My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 178 The Annoying Fairy

Zhou Jingming went to help Su Xiulan in a hurry because he was afraid she would fall. As he put his arm around her, her thick cotton coat was lifted up and his fingertips touched the skin on her waist.

I must say, it feels great to the touch; it's warm, soft, and elastic.

Zhou Jingming could also clearly feel that Su Xiulan trembled for a moment, and her body tensed up instantly.

Su Xiulan was drunk, but her body was only limp and weak, somewhat out of control; at least her mind was still clear, as evidenced by her question about why the wine was sweet.

The effects of the alcohol haven't fully kicked in yet, and I can't even stand up. If the effects are fully realized, I don't know how weak I'll become.

Zhou Jingming urged, "Quickly use your fingers to gag your throat and spit it out..."

Little did Su Xiulan know, she chuckled and said, "Why do you want to throw up? Throwing up is so uncomfortable. This is good... I'm fine, brother. I don't need you to help me. I can manage on my own. You don't need to worry about me. You should go to sleep."

Perhaps to cover up the strange feeling rising in her heart, she reached out and gently pushed away Zhou Jingming's hand that was supporting her waist, stumbled and fell onto the earthen bed, braced her hands on the edge of the earthen bed, moved towards her bed at the other end, and then lay sprawled out on the bedding.

These few small movements seemed to have taken a lot of effort from her, as she was panting heavily.

Seeing her like this, Zhou Jingming shook his head slightly, walked over to her, put one arm around her neck and the other around her knees, and picked her up. It wasn't difficult at all; she weighed only about a hundred pounds.

He bent down and placed her on the bed, casually pulling off her yellow rubber shoes and covering her with the blanket: "It's my fault today. You're not allowed to drink alcohol again. Damn it, I'll have to serve you when you come back..."

Zhou Jingming was too lazy to pay attention to her. It was already past midnight, and he was cold and exhausted from the journey. All he wanted to do now was go to bed and sleep.

He took the antimony pot off the earthen stove and placed it on the table, then put three pieces of wood inside to burn. He bolted the door, sat down on the edge of the bed, kicked off his shoes, climbed onto the bed, pulled the quilt tighter around himself, and tucked his head under the quilt, ready to sleep.

As he was about to go to sleep, he looked at his fingers and gently rubbed them together.

Just now, when he hugged Su Xiulan, Zhou Jingming felt a surge of impulse and really wanted to take advantage of her vulnerability to release his pent-up desires.

Even though he had seen countless people in his past life and his mind had been tempered and made shrewd, he still had many thoughts when faced with fresh meat that was presented to him and ready to be eaten at any time.

The reason he has been restraining himself is mainly because he doesn't want to be like he was in his previous life, wandering the world alone and looking for women simply to satisfy his physical needs. Anyway, as long as you are willing to spend money, you can find any type of woman, so there is no question of love.

Of course, he also tried to find a relationship that could make him feel cared for and warm, but in the end, all the relationships were for money, which he found particularly boring, so he gave up on the idea. Anyway, he was alone, and he might as well enjoy the world.

If you can easily use money to have fun in any way you want, who the hell would bother with all those troublesome things?

However, things are different now.

He suffered imprisonment in his past life, which led to the deaths of his parents in a short period of time, becoming his biggest regret in that life.

In this life, he avoided that calamity, and his parents were safe and sound. He thought about how he could take good care of them and how he could have a warm home after he was tired from his gold-digging adventures.

The standards of measurement in one's mind will naturally be different.

Zhou Jingming thought highly of Su Xiulan. She looked gentle and weak, but she had a hidden resilience. In terms of appearance, she was presentable in public, and in terms of diligence, she was good at cooking. She seemed to be a good match.

There was a person who lived in his hometown, taking care of his parents and having two or three children who were happy to be with them...

These things sound wonderful, don't they?

Beautiful things should have a beautiful beginning.

It was precisely because he valued this that Zhou Jingming was very cautious and prepared to observe carefully whether he was truly a good match.

Otherwise, if a man doesn't have these thoughts by the time he dies at eighteen, he would have already rejected them, so why would he have to suppress them?

Su Xiulan, who was sleeping in a corner of the earthen bed, seemed to be really getting the hang of the alcohol and began to become restless. Suddenly, she started to sob softly.

Zhou Jingming frowned slightly and poked his head out from under the covers: "Why are you crying now? What are you crying about?!"

"Brother... do you know what it feels like to dig people out of a coal mine?"

After digging for many days, the cave dwelling, which slanted deep into the mountainside, was small and very steep.

Inside, even someone my height had to bend over to avoid bumping my head. We carried slag for twenty days straight, digging down more than ten meters before finally finding coal.

Although it was only a small layer less than two feet wide, I thought to myself that as long as my dad, my brother, and I dug hard inside, and my mom and I carried it out with all our might, we could dig out at least a ton a day, if not more.

A ton of coal can sell for ten or twenty yuan.

I believe that as long as we keep going, good days will come to our family.

I carried it with all my might, about a hundred pounds at a time. I figured that if I carried it twenty times, I could carry a ton.

As the piles of coal outside, gleaming black in the sun, continue to grow, they represent a significant amount of money.

However, I only sold two tractors of coal. When I carried the coal out that day and went back, I saw that the tunnel, which had been hollowed out and supported by pine trunks, was now filled with slag. I felt like the sky had fallen...

I shouted at them as loudly as I could, but there was no response at all; only choking coal dust flying everywhere.

I wanted to call people to help dig, but the village was too far away, and I was afraid that by the time I called them, it would be too late.

