America: The neighbor's wife is so incredibly hospitable!

"good."

Chen An nodded. "At least they look like people from a legitimate company now. Although they look more like they're there to collect debts."

The bald men around him scratched their heads sheepishly.

"Have you collected all the equipment?" Chen An asked.

"Got it!" Tie Tou patted his waist.

It's bulging there.

In addition to their usual batons, they also have tactical folding knives.

Chen An also equipped them with brand-new stun guns and pepper spray.

This is legitimate security equipment.

Of course, as someone with a gun license, Tie Tou and several core members also carried real weapons.

"Listen carefully to the mission."

Chen An pointed to the direction of the back mountain behind him, where a construction site was booming.

"That area is now a restricted zone."

"Besides me, my people, Robert's people, and workers with my signature, even a squirrel that wants to go in has to be stopped and checked for sex."

"clear!"

"Also," Chen An's gaze turned cold, "if a suspicious vehicle lingers on the highway for more than three minutes, do not attempt to drive it away."

"Take a picture, note the license plate, and then release the dogs."

"If they have a camera, smash the camera and detain them until I handle the situation."

"Yes, boss!"

A group of bald men in suits responded with a roar, then dispersed in an orderly fashion, taking over the various high points around the farm.

………………

10:00 AM.

The back mountain.

The giant bucket of the Caterpillar excavator flips up and down.

In that sunny, sheltered mountain valley, three huge rectangular pits were already taking shape.

This is the "primitive lithium extraction pool" that Chen An planned.

The principle is simple: use a water pump to draw up high-concentration underground brine and inject it into these shallow pools.

The sunlight and wind carry away the moisture, further increasing the concentration of the brine until crude lithium carbonate crystallizes out.

Although it's winter now, efficiency will be much lower.

However, the underground river water itself was already in a supersaturated state.

Even at low temperatures, the crystallization rate is quite impressive.

"That's insane...it's absolutely insane."

Dr. Evans stood to the side, watching the workers lay the black geomembrane.

"I've worked in the geology field for thirty years, and this is the first time I've seen a lithium extraction process that doesn't require building a factory and involves directly 'drying salt' in the snow."

"This is practically... picking up money off the ground."

"This is a miracle of nature, Doctor."

Chen An stood on a rock, holding blueprints in his hand. "And these basic products don't have to worry about selling."

"As long as the purity is high enough, those chemical plants will be scrambling to go back and refine it."

"What we need to do is turn this white powder into green dollars."

Just then, the sound of high heels clicking on the frozen ground came from behind.

Jessica is here.

She truly lived up to her "administrative secretary" persona today.

Although she was on a construction site, she was wearing a pair of thick-soled, tall leather boots.

She tucked her skinny jeans into her boots and wore a fitted down jacket over her waist.

He was still wearing that professional-looking white shirt underneath.

She was holding a folder and a cup of hot tea.

"Boss, tea."

Jessica handed the tea to Chen An, even though she addressed him as "boss" in front of the workers.

But only Chen An could understand the allure hidden in those eyes.

"Um... a delivery drone just delivered a package. There's no sender information."

Jessica took a black box from under the folder.

"I scanned it with a metal detector, and it doesn't contain a bomb."

Chen An took the box.

It's very light.

open.

Inside lay a seemingly ordinary black flip phone and a card.

There were no threatening bloody handprints or cut-out letters on the card.

Only one line of coordinates and a time are printed.

[48°25'N, 114°20'W. Tonight at 8 PM. If you don't want your secret to be known throughout Wall Street.]

The coordinates were at an abandoned dock on the Flathead River, not far from the farm.

"Who sent it?" Jessica asked nervously. "Is it TerraPower again?"

"Perhaps a dog of a higher caliber than Vincent."

Chen An picked up the phone.

The screen lit up, displaying only one contact number.

This is a disposable "burning phone".

The other party is very professional.

Better than Smith, that idiot who only knows how to hire thugs.

Or even Vincent, that hypocrite who only knows how to throw money around, is far more professional.

Because they knew Chen An's biggest weakness.

Although the Pentagon has already endorsed it, a large-scale media exposure would still be problematic.

Or it could be a frame-up for an environmental scandal, enough to plunge the project into endless hearings and investigations.

For capital, time is money.

"I'll go check it out tonight." Chen An put his phone in his pocket and casually took a sip of tea.

"You're going alone?" Jessica exclaimed anxiously. "That's definitely a trap! Take Ironhead and the others with you!"

"Why bring so many people? Are you going to a party?"

Chen An pinched her cheek. "Don't worry. In Montana, no one can outsmart a hunter. Unless he's a bear."

………………

Two o'clock in the afternoon.

Chen An was not idle.

Instead of immediately preparing for his evening "date," he took a stroll around the farm.

Zeus followed behind him the whole time.

When Zeus reached the transformer box near the greenhouse, he suddenly stopped.

He let out a low, uneasy growl towards the utility pole.

"Woof...woof..."

Its nose sniffed the air, and it even scratched at the snow on the ground with some impatience.

"What's wrong, old buddy?"

Chen An crouched down and followed Zeus's gaze.

There were no strangers' footprints. The snow was smooth.

However, Zeus's reaction indicates that something is definitely not right here.

Chen An squinted and carefully observed the utility pole.

This is the node connecting his newly installed solar power system to the backup mains power.

Suddenly, he noticed a tiny black dot on the horizontal arm at the top of the utility pole, a dot that would be easily missed if one didn't look closely.

It's attached to the back of the transformer, only the size of a fingernail, and its color is exactly the same as the transformer's anti-rust paint.

Camouflage.

Chen An did not disturb it.

He turned around and went back into the house, took out the high-powered binoculars he had just bought yesterday, and hid behind the curtains to observe.

That's not bird droppings, nor is it mud.

It was an extremely miniature high-frequency eavesdropping device and signal repeater with solar self-charging capability.

"Heh...interesting."

Chen An put down his binoculars.

This kind of equipment is not something an ordinary private investigator can obtain.

This is equipment of military or high-level commercial espionage grade.

It can not only listen to nearby radio signals, but may even directly infiltrate the farm's Wi-Fi network.

In other words, that package was just a decoy or a bait.

The other side had already infiltrated.

They were either deployed by drones or placed during the previous chaos.