Witch, Open Your Eyes

Witch, Open Your Eyes Chapter 61: Fifth day Part Four

Un-edited so please don’t kill me if you find anything wrong, please gently commenting so I can fix it. Thank you.

“My surname is not Niu, my surname is Yan and my name is Yan Xinyue.” Niu Xinyan put her hands on her face and sniffed. She was indeed a beauty, with thin eyebrows, plump cheeks and the right nose shape. Her temperament is gentle and she usually speaks softly. No wonder Du Wei and Du Chaosheng, father and son, both came close to her, the tears that fell under her thin single eyelid is like a broken moon. Even Fang Daichuan, who was used to showbiz, felt something when he saw the scene.

On the other hand, Li Sinian was unmoved. With indifference, he frequently looked at his watch with a cold expression.

Yan Xinyue and Niu Nahan are university alumni, Niu Nahan being seven years older than her. By the time she was a sophomore, Niu had already graduated from school, completed a master’s degree at Moscow University, moved on to do a PhD in Switzerland, and worked for Rio Tinto* for a while before returning to China to join their geological survey office.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Tinto_(corporation)

(T/N : Alright so Rio Tinto are real mining company but for the geological survey office the translation are ‘local survey office’ so when I try to find I don’t get any names so I just use ‘geological survey office’ which come from China Geological Survey (CGS) just for consistency since Rio Tinto is real company.)

Geological exploration is all input and no output, except for the large mining companies who will take over the business from exploration to mining and then sales, in China, more exploration institutes are scientific exploration that use state funding.

At that time, Niu Nahan was already well established in the exploration institute, and was already the head of an exploration team at a young age and was also a visiting scholar* at a comprehensive university. With a beautiful degree and an excellent CV, he was rightly invited by his alma mater to come back and give a lecture to his undergraduates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visiting_scholar

In a specialised college with a major in geology, the lectures given by such excellent people naturally attracted everyone to listen to. Yan Xinyue met Niu Nahan at that time.

Compared to some of the applied science institutes next door, there is really not much money to be made in a geological survey. China’s current national policy is to use as many imported resources as possible and the resources buried underneath its own ground, even if they are really explored, are not dug up, and even if they are, private mining companies are not allowed to start. Even if they did, they wouldn’t allow private mining companies to do it. A geological survey institute would even get a pitiful rebate for bidding.

Niu Nahan was not a man who settled for less. Of course, he was a good scientist and a good businessman, but no one says that someone who is a good scientist and a good businessman has to be a man who settles for less.

He began to find ways to make money from the projects he was working on.

——Make use of scientific research funds to carry out private exploration and then secretly sell the exploration report to interested businessmen. When the state does not know the value buried under the land, it can quickly obtain the land development right and earn huge subsidies* from the state.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/subsidy.asp#:~:text=A%20subsidy%20is%20a%20direct,to%20achieve%20greater%20economic%20efficiency.

Or secretly explore some overseas areas, find land with investment value, and provide this information to mining companies or real estate tycoons.

In short, there are endless ways to make money.

Du Chaosheng has a close relationship with this exploration institute. He and Niu Nahan are old friends. One of them has capital and the other has technology. Relying on the imbalance of public information, they have made a lot of money. At its peak, Du Chaosheng’s overseas investment was so high that he was interviewed many times by the SAFE.

https://www.tradecommissioner.gc.ca/china-chine/control-controle.aspx?lang=eng

Until he came across this island.

“This small island was first discovered by Li Heng,” Yan Xinyue looked at Li Sinian. “He realised that there was a diamond mine under the island, and immediately flew back to China to submit an application for exploration.”

The application was approved quickly and Niu Nahan personally led the team to fly over for exploration. The preliminary report showed that there is a huge diamond vein mine buried underneath the island, with a slightly smaller reserve than the Diavik mine in Canada*, with a preliminary estimate of nearly eight years to mine. Due to the difficulty of mining undersea veins, the annual production value is probably not as high as that of the world’s largest diamond mines, but even so, the annual profit is estimated to be nearly US$50 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diavik_Diamond_Mine

This is a genuine diamond-encrusted mine.

Niu Nahan had just received the preliminary exploration report and immediately gave it to Du Chaosheng. Of course the intention is to make money together. As a result, Du Chaosheng flew overnight to the island and submitted a purchase application to the local government.

