Chapter 169: Mining

Burning the forest for one day, building the road for two days, and so the time arrived at the third day.

Haide Kanpu's luxury sedan drove through the leveled mud road, driving all the way to the foot of the mountain; for the remaining path up the mountain, he still had to get out of the car.

For a pastor who cherished his pastor's robe and handmade lambskin shoes, this was simply too filthy.

Therefore, Xiaoliuzi very obsequiously placed a rattan mat where he got out of the car, and after helping him down, immediately greeted Qi Kui who was beside him.

"What are you standing there for? Captain Qi, aren't you going to bend over and carry Lord Kamp up the mountain? You wouldn't want to let Lord Kamp step on the filthy mud, would you?"

These words were dripping with sarcasm; he had originally just wanted to see Liu Mu, who had been silent for so long, get punished, but who knew he would be schemed against by a bootlicking wretch like Xiaoliuzi again.

"Carry him?" Qi Kui looked at this person with contempt, "Why don't you carry him?"

"Alas, it is just that this younger brother is congenitally deficient. If I were even half as burly as Captain Qi, or even just ten centimeters taller, how could I ever let such a glorious, good deed go to you!"

Xiaoliuzi kept blaming himself for not growing well, lamenting the missed opportunity to carry Kamp.

Haide Kanpu was at least one meter eighty; although he was a pastor, he was not the least bit weak, and one could even see the faint outline of muscles under his pastor's robe.

Not to mention that Qi Kui was only of average height; just as Xiaoliuzi said, even if he were ten centimeters taller, carrying Kamp up the mountain would still be a struggle.

However, Pastor Kamp looked at him at this moment, his eyes revealing a bit of dissatisfaction, and seeing his reluctance, they immediately became even colder.

Just as Kamp was about to scout for other 'knights' and decide to find an excuse to fire Qi Kui, the latter finally moved.

"Pastor Kamp, I will carry you up." Qi Kui was also helpless, but a great man knows when to yield and when to stand tall; besides, Xiaoliuzi had already said it to that extent, and if he really refused, he feared he would have to pack his bags and leave in a moment.

Haide Kanpu looked at that not-so-broad back with quite a bit of disdain, and Xiaoliuzi, who was beside him, immediately took out a snow-white large silk scarf and spread it over Qi Kui's back.

"Lord, please be careful, don't let the mud on his body dirty your clothes."

Xiaoliuzi's actions undoubtedly won Haide Kanpu's favor, and he nodded immediately, "Mm, Liuzi-sir is still the one who knows how to do things."

The bent-over Qi Kui gritted his teeth, forced to swallow this resentment, only wanting to find a chance to beat Xiaoliuzi severely after this matter was over—at the very least, beat him until he was paralyzed, then throw him into the lake behind the mountain that was full of Mutated Eels.

Such a wretch should just be finished off!

A person who practices martial arts naturally has a bit of ferocity in their heart; in troubled times, killing a wretch to act on behalf of heaven is nothing that cannot be done.

But what he had to do now was something else.

Having climbed less than a hundred meters, the more Qi Kui thought about it, the angrier he became, sweating profusely, yet he did not forget to stir up trouble, "Pastor Kamp, that group led by Mu Liu is wandering around on the mountain, and I don't know what they are doing. They haven't brought the ore to you yet, so they must not have found it."

The implication was a hope that Haide Kanpu would punish Liu Mu and the others.

"Is that so? There is half an hour left until the three days are up. I hope they do not disappoint me."

Haide Kanpu was not having an easy time being carried either; the road at the foot of the mountain was being repaired, but the mountain itself was about the same as it had been a few days ago—it would not be an exaggeration to describe it as rugged and strewn with jagged rocks.

He had come to mine full of resentment; for the first month, he hadn't put his energy into the project at all, but had instead been constantly smoothing over relations with the church hierarchy, hoping to return to serve a certain Shengjie Xiuni.

Now that this group of people guaranteed they could dig up ore in three days, it was simply a mockery of his own passive sabotage.

If they couldn't finish—yes, that Chinese giantess definitely couldn't finish—then he could send her to the church to be the scapegoat for the work he hadn't completed, and then take the opportunity to put forward his request to return.

In short, Haide Kanpu didn't care at all if the mining was successful, or even if there was iron ore here.

The indifference in his tone, of course, could not satisfy Qi Kui, who was putting in the hard labor; one who put in the heart and effort could not let it go to waste.

"I think they might just be goldbricking with the good things you gave them. Those are all the company's resources; you can't let them squander them like this. Such rare equipment—you were reluctant to use it before. I don't even know how much energy it consumes every hour; it must be very expensive, right? They've just been using the excuse of repairing the road these past few days, but they haven't actually been mining at all..."

With things said to this point, he didn't believe Kamp would still not be enraged.

Before the disaster, Haide Kanpu was a technician for the largest mining company on the other side of the ocean, so of course he knew the energy consumption of this equipment. Nowadays, excavators, Tuishiji, drills, and transport Truck... let alone in the apocalypse, even before the disaster, running them for a day without sufficient profit would result in energy consumption of over a hundred thousand.

