Guan Yingying sat by the bank while Wang Zhuo was in the water; they were giving each other a foot massage when a commotion of laughter and noise drifted over from the distance, several children running towards them.

Guan Yingying quickly straightened up and jumped into the water. Wang Zhuo, worried she might slip, instinctively held onto her, inevitably taking a few extra liberties as he did so—a classic case of taking advantage of the situation.

With a few splashes, the children tumbled into the adjacent pool. The two pools were separated by deliberately planted bushes, combined with the obscuring steam rising from the water, suggesting the children wouldn't notice anyone here, which brought the pair a slight sense of security.

Shedding Wang Zhuo’s attentive embrace, Guan Yingying firmly pushed him under the water, only letting go after a considerable while to let him surface for a breath.

Just then, the children in the next pool suddenly began to argue. The two strained their ears to listen, realizing the dispute was over some beautiful stones they had found. One particular type of stone only had two pieces, which was not enough to divide among the three children.

The arguing children consisted of two girls and one boy; the boy sounded younger, and it seemed he hadn't contributed much to the rock collecting, so the two girls were reluctant to share with him. As the argument escalated, the little boy lost his temper and suddenly flung a stone away.

Coincidentally, that egg-sized stone flew directly towards Wang Zhuo and Guan Yingying’s location. Wang Zhuo reached out and caught it steadily.

The stone felt rough and prickly. Wang Zhuo spread his hand to look and was immediately surprised: this was a mottled piece of Malachite?

Malachite, named for its color similarity to a peacock’s feathers, is also known as 'stone green' or 'Qing Lang Xuan.' This stone is abundant and not inherently valuable, but it is a byproduct of copper ore. Spotting it in a remote wilderness strongly suggested a nearby copper deposit!

Wang Zhuo had owned a piece of Malachite as a child and had read about it in One Hundred Thousand Whys, so he was familiar with the stone. The moment he recognized it, he understood the importance of this discovery.

With a rustle, a little girl pushed through the bushes, only to realize there were people in the adjacent hot spring pool, leaving her momentarily flustered and unsure what to do.

This girl looked about ten years old. She recognized Wang Zhuo and Guan Yingying and quietly hid the stone she was holding behind her back, occasionally glancing at the stone in Wang Zhuo’s hand, appearing as if she wanted to speak but dared not.

The other two children soon caught up. Seeing Wang Zhuo and Guan Yingying, they too quickly hid the stones behind their backs, which left the couple feeling both amused and helpless—did they really think two adults would covet their few pebbles?

Guan Yingying subtly created some distance between herself and Wang Zhuo. Although it was only three children, she felt too embarrassed being seen by outsiders with Wang Zhuo tucked away like this.

The three children held a quick consultation and gradually entered the water, approaching Wang Zhuo. The little boy timidly asked, "Uncle, can we have our stone back?"

Wang Zhuo weighed the piece of Malachite and smiled. "I can return it, but you must also let me see the stones you’re holding, and you have to tell me where you found them."

The children exchanged glances and placed seven or eight stones into the little boy’s hands, presenting them to Wang Zhuo.

Upon inspection, besides another piece of Malachite, the rest were Azurite ore! This copper-rich ore turns a blue-green color when oxidized in the air, displaying beautifully natural patterns, which is why the playing children had collected them as treasures.

One little girl pleaded anxiously, "Auntie and Uncle, can you keep this a secret? Especially, especially don't tell Teacher Sun."

Not telling the adults, especially Sun Jinshan? Wang Zhuo considered for a moment and understood. Copper ore is often toxic, and Sun Jinshan must have warned the children not to play with these stones to prevent contamination of vegetable patches or wells.

"These stones are so pretty," Guan Yingying leaned in, picking up a few, fondling them almost reluctantly.

"You don't recognize these stones?" Wang Zhuo asked.

"I recognize these two; they are Malachite," Guan Yingying laughed. "I don't know the others; I've never seen them before."

Seeing her natural expression, Wang Zhuo immediately concluded she only knew one facet of the truth. She certainly didn't know the background of the Malachite, nor what finding it here implied!

Considering this place was an isolated paradise, with very little modern influence, the origin of this Malachite could not be external. This meant there must be an unknown copper mine nearby.

"Where did you find these stones? Can you take me to find some too?"

When Wang Zhuo asked, the children’s faces clouded over. One girl said, "It's very far; it takes a long walk."

The little boy suddenly interjected, "Teacher Sun said these stones are poisonous and told us not to tell outsiders, or go there." He quickly added, "Uncle, you and Auntie are helping us fix the school, so you aren't outsiders."

"These stones are poisonous?" Guan Yingying looked skeptical. Seeing the water in her hand stained blue-green after touching the stones, she started to believe it.