I started digging, frantically moving those stones, shoveling through that damp mud, digging with my bare hands because all the tools were buried inside…”

Su Xiulan suddenly threw off the quilt, rolled over and got up, scratching wildly on the earthen bed, looking extremely frantic.

It was as if she had returned to the cave dwelling that had buried her parents and brother, and she was working hard to move stones and dig mud.

She suddenly collapsed again, slurring her words, "I don't know how long I've been digging. It seems like the falling slag will never end. My fingers are all cut, and some of my nails have been broken off. It hurts so much... But then suddenly a huge pile of slag fell down from the mine..." Zhou Jingming sat up. At this moment, he didn't know how to comfort her. The key was, even if he did, would she listen in her drunken state?
So he didn't say anything, just lit a cigarette and smoked it silently.

"Later, the man was dug out by the uncles and elders in the village. They dug for two days, and he was already stiff."

Later, I don't know who spread the word, but people said that women shouldn't go down into the mines, and that I was a jinx. When they saw me, they acted like they'd seen a ghost, and they all avoided me. Even my best friends from before stopped talking to me.

Then, some thugs started squatting in the corners and climbing over the walls. When I slept, I always had a kitchen knife under my pillow.

That day, I don't know when that person climbed over into the yard and hid. It was just getting dark, and it was raining heavily. I had just fed the pigs, eaten, and was about to close the door and go to sleep when someone suddenly broke down the door and barged in...

I knew what he wanted to do. Even after I raised the knife, he was still coming towards me, so I closed my eyes and slashed wildly.

I'm hacking, I'm hacking randomly..."

Su Xiulan didn't get up this time, probably because she didn't have the strength. She just patted the cotton padding under her with both hands.

"I heard him scream. I slashed him. I don't know exactly where I slashed him, but when the house quieted down, I saw blood splattered all the way from inside to outside..."

I was afraid that the person I slashed might have been killed, or might not have died and might come back for me, so I ran away that night and hid outside for several days..."

Zhou Jingming watched her cry and make a scene, tossing and turning on the bed, rambling on and on, like a madwoman, causing a huge commotion.

Even Wu Yang and Old Man Liu came knocking on the door, wanting to see what was going on.

Zhou Jingming opened the door, and the group peeked out. Seeing that he was just drunk and acting crazy, they went back to sleep.

Only Old Liu sighed, "This girl is pitiful too!"

She acted recklessly, and the people living in the nearby dugouts could probably hear her.

Zhou Jingming closed the door again, sat down by the earthen stove, and added more firewood.

He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep well tonight.

He didn't stop Su Xiulan, letting her go crazy and allowing her to vent her pent-up emotions under the influence of alcohol.

After what seemed like an eternity of commotion, the dugout finally quieted down.

Zhou Jingming breathed a long sigh of relief, shone his flashlight to the bedside, and saw that she was curled up in a ball, seemingly asleep.

He pulled the blanket over her again, then went back to his bed and lay down, finally able to sleep.

But as soon as he lay down, he suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from the tarpaulin that served as a skylight on the top of the dugout.

Snowing?
He went outside and saw that it was already getting light. He didn't know when, but the sky, which had been starry last night, had become gloomy, and the mountain wind was whistling from time to time.

Under the flashlight beam, you could see the snowflakes falling in slanted patterns, falling heavily, with fluffy clumps of snowflakes drifting down from time to time. Judging from this, a heavy snowfall was about to begin.

Seeing this, Zhou Jingming simply shouted to the dugouts on both sides: "It's snowing, rest during the day and get a good night's sleep!"

At this time of year, the sudden snowstorm didn't surprise him at all.

He turned and went into the room, closed the door, climbed onto the bed, and pulled the blanket over himself.

Just as he pulled the blanket tighter and was about to close his eyes and go to sleep, he heard Su Xiulan's shivering voice coming from the other end: "Brother... I'm so cold!"

Zhou Jingming immediately became a little anxious: "Is this never going to end? I've never seen such a troublesome person."

Su Xiulan suddenly fell silent.

Zhou Jingming thought for a moment. It was true that one was prone to feeling cold when drunk, especially in this kind of weather with a sudden drop in temperature. He sighed, patiently got up again, pulled one of the folded blankets from the earthen bed, and covered her with it.

He lay back down, thinking he could finally get some sleep, but to his surprise, Su Xiulan started causing trouble again: "Brother...do you think I'm ugly?"

Zhou Jingming suddenly realized that after all that commotion, Su Xiulan should have sobered up by now.

Asking such a question suddenly is suggestive.

He stopped speaking harshly and softened his tone considerably: "That's not true. Didn't you see Wu Yang and the others praising your beauty? They even asked you to introduce them to potential partners."

Su Xiulan fell silent again.

After a while, a rustling sound came from behind. Zhou Jingming turned his head and saw Su Xiulan lift the quilt and walk towards his bed. After standing still, she was unbuttoning her cotton coat.

He instinctively used his elbows to support himself and straighten his body a little.

Through the dim light filtering through the transparent oilcloth on the dugout roof, he saw Su Xiulan remove all her clothes, leaving herself completely naked, and then stand motionless in front of his bed.
Whether it was from nervousness or the cold weather, she was trembling slightly.

In the dim light, her fair body was shrouded in mystery, and just looking at her petite and well-proportioned figure made Zhou Jingming's throat feel dry.

"Damn it, I've picked up a damn devil!"

Zhou Jingming cursed, threw off the quilt, and dragged her onto the earthen bed. He quickly tore off his clothes and kicked off his pants. He then pulled the quilt over himself and pressed down on her.

Screw restraint.

Whether it's suitable or not, let's do it first and then talk about it later.

(End of this chapter)