It was no exaggeration to call them gold-devouring beasts. Three days—if they really hadn't dug up anything and had only repaired a broken road that couldn't even reach the mountain, they were indeed playing him for a fool.

"If they haven't dug it out, they will pay the price!"

Seeing Haide Kanpu finally moved, Qi Kui felt that carrying him up the mountain wasn't such a frustrating and tiring task after all.

Beside them, Xiaoliuzi listened the whole way without making a sound. He was a fence-sitter who didn't want to offend either side and wanted to please both, in order to gain a stable position and benefits.

When they reached the destination, Xiaoliuzi again laid out the mat for Haide Kanpu, and the latter raised his hand; the precision-made wristwatch showed that only a quarter of an hour remained of the three days Liu Mu had promised.

"Pastor Kamp, you've finally arrived." Liu Mu saw them from afar and trotted over, and with a wave of her hand, she directly placed a yellow hard hat on Kamp's head, explaining before he could make trouble, "Safety first, safety first."

The surrounding plants were lush, and there were no signs of excavation. Haide Kanpu's gaze was like two cold, sharp blades, "Where is the ore? Ms. Mu, I have to remind you that your time is running out."

He did not take off the hard hat; instead, he blamed Xiaoliuzi in his heart for not preparing one for him beforehand. People working in iron mines should wear hard hats when entering the site; looking at the group that followed him, not a single one was wearing one.

"Just you watch!" Liu Mu ignored his threat entirely, pulled a Hong Xiaoqi from behind her back, and handed it to Kamp, "As long as you give the order, the ore will come out immediately."

Haide Kanpu took the flag, very unwilling to wave it, but the woman in front of him kept gesturing, as if he were a toddler who needed to be taught hand-in-hand. He had no choice but to raise his arm.

Qi Kui, who hadn't even caught his breath yet, was still able to chime in with a jab, "You mean to say that waving a broken flag will make ore come out? Foreman Mu, are you playing Lord Kamp for a fool? Or did you not find the ore at all and are trying to pull some trick to delay time?"

"Captain Qi, why are you so impatient? Pastor Kamp and Foreman Mu are both here; it's not our place as security to speak. Let's just speak less and listen to Pastor Kamp for everything!" The fence-sitter Xiaoliuzi's words were skillful; he didn't offend anyone at the scene except for Qi Kui, and he even expressed his loyalty.

Qi Kui couldn't stand his wretch-like face the most and just wanted to continue stoking the fire, but when he opened his mouth, he bit his tongue...

Haide Kanpu waved the flag...

A massive explosion shook the mountain, and the ragtag team that came with Haide Kanpu all hugged their heads and crouched down; facts proved that men who thought highly of themselves would also scream in terror.

Instead, Haide Kanpu only covered his ears and stared at the blast site in the distance, bright light flickering in his eyes.

This glimmer of light was successfully captured by Liu Mu, who took out a pure gold pocket watch, looked at it pretentiously, and said in an old-fashioned tone, "Pastor Kamp, shall we walk over and take a look?"

The dust from the explosion hadn't even dissipated when someone on that side of the mountain shouted with a Loudspeaker, "Ore found!"

The shouts echoed between the mountain and the canyon, and people at the foot of the mountain followed with cheers.

"You see, shall we walk over?" Liu Mu invited him again, "It was still thanks to the drills you brought, plus our own experience—look, we really found it."

"It's a few kilometers away, isn't it? The ore is clearly on that side of the mountain, why did you make us stay on this side?" Qi Kui cut off Haide Kanpu, who was about to speak; during the explosion just now, although he hadn't screamed, he had been scared enough to crawl onto the ground.

Jumping up now, he was simply furious, "Mu Liu, you did this on purpose, right? The time is already up, we didn't see the ore, who knows if you brought it from somewhere else and placed it there? You say go over there, so we go over there? You..."

"Who do you think you are?" Liu Mu issued a soul-searching question first, "Did I speak to you? Or did you get Pastor Kamp's permission? You dare to open your mouth."

Her tone even mimicked the trembling Qi Kui had after losing face; it wasn't just similar, it was mockery maxed out.

"You, you, you..." Qi Kui's face turned the color of a pig's liver, but he didn't dare to speak again.

Haide Kanpu only needed one look to make him take a step back, "Do you think I cannot walk a few kilometers? Mr. Qi, professionals do professional things; when it comes to mining, you are not up to it!"

Except for Liu Mu, the suddenly imposing Haide Kanpu did indeed suppress the others; clearly, he was very disgusted by Qi Kui's remarks of criticizing others' professionalism when he knew nothing about it himself.

"You, and your men, leave the Mine immediately. You are fired!"

"Pastor Kamp, that's not what I meant, I just wanted to help you," Qi Kui had not expected Kamp to change his face so quickly, showing no respect at all.

But he and the brothers he had brought out could not lose this job, otherwise they would once again live the life of vagrants with no place to stay and no food to eat.

"Leave immediately," Haide Kanpu said, then walked toward the hill over there, giving him no chance to argue at all.

Liu Mu raised her eyebrows at Xiaoliuzi, who was looking a bit pale beside her, signaling him to handle it himself, and followed along.

