Chapter 485 - 242: A Scam Call?

Chapter 485: Chapter 242: A Scam Call?

The northern shore of Lake Baikal!

On the lake near Listvyanka Town, a pale blue fishing boat, about ten meters long, floated quietly on the water. Su Chen and Chen Fei were sitting leisurely on either side of the boat’s bow, fishing.

The warm sun made Su Chen feel sleepy. He squinted at the motionless float not far away, pursed his lips, and sighed softly.

"Sigh... We’ve been sitting here for over three hours, and not even a single bite. Chen Fei, looks like we’re getting skunked today!"

But who would have thought... The words had barely left Su Chen’s mouth when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chen Fei shoot to his feet. The rod in his hands bent into a deep arc, and the line started screaming.

Instantly, Su Chen’s good mood vanished. It looked like Chen Fei had hooked a big one!

"Heh heh... Sir, I’ve got a monster on the line! It’s gotta be at least twenty or thirty pounds!" Chen Fei was ecstatic. Judging by the struggle, the fish underwater was definitely not small.

He braced the butt of the rod against his stomach, gripping it with his right hand and using his left forearm for leverage as he worked to tire the fish out.

Watching Chen Fei intently playing the fish, Su Chen smacked his lips, a flash of envy in his eyes. No one wants to be the one who goes home empty-handed.

He finally understood how the onlookers must have felt back when he’d caught that massive grouper in the bay.

It was a feeling of pure, sour-grape envy.

Just as he was still lamenting over how heavy Chen Fei’s fish was going to be, a series of sharp CRACKS rang out, followed by Chen Fei blurting out, "Holy shit!"

When Su Chen saw what had happened, a look of astonishment appeared on his face.

"Oh, dear! The rod broke. What a shame!"

Seeing Chen Fei still standing there in a daze, Su Chen said with mock sympathy.

’In reality, Su Chen was ecstatic. He was one step away from standing up, putting his hands on his hips, and laughing his ass off at Chen Fei.’

Just a moment ago, Chen Fei had been gloating right in front of him, and now look... The rod had snapped into seven or eight pieces, and the massive fish had long since pulled the line out of sight.

Even if Chen Fei was stubborn enough to try and wrestle the fish underwater, he wouldn’t get the chance.

When Chen Fei came to his senses, he looked pitifully at Su Chen, seeking comfort, only to see the smile that hadn’t yet faded from his boss’s face. That just made him feel even worse.

"It’s getting late. Let’s head back," Su Chen said, pretending not to notice Chen Fei’s resentful glare. He stood up and gestured to the captain in the cockpit to return.

"Sir, why don’t we try again this afternoon? It doesn’t feel right to go back empty-handed!" Chen Fei said, unwilling to give up.

Any other angler who’d lost a monster fish would probably lose sleep over it, let alone an amateur like Chen Fei. How could he possibly give up?

"What’s not right about it? Admiring the lake view is the priority. Fishing is just a matter of fate. Who cares if people laugh? If you want to fish, you can come back by yourself this afternoon."

Su Chen had no desire to fish in Lake Baikal anymore. The water was often a hundred or two hundred meters deep, sometimes even several hundred, and he had no idea what the fish were doing. Trying to fish at that depth was a total crapshoot.

Chen Fei opened his mouth but swallowed the words he was about to say. His boss had said he wasn’t coming back. Was he really going to disobey a direct order?

After the fishing boat returned to the dock, Su Chen and Chen Fei drove back to the ranch.

Along the way, they saw quite a few dump trucks hauling raw ore away from the ranch.

The progress at the mine was astonishingly fast. The mining company had officially started work on the gold deposit in the mountains the very afternoon Su Chen and his team returned from the Chersky Mountains.

In less than two days, they had carved out a road into the mountains with excavators.

Initially, Li Li had suggested they start by mining and panning the placer gold in the river basin. Su Chen rejected the idea without a second thought, telling her to start by mining the associated ore from the lode deposit instead.

Li Li was confused at the time, arguing that mining the river basin first would generate a quick influx of cash. After a moment of thought, Su Chen told her about the rubidium.

Once Li Li learned the truth, she understood the priorities. She immediately changed the plan to focus on the associated ore and even brought in over three hundred more workers from several other mines to excavate it as quickly as possible.

Since it was all raw ore that didn’t require much processing or sorting, the speed was incredible. In just ten short days, they had practically lopped the top off the entire hill.

All the excavated gold ore and its associated ore were shipped back to the country by train via Irkutsk.

Li Li even found a way to use the raw gold ore shipments to smuggle the fifty-ton golden treasure that Su Chen had brought back from the Chersky Mountains.

Fifty tons of gold sounds like a lot, but its volume isn’t actually that large—only about 2.6, not even three, cubic meters.

With a bit of cleverness, the gold could be disguised and mixed in with the raw ore, making it completely undetectable. After all, their shipments were already gold ore, so they would pass any inspection without issue.

Su Chen had just sat down back at the villa when Li Li came bustling in, a smile on her face.

"What are you doing here?" Li Li was supposed to be in Irkutsk, busy with shipping the raw gold ore and the treasure back to the country. Why had she suddenly shown up here?