My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 109 An experienced driver!
"What's so great about it? It's all out of necessity. I've been panning for gold for three years now. I spent two years in the West Sea and one year here. This is my fourth year."

Li Guozhu took out a pack of Honglian cigarettes from his pocket and handed one to each of Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang: "The more you see, the more experience you gain. Those petty thieves don't dare to rob in broad daylight; choosing nighttime shows that they are guilty and afraid of being seen. If you make a big fuss, they naturally won't dare to stay."

He paused for a moment, then asked, "Was everything alright at your mine that night?"

"No, the dogs started barking before they even got close to the mine. They were on guard, so they didn't dare to come down."

Zhou Jingming brushed it off, but in his heart he was thinking: the gold rush valley in the West Sea is even more chaotic, and the gold prospectors who are forged there are always different.

"Brothers, it's a rare treat for you to come all this way. Don't rush back. You must have a good drink here tonight..."

Before Zhou Jingming could reply, he turned around and shouted at the mine site, "Wang Dong, go cook! Bring out your best skills and prepare a good meal!"

"Okay... Alright!"

A young man who was transporting materials responded. He pulled the ore from the cart to the chute, dumped it out, pulled the cart back, handed it to another person, washed his hands in the river, and went back to his dugout.

Zhou Jingming was a little embarrassed: "Wouldn't this be too much trouble?"

Li Guozhu laughed heartily: "How could that be? I like making friends. When friends come, there's no trouble. Are you being so polite to me because you don't want to be friends with me?"

"Yes, of course I do!"

Li Guozhu was even better than Zhou Jingming had imagined. He had come with the intention of making friends, so why would he refuse?

"Would it be convenient to visit the mine site?"

"What's inconvenient about that? Your mine is much better than ours. You wouldn't dare rob me, would you... Just kidding. Come on, let's go up and take a look!"

Li Guozhu led the way forward, walking towards the small peninsula, saying as he went, "This mining site must have been mined last year. When I came to scout it out, I saw a large sand pit on it, and I didn't even want to test the sand there. But as I passed by, I saw some gold on the pile of waste material that had been washed before. Upon closer inspection, I found a gold bean the size of a broad bean in a crack in the rock."

Now I was really interested. I found a stick and probed the depth of the water in the sandpit. I found that it was only waist-deep. So I put on my waders and scooped some mud and sand out of the sandpit. I used a gold bean to shake it out of the pit to take a look, but I only saw a tiny bit of gold foam.

They scooped up some more mud and sand from the middle and found that there was more mud than gravel.

As you probably know, where there is gold, gravel, sand, and mud are all indispensable.

The mud is showing, so it's almost certain that this is the base plate.

I was quite disappointed at the time, thinking that since it had been previously purchased by someone else, there probably wouldn't be much left, so I was prepared to move on to another place.

When I came out and looked around, I realized something was wrong...

At this point, Li Guozhu pointed to the riverbank next to him and continued, "I think the bottom of the sand pit is not much lower than the river surface, which is a bit unreasonable. The silt accumulated in such a place should be quite thick."

I immediately realized that the layer of mud might have been burned by fire.

They dug again and found that it really was…

"Fire-scorched" is a colloquial term used by gold prospectors to refer to a type of mud belt sandwiched in the middle of a sand layer.

To put it bluntly, it's a fake clay-based base.

In fact, Li Guozhu's situation was the same as Lao Tang's.

Beneath this fake muddy base lies the true gold-rich layer.

Zhou Jingming smiled and said, "That just means that these gold pieces are destined for Brother Li. Someone already helped you remove the surface mud and sand last year, making the panning process much easier."

Since he had encountered a false base, Zhou Jingming believed that the gold content of Li Guozhu's mining site was probably no worse than that of the small peninsula he was guarding.

Of course, these were just casual remarks; it was impossible to ask for too much detail.

Asking how much gold someone else has found is a major taboo in the gold mining business.

This was only the third time the two had met. Even though Li Guozhu had once saved his nephew, he said they should be friends, but that didn't mean their relationship was really close enough for them to talk about anything.

To a large extent, Li Guozhu was just saying it casually.

As expected, the floodwaters submerged the small peninsula. The sandpits were filled with silt, and the workers were repairing drainage ditches, clearing the silt, and preparing timber for the cantilever platform. They were doing a very professional job.

From all perspectives, it is clear that Li Guozhu is a very experienced gold prospector, far superior to Peng Yuanchao. His earlier statement that finding the true gold-rich layer of this mine was accidental was probably just a humble way of putting it.

Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang did not disturb the others' work. They simply took a walk around the small peninsula before following Li Guozhu back to the dugout for tea.

Gold prospectors' dugouts were almost all the same, and after living there for a long time, they were always filled with a strong smell of sweat and the stench of feet.

I need to stay inside for a while to gradually get used to it.

Unlike the one Zhou Jingming and his group dug, this dugout didn't have a drainage ditch. During heavy rainstorms, a lot of water got inside, and that water must have been scooped up bucket by bucket and poured out. The grass and shrubs in front of the dugout were covered with mud.

"Brother Zhou, how many years have you been panning for gold?"

"This is the first year."

"The first year? It doesn't seem like it!"

“I used to be a technician doing geological exploration in northern Xinjiang.”

Upon hearing this, Li Guozhu's gaze towards Zhou Jingming became somewhat strange.

For Zhou Jingming, his former identity as a geological exploration technician has always been his most valuable asset.

If you spend a long time in the Gold Rush Valley, you're very likely to learn some information about this, and you should know what this identity linked to mining means.

