My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 155 Golden Like a Demon
Wu Yang's enthusiasm for looting corpses is similar to that of a pretty young girl in later generations opening blind boxes; he is very skilled at it and always full of anticipation for surprises.

He could pinch every inch of the corpse, including prying open the mouth to see if there were any gold teeth.

The search of the three corpses yielded valuables; each body contained gold in glass bottles or oil paper bags, and a gold nugget weighing at least two hundred grams was found in the crotch of one of the men.

This guy is really weird. He specially used a piece of cloth to sew this gold dog head into the inside of his underwear. I guess he hasn't changed these underwear since the day he sewed it on, and they're covered in a thick layer of starch.

Wu Yang was able to find even such a place, which shows just how meticulous he was.

Besides the gold, they also received two double-barreled shotguns, some bullets, and over three hundred dollars.

This gold is all high-quality bran gold with a reddish-yellow hue.

Wu Yang originally planned to drag the body into the river, but Zhou Jingming stopped him. In this restricted area, during the winter, almost no one would come except for those washing caves, so it was completely unnecessary.

Zhou Jingming told him: "Every spring, once the snow melts, there are always many more corpses in these valleys. Most of them are gold prospectors who froze to death, starved to death, got lost, or were killed."

The valleys of northern Xinjiang in winter are dangerous and cruel.

After packing their things, the two did not linger on the riverbank and quickly returned to the mine.

Bai Zhishun warmed himself by the fire, occasionally glancing at the situation in the valley. Most of the time, he kept an eye on Shen Wei, who had been shot in both legs and was already unconscious, fearing that he might suddenly sit up.

He's quite bold; he dared to come all alone to the northern frontier just because of a fortune teller's words.

Although he had been to the Gold Rush Valley and experienced fights, he had never actually fought one. Now, seeing Shen Wei's legs bleeding profusely, he still felt a little scared.

However, he had no intention of backing down; on the contrary, he hoped to become as capable as Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang.

When Zhou Jingming returned to the mine entrance, the first thing he did was to check on the bundle of explosives.

Jin Wang was relieved that he wasn't hit by the explosion, but at the same time, he felt strange.

Using explosives to bomb people must be premeditated.

If those explosives had detonated the moment they were dropped, things could have turned out very differently today. Just thinking about it sent chills down the spines of the three of them; it was just too damn risky.

As Zhou Jingming examined the bundle of explosives, Wu Yang also came over: "What's going on?"

Zhou Jingming had already figured out the problem: "Jin Wang accidentally pulled out the fuse while he was tearing it."

To detonate explosives with a detonator, first insert the fuse into the detonator, then use pliers to pinch the edge of the detonator to secure the fuse, and finally insert the detonator into the explosives.

If it's tightened enough, the fuse won't be so easy to pull out. The explosives that Shen Wei threw had the fuse's edge pinched with pliers, but it wasn't very tight.

Wu Yang looked at the detonator and shook his head: "Jin Wang saved himself... Why did it go crazy today and go after this bundle of explosives? I heard that most animals are afraid of fire and smoke, how dare it bite it?"

Zhou Jingming shook his head: "I don't know either."

But after thinking for a moment, he added, "These domesticated animals are an exception. They follow people around, are often in contact with fire, and know the warmth of fire. They are not as afraid as you might imagine."

Jinwang was frightened by our firecrackers yesterday, so it shouldn't dare to bite us... Could it be that it's holding a grudge because it was scared?
I once saw a dog that got blown up by firecrackers during Chinese New Year. After that, whenever firecrackers were set off and a string of firecrackers was thrown, it would run to bite them, grab them, and fling them around, even if it got blown up, it didn't care, as if it had a grudge against the dog.

I think that's more likely.

Wu Yang couldn't think of a better explanation either, so he nodded: "Very likely... In the future, when setting off firecrackers, we should avoid them. They're too dangerous and could even cause trouble."

"Let's not talk about that... Let's get down to business!"

Zhou Jingming walked over to Shen Wei and, seeing that he was unconscious, said to Wu Yang, who had followed him, "Wake him up!"

Wu Yang was very direct. He glanced at Shen Wei, then raised his foot and stomped hard on Shen Wei's knee joint.

"Click..."

The sudden, excruciating pain forcibly woke Shen Wei from his coma. He hugged his knees and screamed hysterically.

Wu Yang then slapped him again: "Shut the hell up, or I'll kill you right now!"

At his roar, Shen Wei was stunned for a moment, then glanced at the three people standing next to him. He seemed to finally realize his situation, stopped howling, but hugged his knees with both hands, his body twitching involuntarily, his teeth grinding, and occasionally letting out a muffled groan of extreme endurance.

Faced with someone who used explosives to blow him up, Zhou Jingming did not find Wu Yang's actions cruel; he believed Shen Wei truly deserved it.

He simply asked in a calm voice, "You want to blow us up with explosives? We don't have that much of a grudge against you, do we? What the hell do you mean by this?"

"This is the mine shaft we blew up; the gold vein inside belongs to us..."

"Bullshit! When I came to clean the cave, I went inside and didn't see any gold. The gold vein only came out after we blasted it. Besides, we mined some ore and washed it in the river, but it only reached a grade of three points. It's not like it's any special mine. Why did we have to go to such lengths?"

