Chapter 950 One Process After Another (1/2)

Without Sophie, everything in the mine became much more normal. The workers were either lazing around or going about their business. Few people cared about Li Du and his gang.

The people in charge of the mine followed the lion hunter. The miners were not afraid of them at all. When they appeared, those who were previously working were still working and those who were lazy were still idling.

The people in charged shouted at random, no matter whether it was relevant or not. Their job was done once they finished shouting.

After a visit to the mine pit, Li Du decided to go out for a breath. It was too depressing. He couldn't blame the workers for being crazy. If he were to work here for any length of time, he would go crazy too.

They went out, and the lion hunter handed him a cigar and said, smiling, ”What do you think, man?”

”This is crazy. This job is torture,” sighed Li Du.

The lion hunter said ruthlessly, ”If you don't have a choice, you will take any job to make money. Besides, do you think this is crazy? If you keep going north or look at those diamond mines in the west, you'll see that my place is like heaven.”

Li Du was surprised. ”So, what goes on in those diamond mines?”

The lion hunter smiled and said, ”Go and have a look if you have a chance, Li. I've got some guys who escaped from there. They're having a good time working here.”

After a few seconds, he added, ”No matter what, diamond mining is never easy. It can make one crazy. So I had to pay my workers more, which increased the cost of mining. I mean, now you probably understand why the price of diamonds is going up continuously,” said the lion hunter slyly.

Li Du acknowledged that diamond mining was a torturous business, but as for the mine owners improving the treatment of their employees? He didn't believe it.

The diamond mining process was very meticulous. When the ore was collected, there was a special staff responsible for picking it up.

They only visited the gathering process, and then there were other activities, which they observed under the guidance of the lion hunter.

Diamonds were rarely found directly by human eyes, because diamonds were too small to detect in the dark underground unless they were stones of a few dozen carats. In all other cases, they were screened by machines.

When they left the mine in a lift to return to the surface, they would pass through a checkpoint like the ones in airports, where machines scan people. This was to prevent miners from smuggling diamonds out, which they tried desperately to do.

”They hide the stones in their mouths, stuff them in their ass, pinch them with their toes, and even swallow them. The craziest guy I've ever seen, do you know what he did?”

”What did he do?”

The lion hunter shook his head and said, ”He was such a crazy bastard that he made a hole in his leg with his shovel, hid the diamond in it, and cried for help with blood running down.”

”And what happened in the end?” asked Li Du.

The lion hunter took a puff at his cigar and smiled. ”Oh, no, I can't go on, and you won't want to know the final outcome.”

Li Du did not press him, as he knew it must be a terrible thing. These mine owners would do anything in order to protect their property and teach their employees a lesson.

They were supposed to go to the screening workshop first, but it was so chaotic and dusty that the lion hunter decided to skip the step.

”There's nothing to see,” he explained. ”They use the different wave penetration of diamonds and Kimberley for the analysis. When they find a diamond, they break the ore. That the whole process. ”