At five in the morning, Jiang Ye woke up.
He glanced at Isabel sleeping soundly beside him.
Jiang Ye quietly got up, not wanting to disturb her, and headed out with his shovel.
He decided to clear a runway in the southeast corner of the base.
After a night of cold wind, the accumulated snow had become firm.
The surface layer of snow was still relatively soft, but the snow at the bottom was almost frozen into ice.
Jiang Ye swung his shovel, first clearing away the surface snow, then striking the thick snow closer to the ground.
The workload was immense. After more than two hours of work, only half of the runway had been cleared.
Isabel pushed open the base window and sneezed.
Jiang Ye looked back at her. "You're awake?"
"What do you want for breakfast?" Isabel asked loudly, rubbing her eyes.
"Anything!" Jiang Ye replied.
Half an hour later, Isabel pushed open the window again. "Come eat!"
Jiang Ye happily returned to the base.
Breakfast was a light winter melon and bear meat soup, mostly broth with only a few small slices of bear meat.
Both of them ate and drank in silence.
As they were finishing, Isabel spoke, "Can you check the logistics information? If headquarters sends someone to rescue me, they might send you a message."
"Okay." Jiang Ye immediately got up and opened the base panel.
He hadn't expected any new messages so early in the morning, but to his surprise, there was one!
[Courier Chen Xiongmao requests to add you as a friend]
The message had arrived an hour ago.
Jiang Ye accepted it without hesitation.
As soon as the friend request was accepted, a message came through, suggesting they had been waiting.
Courier Chen Xiongmao: "Hello, did you order a rotorcraft, but the delivery spaceship crashed and you haven't received it yet?"
Jiang Ye: "That's right."
Courier Chen Xiongmao: "Has the courier from the crashed spaceship contacted you? We want to confirm the safety and location of the previous courier."
Jiang Ye: "Don't worry, she's safe now and staying at my base. When can you guys come?"
Courier Chen Xiongmao: "Around tomorrow afternoon. We'll contact you an hour and a half in advance. Thank you for helping our company's courier. We've transferred 100,000 yuan as a thank-you fee. Please feel free to contact us if you have any problems. Your cargo will be delivered tomorrow afternoon."
Jiang Ye: "Oh, okay."
He quickly checked his personal account.
Sure enough, there was an extra 100,000 yuan!
"The person picking you up will arrive tomorrow afternoon," Jiang Ye said, turning back.
"Who's picking me up?" Isabel breathed a sigh of relief.
"His name is Chen Xiongmao, also a courier. Is he your colleague?" Jiang Ye asked.
Upon hearing the name, Isabel's relieved expression faltered, and her expression turned strange.
"Yes," Isabel nodded with a heavy heart. "You go ahead and work. Thank you."
Jiang Ye guessed there was a hidden story, but it didn't concern him much. He picked up his shovel and went back to continue building the rotorcraft runway.
It wasn't until ten in the morning that the runway was completed.
It was seventy meters long and fifteen meters wide.
He also built smooth ramps at both ends of the runway to facilitate the takeoff and landing of the rotorcraft.
With the aircraft runway finished, Jiang Ye returned to the base for a short rest.
Isabel was playing with the subwoofer, and the free broadcast was playing a soothing piano piece.
"Check out the runway. Is it up to standard?" Jiang Ye asked.
Isabel stood up and looked out the window. "It's fine, more than enough. But with blizzards covering most of this planet, you'll need to build a landing strip at your destination if you want to fly anywhere, won't you?"
"No rush," Jiang Ye waved his hand. "Once the rotorcraft arrives, I'll test fly it for a few days. Once I learn how, I'll think about flying to distant places."
"It's very simple. There's just a joystick, a steering wheel, and the throttle and brakes," Isabel said. "These small rotorcraft are very rare, easy-to-use vehicles. You don't need a license to fly them."
"Then I'm relieved," Jiang Ye nodded.
After a short rest, he went to the Galaxy Mall and bought a dose of stamina enhancer, injecting it into himself.
Grabbing an empty sack and his shovel, he left the base again.
He descended into the mine pit next to the base and began mining.
The ore had a layer of small ice crystals, the formation of which was unknown. Fortunately, they weren't thick and fell off with a slight tap.
Jiang Ye skillfully alternated between using his pickaxe and shovel, advancing downwards.
As he dug, he noticed that black and red silver-antimony ore also began to appear on the four walls.
And they weren't small, scattered stones, but massive rocks the size of cartwheels, embedded in the soil, appearing in large chunks, a truly magnificent sight!
At the same time, the smell of ore that entered his nostrils became increasingly concentrated and pure.
Jiang Ye's heart raced. He knew this mine might be substantial.
He decided to excavate a horizontal tunnel underground.
First, he would identify the location with the richest ore content by sniffing the air.
Then, he would determine the dimensions of the tunnel: two meters high and one point two meters wide, similar to the base door, more than enough for a person to pass through.
He raised his pickaxe and began to strike with all his might.
The quality of the pickaxe head was excellent. After so many forceful blows, sparks flying and a clanging sound, it remained unbroken.
Rocks and ore of all sizes, along with cold soil, were chipped and broken off.
Jiang Ye had prepared two sacks: one for waste soil and the other for ore.
When the waste soil sack was full, he climbed up and dumped it in a distant location.
When the ore sack was full, he carried it back to the base to unload and sell.
Isabel, bored in the base, also put on her down jacket and came out to help Jiang Ye carry the sacks.
When selling the ore, she would glance at the screen.
After a few glances, she exclaimed,
"You make money so fast!"
Jiang Ye raised an eyebrow. "Tens of thousands a day, is that fast?"
Isabel stared at him with a look of disbelief. "Tens of thousands a day, just like that? Is that how you use the word 'just'?"
"How much do you earn a month?" Jiang Ye retorted.
"Including bonuses, benefits, and salary, it's about three million."
Jiang Ye nodded slightly. So her salary wasn't that high either.
In fact, Jiang Ye's concept of wealth had become completely distorted. He made money from mining so quickly that large sums of money were commonplace to him. It was similar to setting a small goal: to earn a hundred million.
Isabel's salary was actually quite high, allowing for a very luxurious life, and would be envied by many. But in Jiang Ye's eyes, it was just so-so.
He was completely unaware of this, instead feeling that his hard-earned mining income was meager and humble.
At noon, the two of them fried a few slices of bear meat and ate half a frozen watermelon.
After eating, Isabel went for a nap, while Jiang Ye diligently continued to mine underground.
As he dug, he felt that his decision to excavate a horizontal tunnel was correct.
The silver-antimony ore underground was quite extensive. If he had excavated a simple, crude open-pit mine instead of a horizontal tunnel, it would have taken several times longer.