Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“What do you want to know?” Du Enhai asked.
Li Du said, “Ten thousand dollars in exchange for your place, for you to leave this mine. Would you take it?”
Du Enhai gulped. “Isn’t that too little? I’ve been here for five years and I spent a pretty penny on tidying up this mine. There were a lot of poisonous pests here at the start and I was the one who had to have them exterminated.”
Li Du responded, “You think ten thousand is too little? I’d suggest you be careful not to get too greedy. You’ve worked at Hpakant before, so you should know the consequences of greed.”
Du Enhai stared him down before he finally sighed at relented. “Fine, ten thousand. I’ll bring all my men out of here.”
Li Du smiled. “Thank you, Boss Old Du, for your understanding. Now then, when will you guys be leaving?”
“When will you give us the money?” Du Enhai inquired.
Li Du pointed at the scattering of bills that lay before them. “Haven’t I already given you the money?”
Du Enhai’s temper rose in a split second and he said, “Boss Zhong, you’re playing dirty right now. I earned every last bit of this cash. How can you use this as part of the deal?”
Li Du laughed as he shook the dice cup. “You really think you earned that? You run a casino. It wouldn’t be nice if I had to spill the beans on you, would it?”
Du Enhai swallowed and fell into deep thought. He then stood up and said, “Alright, give me two days. I will have everything here packed up and ready to be transported out.”
Li Du smiled. “I can’t thank you enough for your cooperation.”
Du Enhai smiled back at him. He then asked Li Du, “You’re here to look for jade ore, right? Just like the previous owner of this mineshaft did?”
Li Du replied, “No, actually. I’m just looking to spend a few days here.”
Du Enhai seemed skeptical of his response and continued, “If you’re planning on doing what I think you are, I’d advise you to drop it. So many people have been to Dena Mountain in search of jade but not even one of them succeeded. A whole bunch of them ended up dead, though.”
As Du Enhai picked up the bills from the floor, he signaled for the dog and gamecock cages to be taken away first. The set-up of his place was simple: the entire expanse of the mining area was fully utilized. The mineshafts of varying sizes became arenas for cockfighting and dogfighting; all they had to do was throw the animals into the shafts. Du Enhai had mentioned earlier that he had had the pits renovated, but he made that up just to try and bargain with Li Du for a better price on the place.
Li Du paid no attention to them as they packed their things up and prepared to leave. He strolled around the perimeter of the mining area and let the little bugs out once again to fly around and check out the situation with the rocks underground. According to Old Thaw, and based on what he found out from Du Enhai, several people aside from the son of the King of Old Hpakant had tried to mine here. However, not a single one of them succeeded in finding jade and ended up losing their lives here. Li Du believed that even if the King’s children were fools or had terrible personalities, they would at least be good with jade. There must have been a reason why they decided to mine in this area.
The process of ore formation was a complicated one and required a combination of factors; it was even more difficult than forming diamonds, which was why jade was so rare and expensive. Jade ore did not exist on its own. It was mostly present in the form of deposits and veins; the body of the ore was composed mostly of veins and bead-like structures that would be distributed on the surface.
In addition, ore bodies of jade came in all shapes and sizes. They could range from anywhere between 10 and 500 meters long, sometimes even stretching on for six kilometers, albeit intermittently. The ore body could be anywhere between three to five meters thick, but it would sometimes be more than 20 meters thick. For example, in mining areas like Hpakant and Huika, the jade veins would stretch on for a significant distance; some areas even had ore bodies going hundreds of meters deep.
In a jade vein, the core of the ore body was a belt of pure jade. From the center out, the jade would morph into albite as it got closer to the walls. Even further out, the albite would become a belt of chlorite. Further yet and it would be surrounded by a belt of peridotite that had heavy traces of serpentinite. In simpler terms, these were the unique features of mountain rocks in a jade mine. For example, one would discover some rocks that had black, green, or yellow outer surfaces, which were the most common features.
However, this was a feature absent from Dena Mountain. The mountain rocks were large and thick and often grayish-white, grayish-yellow, or yellowish-white in color; texture-wise, they seemed like granite and appeared to be completely unrelated to jade in any way. This was the reason why many people eventually left the place empty-handed despite coming all the way to Dena Mountain on the rumor that there was jade here: no matter how you looked at it, it just did not seem like there was a jade vein.
Li Du knew that there was definitely jade here; there was no way Tang Chaoyang would have had the wrong information. The intricate piece of jade carving Li Du had in his hand was definitely from the jade mines of Dena Mountain. On top of that, the vein was marked out on the jade carving, and the location that was marked out aligned with his current surroundings. He sent the little bugs out to canvas the area as he tried to guess where the vein could possibly he hidden.
He did not manage to find a vein just yet, but he did find a mining road. The road was rather long, stretching out for close to 30 meters. It started from one side of the mining area and sloped down to the base of the mountain; the road started from the mining area but people blocked it, so there was no way of discovering the road from within.
Li Du had initially assumed that Du Enhai had the road blocked so he could use the opening of the mining area to host dogfights, but then he thought through things again and realized that could not be the case.
The framework of the mining area was composed of steel bars, wooden boards, and stone slabs so the entire area was rather sturdy. Inside, there was a bunch of tools scattered about: pickaxes, mountain axes, pneumatic hammers, hydraulic hammers, hydraulic shears, and even a remodeled mini excavator. These tools were worth quite a bit so unless Du Enhai had neglected to check the area, there was no way he would have had the cave entrance blocked without taking the tools.
This made sense especially because Du Enhai had come to Wooku Town from Hpakant. He had spent enough time in the town to recognize how much these tools were worth in a mining area, especially the remodeled mini excavator. The excavator comprised a digging arm and an operating console. Though the structure was simple, the workmanship was intricate and it was worth quite a bit.
Through the eyes of the little bugs, Li Du carefully checked the tools. If he were to hazard a guess, he would say that it had been more than a decade since they had been abandoned. Aside from the tools, there were also packing paper and packing bags in the area, all of which had manufacturing dates from 14 years ago. After he examined the items in the mining area, he arranged for the little bugs to continue down the mine.
Finally, when the little bugs delved about 20, 30 meters deep into the mountain rocks, he found a layer of black rock! His heart filled with joy at the sight of this — hard work really did pay off, and this was likely an important discovery. This layer of black rock was a common sight in jade mining areas; it was the infamous black sand rock stratum! The little bugs flew into the black rock and, as he had expected, a deep green filled his vision.
He had been looking in the right direction — there was a jade vein here after all. The sixteenth son of the King of Old Hpakant and several of the jade merchants had received accurate information as well.
The jade was right here in this area but it was buried rather deep in the earth, unlike the jade mines in Hpakant, but that made sense. Hpakant was home to the best jade mines in the world. The deposits were already exposed without the need for reckless excavating, so there was no need to dig deep into the ground to find jade. A top-quality jade mine like that was rare, so it was no surprise the jade mine in Dena Mountain was more difficult to find.