Of course, this isn't always the case.

This is bait thrown out by Zhou Jingming. If Li Guozhu happens to be unaware of it or doesn't care, then the bait's effect will be minimal or even ineffective.

This is somewhat similar to the operation of a seasoned angler; different baits are used to catch different types of fish, and there are differences.

But no matter what, you have to cast the line and try to find out the result.

"Brother Zhou is a geological exploration technician... what are you doing here panning for gold!"

It was obvious that Li Guozhu knew, but his reaction was too indifferent.

This left Zhou Jingming somewhat confused about Li Guozhu's specific thoughts, but he wasn't in a hurry. He knew things had to be done slowly, and it would be better to understand more: "I think the wages are too low. It's the same as panning for gold in the valley. We're all living and eating in the wilderness, and it's just as hard. I just want to earn more and make a better life. It's all for the sake of making a living."

Li Guozhu nodded slightly: "That's true."

Zhou Jingming then asked, "Where's Brother Li?"

"Me? I used to have a job in Jincheng, driving for a fleet of vehicles."

"Hey, old hand, this is a lucrative job, much better than geological exploration. It's a golden opportunity, the kind of job that so many girls would want to marry."

"Don't even mention it, that was years ago. And don't even talk about girls, just look at me, I'm a bachelor."

"What's going on?"

“I hit and killed someone with my car. He was a manager at the supply and marketing cooperative. He had some connections. I did it on purpose.”

"what……"

Li Guozhu sighed, turned his head to look at the dugout passage, and looked somewhat dejected: "I was married once before, and I almost had a child. My wife went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy things, and the manager insisted that my wife was stealing. He wouldn't let her go. She was nine months pregnant when she suffered a major hemorrhage during the scuffle and had a difficult childbirth. Neither she nor the child survived."

In the end, he just threw down a hundred or so yuan to settle the matter.

I was so angry that I crashed into something, then ran away and spent several years as a drifter, hiding everywhere. Eventually, I went to the Western Sea and then came to the Northern Xinjiang. I haven't been back for many years.

I only contact my sister occasionally to send her some money and ask her to take care of our parents.

"Do you regret it?"

"What's there to regret... Damn it, I just regret not killing his whole family."

"Aren't you afraid of being discovered when you contact your family?"

“I used to worry, but now I’m fine. His whole family is ruined. His wife ran off with someone else, his old man has died of old age, and his son was arrested for stealing factory machinery.”

Otherwise, I wouldn't have dared to bring my nephew here to pan for gold.

Now, I bought an identity in Doleburqin, which is the one I have now. Originally, my surname was Dong and my name was Dong Guozhu.

After a while, I got used to staying here. I only go back to see my parents at the end of the year to send them some money and grain, oil, and cloth coupons.

"It's good that everything's alright now. Haven't you thought about settling down properly?"

"It doesn't seem very interesting!"

The two chatted casually and smoked quite a few cigarettes. Before they knew it, more than half an hour had passed. Zhou Jingming's attention was drawn to the aroma emanating from the iron pot on the earthen stove.

The young man, whom Li Guozhu called Wang Dong, was a man of few words. He was preparing some mutton and cooking it in a pot. No one knew what seasonings he had added, but the aroma was very fragrant.

Despite their small number, their living conditions are quite good. They must be people who are willing to spend money on food and drink, as there is beef and mutton hanging in their dugouts.

Seeing Zhou Jingming looking at the iron pot on the earthen stove, Li Guozhu explained with a smile, "That's hand-pulled mutton from Jincheng. After being away for many years, I still prefer the taste of my hometown. Wang Dong makes this very authentic. It still needs to cook for a while. When we eat it, you two brothers should eat more."

Zhou Jingming nodded repeatedly: "It smells delicious, I definitely won't be polite when the time comes!"

Everyone says that Altay sheep don't have a muttony smell, but actually they do, just a little less so.

For Zhou Jingming, who is used to strong numbing and spicy flavors, cooking them always feels a bit bland.

This was the first time he had smelled such a wonderful aroma since arriving in Gold Rush Valley; there must have been quite a few seasonings added.

The mutton was cooked until it was tender before it was taken out of the pot.

Wang Dong prepared some sauce and brought it to the table, then placed some garlic on it: "Uncle Dong, it's ready!"

They still habitually call Li Guozhu by his original surname.

Li Guozhu nodded: "Let them rest early and invite them over for dinner!"

Wang Dong went out for a while and quickly called everyone back. They each carried a wooden stump and sat down around the simple wooden table in the middle of the dugout.

Before they started eating, Li Guozhu specifically taught Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang how to eat.

He first picked out a piece of lamb neck meat for Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang respectively: "There is a certain way to eat this kind of hand-pulled lamb. It is to eat it with garlic. A piece of lamb, dipped in some sauce, sprinkled with some salt and pepper, and then paired with a clove of garlic. This is the way to eat Jincheng hand-pulled lamb."

Even if you don't like garlic, you might come to love garlic because of hand-pulled mutton.

The mutton, especially the ribs, is delicious, while the neck meat is even more prized.

He demonstrated as he spoke.

Zhou Jingming didn't dislike garlic. Following Li Guozhu's example, he took a bite of mutton dipped in sauce and sprinkled with salt and pepper. It was very delicate and refreshing. He then ate a piece of garlic, chewed it, and swallowed it. The spicy flavor went down his throat, which was incredibly stimulating and satisfying. Then he took a sip of wine, and he felt his soul tremble. A feeling of pride and exhilaration arose spontaneously.

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(End of this chapter)