"They are poisonous," Wang Zhuo nodded, taking the stones back from her hand. He turned to the three children and said, "I will keep this secret for you, but I must confiscate the stones. You must also do some work for me, or I’ll tell Teacher Sun."

The three children immediately begged, sincerely promising to do any amount of work, but not to let the adults know.

Having successfully conscripted labor, the three children nervously dressed. Wang Zhuo carefully packed the stones into his socks, then covered them with his underwear, securing the bundle with several knots to ensure absolute safety.

Guan Yingying watched him, baffled. Wang Zhuo gave her a wry smile and said, "Later, you take those two girls to pick flowers for Sister. Make sure you strongly instruct them not to tell anyone about this, understand?"

"What are you going to do?" Guan Yingying asked.

"I’m going with the little boy to see where they found the stones. This matter is important; I'll explain everything when I get back. Children from the mountains have strong legs; if they say it's far, the journey will definitely not be short."

After walking a distance, the little boy’s stamina began to flag. Wang Zhuo was prepared and immediately picked him up, carrying him forward.

The journey involved climbing over ridges, crossing gullies, and fording streams; there was no sign of human trails anymore. Wang Zhuo surmised that finding wild animals like wolves or bears here would be no surprise.

Finally, they reached the destination: a mountain hollow where a section of the mountainside had experienced a landslide, exposing the bedrock beneath over two meters of topsoil. That exposed rock covered an area roughly twenty meters long and three to four meters high, mottled with pale blue-green hues—the unmistakable color of oxidized copper.

Undoubtedly, this was a copper deposit exposed on the surface.

Approaching closer, it was evident that this rock face had not been exposed for too long; the nearby vegetation retained the appearance it had before the landslide. Wang Zhuo paused, then asked, "Xiaokang, has your village had any earthquakes in recent years?"

Xiaokang immediately nodded, counting on his fingers. "It shook the year I was four. I’m seven now, so it must have been three years ago! The pigsty at the school collapsed then, and it even broke the front leg of a pig."

This suggested the tremor wasn't severe. Wang Zhuo nodded slightly, concluding that the slope must have slipped then. Three years is not long for this isolated village, so the news likely hadn't leaked yet.

At the base of the slope, there were footprints left by the children—clearly Xiaokang and the others from their visit yesterday. The Malachite and Azurite had been found here. Seeing the loose stones on the slope, ready to fall at any moment, Wang Zhuo realized it was genuinely dangerous for children to play here.

Telling Xiaokang to wait in a safe place far away, Wang Zhuo circled around to the edge of the slope and dug out several pieces of ore from beneath the loose soil. He knocked off the dust and carried them down.

These stones were dense and heavy in his hand. Under the sunlight, the copper ore crystals were fine, shimmering with a faint metallic luster—a characteristic of rich ore. Wang Zhuo suppressed his excitement and activated his Clairvoyance to peer closely into the minerals.

As expected, the copper content within the ore reached around forty percent! This meant one kilogram of ore could yield four hundred grams of pure copper—this was a rich ore among rich ores, a super-rich deposit!

He pocketed two small fragments, tossed the larger pieces back into place, and swiftly climbed back to the top of the slope. He closed his eyes, centered his energy for several seconds, and then slowly opened them, gazing out at the rolling landscape opposite.

He gazed for over ten minutes. The little boy, Meng Kang, waited quietly nearby, his impression of Uncle Wang’s tall, imposing figure etched deeply in his mind.

In the direction Wang Zhuo was looking, two to three meters beneath the topsoil, lay a thick layer of mineral rock, three to five meters deep. It extended about eight hundred meters ahead, and he couldn't see the end to the left.

The excessive use of his ability left Wang Zhuo dizzy. After resting his eyes for a moment, he walked back to sit beside Meng Kang and pulled out his phone to calculate.

Using an average thickness of four meters for the mineral layer, and tentatively estimating the area as eight hundred by eight hundred meters, that was 640,000 square meters multiplied by four meters, totaling 2.56 million cubic meters.

The specific gravity of copper is 8.9 tons per cubic meter. Wang Zhuo didn't know the specific gravity of copper ore, so he used a rough estimate of five, yielding an estimated figure of 12.8 million tons.

Wang Zhuo didn't know how to calculate further. He had no idea what the value of ten million tons of rich copper ore was, and there was no cell signal here to search online, so he had to stop for the time being.

Standing up, just as he was about to explore how vast this mineral vein truly was, he heard Meng Kang’s stomach rumbling loudly. Wang Zhuo realized it was already past one in the afternoon; he had been so consumed by the copper ore that he had forgotten lunch.

If they returned too late, it might draw unwanted attention from Meng Kang’s parents. Wang Zhuo immediately decided: they must go back first!