The village of Taoyuan was shrouded in a thin mist after the rain, and walking on the slate-paved path felt like stepping into a painting.

Word had spread that the esteemed guests had arrived, and villagers, young and old, streamed out to greet them. They surrounded Wang Zhuo and his party like stars orbiting the moon.

Since the new gravel road was finished, the outlook of the Taoyuan people had transformed completely. Many children and women had seen a motor vehicle for the first time, used a telephone, watched television, ridden in a car, and realized just how vast the world was, filled with countless things they had never heard of or seen.

"Uncle Wang Zhuo."

A pretty young girl squeezed through the crowd at the edge of the gathering. It was Meng Shengnan, the second daughter of the village head, Meng Mingliang.

Meng Shengnan was fifteen, with delicate arched eyebrows and almond-shaped eyes, of average height, and bore a slight resemblance to an actress who had once played the Little Dragon Maiden. In the secluded Taoyuan Village, girls were permitted to marry at sixteen. Though young, it was already time for her to be considered for marriage.

"It's Shengnan," Guan Yingying took Meng Shengnan's hand and asked with a smile, "Did your father say when they'll be back?"

"Not until it gets dark," Meng Shengnan replied, a smile playing on her lips. "The village has electricity now, so it doesn't matter how late they come home."

Meng Mingliang had taken a team of young and strong laborers to the mining area to work as manual laborers. Ever since the road construction began, the Taoyuan Village had organized such a labor force. Once the road was finished, they moved on to work at the mine site. The villagers were extremely satisfied with this source of income.

"Home when it gets dark?" Wang Zhuo was momentarily taken aback. "Won't they be in danger on the road? Aren't there wild beasts in the mountains?"

"Daddy isn't afraid," Meng Shengnan proudly puffed out her still-developing chest. "There are over twenty of them, and they have weapons. Wolves and wild boars wouldn't dare bother them."

Wang Zhuo chuckled inwardly. Their so-called weapons were likely nothing more than a few heavy chopping knives and wooden clubs. However, the Taoyuan people had grown up in the mountains their whole lives; a group of over twenty men surely wouldn't fear wild beasts.

Only a few years ago, hungry wolves had actually entered the village looking for food. The Taoyuan people had lived this way for generations. Those two large cages used to restrain the human traffickers were originally made to protect the piglets from wolves; every household used to have such items.

Checking the time, it was noon, twelve o'clock. Walking from the village to the mining area took two hours, but only half an hour by car. So, Wang Zhuo wasn't in a hurry to leave. He planned to eat in the village first and rest a while.

Led by Meng Shengnan, Wang Zhuo, Qi Fei, Guan Yingying, and Lu Weimin headed toward Village Head Meng Mingliang's house. The four female bodyguards stayed behind to watch the vehicles. CEO Qi had said the villagers were friends, and they could take the Range Rover for a spin.

After walking a short distance, Wang Zhuo noticed many new things in the village that hadn't been there before, prompting him to ask, "Shengnan, when did your family buy a television?"

"Last month," Meng Shengnan replied happily. "As soon as the power was connected, the county leaders came and helped us arrange for appliances to be delivered to the countryside. Many households in the village earned money from building the road and bought them together—they called it... group purchasing."

The Taoyuan people were using group purchasing? Wang Zhuo exchanged a look with the two women, and they all burst into laughter.

"The appliance company technician said our village has too much fog, and the iron pot lids rust easily, so they replaced them for free with a higher-grade composite material lid," Meng Shengnan chuckled. "I didn't understand what they were saying, and neither did Dad."

"Pot lids? You mean satellite dishes," Lu Weimin looked around and indeed spotted a satellite dish, about thirty centimeters in diameter, mounted on a utility pole.

"Yes, yes, they are called satellite dishes," Meng Shengnan nodded. "We can receive over thirty channels. Everyone says there are too many channels; they can't watch them all."

What a fortunate complaint... Wang Zhuo thought. City folk with eighty channels still complained they couldn't find a program they liked, yet the Taoyuan people were perfectly content with just over thirty. Perhaps this was simple happiness.

Guan Yingying playfully asked, "Has anyone in the village ever fought over the remote control?"

"No?" Meng Shengnan asked back, confused. "Why would anyone fight over a remote control?"

Guan Yingying laughed. "For example, if you want to watch the movie channel, but your father wants to watch the agricultural channel, wouldn't that cause an argument?"

"I can go to a neighbor's house to watch what I like," Meng Shengnan said as a matter of course. "There are over seventy households in the village, and currently only about twenty TVs. Every family watches different channels. If you want to watch a specific channel, you just go to that house."

Wang Zhuo immediately pictured a scene: every evening, Taoyuan Village turned into a bustling marketplace, with several guests in every home that owned a television. When an advertisement interrupted a program, everyone would rush to another house to catch a different show, or perhaps use the break to use the restroom. What a lively spectacle that must have been.

When they arrived at Meng Mingliang’s house, just as Wang Zhuo had predicted, several older sisters-in-law and young wives were sitting in the room with the television, doing handicrafts while watching a soap opera—working and relaxing at the same time. They seemed quite content with life.

