HLM -Chapter 767 A Small Surprise

At noon, Bartier’s helicopter returned. Onboard, he accessed Wang Bo’s location and, with the hired exploration team, headed straight for the base of the mountain where the gold mine was located.

Multi-rotor helicopters were excellent—much more stable than a small EC-120 helicopter. Even if the terrain at the mountain’s base was uneven, they still managed to land safely.

Wang Bo, just about to have lunch, stood up and waved: “Hey, Good, I’m here.”

Bartier bent forward from the helicopter’s wing controls and laughed: “Of course I see you! Even if I couldn’t see you, I could smell the aroma of your cooking—amazing!”

Two middle-aged white men stepped off the helicopter. Bartier continued to introduce them: “Hans BC Adam, an engineer from BC Mining Company, and this is Bowen Truman, who shares the same name as our dear deputy mayor…”

“Who called me?” Bowen shouted back, still bending over while digging for ore.

“No one!”

“Shit, don’t stop me from digging gold! I’ve just struck a huge patch of ore—God knows I’m going to get rich!”

Wang Bo shrugged to Bartier, helpless: “They’re all crazy.”

“Gold drives people crazy,” Bartier replied, shrugging too. “Isn’t that normal? The news hasn’t spread yet. Once it does… ha, then you’ll really see what madness looks like!”

Watching the two engineers, Wang Bo asked: “Just the two of them?”

Bartier shook his head: “No, they came first for preliminary scouting. The main exploration team is following with more equipment—they can’t all fit in the helicopter.”

Adam and Truman were both experts. They walked a few steps at the mountain base, used their portable instruments for a simple measurement, and declared: “Yes, this is a gold-rich site. Mayor Wang, you’re going to get rich!”

Wang Bo smiled: “Maybe not. I don’t plan to develop this gold mine.”

Bartier stared at him in shock: “Are you kidding me?”

Wang Bo said: “You know what comes from gold exploitation—madness and pollution. It would ruin Sunset Town. I want a paradise, not a filthy gold pit.”

If Bartier weren’t familiar with him, he would have had a hard time understanding.

Having lived together for over two years, often sharing meals and entertainment, Bartier knew the contributions Wang Bo had made to Sunset Town. He silently nodded: “You’re right.” He knew exactly what Wang Bo wanted.

Lunch was simple. That morning, passing through the garden, Wang Bo had dug up some wild vegetables with Eva and Dale, then stewed them with steak into a pot of vegetable and rib soup. Dale squatted beside it, eating the wild veggies and sipping the soup, while Wang Bo handed the steaks to Zhuang Ding and the Queen.

Seeing this, Atulu winced: “Little one, what if you don’t eat it? Uncle Atulu loves ribs the most.”

“Want the bones?” Dale picked up the leftover bones from Zhuang Ding and handed them to the large Maori man.

Atulu was nearly enraged.

After Zhuang Ding attained a Level 2 Soul Heart, it had become cunning. Eating ribs, it learned to eat the meat first, leaving the bones for the Queen whenever they ate together.

Truman was surprised: “This big dog is surprisingly obedient. It doesn’t protest when you snatch its food?”

Another engineer tried to reach out, which was practically suicidal. Zhuang Ding glared at him with a look that clearly said: You’re an idiot!

“Haha, don’t mind him, I’m just joking,” Adam said sheepishly, still shaken by the mastiff’s stare.

After lunch, the engineers continued exploration, while the others kept searching for gold ore. Originally, the boss was calmly looking at his phone, but after seeing the pure gold his son had carefully kept in his pocket, he got interested.

“Did you get this gold? Very good. As expected of my son. Later, we’ll put it in our family collection with your photo—you’re the youngest in our family to earn this much.”

Wang Bo watched them look for gold, lazily sitting under a tree to cool off.

Bartier was surprised: “Aren’t you joining the search?”

Wang Bo boasted: “This is all mine. Why would I bother looking for it myself?”

Still, being alone got boring. Wang Bo picked a piece of gold from what Eva had brought and showed it to Zhuang Ding and the Queen: “Go find this kind of thing.”

Zhuang Ding sniffed habitually, then froze and blinked. How could it find anything in a mountain full of rocks?

Wang Bo guided it: “See this? Brownish gold, relatively heavy, irregular shape. That’s what you’re looking for—go, find it.”

Zhuang Ding, smart, learned after a few instructions. Wagging its tail, it ran off, sniffed through the scattered stones, and returned with a small bowl-shaped rock.

Wang Bo picked it up, holding it to the sunlight, and shook his head: “No, this has no shine—very low gold content, worthless. Keep looking.”

He tossed the ore aside. Adam picked it up and examined it: “By my estimation, it might not have very high gold content, but for this mine, it’s already significant.”

Wang Bo was surprised: “But it doesn’t shine.”

Adam chuckled: “Buddy, who told you to judge ore by shine? Yes, gold is shiny—reflectivity around 74% under white light—but that’s after refining. Raw ore doesn’t reflect light.”

Wang Bo held a piece of ore Bowen had found: “Then how can ore like this reflect light?”

Adam’s smile froze a bit. He examined it carefully, then took out a magnifying glass. After a closer look, he said to Wang Bo: “You discovered this mine by reflection?”

“Is that wrong?”

Adam said enviously: “I must say, sir, you’re lucky! The reflection isn’t from gold—it’s silver! This mine contains not only gold, but also silver!”

This was Wang Bo’s biggest surprise of the day: “Silver too?”

“Gold-silver ores are rare. You’re extremely lucky,” Adam said. “Silver reflects light more strongly than gold. When mixed with gold, the more silver, the stronger the reflection.”

However, after exploration, the engineers confirmed that the gold mine only had a small amount of silver.

They explained that surface gold ore likely came from meteorites. When a meteorite struck, the high heat melted parts of the soil, extracting some silver along with it.