The two walked far away; Qi Kui wanted to follow but was blocked by Xiaoliuzi in one step, "What do you want to do?"

Xiaoliuzi changed from his previous fawning appearance in front of those two, lifted his chin, and looked down on Qi Kui with contempt, "Qi Kui, you and your Big Blade Team have already been fired. Now I am the only Security Captain here, so naturally, I won't let you harass the two Bosses."

"You petty person!" Qi Kui had previously disdained fighting too much with someone like Xiaoliuzi, but now evil rose to his heart, "We were colleagues after all, don't go too far. Don't think my men don't dare to touch you!"

"Touch me?" When it came to fisticuffs, Xiaoliuzi was naturally no match for Qi Kui, but his speed in drawing his gun was not slow, and the muzzle was pressed directly against Qi Kui's chin, "Try it and see, is your blade faster, or is my bullet faster!"

……

With the help of the drilling machine, Liu Mu and the others had indeed found the location of the iron ore.

Half a month later, the road construction was completed, and the iron ore location had also undergone several blasts; the original mountaintop was leveled, and excavators and loaders drove straight up.

The mined ore was sent in several batches of samples to Haide Kanpu's Xiaojiaotang, and after he personally inspected the grade, he agreed to the construction of the subsequent mining infrastructure.

The infrastructure here, of course, refers to the railway from the Mine to the seaside; after all, it is impossible to use a Truck to haul it to the seaside to load ships one by one, and even more impossible to take the muddy, messy roads, the kind that get stuck the moment it rains.

With the experience of converting the Scrap Station into a Duiduichang, as well as the construction of the Steel Factory, Liu Mu was now more than capable of arranging these projects.

And the area where the forest had been burned previously, after expansion, had become a Duiduichang for iron ore screening and stacking, with an estimated capacity exceeding one million tons.

As for the workers, Xiaoliuzi, who was recruiting, had walked through almost all the nearby towns; anyone who could lift a sledgehammer was recruited.

At first, Qi Kui's Big Blade Team was still very loyal to him, but it is hard to go from luxury to frugality; after being hungry for a few days, the hearts of the people gradually scattered, and in less than a week, several returned to the Mine to work as laborers.

Xiaoliuzi was also vengeful; he specifically refused to let Qi Kui return, and upon discovering that members of the Big Blade Team were secretly bringing him food, he even fired them directly.

Liu Mu saw these things in her eyes but said nothing. In fact, she didn't even know why this person Qi Kui was targeting her; if one were to talk about hatred, it didn't even compare to Xiaoliuzi, whose hand she had chopped off once.

Later, while chatting with Ma Dajie, she learned that the people of the Big Blade Team were extremely patriarchal.

"I heard that before the disaster, they lived in a closed-off village, and the whole village was patriarchal. Even at that time, there were still baby girls born who were drowned; it's truly a sin! If you ask me, not a single one of them should be kept; it's just them leading the workers to discriminate against us."

After her anger, Ma Dajie suddenly revealed a cunning smile, as if she were an old fox, "I haven't spit in their food any less, hehe, there isn't a single good thing among men. When my man was alive, he wouldn't come home once all year round, and when asked what work he did, he would say the unit required secrecy."

"My son's temper is the way it is because he lacked his father's upbringing. He kept saying his work was very important, but in the end, the wages he earned in a year weren't as much as what I made selling fast food at my stall. Who knows, he might have had someone outside, maybe even fathered wild children."

This was the umpteenth time Ma Dajie had complained to Liu Mu about her man, "Now life or death is unknown; it would be better if he died outside. Anyway, he didn't care about the family, didn't care about the life or death of us mother and daughter."

Occasionally, Liu Mu would also hold her rice bowl and play along, "You really don't know what work he did? He didn't reveal anything at all?"

After asking a few times, it actually helped Ma Dajie recall some details.

She patted Liu Mu on the shoulder, somewhat agitated, "He did say it. I remember one time when I was forcing a divorce and he was pushed to the limit, he said he worked at some water plant, or a dam, or a power plant or something. He said it wasn't far from home but he was just very busy and had no leave. Hey, how could I care where he actually worked? At that time, Xiao Ha was in high school and it was exactly when money was needed, I was busy from morning till night..."

Liu Mu, however, took this matter to heart. Ma Dajie had previously said she came from a nearby town; if her husband's words were true, it meant that somewhere in this river and water network, a secret Shuidianzhan had been built.

Why was it secret?

……Just like the iron ore here, it might have some strategic significance.

It was just that she couldn't get away right now, otherwise, she would have had to go and look for it.

As for why she didn't let the Black Taotie and the others who were hiding in the nearby mountains go, it was of course because Liu Mu still didn't trust the two women; if they were still thinking about the Sky Viper, wouldn't that be trouble.

An iron mine might not be enough to make the Sky Viper come again, but if a Shuidianzhan were added, then it would be worth a fight.

Energy is always the primary resource for rebuilding human settlements.

Whether it is the most important power, or heating and lighting, electricity is the true sharp tool for breaking the limitations of human productivity for thousands of years.