After having a meal at Meng Mingliang's house and chatting with Sister-in-law Meng for a while, Wang Zhuo and the others finally set off, heading straight for the Taoyuan Copper Mine area.

If this route were a straight line, it would be very close. When Wang Zhuo first took the little boy, Xiao Kang, from the hot springs behind the peach forest to the mine on foot, it only took a little over an hour. Starting from the village, even walking would take no more than two hours. However, this path was entirely mountainous. Due to time constraints, the tunnel through the mountain and the viaduct across the valley had not yet been built. Currently, there was only a temporary gravel switchback road, and not even safety railings had been installed; cars simply could not gain speed.

Crawling along for over forty minutes, they finally reached the Taoyuan Copper Mine site. Qi Fei felt dizzy, his face pale and legs weak; Wang Zhuo had to give him a steadying hand when he got out of the car.

Guan Yingying also couldn't stop feeling nauseous, wryly saying, "If I had known, we should have brought the RV; it would have been much smoother."

Wang Zhuo shook his head with a smile. "I think it’s better we didn't. This road is quite dangerous. It's manageable with someone who knows the way, but if we had driven straight in, we might have ended up tumbling into a ravine."

"Wang Zhuo is right; this road is indeed difficult," Lu Weimin jumped out of the car and walked over, sighing. "After transferring from the army back to civilian life, this is the twistiest road I've encountered yet."

While the four were chatting, Li Mengling in the rear car also got out and walked over. Just then, two vehicles approached rapidly from the mine site—it seemed the reception team had arrived.

The two welcoming vehicles were a Jeep and a pickup truck, both domestically produced vehicles that weren't overly expensive, perfectly suited for the conditions at the mine. Wang Zhuo had already spoken with the mine management by phone en route. The welcoming party consisted of Yan Xiaopeng, the General Manager of Shengshi Dynasty Mining Company, and Chief Engineer Gong Qiang.

Although Wang Zhuo and his group held higher ranks than Yan Xiaopeng and Gong Qiang, here, the latter two were the true managers. Wang Zhuo and his party only had the right to offer suggestions and advice; interfering with specific operations was inappropriate.

Yan Xiaopeng was a lean middle-aged man slightly taller than average. Gong Qiang was over sixty, hired by Shengshi Dynasty after retiring from a state-owned enterprise. He was an international-level expert in this field—a rare and indispensable professional talent. Therefore, Wang Zhuo held great respect for the old man.

To put it crudely, these two were the ones helping him make money. How could he not treat these two little gods of wealth with deference?

Since they were all acquainted, there was little need for formal introductions. Yan Xiaopeng personally moved the roadblock aside and invited Wang Zhuo into his Jeep. The four cars then drove straight into the mining area.

"Chairman Wang, this is your first visit, right?" Yan Xiaopeng said with a smile. "You've arrived at the perfect time. We are cutting the ribbon and commencing operations the day after tomorrow, so you can supervise and guide our work."

"Guiding is a stretch, but I can certainly supervise," Wang Zhuo joked. "However, I only have a superficial understanding of this field, so please don't laugh if I say something wrong."

Gong Qiang, standing nearby, gave an approving thumbs-up. "Chairman Wang is certainly a straightforward person."

"Let's go up to the slope to take a look first," Yan Xiaopeng signaled, turned the steering wheel, and drove up a large mound of earth on a side road.

The initial phase of development at the Taoyuan Copper Mine involved excavating half of a small mountain. The preliminary construction had stripped away the topsoil from this mound, exposing the ore veins and bedrock underneath. This large earthen mound was formed from the removed soil. Driving the Jeep to the top of the mound gave a panoramic view of the first phase construction site of the Taoyuan Copper Mine.

Drizzling rain dotted the sky. The top of the slope was a relatively flat area of about a hundred square meters, where two cars were already parked. Three people stood at the edge of the mound: one person holding a large sun umbrella against the rain, and the other two taking photographs of the mining area.

"They are reporters from the Provincial Daily," Yan Xiaopeng introduced to Wang Zhuo. "They are doing advanced reporting to prepare the news articles."

Wang Zhuo looked up at the sky and remarked, "In this kind of weather, the photos probably won't look very aesthetic."

Yan Xiaopeng nodded. "What we fear most now is rain the day after tomorrow; that would affect the effect of the ribbon-cutting ceremony."

Guan Yingying said with a smile, "Wouldn't news of the Provincial Party Secretary attending the commencement ceremony in the rain also be quite good?"

"That does have a point," Yan Xiaopeng agreed with a slight smile.

Looking down from this earth mound, there was a wide valley ahead. The contour of the ground resembled an arc where a massive spherical meteor had just grazed past, leaving behind a curved trough. The edge of the copper mine vein started here and extended into the valley. Beneath the slope, roughly several acres of surface had been stripped away, revealing the ore layer below—the scene was magnificent.

Dozens of brand-new dump trucks were parked in two neat rows around the perimeter of the construction site. These large trucks, commonly known as muck haulers, were robust, powerful, and stable; they would continuously transport the ore to Liuhe County in the future.

The figures in the rain looked like indistinct small dots. As Wang Zhuo gazed into the distance, he suddenly spotted a concentration of many people far off, as if something was happening there.