"It can't be only three points... I've examined the ore; the grade is at least twelve points. Impossible..."

Hearing this, Zhou Jingming was slightly taken aback, but he still believed in his judgment. Putting aside everything else, at least one or two hundred kilograms of gold ore had already been dug out and panned. Where could it be so high?

He frowned. "Twelve points? Are you dreaming? If you hadn't pulled this stunt, the three of us would have been in another mine by now. Forget it, I'm not going to talk about that. I just want to ask you a question: where are the rest of your team?"

This was the reason Zhou Jingming spared his life. He didn't know exactly how many people Shen Wei and his group had, but Gao Jianjun, who should have been with them, was nowhere to be seen, so there was a possibility that there were others. He didn't want to be plotted against again, so he had to find out the situation.

Shen Wei seemed lost in thought, remaining silent.

"Did not say?"

Zhou Jingming sneered and winked at Wu Yang.

Without saying a word, Wu Yang raised his foot and stomped down on the knee joint that he had just stomped on: "At a time like this, you think you can get away with it by not talking?"

The already severely injured area was further ravaged, causing excruciating pain. Shen Wei couldn't help but howl again: "Give me a quick death, give me a quick death..."

He himself knew very well that he was doomed today.

Zhou Jingming sneered: "Want a quick death? That's easy, you better cooperate!"

"There's no one left. Two died yesterday, one escaped, and the rest left this morning. It's just the five of us..."

Unable to bear the pain any longer, Shen Wei finally felt relieved: "And...and that piece of ore is in my bag...You can see for yourself if you don't believe me."

"Is that right?"

Zhou Jingming's gaze fell on the canvas bag he was carrying. He squatted down, opened the two iron buckles on the bag, and took a look inside. In addition to a bundle of explosives with detonators, there was indeed a piece of ore. He took it out and looked at it, and found that the amount of gold embedded in the quartzite was indeed more than the gold vein in the mine.

The exact grade cannot be determined from a single piece of ore, but the gold veins in the mine clearly do not reach that level.

He was certain he had looked very carefully and shouldn't have made such a mistake.

"Are you sure this ore came from this mine? When we went in, we didn't see any gold deposits. It only appeared after the mine was blasted."

"I... this ore was kept by the guy in the team who knows geology. It must have come from one of these mines."

"With so many of you, when you blew up the mine shaft and went in to check, there couldn't have been only one person, right? With so many eyes watching, once this kind of gold deposit is found, it must be in a belt, impossible to hide. Are you sure it wasn't brought from somewhere else, or picked up on these abandoned mine slopes?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Wei froze, seemingly forgetting even the pain. After a long while, he murmured to himself, "Impossible...impossible..."

Then he started laughing loudly, then suddenly started crying and screaming like a madman, constantly repeating the words "impossible". He tried hard to stand up, but both his legs were badly injured, so he couldn't stand up. He simply crawled on the ground, screaming and crawling downhill.

Looking at his frenzied appearance, Wu Yang felt somewhat bewildered: "Could he have gone mad?"

Zhou Jingming didn't say anything, but just watched him climb down about ten meters, then suddenly picked up a stone and smashed it hard on his head, causing him to fall to the side.

He hit himself with such force that he broke his head and bled profusely, which startled Zhou Jingming.

Wu Yang went down to check his breathing, then pressed two fingers on his neck for a while before looking up at Zhou Jingming: "Brother Zhou, he's dead!"

Zhou Jingming nodded slightly and said with a sigh, "Gold is like a demon, capable of distorting human nature and manipulating people's hearts. Driven by desire, it can turn ordinary people into ferocious beasts like Taotie."

Wu Yang, Shun Zai, when you go gold panning in the future, it's okay to be greedy, but you must not let gold cloud your judgment.

This is why I always say, "Don't cause trouble, but don't be afraid of trouble either."

I've remembered them all!

To avoid trouble, you must keep your mind at ease.

Regardless, we must live as human beings, not as utterly ruthless and irrational beasts.

Otherwise, sooner or later, they will end up like him.

Wu Yang and Bai Zhishun listened silently, both nodding slightly.

After a long while, Wu Yang asked, "Should we still search?"

Zhou Jingming laughed: "Search them, of course we should search them. This is the price they have to pay."

Bai Zhishun seemed to understand Zhou Jingming's words but not quite: "Brother Zhou, what does 'Taotie' mean?"

Zhou Jingming lit a cigarette for himself: "Taotie, a ferocious beast from ancient times, eats everything and is never full. Its stomach is like a bottomless pit, never satisfied. It is extremely ferocious."

Bai Zhishun's expression turned serious: "Then I understand."

Zhou Jingming patted him on the shoulder with a smile: "You have to have a bottom line and principles, instead of indulging yourself blindly."

Bai Zhishun nodded again: "Okay!"

Wu Yang searched Shen Wei thoroughly and found an oil paper bag containing significantly more bran than others. Inside the oil paper bag was another oil paper bag containing a clump of bran. Judging from the amount, it must have come from someone else and hadn't been mixed together yet.

Seeing that there was nothing left to search, Wu Yang stood up and handed the oil paper bag to Zhou Jingming: "It should weigh about a pound."

(End of this chapter)