The island was nominally part of a small island nation but it was 800 battles away* from the island and not an inherent territory, so the approval was quickly granted and apart from a 20 nautical mile marine economic zone*, the right to develop and use the island itself was indeed secured.

(T/N : Alright so, author use [八百仗远, Bābǎi zhàng yuǎn] and I use dictionary, Baidu it and it keeps giving me ‘800 battles away’ so… 800 battleship put together? Well, I am used to reading weird measure systems so oh well no biggie.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusive_economic_zone

What happened after that, Niu Nahan never spoke to his wife again.

“Later, I didn’t know what happened, he said that he lost money. Du Chaosheng’s business shrunk so much that the island was sold to another businessman. Later, I heard that the businessman was also bankrupt. I don’t know why. Later he complained that whoever buys this island will go bankrupt. One day that person came over and said that he had something to discuss with Brother Nan and the two of them made an appointment to go out, who knows…” Having said that, Yan Xinyue lowered her head and tears came down to the knuckle of her right index finger. “Who knows how, when they got on the subway. They fell off the platform and they were both crushed to death.”

She lowered her head and cried for a while, saying, “That’s all I know.”

Fang Daichuan saw that she was emotionally unstable and sighed: “Forget it, what clues can we get from talking like this? Let’s go down and talk about who set the fire in detail.”

It’s getting late, and if you didn’t go now, you would miss the time to swipe the card. Fang Daichuan helped Niu Xinyan to stand up, and Niu Xinyan held her child firmly.

They were wounded and weak, so they walked slowly, with Li Sinian and Fang Daichuan a few steps behind.

Fang Daichuan couldn’t help but sigh with emotion: “How difficult things are in the world… Alas, you can live well, your wife is gentle and beautiful, your son is cute and lovely, Niu Nahan himself is a young talent, a scientist, why so desperate?”

After listening to Fang Daichuan’s words, Li Sinian raised his head and glanced at him, with an expression ‘you never learn’, carrying a motionless look, he shook his head helplessly: “I said…you’re really gullible.”

(T/N : For some reason author use [carry不动的表情] so just a note that there is English word on raw here)

Fang Daichuan was stunned.

Li Sinian followed his gaze and looked at the mother and son in front of him, his eyes were sarcastic, cold sneer hung on the corner of his mouth, he whispered, “Think about it, if what she said was true, then is there any reason she would come to this island courting death?”

——Downstairs, everyone has been seated in a group. Ding Zihui, who has been missing for a night, has also returned. She has some sand on her body and looks as usual.

Because of the previous speculation, Fang Daichuan looked at her carefully, saw that she was wearing a spf scarf and one corner was wrapped around her right hand.

Fang Daichuan looked at her while swiping his card.

He can be considered as a fashion-forward all year round. Although he can’t be said to set a trend, he still has the fashion sense. He is sure it must be the pretentious boss that prepared the scarves and sunglasses in the room, probably for everyone to have an open-air beach party. However, Ding Zihui did not dress in this style before.

Yang Song is tall and tall and likes to wear a halter dress and a large scarf. Niu Xinyan also likes to wear a long thin coat over her pyjamas, all giving the intellectual or slightly sexy look.

Ding Zihui has always been in shorts and T-shirts, how could he suddenly wear a scarf?

Is it because she feels cold when she goes out at night?

That is what Fang Daichuan thought and it was inevitable that he was a little distracted when he swiped his card.

Last night… Fang Daichuan felt as if he had forgotten something, he tapped his forehead and shook his head.

“No good!” Fang Daichuan gasped as he suddenly remembered something.

Li Sinian was lost in thought, not knowing what he was thinking, when he was startled by him and turned his head to look at him, only to see him with a cold face, gritting his teeth in frustration.

Li Sinian cast a quizzical look.

Fang Daichuan avoided the ears of the crowd and moved up extremely close to Li Sinian, one side of his face could almost kiss the tiny hairs on the other’s face.

However, neither of them had the time to be distracted, because Fang Daichuan came over and asked in a low voice at the base of his ear, “Did you check someone last night?!”

His voice was urgent with deep guilt.

Li Sinian was frozen for a moment, and after a while he spat out a word tremblingly: “I was going…”

– It is a disaster.