning… Please wait.]

A few seconds later.

[Scan complete. Pani gold mine: Proven reserves 160.5 tons. Type: Rock gold mine. Distribution depth: 50-350 meters. Main ore vein orientation: Northeast-Southwest, approximately 3.2 km long, 0.8 km wide.]

[Note: This gold mine is an owned mine (PT Pani Gold Mining Company). The host can extract 60%, which is 96.3 tons.]

[Extracting… Extraction complete. Obtained 96.3 tons of gold. Cumulative gold refined: 96.4057 tons.]

He stood up and brushed the dust off his pant legs.

Just as he turned around, the man was still standing at the head of the wooden bridge, staring at him, his expression vigilant.

"What are you doing?"

"My shoelace just came loose, so I tied it. I'm leaving now." Li Xin looked at him with a smile.

The man stared at his shoes for two seconds, glared at him, and then said, "Go quickly, don't dawdle."

Li Xin didn't speak, turned, and walked away, occasionally looking back, smiling, and nodding in acknowledgment. He looked like a fawning lackey.

After walking about two hundred meters, he heard footsteps behind him. He looked back and was shocked: the man was following him, keeping a distance of a few dozen meters, walking at a steady pace.

Li Xin quickened his pace. The footsteps behind him also quickened.

He stopped. The footsteps behind him stopped too.

His heart rate accelerated, but his face remained expressionless. He continued walking forward, his pace neither slow nor fast. When he reached a fork in the road, he turned left—that wasn't the way back to the village, but a narrower path.

The footsteps behind hesitated for a moment, then followed.

Li Xin walked on the small path for about five minutes, and a bamboo forest appeared ahead. The bamboo was very dense, and one could only pass by turning sideways. He slipped inside, walked a dozen meters, stopped, and held his breath.

The footsteps grew closer. The man also slipped into the bamboo forest.

Li Xin squatted down, wanting to reach into the side pocket of his backpack for the folding knife, but finally thought better of it. In this unfamiliar place, escalating the conflict would be too dangerous for him.

The footsteps stopped a few meters away from him.

"Come out." The man's voice was very low. "I know you're in here."

Li Xin didn't move.

"Come out, I won't hit you." The man said again. "Just answer a few questions."

Li Xin took a deep breath, and finally stood up and walked out from behind the bamboo.

The man stood a few meters away, still holding the wooden stick, watching Li Xin vigilantly.

"Are you a reporter?" he asked.

"No." Li Xin shook his head.

"Then are you police?"

"Also no." Li Xin felt somewhat helpless.

"Then what are you?"

"I'm just a tourist." Li Xin looked at him, lifted his hands slightly, and shrugged. "I just saw the scenery here was nice and came over to take photos."

The man stared at him for a few seconds, then asked, "What did you take photos of?"

"Rice paddies, rubber trees, the stream, various local customs."

"Let me see."

Li Xin hesitated, then handed over the camera. The man took the camera and flipped through the photos in the album one by one, finding they were all landscape photos such as rice paddies, rubber forests, the stream, and the wooden bridge.

Finally, he returned the camera to Li Xin.

"Go on then." His tone softened a bit. "But don't go into the mountains again. It's not safe over there."

"Why?"

The man was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Because someone is looking for something."

"Looking for what?"

"Gold." He lowered his voice. "Not the company's. It's buried underground, and someone has been looking for it for a long time."

"Did they find it?"

"They found it, alright." His voice carried a hint of disdain. "Last month, I heard someone found it. But—"

He paused, looked at Li Xin, and smiled—a smile that felt a bit cold. "But he didn't come out in the end."

"Dead?"

"Don't know." The man shook his head. "The person is gone, and the gold is gone too. The company said he was killed by illegal miners, but nobody knows the truth."

Li Xin's fingers tightened slightly.

"Where is that place?"

The man glanced at him, turned, and walked away. After a few steps, he stopped and said without looking back, "Don't ask too much. Knowing won't do you any good."

He disappeared into the bamboo forest.

Li Xin stood in place, watching the direction the man disappeared, and stood there for a long time.

Then he turned around and continued walking back.

Returning to the hotel, it was already afternoon. He took a shower, lay on the bed, and opened the system panel—cumulative 96.4 tons, still 903.6 tons short of 1000 tons.

He closed the panel and stared at the ceiling.

The "Old Gold" the man mentioned hadn't been scanned by the system. Was it missed, or did it require more precise scanning? He pulled up today's Scan record—Scan depth 50-350 meters. If the old ore vein was deeper, the system might not have scanned it.

He looked distressed and sighed repeatedly. "Sigh! System, you're a bit glitchy. How should I put it? It's like a phone that's about to be scrapped. You don't want to use it, but it's the only one you have. If you use it, it works intermittently; it's even hard to watch an educational video. That's how it feels."

There was another gold mine in Sulawesi—Toka Tindung, in the north, near Manado. He'd deal with that first, and if there was a chance, he'd come back to Scan carefully.

Better book a flight to Manado for tomorrow.